Welcome,
My name is Elli.
I am a transformation guide,
Somatic practitioner,
Yoga teacher and energy healer based in Bali.
After 15 years in the corporate tech world and two burnouts,
I turned towards the healing arts.
I now help high achieving professionals and conscious leaders reconnect with their body's wisdom,
Release stored tension and restore balance through embodied healing practices like myofascial release yoga,
Breathwork and energy work.
My work bridges the practical with the spiritual and I'm really glad you are here.
Please listen to my track Beginner's Guide to Myofascial Release for more information about this practice and how to best approach it in your home practice.
The most important things for you to know for now is that you should never experience pain in this practice and that you define how much pressure is applied.
Please keep that within the comfortable discomfort range.
You will need one or two release balls.
A tennis ball is good enough.
If you have a rather hard ball,
You can also cover that with a towel to take the edge off it and make it more comfortable.
Let's arrive in today's practice.
Take a moment to get comfortable.
You can sit upright or lean back against the wall,
Anything that allows your shoulders to soften and your breath to deepen.
If you'd like,
Play some gentle music in the background.
When you're ready,
Slowly close your eyes.
Inhale through the nose and exhale through your relaxed mouth.
One more.
Inhale through the nose.
Exhale through your relaxed mouth.
And one more to really arrive here.
In through the nose and a sigh out.
Let your attention settle into your body.
I invite you to bring both hands to your jaw joint and cup your palms over it.
Without changing anything yet,
Simply notice what is present here for you today.
Does the area feel tight,
Tenter,
Warm,
Pulsing,
Painful?
There's no right sensation.
You're just meeting yourself exactly as you are.
Take a long inhale and a soft slow exhale.
And keep this breathing pattern gently in through the nose and slowly out through the mouth as we go into the practice and through the practice to release your jaw area.
With myofascial release you have two options.
You can either just work with your fingers or I recommend to have a release ball of some sort.
And that can just be as simple as a tennis ball.
I find the best effects happen with a release ball but if that's not accessible for you,
You can also just use your fingers and make the same movements over your jaw with maybe one finger or two fingers depending on what works for you.
Grab your release ball in your right hand and then place the ball right in front of your jaw joint.
Kind of like in the middle of your cheek,
Middle of your row of your teeth but it should be under the cheekbone and above the chin bone.
And as you place the ball there,
Allow your jaw to softly open.
Just very relaxed,
Maybe halfway.
Don't open it all the way.
That will be straining the muscle to muscle that we now want to massage that goes right over your jaw joint but just allow your chin to gently open.
And then place that ball right in the middle of your cheek between your cheekbone and your chin bone.
And then move that ball slowly backwards up towards the jaw joint and you will reach and touch the muscle muscle that usually holds most tension.
All you need to do here is to just hold that gentle pressure from the front towards the back and hold the pressure to a comfortable level.
Don't overdo it.
You should feel the pressure but it should not be painful.
So please adjust the pressure as it's useful for you and then stay there for a few breaths.
Just allow the pressure of the ball to meet your muscle here.
Meet the tension and give it some time.
Give it some attention,
Some care.
Don't apply too much pressure.
Just enough for a release that can possibly happen.
As you do that,
Stay with your breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
That simple breathing pattern signals your nervous system that this pressure that you're feeling is still safe.
Safe to release now.
So adjust your breathing.
Make sure you're always comfortable breathing here.
If you feel you're holding your breath or your heartbeat speeds up,
Then you have too much pressure on your jaw at the moment.
Make sure it's just gentle enough.
Not too much.
And stay in that first point as long as it feels right for you.
Until the tension has shifted.
Until it's softened to some degree.
And then you can move on.
Maybe continue rolling the ball a bit further back towards your ear.
And if you still hold your head straight up,
If you wanted to have more pressure,
Move your right ear down towards your right shoulder so that the weight of the head rests onto the ball that you hold in your right hand.
And that will increase the pressure that you feel.
So only do that if it feels right.
If your jaw is already very sensitive to the pressure,
You just keep your head straight up and use your arm to find the right pressure against it.
So whichever option works for you,
Stay with that.
Allow the ball to either just rest right in front of the jaw joint or you can gently and slowly move the ball a little bit down towards the chin bone and then slightly back up towards the cheekbone.
So that you're massaging along the muscle that goes from under your chin all the way up to your temples in a straight line.
So that's the area we want to focus on.
You can either move up and down slowly,
Rest on individual points,
Or you can move your ball from the middle of your cheek back to just in front of the jaw joint.
