Releasing The Back Of The Neck (Long Version)

Resting back,

Settling in.

It might be nice to begin by bringing the hands to the nape of the neck,

Offering some massage to the nape of the neck,

Maybe manually rolling the head from side to side and having the sense that you're easing out the back of the neck,

As if to lengthen out the back of the neck,

Drawing the head up and away from the body.

And then you can place the head back down,

But with a sense of still lengthening out the back of the neck and tucking the chin in a little bit towards the chest.

And then it may be nice to rest the arms alongside the body and turn the palms to face towards the ceiling and just for a moment touch the thumbs into the ground and you'll feel how that stretching of the thumbs into the ground rolls open the heads of the arm bones.

And then you can let the fingers relax,

Let the arms come to rest.

So even if they roll all the way back in it's fine.

We're just moving in that direction of openness across the front of the chest.

Let's let the body come to rest,

Let the body settle.

See if you can give the weight of the head to gravity and so at the back of the neck,

Lengthen out.

Let's bring our awareness to our belly.

Let's take a big full belly breath in,

Feel the belly rise and then as you exhale open the mouth,

Let the breath fall out of the mouth like a sigh.

Breathing in,

Let the belly rise and breathing out,

Open the mouth,

Let the breath fall out of the mouth with a sigh.

We'll stay here for a few breaths with these extra deep inhales and exhales,

Allowing yourself to fall into your own breath rhythm as you breathe in as if the lungs are in the belly,

The belly rises and swells.

Let the out-breath fall out with a sigh,

Let the out-breath fall out with a sigh,

Feeling that with every exhale you can surrender the weight of your body to gravity.

With every exhale you can sigh out any of those repetitive thoughts or thoughts that seek to pull you away from this moment right here in your own body in your own body.

And it may be helpful to have a sense of being able to step out of the mind and step into the belly.

Oftentimes we have this sense of our sense of self being located up inside the head.

Can we come into this sense of thinking from the belly,

Feeling from the inside as the belly rises and as the belly falls,

Letting the breath in the belly return to its natural rhythm.

Letting the breath unfold in its own way as best you can without controlling or altering it.

And we'll go on a journey through the body,

Relaxing the body,

Letting go of any tensions.

Let's breathe in and bring our awareness to our toes and breathe out,

Let the toes relax.

Breathe in,

Bring your awareness to the feet,

Feeling the aliveness in the feet and then exhale,

Let the feet relax,

Maybe just twitching a little bit in the feet and the toes to help with that relaxing.

Breathing in,

Bringing your awareness to the ankles and breathing out,

Feeling if the ankles can relax and become a little more floppy.

Breathing in,

Bringing your awareness to your legs and with your exhale having the feeling that you can give the weight of your legs to gravity.

Just feeling in the groin if there's any holding or tension there.

And if you let the groin relax,

Does that mean the legs can rest a little more heavily into the ground?

Let's breathe in and we'll take an extra deep breath in this time,

Swelling the breath down into the bowl of the pelvis and then exhale,

Let the pelvis rest into the ground.

Feel if you can allow the genitals to soften and perhaps there's some sense that the pelvic floor could relax.

As if in the lower lower belly you're allowing a balloon to deflate and rest towards the ground.

As if in the lower lower belly you're allowing a balloon to deflate and rest towards the ground.

Breathing in,

Let's this time use the breath to swell the lower back into the ground and then exhale relax,

See if you can let the lower back soften the shape of the lower back to mold itself to fit to the ground.

Let's breathe in and let the belly button rise,

The belly swell and then exhale let the belly relax.

Maybe you could have this sense of letting the belly spill out as if you just loosened your belt a couple of notches.

It's that feeling of relief of letting the belly take up as much space as it would like to.

So there's ample space in the belly for the breath and then can we draw our awareness up to the chest?

We could breathe in and let the chest swell and expand and then with our exhale we can let the chest soften.

Let's draw our awareness around now to the upper back and the shoulder blades and let's breathe in,

Swell the shoulder blades and the upper back into the ground and then exhale feel if you can let the upper back soften into the ground.

Feel if the shoulder blades could rest and soften,

Fall open and come to rest on the earth.

Let's draw our awareness down now into the arms,

Let's breathe in as we feel into the arms and then with our exhale let's see if we can give the weight of the arms to gravity.

So there's this feeling now that the shoulders don't have to do any work to hold the arms the shoulder blades can completely rest as we give the weight of the arms to gravity.

As we breathe in we could feel into the fingers and the thumbs but maybe just allowing the fingers and thumbs to twitch as we exhale and let the fingers and thumbs soften and relax and they may curl up a little more,

Curl in a little more.

And then let's draw our awareness up now to the shoulders and we could breathe in and swell the shoulders a little bit towards the ears and then with our out breath we could let the shoulders relax.

