January 11th 1998
HEAL YOUR MOUTH AND JAW - PART 2
I wonder if anybody has tried last week to do the "free vocal expression" exercise.
Free creative expression is a natural skill which everybody has got. Of course some people can do those exercises straight away without any problems. For others it will take years to be able to relearn them. I personally believe that free creative expressiom can be the key for many people to grow into a new, different person.
That's why in my therapy I try to help clients, if they are interested, to get in touch with those exercises and to learn to be able to express themselves freely in different basic ways.
There are several basic types of creative expression. The first one is vocal expression of sound and words. The second one is expression with hands and arms. Creative movement as part of a dance, free painting and drawing, free writing of poetry or inspired writing, modelling with clay, wood or other materials are just a few of the different possibilities for creative expressions with arms and hands. The third basic way is creative expression with legs and feet. Of course free dance is the most important one.
In London there are currently about six discos where you can dance freely - mostly without shoes. Those places usually prefer guests who do not smoke or drink alcohol. Children are usually welcome and do not have to pay. The music people dance to reaches from folk, jazz and classical music to 60`s rock'n roll and trance music. The five rhythms of Gabriele Roth have helped a lot of people to get in touch with their bodies and dance in a creative way - these might be worth investigating. Ther are some dance teachers who give individual lessons as well.
Once you are able to express yourself creatively in different ways you will feel much more free in other areas of your life as well.
At school we have always been told exactly how to do things right. Our natural ability to dance draw or sing without being told how to do it has thus been suppressed over many years.
Of course everyone of us has been told very well what is right or wrong. We know too well how to critizise and how to be critizised. Thus the muscles in our arms, hands, legs, feet, mouth and jaw have become tense and stiff from too much inner and outer judgment.
The only way to undo and relax them is probably to be able to create for yourself a space free of criticism.
Thus you can use one of the options for creative expression, which are named above to start making yourself a space free of criticism.
At first you've got to be able to watch your mind very carefully to be able to catch yourself whenever you are judging yourself. The small judgments are usually easily overseen.
You don`t have to give praise to yourself either because that could just be another way of judgment.
Get a big piece of paper and some nice pencils. Do not use crap material for this exercise but try to use your favourite pens and paper. Put sone music on that means something to you. Make sure that you have got at least half an hour to spare without other people interrupting you. Sit down comfortably, preferrably on the floor.
Start drawing without any concepts. Do not try to draw any particular things from your surroundings or from your phantasy. Try to free yourself from concepts. Try not to name your painted lines and do not find any interpretations. Just leave them free of any judgmental thoughts and call them your creative expression of that very moment and nothing else. Do not show them to anybody. It is good to draw a few pictures very quickly and think of something else in the meantime.
This exercise can be more difficult for people who have learnt or studied art and they probably think that they might not need to do it. But it is always worth trying for them because they might be the worst judges of all.
Self-Massage of the Face Part One
One of the best remedies to go to sleep is the massage of your own face, particularly of the forehead. But be careful because the massage of jaw and mouth can have the opposite effect and wake you up or even make you angry. In Biodynamic Massage we always think in terms of relaxing or provoking parts of the body. Either we are clearing things or we are stirring them up. If a client is already in an emotional state of tears or anger, I tend to give them a clearing and relaxing treatment. If they are in a good and balanced state, they usually want me to help them to work on old and suppressed material and one way do do that is to give them a provokative massage.
Start your face massage in a lying position. Cover yourself to keep warm. Now massage your forehead from the middle above the nose with both hands towards the temples. The best is to use the fingertips of the three middle fingers. Use strokes and circular movements. At first explore the texture of your skin. Is it oily, dry or moist ? Can you feel fluid cushions under your fingertips or does it feel boney? Fluid cushions want soft touch whereas boney structure needs a harder approach. Breathe through your open mouth while you are massageing. Do you remember what I wrote when I was describing foot and hand massage? What signs from the body are we looking for as a feedback for a good massage?
Deep breaths, sounds from the stomach, called peristalsis, electrical currents mostly in arms and legs, a meditative emptiness in the head, burping and yawning are just a few of the signs to watch out for.
Massage your eyebrows with firm strokes and try to feel any small stoney particles or fluid cushions under your fingertips. Imagine that you are cleaning and clearing the forehead and the eyes. You are helping the excessive waste products and the fluids to find their way out of the body via the digestive system. Massage the area under your eyes with soft movements from the nose towards the temples. This is an area where fluid cushions easily tend to develop.
So far this massage will help you perfectly to go to sleep. Practise it as often as you can to learn to know your face really well and to be able to massage other people's faces in the future. Next week we will do more.