Many of us are walking around with more or less shoulder tension. Sitting by the computer at work, carrying our adorable children around, and feeling stressed is only a few things that contributes to this very common ordeal. I have noticed in my life that earlier I was so used to the shoulder tension that I accepted it as a part of my life. It was almost like I thought it was supposed to be that way and that there were no solutions to it. Who has time for doing anything about it, and how do we release the tension?
One big thing we can all start doing today is to consciously release our shoulders. Take a deep breath and let your shoulders go. Sometimes we don´t even thing we hare holding them up, but becoming aware of that part might show that we actually are tensing them. Did you notice a difference?
Also, become aware of everything you do with your shoulders. When you life your coffee cup in the morning, do you lift with your shoulders? If so, keep your shoulder relaxed and lift with you arm. Decide that today you will be aware of how much extra work your shoulders do. Some of us even talk with our shoulders.
Lifting heavy can also be those moments where we lift with our shoulders instead of lifting with our legs. Try instead bending your legs by keeping your back straight and lift from there. That keeps lower back and shoulders safe.
I am excited to hear what you come up with. Awareness is such a great thing.
When we become aware we also need to be very understanding and compassionate to ourselves. the muscle memory is a strong thing and it can take a long time to get rid of old patterns where our body is used to hold tension. So it might take time, we might fall back. That is ok! Let it take time and don´t get angry at yourself if you feel that you have a hard time relaxing. Take one step at a time.
Tension in shoulder gives us a lot of other issues, headaches, neck pain, feeling irritated or stressed. When I wear a heavy backpack I have many times started to feel stressed and irritated. In the past I could not figure out why I suddenly got these feelings run over me. When I then took my pack pack off I felt so much better. It made sense that having something pressing down on sensitive points on the shoulder went straight to my neck and head.
Shoulder tension can also give us lower back issues cause there are many muscles and different part of our bodies that intervene with each other. Clients have told me that after working the shoulders, they have felt a release in the lower back and sacrum.
Hiking our shoulders up also interferes with the alignment of the body. The alignment is very important for the body to be healthy. A negative alignment can casue problems in areas such as lower back, hips, knees and feet cause the body need to work so much harder to keep everything on top of each other.
In Nuad Thai Yoga there are many pressure points and stretches that can relieve shoulder pain. By working through the problem areas the body get a chance to release muscle tension, realign to a healthy position and remove blockages. Shoulder acupressure points, working the neck, shoulder blades and the muscles between the shoulder blade areas is effective ways to give your shoulders and upper body a way to get back to easy and feeling happy.
Have you had shoulder tension that you worked though? How did you get rid of it? I would love to hear your thoughts about it.