Curing your tension headache

We can all get them, and many of us do, and sometimes we are not able to get ourselves booked in for a massage or similar treatment to ease/release the tension & stress held in our bodies.

Below are a few simple solutions to get you through your day should a tension headache strike;

• BREATHING OUT TENSION;  breathe slowly & deeply in through your nose and out through the mouth, taking deep, even breaths.  Repeat 3 times

• SOOTHING DARKNESS;  Place your elbows shoulder width apart, on a table.  Slightly lean forward so that your hands support the weight of the head.  Find the most comfortable position.  Place your hands over your eyes to create total darkness.

• HEAD HOLD;  Cradle your head on your hands so that the heels of your hands are resting on your temples and your fingers meet at the top of your head.  Exert as much pressure with your hands as feels comfortable. Hold for a minute.  Move your hands a little further back & repeat the hold.

• SCALP LIFT;  Interlock your fingers & slowly press the palms of your hands inward against your scalp so that the skin starts to move between your fingers.  Move to another position and repeat as often as you like.

• MASSAGING THE TEMPLES;  Place your hands against your temples.  With the heel of your hands or tips of fingers, make at least 10 circular movements, clockwise and anticlockwise.  Keep fingers on the skin and move it against the underlying soft tissue to soften & relax the muscles.

• EYE CIRCLING;  Use 1 or 2 finger tips to stroke from the centre of the brow, along the eyebrows and around the tops of your cheeks, forming large circles around the eyes. Use only very light pressure so as not to drag the delicate skin around the eyes.

• SCALP DESTRESSING;  Press firmly with 1 or 2 finger tips on the soft tissue either side of the cervical vertebrae at the back of your neck.  Start at the base and work up, holding for a few seconds before moving up the back of the neck.  Move along the base of the skull.  Move up, over the skull, around the ears to the temples, using pressure that is comfortable for you.

In some respects, many of the examples here form the basis of an Indian Head Massage, except you are working on yourself.  Mix and match these techniques to see what works for you.  A 30 minute Indian head Treatment with me is £25