Class #3463

Release Facial Tension

25 min - Class
112 likes

Description

Welcome to Day 10! Today Niedra works on releasing tension in your face. Our feelings and stress can get locked up in different parts of our face, and it feels wonderful to let this go. You will give your skull space so that your face will feel lifted and open.
What You'll Need: Yoga Tune UpĀ® Balls

About This Video

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Welcome today, Ken. This is his favorite, favorite body of work for me because we're dealing with the face and we build up so much tension in the face. You may even look like you've had a face lift after you've done this. Today I'm working with a smaller ball. This is a yoga tuna bow. If you use a smaller volume, want something soft, you can actually walk with work with the bigger balls or just a little bit harder to catch the bony landmarks. When you're doing the work. I highly, highly recommend being on your back with your head comfortable on a pillow so you can really relax as you put the pressure on your bones of the face and the skull. For the sake of this video, I'm sitting upright so you can see what I'm doing.

Before you start, I want you to pause the camera or pause this video and please go and look at your face in the mirror because you're going to look totally different at the end. That's a test and the retest and the other thing will be just notice. Do you have tension in your face? Do you have tension between the eyebrows in your temples? Are Your cheekbones tight? Is your jaw tight?

Those are things that you can test that you can feel because we're going to be addressing all of that. So to start, we start with this, um, forehead bone, right? With a rigid, the nose, um, connects in with the forehead bone, there's a little indentation and then you can feel the rise of that bone. So you want to take your ball and press right into that Ridge and then feel like you're hooking the bone and pushing it up and put, you want quite a bit of pressure into it. I'm actually forcing in and the feeling is like you're lifting the, you're literally lifting your forehead bone up away from the ridge of the eyes and the eye socket. So I'm putting and waiting. When you're doing this for yourself, there's almost this moment where your body goes, ah, and it relaxes. When you get acupuncture, they're often put a needle in there because it's a central point that you want to dissipate tension from. So once you've had that pressure for a little bit, I'm rolling the ball halfway up the eyebrow. And again, same thing. I'm putting pressure into the bone and I'm lifting it.

So the intention of the pressures to directional softening the bone, when you put pressure like that into bones, it's very therapeutic for them. It stimulates them and it softened them. The bone can get a little hard and tight and this softens them. Then rolling all the way up, right to where the hairline is. Again, pressing in and lifting, holding for a minute, waiting for that sense of relaxation and releasing even this. Just take a moment to see how you feel. You may feel much calmer, much more relaxed.

Next point is right on the inside of the eye socket where your eyebrow starts. So if you find your eyebrow and you go right underneath, you can feel the bony structure of your own socket. You take your ball, you hook right into that socket and you lift it up. I'm pushing up with the ball to lift the ice socket away from the eyeball and make space. This point can be quite painful. So again you just press into it and you wait to feel that point where the body goes. Ah, and it lets go cause all of this is caused by personality characteristics, how we use the facial muscles, what our feelings are. They all get locked in in a bit hard and tight and it's wonderful to let them go. Roll up halfway up your forehead. Same thing, pressure in and pressure up, waiting for release, rolling all the way up and going out.

[inaudible] right in the center of the eyebrow to have the three points that we're addressing. Center the eyebrow hooking right underneath the socket, pushing in and finding the socket with the bow and lifting. So I'm pressing up, I'm lifting that eye socket off the eyeball. It opens up your whole eye and gives it space. I can feel a certain amount of almost like a headache feeling at the beginning as it starting to shift the pressure. Now I just felt that pressure release so you get all sorts of fun experiences as you're letting go of all this tension. You subconsciously hold in your face, roll halfway up, pushing in, lifting and then rolling all the way up, pushing in, lifting up, waiting for that moment of release and letting go.

Finding the outside corner of the eye. So we have this full socket all, all the way around, right where the eyebrow ends. I'm hooking in carefully feeling where the bony structure is. Angling the ball in a diagonal intuit and lifting up pressure into the bone and lifting it up. Making space for the whole socket time. More openness. This time I'm angling a little bit out in a diagonal, so pressing into the bone whining.

There's a sense of opening and widening the forehead. Rolling all the way up to the corner of the eye, not the corner area. What am I saying here? Light and releasing and going to the temple. There is a bony structure where the forehead comes down and connects up with the cheekbone. You can feel that slight indentation there. So I'm just finding where's that little valley and gently pressing in and then pushing up. So again, what am I doing?

