Modify Melting Heart

If your neck, shoulders or knees hurt in melting heart yin yoga pose or anahatasana then the modifications offered in this short video will be of benefit for you. In this short yin yoga pose video on melting heart pose we will discuss the benefits of melting heart pose as well as the meridian lines affected. From there I will offer you modifications whether you experience knee pain, neck pain or shoulder pain. I will offer one modification for each issue. Additionally you will be given a modification that takes care of all three issues: knee, neck and shoulder pain. You will need a yoga bolster, blanket and meditation cushion for props.

One of the most frequent comments I hear is how uncomfortable heart melting pose is for people. So let’s talk about how to make it more comfortable.

This pose is intended to be a backbend for your middle and upper back. It also opens up your shoulders and softens your heart.

Meridians:

The pose affects your urinary bladder line with the compression along the back of your spine.

If you feel stress in your chest, then this pose stimulates the stomach and spelen meridians.

I always think of this pose most affecting the arm meridians, specifically the heart and lung meridians.

Modifications:

So let’s look at modifying this pose for your comfort.

Knees:

If your knees are uncomfortable you can place a folded blanket underneath them.

Shoulders

If shoulder pain prevents your arms from extending overhead, then move your shoulders further apart in this pose. If you feel pinching in the backs of the shoulders, then you may be reaching a compression point. Moving them further apart may also relieve this.

Neck Issues:

You can place a bolster under your chest to lift the ground. This may need to be two bolsters, or something to create more height under your bolster. Whatever it takes to create enough height so that there is ease in your neck and it can free float.

Change your Orientation to Gravity

Alternatively you can build yourself a posture that is similar to melting heart but in a different orientation to gravity so that there isn’t so much weight pouring through your neck, shoulders and knees. Place the bolster under your chest, meditation under your head and lengthen your arms overhead. Bend your knees with your feet flat on the ground. Voila, upside down melting heart pose.

And that is it :) If you would like my 7 day series of yoga videos for your upper back, including some yin yoga, then go to https://www.melissawest.com/upperback/ put your email in and I will send that to you.

If you made it all the way to the end of the video put: “My heart is melting now” in the comments. Thanks for liking this video and sharing it with your friends. Remember to subscribe and I will see you next week for an energizing matcha latte.

Namaste, Melissa

Shoulder Pain

Are your shoulders are stiff and tense like mine? If you are like me I know you have tried a lot of things from massage, ibuprofen, heat and ice, and even exercises and movements to help relieve the shoulder pain. In this video I am going to show something different, how to get deep into the joint of the shoulder and prevent and reverse ligamentous contracture with yin yoga.

Your shoulder is actually a ball and socket joint that has the potential for a large range of motion. The funny thing is that we actually do not move this joint alot. Most of the time our arms are in front of us typing on a keyboard or mobile device, making meals, lifting children, hugging our loved ones. Our arms don’t really move around a lot giving the shoulder a lot of range of motion.

In Yin Yoga we stress our joints to prevent and reverse contracture or the loss of mobility through a joint. Yin Yoga can be helpful to slowly regain natural range of motion and relieve tense and stiff shoulder pain.

The beautiful thing about yin yoga is that when we stay for awhile in the pose, for five minutes instead of the usual five breaths in a yoga class we are able to target the deeper connective tissues that wrap around the joints.

This connective tissue is more dense and less pliant than the superficial that we usually affect when we exercise or practice hatha yoga or vinyasa yoga. Stressing the connective tissues that wraps around the bones of the joints takes longer because it is more plastic in nature. And so we apply slow and gentle traction.

With our shoulder joints it is normal and common to experience contracture, that is the loss of mobility through the joint. The ligaments begin to shorten and immobilize creating a kind of shrink wrap around the joint.

