Sunday, 22 January 2023

LOOSENING UP TIGHT JAWS AND RELEASING STRESS

This is the focus for our group session this week - Thursday 26th January, 9 to 9.30pm UK time. 

Tightening up our jaws is one of our involuntary reactions to stress - it may be a kind of protective device, tightening up the cranium to protect the brain in dangerous situations. (The masseter muscles can load up your jaw with anything up to 200lbs). It's not a good long term strategy though... along with tight neck and shoulders, it leads to strain and restriction in several key areas, the cranial base/atlas, vagus nerves, jugular veins, TMJ's...



CRANIAL TMJ RELEASE (temperomandibular joint)
There is a craniosacral technique which helps to release tension in these delicate joints so we'll start with that and see where it leads.


OTHER THINGS YOU CAN DO
  • I had to make a conscious effort to relax my jaw, which used to get really tight when I was driving, it took a while...
  • Moistening your mouth with saliva can be helpful, it switches on the parasympathetic (rest and digest) part of the nervous system.
  • Just taking time to focus on relaxing, like joining in with these sessions...

STRESS
Beyond that, how does anyone cope with this crazy world? Learning Tai Chi helped me a lot and learning to find NEUTRAL. I've posted up loads about this before, here's a link to a search on my Facebook cranial page. There's tons! One day I'll condense it all into a fifteen volume master work on avoiding stress - if reading that doesn't put you into a deep, deep stress free state, a bit like sleep, nothing will... 

No comments:

Post a Comment