Transcription
The reason your face is asymmetrical is because your body is asymmetrical. The fascia lines and tissue lines that connect into our face have a large influence over the position of our face shape and our features. So if you have tension along these fascial lines of the body, it is going to be pulling on your body in ways and distorting the features on one side or the other.
This could also be the reason that you might favor one side while you're sleeping over the other. You may think that that side sleeping is causing the asymmetry, but the side sleeping is probably a result of the asymmetry you already have in the body. So you're favoring one side over the other because it feels more comfortable, because one side of your body is more tense than the other.
So two easy things that you can do. So number one, we're going to work on the sternomastoid muscle and the fascia sheath that surrounds it. And we're going to feel if one side is a little bit more tense than the other. So turn your head to each side and feel if one side pops out more, comes out more when you turn. You may want to record yourself doing this and feel if there's a side that resists you, that's kind of like, don't go over there, I don't like that.
This connects to our jawbone. So when we turn the head, it pulls on the jawbone back. So if your mandible is pulled more to one side or the other, this can affect the position and the features of the whole face. So although you can work both sides, we're going to work our tense side a little differently. So you're going to turn, you're going to locate where it is again, that muscle that pops out, and pinch up here at the top where it connects into your skull bones, into the mastoid process. And then you're going to pinch down with the other hand. So I'm holding up here, I'm not going below the muscle. Don't go down to the pulse, don't go down to the arteries, just on the muscle. And it's totally fine. And then you're going to pinch along it. And I'm pinching the tissue that is around the muscle itself, and I'm pinching the muscle itself. When you do it, you'll feel what I mean. You'll feel how you go to the muscle, and then you also can roll up, in a sense, that tissue on it. That's your fascia, that's your skin.
And to work this side differently than the other, you're going to go slow, slow it down. And you will be like, oh my gosh, I feel the difference when you slow down with enough pressure that you're like, ooh, that feels good. Not too much where you're feeling pain. We're not going to pain, just that ooh, that feels good feeling. And you do it really slow. The body is going to respond. The body responds to time, to heat, to consistent pressure. So we're slowly and consistently building heat on this side. And you're going to feel it turn to a little bit more like jelly, even because we are liquefying the ground substance, which is the extracellular substance in between our layers of tissue. We want it to be more liquidy. That's what helps our fascia glide along muscles, and that takes time. So just take your time and go nice and slow.
And now you can go to your other side too, and you can just do it for a little less time. Time, and do it until it feels like the same amount of jelling on the more tense side.
So next, you're going to go into your temporalis because this area impacts our upper face, our eyes. And we are going to feel which side moves less. So I'm taking the pads of my fingers and I'm going in these circles. And you're going to feel if one side does not like to go in as big of circles and as easily as the other side. Once you locate that more tense side, you're going to again, slow it down. And you may want to rest your elbow on a table because this is quite tiring. And really just feel into each spot with your fingers and massage it until it gets even a little bit looser. You may feel it start to loosen up just a bit. So we're following our bodily signals to get to that point of where the tissue is responding to us. That's why this is so powerful because you are learning your own body and your own asymmetries and you are feeling for the differences in the tissue when it gets to that point of a little softer, a little more fluid. So take your time and be patient. This requires patience.
Now, this video did not cover every area that causes facial asymmetry. We also want to work on the trapezius muscles, the other neck muscles that connect into the face. But it's a great start. And there are a few other important causes of asymmetry that I will cover in the caption and in future videos. So follow for more.