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.
Become a Patron!
Support the content you love AND get access to my full video practice library. Inside you will find a huge collection of pain care resources as well as a new section of experiential anatomy practices. Become a patron today: https://theshiftschool.com/patron-membership/
Transformational Self Care
A Late Winter Wellness Retreat in the Dominican Republic
March 3-10, 2023
Join me for a 7 day Caribbean wellness retreat. Each day we will focus on a pillar of self care. By the end of the week you will have a group of new friends, some unforgettable memories and a personal self care strategy to enhance your life back at home. Learn More
Let's connect! Follow me on:
Facebook
Instagram
TicToc
YouTube
Free Resources:
Master the Yin Yoga Pose Repertoire: 7 Day Email Course
Introduction to Pain Care Yoga
Practice Gallery Workbook - 6 go to sequences with pictorial instructions
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.
Become a Patron!
Support the content you love AND get access to my full video practice library. Inside you will find a huge collection of pain care resources as well as a new section of experiential anatomy practices. Become a patron today: https://theshiftschool.com/patron-membership/
Transformational Self Care
A Late Winter Wellness Retreat in the Dominican Republic
March 3-10, 2023
Join me for a 7 day Caribbean wellness retreat. Each day we will focus on a pillar of self care. By the end of the week you will have a group of new friends, some unforgettable memories and a personal self care strategy to enhance your life back at home. Learn More
Let's connect! Follow me on:
Facebook
Instagram
TicToc
YouTube
Free Resources:
Master the Yin Yoga Pose Repertoire: 7 Day Email Course
Introduction to Pain Care Yoga
Practice Gallery Workbook - 6 go to sequences with pictorial instructions
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast. I'm your host, mandy Ryle. Today's episode is a pod practice where I will be teaching you a modified Feldenkrais method lesson. This is a lesson that I use quite a bit with clients and it also happens to be one of my personal favorites. If you're someone who sometimes suffers from some stiffness or even pain in the upper, back or neck area, this is a practice that I really want for you to take note of, because what I have seen in my clients is that a practice like this, of course blended with other customized practices, can really really help to improve your experience of these tissues, not only to find a really peaceful awareness, but also to improve your movement. So that's what we'll be talking about specifically in this practice is adding more variability to your movement and making it more global. So this is a really valuable episode and I think it'll make a big difference for you if you've got a little bit of discomfort in this area. As always, thank you so so much for being a listener to the Yin Yoga podcast. If you haven't already, please just take a second before the episode starts to hit subscribe and, if it is available in your podcast app, definitely opt-in for alerts so you never mess a future episode In this practice. You will definitely need a blanket for your head. That's gonna be really important and also I think I'd like for you to have a bolster, or even just a pillow, for the single Yin pose in the whole practice which you'll take at the very end.
Speaker 1:If you receive value from the Yin Yoga podcast, I humbly ask you to consider becoming a patron. Patrons support the great practices and education on the podcast and also get access to the entire video practice library. In my online community, the Shift School, my practice library contains a huge variety of movement, mindfulness, strength and even meditation practices. The library is searchable for pain care practice resources to address the most common musculoskeletal pain issues, including back pain, neck and shoulder pain and hip pain. The Yin teachers out there will love a newly added feature the experiential anatomy practice section, where you get to dive into learning anatomy through your very own body and breath. This is all at your fingertips for a $15 donation each month. You can cancel your patronage at any time. Become a patron today. I'll leave a link in the show notes for you to get started.
Speaker 1:So let's get started. I'm gonna have you roll onto your back with your head resting on that blanket and have your legs either extended out long or feet flat, whatever is more comfortable for you. Let your arms just come to a resting position. For some people that's out to the side, for some people that's on you, maybe hands resting on your belly. Take a moment just to breathe, feel yourself breathing here on your back and as you're breathing and you're becoming more aware of your body, here in this moment, in this space, in this position, you might notice already that there is some discomfort, something that if you were not being objective, you would say you don't like, something you wish wasn't there. And I will ask you instead just to observe these things with curiosity. Let's not call it good or bad, let's not spin up stories about where it came from or what kind of problems it may cause for the rest of the day. Let's just observe it, which, by the way, is not easy.
Speaker 1:It's a practice, and ever so gently, the next time you breathe in, I'd like for you to press the back of your head into the blanket. You may feel your chest rise a bit and then, on your exhale, just relax Again. I'll have you press the back of your head just gently into the blanket and see if you can come up with a comprehensive effort the back of your neck, perhaps the shoulders, and then release on your exhale. Okay, press into the back of your head, breathe in, make it comprehensive, although you might already find that one side wants to work a little bit harder, that's normal, it's okay and rest. We're just going to do one more. Try to make it comprehensive, right, left, up, down, all of it. Inhale, chest may rise, pressing the head, and then relax.
Speaker 1:I know that for many of you out there with neck issues, that is not the most comfortable thing to do, so well done. Now I'd like for you to ever so gently, just turn your head side to side. Let's not push into anything right now. If you're familiar at all with my approach, you know that I'm not really into stretching, especially the neck. I feel like these tissues are already way too cranky for us to go in with a big stretch. So instead I'm just going to have you find a nice soft, peaceful turn side to side. Now give you bonus points if you can find a way to use your breath in a way that feels supportive, and the reason you're going to get bonus points for that is because I'm not going to tell you what to do. I want you to experiment. You may already be aware that turning your head to one side is easier, almost like your head is going downhill that way, and turning to the other side it's almost like uphill. Why is it so much effort, who knows? Let's not spin up stories about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, the next time your face is turned to the right, I'd have you keep it there just for a breath or two and in your mind's eye, create a fun image of your cervical vertebra. Those are the vertebra of your neck, the neck bones turning, twisting, and then, as you turn your face back up to the center, see if in your imagination you can see them unrotate. Let's turn back to the right rotating, and you'll notice that some vertebra turn a lot, right, even in your imagination. In some turn a little. That's okay. They don't all go at the same rate, to the same degree. That's the magic of your spine. Turn your head to the center and then once again to the right, feel vertebra turning and if you feel any discomfort or resistance there again, just be curious about it.
Speaker 1:This time, when your face turns back up, you're going to turn back to the right, and I want you to notice also that it's not a pure rotation of these vertebra. There's a little side bending, like your right ear is getting closer to your right shoulder. It's not a pure side bend, there's a twist. This is normal. Let your face rest, turn to the side and the side bend the twist, take a breath and then back. You go to the middle. Take a moment just to observe the right and the left side of your neck Probably feels different. Right, maybe one side feels more stirred up, maybe it feels more sensitive, maybe what you feel is more energy.
Speaker 1:Now turn your face to the left and back up to the center. Turn your face to the left, nice and soft, no need to stretch here and back to the center. Now conjure that image in your imagination of your vertebra twisting, each in their own unique and special way and probably differently from the way they behaved when you turned to the right. Do a couple more and in your imagination you could just imagine some regular old Vertebra, if you know what those look like, but I wouldn't recommend it. Instead, use your imagination. Maybe you've got colors, maybe sparkles, maybe your vertebra are made of clouds.
Speaker 1:Next time you turn your face to the left. Keep it, hold there, just notice what, if any side bend is here. So it's not just rotating, it's also your chin dropping, is it not A combination of rotation and side bending? Take a breath here and then come back to the middle, notice, notice left, and once again turn your face a little bit side to side, just a little bit. We're going to go right and left. Maybe in your imagination again you can see those cloud vertebra or those sparkle vertebra rotating each in their own way, side to side.
Speaker 1:I wonder if you can notice that the rotation is not only in the back of the neck. Right. You probably feel some rotation lower, maybe all the way down to the place where your back is touching the floor, or maybe not. Maybe it's in that place where your upper back is sort of becoming your neck, or your neck is becoming your upper back. So see if you can identify how low those vertebra, those cloud or sparkle vertebra, twist. And is it the same on the right and the left? What about the side bend? How far down does the side bend occur?
Speaker 1:And the next time your face is back up in the middle, you're going to stay. Notice, not just the neck this time, but the right and the left side of the upper back. Maybe there's more energy on one side. Now I'll have you push down into your feet so that you can lift your hips, shift them to the left and roll over onto your right side and make your blanket thick enough that your head isn't kind of fallen off right, that you've got like your head on the very same plane as the rest of your spine, and make sure that the blanket under you has a lot of space latitudinally, because your head is going to be rolling side to side and I don't want you to feel like you're going to fall off.
Speaker 1:Okay, now roll enough onto your side that you can place your left palm onto your right palm and then make your wrist and your left hand so soft you might even curl up your left fingers a little bit. Leave your right hand softly in place, but gently lift your left hand away from your right hand. And here's where you're going to do something really important. You're going to tether the tip of your nose to your left thumb and then let that left hand come back down and see if your nose will follow. Now the left hand is going to come up a little bit higher and your nose will follow your eyes as well. Keep your eyes open and then your left hand just settles into your right hand. Come up even higher. Now I want you to notice that at some point to come up higher, you had to rotate your upper back, so it's not just the arm lifting as you come up, your face follows your thumb, which means that you're rotating other parts of your spine as well, and it's almost like the shoulder sort of helps with maybe the first six to 10 inches, and then the back, the spine takes over. I wonder if you can feel that the spine takes over and the whole time the eyes are open and trained on that left thumb.
Speaker 1:Take your time, go nice and slow, and now that I've given you all of these instructions, I want to let you know that you can't do this wrong. Take your time the next time your left hand is on your right hand, rest, and then let's commit to softness. Commit to softness and commit to variation. So rather than thinking, oh, I have to do this right, am I doing it right? Thinking I have to do it the same exact way every time, to do it right, I want you to think about can I do it a little bit differently each time, like, maybe the sequence of rotation for my vertebra is altered each time. Maybe I'm going to use my hip to slide back rather than just making it a function of my spine. Perhaps, as my hand lifts, I'll even let my left knee lift and hip left hip slide back.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, next time that left hand is resting, I'm gonna have you keep it there and I'm gonna add on. So your knees are gonna be still bent at the joint, so that you have a 90 degree angle between your shin and your thigh. The only difference is you're gonna reduce the angle at your hip by sliding your feet back. So your left feet, your feet, are gonna slide back. What would be to the left, I suppose. So your knees are now pointed toward the front of your mat and, instead of being bent at your hips, you're mostly straight, although most of us will have a little bit of a pike in our hips. Okay, so your body is in kind of a straight line, except that your knees are bent and your feet are maybe even off of the mat behind it, so that you've got a little kickstand.
Speaker 1:Now let's do this again. So it's the same exact thing, the thought that eyes, the nose follow the left hand as it comes up the left hip. This time is gonna have to slide back right, and then you'll be glad that your right foot is on the floor, otherwise you would just tip right over. Yeah, now rest as soon as the left hand touches down onto the right. Rest and then do it again. Commit to softness and variation. And when we bring the knees to point to the back or the front of the mat, I should say what we end up with are conditions that require a bit more rotation in these areas where we tend to get a little tight, where we have soreness or pain or trouble.
Speaker 1:Good, next time, that left hand is up toward the sky you're looking at it with your eyes. You're just gonna hold, and then I'm gonna have you look with your eyes behind your left shoulder, turn your chin behind your left shoulder and reach your left hand to the right, like it's thinking about coming back down, but your face is looking back, so it can't. And then you can do the opposite. Your left hand is going to reach back, your face is gonna turn to the right, so the arm and the face are moving in opposite directions. Now bring your left hand to the right and your face to the left. Notice that your left hip probably wants to go with your face. So as your left arm reaches back up and then comes back, your face turns right. Let your hip close toward the floor in front of you so your hip and your face move together and your left arm and left shoulder are moving in opposition.
Speaker 1:Let's do this a few more times. Face looks away, left arm reaches back, hip forward, face and hip move back, arm move forward. Let's just right and left right, not up and down. Left arm reach back, face and hip turn to the right. Left arm reach to the right. Hip and face go left one more. One more notice there's a little bit of a back bend. Is that arm reaches back this time? Let it reach its full expression. And then left arm to the right, face, hip to the left. Notice your spine almost wants to round, especially the upper back. Let it. And then last time, left arm move back, face and hip move right. Find that back bend like you just want to arch and stretch out a little bit and then keep your arm reaching back and turn to your back, bringing your two feet flat. Let your arms just rest, feet flat or legs long, and take a moment to observe the right and the left, right and left neck, right and left spine, so you might notice that you feel a little bit different on the right and the left. Maybe one side feels bigger, maybe it feels higher or maybe both sides feel even heavy or floating.
Speaker 1:Now let's do the second side. So you're going to push down into your feet, lift your hips, shift them to the right and then roll over onto your left side. Your left arm is going to be reaching out in front of you. Your knees are going to be stacked and pointed also to the left. Your blanket will be thick enough to support your head and make sure there's space to either side of your head for when you roll.
Speaker 1:And now take this soft right hand and rest it into the palm of the left hand. Your eyes are wide open, you're staring at your right thumb. So as your right thumb, as your right hand lifts away from the left hand, your eyes, your face, your collarbone follow the hand and then bring the right hand back down, rest it. Let's do it again, so that right hand rises up, eyes follow and then it comes back down Soft, rest with your right hand on your left hand. Commit to a soft elbow, a soft shoulder. Eyes follow, thumb, come up maybe a little bit more each time, that wrist, that elbow, that hand, the fingers themselves soft. Take a full and complete rest. Each time your right hand lands in your left hand, eyes follow, and you may be noticing at a certain point that it's less about the shoulder and more about your spine. And if it's about your spine, as your arm reaches up more and more, your right hip is probably tilting back, your right knee is probably drawing away from your left knee. That doesn't happen because you're manipulating the leg, but because the hip, the knee are relaxed and they're just going with the spine, the pelvis, the neck, everything together.
Speaker 1:What we notice a lot in people who have a musculoskeletal pain issue is that their movements tend to become very rigid. So, while normal human movement is extremely variable, when we've had a pain issue for a while, it starts to get stuck, like there's really only one way to do it. And when that happens, often what we're finding is that the movement has become extremely isolated, ironically to the place where the pain seems to be the greatest. And so this kind of movement helps you teach your nervous system to move globally. Okay, the next time your right hand rests in your left hand, just stay.
Speaker 1:Rest for a moment and then you're going to keep your feet together, keep your knees together, keep your knees bent at exactly this angle, but slide your knees so that they're pointed toward the front of your mat, so your head is on the back of your mat, your knees point to the front of your mat, your feet are on the floor slightly behind the long edge of your mat, so your waist is straight, your hips are straight, no longer flexed, although perhaps slightly piked, and we're going to do the same exact thing. So the eyes follow the thumb. Right arm rise as far as vertical let's not go much higher than vertical and then the right hand come back down resting in the left hand. Let's do that a few more times. You might notice now that there's a little bit more rotation required in your spine, especially in this thoracic area where we can get so tight, and the effort of turning your head has now become a full body effort, no longer isolated but global, recruiting all of the systems of the body. All right, next time your right arm is vertical, you're going to keep it. Keep those eyes on the hand just for a brief moment more. Your right knee may have even lifted away from the left knee, your hip kind of tilted back. Now try this turn your face more to the right and reach your right hand to the left. So we're going opposite with the face and the hand, and then reach your right arm back up and then back to the right, turn your face to the left, let your hip and your face go together to the left Right arm, reach left face, hip, turn right. Probably that right knee is kind of moving around right and then you're going to open your right arm up, reaching to the right, turn your face and your hip to the left. Remember, you can't really do this wrong. So if there's another strategy that you're finding interesting or effective, I 100% support you in your autonomy for exploring that. But if you're looking for something maybe a little more harmonious, I would recommend that the hip and the face go together and the arm move opposite.
Speaker 1:Now, next time that right arm reaches to the right face and hip to the left, find a little back, bend, arching your spine, maybe sliding your head back a little bit on your blanket, and then when your right hand moves left, your face and your hip move to the right. Let your right hand reach even more to the left, like you kind of want to round your upper back, okay. So right arm reach to the right, hip and face go to the left. Find a little back bend, maybe sliding the head back, and then right arm reach, left hip, face go right, maybe round your back a little bit by reaching that right hand a little further to the left. Last time we're opening. So your right arm open, find a little back bend, very gracious, and then you're going to roll all the way to your back feet.
Speaker 1:Flat Time to observe. Does one side feel bigger, heavier, more energetic, or do you feel balance? All right, let's go back onto the right side now. So let's set up like you did before, with your knees pointed toward the front of the mat but your feet back. So your knees are still bent at 90 degrees. There is not much of an angle at your hips. Right arm is reaching out in front of your head, is completely supported by the blanket.
Speaker 1:Bring your left hand to your right hand again and once again, eyes follow the thumb as you reach this left arm up. You feel this beautiful rotation in your spine. Let the left arm open as far as you want. Your hip will slide back. So your left hip is sort of reaching for the floor behind right Now. Let your arm be soft and try to bring your left hip over your right hip. Try to drive your left knee to the front of your mat and, as a consequence, you're going to roll back onto your right side and your left arm will come up. When you reach a critical mass, the left arm will come back down and rest on your right hand.
Speaker 1:Let's try it again. Eyes follow thumb. Reach that left arm as far, open as you would like. Let your left hip slide back. Your knees are not together, friends, not together. And then, by driving your left knee to the front of your mat, your left hip begins to stack over your right hip. You find that your spine is naturally de-rotating and you come back to the starting position with your left hand on your right hand. Let's just do it twice more Open up Eyes follow thumb.
Speaker 1:Left hip slide back. Maybe your left arm reaches all the way to the floor, or maybe not. Now drive your left knee to the front of your mat. Stack your left hip on your right hip as you come back to your side. Left hand rest and right hand Last time. We're going to open up Eyes. Follow the thumb Open all the way up. Bring your knees now to point to the right again. So you're going to pike at your hips, your left arm reaching out to the left, your chest wide open to the sky For a supine twist.
Speaker 1:Now I had you take the bolster for this practice, because I was thinking that many of you might need to have the bolster between your lower leg, between the right and the left lower leg. Adjust the position of your head, because it's probably not ideal for where you've just been working, and as you breathe in and out, just notice the upper spine, the upper back, the neck. Just breathe in and out, notice these places with objectivity. You have no more compulsion to try to change these places now than you would. The wind in the trees. One more breath, so you're going to bring the soles of your feet flat to your mat, roll all the way to your back and if you did have that bolster and you want to use it on the second side, just kind of kick it over to the left. As always, you got to pull your pants up right, and then you're going to bump your hips over to the right, roll on to your left side in the interest of time.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, we have an abbreviated practice today. Reach your left arm out in front of you and then keep your knees bent at 90 degrees but slide the knees to point toward the front of your mat, so your head is toward the back of your mat, your knees to the front of your mat, your feet behind you. Right hand rest in left hand. Eyes, follow them completely. As the arm reaches up, face follows that hand, this time open as far as you want.
Speaker 1:Maybe your arm and shoulder rest on the floor, or maybe not. Certainly, your right hip has slid back, almost like it too wants to touch the floor and we're not going to reach up with the arm. We're going to keep the arm very passive as you drive your knee over right knee, over your left knee, drive your right hip over your left hip and allow the spine to de-rotate itself until your right hand is resting again in your left hand, your left cheek resting on the blanket Eyes follow thumb, rotate open, let the hip move right. It is a global turning of the head. Then drive your right knee over your left knee, your right hip over your left hip and allow yourself to be untwisted until your right hand rests in your left hand. Eyes follow, thumb opening up any amount. You know what. Some people can get that shoulder to the floor, many cannot. But if your right hip is sliding back, I think it'll be a lot more comfortable for you regardless. Drive your right knee over your left knee, your right hip over your left hip, allow yourself to be de-rotated back onto your side.
Speaker 1:Let's do two more, just on your own, with your breath. I find that an exhale for that end range, that deepest twist, seems to be most hospitable. And then inhaling back out of the twist seems to feel most supported. Exhaling to open, inhaling to close. This last time you'll open Great, and then keep your right arm shoulder on or very near the floor at this point. Draw your knees up towards your chest. Take that bolster between the two lower legs if you'd like. You don't have to, but it might help you get that right shoulder to fully rest.
Speaker 1:I have a feeling that your head is not quite in the right position, so just kind of shift that around and make sure you're happy with it so that you can breathe your spine, just breathe your spine. So this practice is about cultivating not just stretching, not flexibility in stiff areas, but instead about cultivating variability, curiosity. Two more breaths in your twist. Now, if you do have the bolster between the lower legs, you can just use your feet to kind of bring it under your thighs as you roll to your back, bring it under those thighs as you roll to your back, and then you just send your two legs out long over that bolster. Of course. Correct your pants.
Speaker 1:Let your arms rest by your sides and very gently turn your head side to side, noticing how far down the spine do you feel this rotation? And if you're someone who feels a little bit confused by cues like that, you're looking for something a little more concrete. Maybe it'll feel like more compressed on one side, a pull squeeze. How far down do you feel the twist as you turn your head side to side? And from where do you feel the return to center? Is it right in the neck or does it start lower, maybe behind the heart? What about the side bend? From where do you feel the side bend, return to neutral when you're coming from the side back to the middle and how far down does the side bend occur as you turn? Certainly it's not the same each time. Next time your face is in the center, just notice quietly the right and the left. Maybe they feel balanced the same, maybe they feel different, as always. Thank you so much for sharing your practice with me today.