@MaiWistik

www.maiwistik.eu

Facial yoga is a real way to reduce double chin (Mirja's experience)

I'm Mirja, a 26 year old young woman who has taken part in a face yoga course. I go to school and work at the same time, so my life can be considered quite busy. I often have to set myself boundaries and make time for myself, otherwise I just write my work until half past midnight, as the rest of the time is simply lost elsewhere. I have two godchildren and an adorable baby girl, so I'm also what you might call a half-time mum

So why did I decide to join a face yoga course?

I've tried several times to find the right sport for me, but I've never succeeded. Recently I thought, if these active things don't really suit me for various health reasons, I might try something a little more sedate like yoga. I remember trying yoga for the first time when I was young, but I was still in my 'weird pub age' where I wasn't used to my body, sticking my bum up to the sky felt really weird to me and I haven't tried yoga again since. You could say I had a bad memory with yoga. But now that I'm used to my body and the postures don't seem so weird anymore, I decided to give it a try. At the same time, a face yoga class came to me like a blessing from heaven. Granted, it wasn't quite what I had in mind at first, but I justified buying the course on the basis that if I like face yoga, then real yoga isn't that different. Besides, if I can do something good for myself, that's even better. After all, I had nothing to lose

Expectations

I guess you could say that I didn't really have very high expectations, because I'm very happy with my face and my wrinkles are actually minimal. I've always thought that wrinkles add character and I know it's a natural part of life that I can't change anyway.

Of course, the best way to combat ageing is to prevent it. I didn't expect to see any drastic changes in my face in those 4 weeks. The one change I was really hoping to see was a double chin. I have a very "weak chin" and as my face is also quite wide, it doesn't look the best

The first week of the course

I was very surprised how well the course was structured. Right from the start there was a lot of reading and thought provoking questions. With the first exercise I immediately felt that I didn't need a supporting hand because my forehead wasn't moving with me. It was also funny to do the exercises on wrinkles, which I didn't have, for example, the frown line, but I was motivated by my partner, who actually totally has it. Plus, it was interesting to think that I was actually training my muscles to move in a different way. The exercise that I saw the effects of immediately was the lip enhancement exercise. Obviously my lips weren't Kylie Jenner lips right away, but my lips were plumper than before. Maybe it was a thing I only noticed myself, but it certainly added a nice surprise to my day. It was also nice to realise that I had been practising facial yoga before, unbeknownst to myself.

I liked the fact that there was a tutorial on how to roll with a face roller right at the beginning. Unfortunately, I didn't have a face roller at home, but I did have massage crystals at home, which were quite suitable for this exercise. I had these stones before just for fun, but it was nice to use them in real life. Looking back on the course, I feel like I'm finally ready to get a real face roller

For some reason I thought we would get new exercises every day, but as I went through the course it turned out to be the same exercises every day for a whole week. At first, it seemed strange to do the exercises every day at the computer. The first week's exercises were quite easy for me, then I did them before I went to bed without the video, which was kind of annoying, because when I wanted to start a new week I had to click through everything

Right at the beginning I noticed that some of the videos didn't load automatically. This is an annoying problem with Thinkfic courses, as I had encountered this before I knew in advance that I would just have to refresh the page and then the video would load fine

Week two and the wickedness relaxer

At the beginning of the second week, the first exercise was the relaxer for the evil eye. I thought, oh what a fun exercise, because the week before we had just trained this muscle to move in a different way. In addition, it was really fun to do the smile lift exercise. I think it's an exercise that everyone should do because a smile is so important. People form their first opinion of you within the first 10 seconds and if you already have a naturally light smile, that only scores you plus points

There were already exercises this week that were more challenging for me. For example, Exercise 11, which involved moving the lower eyelid. Oh, how I struggled, but by the end of the week I could more or less manage the exercise. Then there was the smoothing out the lines around my mouth exercise (exercise 13), which I couldn't do properly because I felt I was hurting myself. So I just skipped it and chose an extra exercise from the first week instead

Week three and cheek relaxation

The third week went much easier than the previous one, but it also became clear that doing the exercises in the evening wasn't for me and I moved the face yoga to first thing in the morning instead. So I took a nice facial oil as a companion and started doing facial yoga with the video in the mornings.

