I just finished an EE session and it was good, peaceful and steady.
I have had a a handful of emotional/physical releases in the past couple of weeks. Some areas in my upper-back, neck, base of my head, and my jaw have all released to a degree during periods of belly-breathing/meditation and experiencing powerful emotions. It was helpful initially from the perspective of reducing pain/stress/tension, but I had little time to rest or enjoy it. My jaw released in a big way earlier this week, or the end of the last - I can't remember when exactly. I felt a small electrical charge course through the muscles in my jaw and spiral out a bit, bringing with it an immediate relaxing of my jaw muscles. Several days ago I woke up with pretty bad jaw/mouth/head pain, mostly on the right side. The pain is some of, if not the, worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I really feel (now) for people with chronic tooth/mouth pain, it is next to impossible to think or do anything with that kind of pain right up against your brain like that.
I couldn't even move my mouth without pain, because my right cheek had swollen so much it was being constantly pressed against my crooked wisdom tooth. So whenever my cheeks moved they were being scraped against one of the sharp points on that tooth. After a day the swelling went down, and my cheek is no longer being stabbed. But pain deep inside my jaw and mouth and head has gotten and is getting worse. It is so bad that sometimes I have to lay down, and earlier in the kitchen I got hit with a wave that made me light-headed and washed every thought in my head away with it's pain. At times the pain is really incredible. A big source of the tension seems to be the muscle that connects my mandible (lower jaw) to my skull. I have worked (pseudo-massaged) on this muscle a few times since then. All I have to do is press firmly upon this muscle with one finger, inside my mouth, and I am hit with a pain that could take me to the floor. I do this sitting down, and can press on it for maybe 30 seconds, before I feel like I am going to pass out. Immediately after I have to lay down for about 15minutes and do some belly-breathing. I always feel better afterwards for it though.
Despite the pain and discomfort, this is really quite a boon for me. I have been a conscious jaw clencher most of my life, and have built up a tremendous amount of tension there as a result, and locked it in with emotional trauma. The emotional connection between whatever was released and my jaw is not as clear to me as it has been some times in the past, but no matter. A release is a release and I will take it as-is. The boon is that now I can work with all of this pain, work through it and out of my body. Amazingly, my jaw never really bothered me before, aside from the crooked wisdom teeth I have. I also have only had a headache maybe twice in my life, aside from brain-freeze and hangovers. And yet, under the surface was a whole world of pain, most of it physical, that I simply did not have access to. And now I do.
I have another Rolfing appointment in a couple of weeks, and I will be asking him to focus on my head and jaw muscles. Rolfers will also work inside of your mouth, using a glove. I am looking forward to that session, even though I know I am going to be in for one hell of a ride if he does focus on that area. I have only begun to feel my right jaw pain, and I can tell my atlas/axis are off in a big way, so there is a lot more pain in store for me. My body knows best I suppose, because it seems to be doling it out to me in chunks I can actually digest. If there were a magic button to release all of the pain in my head at once, then it would surely be labeled Madness because that's exactly what would come from it.
I am not sure how this will pan out in the end, part of me entertains the idea that once I work through all of this tension, after a few years my wisdom teeth might fall back into position enough so they are not an issue. I may have to get braces or something, but I think it's best that I resolve all of this tension first. Until then, steady as she goes. :)