I'm lifting the forehead bone away from the cheekbone. I think they're called suitors, where the bones kind of knit together and they are supposed to be loose enough to be able to breathe and shift again. Life and fixed patterns. I can create a form of stickiness to the bone so they don't move and breathe as much as they can and I can feel reliefs intention. Now I release the tension, find the gully again and push down ton.

I've caught the cheekbone area and I'm sinking it down, pulling it away from the forehead and releasing. So maybe my right eye looks more open than my left eye right now. I feel like that. Guess what? We're going to do the left side. So again, that corner area right with a socket, it, it begins right under the corner of the eye. Inner corner eyebrow lifting up, putting pressure into it, opening up. A lot of tension can be found in locked up right in this area. So just be aware if it hurts, it gives you a sense of a headache.

You have a lot of blocked energy there. It should dissipate. Yeah. Roll halfway up that forehead pressure into the bone. Lift the bone up so you're going in and up. The intention is to lift the whole forehead bone away from the eye socket.

Hold it until you feel that moment where the body, lets go. This sound almost of the inner ahh. Okay. Roll all the way up to the hear line. Pressure in and up, holding it and let him go. Then you go to the middle of the eyebrow. You have this line. It's right in the center of the eye. You find with a socket years, you get the ball hooked right underneath the bone of the socket and you press it in up. It's a funny feeling.

It's like you're hooking the bone and elevating it to opening it up. Hold, breathe, relax. If you're lying down, you should be totally relaxed anywhere, but maybe your arm is working. Yeah, it's a roll the ball halfway up the forehead. The pressure is in and up and then roll all the way up to the hairline in and up. Then finding the outer corner of the eye socket, angling right down from your eyebrow. You find your socket, you feel for the bony structure, you push into the bony structure and you lift it up.

You're lifting the whole socket up away and widening it so there's more room for the eyeball. Can we all squint with Scotia eyes? We have emotions through the eyes. We read a lot. We look at computers. All this area builds a huge amount of tension. We frown, we laugh. So we look [inaudible] into all of these patterns as we do this work. Roll the ball on a diagonal, diagonal.

You're going out now, pressure into the skull, lifting, waiting for that moment of release, and then all the way out to the corner of the hairline, pressing in, really sing out, going to the temple. Lie Right from the corner of your eye to the side where the hairline starts, you feel and find that Galley area where the two bones are connecting in together. You gently press into the Gali and then deepen the intensity of the pressure up. So you're hooking into the bottom of your forehead bone on the side, and you're lifting it away from the cheekbone. It's a funny feeling.

You're going underneath and l e elongating and lifting something up, you could actually feel it very easily. So just wait for that pressure to dissipate and then soften up into the golly again and then gently start finding the cheekbone where it connects and it starts to swell out. Hook that and pull down. Again, crows feet, all the tension and squinting on the side here. This is working that tension in opposition. Very interestingly enough, what you're doing is you're actually taking the bone structures which can get jammed and you're opening them up against the can breathe and respond in a more natural way. You're giving your skull a break, not a break, but space so that all the bones of the skull can breathe properly, which they are supposed to do when we breathe and then relax and just take a moment and see how you feel. You probably feel wider, more open. The eyes can be, have more of a sparkle because you've given everything space.

The next part is the bottom of the ice socket. It's basically the top of the cheekbone area. So if you took your fingers and you felt for your own socket and this bony structure, you just want to find it first of all right here with the nose connects in, there's a golly, the kind of the inside of the eye socket at the bottom. See if you can take your ball and hook right into that bony structure and pull it away from your nose. So you're taking this whole plane and pulling it sideways.

This can have a profound effect if you have a deviated septum or you have trouble breathing because your sinuses can get clogged up, you are actually manually opening up your sinuses. And for some people this is life changing because they were told they needed surgery and all they needed was a ball to pull it open. But it's can be quite profound and I'm sure all of you will feel just an opening and widening and an eat more ease and breathing. So you want that pressure in and out now and rolling the ball to the middle of the cheekbone area underneath the eye. Sometimes very painful because we smile a lot.

So we hope we build up a lot of tension in that tissue. So you push in and widen. Now the intensity is out away from the nose to widen and open up the face again, rolling out towards the outside of the cheek area right below the socket or maybe a little bit further out. Again, pressing in, pulling out, and then I'm rolling the ball all the way out towards my ear. It's like I'm just massaging all the way to the top of the ear and out starting on the left side. Same the thing. I'm hooking the ball into the inside of my cheekbone and pulling it away from my nose. So it's like rock.

