A while ago, when I was at the physiotherapist for my frozen shoulder, I asked her for some advice about the tension in my face. I’ve mentioned before that I wear a mouthguard at night to stop me grinding my teeth, and I also (regularly) talk about ways to prevent what I call ‘pug-puppy-face‘ (where we get frowny-face). For all my good intentions, however, I can still feel a lot of tension in my jaw.
Her advice was to do a silent scream.
She showed me how to open my eyes and mouth wide, even hold out my hands with fingers all splayed, and “scream” as if I was trying to bring the house down – only without making any sound (so that we don’t freak out the neighbors!) You hold the position for about three seconds, then fully relax. You can do the trick two more times (so 3 in total), with a rest between each go.
As I was doing the maneuver, I confess it was VERY satisfying. When I was putting my whole body into the posture, I stretched my mouth open WAY MORE than I do when I just tell myself to stretch my mouth open… I know that sounds strange, but there’s something in the intentionality of the approach that allowed my mouth to REALLY open-wide.
At the same time as I was feeling good about my stretchy mouth, I also had an intense visualization in my mind’s eye: Edvard Munch’s 1983 painting of “The Scream”:
[Image source: The Scream – Wikipedia]
The hands in the painting aren’t doing ‘frozen-jazz-hands’ like I was told to do, but otherwise, the wide-eyed, wide-mouthed, silent full-freak-out is there…
When I got home, I did a bit more research into what I thought might be called “face yoga” – and it turns out it IS a thing. Although the term is widely used as a catch-all for everything from face-stretches, self-massage, even anti-aging techniques, the videos tended to use similar moves.
Fair Warning number ONE – a quick disclaimer – I’m not a doctor, neurologist, or physiotherapist – so always be sure to check with your healthcare provider before you add any routines to your healing endeavors.
Fair Warning number TWO – some of the moves in Face Yoga make you look ridiculous. I’m all for the healing, but I have to be honest with you – the faces you end up pulling are pretty crazy; puffed-cheeks, duck-lips, fishy-kisses, tongue-pokes and more…
That said – I’m here for it – Face Yoga works for me.
If you’re keen to try, here are a couple of videos to look at:
(6 mins) 5 Minutes Bed Time Face Yoga (youtube.com)
(7 mins) Anti Ageing Face Yoga (youtube.com)
(8 mins) Daily Face Yoga for every day (youtube.com)
For those who want to try Lion’s Breath (a specific Yoga move that includes face work), here’s a couple of extra links that I enjoy:
(4 mins) Lion pose for beginner (youtube.com)
(11 mins) Lion’s Breath – Foundations of Yoga (youtube.com)
Here’s to healing – in whatever form, or face, it takes!
Take care, Linda xx
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[PS – don’t forget, all the videos I use to help me heal from migraine are compiled over on YouTube (here), ready and waiting if you want to explore other ideas further.]
The Mindful Migraine 
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