Relieve Neck & Jaw Tension With Feldenkrais Movement

This gentle Feldenkrais® Method lesson will relieve your jaw, neck, & shoulder pain by exploring a powerful & mysterious connection. Here's the secret: the freedom of your pelvis reflects the comfort & mobility of your neck & jaw. As we explore simple, pleasing motions in your pelvis & spine, your jaw will find renewed freedom of movement, easing the pain away, without effort. If you spend a lot of time at the computer, looking down at your phone, or in sitting, this session is for you. Enjoy!

Transcript

Please start in a seated position.

You can sit on the floor,

On the blanket or mat you're going to use for this lesson.

Begin by bringing your attention to the position of your head above your spine.

Would you say that is placed in front of the spine,

On top of it,

Or slightly behind it?

Do you sense your head as if it was falling or floating?

Now shift your attention to the sensation of the jaw,

Your lower jaw especially.

Observe the space between your lower jaw and your upper jaw and the weight of your jaw as it hangs or doesn't from your skull.

Now please lie down on your back and make yourself comfortable.

Occupy the space in such a way that you can spread out without restrictions from the mat,

The rug underneath you,

Or the walls or furniture around you.

Take a couple of deep breaths and let the weight of your body surrender to the floor.

Observe the internal space inside your organ,

Cavity,

Your abdomen,

Your shoulders,

Your pelvis,

And also inside your mouth and eyes cavities.

Think of them as a space where the eyes can live inside your orbits and where the tongue can live inside your mouth.

What is your sensation of this internal space?

How big?

How dark?

Fluid or dry?

Now move your head a little bit to the right and to the left as if you wanted to see something interesting.

So you can maybe,

Keeping your eyes opened or closed,

Take the eyes in the direction of the right or the left and observe the movement of your head.

Return to the middle and see if you now can leave the eyes quiet as if they were just floating or being held in their sockets.

And now imagine that you can hear something on the right or on the left and let this be the initiation of the movement.

And observe how different it is for your head,

Your neck,

Your shoulders.

And a couple of times do these two very distinct movements.

Sometimes you open your eyes and you look to the right and to the left and then stop,

Reset and then close your eyes and imagine hearing a sound.

And sense your ability to truly imagine a sound or if it's something difficult and you have to work hard at imagining.

What would it be like to hear something?

But in any case,

See that there is a relationship between the eyes or the ears and the magnitude of the movement.

See if it's for you the case that you will tend to make a larger movement when you look and a smaller movement when you imagine hearing as the beginning of the turning of the head.

Now leave this and rest for a moment.

Bend your knees and place your feet on the floor,

Wherever you can hold the legs comfortably standing like this.

And now with your fingertips,

Hold the two sides of your lower jaw in such a way that your thumbs are under your chin and all the fingers are on both sides of each jaw.

Grab in very gently the jaw line so you can feel the bone of your jaw.

And first of all,

Bring your lower jaw up in such a way that it closes against the upper jaw creating no space between your teeth.

Push it up a little.

Observe the change of tone throughout your body.

Put your arms down for a moment but keep your jaw like this and see how familiar are you with this position.

If you were to remember yourself during the day at work or at home,

Is this a familiar position for you?

So you tend to hold your teeth like this.

Take a breath,

A deep breath and see how easy it is for you to breathe.

Now bring your arms towards the face again,

Elbows pointed towards your feet,

Your thumbs under your chin and the fingertips gently holding the lower jaw.

And now separate it a bit from the upper jaw just to create a little space between your teeth.

And bring the tongue down along with the jaw.

You can even use the tip of your tongue to push your jaw down a little bit as you move it gently with your fingertips.

Make sure that your arms are in a comfortable place,

Maybe resting on your chest or on the sides of your body so you don't have any extra effort on your arms as you use the hands to hold your jaw.

And now bring the jaw down in the direction of your feet a couple times and let it come up again but never so far up towards the top of your head that it locks with the other teeth.

So let's redefine this neutral place of resting for the jaw which is not clenched together with the upper jaw.

So you bring it down and then let it return to a neutral space where there's a little room between upper and lower teeth.

And see if you can do this in a simple way as you breathe.