The first exercise was an immediate cheek relaxation exercise, which I really enjoyed. This week, I particularly enjoyed every time Mai-liis reminded me in the video to relax my shoulders. I also started stretching my neck more and now it's a daily habit. It really is like a nice treat for the body.

I liked watching the video because by the second time I knew which exercise was which and so I could do the first set of exercises while Mai-Liis was explaining, the second with her and the third while Thinkific was loading the next video. In addition, I had a lot of laughs when my companion came in the door in the morning while I was doing my face yoga, and I was making a particularly silly face again. In week three there was a really fun spoon exercise that we had an extra laugh about at home.

From this week you can also find my 2 favourite exercises of the whole course, which were the chin and forehead massage. I enjoy these exercises almost daily now.

Week 4 and consistency

I have to admit that the fourth week was again difficult for me. The exercises were difficult and life tended to get a bit too busy, which meant that I had a slightly longer break where I did no exercises. I reminded myself that it doesn't matter if there are dips, but it's important to maintain consistency even if it's not as consistent as I had originally hoped. Life still happens.

The exercises required coordination and it took me a couple of days to get them quite right. With some of the exercises, I questioned whether I was doing them correctly, but then I got reassurance from a Facebook group. Plus, it was the first week I really felt my muscles were really stiff after an exercise and needed a little more relaxation. I gave myself a little longer facial massage after the exercises

How am I satisfied with the course?

I am very positively surprised with the course and now I dare to actually go to a yoga class. In addition to that, I now have a lot of nice memories with my partner. I found a lot of surprising things on the course that made me happy and, incredibly, I now carry much less stress.

The constant neck-stretching and self-popping rituals have been a very positive experience. I used to just put lotion on my face every night thinking it was good for me and it was nice, but now I can actually see the change and it's a different experience. The extra effort isn't hard, but it feels so good when I do the facial yoga and I can actually feel the muscles working.

I agree, as a nice lady in our face yoga Facebook group said, it's great fun to do face yoga on the bus with your mask on. Really nobody understands it. OK, you can't do all the exercises, but there are a surprising number of exercises you can do in between your activities. I encourage everyone to try

The things I didn't talk about at all were the health challenges. There are also a lot of different challenges on the Face Yoga Facebook group, for example, the "Celery Juice Challenge". I didn't do any of them myself as I felt it was too much for me. Mai-Liis also did weekly direct videos, none of which I took part in as they didn't fit in with the schedule, but it was nice to watch them afterwards

The result of the face yoga

My number 1 problem was a double chin. It's not very dominant, but you could see it sometimes in the pictures. I can't say it's completely gone, but I feel it's diminished. A lot of the double chin is due to the shape of my chin, I can feel that my chin has even got a bit wider. I believe that if I continue to train hard, I will get the results I want, because as Mai-Liis said, some people only see the results they want after 3 months, which is perfectly normal, because we are all different

I also noticed an increase in the size of my lips, an improvement in the texture of my skin (especially when I run my fingers over my face), a tightening of the skin under my eyes and a lift in the corners of my mouth.

I would definitely recommend the "4-week online course: 10x younger without surgical intervention" to everyone. I see it as an environmentally friendly and realistic way to prevent ageing and improve those parts of your face where you feel insecure. If you doubt me, do some internet surfing yourself and see the real results. I've seen a reduction in double chin, although I still need to practice to get the results I want.

The downside of the course is definitely that you have to find the time to do it every day, which can be difficult for many people. For me, I found that in five minutes I was able to do all the exercises for the day beautifully, so if you're already applying face cream in the evening or morning, five minutes is not a long time.

If you really want to give yourself a treat mentally and physically then I think this course is for you. I found so much joy and great experiences from this course that I never expected. In addition, there are so many wonderful women on this course/journey with me who are always there for support

Best wishes!
Mirja

@MaiWistik

www.maiwistik.eu