The great Greek philosopher ‘Epicanthus’ said
What ever you express you impress,
What ever you impress you express.
If you are filled with anger and hatred, jealousy and envy then that is what is going to show up in some way or another on your face at some point. All of us know someone who has a lot of physical beauty but boy the less time you spend in their company the better.
Likewise if you are filled with loving thoughts for yourself and others then that is what is going to show up also. With My Face Fit Yoga our philosophy is to love yourself and create as much happiness in your life as you can. Sometimes that means making changes and letting things go, including our thoughts about how things should be. Sometimes it is accepting things just as they are, and that might include our grief.
For millennia the quest for a youthful appearance has been strived for and yet growing older is a natural part of our human experience. We get lines, we get wrinkles and bits of us droop here and there. Our bones, muscles and joints become weak and worn out and stiffness and aches and pains plague the body as it ages. As our life expectancy has increased the quest for a more youthful appearance with less hair loss, less aches and pains has become highly valued. Keeping ourselves looking and feeling the very best we can be, is often very costly and can be dangerous if poor choices are made.
Plastic surgeons and dermatologists have had until recently been the exclusive players in the correction of facial aging. Interventions such as injections with botulinum toxin, dermal fillers and facelifts, eye lid surgery and laser treatments have been some of the methods of choice to reverse or slow down the aging process. Did you know that the first face lift surgery was first performed in Germany in 1901 and the first book on facial cosmetic surgery was published in 1907 in Chicago.
In recent years as we become more aware, there is increasing interest in maintaining a youthful appearance and reducing facial aging with holistic, less invasive and less expensive methods. Treatments like facial acupressure, facial acupuncture, natural face lift massage techniques and Face Yoga have become the go to treatments of choice to help maintain a youthful and fresh looking face.
Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word that’s means union and it is the philosophy of union that blends techniques and practices together to bring about a youthful and vibrant face. In Face yoga we drawn on natural movements, diet, and breath to bring us into a state of union with our mind, body and spirit or as we might say ‘Homeostasis. In homeostasis we activate the para sympathetic nervous system that is concerned with health, regenerating and renewal. These alternative approaches are less invasive, less expensive and promote health and well being.
Growing older and ageing can be a daunting experience or it can be an experience filled with joy, as we navigate a new way of being and living. I do believe that we have 3 ages as we grow older. The first age is our chronological age. That is the number of years we have been on this planet. We cannot change or adjust this. The second age is our biological age. With our biological age we can be much older or much younger than our chronological age. It is the goal of My FaceFit Yoga to reduce the biological age if we can. The third age is our spirit age. This age is often much younger but can also be much older. You have heard the expression an ‘old soul’, a phrase often used to describe a young person with wisdom beyond their years. Or the phrase, ‘You are as young as you feel’ or age is only a number. These are phrases often used to describe an older person who is full of life and vitality, who will take the stairs rather than the elevator and who will run up that stairs smiling and laughing. We can influence our biological and spirit age and we do so all the time.
Aging is caused by both intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors of aging include, our thoughts and beliefs about aging, our internal biological environment and the messages encoded in our DNA. Extrinsic factors that influence aging are the foods we put in the body, chemicals and toxins that we are exposed to, stress factors and sunlight.
What you see in the mirror each morning can have quite an effect on how you feel about yourself. It is often our appearance and our thoughts about how we look, rather than our actual chronological age that influences our self image and our self esteem. Consequently, keeping in shape is absolutely crucial as we get older.
The principles of exercise to tone the body muscles can be applied equally to the face. However, facial muscles differ from those of the body as they are attached directly to the underlying skin. Consequently, when facial muscles begin to sag (often starting in the 30’s for many people) then the skin sags too.
It is essential to build and strengthen the foundations of the face to develop a lasting, youthful appearance. Movements made when smiling, talking and eating are not enough to exercise the facial muscles. You will learn on our training courses how to achieve lasting and a youthful appearance while still growing older. Starting with basic movements and working up to the more advanced movements.
As I finish this blog post I am reminded of the affirmation mantra we use to open and close our online classes, why not give this affirmation a try while you are looking in the mirror and repeat daily and often and let it’s magic help you as you journey into growing older.
I Love every cell in this face and body,
Every cell is filled with pure love,
And this love keeps this face and body strong, healthy, ageless and beautiful
I love every cell in this face and body.
( Francesca Brown)
Thank you, elaine
