09:13

Relieve Low Back & Shoulders Pain With Movement

by DAYANA

Rated
4.6
Type
guided
Activity
Meditation
Suitable for
Everyone
Plays
1.3k

This short movement meditation aligns your body and mind to reduce back and shoulder pain while increasing your flexibility, stability, and coordination. Any practice can be enhanced with these gentle exercises and meditations of the world-renown Feldenkrais Method. Playful, yet highly studied and deeply instructive, this somatic meditation sparks surprising new connections within your body as you “rewire” your moving, thinking, and feeling habits.

RelaxationPain ReliefMovementFlexibilityStabilityCoordinationGentle ExercisesFeldenkraisSomatic MeditationAlignmentPelvic HealthNeckChestBody AwarenessSpinal AlignmentPelvic TiltingNeck ArchingBreathingBreathing AwarenessChest ExpansionsEye MovementsSyncing

Transcript

Please find a comfortable chair where you can sit yet not so comfortable that you sink into it and can't sense the weight of your pelvis on the support anymore.

Any dining room chair or even your office chair could do.

Come closer to the front edge of the chair so your back is not against the backrest and your feet are comfortable yet grounded on the floor.

And spend a little time adjusting the position of your feet so they're not very close together and not too far apart,

More or less the width of your shoulders.

Now observe that your head is not in front of your spine or behind it and how do you refine this idea?

Well,

Take the head a little bit forward in front of your spine and then place it back behind you and sense the contact,

The weight on the chair change slightly.

So now without folding or arching,

Just maintaining the length of your spine,

Allow the head to come forward and you tilt or tip forward and then come back a little and see if you get a little bit clearer on where is that place where the head is exactly at the top of your spine,

Not falling forward and not leaning back.

Now keeping your head in this position at the top of your spine,

Begin to tilt the pelvis forward just so your pubic bone comes a little bit more in contact with the chair and you feel the lower back arching and see that your head and eyes will be invited to look up.

Do this a couple times.

You can place your hands on your knees comfortably resting and as you arch your back and look up you let your head and eyes follow,

Your belly comes forward and then let it return to the place where your head is at the top of the spine,

Long,

Quiet.

Now a few times do the reverse movement.

Look down as if you were going to see in between your legs and let the pelvis rock back and your back round,

Your belly coming in.

Breathe as you do this.

Sense the contact of your feet changing on the floor as the contact of your pelvis changes on the chair.

And now letting your breath free and uninterrupted alternate between looking down between your feet and rounding and looking up and letting your pelvis tilt forward and arching your lower back.

Now let it stop for a moment and sense the contact of your buttocks with the chair,

Your feet with the floor and the place of your head,

The position of your head on top of your spine.

Are you getting a little taller?

As you do the movement again pay attention that when you look up when you're arching your lower back there's an arch also happening in the back of your neck.

Make it clearer by letting your lower jaw drop a little bit and your mouth open.

And when you return and going towards folding and tilting your pelvis back and lowering your eyes let your upper jaw close over the bottom as if you're going to take a bite of air.

And continue alternating between looking up and arching,

Attending that the arch of your neck is also long and participating in the same timing of the arching of your lower back.

So together you look up,

Open your mouth and then lower your head as you round and tilt back.

And once or twice just pay attention to the arch that you're drawing not only in your lower back and in your neck but also with the gaze of your eyes along the floor and all the way at the wall in front of you and all the way up to the ceiling.

So you're sensing these simultaneous arcs happening at the same time your back,

Your neck,

Your eyes and see if you can do something with your chest letting it also become an arc.

So as you look up you can bring your shoulder blades together,

Expand your chest and as you fold you can bring your shoulder blades apart and round your chest.

Breathe as you do this movement and look for how can you enjoy it a little more.

Now take a little break.

Rest again quietly sitting and observe if you're able to stack your spine one vertebrae on top of the other with the head at the very top.

Not in the front,

Not in the back.

In a long line from the contact with the chair to the top of your head.

And now one last time a little faster.

Arch your back and look up and round your back and look down a little faster,

A little smoother,

A little less controlled.

Bobbing your head up and down making sure your mouth is open,

Your teeth are free,

Your eyes are following and see if you find a tendency to look more to the right or to the left and maintain the line of the movement in between your legs along the middle.

Do it faster and faster,

Smaller and smaller and then slow it down a bit keeping it small until you find just the right pace that feels to you the best.

Let it quiet down completely now and enjoy the vibration of the movement all throughout yourself.

Sense the length of your spine one last time and as your head is freely positioned at the top of your spine gently look down with your eyes and up and see that you can make tiny arcs with your eyes independently from the movement of your head as if you wanted to look down and up in tiny arcs with your eyes without moving the head.

Can you do it and still breathe?

So next time you're looking down at your phone or your computer or your book could you maybe look down with your eyes without having to round or arch?

Have fun playing with this.

Meet your Teacher

DAYANAPennsylvania, USA

4.6 (107)

Recent Reviews

Caron

November 27, 2023

Dayana is a truly gifted teacher. This short yet effective sequence will guide you through intelligent, precise gentle movement opening the spine and supporting areas.

Ansh

November 6, 2023

Brilliant 🙏

Skylar

January 18, 2023

❤️ thank you for being here, I love your attention and your presence. My lower back has been sore and you helped me find ease and care for it, felt gentle and loving. Will come back to it again tonight🌸💞

Salvatore

January 26, 2022

My back pain is almost completely gone 🥰. Mille grazie! Thank you!

Sophie

August 22, 2020

Very gentle and simple. Easy to follow. It does some good to the back and shoulders.

Gena

August 3, 2020

Thank you for this suggestion. This one was more challenging for me than the longer one. It was helpful in that I realized I can’t tell where my head should sit on my spine. I’m pretty sure I definitely need to repeat this. Great voice and wonderful instructions to help me get to know my body!

Feather

June 20, 2020

I appreciated the the suttle gentle nature and pace of your guided practice. I was able process your spoken direction simultaneously with moving each part of my body; effectively syncing up. I did not experience the sensation of my spine "stacking" yet, but did experience less tension and increased range of motion. Thank You .

Connie

April 21, 2020

Another great way to love your body! A great way to open and release tightness at the start of the day. Thanks so much Dayana.

Rebecca

March 3, 2020

I was first introduced to the Feldenkrais method by my physical therapist who had briefly met Moshe Feldenkrais as a conference. As someone with multiple physical concerns stemming from a rare genetic condition, finding movement/proprioception/strengthening activities has been challenging to say the least. Feldenkrais is one of the few I can comfortably and consistently do. I am still learning, but do the pelvic clock almost every day to help with proper alignment and proprioception. This practice was an interesting variation (at least in the beginning,) of the pelvic clock, with an eye towards developing good biomechanics. Bookmarked. It did relieve some of my early morning aches and pains. I am definitely grateful for that. Thank you so much for sharing this gift with us here. I see you and the light within you. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻

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