Be aggressive if you have courage to do it because you can actually feel the bone shift and Paul, you and your own body, you can know what it feels like. But I sometimes find people with too gentle with this work and when I came and show them how to use the ball, they were like, oh my God, there's so much more I can do. It's wonderful because we are so elastic in actuality and our bones do move and this brings us back to something natural and healthy. Roll to the middle of the cheek. Press in widen you perhaps. Bye. Now can feel the sinus opening up in that area and maybe e more ease in your breathing. Roll to the outer part of the cheekbone, pressing in and widening and just wait. Each one of these points, you wait. After you've done this a few times, you get to feel exactly where your tension is in your own body and you can kind of, you, you run your own body, you treat yourself all the way out to the corner of the ear and just enjoy the feeling.

Now we're going to travel along the lower part of our cheekbone. So if you find your nostril, there's usually an indentation before the muscles of the chicks start. And if feel in there, you can feel the bone that is the lower cheek bone. And if you sink your hands in more deeply, you can feel your jaw, the gums and the teeth underneath there. So we want to travel along that line so lower right where the nostrils start or ends I should say, find that connection into the tig bone.

Press in and why now so you're widening the nostrils, the opening up that part of the face, wait for it to release, roll a little bit further out, pressing in and widening. A lot of tension can build up around this part. It has to do a lot with breathing. Again, we're right close to the mouth. We all talk a lot. We have a lot to say. We have a lot of expression and emotion and all of this can become very fixed because we all have our own unique way of expressing ourselves and it can solidify into our facial features and we do all sorts of crazy things in order to change ourselves, roll out further. We use makeup, we try to hide who we are and we try to stretch who we are.

Sometimes it's real fun to just relax into who we really are. As we open up and release all these tension points further out. Now right here, you're close to where the jar comes together. So this scenario, we clench a lot. It may be quite painful, maybe up TMJ, maybe you grind your teeth, you just want to put pressure into this area and wait, there's a point of body goes, ah, okay, it's not dangerous to let go. It's really safe. And then you roll out to the corner of the ear, the lower corner, enjoy the feeling. So going onto the left side, hooking right with a nostril is catching the lower part of the cheek, pulling it out, waiting for that release.

Now a lot of us have had injury or abuse in our face that we may not even be aware of, just waiting. Now I'm coming to the middle. But most people have had dental work. And so there's been a lot of an ascetic pulling teeth out, implants or various kinds of that trauma to the mouth and it gets locked into the whole structure of the face. So as you do this work, you may find that one side of the face feels really, really different from the other. And so just be respectful and honor your life and all the things that you've gone through, rolling out a little bit further and search out those areas that is stuck energy because really you can heal so much with this work and bring yourself back to state where you're pain free and a lot of that stored memory has been discharged, or at least you're taking care of that part. It doesn't decay further.

It's really amazing and beautiful that you can do this with a ball roll all the way out to the corner of the ear and just take a moment to feel what your face should feel like. Right now we're going to be dealing with the lips now, so we talk, we have ways of expressing an empathy that m m for sizing words just like I did and we can hold our mouth in certain ways. We smile too. There's a lot of tension that builds up in here, so this looks funny, but it's wonderful to plump up the lips, relax all this facial part of your body and hopefully you'll feel a whole lot more beautiful afterwards. So I'm hooking the corner of my t, my lips and pulling them out. So I'm stretching the tissue of my lips. Now with my other finger, I'm grabbing the other side and stretching it apart. I literally feel the stretch of the whole band around my mouth and I fall apart and wait for my mouth to relax.

Sorry, I'm pulling, stretching, releasing. Definitely my favorite picture to put on Instagram and then rolling all the way out. So, and little inner joke here. I love how beautiful everybody looks in the moments of not so beautiful, never get posted. So before I start on the left side, I also wanted to mention the other hand pulling with very subtle adjustments of your finger. You can feel if you're stretching the upper lip or the lower lip, there is a band of circular muscle that our lips are made up of. And again, it's a muscle and it's deeply connected to emotion and communication. So it will have pockets. So I usually have to adjust my finger very slightly.

So I get both my upper lip and my lower lip elongated and opened up. So here we go. Left cheek, left, left, left lips pulling out and pulling the other sides. I'm stretching, I lifts. And if I wasn't talking, my focus would be unrealistic. The mouth as much as I can. So I let the traction open and all of those deep adhesions just let go. Or here I am and when I feel the body relaxed, you roll the ball all the way out, all the way out.