Observe what are your eyes doing and your attention.

And see if you have the tendency to bring the jaw a little bit over the right side or the left.

Not so much exactly in the middle.

And overall,

If this is something easy for you to do or it creates a lot of tension.

And now please leave this and rest for a moment.

You can make your legs long,

Your arms long.

Take a full rest.

Now bring your legs up again,

Stand your feet.

Place them more or less shoulder width apart.

And now engage your feet with the floor so your pelvis moves a little bit in the direction of the head.

So you press or push through and tilt the pelvis so the space behind your lower back gets a little smaller.

And then let it return to whatever neutral is for you.

And do the movement again a few times.

And see if as you move your pelvis there is any movement on your head,

On your neck,

On your jaw.

Now next time you move your pelvis,

Let it travel all the way opposite in the direction of your feet.

So you will push through and make the lower back flat against the floor.

And then return to neutral and continue going towards your feet as if you were tilting the pelvis away from the floor.

Tilting the pelvis towards your pubic bone,

Creating a little bit of space behind your lower back.

You can imagine this movement as if you were traveling north and south with your pelvis.

Up towards your head and down towards your feet.

And see that you can do this from the change in pressure of your feet with the ground.

So it's a skeletal movement that invites your two legs to move the pelvis.

See how much pressure do you need to create a little space behind your lower back tilting your pelvis.

And to make that space very,

Very,

Very small,

Almost invisible.

So you adjust the amount of pressure to create this movement,

Noticing that you don't need a lot of effort to tilt your pelvis.

And again observe what happens through your spine and at the top of your head,

In your jaw,

In your eyes.

And please leave it and rest.

Now,

Bring your legs up again,

Stand your feet,

But keep the legs quiet for a moment.

Let your fingers grab your jaw again in the same way and look for more and more comfort of your arms as you hold your jaw with your fingertips,

Just the line of the lower jaw.

Thumbs under your chin more or less and the fingertips all along the two sides of your lower jaw.

And move it again away from the top of your head,

Away from your nose as if you were dropping it or taking it in the direction of your feet and then back to neutral.

And make sure that neutral is a little space between your teeth,

So neutral is not all the way up.

See if it's a little easier.

Now slowly begin to integrate the movement of the pelvis that you just did with this movement of the jaw.

Or the relationship that you may find easy between the pelvis tilting down and up in your jaw.

If you were drawing a line from north to south with your pelvis taking it in the direction of the north and in the direction of the south,

What would be more comfortable,

Easier for you to do with your jaw?

Be sure to explore the different choices.

So in one of these choices you may take the pelvis down towards your feet or towards the south as your jaw comes down and away from the eyes.

And then let the jaw return to neutral as your pelvis comes up and the space behind the lower back becomes very small,

Almost flat,

If not completely flat.

Another choice would be to take your pelvis down as the jaw comes up so they would be moving in opposite directions.

So in your own time you play with both choices and see what feels best.

Allow a moment for resting and lengthening your legs again whenever you feel it's time to rest.

So you cultivate listening for your own need to stop and know when is enough,

Enough movement,

Enough rest.

When you're ready for a little more movement,

Bend your knees again and stand your feet.

Keep your legs quiet,

Your pelvis quiet.

And this time as you hold your jaw again with your fingertips,

Look for an even softer touch where you can grab on the bone of the jaw but not dig into it,

Just barely,

Barely touch it.

And with this very light touch,

Separate the lower jaw away from the upper jaw and take your lower jaw a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right.

Your tongue inside your mouth can follow the movement of the jaw or just be passive,

Lying down,

Not really fixed in any position.

What is easier,

To take the jaw a little bit off to the left or a little to the right?

Make sure you continue breathing as you do this.

And to make the movement so small that nothing really clicks or comes out of place,

It's a very gentle,

Tiny movement that has a very big impact on your hearing,

On the alignment of your neck vertebrae,

Your shoulders.

It doesn't need to be big to have a big benefit.

So be sure to treat yourself with a lot of kindness.

Notice that it's easier to move your jaw left and right if there's enough space between the upper jaw and the lower jaw.

The closer together the teeth are,

The more difficult it becomes to move the lower jaw left and right.

