Hi,
I'm Jeremy.
I work in brain and spine surgery.
And this morning,
We're going to map out some of the sensory and motor muscles of the face.
You can begin seated comfortably.
And you might raise both hands and bring your fingertips on each side to the space right in front of your ear canals.
This is called your temporal mandibular joints.
Gently open your mouth a fraction of an inch.
Feeling the slight movement between your fingers.
And now close it back to rest position without letting your upper and lower teeth touch.
Notice there's a sensory connection happening here between your hands and your jaw.
Your hands are feeling your face,
Your face feeling your hands.
And that information is going directly to a spot of your brain called the sensory motor cortex.
Motor information coming moving.
Sensory information going back to the brain.
Now you might slide your fingertips slowly down past your cheekbones into the thick muscle along your jaw.
This is called the masseter.
Press very softly.
We're not trying to change what you feel.
We're just observing what's here.
It's the heat.
It's their tightness.
What's the density?
Is there a sense of holding?
Simply noticing these sensations without judgment.
You are helping the brain update its internal map of this muscle.
Or separating pure awareness from habitual tension.
And as you're noticing,
You might try a controlled contraction and release.
Be conscious.
You can gently squeeze your jaw together using only maybe about 10% of your strength.
This is a micro-clinch.
Just barely.
Just hold it for a few seconds and let it go.
I'm just trying to feel that immediate wave of sensory feedback as the muscle fiber sees firing.
Notice how soft the cheek muscles become when they aren't working.
Another muscle how he's working is our tongue.
See if you can drop your hands gently down in your lap,
Letting them rest naturally.
And let your lower jaw hang loose and heavy under the influence of gravity.
Your mouth might be opening here.
Might be closed.
You can let your jaw open with your mouth closed.
Now allow your tongue to drop completely off the roof of your mouth,
Lying broad,
Soft,
And heavy on the floor of your mouth.
And take a few breaths here,
Easy and natural.
I'm sensing them coming into the body.
Coming in through the nose if possible.
Sensing the air,
Maybe temperature changes in the back of the throat.
Sensing into any sensations in our ribcage and our diaphragm as the air moves down.
And letting our exhale of that breath extend just a little longer.
Unhurried.
Sending those signals to the vagus nerve of safety.
You can repeat this a few times on your own at your own pace.
There is no right way to do this.
And as you complete your next breath,
Start coming back into your body as a whole,
Sensing the borders.
Maybe sensing any pressure beneath you.
Start sensing into the room and light.
These sounds.
Now that you've just put in some information into your brain,
Some sensory and motor information,
And some small experiments to try throughout the day.
And you can sense them to your jaw at any time.
And just see.
What's the effort here?
Is there any ease,
Maybe by 2%?
Just notice.
If you found this helpful,
Bookmark it for later.
And check out my other tracks on Insight Timer,
Making neuroscience practical for your everyday life.
