Somatic Practice: Your Daily Routine for Stiff Upper Back and Neck

Somatic Practice: Your Daily Routine for Stiff Upper Back and Neck

Routine for Upper Back and Neck Tension
Somatic Practice

Your Daily Routine for Stiff Upper Back and Neck

Ever felt like you needed some extra TLC for your upper back, neck, and shoulders? You’re not alone. Come along as I guide you through an enriching somatic session, inspired by Feldenkrais method. 

This is a sublime practice that will not only bring a peaceful awareness to these often cranky areas, but also provide some valuable somatic learning. Healthy human movement is variable, and the most sophisticated movers have the capacity to move globally. This practice will help you to cultivate both for comfortable movement and posture. 

You will need a blanket and a bolster or pillow.

Befriending the Hip: A Holistic Approach to Hip Tension

Befriending the Hip: A Holistic Approach to Hip Tension

Yin Yoga for Tight Hips
Yin &Pranayama

Befriending the Hip: A Holistic Approach to Hip Tension

Ever felt frustrated with persistent hip tension that just won’t go away? Ever wondered if there’s a simpler, more holistic way to relieve that discomfort? Today, we’re using the healing power of awareness in movement: Yin Yoga, to bring radical acceptance and relief to our bodies.  I’ll equip you with practical strategies to maximize your relaxation and release built-up tension not just for today, but more and more over time.

Radical Acceptance is a Catalyst for Lasting Relief

As you practice the postures, we’ll be using a simple breathing protocol to soothe and befriend your hips. By the end of our practice together, you’ll have developed a more comprehensive understanding of your hip tension and some strategies to overcome it.

Props needed: bolster, blocks, blanket

Neck Pain Relief

Neck Pain Relief

Neck Pain Relief

Yin & Somatics

Neck Pain Relief

The human neck is a tricky place. It’s a complex experience of musculoskeletal, nervous and vascular tissue. But also bound to thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Any of these components of the neck can contribute to issues here.  

For this pod practice I have created a somatic lesson to address this complexity. We will lean mostly in to somatics here with just a couple of Yin poses for gentle tension of the sternocleidomastoid (SCM). This is a very simple practice that you could even do in your bed. All you need is something to rest/slide your head on. 

 

Your Nervous System and Your Neck

Your Nervous System and Your Neck

Yin Yoga for Neck and Shoulder

Yin & Somatics

Your Nervous System and Your Neck

This is a go to, short practice to relieve neck and shoulder tension naturally. The whole practice can be done from a simple chair. You will engage in some somatic work as well as gentle stretching to increase range of motion and reduce feelings of stiffness. You will also learn about the relationship between these cranky tissues and the nervous systems. Chronic muscle tension in neck and shoulders can be debilitating and painful. But there are holistic strategies that you can use to get some relief. 

Props Neeeded: A firm, armless chair

Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Tension

Yin & Somatics: Stress Support

Yin & Somatics: Stress Support

Yin Yoga for Chronic Stress

Yin & Somatics

Stress Support

Chronic stress is linked to many of the most pernicious chronic diseases that plague modern humans. Managing stress is of critical importance for health, memory, learning and quality of life. We can’t change the stressful times that we live in. But there are simple, evidence informed strategies that you can use to reduce your stress in the moment, and with practice, manage your responses to stressors in the long term. In this practice we actually explore three of these strategies.

I’ve also focused our movement on the areas in which most of us hold our stress; the shoulders, neck and adductors (inner thighs).

This practice is a go to in your stress management plan.

Props: a blanket, maybe two blocks

Chair Yin for Travel Aches and Pains

Chair Yin for Travel Aches and Pains

Yoga for Chronic Pain

Chair Yin

For Travel Aches and Pains

Many of my clients experience a pain flare after travel. Pain is so complex and multifaceted, so there is never any one reason that it rears it’s ugly head. This practice is a quick and accessible practice that you can do just about anywhere in a chair. I’ve chosen the stretches we all crave when we’ve been sitting in a car or airplane as well as regulation practices to help you calm your nervous systems to get some perspective or even relief. Often, when pain is flaring in a travel situation, it’s because we have some anxiety and we aren’t moving very much. This practice addresses both issues.  

Props needed: a chair 🙂