Face Yoga - Neck, Nadi Shodhana & Hollow Eyes

This face yoga session will help you enjoy and learn: a few neck massages and exercises engaging the neck muscles, a series of exercises for the masseter muscle, and a few massages around the eye and eyebrow areas. We will also practice Nadi Shodhana, a foundational yoga pranayama technique designed to purify energy channels (nadis), reduce stress, and balance the nervous system by alternating breathing between the left and right nostrils. Please ensure you are in a comfortable, seated position and avoid practicing this while driving or operating machinery.

Transcript

Face yoga and we're going to do a few neck massages, Exercises, As well as breathing relaxation technique. I'm going to teach Nadi Shodhana today, So alternate nostril breathing. Let's do it. So right here, The two lymphatic massages that are so important. So place one hand onto the collarbones and one right at the jawline. And if you don't know where the collarbones are, Here they are. If you bring your shoulders forward, You'll find them, Yeah, They'll show. And so one hand open just like this and the other one right here. We're going to slide, Sweep, Swap. And when we sweep, We're going to silently or audibly say, Yum. Let's do it. About 10 times. I encourage you to do this daily. If you can, If you remember, Whenever you're watching TV, You're doing something, You're watching something, Please, This is so important. So let's do it. Yum. Yum. And it will take you a minute maximum. You can go for two minutes every day. Yum. Now the pressure you're using to slide your palm, Really gentle. Don't press in. We're not targeting muscles here. The muscles we're targeting are the ones on the face when we're saying yum. But on the neck, We want to disperse excess lymph into the body and from the face. So lymph nodes are at the very surface, Right under the first layer of the skin, Right under the dermis. So breathe. You're already going to feel this lightness and relief here. Back of the neck, It's still not too, Too stressed, Yes? So don't put too much stress on the back of the neck. So you lift your chin comfortably. And I'll do one more. Yum. And release. Take a breath. Wonderful. I'll show you the neck picture with lymph nodes that I, And this one too. This is a good one too, Because this is what we're doing next. We're sliding right here all the way to the collarbones. And check how many lymph nodes are here. So we're splitting halfway at the ear and we're sliding down. Same idea. We go very, Very gently, Feather-like movement. I want us to get with the fingers right above the collarbones where we have rows of lymph nodes. These rows are under the collarbones as well, But today we won't tackle that. So slides of the ears and slide. So about 10 times. Lift your chin only if you want to. You don't have to hear. You don't have to say yum either. You can always smile. Smiles are contagious and so beneficial, Right? And they give you good wrinkles. I always say that. They give you those playful, Lovely little lines on the face. We all love them. And we love seeing people with those little lines, Right? Because they look joyful and fulfilled and happy. Breathe and release here. Take a breath. We have this muscle here, Sternocleidomastoid. Watch how big and long it is. It's really big. And it's partly responsible for a lot of sagginess around the neck, Tightness in this area. So we're quickly going to take care of these muscles as well. We're going to do them individually. So whichever one you want to take care of first, You do it. We're going to check this out. Lean ear to shoulder and then turn the neck. See how visible it is right here? You can see it. So with the thumb on one side, And you can feel it all. It's really big. And the hook of the index finger on the other side, I'm going to massage mine. So I like doing tiny circles with the thumb and pressing with the side of the index finger. I call it the hook of the index finger. So breathe. Now here, Make sure when you turn your neck, There's no distress. We don't want to damage anything there at the back of the neck. We go about 10 times. It's tough to watch the time whilst your head is turned. And release. And then with three fingers, Find the middle of this muscle, The center. And we're just going to slide up and down. Not too much pressure. You'll feel it. We're just sliding up and down. Breathe. And I'll show you a picture before we get to the other side so that you have an idea of how this muscle is connected. And release. Take a breath. I already feel it. It feels so good, Right? Let me show you the picture of this. They're not laid on nice, But here we go. Yeah, This big green. All right, Let's do the other side. So turning first linear to shoulder, It's easier. And then turn. And watch it. It's right here, Yes? So side of index finger and thumb, We go. Find its beginning, Right? Right here. And here, Yeah, TMJ, Be gentle when you press. You may experience quite a bit of pain, Especially when you touch here. Stop if it's really painful or don't touch that area until later on. Take a breath, A break, Sorry. And then you can try again. And breathe. Remember to smile, Especially if you have a mirror in front of you and you can see yourself. How often do you get the chance to bestow smiles upon your own self? Very rarely, At least for me. I don't get much mirror time. And release, Take a breath. We're going to arrange again. And so find, Yeah, So first lean, Lift, You know, We're here, We're turned. The idea is to find the muscle and be able to manipulate it with ease. So center, Find the center, And then sliding up and down. And breathe. Make sure there's no distress elsewhere. So as soon as you find your muscle, You can rearrange so that it is in a comfortable position. And release. Take a breath. Another breath, Just breathe in and out, Let go. Now, Nadi Shodhana, Alternate or alternate nostril breathing. We're going to use thumb and once again the hook of the index finger. I will coach you, I will guide you, And we'll do a few, Five, Seven, Ten, Depends, We'll see how many we get in. And especially if your nasal pathways are clogged, Go ahead and get a tissue, Have something near you so that you can blow your nose, You may need to. So this particular breath or breathing technique is very useful for opening the nasal pathways. You get to breathe better. Calming, It is very, Very calming in situations of high distress, Anxiety, Panic. You are somewhere where