And the more you are able to separate the lower jaw down to then take it left and right,

You can make a smaller movement that seems easier and feels more pleasurable.

Please stop and rest for a moment with your arms long.

Now shift your attention to your pelvis.

If your knees are still bent,

Begin pressing on the right foot.

If your legs are long,

Bend them,

Extend your feet,

And begin pressing on the right foot a little bit more into the ground or letting the ground come up and through you.

So the difference in pressure and contact with the floor will allow your pelvis to tilt a little bit to the left.

You're engaging the right foot with the floor,

Letting the force from the floor come through your leg into your pelvis,

Keeping your knee in the direction of the ceiling,

Not tilting the leg.

So your pelvis can move to the left and then return to neutral.

Now leave the right leg quiet and engage more of your left leg with the floor and take your pelvis to the right.

You're using the skeletal connection between your leg and the floor to take your pelvis to the right and make a little space between the left buttock and the floor,

Between the left hip joint and the floor,

Creating more contact on the right side of your buttock and your right hip joint.

Now place your fingers again on your jaw line,

Grab in a very gentle way,

Separate the lower jaw from the upper jaw,

And as you continue moving your pelvis,

Pressing with the left foot,

Take your jaw also to the right.

So you're pressing with the pelvis,

Pressing with your foot,

Left foot,

Taking your pelvis to the right and take also the jaw to the right.

And then a couple of times,

Continue pressing with the left foot,

But take the jaw to the left and feel the difference throughout yourself.

A couple of times,

Go in the opposite direction and then a couple of times go in the same direction.

Press with the left foot,

Take the jaw to the right.

So the pelvis and the jaw are both moving in the same direction.

And a few times,

Press with the right foot,

Engage more on the right foot with the floor and take the pelvis to the left and let the hands move the jaw also to the left.

It is easier for you to move the jaw and the pelvis to the right or to the left.

And please leave it,

Take a long rest.

Make the legs long again,

The arms long,

Breathe.

See what is changing in your contact with the floor,

The sense of space inside of you,

The length of your spine.

Now,

Bring your legs up again,

Stand your feet and alternate pressing with one foot,

Taking the pelvis in one direction and then with the other foot.

Go in your easy direction first.

Whatever foot feels clearer or you sense there's more movement or you just like it better,

Start going in that direction and then let the other foot also press on the floor.

So you alternate one and the other and make it so the easy side can teach the other side how to make it easier.

So you can maybe observe what do you do on the easy side,

What do you allow to happen on the easy side or what do you stop doing.

See if you notice a holding pattern anywhere or even your thought that is difficult for you or the side is tight or there's no flexibility here or there can be in the way.

So how can you make both sides more symmetric,

More even,

Equally enjoyable?

Sense the change throughout yourself as you tilt your pelvis,

What is rolling or invited to turn a little bit to find more contact with the floor all the way up your shoulders.

When you feel ready,

Grab your jaw again with your fingertips,

Light,

Light touch and let the jaw be part of the movement of the pelvis.

So again you start from the feet,

Let the legs tilt the pelvis left and right and you use your arms which can be resting on your chest or on the sides of your body to very very gently allow the jaw to also move in the same direction.

You can think of it as if you were dancing or moving underwater,

Kind of following some fluid movement.

So you pay attention to the quality,

The smoothness of the quality more so than the range or the speed.

The movement can be small,

Can be slow but you're looking for this flowing quality.

Think of seaweed underwater or if you see a willow tree,

Any image of fluid flowing undulating movement and let your pelvis and the jaw dance to this image.

Please breathe,

Let your eyes sink in their orbits and follow the wave of the movement.

And of course notice when you're ready for a little rest and give yourself time to do it,

Lengthen,

Sense the differences from the last time you were here.

Now one more time,

Bend your knees and stand your feet but keep your legs quiet for now.

Place both hands on the lower jaw and see how good you've become at grabbing it without digging in,

Just holding it lightly and then this time make a movement with the jaw but use your hands as a witness of the movement and the movement is going to be you are going to open your jaw lightly and then put it in front of the upper jaw,

Just slightly in front of the upper jaw without clicking or jerking or pulling too hard,

Just a small movement.

