The Face Lift Massage: Rejuvenate Your Skin and Reduce Fine Lines and Wrinkles

CHAPTER 1 the art and science of face lift massage

what is facial rejuvenation?

Facial rejuvenation may sound like the stuff of science fiction but our system of beauty care draws on ancient wisdom and well-established techniques, combined with many modern approaches, to provide a truly “holistic” – or “whole body” – treatment.

This unique method requires no oils, equipment, surgery or drugs. All you need is a quiet, comfortable place to practice and a little time to spare. For some exercises, you’ll need a pair of willing hands to massage you, or you can learn how to help others to look younger. Why not practice with a friend, partner or family member so you can all enjoy the benefits?

Under the hands of an expert, you can usually see a difference after just one treatment. But even a novice can make a dramatic improvement by helping to free up the restrictions in the tissues that are the principal underlying cause of lines, wrinkles, and sagging flesh. The more you practice, the sooner you’ll see results, which in some cases can only be described as truly amazing. You’ll clearly see how the skin has been rejuvenated – it looks “lifted up” and also feels softer and more supple.

how does it work?

In this modern, stress-filled world your mind can be busier than the rest of your body. This is often reflected in your face. Hectic thoughts and pent-up emotions cause the muscles of the face, neck, shoulders, and head to tighten and constrict. This can lead to chronic aches and pain, especially around the eyes, jaw, neck or shoulders, and is a warning sign that your body’s natural energy is not flowing freely. Don’t be confused by the term “natural energy.” Many cultures believe that there are vital energy centers all over the body and that the flow of energy between these centers has a direct effect on a person’s health and well-being. A blockage in the energy flow causes symptoms such as pain and fatigue and usually leads to disease. By using massage to release such blockages you’ll find that not only has the discomfort gone but the energy now flows freely around your body, helping you to make better connections between your internal organ systems, thoughts, and emotions.

the magic of facial massage

For many Indian people, massage – including head massage and facial massage – is a daily part of their lives from the day they are born and is considered as important to health and beauty as diet and exercise. Facial massage is one of the most important elements of facial rejuvenation. It is like ironing with your fingers. Using repetitive finger movements along each wrinkle and also working on the underlying facial muscles, you can relieve tension in the muscles of the face, neck, and scalp, smoothing away lines and bringing elasticity and sheen back to the skin. You’re left looking and feeling younger and happier as the stresses and strains of the day simply float away. You just can’t help smiling after a facial massage because of the intense sense of contentment it induces.

Facial rejuvenation also works on the structure of the skin, to ease restrictions and lift up the face. Most of the skin is made up of connective tissue, which is formed from fibers of proteins such as collagen and elastin. These fibers weave together to form a flexible web-like structure. In younger tissues, the fibers slide past each other freely, giving suppleness and flexibility. But over time, toxic by-products build up in the skin, causing the fibers to lock together, so that the skin loses much of its mobility. Facial rejuvenation helps to release the tissues, gently allowing the connective tissue to regain its freedom and elasticity.

ancient theory – modern approach

The treatments we use in facial rejuvenation have mainly been drawn from ancient cultures but have been complemented by more modern methods. The main techniques we use come from Ayurveda. This ancient healing system has evolved over four thousand years and is one of the world’s oldest forms of health care. The word Ayurveda is derived from two roots in Sanskrit: “vida,” meaning “science” and “ayus,” meaning “life,” so it is usually translated as “the science of life.” It is one of the first holistic therapies as it is concerned with the health of the individual at all levels – physical, emotional, and spiritual. It treats the patient and not the illness and aims both to prevent disease and promote good health.

Ayurveda informs us that individuals have their own distinctive balance of three types of subtle energies or doshas. These are vata dosha, pitta dosha, and kapha dosha. Although they regulate thousands of different functions in the mind-body system, they have three basic functions: vata controls movement, pitta controls metabolism (body chemistry), and kapha controls structure.

