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What are facial yoga exercises?

With the trend of taking anti-aging remedies emerging at break-neck pace, which is brought about in no small degree due to our stress induced lifestyle accelerating the process, perhaps a fitting physical regimen to turn to and adopt is yoga, an ancient science that is highly regarded for its ability to maintain a long and healthy life. To understand what facial yoga exercises actually are, and how they work, and perhaps most importantly what their benefits are, we will first need to understand what yoga itself is.

What is yoga?

Yoga is an ancient discipline that emerged in the Indian sub-continent about five thousand years ago, and numerous references to the form can be found in ancient texts from the region. However, it is important to remember that since knowledge of the form was never completely forgotten and people have been practicing it throughout the intermediate centuries, the exercises and regimens that yoga encapsulates have steadily evolved to accommodate contemporary requirements, while still keeping the basic tenets of the form in mind.

But what are these basic tenets? Yoga essentially is a set of breathing exercises that are done in sitting, standing and lying down positions, with focus on stretching the muscles of the body based on positioning of the limbs and twisting and turning movements undertaken while breathing. The ultimate goal of a real yogic practitioner (which is quite a lifelong thing and not one we’re aiming for) is to achieve a unity between mind and body, and extend it to eventually bringing oneself in sync with his or her surroundings, which by default (as per yoga) means bringing oneself in sync with the entire universe.

Needless to say, the aim of the modern yoga practitioner is different, and we use yoga mainly as an exercise that slows down aging due to its ability to de-stress the body, and its ability to maintain smooth functioning of body systems (not organs, but entire systems), which helps us prevent against system related ailments that may be caused with age. To cut a long story short, yoga is a regimen that focuses on maintaining and preserving body systems (like the metabolic system, nervous system, circulatory system, respiratory system, etc.) and their affiliated organs, which can aid us in increasing our life span as well as our quality of life.

Yoga for the face:

When speaking of facial yoga exercises, these exercises are custom-made for facial muscles with the aim of improving their strength and elasticity, which by consequence will make the skin look more youthful. This is significant since the skin, especially skin on the face, is one of the primary indicators of visible aging, and is as such prone to damage due to free radicals, loosening of connective tissue, stress and many other factors. Realistically speaking, each one of us would prefer to look young, and facial yoga exercises help us achieve just that.

On a broader scale, since these exercises too involve concentrated breathing, its de-stressing properties extend to the whole body and not just the face; this gives facial yoga exercises an edge above other methods of skin appearance preservation, since the de-stressing automatically helps combat the aging process, even if only in a small way (As we may have realized, anti-aging cannot be brought about by one factor alone, and needs a combination of a variety of them).

Notable areas where facial yoga exercises have shown positive results include reducing wrinkles, fine lines, horizontal forehead lines, under eye bags and double chins. To top it off, you could even practice exercises that are meant for specific areas of the face, like the area surrounding the lips, eyes, forehead or cheeks. The bottom line is that facial yoga exercises are going to help you look younger and will help you de-stress; so it’s a good time to start researching and practicing the form as soon as possible.

About the Author

Kelly writes for agein.com.

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The above guest post is published based on the premise that it will be helpful and informative. The opinions made within it are those of the author and not of sunnyray.org. The links you may find within this post do not necessarily imply our recommendation or endorsement of the views expressed within them.

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