Gentle Neck, Scalp & Face Massage Therapy, 5 Massage Techniques to Release Tension, Ultra Relaxing

My name is Monique and today we're going to be doing a 20 minute massage. If you're not in a place where you can do this video with me now, please save it to your watch later and join me whenever you can. Okay, so today we're going to be working the face and the neck for tension release, just overall relaxation. So I like to start by finding myself. So grounding myself, finding my feet on the floor, my breath, just having my hands out to the side bringing awareness letting her body know where I am before I make contact from here first like to come down into the shoulders say hello so that is the first point of contact when I work with the neck and face here I bring up over the traps and bringing my fingers and palpating and feeling for the spine my fingers are going on the edge of the spinal column so not over the spine but right off on each side from there i bring it up all the way up to the occiput where i lift just a little bit traction the head and then bring it down again in the shoulders and i go under mine or under the neck using my fingertips here to trace on the sides of the spine so i'm coming up and around letting this come under holding sometimes just holding right there gives the body a chance to breathe lightly just bringing my fingertips up tracing the spine all the way up to the back of her neck the occipital ridge letting my hands come under to lift her head and tracing it all the way through I just like to put some traction down so now i'm pushing on her shoulder cupping right over but the thumb or the palm of my hand is in contact with the trap the The rest of my hand is just gently placed over the shoulder as I let that traction of that trap felt and do the same thing on the other side and just alternate a few times back and forth. Wait for any tension release again, just tracing top of the trap slowly under into that occiput all the way up. So while my hands are still dry so they don't have any oil, like to work a little bit with the scalp here so and to do some holds this is a little energetic hold so my hands are coming under her head being right at the occipital ridge all they're doing is resting there so my middle fingers are in the middle of that ridge in the occiput my hands are completely relaxed my thumbs are just gently holding the side of her head being mindful of her ears so we're not putting pressure on the ears and we're just holding a few breaths with that hold fingers and my hands relax but steady each side of her head i'm going to start doing is just slowly making a circular motion with my middle fingers at her occiput so i'm going to be slowly moving my fingers like this in this motion at her occipital bridge slow and it's just this curiosity so it's not a lot of pressure i could put a little bit of pressure up toward her head i'm just making these circles and outlining that occipital ridge then i can even alternate the sides so i can kind of traction one side pulling the energy toward me and then the other side so it just simply looks like a pull traction and in circles we're working our way out toward her ear so a pull and traction should say a pin and traction so we're kind of just holding and then which we call pinning and traction that pull which is the traction and coming back around all the way into jaw I'm gonna let the head go to one side here I'm going to show you a little bit more of what my hands are doing. So this is the occipital ridge right here, right at the hairline. So with this hand, I'm just gently holding your forehead. So my hand is just supporting. My outside hand is going to be right at that occipital ridge again. So I can feel where that bone comes down and I'm just tracing that bone with little circles. When I'm doing the circles, my energy is going down towards the feet, down, and then I kind of pull up towards me, like oval. Again, toward the ear, nice and slow. Your hands are relaxed. It's just this like curious exploration of this ridge. You can have little alternating pulses, moving those attachments to the other muscles of the body, coming up and onto the base of the scalp. Again, this is just circles, so my hand now is a little wider, and there's just energy on my fingertips as I go in big circles. Nice and slow. I also like to kind of grab and pull the scalp, so I alternate between circles, pin, and pull down. Here you're just all along the scalp side, just one side of the head. I'm mindful not to pull the hair, so I like to make sure I'm really at the base. Slow and round, all the way into the top. middle finger and my first finger putting some attention into the ear so moving or massaging front and the back of that ear, ear can hold a lot of tension kind of come to the top of the ear almost to the temple space just gently tractioning up massaging that muscle right at the top then using my thumb pad my finger pad and then I gently have the earlobe and I pulled down. So I have a traction. I kind of come up and down. So it's traction up. With this, I can move all along the ear, that side of the head. Then with both hands, finish that off. As I turn the head to get to the other side, again, gentle. So