Contents
An expert on face building and face gymnastics shared her secrets that can be repeated at home.
Smooth skin without wrinkles and puffiness, a tightened chin, a clear oval of the face, hollow lips and a healthy neck … It seems that it is simply impossible to achieve such results without plastic surgery at home. However, face building and face gymnastics expert Yulia Kotova in her book “No wrinkles. Natural Facial Rejuvenation System “ proved the opposite. In it you will find special techniques and step-by-step recommendations for identifying and working out problem areas on the face at home or even in the office!
Wday.ru and the publishing house BOMBORA have prepared for you a useful excerpt from the book, thanks to which you can reduce the number of facial wrinkles.
Face-building specialist, psychologist, TV presenter. The author of his own method of NATURAL FACE REJUVENATION – without injections, plastics and chemical peels
Examining the face: my mimic habits
Here is a diagram in which I show what changes on the face are caused by different facial habits.
Your mimic habit -> Consequences (already visible or potential)
The habit of straining and wrinkling the forehead -> Horizontal wrinkles on the forehead, vertical wrinkles between the brows, horizontal wrinkles on the bridge of the nose, wrinkles around the eyes.
The habit of frowning -> Glabellar vertical wrinkles,
horizontal wrinkles on the forehead, horizontal wrinkles on the bridge of the nose, wrinkles around the eyes.
The habit of wrinkling the nose, the bridge of the nose -> Horizontal wrinkles in the bridge of the nose, drooping of the tip of the nose, deepened nasolacrimal grooves, deep nasolabial folds.
The habit of squinting your eyes (one eye) -> Crow’s feet in the corners of the eyes, wrinkles around the eyes, drooping of the upper eyelids, puffiness under the eyes, deep nasolacrimal grooves, vertical wrinkles in the eyebrows, horizontal wrinkles on the forehead, asymmetry in the eye area.
The habits of clenching your teeth, pursing your lips, biting your lips, the corners of your lips (one lip or one corner), clenching your chin, smiling tensely -> Increase premature aging of the entire face: wrinkles in the mouth area, thinned lips, drooping corners of the lips;
wrinkles in the cheek area, flews (sagging cheeks); double chin; wrinkles in the eye area, puffiness under the eyes; deep nasolabial folds.
What are we going to do with this information?
So, your inherent habits have been identified. Now we will work with them.
Step one: to the right of your habits, underline or circle in red any changes you see on your face. For example, you often wrinkle your nose and already see horizontal wrinkles in the nose bridge and deep nasolabial folds. Check them out.
Шаг второй: To the right of your habits, underline or circle in green any changes you don’t have yet that may come in the future.
Why do you need to know your facial habits? To prevent premature wrinkles and other changes, have time to work on them.
So the chain:
Habits -> muscle strain -> deepening of wrinkles -> sagging skin and swelling.
What to do?
Rejuvenate your face with exercises and slowly part with mimic habits.
How?
Don’t panic or rush, step by step. You definitely shouldn’t be upset! You’ve already done an important job: spotting weaknesses! This means that it is on them that you direct your attention and care. I’ll help you.
Exercises for the face ahead. For now, I’ll share three of my favorite techniques:
firstly, they will help to notice mimic habits at the moment of their appearance;
secondly, they will show in what situations they most often arise;
thirdly, they will teach you how to relax tense muscles.
Catch, understand, relax! Three Effective Techniques for Dealing with Expression Habits
Of all the mimic habits you find, pick one. I will show you how to work with it using the example of the habit of clenching your teeth. First, we observe.
Technique One: “Catch a Mimic Habit”
Every time you notice that your teeth are clenched, answer the following questions.
1. We observe an external event. What happened the moment I gritted my teeth? What is the external situation or event? For example, the boss accused me unfairly, and I gritted my teeth in response.
2. We observe the internal state. What did I feel at that moment? What emotions am I experiencing? What feelings? For example, I feel angry, irritated, annoyed, indignant.
What does my face and body feel (where are the sensations in the face and body, what are they)? For example, I can feel my jaw, forehead and back of the head tighten; how the chest tightened, the stomach tightened and fists clenched.
How do I breathe? (Deeply, superficially, slowly, quickly, in jerks, holding my breath.)
For example, I hold my breath, I do not feel it. What am I at this moment? (Tense, confused, confused, angry …) For example, I am angry, irritated.
3. We observe from the side. How do I live my emotions, sensations? For example, I express outwardly; holding back inside; I freeze (I feel absolutely nothing).
What prevents me from expressing feelings and emotions here and now? For example, I am afraid of losing my job; I do not want to offend my husband, girlfriend, etc.
To make it more convenient, for your mini-research, you can get a notebook that will fit in your purse or pocket. And every time you track a mimic habit, write down your observations. After rereading the entries for a week, you will see that the situations are very similar: both in the events that provoke them, and in how they feel.
Well, we take the next step – relax. You already know that holding back emotions is accompanied by muscle tension in the face. And your main task after tracking the habit is to help the muscles relax. I share the following two techniques. Choose the one that you like best.
Technique two: “Cleansing breath”
It doesn’t matter if you are walking, standing or sitting. Take an inner pause: relax (lean on the back of a chair, armchair), close your eyes and focus on breathing.
If there is no way to relax your back and close your eyes, just breathe: 10 breaths and exhalations at a comfortable pace for you. The eleventh breath is deep and slow. The exhalation is even deeper and slower. And further: each inhale and exhale, slow down and lengthen. Do 4 to 10 times.
Now transfer your attention to the area of the face where there is the most noticeable tension (in the case of clenched teeth, the junction of the upper and lower jaw). Imagine taking a deep breath, directing it to this place. And with a very deep, slow exhalation, imagine that the tension leaves the face: it flows out like water, evaporates.
Inhale and exhale with open lips. We exhale with noise. After doing the exercise several times, return to comfortable breathing.
How to enhance this technique
Massage the tight spot gently. Take your time, do it with love and tenderness.
Wash your face with clean drinking water or wipe with herbal infusion, hydrolate, or non-alcoholic lotion.
The third technique: “To relaxation – through increasing tension”
Tense muscles can be relaxed in two ways.
Immediate relaxation (as we did in the previous technique).
Strengthening muscle tension, after which the muscles will relax by themselves.
Now we are interested in the second method.
As soon as you tracked the tension in the muscles, increase it: in our example, grit your teeth even more and stay in this state until discomfort appears (muscle trembling, fever in the face). As soon as you feel the discomfort, take a deep breath in and out with your open mouth. Take at least 10 gentle breaths in and out, relaxing your face.
How to enhance this technique
Clench your teeth and fists and hiss like a cat. Repeat 4-10 times.
Sing, shout, make faces.
As in the previous technique, massage the tense area and / or wash your face.
If there is a desire, you can perform both techniques: first, “Towards relaxation through increased tension”, then – “Cleansing breath”.
Dear readers, thanks to these simple practices, you can slowly “train” tense muscles to relax. In addition, you will begin to notice mimic habits and gradually part with them. The main thing is to start!
Look for the book by Yulia Kotova “No Wrinkles. Natural Facial Rejuvenation System ”in bookstores.