Neck & Throat Release

Hello and welcome back. We're back to our yin practice and today we're gonna be working with a throat chakra. Yay! Breath, the neck, the throat, the upper shoulders, the upper back, expression, prana. Yeah, so let's take a deep breath in and exhale. And all we're gonna need for this practice is a blanket and a block. So gather up your resources. We'll start with doing a little bit of work opening up this area. So as you inhale here, exhale, bring your chin towards your chest. Inhale, roll your head towards the left. There we go. And exhale, chin back towards the chest. So following along with your breath, inhale to the right, right ear towards right shoulder, and exhale back in. So again, joining the movement to the breath, inhale to the side, and exhale back to center. So we're aiming to let that ear melt down towards the shoulder, opening up the neck, sides of the neck, the upper back of the neck. Let's do one more side here. Let's meet on the right side, right ear towards the right shoulder. So I'm gonna rock my head forward a little bit and rock it back. So getting into these muscles here, sternocleidomastoid, and up into the upper trapezius muscles, the erector spinae up in the upper neck and the back. So just massaging out the neck. You might feel this up into the throat as well. And we'll meet with your right ear melting down towards that right shoulder. That's a little stretch here for the side. Take a big breath here, soften in the jaw. I'm taking your right hand and bringing it gently across your face. You're not pulling, you're just resting the hand, the fingers about where the jaw is. Soften the jaw. You might feel a really deep stretch here on the left side of your neck. If it feels okay, just a very gentle nudge, being very careful. These are very hard-working, tender muscles, scalenes here in the front. Connect the collarbones all the way up into the face. Soften the jaw. Take another big breath in. And as you exhale, turn your head down towards that right knee. And you're just taking your hand and resting it on the back of your head. So using the weight of your arm to traction out the, in the back of the neck here. Soften the shoulders. Soften the jaw. Taking one more breath. And releasing that right hand. Just very gently rolling your head back to center. Take a moment here, let things settle. And as you come up, bring your shoulders up with you and circle out the shoulders. Ah, that's nice. Big shoulder circles before we go to the other side. Good. All right, other side. Here we go. Chin towards the chest. Take a big breath in.

Exhale, side out. Rolling the head towards the left shoulder. Left ear towards the left shoulder. Nice deep breaths all the way down the right side of your neck and throat jaw. And again, easy rocking forward, rocking back. Not too far either way. We're just gently massaging out about 45 degrees forward and back. Let's give ourselves, you know, two more of these forward. Back. You might be feeling this all the way up into the jaw, into the ears. Maybe up into the temples. Back. Meeting left ear towards left shoulder. This is opening up the lateral fascial lines. Come up the side of the body. Sitting up straight. Taking your left hand right across the head. Resting. Just letting the weight of your hands, the weight and the warmth of your hands, really to traction out the right side of the neck. Just tapping in, making sure both shoulders are really soft. Letting gravity serve you here by dropping the shoulders. Deep breath. Paying special attention to your breath here in this throat chakra. The throat chakra is the bridge between the heart and the world. Between what we feel and how we express what we feel is through the throat. Take one more breath. And then I'm slowly bringing my head about 45 degrees down, resting my hand right in the back of the skull. Feel these muscles here, arper trapezius muscles coming up into the skull. Take a deep breath in. Just letting the weight of the head here traction out the neck. Beautiful. Last breath. As you exhale, let that left hand rest down. Roll the head to center. Take a moment. Let things settle. Slowly as you bring your head up, bring the shoulders up and circle out the shoulders. Good. Doesn't that feel nice? Let's add a little seated cat-dog here so there's a little bit of an undulating in the spine. Good. Beautiful. Yeah. So let's move on. Gonna remove the blanket and open your legs out really wide. Wide legged just for a moment. And bringing your left foot in for half butterfly. Instead of going forward, we're going to open out to the side. So right hand on the inside of your right shin, left arm starts to circle around. Just opening up that left shoulder. Up into the side body here. Sides of the lungs. One more. Good. And reaching your left arm all the way up and over. I'm using my right hand as a little bit of a lever to open up my chest. Either staying here or coming down onto you, your forearm, opening up the chest. Relax your head. Be here for a moment. A couple of moments. Anchoring your left hip down. Deep breaths. Relax your neck. Soft jaw. It's a nice deep opening in the side body. Down the left side of the waist, the low back. Just bringing your breath into those sensations. As energy opens up in the side body, it opens up into the neck, the side of the face and the jaw. Soften the shoulders. Let's take about three or four more deep breaths here. Just a little circling in the head. Releases any residual tension. Take one more breath. As you exhale, just let that left hand down and keeping your head down. Just walking to center and rolling yourself up one vertebrae at a time. Letting the head come up last and bring those shoulders open. Those shoulders again. Good. Yeah. So let's switch sides. Left leg out. Right leg in. Half butterfly. Here we go. Left hand. Stay inside that left shin and start to circle your right arm. Opening up the shoulder, the neck, jaw. One last time. And bringing your right arm all the way up and over. Again, you can stay right here with your hand down or come down onto your forearm. Sometimes one side is a little spicier than the other. Yeah. Keep the neck really soft. Really attending to anchoring your right hip bone down here. Really sit bone, really anchor down. Find that nice stretch in the low back on the right side all the way up to right side of your ribs. Right lungs. Up into the right side of your neck. Deep breath. Soft in the jaw.

