This is the first installment of our 2-part Yoga guide to prepare you for the bounty of compliments coming your way, for a flawless naturally blossoming skin. Let’s get on the mat already!1) De-stress Your Face!
Before we begin with yoga poses, it is a good idea to give a work out to our facial muscles a tad.
This will leave you feeling relaxed and ready for the next set of poses.
a) Massaging The Eyes
This exercise helps you get rid of the tension in the muscles near and around your eye sockets.
-Make fists and keep the thumbs straight out.
-Keep your eyes closed.
-Gently move your right thumb over your right eye (which is shut) and left thumb over your left eye.
-Make sure the pressure you apply is very gentle.
-You can do this for 2-3 minutes.
b) Blink Blink!
It’s that simple! Just open your eyes wide and squeeze them shut in a gradually quicker progression. You can do this for 2 minutes.
c) Fill Your Cheeks
-Take a deep breath in and fill up your cheeks with air. Hold it for a few seconds.
-Breathe out. Repeat this 8-10 times.
d) Chin Up
-Place both your thumbs under your chin.
-Now press lightly and move up from the lower end of the chin near your throat towards your jaws.
-You can do this for another couple of minutes.
e) Pulling The Ears
-Fairly simple. Pull on your ear lobes and pull them towards the ground. You can do this for about 30 seconds.
-Grab as much of your ear as will fit between thumb and forefinger. Rotate your grip clockwise for 30 seconds and counter-clockwise for another 30 seconds.
-Press and release the entire length of the ear from the lobe to the top of the cartilage.
f) Eyebrow press
-Hold your eye brows and gently press along the eye brows, first from center to the edges, and then from the edges towards the center.
2) Pranayamas or Breathing Techniques
A) Bee Breathing Technique or Bhramari Pranayama
In order to learn this powerful breathing technique, you must know about Shammukhi Mudra. The humming bee technique is best practiced with Shammukhi Mudra. To make the Shammukhi Mudra,
-The little fingers of both the hands are touching each other and should be placed below the lips.
-Both the ring fingers touching each other should be placed above your lips.
-The middle fingers should be gently placed on each nostril without pressing them.
– Close your eyes and place your index fingers on the skin over your eyeballs.
– Let your thumbs be on your ear lobes.
-Now holding this mudra,
-Take a deep breath in and make a humming sound like a bee.
-With every exhalation, make the humming sound and keep relaxing more and more. This breathing exercise clears the mind and leaves you feeling fresh. You can practice 5 rounds of this breathing exercise.
B) Skull Shining Technique or Kapalbhati 
Kapalbhati is not really a pranayama but part of Shat Kriya. Shat kriya is a Yogic process to purify the body. Kapalbhati translates to forehead shining. Kapalbhati brings a glow to your forehead and face, clears up the digestive system and improves liver function.
Here’s how to do it-
-Sit with eyes closed, spine erect, hands on the knees, and palms facing the sky.
-Place both the hands on your knees with thumb joining the index finger, take a deep breath in, and slowly as you exhale, relax your whole body. You can also place your right hand on your stomach to feel the movement in the initial days of the practice.
-For Kapalbhati, take a deep breath in and as you exhale, breathe out forcefully while pulling the stomach all the way in every time you exhale. You will see, every time you exhale forcefully the next inhalation happens on its own.
-Continue these fast-paced exhalations for 15-20 times or according to your capacity.
-Repeat the cycle 3 times
-Breathe in completely and draw in your navel forcefully and breathe out forcefully
You should refrain from practicing Kapalbhati if you have:
pacemaker or stents
backache
slipped disc
recent abdominal surgery
epilepsy
hernia
recent pregnancy
menstruating
hypertension
(Picture credit: www.artofliving.org )
Feature Image: Christopher Campbell, Unsplash
