Shiatsu for the face is a really important part of the session.
A lot of the energy pathways start and begin in the face.
As well, it's our outer mask to the world, so we hold a lot of tension in all of the
various small muscles within the face.
To release the face, we're going to start by placing the hands between the eyes.
This is a great place to stimulate the whole back of the body.
There's an energy pathway that starts right by the side of the eyes here and travels down
the back of the body.
I'm just putting a little pressure there and then tracing over the eyebrows down to the
temples, and a few circles.
Starting on the chin, bringing the energy up towards the temples again, I'm just drawing
a very light tracing along the jaw.
Because we're not using oil in shiatsu, it's important on the face just to go really light
so we're not dragging the skin.
A couple sweepings, and then more pressure right around the temples, in circles, and
right at the top of the nose and out over the eyebrows.
I'm going to rub my palms together, creating some heat.
A little bit of friction creates a lot of heat, and then just placing the heated palms
over the eyes.
This is a great thing to do to release tired eyes and tension headaches.
I'm really allowing just the weight of my palms to melt over her eyes, and then drawing
down and sweeping back.
And then, just a very slight pressure on the side of the nose, coming around tracing the
cheekbones, all the way up, again towards the temples, and then some circles.
We have over the eyebrows, down to the temples, and then starting on the cheekbones, just
some pressure as I go up towards the temples again, and then ending the face work with
some heat over the eyes, and that also creates darkness, so it's a really sweet way for the
receiver to release and relax a little bit more after working on the face.
Working on the face is also a great way both to calm the body but also to energize it,
because it's not common that our faces are touched and that the architecture within the
muscles is moved around.
It's actually a really great way, if you're feeling tired, to waken up the eyes and all
of the energy pathways that start and end there, throughout the rest of the body.