Just feeling if the shoulders can relax a little more,

Feeling into the arms again and feeling that the shoulders can rest as the arms rest into the ground,

Feeling into the neck as you breathe in and as you exhale let the neck relax,

Give the weight of the head to gravity.

It's reflecting on all the work that the neck does,

Holding up the shoulders and letting the shoulders relax.

Reflecting on all the work that the neck does,

Holding up the huge weight of the head feeling that as you give permission to the neck to relax the head can soften,

Rest into the ground and starting to feel into whether you could relax the nape of the neck.

If you could just imagine a tiny little bit more space in the area where this top most of the spine connects with the skull and if with that softening there you could let the chin drop in towards the chest.

And as we start to bring our awareness to the neck,

We're moving into that area where we can collect a lot of tension,

A lot of pressure and this can start to cause tension headaches.

So if you feel any kind of frozenness or pain here you might want to just ease out the head from side to side,

Just very gently rolling the head from side to side.

Sometimes if we're still for a while in a part of the body that's a little bit tender or tight we can get this frozen sense and just moving it allows us to come back to that sense of fluidity,

That movement is possible,

That flow is possible.

And if you're still finding that you have some discomfort there please do feel free to offer some massage or make any adjustments that will help you to feel more at ease through the neck.

Let's bring our awareness now to the point where the skull and the very top most of the spine meet and let's feel,

Sense or imagine that we can breathe some space into that area.

And if your mind works well with visualization you might visualize that you can feel a little bit of tension in the area of the skull.

And if you're still feeling that you have some discomfort with visualization you might visualize that you can actually breathe in through the skin at the point where the neck and the spine meet that you could breathe into those areas of tension.

So I can breathe in through the balloon and I can breathe in and inhale and expand that area of tightness and then exhale as if I was letting all the air out and letting them decompress.

So with the in-breath there's a sense of creating space and expanding the area where you find the resistance or the pressure and then with the exhale there's a sense of letting go,

Letting the air fizzle out allowing the area to decompress.

And you might find naturally that as you breathe into this area you might find some space and the chin might drop in towards the chest.

This will be a very subtle action or feeling.

It wouldn't be perceptible from the outside but from the inside you might just feel this gentle dropping in of the chin towards the chest and this gentle lengthening out of the back of the neck.

And you might feel that the back of the neck becomes heavy and can rest towards the ground and can rest towards the ground allowing the chin to drop in towards the chest a little more.

And we can feel around from the point where the neck and the skull meet around from there to the jaw.

So there's a strong connection between the tension in the jaw and the tension at the nape of the neck.

You might be able to feel into those strands of connection that go between the jaw and the nape of the neck and you might be able to feel how as you soften the jaw you can also soften the nape of the neck.

And there may always be this opportunity as we go through this practice for letting go as we go through this practice for letting the chin drop in towards the chest and the back of the neck to ease out more.

And please don't stand in the way of this if you feel it's happening or if you feel there's a way you can relax into it to support it to happen.

Please do.

And if you let the bottom jaw fall away from the top jaw support the jaw to relax even more.

And if you let the bottom lip fall away from the top lip and allow the inside of the mouth you'll feel again more space in the jaw,

More capacity for softness in the jaw.

And as their lips fall away from each other and the mouth opens we can feel into the inside of the mouth and feel that the upper palate can soften upwards and the lower palate can soften downwards and the back part of the mouth where the mouth becomes the back of the throat could soften and open as well.

And we let the tongue relax from the tip down to the root and you might feel as you relax the root of the tongue a softening in the throat that also supports the back of the neck to relax and release.

Feeling into the jaw and the nape of the neck at the same time and perhaps coming back to that sense that you can breathe in to the areas of tightness or perhaps now those areas have softened but those areas where you know you have that tendency to clench,

Tighten up,

Creating this new pathway of softness,

Of ease,

Of a thread of connection that is about softness rather than about tension.

And then let's wind our awareness up to the temples and I often see the nape of the neck,

The jaw and the temples as this triangle where tension can happen or softness and awareness can happen.

Let's contemplate this.

Let's breathe in as if we could breathe into the temples and breathe out let the temples relax.

Let's bring our awareness to the part of the brain that's inside of the temples and allow that part of the brain to relax and feel that softness can happen.

And then let's bring our awareness to the part of the brain that's inside of the temples and allow that part of the brain to relax and feel that softness can flower from inside of the temples to the outside of the temples.

Feeling that the brain inside of the temples relaxes and drawing your awareness back from the temples to the space where your hairline begins and into there as well.

Let's bring our awareness to that triangle I mentioned the triangle of the nape of the neck,

The jaw and the temples and let's feel that we can breathe into this area and breathe out relax.

