Hi everyone! Tutu Mora here with the Y bringing you tools to feel well in your body, mind and
spirit. Today, we are going to be doing a gentle self-massage to release some of the tension that
we can hold in our shoulders, neck and jaw which is a really big space that people hold stress and
can be exacerbated when we're sitting a lot. When our head starts to move forward, it puts a lot
of strain on our neck and on our shoulders, so we are going to start here with a gentle pec release.
So we're going to be releasing the muscle that sits kind of across the chest here
which when it's tight, it can start to pull your shoulders rounded forward which again creates
tension through the back of the neck and often the jaw as well. So I want you to start just
kind of standing or sitting whatever feels a little bit better and we're going to bring
our fingers right about to where the Y logo would be if it's sitting across your chest on your shirt
and I want you to just gently feel in here. You may or may not feel some tension. You may or may
not feel the ribs that sit across this space. So you know regardless of what you feel, just
kind of make some contact with that space and see how it feels how tender does it feel? How spacious
or loose does it feel and then let's come right down to maybe where the top of the y logo would be
and using some gentle pressure so tolerable pressure. We don't want to dig in but we do
want to unstick some of the stickiness of the tissue through this space, so find tolerable
pressure and we're just going to start to slide our fingers up towards your collarbone
and we're going to take this a couple times so finding the pressure that feels good
as you let your other arm feel relaxed, as you let your shoulder feel relaxed
and we're going to do this kind of towards the inside and travel towards the outside. So just
taking a few times exploring this space, noticing where does it feel super tender
and just sliding up towards your collarbone
and this is something that you can do you know when you're sitting at your desk just
as a little break even it can be super helpful let's take that even more just towards the armpit
and just with your fingers manipulating the
tissue and the muscle in that space. One more here just along the side
and then go ahead and let your arms relax, noticing how your chest feels from side to side.
Maybe even noticing if one shoulder is now a little lower than the other shoulder and staying
with that same side now we're going to bring your hands just kind of tracing the line of your thumb
to where it starts at your wrist and you'll feel kind of the bone on this uh outside of the hand so
the thumb side of the hand and I want you just to find kind of that line of the thumb here at
your wrist and find that tolerable pressure again because with that pressure, we're just going to
travel, tracing that line up your forearm all the way to your elbow and using some pressure because
again, we want to massage the tissue in that space you'll notice it gets a little sticky as we travel
up towards the elbow. So, let's do that a couple times here again finding that line of the thumb
and unsticking almost what may feel like it's adhered or stuck together through
the forearm and this we're doing for the shoulder even if it's far away from the
shoulder what we're doing here is going to impact how it feels up here. One more time
finding that line and just tracing it up noticing how it may feel a little tender so
always always, just find the pressure that feels tolerable and supportive
and then go ahead and let your arm go. Again, notice
how it feels from side to side so now where before we move over to the other side,
we're going to take our thumbs to the back of our skull. So I'll turn around so you can kind of see:
we're finding the little bony ridge that starts from the back of your ears
and then just traces all the way up the base of the skull. So where your skull kind of meets
your spine. So let's start right about here behind the ears. You can feel that little bony ridge
and again find some tolerable pressure here and we're just going to slide our thumbs up
that bony ridge until they meet together at the center
and we'll take that a couple times and using that feeling that tolerable pressure to almost
slide that tissue so we want to
feel like we are unsticking some of what might feel like it's gotten stuck together. One more
and then go ahead and let your arms relax at your sides and just notice how you're feeling. This can
really let you feel more chilled out because it releases a lot of what we hold up here. So
just kind of making an observation about how you feel even before we take this to the other side
and then let's take this to the other side. So let's start with where that Y logo might be
on the other side and just with your fingers kind of check out that pec muscle, check out the
tissue up towards your collarbone, noticing if it feels really tender or really tight or if it feels
really available and so let's start at that space again. We're going to start towards the inside
and work our way out which is kind of sliding your fingers up using the pressure that feels
supportive. So we want to use some pressure so that we can really kind of unstick some of that.
I'm just noticing how it feels it feels pretty sticky for me as I get up towards the collarbone
and then taking that down a notch towards the armpit and the same thing.
Now it's going to feel different from side to side because we use the sides of
our body differently. One side is a dominant side.
Usually, we carry all of our stuff on one side. Usually, we're mousing or typing or holding our
phone with one side so as you kind of just travel out towards your armpit noticing how it feels
and then taking that right about here
and just unsticking your way up towards that collarbone
and then just letting your arms relax and feeling how your chest feels.
This is a lovely way to open up this space even before you work out
so that anything you do with your arms is not feeling super grippy
through your chest and your pec muscles. So now again, let's find that line of the thumb
and we're going to just trace that line up the forearm and again using that pressure that feels
tolerable that feels supportive as you travel and noticing how it feels compared to the other side.
Two more here, finding that same space and just kind of traveling up unsticking.
Last one
and let your arms relax again, just kind of noticing
noticing how it feels.
So we've already done the back of the skull so now we're going to do something for the jaw.
So with your thumbs, I want you to find that space that's right underneath your jaw line
and just with your thumbs I want you to gently press in and then travel out press in travel
out press in and you'll notice that the further you go back into your jaw here and notice that I
am putting in some pressure you'll feel you'll feel how tight it gets up here which is tied into
the entire space we've been working with so let's just start on one side and with your
thumb underneath that line of your jaw just start to travel and whenever you feel a spot that feels
pretty sticky, I want you just to gently press in with your thumb and hold take a few deep breaths
slide to the next spot out towards your ear and hold
taking it out again
and hold,
finding the pressure that feels tolerable so if you can gently
press in a little bit more in a way that feels okay, definitely take that.
One more sliding out towards the end of your jaw holding take a couple breaths
and then relax. Just feel how free and easy it feels on that side,
how light your head feels on that side and let's take that to the other side. So again. just
starting kind of at the center sliding your thumb and notice I am putting in some pressure here
and finding the first stop the first spot that starts to feel a little
tender and you'll notice that again just because we are dominant on one side it's
going to feel tighter on one side than the other so just meet each side where it's at
and finding that spot and just holding take a few deep breaths.
Take it towards your ear, up your jaw another spot and hold
and again, up and back a holding apply the pressure that feels okay and just breathe.
Last one
and relax
and just kind of move it around see how it feels. This especially feels
so nice because we can carry especially if you're someone who clenches their jaw a lot,
it can feel really loose and even if you open and close your mouth a little bit
noticing how that feels compared to maybe how it normally feels. That's
something that we could have done at the beginning just to see how it felt before
and just let this support you let it be a nice break in your day. If you're someone that's
sitting or just feeling a little stressed out today or before you start a movement practice
so that this space feels super available to move within, so that you're using more of the
muscles you want to use and less feeling super grippy with rounded shoulders forward and super
tight packs and chest. So just check out how you feel and use this in the way that's good for you
and I'll see you back here next time on the Y's Recharge With Us From Home series. Take care!