By applying appropriate pressure and compression to the shoulder joint we increase the pliancy in our shoulder joints coaxing chi and blood flow through the shoulder joint. This helps to revitalize and create resilience in your shoulder joint.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

If you made it all the way to the end of the class put: “My shoulders feel resilient” in the comments

Our next live class is February 23 at 9:00 am PT, Yin Yoga for legs

Thank you for your donations: Anne Marie from Australia, Sean, Leah

Relieving your shoulder pain is not something you can do in just one video. I am going to share with you a good, better and best way to do that now.

* Good: We release a video here every Friday at 9 am PT, when you subscribe and turn on notifications by pressing that bell, you will receive that video and it will support you in your daily practice

* Better: At the beginning I told you I will tell you where you could go to get 7 days of yoga for upper back pain. If you go to melissawest.com/upperback you can sign up there to receive 7 days of yoga for back pain: 7 Days of the Best Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga and Short Yoga Videos for your Upper Back, Neck and Shoulder Pain Relief

* Best: The best way to relieve your low back pain is with our value added classes in our membership community. We have over 35 of them. I think the best is self-massage with our soft foam roller.

Link to all the Classes for our Members: Click Here

Link to my favourite for our Members: Click Here

Become a Member Today:

http://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/

15 min Vinyasa Flow

Today, we have a special guests on Yoga Lifestyle with Melissa, Mary O’Meara from O’M Yoga with Mary O’Meara. Vinyasa Flow yoga is about connecting our breath to our postures. It is a dynamic style of yoga that allows us to find a moving meditation while transforming our mind, body, and soul. In this 15 minute chest opening Vinyasa Flow class, we work on stretching and warming up the chest and shoulders. We create energy as we flow linking breath to movement, while building heat from the inside out. Fun block work builds strength in the arms, while creating stability in the shoulders. Combining all of this, we will find our way warmly into our peek posture of Camel, Ustrasana, which is one of the biggest chest openers we can do! We will pair the use of essential oils (not required) to open our heart center even more on an energetic level. Whether we work with the emotional blend Joy to balance our heart center and lift our emotions, or RC to work with the physical aspect of deepening our capacity for breath, we will feel lighter and more expansive.

In Mary’s classes, she focuses on the mind, body, emotion, spirit connection. Mary believes that where there is dis-ease within the body, there is an emotional root connected to it. The more we can clean these roots out, and keep them flowing, the less dis-ease we will have within the body. Her classes will build physical strength all the while creating space for our souls to shine brighter as we clear out the “junk”. Her use of essential oils is intentional, to empower us to live feeling as we are meant to, healthy and happy. She uses oils that were created with the highest intention in mind, as well as knowing the farmer. Mary will guide you on a journey to live an empowered life with every system in the body, from immune function to hormone function. Release emotions, find freedom, feel good!

Mary lives in Los Angeles, California, her YouTube journey began almost 2 years ago when she realized that yoga was meant for the world, not just to be confined within the walls of a studio! She has found such a passion for sharing her practice and teachings with the world. She didn’t know she could love teaching as much as she does today! Mary posts weekly on O’M Yoga, more often than not you will find them on Monday mornings, for Mary Mondays of course! She offers a wide variety of classes, from 15 minutes up to 60, there will never be an excuse of “not enough time” with her channel. Her classes are filled with options, new will not feel left behind and advanced practitioners will not be bored, pick the layer that works best for you. Her yoga will leave you feeling invigorated, strong, empowered, and relaxed (after savasana of course!).

Related Videos:

45 Minute Yoga - Heart Opener for Shoulders, Chest and Spine

Full Body Power Vinyasa - 30 Minute Heart Opener

Power Vinyasa Yoga - Emotional Release Flow

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To begin your oil journey

Yoga for Lower Back Pain

A 2012 study in the Journal of Complementary Medicine found that yoga reduces pain, anxiety and depression and improves spinal mobility in patients with chronic lower back pain more effectively than physiotherapy exercises.

Low back pain occurs from anywhere below your ribcage to the top of your legs. It can happen when you lift, reach or twist. Often back pain is non-specific. In fact, pretty much everybody will experience low back pain at some point in their lives. It can be caused by strain or injury, herniated discs, arthritis, illness or a spinal problem that you were born with.

