People have different ways of dealing with conflict. They may live in the moment, allowing words to tumble out uncensored, full of the raw emotion they feel. No thought for the feelings of others or the consequences of those sentences. Others may seek for common ground, finding compromise and negotiation, the only way to move forward. Some will use violence and misappropriate percieved power. And for some, their response is to do nothing. To suck up the opposing view, store it away for later, and not deal with the conflict at hand. Be it large or small. This can lead to tension in the head, face and neck or to stress and anxiety.
Have you ever wondered what happens to energy, to emotion when it isn’t expressed at all? Like all energy, it can never be destroyed, simply converted into another form. When we fail to communicate in such situations, we might say we are “gritting our teeth”. Holding back words for another time. So this energy, often negative and frustrated, is squeezed between our teeth, locked into our jaw and neck, and is held.
When I massage people’s necks I sometimes feel these lines of tension, making vertical stripes around their necks like metal collars. I’ll touch the hinge of the jaw and feel it locked. I ask if they are gritting their teeth, maybe trying to hold their tongue in conflicting situations, and they seem surprised that I know.
Our bodies are maps of our lives and the muscles reveal tales that we don’t always see ourselves.
Gentle massage is required to aid this tension. Drawing on the lymphatic system we can softly draw away tension through the auricular and clavicle nodes. Softly releasing and enabling people to let go and find a different resolution. Some people may find themselves grinding their teeth at night or tension through their jaw. Gentle face and neck massage combined with breathing and relaxation techniques can significantly improve these symptos and often leads people to make simple but important changes in their lives.
I recommend booking in for an Indian head massage to alleviate these tensions. In the meantime try following these instructions for gentle self face massage.
Facial Massage
- Using your ring fingers, gently place either side of your nose under the eyes.
- very lightly stroke to temples
- slightly lower at nose move again to sides of ears and again a little lower
- lightly stroke downwards just infront of ears down neck to collar bone.
- Repeat
- use forefingers and middle fingers, draw small circles at the join of your jaw.
- Yawn widely and feel how open the back of your throat is.
- Try to keep that open relaxed position s you continue your face massage.
- draw light zig-zags across your brow.
- Lastly using your ring fingers press and relase each of these points:
- chin, sides of lips, beneath nose, by the inside corners of your eyes, forehead, hairline.
- Stroke your hair gently away from scalp
Hope this helps.