Take control of your neck pain.
Here are six easy steps for relieving tension in your neck.
- Walk around. If you sit at a computer for long hours, respect your body’s need to move by getting up and walking around at least once an hour. This will get your blood flowing and add movement throughout your body.
- Drink lots of water. Staying hydrated is important for muscles to relax. When they are dehydrated, you are more likely to have spasms, injuries or tension. (Plus, if you walk to the water cooler every hour you are accomplishing #1 and #2 at the same time!)
- Stretch your spine daily. Many people these days have heard the benefits of yoga and other practices. If you make it to a class, that is great. If not, it is still important to get movement in your spine daily. The “cat/cow and child’s pose” are simple yoga stretches that greatly benefit the whole spine. Here is a link to images of these stretches. http://healthyorganic.co.za/yoga/yoga-poses/
- Close your eyes and shake your head for 3 minutes to a beat. This may sound silly, but the regularly repeated movement not only loosens up the muscles and vertebrae, but it also induces a relaxation state of the mind. The repeated beat also sends little vibrations down the spine relaxing the whole back. It feels good! Be careful to move your neck in only one plane at at time. The three planes are: rotation (shaking your head “no”,) forward flexion and backward extension (nodding “yes”) or bending side to side. Do not mix these motions. Pick one and stick with it for 3 minutes and keep the range of movement and rate comfortable to you. You may hear or feel crunching sounds at first but if you continue with the exercise, that will shift as more space is created in the spine. Always check back in with your alignment. Feel free to listen so music to keep the rhythm.
- Check your posture. If you are slumped over your computer or if your shoulders are at your ears, you are stagnating all the blood, nerve communication and energy from your brain to the rest of your body. This can lead to chronic tension and pain in your neck, head, arms, hands, back, or hips. To remedy this, imagine a string pulling your head straight up, breathe deeply and smile. Your body will immediately start to relax. If other areas of pain occur when doing this, check in with #1-#4 on this list or see #6.
- Check in regularly with your acupuncturist, chiropractor or massage therapist. We are trained to support your neck health. Since the whole body is connected, working with health care practitioners who understand these connections can be widely valuable. Not only will your pain decrease or vanish, but you will experience other health benefits as well. Prevention is the cheapest and most efficient form of health care.
If you are in the Seattle area, feel free to call or email for a free consultation on your neck health to see if acupuncture is the right treatment for you. www.jennaacupuncture.com
Health Discovery Acupuncture -(206)708-0640 -jb@jennaacupuncture.com
