BLOG 100: HOW TO REDUCE EYE BAGS NATURALLY IN 5 EASY STEPS

Our skin loses some of its elasticity and the muscles around our eyes grow weaker as we age. Plus lifestyle, genetics and stress can all play a part. Fortunately, Face Yoga offers a simple way to reduce eye bags naturally. 

By working with the circulation and lymphatic drainage, we improve the health of our skin and prevent puffiness. At the same time, moves that target the muscles around our eyes help to prevent sagging.

This short and simple Face Yoga routine should only take you around four minutes to complete. It targets the skin, muscles, and acupressure points around the eyes to reduce bags, dark circles, and puffiness.

It is also a very calming sequence that will help you to relax and release stress. 

BEFORE YOU START

Make sure your face and hands are clean before you begin this routine. You might also want to apply some eye cream or serum to your eye area to help your fingers move smoothly without dragging over the skin.

Aim to do each move for at least 30 seconds. If you have a bit longer, you could do them for up to a minute. But be sure to work to your own level with every move. 

I always encourage you to lean into your intuition when practising Face Yoga. This helps you to respond to what your mind and body need in the moment.

Take a few deep, calming breaths. And you are ready to start.

STEP 1: RELEASE TENSION AND BOOST CIRCULATION

Take your thumbs just below your eyes and gently stroke upwards to your temples. Keep your touch very light here to avoid dragging at the delicate skin. This helps to release tension from the muscles and boosts the circulation.

Next, take your thumbs to the outer corner of your eyes. Gently pulse to stimulate the acupressure points here.

This acupressure point is ideal for relaxing your face and mind. It also increases the circulation in and around your eyes.

Then, rest your index, middle, and ring fingers underneath your eyes and gently pulse them to aid lymphatic drainage. This helps to reduce puffiness and dark circles.

STEP 2: MASSAGE

With your index fingers, tap lightly and quickly all over your eye area to brighten the skin and get the energy moving.

Go along your cheekbones, up the bridge of your nose, over the eyebrows, and back down to the cheekbones. After 30 seconds, reverse the movement and continue tapping in the opposite direction for another 30 seconds.

Then, take your index fingers to the bridge of your nose and smooth them down around your eyes and up to your temples. This soothing move helps us to feel calm and reduces puffiness.

STEP 3: ACUPRESSURE POINTS

Use your index fingers to lightly press on these acupressure points around your face, as follows:

1. The inner corners of your eyes
2. Your temples
3. Just above the centre of your eyebrows
4. Under the eyes, on the top of the cheekbones
5. The sides of your nostrils

Stimulating these points helps to calm your mind and boosts the circulation to your face and eye area. It can also help to relieve tension and headaches.

STEP 4: LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE

Using your ring fingers, smooth around your eyes in circles.

It is important to keep your touch light here. Make sure you aren’t dragging at the skin. The area around our eyes is very delicate. This is why we use our ring fingers here, even though it can feel a little awkward – we naturally press less hard than we would with our index fingers. 

This move aids the lymphatic drainage system, which is just beneath our skin, so we don’t need to work down into the muscle.

STEP 5: MUSCLE STRENGTHENING

Form your index fingers and middle fingers into a ‘V’ shape and place them to either side of your eyes.

Squint your lower eyelids up until your eyes are half-closed. Aim to hold the squint for 3 seconds. You should feel a little shake in the muscles underneath your index fingers. 

Release and then repeat the move 10 times in total.

This helps to strengthen and tone the muscles around the eyes, reducing eye bags and wrinkles.

Next, place your hands on your forehead. You are going to use them to keep this area still.

Widen your eyes, being careful not to wrinkle your forehead. We tend to over-express with our foreheads, so this move helps to retrain us to just use our eyes instead, preventing forehead lines. It also works the muscles of our eyes, strengthening and toning the eye area.

Keeping your eyes wide, slowly look left, back to centre, and then right. Continue for 30 seconds, then switch to looking up and down instead.

FINISHED!

Take a few deep breaths to finish your face yoga practice. And you are done.

Like any Face Yoga routine, this isn’t a magic cure. It takes regular commitment to see results, just as it would if you were starting an exercise regime targeting a different part of your body.

Aim to make it a part of your daily routine, perhaps in the morning or evening when you do your skincare. You can even run through the sequence during a work break or while you’re watching tv – the brilliant thing about Face Yoga is you can do it anywhere.

If you need some encouragement to help you make Face Yoga a regular habit, my new book, The Face Yoga Journal is a must-have. Packed full of face yoga moves and wellness hacks, it has space for you to record your progress and make notes as you go through. 

The book is available to order now here