Do you have a healthy face?

We live in a world where beauty takes precedence over health.

But what is Beauty? Who defines beauty standards?

Although the Big Beauty Industry has its own definitions of conventional beauty standards like big black eyes, Angelina Jolie lips, heart shaped face, slim nose or chiseled jawline………at the end of the day we all know that no matter what we try most of us are never going to look like those models on magazine covers simply because we are all made different and are meant to be unique and beautiful in our own way. Hence you cannot confine the term ‘beauty’ into a definition that would suit all.

Beauty is subjective! It’s true that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. What appeals to one may not appeal to another.

But here is a definition of beauty that I personally believe far outweighs any other superficial beauty standards and subjectivity. It is a definition that helps see beauty objectively without having to fit into any norms of the beauty standards.

It is ‘Beauty’ as defined by the Ancient Indian Science “Ayurveda” and that is……

A HEALTHY FACE = A BEAUTIFUL FACE!

Now, this is beauty metric that is achievable to most of us, if we desire so.

What are the signs of a healthy face?

A healthy face is one that has no puffiness, no fluid or toxic accumulation (which most often is the reason for eye bags, double chin, puffy nose) and no tension or tightness in facial muscles (which again is most often the reason for deep lines, sagging and asymmetries on the face).

And you also want to make sure that you have good blood circulation going on your face which boosts the oxygen and nutrient supply to face so that you have a soft glowing skin.

SIGNS OF A HEALTHY FACE

- Your face is relaxed.

- Bright eyes

- No Puffiness

- No fluid or toxin accumulation on face

- No tension or tightness in the facial muscles

- No pain in the face when touch or gently stimulate the acupressure points.

- Good blood circulation to your face

HOW CAN YOU GET A HEALTHY FACE?

Your face reflects your inner health and well-being. So, a well-nourished body and a peaceful mind are of utmost importance to have a healthy face. But apart from that, it’s the practice of Face yoga.

Although Face yoga is popularly known as natural holistic approach to combat the wrinkles, sagging and deep lines on the face, it’s benefits go way beyond just cosmetic.

Face yoga is the best way to work towards a healthy face.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF FACE YOGA

• Face yoga helps you strengthen, tone and lift your facial muscles giving your face a toned, lifted and defined appearance.

• It also helps you relieve tension and tightness in your facial muscles giving you a relaxed and peaceful look. Releasing tightness from the face, also helps in relieving pain in some parts of the face that is caused due to stress especially in areas like jaw and eyebrows which are common places where tension accumulates. It also helps in reducing pains caused due to TMJs, clenching or grinding teeth at night.

• It helps promote blood circulation to the face boosting the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the face giving your skin a nice healthy glowing skin and even tone.

• It helps drain and flush out toxins from the face and promotes circulation of lymph reducing puffiness and fluid retention on face.

• It helps in posture correction and alignment.

• It relieves stress through breathing, mental relaxation, and alternate meditative practices like tapping.

• It promotes self-love and self-care which in turn improves your self-worth and confidence.

• The Face yoga practice apart from facial exercises adopts a holistic approach promoting several healthy lifestyle habits like drinking hot water, eating right, correct breathing techniques, stress management, chewing habits, overall fitness and sleep habits.

• Apart from all of the above, Face yoga also helps you in being mindful of your facial expressions. It helps you differentiate between facial muscles that convey positive emotions and negative emotions. It trains you in using your facial muscles in a way that communicates positivity, warmth and affability to people around you with whom you interact on a daily basis whether personally or professionally. It completely changes the way other people perceive you.

Yes, as advertised by many Face yoga practitioners, it indeed helps you in preventing, reducing and reversing the aging signs on face like wrinkles, sagging and droopiness but those are supposed to be the bonuses or secondary benefits or positive side effects that come with practicing face yoga regularly and not the main benefits.

Face Yoga: A Cosmetic Benefit or a Health Benefit?

Like I mentioned in my opening of this blog, we live in a world where beauty takes precedence over health. So, we can’t blame people for promoting a health product as a beauty product.

While most women are happy to throw away tons of money on cosmetics, superficial ‘anti-aging’ skin care products, facials and not to forget the Botox, fillers, injectables and other invasive procedures without thinking twice just to make themselves look good, there is a lot of hesitation in investing a fraction of the cost in something like face yoga that not just improves their appearance and health but also takes away the need to spend excessively and recurringly on all the other things I mentioned above.

It’s important that we shift our perspective. We need to focus more on ‘being’ beautiful and ‘being’ healthy rather than just ‘looking’ beautiful.

Just like a healthy body is not an option, a healthy face is also shouldn’t be considered optional!

Face yoga as a Corporate Health Benefit for women

With so many of the above-mentioned health benefits of face yoga coupled with the fact that all these works together in increasing the confidence, mental health, and overall wellbeing of a person, this indeed must be given equal importance and priority in the corporate and insurance industry as any other health benefits that are covered like gym memberships, body yoga, RMT and other fitness and mental health benefits offered to their employees.

Covering Face yoga under the health insurance and offering it as a health benefit to women in organizations will encourage several women to adopt this holistic practice that would not just change their face but their lives as well in a positive way.

Although face yoga is new and one of the lesser-known health practices, it’s my hope that it will soon catch up and corporates and insurance companies will treat this as a health benefit offering more women an opportunity to learn this practice from right people and reap all of its amazing benefits. If you are an Employee Benefits HR Executive reading this, it’s a food for thought.

After all, which organization wouldn’t want relaxed, happy and confident employees? When the employees feel good about themselves, they will project that energy and that will change the way others perceive them. This is a particularly important aspect to consider in professions like teaching, sales, marketing as well as other client facing services.

Mind your face

First impressions are subconscious conclusions that people make based on how they feel about the person they meet, the first time they meet them. Neuroscience research published in the journal of psychological science found that it takes a 10th of second to make a first impression.

And what is the first thing people notice about you?

Apart from the physical attributes like height and the clothing the person is wearing, it’s the face.

Yes! Face is the first thing people notice about you. It is first thing that makes people form an impression about you. and it’s only fair that you PUT YOUR BEST FACE FORWARD.