you're even in a conversation, You can just withdraw and move, Take a minute or two, Tell the other person that you need a minute and really calm yourself with this breath. And it's also warming up the face. So, Useful for face yoga. Let's do it. So, Thumb, Side of the index finger and we begin. Inhale, Left nostril, And cover, Open, Right nostril, Exhale. Inhale, Right nostril, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Left nostril, Cover, Open, Right, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Left, Cover, Open, Right, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Left, Cover, Open, Right, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Left, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. We're going to do one more. Inhale, Left, Cover, Open, Right, Exhale. Inhale, Right, Cover, Open, Left, Exhale. Take another breath. So you can do this anytime, On your own, When you want to calm down, When you want to relax, When you want to breathe better. Just take a few minutes and do it. And then you can teach yourself, You can teach your body to breathe through one nostril only, Without even using your fingers. And when you've done that, That's really, Really great, Because no one else will know that you're breathing through one nostril at a time. So it's pretty good. The massager. We haven't addressed it much. We haven't done much for it. It's a big muscle on the face. It is responsible for mastication. And because of that, A lot of sagginess can happen over here. So this is our massager, Yeah. We're going to quickly find it. So go ahead and find your muscle. Over here, So you'll go at the cheekbone, Right? Right under the cheekbone. And if you feel, The minute you feel teeth and gums, That's where your muscle ends. So make sure you found your muscles and you are on them. And then, Again, The hook of the index finger, The thumbs can be on the side. We're just going to slide onto the massager. You can close your eyes, Relax, Release. So a minute or two here, Even though this is very gentle, You may feel pain, Especially if you have issues in the jaw area. I do. And for me, On this side, It is quite painful. You can open the mouth slowly just to lengthen this muscle and leave a little more room for lengthening. You're not letting the jaw sag down, Just a tiny open. Yeah. And we continue to massage here. So a few more times. No tension at the back of the neck, Yes. And release, Take a breath. Wonderful. We're going to do one more over here. So go ahead and place your fingers right at the beginning of the massager muscles. Both of them. We're going to open the mouth slightly. And what we're doing, We're sort of zigzagging here. So something like this. We're going to do at least 10. Now, It's a short movement. You're going to feel it at the jaw. It's very small, Too. We don't open the mouth too much, But it's really helping with lengthening the muscle, Opening the jaw, Releasing tension over here. So let's do it. It doesn't take too, Too long. And release. Close your mouth. Close your eyes. Take a breath. You can probably already feel all the work that we've done here. Hollow eyes. I really love this circling here as well as the lymphatic massage that begins from under the eyes. So we're going to do both these two massages. They're quite beneficial. I'm going to show you the acupressure points for eye strain relief that we're touching upon when we're circling as well as the length nodes that we are going to go over. So here we're going to tap, Tap, Tap and slide all the way to above the collarbones where we've been before. And we're going to do this 10 times. So let's do this first. And then these are the points that will provide eye strain relief as well as help reducing puffiness around the eyes and help with that hollow eyes. Diminishing, If you will. So underneath. Now, Remember the skin around the eyes is 10 times thinner than the skin on the face. So going here, Be extremely gentle. So tap, Tap, Tap and slide. Once again, We're diminishing excess lymph from around the eyes from the face. We're increasing blood flow here. And this is also extremely relaxing. So lots of relaxation massages and techniques for today. I can feel it already. My cheeks are so grateful for this. And also under the eyes. Breathe. So I trust that you are using feather-like taps and touches. You can add a breath here. No. Ring fingers. I always say it and I will keep on saying it. They have most surface and least amount of pressure. So circling around from the inner corner here of the eyebrows all the way to the inner corner of the eye downward. Now, If the skin is dragging. Like I said, It's so, So thin around the eyes. Please place a few dabs of moisturizer and do not create extra lines around the eyes. If you don't have any moisturizer near whenever you feel that your skin is dragging, Just go ahead and gentle taps. Use gentle taps instead. So, So important. And then again, Something we don't think of, Right? And there's so many face yoga videos out there. I'm bombarded with them because I subscribe to quite a few teachers around the world. And I can't stress it enough. They seem not to understand the importance of not creating extra lines. Sure, They're younger and they probably not reach the age where there's major collapse and lines appear everywhere on the face. There's a lot of lack of collagen and so on. So I don't blame them. But you should always keep this in mind. Try not to create extra lines anywhere around the face whenever you're doing face yoga. Wonderful. Still here, We're going to place the same ring fingers under the eyes onto the eye socket bone and the back of them, We're just rotating and you can close your eyes here and just rotate over there. So about 10 times, Breathe Again, Please do not push in please be extremely gentle and release, Take a breath Just above the eyes right under the arch of the eyebrows we're going to place 3 fingers and we're going to flick out So about 10 times or so we're almost done but I'm trying to help us diminish that hollow eyes feeling and expression so we're diminishing puffiness above the eyes right now and increasing blood flow in this area eyebrows too diminishing white hair appearance and increasing hair growth into the eyebrows take a breath here inhale and then let go and then from the hairline we're going to tap tap tap all the way to the collarbones I hope you're enjoying these feelings of well-being and relaxation my face is so grateful and thank you thank you