Releasing Tension: Neck

This soothing practice is designed to relieve tension in your neck, which is such a common place for physical stress to accumulate, causing many of us to experience what we might call stiffness, tightness, achiness, or strain. We’ll start with some gentle movement and finish with a brief guided relaxation and breathing practice.

Transcript

Hi, This is Paige. This week's embodied meditation is designed to relieve tension in your neck, Which is such a common place for physical stress to accumulate, Causing many of us to experience what we might call stiffness, Tightness, Achiness, Or strain. We'll start with some gentle movement and finish with a brief guided relaxation and breathing practice, And we'll do all of this sitting up. You can be in a chair, You can be sitting on a cushion or a blanket on the floor, Or even sitting in your parked car if you have a short break between one thing and the next. So settle in, And as you're ready, We'll get started. Feel yourself sitting effortlessly tall, And from this relaxed, Comfortable seat, Simply imagine a little bit more space in your neck, Almost as if the head could gently float up. Relief, Release, Space in between each one of the vertebrae of the neck, A little more breathing room there. You might feel the shoulders drop away from the ears. You might feel the sides of the neck simply smooth out into some length and space, Breathing room in the neck. From here, Let's begin some gentle half neck rolls. So as you exhale, Let your chin drop to your chest, And as you inhale, Let your left ear drift over toward your left shoulder, A little half neck roll, Left ear drifting over toward the left shoulder. And from there, You might tip your chin up, You might gently rock your head from side to side, Any little bit of movement here that feels natural and relieving on the space. Drop your chin back to your chest, Roll your right ear over toward your right shoulder, A little half neck roll, Chin tips up toward the sky, Maybe your jaw rock side to side a bit as you pause here. Let's move back and forth like that. So as you exhale, Your chin drops toward your chest, Inhale, Roll your left ear over toward the left, Chin might tip up, The jaw might rock side to side, Chin drops back to your chest, Inhale right ear to right shoulder, Chin can tip, Maybe just a little movement of the jaw. Move through that one more time each side. Exhale your chin drops toward your chest, Inhale, Roll your neck toward the left, Maybe tip your chin, Maybe rock your jaw, Exhale chin all the way back to the chest, Inhale right ear, Right shoulder, You could tip your chin, You could gently move the jaw, Chin drops all the way back to your chest. And as you're ready, Let the crown of your head float back up, Let your shoulders drop away from your ears and just pause and notice. Is there perhaps a small bit of additional circulation and fluidity around the neck, The throat, The space just above the shoulders, Pausing, Noticing and feeling. Let's now counter the modern postural habit of thrusting the chin and the jaw forward, Which we might do if we're gazing at a screen or a device or even driving a car. We'll gently do a counterbalance to that modern life shape. So one by one, Stack your hands behind your head. You'll have one palm right against the back of the skull, The other hand behind the first hand. Let your elbows just pretty gently wing out to the sides, Nothing too rigid or forced. And then again, Gentle movement here, Press that hand that's touching your head into your head and let your head gently resist back into the hand. So you'll feel a little bit of activation and perhaps a little bit of both engagement and maybe a sense of some release in the back of the neck. And let's move with this shape along the breath. So as you inhale, You can gently release pressing the hand into the head and the head into the hand. And then as you exhale, Reengage with that hand pressing into the head, Head gently resisting back into the hand. Inhale release, Exhale press hand into head, Head into hand, Elbows winging out. Once more, Inhale release, Exhale press hand into head, Head into hand. And then release that. You can release, Let your hands rest down, Let your shoulders relax, Take that in. And we'll do the same thing, Just switching the placement of the hands. So the opposite hand now rests against the back of the head. The other hand comes behind it, Gently press the head into the hand, Hand into the head, Elbows pretty effortlessly winging out to the sides. And then we'll move along the breath again three times. Inhale you can release the pressure of the hand into the head and the head into the hand. Exhale gently reengage, Hand into head, Head into hand. Inhale release, Exhale reengage. Once more, Inhale release, Exhale hand gently pressing into the back of the head, Head into the hand. And from here before you release completely, The hand cupping the back of the head, Other hand behind it, Gently see if you can just levitate the skull off of the back of the neck. So you're not tugging or yanking on the back of the skull. You're just allowing, Inviting some space as you imagine the skull gently lifting up off of the bones of the neck. One more breath there. And again, Just release. You can relax your hands on your thighs. You can let the palms face up, Shoulders drop. Really pausing, Feeling and noticing. One more bit of engaging to invite some release. We'll bring the right hand gently to the right side of the face. You can just rest it on the right side of the face and then tilt your head over to the right so your hand is holding the right side of the head or the right side of the face, Maybe right about at the ear. Tilt your head to the right. And then again, Let your hand gently press into the head. Let your head gently press into the hand. And give yourself about three long breaths here. We'll just hold this engagement. Hand pressing into the head, Head pressing into the hand, Head tilting to the right. One more breath. And then release. The right hand can rest back on the thigh. Head gently comes back through neutral. Other side, Left hand to the left side of the head or face, Maybe right about at the ear. Let your head tilt to the left. And then again, This little isometric engagement with the