BLOG 121: 3 WAYS TO LIFT HOODED EYES WITH FACIAL EXERCISES

Do you find you’re starting to get a little bit of sagging around your eyes and eyebrows, or do you have hooded eyes and droopy eyelids?

For a natural face lift, here are three quick and easy ways to lift the edges of your eyebrows with Face Yoga exercises. 

I’d recommend you do these techniques every day, each for up to a minute. Don’t worry! I’ll explain each exercise below so you know what to expect.

As with all facial exercises, make sure your hands are clean before you get started.

TECHNIQUE ONE – OUTER EYEBROWS PALM LIFT

Start with the palms of your hands and gently place them on the outer edge of your eyebrows. Your fingertips will face upwards, with your hands resting against your head. You only need to cover the outer quarter of your eyebrows for this exercise as you’ll be lifting the outer corner in a moment.

Gently push the outer edge of your eyebrows up slightly – you’ll create a gentle eyebrow lift with your palms. There’s no need to use excess pressure, but just enough to engage those muscles around your eyes. 

Next, focus your eyes on a point directly in front of you. Open your eyes as wide as you can as you focus your eyes forward. Make sure to blink if you need to. 

During this technique, make sure to keep your forehead really relaxed.

Widening your eyes and lifting your eyebrows will work the circular muscle around each eye. That little bit of resistance you can feel will really work to lift that outer eyebrow area. 

After around 20 seconds, release – then you can repeat it up to twice more. 

Take a deep breath in, and a slow, long, breath out, bringing your hands down gently.

TECHNIQUE TWO – EYEBROW PINCH

For this technique, you’ll be pinching the eyebrow area to stimulate the muscle around each eye. 

With two fingers and a thumb, gently pinch your eyebrows, starting in the centre of your face and moving outward along the eyebrows. Each pinch can last a second or so and there’s no need to pinch hard or cause any discomfort. 

Once you reach the outer edge of your eyebrows, hold the pinch and focus your gaze on a point in front of you like you did with technique one. Widen your eyes as before and hold for a few moments.

Take a deep breath in, and a long exhalation out. 

Relax your eyes and blink if you need to.

Then start all over again, pinching your eyebrows from the inner corner with your fingers and thumbs, moving across the brow to the outer corner. Make sure you’re pinching the muscle rather than just the skin for a lovely lifting massage. 

Once you reach the outer corner repeat the same as before – widen your eyes, hold the pinch, and inhale and exhale slowly and gently. One more inhale and exhale, then release your grip, relax and close your eyes. Bring your hands gently down by your sides.

TECHNIQUE THREE – INDEX FINGER EYEBROW LIFT

The tiny muscles around your eyes don’t need much work for you to feel the benefits. That’s why I’d recommend being gentle while doing this next technique.

This exercise is very effective for hooded eyes. I’d recommend you try this once a day, even for 10 seconds a time, gradually working up to more if you need it.

Firstly, I want you to place each index finger underneath your eyebrows. Lift your eyebrows with your fingers gently. 

You might see a little crease or wrinkle on your forehead. Usually, my rule is no lines in Face Yoga! For this technique, it’s absolutely fine because we’ll release it in a few moments. 

Gently close your eyes and you’ll start to feel a little pulse or shake in your eyelids, showing you how hard those muscles are working. Now hold that for 10 seconds, breathing in and out slowly, relaxing the rest of your face as much as possible. 

Then release. If you feel that’s enough for you, then stop there. If you’d like to try it again, you can repeat this one or two more times. 

You might find it helpful to use a mirror. When your eyes are shut you won’t be able to see but it’s great for making sure your fingers are pushing your eyebrows up equally on both sides before you close your eyes.

RELEASE TEMPORARY FOREHEAD WRINKLES

Now it’s important to smooth any lines that were created on your forehead during that exercise. 

With that last technique, you can only feel the full lifting benefit if you do lift your brows which does create a little line on your forehead. As you’re only doing this for between 10 to 30 seconds each time, those lines are absolutely fine as long as you follow with the relaxing exercise. 

You can now work your fingers across your forehead. Place the tips of your fingers with your index finger near your hairline and your little finger next to your brows. Use both hands to target each side of your face, and gently brush your fingers across your forehead. 

This will help smooth any temporary lines and release those muscles so after a few seconds you should see those disappear. 

BECOME A CERTIFIED FACE YOGA TEACHER

If you found this helpful and would love to become part of the Face Yoga family, find out about our distance learning course with The Danielle Collins Face Yoga Method. The course is approved and accredited by The International Institute for Complementary Therapists and the International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine.

Becoming a qualified Face Yoga teacher means you’ll get to teach these amazing techniques and more to groups and individuals all around the world, in-person or online.