A tightness in the face

My regular yoga teacher has this refrain (he’s my regular-ish teacher, I’ve only recently become something of a regular yoga-doer).

It goes something like this:

“Let go of the tightness in your shoulders, your neck, and your face.  Let it all out of your face.  Let go of whatever you’re holding inside that is ending up in your face, and crunching it up like that.  Tightening it.  Clenching it.  Whatever.”

Which brought me in mind, today during yoga, of a friend who asked me how my “face” was.  How I was doing with the smiling, instead of the scowling.  The being open, instead of the retreating/reserved.  The inviting, instead of the forbidding.

I will, at some point, dissect this piece-by-piece – that is, the face, and what it is saying to the world.  I think there’s a lot there for me to think about, to work on.

And to let go of.