hand pressing into the head, Head pressing into the hand. Three full breaths here. Gentle isometric engagement. Hand pressing into head, Head pressing into the hand, Head tilting to the left. One last breath. And then again, Release. Head comes back through neutral. Backs of the hands rest on the legs, Palms face up. Notice what you notice. From here with the head nice and neutral, Long, Tall spine, That space that we've been creating in the neck, Simply float your gaze to the right. So you're going to gaze out over your right shoulder. And as you do that, Gently tug the left shoulder back in space. Bring your gaze back through center. Let it drift over the left shoulder. And as you do that, Hug that right shoulder back in space, Maybe even a little bit down. Let's move like this on the breath a few rounds. Inhale through center with the gaze. Exhale. Take the gaze right. Left shoulder tugs back, Maybe even gently down. Inhale gaze comes back through center. Exhale over the left shoulder. Right shoulder tugs back and down. One more time through center with the gaze. Exhale. Take your gaze right. Left shoulder back and down. Inhale everything through center. Exhale gaze to the left, Right shoulder back and down. Inhale everything back through center. Pause and take that in. On your next inhale, Shrug both of your shoulders right up toward your ears. Give them a little squeeze. Maybe shrug them up a little bit more so you're purposely squeezing any patterns of tension right along the side neck. And then with a ha sound, Release your shoulders down and let them go. Twice more like that. As you inhale, Squeeze your shoulders right up to your ears, Squeezing along any tension patterns on the sides of the neck. Ha sound. Relax the shoulders back down. Let them drop. Once more. Squeeze the shoulders up toward the ears. Big ha sound. Let the shoulders simply drop. From here, We'll move into a brief guided meditation. If you've been sitting with your legs crossed one way for a long time, You may want to simply switch the cross of your legs or resettle your seat in some way. And again, Let the backs of your hands rest on your thighs if that feels comfortable. Palms facing up, Open, Receptive. You can soften your gaze or maybe even close your eyes. Slowly swallow. Release the nuances of that sensation. In modern times with so much to be done, So much information and stimulation to take in and process, So much to multitask and track, So much happening in the mental rather than the physical world, It can begin to feel as if our bodies exist just to carry our heads and our brains around with the brunt of that burden falling on the seven little vertebrae of the neck. It's no wonder this part of the body and the muscles and the tendons surrounding the bones of the neck can feel tense or strained. Let's rest into a little guided relaxation aimed at releasing some of that burden and instead feeling the neck as spacious, Open, A relaxed channel between the brain and the rest of the body. A relaxed, Open passageway through which information, Sensations, And breath flow easily, Helping your whole system feel connected and balanced. Allow your next breath to feel as if it could move from your chest all the way up to your head. As you release that breath as an exhale, Feel that releasing from the head all the way down to the chest. Once more, Inhale from the chest all the way up to the head. As you exhale, Almost a clearing of that passageway from the head to the chest. Let your next inhale feel as if it begins in the belly and passes up through the chest and all the way up to the head. As you exhale, Release the exhale from the head through the chest to the belly. Once more, Inhale feeling as if it starts in the belly and moves all the way up to the head. As you exhale, Release from the head all the way down to the belly. On your next inhale, Imagine breathing from your hips all the way up through the belly and the chest to the head. As you exhale, Release the exhale from the head through the chest, The belly to the hips. Once more, Inhaling from the hips all the way up that passageway to the head. Exhale, Releasing head, Chest, Belly, Hips. On your next inhale, Just imagine that you could inhale from your hands and your feet all the way up your limbs, All the way up your torso to your head. As you exhale, Clear passageway from the head all the way down to the extremities, The hands and the feet. Once more, Inhale from the hands and the feet all the way up the body to the head. As you exhale, Clear passageway all the way back down to the extremities. Couple more rounds of breath here, Feeling as if your whole body could take in that inhale, Clear passageway for it to reach from the body to the head. As you exhale, Release all the way from the head through the body, Whole body breathing. One more inhale, One more exhale. Just restfully taking this in. Back to where we started, Spaciousness in the neck, Ease in the body. As you're ready, You can blink your eyes open if they've been closed, Preparing for what's next. As you move through your day, The next time you notice a holding pattern of your head thrusting forward, Maybe that's accompanied by a gripping around the neck or the throat or the jaw, Try reclaiming this sense of spaciousness, Sitting effortlessly tall, Feeling the back of the skull floating up off the spine and take a breath into that space. See if it makes a difference. Thanks so much for taking this time for yourself and I'll be with you again soon.

Reviews

Done soooo many neck tension relief sequences, but most of them don’t give any instant feeling of pain and/or tension relief - but this one actually did! I’m happily surprised! Thank you.

Although I had not realized it, my massage therapist tells me my neck and shoulder muscles were more tense than usual. This practice made me aware of the tension and the exercises helped me to release this tension. This is a wonderful and effective practice and one I’ll be including in my daily meditation practice.
Thank you so much 💖🙏

Great! Even did this lying down and had nice relief!

This is an amazing practice for releasing tension, patterns of holding, gently working on posture, and for me, release of emotions and trauma. Extraordinary!

Thank you for these great exercises working on my neck pain. 💛💛