Saturday was a great morning for many reasons, the main one was that a group of yoga practitioners came together to learn from a knowledgeable, inspiring and friendly yoga teacher: Mark Uridel.
You may not think that the neck area requires much attention unless you feel the heavy weight on your shoulders, tension headaches or just the sensation of having a head that weights like a ton over your shoulders.
Mark gave a round and amazingly clear class in about 2h. We became aware that the reason our neck can feel tight is for basically four reasons:
1) Tension
2) Upper chest breathing
3) Weakness of usually front muscles
4) Bad posture
The solution? Awareness!
Simple isn't it? During the day be aware of how you breath, take some time during the day to breath on your belly, relax, try to stretch the muscles on your neck and release the shoulders from tension with a good gentle yoga practice and to check your posture he recommends to be more aware of it and use a gentle chin tuck to align the cervical area and the shoulders.
Though the neck muscles need to stretch and strength, Mark recommended to be gentle as over-stretching this area can be as detrimental as having lack of strength.
We also moved into a yoga practice using sidhasana, vajrasana, virabhadrasana I, trikonasana, to mention some of the poses but gaining special attention on how we move neck and shoulders.
After a relaxing Savasana, with our minds clear and body happy after the stretches, we enjoyed chanting some mantras and affirmations to heal the area around the mercury chakra or Vishuddha.
After the class, a 67 year old man who had never done yoga, told me how good he felt after the practice and hopefully he will continue to use the practice to heal some of his tightness in the neck area.
We all left with a sense of openness and grateful for having this great teacher in our area.
Mark has a DVD call Yoga for a Healthy Neck with a 20 and 40 minutes practice included. For more information follow the link http://www.healingartsstudios.com/products.html
Mark has 23 years of experience and training in the health care field. He is a Licensed Physical Therapist, Registered Massage Therapist and Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher. He is a professional member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Mark integrates modern Medical Research with ancient Yoga Practices to provide a healing and transformational experience.
