Relax!

Stress is a fact of life and unfortunately our faces take the impact. Did you know that holding tension in your face is quite common? Many people who hold stress and tension in their facial muscles grind their teeth? One tool for stress relief I recommend to my patients is described below. This is excerpted from "Hormone Hell to Hormone Well," by Dr CW Randolf (pp153-154).  Try it!

"The Relaxation Response is a technique developed by Herbert Benson, MD at Harvard Medical School. It has been tested extensively and is explained in detail in The Relaxation Response by Dr. Benson. The technique works! Set aside ten or twenty minutes today and try it. Sit quietly in a comfortable position, then:

1.       Close your eyes.

2.       Deeply relax all of your muscles, beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face. Keep them relaxed.

3.       Breathe through your nose. Become aware of your breathing. As you breathe out, say the word “one” silently to yourself. For example, breathe in…out-one; in…out-one, and so on. Breathe easily and naturally.

4.       Continue for ten to twenty minutes. You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm. When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes, first with your eyes closed and later with your eyes opened. Do not stand up for a few minutes.

5.       Do not worry about whether you are successful in achieving a deep level of relaxation. Maintain a passive attitude and permit relaxation to occur at its own pace. When distracting thoughts occur, try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them and returning to repeating one. With practice, the response should come with little effort.

Practice the technique once or twice daily, but not within two hours after any meal, since the digestive process seems to interfere with the body’s ability to fully relax."