Day 4 & 5: Tension

For the past few days of my meditative practice, I have been putting my focus on the release of physical tension. This takes a great deal of conscious focus for me. My forehead is where I have noticed the most amount of tension, particularly between my eyebrows. This is not anything new.

I have a first memory of recognizing this tension. When I was probably around the age of eighteen, I went to one of my first yoga classes. At the end of the yoga class, the instructor led us through a simple meditation. She instructed the room to bring focus to a specific body part, starting with the toes and feet. Once the focus was established, she then told the room to bring purposeful tension to that area and hold it, then let go. This continued all the way up the body. As she guided this meditation, she slowly walked around the room, floating between yoga mats. I heard her feet about to pass my mat. Before she completely passed my mat she knelt down beside my head and held my eyebrows apart with her fingertips. I felt nervous and self-conscious being touched like that. She guided the room through the rest of the meditation while still pressing her fingers into my forehead. As she held my eyebrows in place, I felt an increase in clarity, as if her fingers were acupuncture needles. When I got home after the class, I stood in front of the mirror looking at my face trying to notice what the instructor had seen. There it was, the furrowing of the eyebrow. I tried relaxing it manually, but the dents stayed in place. I then tried to smooth them out with my fingers as the yoga instructor had done but they pulled back towards the middle, like trying to get a fitted bed sheet on a mattress that is too big. Since this event, I have noticed that I struggle to keep my eyebrows from wanting to meet in the middle in times where I feel any sort of stress, particularly emotional. The tension that I have felt between my eyebrows is still there but, the more I practice the more I have moments of where the tension is released.

The area between your eyebrows is referred to as the Third Eye, or the sixth chakra. Behind this area is the core of your brain, the pineal gland. One of the pineal gland's main functions is to secrete melatonin. Melatonin is an endocrine hormone that regulates the rhythm between your sleep/wakefulness cycle, this is also known as the Circadian Rhythm. The pineal gland is stimulated by darkness or by closing your eyes. This is why it is recommended that you close your eyes when you meditate. When melatonin is secreted, it is more likely that your mind and body are able to be quiet. It is also important to say that this gland should be treated just like a muscle. The pineal gland is capable of atrophying if it is not trained, it needs its exercise through meditation. The practices to open up your third eye are endless. I recommend doing your own research on this topic as the rabbit hole goes way too deep and I am not qualified to elaborate on something so complex.