Do you notice it or has it become a regular feeling for you?
Are you living with a stiff neck and have given up on feeling relief?
As always I'm here to help you out with a massage to alleviate some of that tension, but I want to talk about ways we can take care of ourselves to relieve and minimize future pains.
Speaking from personal experience, there's many times that we find ourselves overwhelmed with all the things to do in a day and as a result we often neglect our own personal needs. We take pain pill after pain pill to numb the feeling and carry on in the same condition, often creating more tension as we “push past the pain”.
When I was a young girl I was diagnosed with “chronic migraines' ', I put this in air quotes because it was a false diagnosis. Having been in three car accidents as a young teen I had experienced a lot of whiplash, and was told that this affected my already “chronic” condition. I was told that this feeling of a giant boulder sitting on my head would be my life forever. I couldn't accept that. For a while I just numbed the pains with pain pills (advil, excedrin) and did the PT exercises I was given. The pain never went away and often got worse. For months this pain was just a normal part of my life and eventually my mom asked the doctor to refer us to a massage therapist that could help. I received weekly massage for six months and alongside that found a yoga practice that allowed my body to open up gently and safely. Through this combined effort my CHRONIC DIAGNOSIS WAS HEALED. It’s been YEARS since a migraine has plagued me.
I share this to express my passion for helping others find body stewardship practices that support their lifestyle, body type and way of self reflection. For me that is stretching through yoga, dancing, receiving massages and chiropractic care. I’ll share more in depth on these other methods at a later time. Today I want to focus on STRETCHING. We can all use a good stretching practice.
Through yin yoga I have found great healing and amazing opportunities to enhance my mental focus, mind-body connection and spiritual journey. I started out here, by talking about neck pain and stiffness. From what I've seen through the experiences of myself and my clients, neck pain is a key factor in the deterioration of our wellbeing. When the neck is stiff it affects down into the shoulders and back, other body parts begin to compensate for the way we sit, walk, run, etc…
Each part of the body affects another area, so I have put together a simple body stewardship practice to release neck tension by stretching the neck muscles directly and then stretching the surrounding muscles, deltoids, traps, lats, upper pecs, biceps and triceps. All of which play a key role in the support and comfort of our necks. Using self-massage techniques and range of motions exercises along with those intentional stretches to bring together a well-rounded self-care practice.
I will be hosting this practice virtually on July 22nd at 7pm via CrowdCast. You can register for the class here! https://www.crowdcast.io/e/self-massage-for-neck
Follow me on instagram (@willowsreachbodywork) for body stewardship practices and live-stream class announcements as well as massage promos.
If you're looking for a weekly routine, I teach a stretching class based on the principles of yin yoga the first, third and fourth Saturday of each month. RSVP here: https://fb.me/e/35Pyt5yXC
Peace & Blessing,
Autumn Love
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