this article was co-authored by claire bowe, m.ed., pt, cert. claire bowe is a physical therapist and the owner of rose physical therapy group, a physical therapy clinic based in washington d.c. claire has over 20 years of patient care experience and specializes in a personalized, one-on-one therapeutic approach to physical therapy. in special education from portland state university, an ma in physical therapy from governors state university, and a bs from oregon state university. there are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
while this helps us communicate, it also means that our face tends to carry the signs and stress of our inner emotional life. to relax your facial muscles, give yourself a massage by making small, gentle, circular motions in each area of your face with your fingers. in addition to massage, try changing your mouth’s resting position to release any stress in your face and jaw. for example, position your tongue on the roof of your mouth and let your bottom jaw hang open to avoid clenching your jaw and tensing your face.
throughout our lives, we tend to make some of the same facial expressions over and over based on our personalities and habitual reactions. charles darwin was the first to propose that human emotions and the corresponding facial expressions are universal. these are the facial expressions we make when we don’t feel the need to hide or suppress our emotions.
so when our facial muscles become tight and keep us stuck in certain expressions, we’ll tend to be stuck in that emotional state. they’re so intrinsically tied to your emotional state that you make facial expressions even when you’re alone and no one can see you. when you learn how to relax your facial muscles, you may notice that you feel more open, relaxed, and less defensive—like a “blank slate” is how i describe the feeling. when you’re done, take a few moments with your eyes closed to completely relax all of your facial muscles and notice the effect on your mental state.
practice progressive muscle relaxation to calm your facial muscles. choose a quiet spot where you can sit or lie down. take deep breaths and focus first on you can do the exercises right where you are. just sit back, get comfortable, relax, and close your eyes. when you’re done, take a few moments if you don’t want to look perma-angry as you get older, one of my favorite relaxation exercises is wrinkling your forehead and arching your, my face muscles always tense, my face muscles always tense, face muscles tightening anxiety, how to relax facial muscles while sleeping, chronic facial tension.
start by tensing the muscles of your face as much as you can using grimacing facial expressions; hold for 10 seconds and then release. take several deep really create an association between your awareness and the tension that you feel in these areas. you want to be pressing and just creating a little bit of how to relax your jaw and face muscles massage: open your mouth and softly rub the muscles next to your ear in a circular motion. do this, facial progressive muscle relaxation, how to relax facial muscles tmj, cheek tightness anxiety, facial muscle fatigue, my face feels tight and weird on one side, facial tension massage, stretching face muscles, forehead muscles won’t relax, facial tension medication, facial tension symptoms. here are some face exercises that can relieve facial tension:happy face. smile as wide as you can, hold for the count of 5 and then relax. slack jaw. let your jaw fully relax and your mouth hang open. brow furrow. wrinkle your forehead by arching your eyebrows as high as possible. eye squeeze. nose scrunch.
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