Andronik
Suboccipital muscles: circular kneading with the thumbs
Place your palms on the back of your head, as if you were cradling it. Four fingers rest on top, and your thumbs drop down to the base of the skull. Pause for a second and just feel: under your thumbs there are two dense cords.
These are four tiny muscles that don’t move your head — they hold it. They are working every second you’re awake and almost never rest. That’s where the evening feeling of a tight band around your head comes from.
Start tracing a slow circle. One, two. The pressure is noticeable but comfortable; as you exhale you can go a little deeper — tissue lets go precisely on the exhale. Make sure your thumb doesn’t slide over the skin but moves it along with it: we’re working not with the surface but with what lies beneath. Ten to fifteen circles, then shift slightly lower and repeat.
When the tension goes, it’s not only the back of your head that changes. Your forehead smooths out, your shoulders drop, your breathing deepens — the scalp and the face are joined by one continuous layer, and what releases at the back lifts at the front.
One minute a day. This is the first point of the program — everything else starts here.