Neck Release Through Breath & Touch

In this session, we will start by finding space and length within our bodies. We will continue on to use breath and self-touch to release tightness in our neck. If you work at a desk, carry tension in your neck, clench or grind, this is an excellent practice for you to fit into your day. This session will be done standing.
Music by Silencio Music

Transcript

In today's session we are going to open up our body, Find space within and practice breathing into tight areas in our neck and releasing from that area. We will incorporate breath and self-touch to heal and release. This is one of our human superpowers we have, To heal from within. Let's release what is not serving us. We are going to start by standing hip distance apart. Your feet are parallel, Toes going forward. As we stand here, We start to incorporate our breath. Taking a deep inhale through the nose and exhale out the mouth. As we breathe with our inhale, Feel that that breath goes all the way down to your diaphragm, Into your belly, Expanding your belly. And then on its way out, Pause is here at the heart and releases out the mouth. And again. So as you start to incorporate that breath, Filling up the belly, Expanding, Making space and addressing the heart center on the way out. Into that breath, As you start to have the sensation of firmly planting your feet down to the ground, Dispersing the weight evenly from the heels, The arches, The toes, The sides of your feet. Put yourself here, Start to feel the engagement in the back of your legs, Traveling up the front of your legs, Through your glutes, Your low back, All the way up along your spine, Through your neck and up out your crown. As you start to feel that engagement, Think about your abdominal muscles, Your pelvic floor muscles, The muscles along your spine engaging, Holding you up. Not relying on just our feet, Our ankles, Our knees to hold us up, But everything above engaging those muscles, Holding us up strong. Start to incorporate our arms. The sensation that those arms are reaching away, Fingertips down to the floor, Palms facing away from you. So someone is pulling each hand, Each arm further from your body. Take a deep breath in and exhale, Palms still facing away, Spread your fingertips wide and bring your arms overhead for a big circle, A circle with those arms. Take a deep breath in as your arms are at the top and exhale, Start to bring them down by your side. So now you're combining a breath, The engagement of the muscles, The lengthening up the spine, Top one reaching down and crown reaching up. And the arms, The limbs are active. Just taking our arms up above our head and down again back by our sides. Just spreading your fingertips wide as if you're releasing any stress, Any heaviness, Any darkness out of those fingertips, Out through your breath, Reaching those arms away from you. Start to be a little more flowy and intuitive with your arm circles. Maybe you should bring those arms down. They come across each other and give yourself a quick hug, Then embrace that touch and then exhale, Bring it back up overhead in that circle. Maybe when you get to the top, They cross paths, Like an X shape with your arms and bringing them back down, Returning to the hug. You could alternate which arm goes on top and which goes on bottom for the hug and for the crossing of the arms. Still keep those abs engaged, The core muscles and find that length all throughout your body. When I say find that length, It's feeling like as if you're expanding those muscles that are closed up and tight. You are starting to open and release them, Open them up to their full potential, Stretching your own body here through movement and through engagement. Into your last circle here, Start to bring your arms down by your side. Your palms can either face you or away. Start to roll those shoulders back and down, Making these circles with your shoulders. Your shoulder blades go down your back and then riding up and then reverse your circle when you're comfortable taking the shoulders forward now. Still keeping that core engaged. High and wide, Reaching up and over. Roll your shoulders back, Shoulder blades down, Lining up your body again. You're going to take the left hand behind the small of your back. So the back of your left hand is the small of your low back. You're going to take your right hand, Your right palm to the left side of your head and gently just pull your head and neck to the right side as that left hand stays behind there and the small of your back, Feel like that left shoulder blade is reaching down. You're enhancing your stretch by pulling the side of your head here. Now keep this sensation of the pull of the head and look down to your right thigh, Enhancing your stretch and hitting a different area in your neck. Maybe even feeling it there at the base of your skull. Take your right hand as it's pulling gently on your neck and head, Looking to the right and explore your body. So taking my fingers to the base of my skull here, Just kind of massaging there, Stretching, Enhancing my own stretch, Touching where it feels tighter. One more round of breath here, Looking down here at the right thigh, Right foot and exhale looking forward, Carefully getting out of that stretch. I'm going to take my right hand now to the small of my back. Left hand is now going to come to the right side of my head, Tilting my head and neck to the left, My right shoulder blade feel like it's reaching down, Keeping my right hand at the small of my back. Breathing here. Now looking to that left foot, Left thigh, Enhancing that stretch, Feeling a different area, That right side of my neck. I'm going to use my hands to again touch and explore. So I'm taking my left fingertips to the base of my skull here, To the right as I'm gently pulling and stretching my neck and head to the left, To the right side of my skull, Just giving it some love there. Looking down at my left thigh. One more round of breath. Exhale, Looking forward, Realigning your head and neck with the rest of your spine, Bring your arms down by your side, Fingertips down, Palms face away. Standing strong, Having that lifted feeling from your pelvic floor muscles all the way up through your abdominals. We're going to start to breathe into the neck, So still standing here, Feet are pressed down evenly. Take your right hand to the left side of your neck. So use your intuition here until where it feels tight. So I'm traveling my fingertips from the left side of my skull, The base there, All the way down my neck. And it's as if my fingers are just walking with this firm pressure, Pressing down, Being in tune to where you feel that tightness, Leaning my head to the right to help enhance that stretch. Just walking those fingers up and down. Find a spot along there from the