The pain can be dull or sharp. It can be localized or spread over a large area. You may even experience muscle spasms. If you experience sciatica, the pain can also radiate down your leg. Most of the times low back pain is acute and it goes away after a few days. Chronic low back pain is quite debilitating and intersects with your mental health overlapping with depression, anxiety and stress.

The relationship between low back pain and depression is understandably strong. It is depressing to be in chronic pain for any length of time. In this yin yoga class for low back pain we will attend to the tissues of the low back and take some postures that will counteract depression. Additionally we will practice some yin yoga postures that will promote good posture which will support your low back and prevent low back pain.

We are a culture that is overstimulated. We are constantly searching for stimulation. As we practice yin yoga can we soften into the subtlety of our interior landscape? This can be challenging when we are experiencing chronic pain. In fact often times we can spend a lot of time avoiding, turning away from or bracing against our chronic pain. What would it be like to soften into and fully experience the chronic pain? What does the pain feel like? Is it burning? Pulsing? Throbbing? Where do you feel it exactly in your low back? Does it have a colour? Is it constant or is there an ebb and flow to your experience of the pain?

This is not an aesthetic practice. Can we be intelligent in our yin yoga practice for low back pain? Can we feel the stability of our bones and the floor and soften our muscles our jaws, our throats, our brows our eyes, around this experience? Can we soften and releases ambition and striving, any straining to impress and desperately seeking to improve. Can we soften? Can we soften again? Can we soften again? Is our body soft? Can our mind become soft and flexible?

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

If you made it all the way to the end of the class put: “My lower back feels better” in the comments

Thank you for your donations: Rachelle, Ainize, Diane, and Donna

Relieving your back pain is not something you can do in just one video. I am going to share with you a good, better and best way to do that now.

* Good: We release a video here every Friday at 9 am PT, when you subscribe and turn on notifications by pressing that bell, you will receive that video and it will support you in your daily practice

* Better: At the beginning I told you I will tell you where you could go to get 8 days of yoga for back pain. If you go to melissawest.com/backpain you can sign up there to receive 8 days of yoga for back pain: 1 video a day for 8 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help your back.

* Best: The best way to relieve your low back pain is with our value added classes in our membership community. We have over 20 of them. I think the best is self-massage with our soft foam roller.

Direct Link for Members:

Upper Back Pain Relief

Upper Back Pain is probably more accurately represented as upper and middle back pain and can occur anywhere form the base of your neck to the bottom of your rib cage. This part of your back includes your rib cage which attaches to the 12 vertebrae of your spine. It makes up the longest part of your back. The discs that separate each vertebra absorb shock as you move. The muscles and ligaments hold the spine together.

The bones in your upper back are less mobile than your lower back. For good reason too. They keep your upper back stable to protect your heart and lungs. However this does not mean that you do not experience pain in your upper back. Pain can be caused by overuse and strain to the muscles and ligaments that support your upper back. Poor posture from our long hours on screens. Osteoarthritis causes the breakdown of cartilage that cushions the small facet joints of the spine.

While most forms of yoga focus on the superficial muscles, yin yoga focuses on the deeper layers of connective tissues, ligaments, joints and bones. Yin yoga is particularly effective for upper back pain because myofascial pain that affects the connective tissue of the upper back is quite common. Chronic myofascial pain is ongoing or longer lasting pain that can affect the connective tissue or fascia of a muscle or group of muscles.

When you experience chronic myofascial pain in your upper back, neck, shoulders and chest it might feel like a knot in the muscle or a tight band. You may feel sensitivity to the touch. With myofascial pain there are often sensitive trigger points that are tender when touched. That is there is pain when you put pressure on a trigger point. You can experience aching, burning, stinging or stabbing and a reduced range of motion to the affected area.

