Tension

The colder mornings mean colder outdoor swims for me – something I’m fully embracing by spending a few days wild swimming in icy cold lochs up in the Cairngorms next week.

I appreciate this is not everyone’s idea of Mental Sunshine (though I would definitely say: don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!)

I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that this week’s Mental Sunshine has nothing to do with embracing the cold!

For this week’s tip, I want to talk about where you might unconsciously be holding tension in your body.

For many of us, we clench our jaw without even realising it.

Just stop for a moment, and bring your attention to your jaw.

Can you unclench it, just a little?

Quite often, we don’t even realise this until we feel pain.

In fact, chronic jaw clenching can cause headaches or earaches and even affect your sleep.

So then it’s probably worth just checking in every now and then, to see if your jaw is clenched without you even realising it.

Here are a couple of things you can do to try to relieve tension in your jaw.

First, let your jaw drop down and then move it from side to side a few times, keeping your mouth as wide as possible.

That’s probably something to do in the comfort of your own home, rather than in a supermarket queue!

Another thing you can try is blowing your cheeks out, and holding them like that with your mouth closed.

Fill your mouth with as much air as possible, so that as your cheeks blow out, you can feel them stretching

And then slowly release the air through your lips, as if you’re blowing on a hot meal.

Doing one or both of these a few times can help to relieve tension you didn’t even know was in your jaw

… which in turn can help to relieve headaches, jaw aches and other physical ailments.

Also, following on from last week’s tip about breathing.

If you make your “out” breath as long as possible, it will help to calm your nervous system.

Try it out, and see how you feel.

I’d love to hear how you get on!