Yeah my man, you should never force it too much as you stated. dont go into the pain cave probably 5/10 on the pain scale is the maximum you should do as someone new to soft tissue mobs. With time you will feel whats “good” pain and whats not so you can experiment with the maximum 7/10.

If you never did such things maybe start with a softer foam roller and yoga tuneup ball, or even a tennis ball , not the lacrosse ball, gemini, battlestar and the harder items. With some mobilizations you can just use the wall for a while even tho its not the same because you cant just relax yourself into the ball that much and you have to be conscious about your posture which is sometimes hard when you are a newbie and experiencing pain. With the minority of the mobs wall works better.

One thing that you have to make sure is to always breath consciously. Deeply in to your abdomen then let it go( reading again the diaphragmatic breathing part in SuppLeo cant do harm 😉 ). Without proper breathing technique you just make the soft tissue work useless. Some visualization clues are good too like imagine yourself sinking into the ball with every exhale try to relax that specific area etc.

So my recommendation:
1. use the rule pain <6out of 10.
2. use softer items for a while
3. make sure you use proper breathing technique
4. use visualization