Massaging your face and neck moisturizes the skin and also helps the abhyanga oils to penetrate. Your massage movements should be applied upward, towards the temples, like a natural facelift.
2 to 3 tablespoons abhyanga oil of your choice, homemade or purchased, warmed to room temperature if necessary.
Apply oil lightly from the bridge of your nose over the cheeks and out to the ears. Rub your temples in small circles, then massage in circles up the hairline. Rub from the centre of your eyebrows upward and outward over your forehead. Use 3 fingers of either hand to massage in circles all over your forehead.
Using both hands, massage in straight strokes from the centre of your upper lip outward under the cheekbones to the ears. Using the index finger of each hand, rub over and around the inside edge and then outside your nostrils in circular movements. Then use 3 fingers of each hand to massage in straight strokes outward from your nostrils to your ears. Massage in front of and around your ears. Massage your earlobes and inside the ears.
Apply gentle pressure on your cheekbones in an upward direction towards your temples. Pinch-press along the eyebrows, starting at the centre of the brow and moving outward. Press on your eye sockets by closing your eyes and patting from the inside corners to the outside.
Starting with your fingers under your jaw, manipulate the area from your jawline to the base of your neck in a piano-playing motion, with gentle but firm pressure.