Ayurveda teaches that every cell in the body must contain all three energies. The body needs vata to breathe, for blood to circulate, for food to pass through the digestive tract, and for nerve impulses to travel to and from the brain. Pitta processes food, air, and water, and kapha holds the cells together to form muscle, fat, and bone. All these energies need to be in harmony to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. In individuals there is usually one particular dosha that is dominant in the constitution, and this influences the person’s lifestyle. For example, Kapha types may need to eat certain foods, do particular exercises, and follow special routines in order to balance this dosha and so stay in good health.

Ayurveda places great emphasis on massage as being essential to health and beauty and people are advised to adopt it as a fundamental part of their daily routine. Just as we eat and sleep every day, so we should have a daily massage. Certain conditions can be treated by massage. For example, people who suffer from insomnia benefit from having a head and face massage, or massaging themselves, just before they go to bed. Massage also boosts the immune system by stimulating the production of white blood cells and antibodies. This strengthens bodily defence mechanisms and so increases resistance to viral and bacterial diseases. In India, babies are massaged from birth. The physical contact makes them feel nurtured and helps to ensure that they grow strong and healthy. Massage can work for you, too, helping you to look and feel revitalized, young, and beautiful.

beauty inside and out

Ayurveda shows us how to be beautiful inside and out and teaches that the two are related. Outer beauty is not just concerned with the way you look, but also includes posture, the way you move, and having a radiance that glows from within. Inner beauty relates to qualities such as your emotional state and mental abilities. The more you nurture yourself and learn to balance your inner and outer selves, the more insight you have on the world. Beauty evolves with age. As you get older, you learn to tap into a new source of beauty that comes from personal experience.

Ayurvedic facial massage gives amazing results. It relieves tension from areas that you had no idea were tense. After a massage you are left with a terrific feeling of well-being; your whole body feels totally relaxed and soothed. We owe a great deal to Ayurveda for the particular form of massage that we have developed. But we have also incorporated other therapies. Our system of facial massage includes other techniques that have now become separate modalities. These are yoga, polarity therapy, acupressure, and Swedish-style massage. Yoga, like Ayurveda, has its origins in ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas. It is a system for life that uses postures, special breathing methods, meditation, and other techniques to release and channel energy through the body. Polarity therapy stimulates and balances human energy fields – subtle patterns of electro-magnetic energy that surround the body. In polarity therapy, illness is viewed as a disturbance in these patterns and so health is restored by rebalancing the energy fields.

Reiki is a Japanese word meaning “universal life force energy”. The “ki” part of the word is the same as “prana” in Hindi and “qi” or “chi” in Chinese and is the term used to describe the form of energy that underlies everything in the universe. Reiki is a system for channeling universal energy to others for the purpose of healing and is similar to the chakra energy balancing used in Ayurveda. Compared with many Eastern healing systems, Reiki is relatively new as it was only developed just over a hundred years ago.

Acupressure is closely related to acupuncture but instead of applying needles, practitioners use tapping, pressing, and rubbing actions to stimulate and rebalance energy pathways in the body.

Swedish-style massage involves more rigorous stroking and twisting actions of the hands to stimulate the skin, underlying tissues, and muscles. This form of massage works on specific areas to improve the condition of the skin, lift up the face, and relax the whole body. By combining all of these disciplines, we have developed a form of massage that is perfectly tailored to tackle the stresses and strains of our modern, fast-paced, Western lives.

benefits of face lift massage

Face lift massage proves that you don’t need cosmetic surgery to look younger. You can work towards reversing the aging process by yourself, by getting a friend to help you, or by visiting a qualified therapist regularly – and there isn’t a snip or tuck to be seen! Nor is there a need to use any of the expensive cosmetics that claim to offer the elixir of youth in a bottle. Wrinkles and expression lines are reduced to give you a more vibrant and youthful appearance. Your skin becomes softer, complexion and skin tone improve, bagginess, sagginess, and puffiness are reduced, and you’ll notice the elasticity returning to your face.

These are the visible benefits. But you’ll also notice that you feel more relaxed as tension is released from facial muscles and the adjacent tissues, leaving your face feeling more mobile and your mental attitude much more positive. Headaches and other tension-related symptoms often disappear. In addition, as your body’s energy flow is improved, you are left with a sense of general well-being, confidence, and joy. Be prepared – you may well feel like hugging the people around you!