Summer Edition! How Get Rid Of Tension In The Shoulders

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
Welcome, dear listeners to the gentle yoga warriors sizzling summer edition season 10. In this sizzling summer edition, I will be self hosting this amazing podcast. And we are talking today all about tension, tension in the shoulders, tension in the body, both emotionally and physically. And I really felt, you know, like summer, even if you listen to this, and it's a winter, anytime the air, of course, it's good to release tension, but why not why you've got this bit of extra time in the summer months. So maybe you don't maybe you're working flat out. Who knows, either way, this is a good time to get rid of that tension. So tense, tense shoulders are something that I have served with a lot. I think it's an hereditary thing. And if you suffer from this, too, I hope my ideas, my tried and tested methods will be a benefit to you. Because there's nothing worse than having that tight, tight tension in the shoulder. And it feels like no matter what we do, they tend to kind of stay there. But it's a physical thing, but also an emotional thing. And I believe round one shoulders coming comes from not wanting to be seen, due to some kind of fear or shame or a combination. I remember being in a class as a child. And for no reason this boss suddenly punched me between the shoulder blades, it hurt a bit, but it's more than energetically summit wedge between that vertebra which was both kind of a physical thing and emotional thing of not feeling safe of of not liking people sitting behind me. And even now when I go to the cinema kind of like to be at the back, just so that there's no one kind of sitting behind me. Also on an energetic level, I realised that's silly, and I kind of worked on getting that part of myself back. With a couple of numbers of reasons why hold tension, maybe collars stress in your life, you carry a lot for people, so many reasons. So the Shang light I have discovered to help kind of melt away all these kinds of things that keep us tense, and and hence, enable us to transform is through doing what I'm about to share with you. I think the tension has lessened on its scale in my life on my shoulders and things and my self belief has grown more and I cos I can slip back into old habits, we all can, I can be on the computer too long, I do tend to start slouching again. But everything is about being present. So remember, everything's about being present. So I'm going to remember who we become present that actually, I can support myself by sitting up straight, or I can support myself by having my shoulders into place. But it's kind of finding a way to kind of gently ease and back without creating even more tension for sometimes we can kind of be so like tense and angry that we end up tensing them even more. So I'll say, John, the idea that your parenting Atlas of the world on your shoulders, the world will go on even without you. I know, we all think we're all important. And cause we are all important. And we're all here for a reason. But what I mean by that is that there is stuff that you can drop that is causing you stress, and the world will still work and you will be looking after yourself. And that's what's important. So just drop the idea that you have to carry the world upon your shoulders, you don't. So I'm going to share some exercises with you to help with that because it does need a bit of movement. Obviously, this is a podcast, there's absolutely no way I can see how you're doing this. So exercise at your own risk. And if there's anything that you need to check, do check it with your doctor. But these are quite simple, straightforward exercises. So if you are confident that you're doing these, okay, you're going to sit on a chair and you're going to have your feet flat on the floor, and the spine is straight, and the neck is long, and the aren't sticking the chin up because we can stick our chins out when we're looking at screens, etc. Make sure you maintain, right, this is important the natural curve in your spine. So you sit down nice and tall in the sit and bonds. You're not rounding forward. You're not running back. You're kind of really neutral. You're going to shrug the right shoulder up towards the ear with an inhalation and as you exhale, you're going to relax it down behind you. And then continue. So you're going to inhale, shrug that right shoulder up. You're going to exhale, relax it down. Inhale, shrug that left shoulder up. Exhale, relaxed that down. Inhale, shut that right shoulder up. Exhale down. Inhale, shook the

