“Look younger in 20 days”? This is the promise from cosmetic acupuncture expert Shellie Goldstein. Her book Your Best Face Now offers a DIY acupressure facelift that can take years off your face. My curiosity was piqued. Who doesn’t want to look their most radiant self? I felt intrigued because the method was not a superficial fix. Doing a 20-minute acupressure massage for 20 days is certainly no magic bullet.
In Chinese Medicine, aging is due to the breakdown of kidney energy, which affects the optimal functions of all other organs. Wrinkles, fine lines, sagging eyelids, and loss of firmness are signs of underlying imbalance. This can be due to poor or inappropriate diet, stress, and worry, for example.
Shellie Goldstein’s signature AcuFacial® Acupressure Facelift is a technique aimed at relaxing tight muscles, toning loose muscles, brightening the eyes, minimizing lines … by balancing and regulating the energy flow. From the inside to the outside. Feel better, look better.
In the forward of the book, musician Roseanne Cash writes, “Shellie frees the captive beauty that we all hold hostage within us.” She also believes that “this is the medicine and beauty ritual of the future, the treatment that goes beyond the surface and can remedy the sources, instead of the symptoms, of premature aging and disease.”
What is the AcuFacial® Acupressure Facelift?
Acupressure facelift is non-invasive, using the pads of your fingertips to gently massage each meridian point. Shellie Goldstein offers a routine that addresses every part of the face. This is an easy DIY facial comprising of 38 acupressure points that, once learned, takes about twenty minutes.
This routine starts and ends on the face, with eight sequences in between. The acupressure points include Spleen 3 which strengthens Spleen Qi and reduces Spleen dampness, Kidney 3 which strengthens weak Kidney, and the primary points to strength the other meridians.
Because it is made up of sequences aimed at specific areas of the face, you can also focus on those you are more concerned with. Perhaps you want to tighten the eye area and address eye problems. You can follow the five-acupressure-point sequence on page 44. If your eyes get tired during the day, take a pause and massage the area using this sequence. It is very relaxing too.
Doing the entire routine, however, is recommended, especially when learning about this holistic approach. Balancing all the meridians allows us to strengthen and harmonize them in ways we may not understand.
This facelift does not require creams or lotions and can be done anywhere really. I found doing it before bed was a great way to relax and to downshift to sleep-mode. This way, I’m also working on a cleansed and moisturized face.
Some of the benefits of the AcuFacial® Acupressure Facelift
- improving the texture of your skin
- reducing puffiness
- diminishing wrinkles and fine lines
- toning sagging facial muscles
- reducing stress
- improving circulation
- strengthening the immune system
My Personal Experience
For the first two weeks, I was diligent with my new pre-bedtime ritual. As instructed, I did 10 clockwise rotations for each acupressure point three times. It took some time to locate all the points and to figure out which way is actually clockwise.
On the first few nights, I experienced a mild stomach upset. Undoubtedly, this was because of the novel stimulations of so many meridian points. I was also taking in massive amount of information. Digestion and assimilation was therefore already quite burdened and stressed.
What I have noticed is less puffiness overall and a lift in the cheek, eyelid, and neck muscles. My skin also appears more even toned and less reactive.
The Next Steps
Shellie Golstein suggests following your organ-type diet. However, she writes that even without this, we will notice a difference, which I did. Deciphering my type proved to be more challenging than locating the acupressure points. The organ-type questionnaires provided did not help me enough to distinguish between a few organ types.
Adding the dietary component therefore is the next step in my experimentation. With winter and Kidney season coming, I can also follow the Kidney dietary recommendations to support and strengthen my Kidney Qi. This is all about my jing.
For those new to Chinese medicine, this book provides an easy-to-understand overview of each organ and interconnections. Your Best Face Now is not only about acupressure facelift. It also contains recipes and menu plans, other recipes (e.g. ginger oil hair tonic), acupressure sequence for colds and flus as well as for common skin concerns such as acne and sunspots, and a table several pages long of the nourishing qualities of food and beverages, to highlight the diversity of information available.
In today’s world, the market is full of an impressive plethora of products. The beauty business is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Consumers are targeted everywhere and finding the right products can be a dizzying process.
If you don’t want to navigate through the benefits and side effects of acids, chemical peels, fillers, and other promises, grab yourself a copy of Your Best Face Now and give it 20 days to see how you feel and look. Yes, it takes time and in this fast-moving world, time may feel like a luxury many people cannot afford. I put it forward here that slowing down, having a nourishing self-care regime, and consciously making choices of how to spend our time and money is exactly what we all need to do more of.
From the benefits I have seen and enjoyed, I too am purchasing my own copy. While I continue with the 20-minute acupressure facelift, I will explore the other ideas in this book. I like that this is a gentle and holistic approach to radiant skin, inside out.