So you open it and bring it in front and then let it return,

Take a little break,

Do it maybe three or four times.

As you breathe and let your hands follow the movement of the jaw that you're creating and see if you can little by little stop the movement of the jaw and do it with your own hands.

What is this dance?

What is this alternating will that you are in control of?

When can you stop intentionally moving one part of yourself and moving another one?

How do you do that?

What is the relationship between your intention and your attention?

Could it be that the choice of where you put your attention can help you change the intention?

So play with this once you move your jaw and once you quiet the jaw and you move your hands and by the way you can do this also to the left and to the right or up or down.

It's a very interesting distinction to make.

Sometimes our choice is not only in what we do but in how we do it.

Where do we put our intention?

What do we do with our attention to change this?

How does the quality change when is your hands moving the jaw versus the jaw moving itself?

And leave it now.

Rest for a moment with your knees bent and as you rest imagine that you're going to move the jaw now all around in a circle.

So use your imagination,

Your mind's eye to imagine the direction and the plane on which this circle takes place.

So see that there are more than one way of doing this so see what is your favorite,

Your very first choice,

Most familiar.

Did you imagine the circle on the plane of your face as if it was in front of you or horizontal as if it was under your chin.

So now place the fingertips again on your lower jaw and then allow your jaw to move away from the upper jaw so down towards your feet and then a little bit to the right and then in front and then to the left and then back and do a circle in that direction counterclockwise including the four directions that you have explored so far down,

Right,

In front,

Left,

Back and be sure to breathe as you do this and to take a lot of rest.

Observe what your eyes are doing.

Observe what your legs want to do if there's an invitation to draw circles anywhere else and little by little as you take rests and continue moving in your own pace explore what could be the relationship between your pelvis and this movement of the jaw.

Search for the circular movement of the pelvis that can support the movement of the jaw and take it as a game not as a challenge see if you can create a little bit of that playfulness that you see in children sometimes when you invite them to play a game they haven't played before and the only rules here are that you take care of yourself,

You take a lot of rest,

That you continue breathing and that you take any possible mistake or failure as an opportunity to learn and have a different choice.

So if you find a way to move your pelvis around the circle but it's not really that pleasurable it doesn't feel that it's going with the jaw so well maybe you change something instead of getting frustrated by the difficulty.

You can change the direction,

You can change the speed.

Now the the joy is always going counterclockwise,

Always going down,

Right,

In front and to the left.

See when you need a full rest and a moment of quiet,

Take it.

See what is your rest like when you're completely relaxed and not moving at all.

See that it could also be an active rest where you're sensing and feeling and noticing differences.

So you're in a state of relaxation but it's also aware.

Now bend your legs one more time and allow the feet to engage with the floor in such a way that your pelvis goes in a clockwise circular direction.

So you can imagine the shape of a clock or you can think of this circle moving to the right and then begin to engage your feet so the pelvis moves in the same way to the right.

And it's going to go away from the floor at some point and then tilt to the right and then back and flat against the floor and then to the left.

So it moves around,

Around an imaginary circle to the right.

Your knees more or less pointed in the direction of the ceiling.

Your breath is fluid and uninterrupted.

Maybe you're noticing circles happening somewhere else in your body.

And once you've familiarized yourself with the circular movement of the pelvis,

Let your hands hold your jaw again and let the jaw also be part of this movement.

So you will find a way to move the lower jaw away from the top and then to the right and back and to the left and in front and to the right again.

Be gentle with yourself and make an even smaller movement with the jaw than you're doing with the pelvis.

And again,

If you find yourself conflicted or challenged,

Just take it as an opportunity to learn a new game,

To learn a new way of sensing and moving and feeling and thinking all at once.

You can play with your attention,

Moving it in different places and see that it affects the quality of the movement.

You're thinking of your knees making a circle or thinking of the back of your head.

Maybe it becomes a little easier than if you put your attention narrowly and tightly on the jaw or on the pelvis.

Play with this.

And always listen for that moment where you're done exploring when you had enough and you need a little rest and honor that.

See what's different when you do rest in your relationship with the floor and the space around you and also in the space inside of you.