Yin yoga is designed to get deep into the myofascial layers of our body. We hold the poses for longer to affect the deeper connective tissues that wrap around the joints and the bones. These connective tissues require slow and gentle traction in a passive way over a long period of time. Connective tissue is more “plastic” in nature compared to muscle which is more elastic. This dense and less pliant connective tissue needs time and the effect gravity over time to release. Just like braces the deeper layers of our connective tissues respond to slow gentle traction.

Often what helps with upper back pain is massage. When we practice yin yoga we are doing something similar to massage in that we are pressurizing and manipulating the myofascial tissue. This slow gentle traction over time helps to prevent contracture or the loss of mobility through a joint. Ligaments often begin to shorten and can immobilize and shrink wrap around the joint. By taking the yin yoga shapes we pressurize and manipulate the myofascial tissue easing this immobilization.

Additionally, all the time we spend breathing with non-abandoning attention and compassion in our yin yoga postures allows us to reduce the stress and anxiety that may be causing the upper back pain in the first place.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

If you made it all the way to the end of the class put: “I can move with ease in my upper back now” in the comments

Our next live class will be: February 23rd Let me know on the poll on my YouTube Community Tab if you want Yin Yoga for Legs or Yin Yoga for Runners

Relieving upper back pain is not something you can do in just one yoga video. I am going to share with you a good, better and best way to do that now.

Good: We release a video here every Friday at 9 am PT, when you subscribe and turn on notifications by pressing that bell, you will receive that video and it will support you in your daily practice

Better: At the beginning I told you I will tell you where yo...

Yoga When You Are Sick

On the final day of our 30 day new year challenge we will be answering the question, “What yoga should you do when you are sick?” These are my top tips for what yoga to do when you are sick, the best yoga do do when you are sick, whether you have a cold or a flu. Getting a cold or a flu or a cough and a cold is a normal part of being a human being, and one of the most frequently asked questions I get is what yoga can I do when I am sick. This is an important question to ask, because if you do the wrong yoga, you can get more sick, but if you do the right yoga you can support your body on the road to recovery.

One of the best kinds of yoga you can practice when you are sick is yoga nidra or sleep yoga. Nidra means sleep. Yoga nidra is a sleep based conscious relaxation meditation technique. It is a yogic sleep where you are guided from a dream state into a deep sleep state and finally to a deep state of relaxation where your thoughts drop right off and yet you are still aware. Yoga nidra is incredibly healing and I will explain why in this video. Once you have rested and repaired with yoga nidra, another style of yoga that is incredibly beneficial when you are sick is restorative yoga. I am going to share with you the most healing restorative yoga pose in this video and explain why it is healing in this short yoga video for when you are sick.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is what yoga should I do when I am sick. This is an important question to ask, because if you do the wrong yoga, you can get more sick, but if you do the right yoga you can support your body on the road to recovery.

One of the best kinds of yoga you can practice when you are sick is yoga nidra or sleep yoga. Nidra means sleep. Yoga nidra is a sleep based conscious relaxation meditation technique. It is a yogic sleep where you are guided from a dream state into a deep sleep state and finally to a deep state of relaxation where your thoughts drop right off and yet you are still aware.

Yoga nidra or Sleep Yoga is a form of meditation where you get the benefits of meditation and a deep night sleep. If you have practiced yoga before you will be familiar with savasana or corpse pose where you lie down at the end of a yoga class. Yoga nidra is kind of like that except you get to lie down for longer while you are guided through rotating your consciousness through your body.

Why is this form of yoga beneficial when you sleep? The link between restorative sleep and the ability of your immune system to do its job effectively is unequivocal. For example, T cells are a type of white blood cells the are crucial to your body’s immune system. T cells attack viruses and other pathogens that invade the body. When you are in a deep resting phase, like you are led into during yoga nidra, your body is able to release T cells, growth hormones and epinephrine back into your body to help fight viruses and pathogens.

Put simply your body cells repair themselves when you are in the deep rest state of sleep, there is a building and maintenance of your immune system, and your body rests, restores and repairs your body in an integrated way when you enter into the deep rest of sleep states that you are taken into during yoga nidra.

