Calmer chameleon
Can Boy George’s jungle rituals help you deal with stress in your life? asks
BOY GEORGE has been intriguing viewers of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! with the unique rituals he incorporates into his day-to-day life.
Whether he’s waking up campmates with his chanting, teaching them face yoga or tapping to alleviate stress, he’s been drawing upon certain techniques to help him through the reality show on ITV. Before heading into the jungle, the former Culture Club frontman, 61, said: “I’m going to obviously do yoga and I chant... So I can hopefully find a space where I can do that because I think that will keep me more sane.”
CHANTING
Boy George has been chanting in times of stress – for example, when he took part in a Bushtucker trial inside a box of critters and snakes. “Chanting typically involves repeating a mantra or a prayer either silently or out loud,” explains yoga teacher Neeta Naidoo (instagram. com/neetaniyamayoga). “Mantra is a sound current which has a powerful positive effect on the mind. Chanting mantras is a conscious way of controlling and directing the mind and it is one of the quickest ways to transform your mood and your life.”
Boy George is a Buddhist, and can be heard chanting ‘Nam Myoho Renge Kyo’, which roughly translates to ‘I devote myself to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra’. According to Neeta, chanting can “strengthen the immune system, reduce anxiety and depression, improve the mood, [and] open intuition”.
FACE YOGA
Boy George has been introducing his campmates to face yoga. Dr Munir Somji, chief medical officer of Dr MediSpa (drmedispa.com) says: “Face yoga is an anatomy-based facial exercise routine that involves massages and exercises to stimulate specific facial muscle groups and aid lymphatic drainage.
“Face yoga will lift, tone and tighten the face. It can also ease tension as it strengthens and relaxes certain muscles, so improved posture, less headaches and reduced teeth grinding can also be benefits to face yoga.”
In Dr Somji’s FACEFIT facial exercise programme, he recommends focusing on five exercises from the brow down to the neck. He recommends doing these exercises two to three times a week, building your way up to daily workouts.
TAPPING
If you’ve spotted Boy George tapping on his face, this isn’t a nervous habit – it’s a common technique used to combat stress. Kate Bithell, a mental health nurse at Delamere, an addiction rehab clinic in Cheshire, explains: “This anxietyreducing method, which involves repeatedly tapping yourself on the face and neck – what is believed to be an emotional freedom technique (EFT) – is used to help relieve feelings of stress, depression and anxiety, by altering the body’s energy to restore balance.
“Tapping begins at the top of the head before working down the side of the face and neck all the way to the underarm. This physical action of tapping certain points helps to relax our nervous system by disrupting our ‘fight or flight’ response, therefore increasing the number of endorphins in our body.”
To unlock the power of tapping, Poppy Delbridge, author of Tapping In (Piatkus, £16.99) recommends learning the key points to tap with your fingers – predominantly around the face.
She advises doing this alongside affirmations, explaining: “For example, if you’re saying, ‘I feel stressed’, you will then say, ‘Because...’ – so you then give it a logical reason – ‘because I’m running late’, or ‘ because I’ve got a million things to do’, ‘because I’m in this high-stress situation’ like [Boy] George is.
“Then you will say, ‘But it is possible for me to...’ – and you move into the feelings your mind takes you back to, so you might say, ‘But it’s possible for me to feel calm, to feel happier, to be in the moment’.”