Along with the lower back, the neck and shoulders are the spot that cause most people the most problems. Tension, stiffness, pain, partly due to posture and lifestyle choices, but also greatly caused by the huge loads of worry and responsibility that most of us carry around on our shoulders. You recognise yourself in this? If so, let's rock out with some neck rolls - you'll feel great after.
This is one point where my yogic life and my former aerobics-instructor life differ slightly. I recommend you all stick with the anatomically correct and safe version to protect your necks as they're pretty important and can be a wee bit fragile too.
Before you start, make one complete circle with your head - over to the right shoulder, scooping forwads to bring your chin to your chest, rising up over the left shoulder and then raising the head and stretching the lower jaw towards the sky to complete your circle - you'll be amazing at how many different muscles you find in there - and how many of them are holding tension and feel stiff and tight.
Take your time with these circles, do them regularly and religiously, with love and devotion to yourself, and with gratitude for all the hard work that these muscles do to enable you to function, literally head on your shoulders, moving, breathing, talking, laughing, working, loving...
Don't stop there. Take an inventory of what is contributing to your tension; firstly the lifestyle choices - handbag always over the same shoulder, sleeping with a bad pillow, draft on your neck at work, poor alignment sitting at a desk for long hours; and secondly the mental and emotional factors and contributors - too much responsibility, juggling too many tasks at once, an inability to say 'no', lack of support from your partner. There are as many as there are people out there.
Get honest with yourself - our bodies don't lie, so that tension is your body's way of trying to tell you something. Can you hear it? Are you interested in listening? Can you honour it and start to make some changes? If not, that slight discomfort will over time increase until you are forced to listen, possibly through debilitating headaches, screaming tension and more serious back and shoulder issues which need (possibly expensive) treatment, as opposed to the free and rather wonderful, cosy self-love of the neck roll. Get on it today and every day so that your tomorrows are pain and tension-free! You owe it to yourself! Sat nam!
If you want to discover more about the technology of Kundalini Yoga, join my classes here in Dahab or to dive really deep, we welcome everyone to the Kundalini Awakening Teacher Training here on Sinai. Sat nam