I have several yoga nidra classes in my membership community.

Plus I will link to the yoga nidra I recorded in 2010: Click Here

However, do not lose sleep over this. One of my main intentions in 2018 is to start teaching A LOT more yoga nidra. So be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications, especially on my main YouTube channel Dr. Melissa West for yoga nidra.

Yoga when you are tired

On day 29 of our 30 day new year yoga challenge we will be talking about what kind of yoga you should do when you are tired. If you experience insomnia and anxiety and you are looking for the best yoga for a sound sleep, then you are in the right place. I am going to share with you the best yoga that you can do an night and even yoga that you can do in bed for a good night sleep.

If you are feeling tired and exhausted I am going to share with you the best kind of yoga to help you feel refreshed in a short amount of time. We live in a world where we are exposed to a lot of artificial light through screens, we consume caffeine to keep going and we are stressed by work, family and social commitments.

Because our lives are so demanding, we spend a lot of our time in the sympathetic nervous system or fight or flight mode. When our sympathetic nervous system is always activated we will feel anxious, have difficulty thinking clearly, we will be unable to process our emotions or feel connected to our bodies. It is a short time to difficulty sleeping and then all out fatigue and exhaustion.

We often forget just how important sleep is to our overall health. Luckily there is a whole genre of yoga dedicated to our sleep. It is a guided meditation called yoga nidra. Nidra means sleep. Yoga nidra is a sleep based conscious relaxation meditation technique. It is a yogic sleep where you are guided from a dream state into a deep sleep state and finally to a deep state of relaxation where your thoughts drop right off and yet you are still aware.

Yoga nidra or Sleep Yoga is a form of meditation where you get the benefits of meditation and a deep night sleep. If you have practiced yoga before you will be familiar with savasana or corpse pose where you lie down at the end of a yoga class. Yoga nidra is kind of like that except you get to lie down for longer while you are guided through rotating your consciousness through your body.

You begin by focusing on your physical body which allows you to relax. Throughout the meditation you are taken into the deeper layers of your emotional and energetic bodies to a place where you are no longer concerned about your to do list and endless obligations. This will help you rest deeply and relieve fatigue and exhaustion.

Yoga nidra will slow your body down and allow for deep restoration. When you are sleeping, your sleep can often be quite restless and not actually restful. If you carry the tension of your day into your sleeping hours then your unconscious mind keeps going and you can be working the tension of your day out all night long. During yoga nidra your heart rate slows, your blood pressure slows, your endocrine system is given a chance to recover.

One of the most famous yoga teachers of our time, Dharma Mittra says that even 20 minutes of yoga nidra or sleep yoga is equal to two hours of sleep. If you practice for 60-90 minutes he says it is equivalent to 4 hours of sleep. There are a lot of numbers floating around out there about how many hours of sleep you get when you practice yoga nidra, but one thing I know for sure is that it is incredibly restorative and when I am feeling tired, if I lie down and practice yoga nidra it is the perfect way to recharge my batteries.

So, I encourage you to give it a try. I have several yoga nidra classes in my membership community.

Plus I will link to the yoga nidra I recorded in 2010: Click Here

However, do not lose sleep over this. One of my main intentions in 2018 is to start teaching A LOT more yoga nidra. So be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications,

Yoga to do on your Period

On Day 28 of our 30 day challenge we are going to talk about yoga for when you are on your period. If you are wondering what yoga is the best to do for period pain, to help period cramps and yoga positions to help menstrual cramps, then we are going to cover that in this video. This short video is all about what yoga to do during your period. Restorative yoga can set up the conditions for deep renewal so your body can heal itself. Honouring your menstrual cycle as a time when your body needs extra energy to cleanse and rejuvenate itself through this natural time of purification. We can support this time of purification by making sure we are taking extra rest and backing off of extra responsibilities. Even our yoga practice should be restorative at this time of the month.

