Welcome to day three of the semantics challenge here on Insight Timer.
This is an invitation to step out of your head and reconnect with your body.
Through simple practices,
You'll learn to feel,
Release,
And ease tension.
Let's jump into today's session.
Hi,
And welcome back to the 7 Day Somatics Challenge.
My name is Paige,
And today we turn our attention to your face.
It's one of the busiest regions of the body,
Where we're constantly taking in information and responding to the world.
Monitoring what's happening around us,
And expressing what's happening inside us.
It can be one of the first places stress shows up,
A clenched jaw,
A gripped tongue,
Tight brow.
And it can be one of the last places we think to check and to soften.
I'll guide you through small,
Targeted releases in your face,
Jaw,
Neck,
And shoulders,
So you can explore how,
When your face relaxes,
It's possible for the rest of your body to follow.
Let's start in any comfortable seat.
And it might feel nice to inhale together.
And release the gentle.
Sigh of an exhale.
Start by rubbing your palms together,
Creating a little bit of friction.
A little bit of warmth.
And then gently cover your eyes with your palms.
Gentle pressure on the circular bones around your eyes.
Let your squinting muscles soften and spread.
Let your eyeballs themselves pull and rest toward the backs of their sockets.
Notice how it feels for your eyes to rest.
With your hands in place here,
You can spread your fingers three times across your brow line.
Might begin right in the center of your eyebrows and let your fingers again just gentle pressure smooth across your eyebrows your lower brow line Maybe all the way out to the edges of your temples,
A little bit of pressure there.
And then move your fingers up to the center of your forehead and smooth them out,
Spreading as they go all the way across the center of your brow line out to the edges of your hairline.
And then move your fingers up one more time right to the top of your forehead,
Spread all the way across the top of your brow line out.
To the edges of your forehead.
And then you can relax your hands.
And imagine your whole brow.
Widening.
Lines of tension smoothing out.
Whole forehead broadening out to your temples and your hairline.
From here in your mind's eye,
Trace your attention from your temples,
Over your cheekbones.
Down to the hinge of your jaw.
Let your lower jaw drop away from your upper jaw.
Let your tongue rest away from the roof of your mouth.
Do some gentle half neck rolls.
Begin by bowing your chin down toward your chest.
Roll your right ear toward your right shoulder.
Simply pause there.
You could tip your chin up.
You might rock through your jaw a bit,
Gliding it forward and back or back and forth.
And then roll your chin back down towards your chest,
Left ear toward your left shoulder.
You could tip your chin up.
Might rock through your jaw,
Just gliding around through that joint.
One more time each side.
Bow your chin back down.
Gently roll your right ear towards your right shoulder.
Smooth and glide and rock through your jaw.
Maybe tip your chin up.
Bow your chin back down to your chest,
Left ear.
Left shoulder,
Rock through your jaw,
Glide it around.
Once more,
Bow your chin toward your chest.
As you float your gaze forward again.
Let's swivel the gaze and the head all the way to the right as if you're gazing over your right shoulder,
Just a slow swivel of your whole head and back through center.
Let your head swivel the other direction,
Gazing over your left shoulder.
Back through center again one more time each side just a slow swivel the whole globe of your head gently swiveling through and to the other side And as you make your way back through center again.
Notice all along your jawline.
The hinge of your jaw.
Maybe even the base of your skull.
Gently open your mouth wide and stretch through your whole face as if you were going to yawn.
You might in fact actually yawn,
Opening wide.
And then release that stretch,
Let your whole face soften.
We'll do that twice more.
Open your mouth wide,
Stretch through your face as if you're going to yawn.
You might even yawn.
And then relax that whole stretch.
One more time,
Mouth stretching open wide,
Whole face responding.
You might let out a big yawn.
And then relax all of that stretch and effort.
Feel what you feel in your face.
And finally,
On purpose,
Hunch your shoulders way up to your ears.
Clench and squeeze and grip as your shoulders move way up to your ears.
And then release them with a gentle ha sound.
Just let your shoulders drop.
Do that twice more as you inhale shrug,
Clench,
Squeeze your shoulders,
Any surface tension squeezing way up to your ear lobes.
And gentle ha sound as you drop your shoulders down.
And one more like that.
Shrug your shoulders way up to your ears,
Clench and squeeze any tension.
And a ha sound as you drop your shoulders down and let them rest.
Notice the drop of your shoulders.
Space around your shoulders and your neck.
Let yourself swallow.
Feel your tongue heavy and wide.
Spreading and resting.
Filling the space in the floor of your mouth.
Let your teeth gently part.
Let your hands rest.
Your palms might be upturned,
Soft,
Unclenched,
Open.
Take a moment to notice the quality of your face right now.
Your eyes.
Brow.
Your jaw and mouth.
Extend your awareness into your neck.
Your throat,
Chest.
And your shoulders.
When your face lets go,
Even a little,
It's possible.
For the whole body to follow.
Stress perhaps has a little less to grip onto.
As this short practice comes to a close,
You might notice if there was a part of you that was clenching,
Maybe even unconsciously,
Until you invited it to release.
Feel free to share what came up with the community in the forum.
Tomorrow's practice moves into a different kind of release entirely,
One that works through movement and shaking.
Thanks so much,
And good luck with the rest of the challenge.
