What Is Facial Posture, And How Does It Affect Your Skin?
Not to pile on to your growing list of health concerns, but have you noticed something a little off about your facial posture lately? A little droopiness of the lids, a few incoming fine lines, some extra fat beneath the jaw? That's right, it's not just your body's posture you need to worry about — though you should be watching out for that as well, lest you cause yourself unwanted back pain — but the posture of your face, too. It's becoming increasingly evident that the way you move, rest, and pose your face is not only impacting how you look, but also how you feel.
Most of us already worry about our skin enough to take every precaution available to prolong our good skin years. We worry about taking off our makeup each night, cleansing our face twice a day, applying and reapplying sunscreen all day long, and going to the dermatologist whenever we need extra help. But do you ever stop to think about what else you could be doing for your face?
What is facial posture?
Facial posture, as the name suggests, has to do with facial expressions and other less noticeable facial movements and non-movements. This entails the ways you move your facial muscles and the poses you hold when your face is at rest. Just like body posture, facial posture is crucial to how we feel and look. Think of what good body posture means — a healthy, upright spine leads to less back pain, and stretching regularly helps your joints and ligaments remain nimble and pain-free.
The same logic applies to the face, with the added benefit of better skin. Being aware of how your face moves and sits is imperative to your health. Do you grind your teeth when stressed? Do you frown or squint too much? Where do you place your tongue when you're not talking, eating, or drinking? All of these things may impact not only your skin and looks, but possibly your digestive processes (via Faceology).
Why should we care?
Facial posture might seem like yet another gimmick to make people insecure about their faces, but we would argue it's not. In fact, minding your facial posture might save you some trips to your Botox and filler person.
The marvelous thing about having and maintaining good facial posture is that it works to improve your life on many levels. If you're mindful of frowning less, doing relaxing facial massages along with your skincare routine, and wearing sunglasses when you catch yourself squinting in the sun, eventually it all adds up to creating fewer fine lines and wrinkles.
And if the socials haven't already pointed this out to you, a cool trick to getting rid of unflattering side-profile neck fat is to place your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Do this not only for photos, but make sure to keep your tongue seated at the roof of your mouth for better digestion and smoother breathing (via Faceology).
How to achieve good facial posture
But how does one achieve good facial posture? Here are some tips. First, a good starting point is to relax the facial muscles with massages. Electric facial massagers and gua sha tools are good investments that, with consistent use, can yield results by relaxing your muscles and lightly sculpting your face (via Healthline). But even if you're not looking to spend money on tools, your own fingers and knuckles are perfectly good for facial massages.
Other tips for good facial posture are to hold intentionally neutral facial expressions, breathe with your mouth closed, rest your tongue on the roof of the mouth, unclench the jaw, and frown and squint less. This doesn't mean you can't laugh, smile, and be silly with your expressions, but being mindful of overdoing those kinds of movements is key to better overall posture.
How to maintain the results
If you want to keep having good face posture, smooth skin, firmer face muscles, and better breathing and digestive health, here's how to do it. The secret to continuously good face posture includes two increasingly popular tricks that are usually done alongside one's morning skincare routine. Celebrities are doing it, and the public is catching on. We're talking about face yoga and facial massages.
These two typically go hand-in-hand and are the key to the successful upkeep of good posture. As we mentioned, massages can be done with or without tools. It's just as simple with face yoga, or facial exercises, which involve moving the face in repeated expressions that stimulate certain facial muscles (via Healthline). It aims to relieve stress and tension from the face, which causes us to frown and pose in ways ultimately detrimental to the state of our skin health. If you keep these tips handy, soon you'll see the changes good facial posture promises.