When we take the time to honour the energy of our cycles, resting when we need rest we will have more energy during the rest of our monthly cycle. We can view our menstrual cycle like a time of pulling an arrow back on a bow energetically so that we can engage in more dynamic activity with the start of our new cycle. In this video I will share with you my favourite restorative yoga pose that you can do during your period to help with period pain relief.

Let’s talk about yoga you can do on your period. When you are menstruating it is incredibly important to take the time to rest. This is why I recommend restorative yoga. I will link to my restorative yoga playlist. Click Here

And a full length video I made for menstrual cramps on my friend Anita Goa’s channel:

Restorative Yoga for Menstrual Cramps: Click Here

Our menstrual cycles can be seen as a chance to bring healing to our bodies. We live in a culture that values doing over being, where our self-worth is based on what we achieve, the schedule we keep, and the tasks we complete. All of this goes against the energy of our menstrual cycle which is an inward-focused time of rest. The more we respect our cycles as an opportunity to turn inwards, rest and restore, the greater comfort we will experience.

Restorative yoga can set up the conditions for deep renewal so your body can heal itself. Honouring your menstrual cycle as a time when your body needs extra energy to cleanse and rejuvenate itself through this natural time of purification. We can support this time of purification by making sure we are taking extra rest and backing off of extra responsibilities. Even our yoga practice should be restorative at this time of the month.

When we take the time to honour the energy of our cycles, resting when we need rest we will have more energy during the rest of our monthly cycle. We can view our menstrual cycle like a time of pulling an arrow back on a bow energetically so that we can engage in more dynamic activity with the start of our new cycle.

Today I am going to share with you my favourite restorative yoga pose when I am menstruating.

How to do it:

Open your knees wide and place a bolster between your knees. Sit back on your heels and rest your torso on the bolster. Rest here for 5-20 minutes.

How does it work:

Child’s pose is a deeply calming pose. It opens up the low belly and low back, soothing menstrual cramps. This pose is also fantastic for relieving the fatigue associated with menstruation.

I know the best 3 words you can hear out of your yoga teacher’s mouth is Take child’s pose.

If you made it all the way to the end of the video put, “it is always a good time for child’s pose” in the comments.

Thank you so much for pressing that like button. If you know somebody who would benefit from this video,...

Yoga Nidra

On day 27 of our 30 day challenge we are answering the question: How to sleep with Yoga. The answer I am going to share with you is something called: yoga nidra or sleep yoga. Yoga nidra or Sleep Yoga is a form of meditation where you get the benefits of meditation and a deep night sleep.

If you have practiced yoga before you will be familiar with savasana or corpse pose where you lie down at the end of a yoga class. Yoga nidra is kind of like that except you get to lie down for longer while you are guided through rotating your consciousness through your body.

We are a culture suffering from chronic anxiety, chronic tension, and panic attacks. We are stressed out, on high alert and feel a constant urgency from everything. We are slaves to our do to list. We are wired and frazzled. We are sleep deprived and many of us experience chronic insomnia. The insomnia anxiety cycle is real and I have nothing but compassion for all of us who suffer with it. We often carry the stress of our lives into our sleep.

Then we wake up and we do not feel rested. One of the best ways I know how is through a guided meditation called yoga nidra. Nidra means sleep. Yoga nidra is a sleep based conscious relaxation meditation technique.

It is a yogic sleep where you are guided from a dream state into a deep sleep state and finally to a deep state of relaxation where your thoughts drop right off and yet you are still aware.

Before I answer the question, How to sleep with yoga, I want to point you to the best resource for yoga to help you sleep.

If you go enter your email below I will send you 7 days of yoga for Sleep, that is 7 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help you get the best night’s sleep.

How to sleep with yoga. This is a vital question and I comment you on asking it.

We are a culture suffering from chronic anxiety, chronic tension, and panic attacks. We are stressed out, on high alert and feel a constant urgency from everything. We are slaves to our do to list. We are wired and frazzled. We are sleep deprived and many of us experience chronic insomnia. The insomnia anxiety cycle is real and I have nothing but compassion for all of us who suffer with it.