Have the state of your musculature throughout yourself,

The tone or tonus of your face,

Your arms,

Your legs,

The lower back.

And now separate your teeth a little bit.

Let the jaw drop as if you were standing and then move it a little bit to the left and to the right and in front.

Your hands are no longer there,

But you already know the quality of this movement.

So you go gentle as if you were holding it still and moving it and see if it's a little easier for you now to do this in a small range and still feel the same quality.

And now bend your knees and let the pelvis participate in whatever it is you're doing with your jaw.

So free dance for a moment.

Take your jaw in one direction and let the pelvis follow it.

Maybe go in the opposite direction.

Refine this relationship until you find the most easy,

Graceful and pleasurable for yourself,

Whatever you like the best.

Then leave the head quiet and leave the pelvis quiet for a moment and imagine that you hear something on the right and let your head turn.

And imagine hearing or listening to a sound on the left and let your head turn and see how much has this movement changed from the beginning of this session today.

How much more can you sense throughout yourself?

Is your pelvis invited to participate somehow?

And now come back to the middle and just look to the right and look to the left with your eyes and just see that your eyes are now following a different pathway and maybe they're moving at a different speed.

So your eyes and your ears and your jaw have become more in tune with one another.

And see that your pelvis wants also to participate.

Now choose which is the easiest direction where you would like to move to if I invite you to now roll and come to sit.

And choose that one,

The easiest,

The one that feels more available.

So slowly roll to that side and gently come to sit and stay seated on the floor for a moment and observe the position of your head on top of your spine.

If you can remember what it was like at the beginning,

If your head felt in front of the spine or behind it or if it felt falling,

See where is it now.

And then notice the space between your teeth and the position of your jaw and see where is neutral.

Where is more comfortable for you now to hold your jaw.

And then purposely bring the lower jaw together towards the upper jaw and clench your teeth creating no space between the molars as if you were chewing on something.

And sense the change throughout your spine,

In your breath,

In your eyes,

In your hearing.

And then let it return to this new neutral again,

A little bit of space between the teeth,

A little hanging as if gravity could really let the jaw take a new place in space.

And sense if it makes any difference in your hearing,

The quality of your breath,

Your neck,

Even the movement of your eyes.

When is it easier to smile?

When your jaw is here or when your jaw is up and tight clenched against the upper jaw?

If you were to draw a big,

Big smile between the left ear and the right ear.

When is it easier to kiss?

Blow a kiss or make your lips come together in the front?

Where is it easier to see?

If you open your eyes,

Clench your teeth,

Find the little neutral with your teeth a little bit spread apart.

So now go ahead and practice this throughout the day today and have fun with it.

Reviews

SO helpful! Suffering months after dental work and this was a great start to restoring natural jaw mobility. Thanks so much. Many repetitions of the class in my future 🙏

A beautiful and effective way to release my jaw tension, improving my ear pain!

This was so interesting and enjoyable to do will definitely practice this again Thankyou so much 😊🙏

I can see and hear better. And my head is floating otop my neck and the upper back feels more spacious. Wow! And thank you!

Interesting. About half way through I started yawning deeply and my eyes began to water which was very nice because they tend to be a bit dry. My jaw, neck and shoulders along with my hips felt looser, more relaxed. I do hold a lot of tension in these areas so this was like a little vacation for those areas. Thank you.
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Very grateful with your classes, I've been doing them daily and my life is shifting tremendously. For me this is better than meditation. I feel so much softer. Thank you!

This is very interesting… I feel like I have space inbetween every cell of my being. A heavy calmness in my lower body, moving up through my spine & a sweet softness resting over my face. Definitely a practice I will come back to ~ thank you 🤲🏼🍁

I'm very grateful for this lesson. My nervous system feels very smooth and my jaw is more relaxed. Thanks so much
🙏❤️🤗

Released a lot of tension in the jaw which then allowed resistance to a difficult situation to soften , awareness of the body mind relationship is profound , thank you

I noticed a definite difference in how my body aligned before and after this exercise. As someone who holds her jaw tightly, I appreciate the feeling of relaxation in my jaw after completing this session.