Hello and welcome.
My name is Jillian.
I am a somatic healing guide with a focus in grief and trauma.
Today we are going to be practicing with our shoulders and neck in mind.
Oftentimes we are holding a lot there.
We have a lot of knots so this practice will really help to stretch those areas.
We'll get started by coming to sit nice and tall,
Dropping the shoulders,
Closing the eyes,
And connecting to the breath.
Allow yourself to arrive.
Slow your breath.
Now as you exhale,
Let's drop our chin to our chest.
We're going to start pausing here as you feel the stretch in the backside neck.
Slowly we'll start to move our chin over to our left shoulder and then slightly tilting our head back.
So you'll notice you'll find the knots,
The tension.
Keep pulling your up towards the sky and just taking note of anywhere where you're finding the holding,
You're finding the pain.
Then taking your opposite arm and just bringing it forward and back.
Really fully stretching out from neck to hand here.
You can pause whenever you feel.
Then as you exhale,
Let's bring our chin back down.
You can take some spins here left and right with your head down and then coming to the other side.
Again,
Let's bring our chin over to our chest to the right side and then slowly keeping your head as is.
Maybe rubbing any knots that you have in the back.
And then we can start to tilt our head up.
Go at your own pace.
Notice what needs your attention and then move intuitively from there.
Maybe you take that other arm and you start moving it forward and back,
Flexing through the hand.
Notice where you need to pause.
Maybe one side is more tense than the other.
And that's okay.
As you're ready,
Let's come back with our hands.
We'll start moving our head left and right.
Left to right,
Opening our eyes wide as we stop on one side.
This activates the liver.
And then exhaling to the other side,
Opening the eyes nice and wide.
It might feel weird.
It's good for your liver.
You can continue doing this left and right,
Breathing one way,
Breathing the other way.
And then on your next inhale,
Let's bring our hands up to the sky.
Interlace the fingers,
Stretch.
Root to rise.
As you exhale,
Let's bring our hands behind us,
Interlacing the fingers and then coming to bring them down.
You can plant your hands behind you,
Bring your chin down to your chest,
Feeling a stretch in the back,
Breathing.
And from here,
We'll start to do some Sufi circles,
Starting with my arms straight.
You can have your arms on your thighs,
Just circles with the spine,
The head.
You'll have a lot more movability if you just bring your hands down to your knees and take some circles,
Both with your body and with your head.
Going the other way,
So intuitively flowing as you open up all of the knots,
All of the stuckness,
Releasing,
Making space.
And when you're ready,
We'll come to sit just as we started.
Inhaling,
Your hands all the way up towards the sky and exhaling to bring them down to your side.
Once again,
Inhaling,
Your arms come all the way up and flowing as you bring them back down.
Inhaling up,
Gaze can start to follow.
Exhale,
We're going to bring one hand down and around,
Taking circles with our right arm.
You can go as big or as small as you want.
Then going the other way,
Switching our arms here.
Good.
We're going to bring our hands up,
Interlacing,
Big stretch.
And exhale,
Bring your arms beside you,
Hands heart to heart center,
Bowing your head.
Thank you so much for practicing,
For giving love to your shoulders.
I'll see you in the next video.
