Hello,
Beautiful people.
Emily here.
It's great to be with all of you again.
Today I'm going to share a few simple somatic tools that you can use to help release tension from your jaw.
The jaw is an area that is involved in our fight response and it's also involved in our social engagement system and how we connect with other people.
And it's an area where it's really common to have chronic tension.
That can often show up in the form of that feeling of just needing to bite down or clench your teeth,
Or if you have a clenching or grinding problem when you're sleeping,
This is another example of how that tension in the jaw gets bound up there and is just trying to find a way of expression and a way out.
So today I'm going to offer a couple options as far as ways that you can help your jaw to relax and help soothe and release some of that energy.
So I first invite you to find a comfortable seated position.
Anywhere will do.
And just sit up a little bit taller so your head is in line with your spine.
Your shoulders are.
Relaxing down your back.
And sometimes the shoulders aren't relaxing down the back.
First,
Let's start just releasing some of that shoulder tension,
Drawing your shoulders up towards your ears.
Shrugging.
And then slowly releasing and relaxing the shoulders down and away.
And let's do that two more times,
Just lifting the shoulders,
Going into the tension a little bit more.
And then relaxing them down,
Maybe wiggling them down a little bit.
Drawing them down away from the ears.
And one more time,
Drawing shoulders up.
And with a nice exhale,
Let's release the shoulders down and let your arms feel that weight of gravity drawing them down.
Your arms might just be resting on the arms of the chair or your hands can be in your lap.
So we'll move through a couple different tools today for relaxing the jaw.
And the first one is actually to soften and relax your tongue.
Tongue can move.
Also hold a lot of tension and sometimes be really tight or tense and braced up against the roof of the mouth or even kind of sucked inward.
This is sending signals all the way through the body all the way down to the pelvic floor to tell your body to brace and to tell your body to keep keep something braced and engaged.
So first,
Let's just work with that.
Go ahead and bring more tension into your tongue in any way that makes sense to you,
Just tightening your tongue up.
And then the opposite,
Soften and relax your tongue as much as you can,
Just letting it lull in your mouth.
And let's do that again two more times,
Tightening the tongue in any way that makes sense to you.
For me,
It's kind of engaging my tongue muscle,
Maybe pressing it up against the roof of my mouth.
And then with an exhale,
Release the tongue,
Soften the jaw.
Let the tongue just hang heavy in your mouth.
And notice what happens all the way down as you do this one more time,
Tightening up the tongue.
And softening,
Releasing the tongue.
The tongue and the pelvic floor are connected and the pelvic floor is really involved in our breathing.
So when we relax our tongue,
We start to send the signal all the way down,
And it can help relieve pressure and tension all the way down through the pelvic floor,
Actually helping us to breathe more easily and more fully.
So that's tool number one,
Super simple.
I love to use it all the time,
Just a little reminder to myself,
Just relax your tongue.
Usually there's an exhale that goes along with that and some settling in the body.
So the next tool I'm going to offer is a little bit of micro movement using the jaw.
We're going to be gently opening and closing the mouth,
But neither one to the point of strain.
So we're not stretching the mouth open that wide and we're not clenching it down.
Just let your jaw find kind of a relaxed position so the teeth are slightly apart.
Your tongue relaxing in your mouth.
And then you'll slowly just start to make these tiny little movements,
Opening the mouth little by little.
And closing the mouth little by little.
Keep breathing,
Just exploring really slowly,
Really gently.
As you do this movement,
You might find there are other little movements or impulses that want to happen in the jaw.
Maybe you want to make some faces.
Or bare the teeth or open a little bit wider.
So just see if you can give your jaw a mind of its own here,
Keeping it nice and slow so you don't hurt yourself.
And so you can feel what's happening as a result of these movements.
When you feel complete with that,
Just let yourself rest.
Again,
Just checking in with yourself,
With your body and mind.
Seeing how that feels,
How that felt for you.
Allowing some of those stored impulses maybe to just move through the jaw with a little gentle movement.
And the final tool I'm going to offer today for your jaw release is a jaw release exercise using the hands on the face.
So I invite you to bring your fingertips just below your cheekbones.
And then you might.
Press in a little bit,
Kind of feeling for that jaw muscle.
Big muscle really close to the joint of your jaw.
I'm just feeling it a little bit with your fingers,
Noticing does it feel hard and tense?
Does it feel loose and supple?
Letting go of any judgment,
But just noticing how it is to feel that.
And then again,
Softening your tongue and jaw,
Letting your teeth come slightly apart.
Fingertips below the cheekbones.
I'm going to gently start to draw the fingertips down toward the jawline.
You can apply as much pressure as you'd like here.
When you get to the jawline,
Start to draw your fingertips forward toward the chin.
And letting them release.
Off the chin.
And we'll do that.
A few more times,
I won't talk through this one so you can see what it looks like just with the jaw relaxing.
Whenever you're ready,
Just releasing your hands down again,
Closing your eyes if you'd like,
Or just softening your gaze.
Keeping your tongue soft in your mouth,
Take a moment or two here just to notice any effects of these exercises on your nervous system.
For me,
I feel always a bit more settled after I release my jaw.
I find that my breath.
Flows more fully.
Even my voice feels like it got a little bit deeper after doing those exercises to soften and release the jaw.
So I hope you found this video helpful.
Feel free to do any of these tools at any time.
You don't have to string them together.
You can just pick your favorite and play with that throughout the day to help your jaw feel a little bit better.
All right,
Thank you all for joining in.
Until next time.