the same thing over here. Start with the finger pads, finding that occipital ridge, moving in circles, up and down and around, and then having that traction up down and around and that traction you can also use both hands you kind of have the whole side top and bottom of the head here get into this temple a little bit more this temple space we have many muscles on our scalp support our face facial expressions and also for just stimulation hair follicles bringing blood flow to the area another technique you can do that i didn't do on the other side it's just a gentle pull so you thread the hair you get it to the base of the head with a lot of hair as much as you can get and then you just gently pull up and let go deep at the base again i'll kind of show here so it's just a pulling up the idea is to let hair follicles at the base and give them some space to move you can just kind of do that gently sometimes just it's nice to hold one area again if you want to get that ear making sure to reach the top be sure to attend to the earlobe and pull down as you go around the cartilage now we're going to go ahead add some oil here so we're going to be working the face so the face again many many muscles on the face i'm going to focus a lot of what i work on on the jaw because we hold often a lot of tension here and also around the brow. I'm going to get my oil the oil and start at the chin approach and then come to the outside of the face contouring the entire face just applying that oil nice and easy I have too much oil I just sometimes pat it on the side so we're gonna start the face massage at the face at the chin so what I'm going to do is just gently have my fingertips right at that jawline I'm gonna allow this the thumbs just work right under the lip I'm gonna trace the jawbone letting my fingers guide letting it outline and my fingers are just putting a little pressure toward me my thumb puts pressure down towards her feet these are little circles alternating circles very mindful of the front of her throat and neck right here we can also So just work right under that jaw, the center midpoint, and then moving the energy down. You can go down into the shoulders. Here, looking down, the shoulders. Letting that jaw, again, be the center point. Around the mandible, the jaw space, the jawline. Side, the masseter. So here, the outside of the jaw, feel the muscles. All you're going to do is just trace them. So up and down, just a little bit of pressure. with your finger pad side and i like to alternate circles yet again jawline and up alternate you can hold a lot of tension in the jaw you can clench it's really good help give it some release what i'm also doing under like energy wise like a subtle push in towards the center of the head as i'm going slow in circles and then moving up and down jaw bone be our base trace it and right at the top i just like to hold you can feel another little ridge there thumbs rest right between the eyebrows on the forehead just a little hold thumb staying where they are i bring my hands up to my thumbs trace along the nose into the cheeks and bring it up to that ridge again the thumbs so we're holding a base and then we're moving down out not putting a lot of pressure in this area around the eye the pressure starts when we come right to the edge of the nose under the cheekbones and then we contour or follow that contour of the cheekbone up and around circles into the temple nice and slow and following that hairline can be helpful but just having this entire forehead area be outlined first then we move into circles as we pull the forehead touch you just do little circles again touch set now we're coming out in that center point finish off the face i like fingertips along the eyebrows the eyebrow bridge so with this one the push down a hold and then i'm moving out so again we're tracing we're being very mindful not to be on the orbital side right or the soft side of the orbital ridge here we're staying right on top of that brow bone but we're just giving those attachment spots those attachment areas just a nice release again small circles small circles all the way around these are gentle strokes with with the face. The face holds so much. So just a gentle approach, gentle strokes, not too much pressure, just contouring the entire face once again as we hold right at the top and pressure right at that in the thumbs and on the finger pads and all the way through the scalp. To finish off, I just like to tend to the neck. We start at the neck and then do a full stroke, a few times, time with oil, holding, ears drop to the ears, goodbye to the ears, move around, finger pads up, scalp all the way through, placing one finger on the top of the scalp and the other right at the chest, and that is the face and neck massage. Welcome to Yoga Plus, courses available from pupil to yogi. Sort by yoga, fitness, and instructors. Create your own routines. Access the Pose Library. Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. Available on Google Play and the App Store. Join us for 14 and 30-day programs, hour-long classes, and much more on our yoga app, Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. 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