Yoga For The Neck And Shoulders

Release tension and reset your posture in just a few minutes with this gentle neck and shoulder stretch. Perfect for a quick break during your day, this short practice helps ease stiffness, improve mobility, and invite a sense of calm into your body. No experience needed, just a comfortable floor to sit on and a willingness to slow down and breathe.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. Today we're going to begin nice and simple with the head and the neck and the shoulder area because this is where most of the people tend to store a lot of tension. So for today, Find a comfortable seat on your mat, Whatever that looks like for you. It can be cross-legged, It can be sitting on your heels, You can even place a block or a rolled up blanket underneath your hips if that helps. And then when you're ready, Gently close down the eyes. Try to soften your shoulders away from your ears. Release your jaw, Unclenching it if the teeth were together. Soften through your eyebrows, Your cheekbones, Your nose, Relaxing the forehead and feeling the eyelids become heavy. And from this place, Invite a deep breath into your body through the nose and then open your mouth and let that breath go. Two more like this. Deep breath in through your nose, Gentle breath out through the mouth. One last nice deep breath in and a relaxing deep breath out. And you're welcome to keep the eyes closed if that feels comfortable or you can of course open them at any point during this session. We'll begin by dropping the left ear toward the left shoulder, Taking a deep breath in here and letting that breath go. And then choosing here whether you keep your right hand on your knee or you extend your right fingertips out long. And if the fingers are extended, Try to press them down toward the floor but just the fingertips. And if they can't quite reach the floor, Then just reach in that direction and feel this down the top of the shoulder, The neck. Now from here, Flex your right fingers back almost as though the fingers try to go toward the sky above, Feeling and extending that nerve stretch down the length of your arm. Good. Tap the fingers down, Flex them back. Tap them down, Flex them back and then tap them back down and then look down toward your left shoulder. And let's take three breaths in here. As you inhale, Look forward toward the front and exhale to look down toward your shoulder. Inhale looking forward, Exhale looking down. Last time, Inhale forward, Exhale to look down and now keep your shoulder or your chin in the direction of your shoulder and bring the chin across the chest, Nice and slow toward the centre. Bring your right hand back onto your thigh and then bring the chin all the way over to the right side and turn your head to face the front. Extend your left arm out long and then feel that length down the side of your neck. And again, Option here to keep the arm as it is or extend it long, Reaching with your fingertips. Then let's start to move that left hand. So inhale, Flex the left fingers up toward the sky, Exhale, Tap them back down. Inhale to flex the hand, Exhale tap it down. Last time here, Inhale and exhale. Reach the fingers down nice and long and then turn your chin toward your right shoulder. Inhale to look forward, Exhale to look down. Two more, Breathing in, Breathing out. Last time here and let it go. From here, Keep looking down, Bring your chin back toward the centre. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly bring that left hand onto the left knee and keep the weight of your head looking down. Imagine that all the tension in your shoulders just disappears as you feel the heaviness of gravity finding a gentle arch in your shoulders, Like a natural slump. And this is okay when it stretches across the back. But in this slump position, We definitely don't want to be sitting like this all day. So to counteract this, On your next breath in, Roll the head up, Look up toward the sky above and tilt your head slightly back. Good and then exhale to bring the chin down toward the chest, Allow the shoulders to slump and then inhale, Straighten the spine, Straighten the shoulders, Chin toward the sky. Good, One more time here. Take it down, Curving the upper spine and then rising all the way back up. Looking above, Very nice. Coming back to your centre, Take a roll of the shoulders up to your ears and then send them down long and back. Now extend both of your arms out nice and long and keep reaching as far as you can in opposite directions and then from here, Gently let the fingertips move down, Down, Down until they touch the floor. With your left hand grounded, Take your right hand up and over, Finding a nice gentle side bend and inhale to look up toward the sky. Exhale to turn your gaze down, Come back through the centre, Rise up with your right hand and then place the fingertips down on the floor. Let's take it to the other side. Inhale, Left arm reaches up and over, Finding that nice long side bend in your body. Inhale to keep looking up, And exhale to take the gaze down. Inhale to come back to the centre, Reach your arm tall and then release it down. Bring your hands onto your knees and pull the heart forward, Looking up to the sky and then as you exhale, Tuck your chin around your spine, Draw the belly button in toward the spine, Activating the core. Then from here, Come back to a nice neutral position and however you're sitting, If you've got your legs crossed, Swap it so that the other foot now leans in front and so with the other front laying in front of you, Cut that, Swapping it so that the other foot is now lying in front and with this new position, Feel the hips rearranging, Settling back down, Take a deep breath in and let a deep breath go. Inhale to reach your arms up, Reaching out wide and then exhale to bring your hands behind your head. Interlace the hands if you can and inhale, Open up, Exhale, Bring the elbows together. Nice. Inhale, Reach up, Expand the elbows out wide and exhale, Reach in, Elbows come together. One more time here, Feel that opening through your neck and this time, Keep the elbows reaching toward one another and then start to take your elbows down toward the floor. Now they might not touch, That's okay, Just go as far as it feels comfortable and then inhale to rise all the way back up, Open up, Exhale, Elbows together, Moving all the way down, See how far you can reach and then rising back up. One more time on the exhale, Moving the elbows down and holding it here, Allowing that length through the back of your neck to now extend into the spine and maybe even into the hips. From here, Release your hands down and away and then roll the spine all the way back up. Now bring your left hand over the top of your head, Pulling the left shoulder down and use your right hand to just massage out through that right shoulder. So you can grip from the back and then bring the right hand up and over and maybe you move up to the top of the neck and then slide down with the hand, Bringing a little massage into this motion, Releasing anywhere that feels super tight or tense. Good and then come back to the centre, Swapping sides, Right hand up and over and left hand moves from the back to the front and from the top of the neck down to the shoulders. Very nice, Now releasing the hands, Reaching up to the sky one more time on your deepest breath in and as you exhale, Release your arms down, Down, Down, Resting them in your lap. Closing down the eyes, Take a moment here to notice how the shoulders feel, How does the neck feel, How does the face feel. Notice if anything has changed or shifted since the beginning. Hopefully a little tension has disappeared and a little more space has arrived in your body. Whenever you're ready, You can open up the eyes