It’s good to be expressive and use all of your face muscles! We hold so much tension in our faces and we tend to make similar stressed out faces all of the time – scrunching our eyebrows together with a furrowed brow. Think about ways to open up the face, release tension, and make expressions that could lift instead of close.
1. Start with opening your mouth wide and sticking out your tongue. Hold this for 10 seconds. Open your eyes wide too for extra stretching all or once or scrunch them in if you want. The focus here is on the mouth and tongue stretch. You may want to add a lions breath at the start, exhaling with a big, throaty AHHHHHHHHH. (Give it a try! The only way to do this incorrectly is to not do it!)
Be My Friend Gesture & My Tongue Is Longer Than Yours Gesture
2. Puff both of your cheeks up with air and then move the air from one side to the other. Move your eyes around too from side to side, and up and down. Hold for 10 seconds.
Swish Swoosh Gesture, Balloon Stretch Gesture, & Dentist Pride Gesture
3. If you didn’t add the eyes wide open stretch to the first pose you could add that on its own to wrap things up. Go for more or less in the lift of your brow depending on what feels best. Hold for 10 seconds.
Say It Again Gesture & You Must Be Brave Gesture
Thank you, Jessica, for the fun gesture names!
Presence and Positivity 