We often carry the stress of our lives into our sleep. Then we wake up and we do not feel rested.

Research from the March 2017 Behavioral Brain Research Journal reported that more than 1/4 of the world’s population suffers from sleep problems. In their study they observed that inflammation of the nervous tissue and neuronal cell death continued even 3 weeks after the sleep deprivation induced in their experiment.

A study in the April 2017 Oxford Academic Journal of Sleep found that restless sleep with more waking and irregular sleep timing contributing to increased perceived stress for people.

We need rest. Sleep heals. When you go to sleep at night your body repairs and restores itself. During your sleep your body releases hormones that encourage tissue growth. You also make more white blood cells that attack viruses and bacteria.

So how can we sleep with yoga?

One of the best ways I know how is through a guided meditation called yoga nidra. Nidra means sleep. Yoga nidra is a sleep based conscious relaxation meditation technique. It is a yogic sleep where you are guided from a dream state into a deep sleep state and finally to a deep state of relaxation where your thoughts drop right off and yet you are still aware.

Yoga nidra or Sleep Yoga is a form of meditation where you get the benefits of meditation and a deep night sleep. If you have practiced yoga before you will be familiar with savasana or corpse pose where you lie down at the end of a yoga class.

Yoga at Your Desk

Do your neck and shoulders get tight and painful from working at a desk all day?

Mine too!

That is why I made you this quick 5 min video with easy yoga stretches you can do at your desk in 5 mins.

On day 26 of our 30 day new year yoga challenge we are going to take 5 minutes to stretch out your tight neck and shoulders. If you have neck and shoulder pain from sitting at your desk, working at an office, working long hours on a computer or a laptop, then you are going to love this short five minute yoga video for neck and shoulders. This 5 minute yoga video is designed for you to do right in your chair at your desk or in your office. It is super short and easy. It will help you get into your neck and shoulder pain, tightness and stiffness from working at a desk and a computer.

I am going to take you through 2 of my favourite yoga poses for tight and painful neck and shoulders. These are simple yoga exercises you can do while you are sitting at your desk at work. It is super quick and easy, but effective. You will leave with a sense of ease, relaxation, and sense of well being. Not only will your neck and shoulders feel less painful but your mind will even feel more quiet and you will feel less stressed after taking these five minutes.

Before I show the best yoga poses to relieve your neck and shoulder pain from sitting at a desk in just 5 mins, I want to point you to some of the best resources for neck and shoulder pain.

Resources:

Yoga for Neck and Shoulders Full Classes: Click Here

Yoga for your Neck Short Videos: Click Here

Yoga for your Shoulders Short Videos: Click Here

Shoulder Shorts (10 Short 10-30 min member videos for your shoulders) Click Here

Want to become a member? Click here

Ok, let’s do my favourite yoga neck and shoulder shoulder stretches at your desk right now :)

Eagle Arms

Take your right arm out in front, hook your left arm underneath it and wrap it all the way around until your palms touch.

To modify you can bring the backs of your hands together, or bring your elbows, lower arms and palms together or give yourself a big hug.

For less lower down and in, for more lift up and out.

Hold for five breaths.

Eagle Arms releases tension between your shoulder blades, loosens shoulders and wrists.

Neck Release

Lower your left ear to your left shoulder. Breathe and hold for 5 breaths. This will relieve stress and tension that causes pain in your neck.

Eagle Arms on the other Side

Take your left arm out in front, hook your right arm underneath it and wrap it all the way around until your palms touch.

To modify you can bring the backs of your hands together, or bring your elbows, lower arms and palms together or give yourself a big hug.

For less lower down and in, for more lift up and out.

Hold for five breaths.

Deep breathing in eagle arms will reduce stress and blood pressure. It will also help to relieve your body of aches and pains. Deep breathing promotes better blood flow, releases toxins from your body and helps you to relax.

Neck Release on the other Side

Lower your right ear to your left shoulder. Breathe and hold for 5 breaths.