base of the skull on the left, All the way down to the shoulder. We're still exploring here, But find a spot that you would like to concentrate on. Your head is still leaning towards the right, Helping to enhance that stretch. So let's use our own breath and our own hands to heal our own body and release. My fingertips are flat onto a certain spot that feels a little tighter for me. As I take a deep breath in, I'm going to take my attention to as if I'm breathing into that area. When I fill up that area with air, I'm going to hold it for a count of four in my head. And then exhale, Release. And as I release it out of my mouth, I feel as if I'm carrying that tightness or that tension with me out through my breath. We go again, Breathing into that area, Breathing into that tightness on that left side. Expanding that area with our breath, Holding it, We're gathering that tightness, Gathering it up and exhale, Release. So often we think, Oh, We're just either breathing into the diaphragm or the lungs. And yes, Of course that's incorporated, But you can also have that mind-body connection of breathing into other areas in your body to expand and release. Let's do two more here. Deep breath into that tightness. And if you want to move your fingertips to a different area, Maybe down or up your neck or at the base of your skull, Feel free to do that. Holding it there, Gathering up that tightness. And exhale, Release it out. At the same time, You can even move your fingers. You don't have to leave them still. You can massage. We'll do another one here, Deep inhale into that tightness. Hold and exhale, Release. Let's try it on the other side. So realigning my neck and head, Maybe loosen up your shoulders a little, Reach those shoulder blades down and back. I'm going to tilt my head to the left now as I take my fingertips and just walk them up and down the right side of my neck. So I'm going from the base of my skull on the right, All the way down, Walking, Putting pressure through those fingertips down to my shoulder. Just getting to know my body a little bit better through touch. It's like a gentle massage. You can always massage your own body. Start to figure out where you want to have that first spot to be because remember, You can always change it up. So I found my spot here. I'm going to put my fingertips flat on top. Take a deep breath in into that spot. Feel it expand, Hold it for a count of four and exhale, Release from that area. Start to move your fingertips, Kind of massaging that spot as we breathe into it. And again, You can switch up your spot if you want to go higher or lower, It's up to you. Intuitive movement. And here we go, Take a deep breath into your spot. Putting some firm pressure down onto that spot, Holding your breath and exhale, Release that tension and that stress from that area. Let's do two more. Deep inhale. Hold, Gather up that tightness, Loosen it up and exhale, Release. Let's do one more here together. I'm going to go to the base of my skull here on the right side for this one. So take a deep breath in. Release. Realign your neck and head with the rest of your spine. We're going to keep our head and neck in line here with the rest of our spine as I take my hands behind my head and spreading my thumbs away from the rest of my fingers. So that way my thumbs actually end up at the base of my skull. So it's almost like I'm making an L shape with my hands. So my fingertips are going more up to the sky and behind my head as my thumbs are horizontal along my skull here. And I'm just going to start to rub here at the base of my skull. My elbows are out to the side in this position so I start to feel a little stretch in my chest. Think about opening up your chest. Breathing here. Keeping the sensation, You're going to nod your chin to your chest. Put a soft bend in your knees if you need. And just massage on that skull as I'm massaging my skull here with my thumbs. My fingers are supporting my head and neck, The back of my head. I'm going to nod my chin to my chest. A little stretch in my neck. You can put a soft bend in your knees if you need. And just have this upward massaging, Stroking motion with your thumbs. Now I want to change your hand position so that way your elbows come out right in front of you and your fingertips are now pulling your skull gently down, Down towards the floor. Put a soft bend in your knees. And then we're eventually going to look between our legs here. Still have that gentle sensation of those fingertips at the base of your skull pulling your head and neck down towards the floor. Take a deep breath in here. And exhale, Let your hands go, Let them hang heavy. Have your palms face each other and see if you can reach your crown any further down to the floor in this like forward fold position. I'm going to put my fingertips on the floor and inhale as I lift my head and I can chest just a little bit. Now I'm looking down at the floor and exhale bend the elbows looking down between the legs. Feeling a stretch in the back of the legs. Inhale one more time. Opening up, Opening up that heart and exhale folding again. Let your arms dangle loose here, Let gravity be your friend, Decompressing your spine. Take a deep inhale here. And on your exhale, Engage those abdominals and start to restack your spine one piece at a time like your pelvis is staying forward and your arms are heavy dangling here. As your shoulders restack, Bring those arms up above your head into a gentle backbend palm still facing each other. And hold this backbend here for just a moment. Those heels are pressed down, Your fingertips are reaching up and even though you're in the backbend position, You find that length in your spine, Your abs are engaged to help protect your back. And exhale realign your head and neck with the rest of your spine. Bring your arms out to a T, Palms face down. And exhale, Bring your palms down towards your body. So I hope you enjoyed this session. Starting the practice of using your own hands to heal your own body and releasing through breath, Breathing into specific areas in your body. You can return to this session anytime and take what you've learned from here and apply it in your everyday life. Fit in a break, Perhaps a work break in the middle of your day and just have that mind-body connection of releasing but most importantly, Use your instincts, Use your soul's power of instinct to release and to tune in to your true self. Thank you so much for joining me here.

Reviews

This was really helpful in releasing tension. I am enjoying finding more breath and body and somatic practices. I'll definitely bookmark this. Thank you so much! 💜

Hello beautiful 🌺🍎🌺🍎🌺Thank you so much for the wonderful practice 🎀🎀🎀I enjoyed it so much and feeling like melted chocolate 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste