Our neck and shoulders tend to stiffen when we are stressed and anxious, or when we have poor posture and stay hunched over for prolonged period of time. Use a yoga belt (or scarf) to deepen your understanding of how your shoulders feed into your yoga poses.
Neck & Shoulder sequence
The picture above shows a quick and easy sequence that you can do at home. The important thing to remember is to allow the shoulders to drop, releasing the trapezius muscles towards your hips. Maintain a good width along your collar bones and take long slow exhalations to release tightness.
Use a yoga belt
A yoga belt (or long scarf, rope that you can find at home) is useful to deepen your understanding of how your shoulders feed into your yoga poses. Often, when we raise our arms in yoga, our shoulders go up as well. The yoga belt will help you position your shoulders, in addition to giving you a nice self-massage!
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to tie the yoga belt.
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