One part of our body that gets ignored often is our neck. It’s like a shadow to our face. …so neck yoga is needed and the best poses are below.
And a recipe you’ll love that you can prepare in in 5 minutes and bake in 10-12 minutes.
Our necks vary in length even though we have the same number of neck vertebrae as giraffes. 🦒And our neck sizes vary as do our Adam’s apples that are larger in males than females.
Our necks serve us to not just help support us in eating apples. 🍎Without our neck, we couldn’t use our brains. And we wouldn’t be connected to our body.
So regularly doing neck yoga exercises protect this vital body part and can work out some of the kinks from our bad computer postures and pillow sleeping habits.
Restoring your neck is a gentle way to get your groove back. And if you haven’t been in your yoga routine recently, this could be a good way to start again. Plus you can do it anywhere and everywhere. That can’t be said for many yoga poses.
And yoga is a great way to get your relaxation and breathing space back. 🧘🏻♀️
Sometimes all you need is just 5-10 minutes of yoga to reset your day and how you feel. So let’s begin… ⏲️
Take baby steps, Child’s pose is a great way to begin if you have floor space and a mat. It’s a calming move to set your relax neck intentions.
For neck yoga benefits, instead of tucking your neck down, try an Active Child’s pose where your neck is upward and out forward like the neck of a plane at take off ✈️
You can look at your pointed hands and fingers stretched forward on the mat. The intention can be to focus.
FYI, beginner poses like this are healthy good for anyone Advanced or Beginner.
You can use balancing (Hatha) poses. And go with a flow (Vinyasa) where you insert a Downward Dog in between the face down mat and face up poses… or anything you like if that’s too much or intimidating.
Yoga is flexible and hopefully when you do any yoga, you’ll become more joint-muscle flexible as one of the main benefits.
You’ll feel less soreness all around if any, and hear less joint cracking when you bend a certain way. Usually you’re benefitting more than one area at a time.
And the neck is no different.
But if you want to isolate the neck yoga exercise, moving your head side to side and from shoulder to shoulder like sunrise to sunset is a good regular practice. 🌅
It’s a healthy mantra to get you loose and let go of the unhealthy or tricky areas of your life situations. And yoga is great to manifest new habits and old thought patterns that don’t serve you any longer.
Making a tradition a habit is not a good idea if it keeps you stuck. And making a good habit a tradition is!
So now that you’re warmed up for neck yoga, here we go:
Front facing down mat:
1.Active Child’s pose
As mentioned start with the Active Child’s pose. If your tendency is looking down most the day, then this will carry a good stretch in your neck. Look as far up to the ceiling or sky as you can.
2. Table pose
This is a neutral pose that you can take into standing or front down poses. In Table pose, look up to the ceiling. Feel the back of the neck yoga stretch.
Besides yoga habits, another habit you can do is when you’re waiting in neutral, look up.
I do this when I’m waiting for the warm water to brew for tea making. Or when I’m filling the water filter with water.
Habit stacking neck yoga with waiting is a good idea. Even when you’re looking at your phone, try to get in the habit of holding your device up.
3. Mountain Pose 🏔️
You can ease into a Downward Dog and then stand up in Mountain Pose with hands in the air or prayer hands, and look up to your hands or ceiling.
3. Bow pose
Torso body facing down on the mat, bend your knees. With legs up in the air that you can move around, send your arms to your back and grab your ankles.
You’ll feel a nice stretch along your torso and back, and if you look up you really get to take advantage of the neck yoga bend.
Then transition to a seated position with Downward Dog if you like.
Bottom on the mat:
4. Boat Pose
Look up and legs up in the air so you’re in “V” shape with your bottom as your anchor. Your neck gets a nice stretch.
Instead of counting breaths, when you hold the pose, you could think of something today that you’re grateful for that you otherwise would’ve missed in a busier moment. That’ll add stress-drop points to your day. 🌻
5. Fish pose
This is a fun water animal pose. On your back, arch your back and let your head dangle downward so you’re looking at the wall behind you and upside down.
This is something you can do on your beach towel in case you’re on vacation 😉 And you can roll up your towel to use as a temporary pillow so your head drapes over the rollup (mimicking your neck yoga pose in Fish) that takes the pressure off your neck.
6. Seated Leg stretch
And finally to finish off, while seated you can stretch forward to touch your toes in front of you or as far as you can stretch.
Look up (and out as far as the eye can see) and you’ll feel the effects.
And after doing these 6 look up neck yoga poses, you’ll feel lighter.
And you could be ready for a treat like these summer light delights that are suprisingly healthy with superfood coconut goodness.
Coconut Cookies 🥥
Coconut lover? Move over macaroons (and macarons!). You’ll love these healthy, lower-fat cookies that need NO recipe or butter…
Low-Sugar Coconut Flour Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 tbsp AP flour
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
- 1 Tbsp shredded coconut, sweetened