This is a gentle yet very effective practice for challenging our biases. Neck pain is one of the most common types of chronic pain and like all pain, is a product of bi-psycho-social factors. For today, we will focus of the psychological and cultural contributors to neck pain. We’ll do so with somatic movements intended to activate tissues in your neck, shoulder, and chest.
We are each granted an amazing opportunity in this life to cherish and protect priceless vessel that we get to live in. I’ve noticed that when my students learn more about their body they can’t help but be in awe of how incredible it is. How unfathomable and amazing is it, that this flesh facilitates our unique and evolving consciousness throughout our lifespan. I’ve learned over the years, that when people know more about their body they make better choices. And that’s what your practice this week is all about. I’d like to help you to understand a little bit more about the structure of your connective tissues, And as always I’ll help you to learn in the best way, through experience. So for today, we will be stretching water.
Posture is an incredibly loaded topic in our culture. If you’ve been involved in yoga for any time you’ve been receiving messages about posture that may not be helping you. We have hundreds of not thousands of sources daily telling us that our bad posture is the cause of maladies such as chronic pain functional movement issues breathing issues and more.
To be an adult is to sometimes struggle with upper back and neck tension and even pain. This is my professional opinion. Though this pain/tightness can really disrupt your life, it’s important not to get too tied up about it. This practice is to give you some go to tools for managing this suffering.
Sciatic nerve issues are a special kind of hell. That stingy, nervy, intense pain down into the thigh, back of knee, heel or even foot happens on a spectrum. Some of us get occasional jolts, others full on numbness of the foot. It’s always best to get checked out by your doctor if you are experiencing these symptoms. But if you are in a management and healing phase, this practice can restore the sliding and gliding to your sciatic nerve both in the gluteal muscles and at the various nerve roots. This kind of suppleness is a big part of healing.
As a Movement for Healing Coach, I work with a lot of people with chronic back pain. While every client is different, there are some go to practices that I find are very helpful. This practice is a distillation of some of the strategies I use with my clients; Somatic work, Yoga, mindfulness and light, experiential education. It’s a bit shorter than my average episode as well, since I want to make sure you can fit this into a busy day if needed.