Let's taking a few more deep cleansing breaths. Soften the shoulders. Good. Last breath in. Exhale slowly coming back to center. Remember the head comes up last. Be really gentle with yourself. Circle in the shoulders. Good. So let's move on. Come on to your hands and knees. Just gonna flush it out with some cat dogs here rounding, chin in towards the chest. It's encouraging this energy to move up and down the spine, chin deeply into the chest. Round your back. Open between the shoulder blades and arch. Opening up the chest. Two more of these. Nice. Good. And from here we're gonna come, we're coming right into Sphinx pose. So come down onto your tummies and bring your arms parallel to the elbows and the elbows parallel to the shoulders. So everything is in line here. Spread your fingers really wide. Let's do a couple of little cat dogs here. A little arching and rounding. Just one more. Good. And this time we'll settle into Sphinx. There's a little bit of energetic drag of your hands towards your feet and as you do that you're pulling your torso forward and up. Bring in the arch into the upper back.

Soften the back of the neck. Soft gaze. Very steep breaths into your low back, into your low belly. I like to visualize a string right at the center of my chest lifting my chest forward and up. And if you feel any tension in your neck you can always just let your head drop down. We'll do little circles here to see what feels good to you. This is about opening space in the neck. Soften between your shoulder blades and the back. Take a few more breaths. Nice. Slowly, gently bring yourself down. Just let your heads melt down. You feel the traction at the back of the neck here with the head down. From here a nice counter pose. Coming into Balasana, child's pose for a moment. Just walking your hands back. Open your knees out really wide. Really nourishing and restful child's pose Balasana. Perhaps resting your forehead onto your hands. Just allowing your hips to sink down and back. Your chest to melt down towards the earth, neck, soft.

And take another deep breath in here. And then slowly bring yourself up to a seat. Have your block nearby. We'll need it in a moment. In the meantime, come on down onto your back. Let's move in and out of rolling bridge a few times. Here we go. Inhale, lift the hips up, rolling one vertebrae at a time all the way up into bridge. Exhale, slow and easy, coming on down. Inhale, rolling up. Arms are straight, palms down. Exhale, slowly bring yourself down. Three more together. Joining the movement to the breath each time. See if you can come up a little bit higher. We're massaging the vertebrae all the way up and down the spine. Using the strength of the legs to lift and open the upper back, the lungs, throat. Good. Last time. Slowly bring yourself all the way down. Good job. Rolling over onto your side for the last time. Grab that block. We're gonna use this. Come back onto your backs for our inversion, Viparita Karani. Bring your block right underneath your sacrum. It should feel pretty good. And go ahead and bring your legs straight up over your head so the feet and the knees and the hips are all stacked on top of each other. And if it feels nice to have your hands down along your side, keep them there. If you want a little bit more of an opening pose, this feels really nourishing. Hands in cactus. We'll be here for a few minutes. Inversions are really powerful poses. They stimulate circulation, brings fresh blood and chi energy to our whole body, nourishing all of our vital organs. Also very calming to the mind. This is a good pose to to be in at the end of a day. This helps to relax and calm the mind. This is also nourishing up into the lungs and the throat here. The throat houses the thyroid and the thymus glands. Support our immune system, regulate our moods, our energy, our sleep. This is very nourishing for these vital parts of our body.

You might feel a cooling, a lightening in the legs, a warming in the heart and the lungs and the throat, softening in the face. You might feel a cooling, a warming in the heart and the throat, softening in the eyes. It might feel good to stay just like this, or you want to just play with it a little bit. You can circle out your ankles, nourishing and hydrating the ankle joints, maybe wiggling your toes, flexing and pointing, separating the legs just a little bit, softening the knees. Let's take a few more deep breaths here.

Simply scanning your body and noticing sensations. Let's take one more deep breath in. And as you exhale, bend your knees, slowly bring your feet back on the earth, lift up, move the block, set it off to the side, bring your hips back down. You might want to separate your feet mat width apart, arms out to the side, slowly windshield wiping your legs. You might want to let your knees rest over to one side for a few deep breaths.

Maybe stacking that left foot on top of the right knee just for a moment, maybe bringing your arms over your head, nudging that knee down, giving yourself a big stretch in front of the body. Slowly coming back to center, take a moment and over to the other side, either staying here or stacking the right foot on top of the left knee. Taking a few deep breaths, stretching, nudging that knee down, slowly releasing your right foot and stretching your legs out, arms down by your side, setting up for your perfect Shavasana, final rest, enjoy. Breathing into your breath, noticing how your breath feels as it moves through your body and how your breath is nourishing, massaging your body from the inside out. Breathing into your breath, noticing how your breath feels as it moves through your body.

Staying in Shavasana as long as feels good. If you're ready, start to deepen your breath, maybe nodding your head side to side, circling the ankles and the wrists, you might want to bring your arms over your head and give yourself a full body stretch, bending the knees, rolling over onto your side, taking that top hand, pressing it down, slowly rolling up. Breathing back to a comfortable seat, bring your hands into prayer at the heart. Thank you, Namaste.