So you're crossing over the muscle to muscle just around 90 degrees,
A bit less than that.
And move as slowly as you possibly can.
Rest in every spot that feels sensitive to you.
And whenever you rest,
Consciously breathe in through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
As simple as this sounds,
The breath is really supportive of this release here.
It keeps your nervous system relaxed.
It signals your body that this release is safe.
In myofascial release we never want to experience pain.
So you need to work with how much pressure you apply on each point that works just the right way for you today.
It will be different next time.
If in doubt,
Less pressure is better than more pressure.
So be gentle.
You also don't want to overdo it.
You definitely do not want to press through pain here.
That would be counterproductive to what we want to achieve.
Just be kind to yourself here.
The level of pressure you apply.
Just have about another minute here on this side.
Masada muscle is a very small area but it impacts your temples.
It impacts the base of your skull.
It goes down into your throat.
So you're working on all those areas while you're focusing on releasing the tension here on your jaw.
That's the beauty of myofascial release.
Always working on your entire body,
Not just the area that you're working on.
So allow that release to soften.
Allow those releases to be felt either just right in your jaw in that masada muscle or you might notice it even impacting the other areas.
Whatever it is for you,
Just pay attention.
Last few breaths here.
Then with your next exhale,
Allow to release that ball or your fingers.
Allow to release that pressure.
Move it away from your jaw joint.
If your head was tilted,
Bring it back up to straight position and we come into rebound.
Rebound is an important part of myofascial release where you allow the part we just worked on,
Our jaw here,
Our right jaw.
Allow the part to integrate,
To process,
To practice.
You may want to move your joints left and right,
Front or out,
Or just open and close your mouth to just give that jaw a little bit of support to integrate the shifts,
To remove the remainder pressure points here and give it time to come back to feel a bit more normal.
And just know the rebound is part of this practice.
Do not immediately skip over this and go to the other side.
Really consciously feel into what these few minutes have already changed for you on this first site.
Your tissue is at the moment reabsorbing hydration,
Fluids,
Blood.
It's reorganizing,
It's integrating the release.
It may want to have a gentle touch,
It may want to do a gentle movement,
It may want to be still.
You decide how you want to spend the rebound but I invite you to be conscious and feel into the after sensation.
Notice what's different.
Compare your right side with your left side and let everything settle.
Take one more slow breath in and an exhale out and then we move over to the left side.
So grab the ball with your left hand,
Move it to your left cheek.
Allow your jaw line to gently open again and press the ball from the front back towards your jaw joint.
Find the right pressure here.
Stay with that first point as long as it feels right.
We'll be doing the same thing over here on the left side as we did on the right and it may feel different than on your right side.
That's okay.
Maybe it's more tense,
Maybe it's less tense.
You judge,
You observe,
You notice what's the case for you.
I invite you to either pause the recording here so you can keep your focus for a few minutes on your left side or you can just go back and use the guidance I gave you for the right side to apply it here on the left side and then also here whenever you're completed.
I recommend around four or five minutes on this side.
You're coming to rebound again allowing your left jaw joint to relax,
To integrate and then you can compare your left jaw and your right jaw.
Feel how it's now different to the beginning of the practice.
Just observe.
I invite you to do this on a regular basis.
You can always come back and jump right into the guidance especially if you have chronic TMJ issues.
This is a really good practice to do on a regular basis.
Maybe every other day for a few minutes left and a few minutes right.
I hope this short practice helped you soften your jaw and ease any tension that's possibly spilling into a headache.
To support full integration you may want to listen to my other track Deep Breath Savasana Integrate,
Soften,
Restore or simply give yourself a few minutes of quiet time letting your breath and your body unwind.
Please drink water throughout the day to help your body flush out any stagnant energy or toxins released from the tissue.
If you'd like more guided sessions you'll find many my official release tracks on my profile from full body releases to targeted releases for specific areas of tension like the jaw,
Upper shoulders,
Neck and more.
You're always welcome to join any of my upcoming classes.
If you'd like to connect more please join my group called Awakening Inner Light that you can find on my profile page.
The intention of that group is to have a place where you can share how this practice has helped you,
What you have experienced,
You can ask me any related questions such as content for future tracks or live events and connect with others.
This is our space to stay in touch and support another.
Please follow my profile to receive updates on new tracks,
Courses and live events.
Thank you for being here and see you in the next practice.
May your body be your greatest teacher,
Your breath your guide and your heart your home.