Unknown Speaker  4:40  
left shoulder up. Exhale it down. Inhale right. Exhale down. Inhale left. Exhale down. Inhale both together. Exhale back. Inhale both together. Exhale back. Inhale both together. Exhale back. So continuing The above together as if you're drawing circles where if your shoulders, drawing them back down the back. So make sure you breathe in deeply and slowly. So don't just do the movement is that breathing because that's not going to release the tension. So you're going to really bring the shoulders up and down. Let's just do the left shoulder up, inhale up, exhale as you bring it down, inhale, right shoulder up, exhale as you bring it down. Inhale both shoulders up, exhale as you bring them down, inhale, both shoulders up, exhale down. And you can continue that and do that. As I said, I try and do that once or twice a day, like just when, when you can fit it in. So it's a really accessible exercise in the sense that you can do it from sitting, which is always a good thing, since we do sit such a tremendous amount these days. Next, from the seated position, you're going to slide your left hand behind your back, you're going to slide your right hand behind the back and you're going to see if you can hold on to the opposite arm so like, you're kind of holding on to the inner elbows and you're sitting up super tall, you're going to keep the spine long and tall, you're going it's going to take some long, deep breaths as you inhale. As you exhale, you continue, and then bring the hands forward. Now, opposite hand comes back and then the opposite hand. So you just it's almost it's the same movement, but you just got the opposite arm in front and just take a few breaths here. Now, if that felt quite easy to you, which for most people, I do understand it's not what you can do is bring the hands behind you palms together, so they're facing down towards the buttocks. And then you just got to flip the arms over. So you've got like it, you know, when you do a prayer in front of your chest, you're doing the same movement, but behind your back. So in that prayer position, so not everyone can do this. Don't force it. If this isn't right for you, just continue holding on to the elbows into the arms instead. And take a few calm, deep breaths as you inhale. As you exhale. Inhale. Ah, as you exhale, one more time, inhale as you exhale. So next thing to help relieve the attention emotionally as well as physically is your going to sit tall and place your hands just below the belly button. Fingertips, try and have them horizontal facing towards each other. Inhale and watch how the hands separate. As the belly expands, you're going to initiate the breath from low down in the belly. So you're going to use the diaphragm instead of just breathing into the top of chest, you're going to breathe into the hands inhale, the belly expands and as you exhale

Unknown Speaker  7:57  
in the belly comes in, inhale. belly expands, exhale. The belly comes in, in how make sure you breathing into the whole of the body, the belly, the upper chest, armpits, everything exhale.

Unknown Speaker  8:22  
Remember, the lungs start at the shoulders of people think the lungs are just that bit in front of your heart, but it's not. It's quite a big area. And if you use the diaphragm, if you're not sure what the diaphragm is, just go on the internet, look, have a look. And you'll see, you'll find easy find a diagram of why the diaphragm is on the body. And then let's do another breath like this. Again, inhale. Nice deep breath. And as you exhale, feel as if you let go of all that tension. Inhale something positive to replace it. Exhale, let go of all that tension. inhale, breathe and something positive to replace it. Exhale, just let go of all that tension. One more breath, inhale as you fully expand into your brilliance. And then exhale, just let go of all that tension. And then just breathe and you're brilliant, slowly calm and deep and even. So there's some cheeky shoulder and physical and emotional tension releases that you can sneak into your day. Always work with what's yours best for your body. So as we learn to let go both physically emotionally in our shoulders, we become more kind of free and showing ourselves a lot more self care and love. Other things to think about the tension in the shoulders is, do you tend to hold your breath when you're concentrating, I know we breathe automatically. But there's the deep cleansing yogic breath, which is the one that's the beneficial kind of breath, that slow, calm, deepen, even, just watch during the course of day how you're breathing, if you're holding massive amount of tension, then that could be an indicator of how you're sitting, how you're watching TV, how you walk, walk, are you regularly stretching the bodies kind of that you will never just drive your car all the time about getting it serviced, or without putting oil in it, or petrol and oil or water in it. And our bodies are pretty much the same. So we really kind of learn to kind of tap into that. And then sometimes badly fitted brows I've heard Can, can hurt the shoulders and things so that that is the case, make sure that your your bra is comfortably fitting one which you can go to lots of department stores, I'm sure to get that sorted out. And the bit how's your bed? How's your pillow? One thing I found that you can get some really lovely, like memory foam pillows for the next and maybe you've got the wrong pillow, and that's creating tension. And then what are your shoulder in your life that you no longer need to shoulder? And why is that and without judgement to yourself or what's gone on your life because life is tough. Man life can be pretty tough. It's not all roses. But we find the moments of joy within all that chaos. And that is the secret I feel to happiness is to kind of fully accept and embrace life, be eager to change it, but also kind of be in the present moment, fully accepting and enjoying where you are now, even if it's not where you feel that you want to be because the grass can be always greener somewhere else. And yes, we want to develop ourselves as people. At the same time, we don't want to kind of stop living because we're waiting to get somewhere just enjoy where you are right now. So as I'm recording this meditation, if I wanted to, I could think, oh, I need to get this finished. I'm teaching a private client after this. I've got to get something ready, blah, blah, blah, I've got to do this, this and this. But instead, I'm fully embracing where I am right in this moment. And that is where the joy can be fine. And sometimes we don't always know what that tension is or how it's sneaking in. So I invite you to embark on this free minute meditation with myself, where we will go on a little journey to try and find out where that tension is in your body. As promised, here is your meditation. Inspired by today's show. Top Tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross legged on the floor of a nice straight back. Always nice to sit on a block or a cushion. Or that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with a back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching and if you're doing something that requires you concentration are you to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, that's begging

