Neck and Shoulder Relief

Hi everyone, today this is truly yoga anytime. This is a stress neck and tension release practice. You can do this anywhere, at your desk, anytime during the day, even in a bed or at a chair at home. Okay? We all have stress, but with yoga, hopefully we can learn to manage this stress better.

We'll start by taking a deep inhale and bringing the arms up, inside out, twist to the right. You can use your hand on a chair behind you, breathing in and breathing out. Next inhale, bring your arms up to the sky, exhale, side out, twisting to the left side, breathing in and breathing out. Next inhale, bring your arms up and if you can, lace your fingers, bend your knees a moment and then turn your palms up to the sky. We'll go to one side over to the right, let's say, and look for that stretch in the left side, breathing in and breathing out.

Let the breath itself puff out the side seam of the body. Inhale come to center, extra credit if you even switch the lacing of the hands. Breathe in and then take it to the other side, breathing into that right side, breathing out, breathing in and breathing out. Come through center, stretch and exhale, release your arms, shoulder rolls, just how it sounds. Shrug those shoulders up and sigh it out, big breath in, sigh it out, last time, breathing in and try to slide your shoulder blades down your back, gently squeezing the lower points of your shoulder blades together.

Sit here, breathe here, try to breathe a little higher into your chest as you fill up with the air, just to break up some tension there. Now lacing our hands and turning the palms in front of us towards me, I'm just going to move so you can see this. I round as much as I want, like an angry cat spine, and I'm sliding the shoulder blades off the back, then we can all inhale into the back. At first you'll want to do this with your muscles, try to inflate the lungs and do it only with your breath. As humans we carry a lot of tension here, use the inhale to break it away, breathe in right into that space behind the shoulder blades, roughly where a bra strap would be.

Breathing in, breathing out, alright, rising up to sit, feel free to take a few more shoulder rolls and now we'll move into back extension, a back bend. One option here is to reach behind you and hold onto your chair or a strap or a towel, whatever you have handy, and then slide your shoulder blades together, imagine them lifting up the center of your chest like two helping hands, breathing in and breathing out. If you have the facility in your practice today, lace your hands again. Now my favorite, we'll release any gripping behind the back and lace the hands behind the head, start to kick back your head as if you're already at the beach. And if the edge of your chair is near that back nipple line, that lower shoulder blade line, you can even lean back across your chest.

Breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, let's give it just one more, why not, breathe in and breathe out, please use your hands to lift your head and come on upright using the hands to stack your head on the stem of the spine, we'll bring the arms down, maybe roll the shoulders for ease and begin to warm up your hands. When you're good and warm, bring your hands to the top of your shoulders, these are your upper trapezius muscles and start to knead through those tissues. The head might want to move a little bit and the hands might want to come closer to the neck or further away. Every choice is perfect, listen to the feeling and respond to it. And then if you're not pregnant, we'll play with a little personal acupressure using the fingertips to press down into these upper traps.

Now at first it feels as hard as a bone sometimes, but as you press, you'll begin to distinguish between the tissues, just gently breaking that up. And if this feels delish, feel free to pause and stay. I'm going to bring my hands down for now and start one of my favorite stretches. On the inhale, bring your arms up, maybe touch your hands together in prayer, make the spine nice and long, but then as you exhale, turn your palms out and reach left and right. If you have walls to the left and right, imagine that you're trying to touch them both simultaneously.

Now when I get here into about 90 degrees, I start to get some deep information down into my forearms and even into the hands. Here and here, between 90 and 45 is a sweet spot, a place where you're getting that information but you can still breathe. Now keep the hands as is, but inhale, lift up and begin to drop your right ear towards your right shoulder, straight down to the side so that your face is still facing me. Let your head be as heavy as it can possibly be, as heavy as your keys when you put them down, when you come back from work and forget them to the next day. Once that head is nice and heavy, continue reaching with the left fingertips as if pulling on your left hand and very slowly nod your head yes.

Option to turn your left palm up towards the sky as you keep nodding, stopping in any place that feels especially delicious, the breath is slow, consistent and deep, the breath telling the nervous system that it's okay. Even steeper still, you might flex back the left hand as if pressing the fingertips down on the side wall. The exit strategy is to find your right hand, place it to the side of your head and lift your head up and then relax, a few shoulder rolls, even drop the arms and notice if there's any difference between left and right side. Just inhale, bring your arms up, get tall and separate your hands, turning the palms down and reaching the fingertips left and right as long as you can. Once you get halfway down, start to investigate the sensation, moving down into the forearms, perhaps even the hands.

When you find a sweet spot, drop your left ear towards your left shoulder, let the head be heavy, a discarded item and then even as you reach with right fingertips, nod your head yes. Keep nodding, you have the option of turning that right palm towards the sky or even flexing it back. Pressing left hand helps the head up, coming to sit, if it's appropriate where you're at, placing one hand on your abdomen, eyes closed or almost closed, meditating on that smooth breath in your belly. Feel free to stay as long as you like, following the breath with your mind, I hope to see you soon. Namaste.