Yoga Lion's Breath

Series Summary

Yoga poses have become increasingly popular as a form of exercise and meditation. The focus of yoga is a holistic one, employing a broad range of practices which focus on a new way of living, thinking and being in the world. Aimed to unite the mind, the body, and the spirit, the health benefits of yoga are also great and varied. From relieving stress to strengthening and toning muscle, integrating yoga positions and exercises into your daily routine can be beneficial on many levels.

In this free video series, our expert will show you a different type of yoga, called facial yoga. These yoga exercises are aimed at relaxing the face and reducing stress. You will learn how to do the eyes of the soul exercise, the upside down face exercise and the lion's breath. You will also learn how to explore vowel sounds, explore emotions and expand the lips and cheeks. Finally, get tips on how to do spritzing, and mandala gazing. If you are interested in facial yoga, let our expert show you everything you need to know.

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Fran Dukehart, I'm going to introduce you to the first segment of the facial yoga. We're going to call it Lion's Breath. So to prep for that, first what I would like to introduce the idea is that when we're moving our face, of course we're moving various parts of the face, the nose. So for example, you might want take a moment and make sure that you have a clean breath in your nose because when we do the lion's breath, we sometimes include the breath of fire. So I'm going to actually start with that and let you just come along with me and do it. The lips will be closed and we'll take a really nice deep breath into the low, low parts of the lungs with the breath of fire. So you have the Kleenex it's near you by in case you need them. And that's a very good sign that what you're doing is you're excreting, you're letting go of those things that are in your body that it no longer serve you. When you're letting the pumping happen in the abdominals, you don't have to do with any kind of jerking feeling, it will become natural and rhythmic more you do it. When we complete the practice of face yoga, sometimes people will get embarrassed or feels it gets little bit silly. And many seniors I know that I worked with, were really taught good manners that you never stick out your tongue to someone. However, your tongue is an expression and an extension of your spine. So what I'd like to do is, forgive me for sticking my tongue out at you, but please recognize that this is a part of the practice called Lion's Breath. And my teacher would say to me, "make a really honest effort with it really let your lion come out". You're going to roll the eyes upward. You can even use the extension into the fingers cause it will help your whole chest in the feeling of the lion come out. So besides going outward, the opposite will be the first place we'll start. We'll draw all the energy inward. So the face might start looking like a prune or raisin, all the energy comes to the nose. Hold all the energy in the face, the top of the head, the back of the head. We're imagining that we're drawing energy to the center. Holding it, tightening it and then gently, slowly exhale. Ahhhhhh!!!!"