Tension Releasing Tips for Mamas

Motherhood in general coupled with the pandemic over the last year has created a LOT of tension for many mamas. This tension is often found in the neck, head, jaw, and shoulders. Fun fact: Many of us will protrude our jaw when wearing a mask because we think it might help us breathe better. This can create extra tension here!

One of the roles of the vagus nerve is to calm down the sympathetic nervous system, therefore we want to make sure we have good mobility in the vagus nerve in order to relieve some of the tension we feel.

There are many tips, exercises, and stretches that can help give you some relief from this tension. Here are just a few.

• Stack your stuff - Proper posture helps your diaphragm and vagus nerve to communicate and work together efficiently. If you have poor posture you are putting more pressure on your vagus nerve which can cause it to not work properly. You want to keep your ribs stacked over your hips.

• Thoracic extension on foam roller - Place your hands behind your head and lay your mid back on a foam roller. Roll up and down your back.

• Side lying thoracic rotation with adductor activation - Lay on your side with your top leg resting on a foam roller. Open up and close your top arm repeatedly.

• Vagus nerve mobilization #1 - Lay down on the floor and place your finger in your ear. Pull your ear down and back while rocking your knees from side to side. Make sure to do this on both sides! One side will likely be holding more tension than the other.

• Vagus nerve mobilization #2 - Lay down and grab the bone behind your ear (mastoid process) with your finger and pull it back. At the same time put your hand on your cheek bone and pull it forward. While doing this you can either rock your legs back and fourth or move your eyes from side to side.

• Masseter muscle massage - Jaw tension and pelvic floor tension are connected. If you struggle with letting your pelvic floor relax it can often be tied back to jaw tension. Massaging your masseter can help with this. Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and massage the masseter muscles.

• Back body breathing on chair - Lay in quadruped while leaning over a chair. Practice diaphragmatic breathing, focusing on really getting breath into your back.

• First rib mobilization - Take a yoga strap or dog leash and put it over your shoulder. Pull down on the leash on the opposite side of your body. While keeping a lot of tension on the strap bend your head side to side.

Check out the videos below for visuals!