You roll right through the crease between the upper and lower jaw to the ear and let go. So we all clench our jars, we tighten, we hold our in certain ways. We keep our mouth closed so the jaw is usually clamped up. And now we're going to work to release this whole lower part. So you catch this little little knobbly area that your Chin Hook in and pull down. You can even open your mouth a little bit and see if you can relax a jar to kind of like Ah, sags of it and you can feel the tissue dragging down into the gums.

Roll a little bit out, pulling down. And as you do this work, you may feel scar tissue or tension in the gum area where maybe you've had surgery of sorts. Roll further out, pulling down, lengthening, allowing the jaw to relax in the tissue to relax all the way out to the corner of the jaw, right with the bone. Makes that 90 degree angle more or less, pulling it down. Great place to relax the jaw and that it sag. Going to the other side again, hooking the middle of the jar, letting your mouth and lips be open. As relaxed as you can be, and slowly rolling across the job. That bony structure at the bottom, pulling the tissue down, softening into the bone, little bit further.

Going right out to the corner for a minute, making sure you're not resisting with your jaw, letting the pressure open and drop the jaw down. Relax the tongue and then relax. And just before we completely are done revisiting this point, which is an amazing point for tension release. Hooking underneath your knee, underneath the eyebrow, not ibom, sorry, forehead bone on the ridge, pushing in and lifting up. One last time. Amazing place to release tension, release stress, relax yourselves. I sometimes just do this when I find them really tight and tense and then you're done. And guess what? I want you to pause the video.

Go look at yourself in the mirror right now. So do you look different? I hope you do. Usually people are kind of like, is that me? How do you feel? I think you may feel a whole lot more relaxed and more beautiful and hopefully the authentic self that you are is shining through. Sometimes we can get so stuck in the stress of life. You Go, I don't feel like myself anymore because your face is holding memories of stuff that happened yesterday, but now is now today's today.

You don't have to walk around with all of this. I hope you really, really enjoy this work. Thank you very much.

Unravel Your Body Challenge: with Niedra Gabriel

Restorative, Legs, Stretching, Release

Sep 17, 2018
Thumbnail image
Inner Thighs & Quads
Niedra Gabriel
Beginner
20 min
The Pilates Guild
Mat
Side Body, Opening, Release, Length

Sep 17, 2018
Thumbnail image
Side Body
Niedra Gabriel
Beginner
20 min
The Pilates Guild
Mat
This Video
Face, Release, Open, Relax

Sep 17, 2018
Thumbnail image
Release Facial Tension
Niedra Gabriel
Beginner
25 min
The Pilates Guild
No Apparatus

Comments

2 people like this.
This is the Yamuna Body Rolling Work. but you're cute Niedra.
Lori
3 people like this.
This whole series was wonderful and I have put it in my playlist. Thank you so very much for showing me new ways to release tension. I have benefitted greatly from your teaching once again!
1 person likes this.
I felt significant opening by my deviated septum. I will continue this practice to further release tension and improve the breathing. Thank you. By the way, I have the Yamuna facial video and prefer your technique which I found beneficial, quicker, and easier to follow.
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Roxana Lori and Diane for your comments. I am always thrilled to read that this work ( inspired by many sources - including Yamuna, ) have and continue to benefit my own life. I am always thrilled to know that you are all discovering that you can help yourself in this manner
2 people like this.
I DID really really enjoy this work, the whole challenge, Niedra! Thank you so much for sharing all those precious release tricks of yours :)))
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Anne P. , for your comment. So glad you enjoyed the challenge and found it helpful. Keep up the good work.
1 person likes this.
What a great finale! It was quite painful around the jaw where I had had my wisdom teeth removed (many years ago, but still in the muscle memory it seems). I will definitely do this regularly to help release that area. What an awakening for the face. Thank you!
Niedra Gabriel
Great Caroline B , yes faces hold tension and I am thrilled to read how much more awake your face felt ( I LOVE the face work.)
1 person likes this.
Felt my breathing change completely Niedra, and will be using those eye socket pressure points more often as the initial pain surprised me. The release was a relief!
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Monica for your post. Yes, we hold so much unknown tension in our faces. it is often a surprise to discover how tense and locked up we are. Glad you experienced relief.
1-10 of 45

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin