Facial Massage to Release Tension

Hi everyone. Today or tonight we're working with a facial massage. Now believe it or not we hold a lot of tension in our faces. I hope you enjoy this. As always, breathe slowly and easily. We're going to begin by warming up the hands. And then cup the hands around the eyes. The heels of the hands place into the cheekbones and the back of the knuckles are into the brow. Let your eyes close, relax. Then behind your hands open up your eyes a little bit. Begin to open your fingers and let a little light in. Bring your hands together in prayer and then bring the thumbs up. We're going to be bringing the thumbs to the brow. So just below the brow where the bridge of the nose becomes the socket of the eyes, we'll start to investigate what it feels like to smooth out this spot with the thumbs. You're gently pressing up towards the brow and certainly not in to your eyes. Two techniques, gently pressing or smoothing out. Good. Eventually open your hands and let your thumbs travel to the temples. Your fingertips can just relax on your head. Circle around within those temples. It's nice to flutter the lips here. If you need the eyes closed just barely. And what I'm doing now is bringing my thumbs back from the temples and back into the hairline. Just moving forward and backward when I feel a little ridge or a place that responds to the massage. Gently working the thumbs back into the hair. Relaxing your hands again and bringing the hands to prayer. It's sort of like that old fashioned making a steeple gesture we did as kids. You're going to find your index fingers and bring them to the third eye point which is actually an acupressure point and you're going to smooth out that place. When you get worried there's a little crease there that's natural. It's as if you're smoothing out that crease smidge. You might remember a yoga teacher doing this for you during Shavasana. Channel that. Now bringing the hands to the side of the face. You're looking for where your jaw is, where that hinge of your jaw is. And just starting really, really small. Start to press your fingertips into that spot and the jaw certainly wants to be open. I'll be quiet here with my jaw relaxed as well. As where you're at you start to investigate those powerful muscles. Tension there is natural guys. Just smooth it out. And now bringing the fingertips down along the jawline. Maybe just above that jawline. Hands to prayer.

Index fingers come right to the edges of the nostrils. Gently pressing or smoothing, same two little techniques along the lower rim of the cheekbone. A sinus massage. And if you've been sick lately this might be sensitive. Everything's alright. Just smoothing it out. I'm moving my fingers all the way back towards the ears here. And then in your own time you can start back at the nostrils and explore moving back again. Good. When you're done shake out your hands and we'll end by lifting the hands up and lacing the hands behind the head. With your hands behind your head your fingertips can find where your skull becomes the neck. There's a ridge there. The occipital ridge. You're touching that with your thumbs or your fingertips and seeing if you can work out any tension there. Bringing the hands down and taking a moment of introspection to feel the feels any different in the body but also different in the mind. Are the thoughts a little more smooth or calm than when you started this practice? Thanks for practicing. I hope you take this with you. Namaste.