Hey,
It's Hannah here with our assistant,
Chilli,
And we're going to do a nice little yoga sequence here just for your neck and shoulders.
We're going to layer in a little bit of self-massage as well.
I hope you enjoy.
We're just going to stay seated for this one.
So grab a comfortable seat.
That might mean you're not sitting like this.
It doesn't matter.
You can sit up on a couch,
You can sit on a chair,
You can sit in any other comfortable position.
Let's start with just a nice easy breath in and breathe out.
And as you breathe out,
Notice how your shoulders melt down.
Keep noticing that for a couple more breaths.
Then just drop your left ear down towards your left shoulder.
And you can stay here,
You can play around with a little knot.
You could stretch your right arm out.
That already creates a big line of stretch.
If you want even more,
You could interlace your fingers behind your back,
Reach them down towards the ground,
Or even bring your hands to that left hip.
Try to keep your left shoulder and elbow moving back.
So already,
Two seconds into this,
We're in this pretty deep stretch.
So remember,
Gentle and slow is key.
The next time you breathe in,
Come back to center.
Notice the difference,
Left and right side already.
Then just drop your right ear down,
Keep your shoulders heavy.
Play with a knot,
Extending your left arm out,
Interlacing your fingers behind your back,
Or even over towards your right hip.
Notice if your shoulders are creeping up.
It happens really quick.
When you've had enough,
Come back to center.
Our shoulders creep up to try to keep us safe.
They're bracing.
It's just that they're like way too good at their job.
So it's a lot of reminding yourself to keep your shoulders down.
Think of yourself like a little turtle poking its head out of its shell.
And then just take a little glance over to one side.
Try to keep your shoulders square to one side.
And then just turn your head to the front and glance the other way.
Then we'll turn this into a twist to one side.
You might have automatically placed your hand on the opposite thigh or knee.
Keep it there.
Unravel your body and place the other hand on the opposite leg.
If that's too tight of a squeeze,
Give yourself a hug instead.
You can stay here.
I like to really heavy my head.
Like imagine you've replaced your head with a bowling ball.
Let it be really heavy,
Like dead weight.
And rock or lean side to side.
You can kind of pull yourself side to side.
And come up and twist the other way.
And keep the hand on the opposite leg.
And reach over with the other arm on top.
Again,
Heavy your head.
You can also give yourself a hug.
Lean or rock side to side to bring that stretch up between your shoulder blades into the back of your neck.
Release and come all the way up.
Move your head around your shoulders.
They might already be feeling brand new.
Then we're going to just kind of deepen what we've done already.
Give yourself a hug.
This time you can keep your arms like this.
You can bring the back of your hands to touch or even your palms.
Lift your elbows up as high as they can go-ish.
Stay here.
Or you can round forward again.
But keep thinking of sending your elbows away from your nose and then up high.
Come up.
Remember which arm was on top so you can unravel.
Bring the opposite one over.
Whatever variation you like.
Elbows away from your nose and then up.
Stay here or fold down.
Couple breaths.
Soften your jaw.
Come on up.
Unravel.
Send your arms back.
Heart forward.
Titanic style.
Then lower your hands and we'll get into a bit of self-massage here.
So we're going to start with the right hand.
Bring it to the left side of your sternum.
You can use the heel of your hand or I like to use knuckles here.
So make a soft fist and you can use either these knuckles or these knuckles.
And you're just going to slide your knuckles or whatever you're using towards your armpit there.
So let it take time.
It might take five,
Ten breaths to get it over.
Rather than thinking of moving your hand,
Think of the muscles sliding out from under your hand.
Usually closer to the armpit,
You'll find a sweet spot that feels pretty tight.
You can stay there.
You can make little circles or you can just breathe into it.
Sometimes moving your arm around kind of moves the muscle under that pressure,
Which is really nice.
Now you can pause this video here and just keep doing this.
If you want more,
Make the hand like someone's talking on the phone for too long and then grab basically your pecs.
So your fingers are right in your armpit and you can just find the sweet spot there.
And again,
Same thing.
You can hang out.
You can make little circles or you can move that arm.
So the chest gets really tight.
It's the flip side of tight shoulders as we round forward.
So releasing all this not only helps us to breathe better,
But it allows for the shoulders to soften down and kind of do their own thing.
Again,
You can pause.
You can stay here as long as you want.
Eventually,
Take that hand and place it on your chest,
Just under your collarbone.
It's best if you can get skin contact for this one.
So if you're wearing a high T-shirt,
You can slide your hand under.
All you're going to do is lift your chin up and away from your hand.
You'll feel this nice stretch through all the front of your throat.
Maybe even up into your ear,
Your jaw.
Feels so good.
And it's just the slightest little pull down.
And we'll do the other side here.
So knuckles or palm,
Whatever you want.
Opposite hand,
Opposite side of your sternum.
Take your time.
Shoulders stay heavy.
I know I've said that a million times in a pretty short video,
But sometimes that's the reminder we need.
You are a turtle with a nice long neck.
It's not why I dress like this today,
But it is fitting.
You can stay in a sweet spot.
Move your arm around.
One side is often way different than the other.
Maybe you do the talking hand,
Grab a hold.
And this doesn't need to be fancy to work.
Really,
The magic is in doing these kind of subtle,
Not very exciting things often.
So doing this once a day,
A few times a week.
So good.
You can keep coming back to this.
And then take that hand,
Place it just under your collarbone.
Lift your chin up in a way like it wants nothing to do with your hand.
And when you've had enough,
Let it go.
And we'll do one last little thing here.
Two hands like you're waving.
I don't know,
Whatever this is.
Or you can do your talking hands.
And you're going to place them on your trap.
So that tight spot between your shoulders and your neck.
And you're just grabbing the muscle.
And again,
You're not like doing a whole lot of work with your hands.
You're just letting the muscles slide out from under your hands.
So I'm still on the same pass here.
I'm just kind of letting my fingertips roll across the muscle.
You can try it with the squeezy hands.
Sometimes that's a bit more work.
I'm leaving my thumbs out of it this time.
Less is more.
And I'm only on my second pass here.
So we really take our time.
Keep breathing slowly.
That's part of the magic.
That's part of the trick too.
Breathing slow,
Keeping your nervous system chill.
And just letting the muscles relax.
When you've had enough,
Flick out your fingers.
Let that energy go.
Move your shoulders,
Move your neck.
And notice if you feel a little bit different.
I have a bunch of other videos similar to this that are a bit longer.
And then some yin classes and some restorative classes all about neck and shoulders.
So if you want more,
You can check those out.
Otherwise,
I hope your neck and shoulders are feeling brand new.
Take good care.
