Welcome,
And thank you for taking a break with me.
Your time is valuable,
So I want to make this time useful for you to get you loosened up and find some space within your body to do what you need to do for the rest of your day.
So here we go.
For these stretches,
You can do them sitting in a chair.
So start by pressing your sit bones down evenly on the chair throughout the exercises.
This will give you an indication if you are leaning to one side more than the other,
And you want to have this balanced,
Uplifted feeling throughout.
So use those bony landmarks there,
Your sit bones,
To feel if you are imbalanced or not.
Your feet are firmly planted on the ground,
And if your legs dangle,
Feel free to get something to support your feet.
Sitting upright,
Lengthen your spine from your tailbone,
Reaching up to your neck and out through your crown.
Engage your low abdominals,
Mid,
And upper abdominals.
Have your muscles hold you up,
Supporting your joints and bones.
Feel free to close your eyes.
Put your hands on your thighs and gently press down,
And as you press down,
Extend your spine up.
Long spine,
Long neck,
And your crown is reaching up.
Start incorporating your breath with intention,
Taking deep inhales into the diaphragm as if you're filling up your belly,
And exhale out your mouth as if you are fogging up a window.
Shoulder blades reaching down to the earth,
Shoulders rolled back,
Lengthening your chest across,
Finding length vertically throughout your spine,
Inviting length throughout the front of your chest and in your upper back,
Opening it up without flaring out your ribs.
Using your pictorial muscles,
Breathing,
Finding length horizontally and vertically,
Making space within our bodies.
Let's start by loosening up our neck with computer work and use of our cell phones.
We tend to grind or maybe lock your jaw.
This affects our neck,
Our shoulders,
Which affects our posture,
Breathing,
Concentration,
Digestion,
And so much.
So let's loosen up our neck.
Start by taking a deep inhale into your belly,
And on your exhale,
Nod your chin to your chest and do intentional neck circles,
Moving your head with control and intention.
Incorporate your breath,
One full breath per circle,
Intentionally trying to hit each point in the circle.
Be in tune with any tightness that you feel,
Any sounds that you hear.
Finish the circle that you are on and then carefully reverse.
Be in tune to how it feels,
Moving your neck and head in different directions,
Getting to know our bodies more intimately,
Finding length in our neck.
Finish the circle that you are on,
Realigning your neck and head with the rest of your spine.
Reaching up,
Sitting up tall,
Finding length throughout your spine.
Press your hands down into your thighs as you find extension again,
Tailbone reaching down and crown reaching up.
Roll your shoulder blades down,
Shoulders back without flaring out your ribs.
Keep your abdominals engaged to hold you upright.
For our neck stretch,
Facing forward,
Take your right hand and put it to the left side of your head by your temples and gently pull your head and neck towards the right,
Still facing forward,
Still keeping your neck long,
Not allowing your neck to sink down.
Feeling a stretch on that left side,
Left shoulder and shoulder blade are reaching down.
Now continue with that stretch as you look down at your right thigh while you're gently pulling your head and neck,
Feeling a stretch still on that left side.
Continue to keep your neck long.
Take your left arm out behind you,
Moving it gently up and down,
Reaching it away,
Enhancing your stretch.
Feel like your arm is an extension of your neck.
Your neck is long.
Your right hand is gently enhancing your stretch as you look down to your right thigh and extend your left arm behind you.
Now carefully turn your neck so your head is facing forward and get out of this position,
Realigning your body once again,
Hands on your thighs and finding length throughout your spine.
Now let's do the other side.
As we do,
Be in tune to the differences that you feel from stretching one side and the other.
Take your left hand to the right side of your head by your temples and gently pull it towards the left while thinking long neck,
Long spine.
Avoid sinking down into the stretch with your neck.
Now look down to your left outer thigh and reach your right arm away behind you,
Finding length.
Again,
That arm is an extension of your neck and you're enhancing your own stretch.
See what feels good to you.
As you move that right arm behind you,
Gently up and down,
Breathing,
Loosening up any tension you are carrying.
Carefully look forward to get out of that position.
Take your time,
Realign your spine,
Roll your shoulders back,
Your shoulder blades are down,
Abs are engaged and your spine is long,
Finding space in between each vertebrae.
Next,
We will do some chin tucks.
We are focusing on realigning our head with the rest of our spine.
With the frequent use of cell phones and computers along with the stress of gravity and just everyday situations,
Many of us tend to stick our neck out which can lead to rounded shoulders and of course our head follows.
So sitting upright,
Using your core muscles to hold you up,
Shoulders rolled back without flaring your ribs,
Shoulder blades reaching down to the earth,
Extend your neck long,
Crown reaching up.
Take your index and middle finger from one hand and press those two fingers up against your chin.
Think of like giving yourself a double chin.
So let's do this together.
We will hold it for a count of 10,
Gently release and then we will repeat.
So here we go.
And let's get ready.
Press your fingers into your chin,
Moving your head back in a line with your spine.
10,
9,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
And 1.
Gently release.
Alright,
Here we go.
Get ready.
Gently press.
10,
9,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
And 1.
Gently release.
The last exercise we're going to do for our neck incorporates deep breathing release.
We want to focus on opening up our throat,
Loosening up our jaw and neck.
Find the length and muscle engagement throughout your body,
Holding yourself up with your core muscles.
Take your right hand to your collarbones.
Take your left hand underneath your chin and gently start to use that left hand to pull your head back as your right hand creates a pulling down movement towards your sternum.
Use your hands to massage your neck in opposite directions.
Your right hand is pulling down gently from the middle of your neck down towards your sternum while your left hand is massaging with an upward motion from the middle part of your neck up throughout your chin.
Open up your neck muscles all around your throat.
Be in tune with any tightness that you're feeling,
Any sounds you want to make.
As you do this motion,
This massage,
Start to open up your throat with an exhale as if you're fogging up a window.
Taking deep inhales into the diaphragm as if you're filling your belly up with air.
And release from there and let it open up your throat.
Focus on opening up and releasing.
If any sounds come out,
Let them come out.
And while you're doing this sensation,
This massage with your hands,
Incorporate that breathing.
Use your own hands to heal your own body.
Use your own release of your breath to release any tension,
Any stress that we're feeling.
All right,
Open up your throat so we can speak what we're feeling,
What we're thinking.
Be free and let all of that loose.
Loosen up your jaw and take another deep breath in.
While you're still looking up,
Take both hands behind your neck and gently massage the base of your head and neck while moving your neck slowly side to side.
Moving through,
Releasing any tension,
Any stress.
Now start to massage your ears,
Your earlobes,
The back of your ears,
And all along the sides of your neck right below your ears.
Re-aligning your own body,
Using your own hands to heal yourself.
Listen to any sounds that you may hear in your neck.
Loosen up your jaw,
Take another big breath through your mouth,
Opening up your throat.
In any of our sessions,
Please be free to release vocally as well.
All sounds are perfect.
Release as much as you need.
Slowly realign your neck and head with the rest of your spine,
Finding your length again.
As you sit here,
Finishing our session,
Smile.
Smile brightly to yourself.
Smile that you took this time in your day to realign and to decompress.
You are creating your day with intention.
Thank you so much for being here.
Here we go.
To finish up,
Take one hand to your heart and one hand to your belly.
Feel the beating of your heart.
Feel the belly as it expands with air.
Heartbeat and breath are our connections to life.
Give love and gratitude to yourself for taking this moment to reconnect to your body,
To your breath,
To your true self.
Thank you so much.
May we see the light within us.
May we see the light in all.