Breathing into this area and breathing out relaxing.

Feeling for these strands of connection.

Feeling for how these areas connect and feeling that you can connect these areas and softness rather than intention.

Let's now draw our awareness to the inside part of the temple so rather than resting at the skin or the muscles of the face and the nape of the neck rather drawing our awareness inward as if we could feel into the bones.

Let's have a sense that we could breathe into the bones of the nape of the neck the base of the skull,

The jaw and the skull around the temples and then exhale let go.

Breathing in we could have the sense that the bones are not so solid as we usually think them to be.

The bones are less solid as we breathe into them and as we breathe out they soften even more.

Maybe this sense that the bones of the jaw,

The nape of the neck,

The temples could soften like ice in the sun.

This feeling of melting,

This feeling of softening as you exhale and again if there's any opportunity for the nape of the neck to relax,

Lengthen out of the chin to drop towards the chest please do feel into the possibility of that.

Let's stay with our awareness at this triangle let's feel how this triangle of tension or of softness feels as we soften the forehead.

What's the feedback we get as we soften the forehead?

We can allow the part of the brain that's shielded by the forehead and we can allow that part of the brain to relax.

The front part of the brain relaxing and the forehead may once again smooth out and soften and let the eyebrows come to rest.

Let the eyes rest back.

Let the eyebrows soften and rest.

Bringing our awareness to the space between the eyes and the forehead and bringing our awareness to the space between the eyebrows.

Let the space between the eyebrows relax at the level of the skin,

The muscle,

The bone and then the part of the brain that's just behind the space between the eyebrows.

Can we soften from the inside out?

Feeling into this triangle as we let the cheeks relax,

The skin and the muscle and as we let the chin relax.

And let's rest here feeling into the possibility of more space at the nape of the neck,

More possibility of giving the weight of the head to gravity and so letting the chin drop in towards the chest and more softness in the face and the muscles of the face.

I invite you to send your breath or your awareness wherever you feel like you need it.

We all have these habitual points of tension and if we can come into a practice of letting go of that tension and of softening we can start to slowly,

Slowly rewrite that pattern.

Letting go of that tension so it becomes a pattern of softness.

For a few breaths just tending to yourself with the gentleness of a mother with her newborn.

And those strong full inhales and exhales are there if you feel that you need some help with the letting go or you feel you need to let go more deeply.

Let's bring our awareness now to the inside of the head.

Feeling into the brain as best you can so the brain is this huge muscle inside of the head and like all the muscles of the body it responds to encouragement to relax.

It responds to the breath let's have a sense that we could breathe into the inside of the head and with our exhale relax the brain.

And as you feel inside of your brain inside of your head you might feel some areas of tension just allowing them to soften and relax using the breath if that supports you.

And then let's feel into the mind.

Let's feel that we could breathe into the mind and breathe out let the mind relax.

Tired,

Scattered,

Busy mind trying so hard to help us trying so hard to scramble and stay on top of every single detail.

Thank you mind you can rest.

Thanking your mind for all its hard work keeping you safe keeping you well and giving your mind permission to rest.

Having the sense that you could allow the tiny fingers of your body to relax.

Having the sense that you could allow the tiny fingers of the mind to relax their grip.

Maybe breathing into the mind again and breathing out let the mind relax.

Just feeling if any tension has crept back into the temples the jaw or the nape of the neck and feeling that you have the power power and the breath and the kindness to relax that area.

Let's come back to the breath in the belly breathing in the belly full breathing out let go breathing in the belly rises and breathing out the belly softens.

Breathing in the belly rising breathe out let go.

And as we start to come back to movement I invite you to come into some movement that synchronizes with the breath.

So let's breathe in and as you exhale roll your head to the right.

Stay here take a deep breath up into the shoulders particularly the right shoulder and then if you exhale see if the shoulders can rest a little bit more deeply into the ground.

Staying with your head rolled over to the right as you breathe in breathe in as if you could breathe into the left side of the neck and then exhale feel if you can let the weight of the head roll a little bit more to the right and then with your next inhale roll your head back up to center and then with your exhale roll your head to the right and then with your exhale roll your head to the left staying here send your breath to the shoulders and exhale feel if you can let your shoulders relax a little more breathing into the right side of the neck as you give the weight of the head to gravity and perhaps the head rolls a little bit more to the left and then you could bring your head to center and if if you found that helpful you could do that a few more times and if you like you could bring your hands to the nape of the neck and start to offer some massage to the nape of the neck to the space between the shoulder blades or the tops of the shoulders towards the neck and I'll leave you here you can continue offering some movement or some massage that will support softening and coming into ease at the nape of the neck I hope this practice has been of benefit for you.

Namaste and thank you.

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