We all want to keep our faces looking young and alive and hold back the advance of those nasty things called wrinkles. You can easily keep them at bay and slow down that trend in just a few minutes every day if you adopt these following tips and turn them into habits. In a previous article we looked at scalp massage for healthy elastic skin and hair nourishment, so now we shall move down your head to your face and neck.
Your face and neck skin with no care can become quite stiff, not supple and tired looking – so a minute or two massage every day will do wonders toward returning the natural colour you had when you were younger and the vitality you thought you were losing.
Begin by taking the pads of all your fingertips and placing them in the centre of your forehead. Start a circular motion with your fingertips and work them slowly outward to your temples. Continue massaging the temple area and then move downward into your cheeks and under your eyes using the circular motion all the while. Your skin will immediately feel the effects of the blood stimulation and you will experience a quite pleasant sensation similar to a glow – and if you are in front of a mirror you will see the effects as colour comes back into your face.
This massage technique keeps the blood flowing under your skin surface and brings suppleness and vitality back into it.
Carry on with this firm and brisk circular motion in front of your ears (oh the relief!) and then downward along your jawbone. With your index fingers you can run up behind your ears and even roll your ears back and forth a few times stimulating the blood flow in them.
When you are finished your whole face will be buzzing, a smile will automatically break out and you will feel so refreshed, uplifted and a whole lot better to go out and kill the world.
Now for your eyes and eye sockets. Using thumb and forefinger pads, place them on each side of your eyeballs. Squeeze gently but not so that it is uncomfortable. Close your eyes and with index, third and fourth finger pads of both hands gently massage, once again with a rolling circular motion, both of your eyeballs. When done, blink a few times and feel the difference! Take your thumbs, tip them upside down and beginning at the inner points either side of the bridge of your nose, run your thumbs outward just under the edge of your eye sockets. As your thumb reaches the outer section, stretch the skin outward and down – ooh the relief! Repeat several times or as many as you feel comfortable with.
The beautiful thing about all of these techniques is that you can carry them out anywhere and at anytime of the day, bringing wonderful relief and vitality to your face. Of course, you can visit a professional, but this takes time out of your day and will cost money.
Another thing about our eyes is that as we age we tend not to move them around so much, the muscles become slack and our peripheral vision deteriorates. A simple exercise to keep the muscle strength up is to regularly look up and down and side to side as far as you can force your eyes to go. It is important to consciously push your eyes up and down and side to side as far as you can until you can feel the strain on the muscles. You can carry out this exercise with your eyes open or closed and at anytime.
When you are going through your face massage routine at home, apply a good quality skin cream, rubbing it in well as you go.
When you get down to your neck here is something else you can do for the good health of you neck skin. Set your mouth in a grimace with teeth clamped tightly together so that you are pulling your neck skin tightly upward – this might not look the most attractive in the mirror but don’t worry about that – no one else is looking! Whilst the skin is drawn up tight, apply the cream in a vigorous circular motion to the right side, the left side of your neck and finally your throat, rubbing vigorously and briskly all the while. A little on the back of your neck is OK too. Thirty to forty seconds daily of this treatment will bring back suppleness and a new glowing depth to your skin and see it wrinkle free for many more years to come.
Finally, whilst in the grimace mode, open your mouth several times as wide as you can stretching the skin around your mouth and cheeks – this also stimulates your blood in these areas and feels great when you relax again.
Get into the habit of practicing all these techniques on a daily basis so you find yourself doing them automatically and after a few weeks you will be amazed at the new you that will be gazing out from your mirror.