Why Your Jaw Is Always Tight (Even When You Think You’re Pretty Relaxed)

You can sense something isn’t quite right. You wake up and your jaw is sore, there’s a dull ache somewhere undefined in your upper teeth and your cheeks feel heavy. You look in the mirror and notice how deep the wrinkle furrows in your forehead are and jeeeez your jaw looks even saggier today.

Yikes! you think. Is this what getting older is?

Well…maybe not. It could be tension. One of the characteristics of tension I have most observed is that many clients are completely oblivious to how tightly held their face is. And after receiving and delivering Neolifting sessions which gave me TMJ relief and created space in my face I didn’t know I could feel, it was a revelation to me too.

Neolifting combines facial sculpting, lymphatic work, fascial release techniques and restorative touch. Some clients come because their jaw feels permanently tight. Others are seeking relief from facial tension, TMJ related discomfort or the feeling that their face is working much harder than it needs to. Some simply want to look refreshed before an important event and discover there is far more going on beneath the surface than they expected.

Face tension and jaw issues like TMJ are approached using face massage, lymphatic drainage, fascial release and parasympathetic nervous system activation techniques in Blackheath, Blue Mountains

Signs Tension May Be Affecting You

More clues to discovering if tension is playing a role for you include:

• You look tired despite sleeping well.

• Your face appears tense in photographs.

• Your neck seems permanently engaged.

• Your jaw never feels completely at rest.

• You find it difficult to switch off physically even when you're mentally relaxed

If you recognised yourself here you’re in good, decidedly human company. Tension in our face and body quickly feels familiar. Shoulders that once may have registered as held too close to the ears quickly start to feel normal. The forehead that wrinkled in deep concentration at work continues holding hours later while watching TV. A clenched jaw throughout the day may be a leftover of last night’s teeth grinding through a long forgotten nightmare.

How Do You Know If Your Jaw Is Holding Too Much Tension?

So, how can you tell if your jaw is holding more tension than necessary?

• You wake with jaw fatigue

• Your tongue presses hard into the roof of your mouth

• You get headaches around your temples

• The insides of your mouth are sore from cheek biting

• Your dentist tells you your teeth show evidence of teeth grinding

• Your face feels exhausted, like you’re putting too much effort into just having a face!

• Your jaw muscles are big and very hard

• Your facial tension makes your face feel immobile

My Search For Relief

For years I have been a member of the teeth grinding club. I understand the headaches, the jaw pain and the frustration of trying technique after technique to relieve jaw tension only to find it returning. I once spent a month getting up at 4am every week with TMJ discomfort to travel to a practitioner for a jaw release. The pain can drive desperate measures. But thankfully that search eventually led me to NeoLifting.

Plus I’ve always been interested in beauty, not as a commodity to be bought, but as something that can be felt. That belief became the foundation of Sensalium. The idea of beauty as felt sense and ease. Once I felt the relief that carefully developed and thoughtfully delivered techniques can bring, a light went on. The before and after glow and the impact on a person's confidence and mood feeling tension release after a session is satisfying.

Neolifting facial massage at Sensalium in Blackheath, Blue Mountains

Because until tension begins to release many people have no idea of how much tension they’re carrying - all day and all night.

It’s as if we’ve lost the ability to sense it once it becomes habitual and slips under the radar.

Why We Stop Noticing Tension

This happens because the nervous system is constantly adapting to what it experiences. If a muscle stays switched on long enough, the brain gradually accepts that level of effort as normal. Scientists call this adaptation. I often think of it as the body constantly recalibrating its idea of what "normal" feels like.

'I often think of it as the body constantly recalibrating its idea of what "normal" feels like'

The body doesn't maintain these patterns because it is broken or not functioning properly. It does so because at some point, these patterns became associated with protection, focus, performance or coping. The challenge is that what was once useful can eventually become unnecessary.

At Sensalium, NeoLifting treatments are designed not only to work with the tissues of the face, but to create the conditions in which the body can begin sensing, recognising and releasing patterns of unnecessary effort. For many clients, that process becomes the beginning of a very different relationship with their face.

For many clients, that process becomes the beginning of a very different relationship with their face

And once the body begins to recognise these patterns and experiences the softening that comes from letting go of unnecessary effort, longstanding facial tension may begin to ease and the cycle can start to shift and the space for a softer, more relaxed and naturally vibrant appearance begins to emerge.

The Face Beneath The Tension

Indeed one of the most surprising things about releasing facial tension isn't how different you look.

Indeed one of the most surprising things about releasing facial tension isn't how different you look.

It's how different you feel.

Many people arrive at Sensalium believing their face is ageing and there’s not much to be done, only to discover they have been carrying an extraordinary amount of unnecessary effort.

Sometimes what emerges isn't a different face. It’s the discovery of the face that was always there, now, beautifully freed from tension.