Unknown Speaker  13:19  
I asked you to come on a mystical run through a beautiful picture s Healy English country scene, rolling green hills as far as you can see, and you stand there at the top of this hill and you breathe in some nice calm fresh air has a scent of grass and daisies. As you exhale, you let it go. And as you begin to breathe, you feel as if you're getting into your flow, you can see for miles and miles and everything seems clear. Life seems wonderful without any tears. And then out of nowhere, a thick and heavy fog surrounds the hill so much that you can't see anything at all. You don't know where you've come from, you don't know where to go. It feels heavy, this weight upon your shoulders, as if the sky is suddenly dropped two giant rock boulders onto each shoulder as you try and navigate through this fog. This fog of disbelief you have nowhere to go or rather you can't see anything. You might as well be walking in the snow, despite the lovely green grass beneath your feet. And of course, if you'd only looked down you could take in that treat. Instead you're thinking about this huge boulders on your shoulder and the fog says Taking the joy out of where you see you can go, you've lost you in a flow. So what to do now, what is the cause of this tension? What is stopping you from just taking a nice deep breath and as you inhale, as you exhale, you'll find the fog will slowly start to clear. It may not be instance, but all will be well all be seen, all will be free and all will be Jai, no need to suffer. So just with one breath and Miss mystical realm, just shake off one ball, the funk hits for its help, but it no longer serves you give it back to the earth. And then take a nice deep inhalation, inhale and exhale through the nose. Inhale and exhale till it reaches your toes. And then with another sweep, sweep off that other Boulder, let it go back down to the earth. Let it go. As you inhale, you start to find again, your inner flow. I mean, notice there's moments when the scenery is free. And you can see for miles and miles so far, you can almost feel as if you can see the sea than other days of fog wall and circle your being with problems and challenges, those that you expected and those that were unseen. But don't give up fighting. Don't give up your joy. Remember to look down and smell the grass. Remember to look up to the sky. And if you're patient, that fog will clear and you will see your way. Remember that each and every day can be different in many ways, but learn to step into your inner being into that inner joy. Wow, you are fantastic. So slowly take some slow, calm deep breaths as you come back into the room. Come back into the moment come back into the joy. Allow yourself to be fully who you are joyful and full of beans. And if you'd like a personalised recording meditation, specifically for anything you're working for, please reach out to the gentle yoga warrior.com For further information.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai