Somatic Yin for Neck and Shoulder Pain

Yoga for neck Pain

Somatic Yin

For Neck and Shoulder Pain

This practice really focuses on the sides of the neck. You know, those muscles that get so tender and tight? When the sternocleidomastoid get’s cranky, we can often feel sensitive in our shoulders and even the jaw. This is mostly somatic work to learn to feel sensations here without the drama. Though, you will get some gentle stretches as well.

Duration: 60 minutes

Props Needed: A blanket and a couple of blocks

Note: If you are someone who suffers from vertigo on occasion due to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) I would recommend that you skip this practice as some of the movements may trigger your symptoms.

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Back to the Shoulder

This practice will help you to build up your strength in your shoulder and it’s helpers and also confidence. The movements have been combined to maximize your awareness of these relationships so that your body may spontaneously discover more comfortable and efficient patterns of movement. It’s time to take the bubble wrap off of the shoulder. To heal you will need to reintroduce movements that feel powerful and build strength and resilience.

Gliding Thumb for Neck and Jaw Bliss

This practice is a bit experimental. We utilize a Feldenkrais Method® Technique called gliding thumb throughout and rest in static Yin poses to integrate and rest. Our focus will be awareness and safety in the neck, jaw and shoulders. Often, if we have pain in one of those areas, we have some sensitivity in the others as well.

How to Stretch Your Neck

For this practice I’ve combined somatics, stretches some resistance and of course, breathing to facilitate a bit of short term relief. But I’ve also provided some education to help you understand how these strategies can help you over come this discomfort or pain in the long term. 

Fire Up Your Hips

This is my favorite kind of practice. I’ll coax you gently with delicious somatic stretches and novel movements into a practice that ends up being quite fiery. We will focus the fire on the hips and use a blanket in some fun ways to facilitate mobility (strength + flexibility).

Chair Yin: Your Nervous System and Your Neck

This is a go to, short practice to relieve neck and shoulder tension naturally. The whole practice can be done from a simple chair. You will engage in some somatic work as well as gentle stretching to increase range of motion and reduce feelings of stiffness. You will also learn about the relationship between these cranky tissues and the nervous systems. Chronic muscle tension in neck and shoulders can be debilitating and painful. But there are holistic strategies that you can use to get some relief.