Hi %%FIRST_NAME%%,
Welcome to your Mini De-Stress Course.
Here’s a link to listen to the first part of your audio course. (There’s a transcript of it at the bottom of this page, in case you’re not into MP3s).
To listen online, click the ‘play’ button. Depending on your internet speed, it may take a few moments to load – please be patient!
To listen on your computer or MP3 player, hover over the link and choose ‘save as’ to download the audio.
[audio:https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/destress-audio-course/part-one.mp3]Part One Audio MP3
Today I’m sharing with you my favourite technique for getting rid of shoulder tension and getting more oxygen to your brain – both instant de-stressers!
When you have had a chance to play with this one, how about popping by the special discussion area in the Soul-Sized Living forum, to share how you got on – and get answers to any questions you may have?
Is It Time To Stop Wearing Your Shoulders As Earrings?
And just in case you’d like a positive affirmation for this stage of the audio course, how about:
I enjoy releasing physical tension; I can feel it helping me to de-stress.
Enjoy!
Part two will be with you tomorrow – so make the most of your time to play with these physical de-stress techniques today!
Namaste,
Transcript
Is It Time To Stop Wearing Your Shoulders As Earrings?
Welcome to your mini de-stress course. Today I am here with part one and one of the most simple things you can do to de-stress is to get more oxygen flowing to your brain.
Most of us sit really badly so I am going to talk about posture today – and stiff shoulders… Because anything that we do that causes tension in the upper back and the neck and shoulder area will restrict the oxygen – the blood flow – to the brain.
When the brain gets restricted oxygen levels it gets stressed and it makes it more likely that you’ll react to stress triggers in your life.
So what I would like you to do is to look at how you’re sitting right now… and gently (within your own comfort levels) lengthen your spine. Imagine there is a string from the crown of your head gently lifting up pulling all the way through your spine. I’m not talking ramrod straight. Spines are meant to be curved. It’s just about lengthening the space between each vertebra until you feel the lift, all the way through the neck to the crown of the head.
And then tuck your chin under slightly, which lengthens the back of the neck. Can you feel the difference already?
And now I would like you to do one of my favourite techniques.
I use this in my meditation classes so often! I call it “the shoulders as earrings technique’.
Most of us are wearing our shoulders as earrings and (I show my age here) it reminds me of Pat Butcher on East Enders when I was a kid. Pat Butcher was famous for the massive earrings she used to wear and most of us wear our shoulders like that. They are not quite so decorative of course.
How can you tell if you’re wearing your shoulders as earrings?
Imagine just pushing your shoulders down for a moment. Can you feel how different that feels to where you normally wear them?
And now really lift your shoulders up as close to your ears as you can get them, both at the same time. And then hold it for a few seconds. If you try to talk, you’ll hear how your voice has changed as you do it – you’ll hear the tension it creates in the throat area.
In a moment we are going to do a big sigh and release. OK, so just let them drop. Ready, one, two, three………….(sigh)
Does that feel good? Let’s do it again, pull those shoulders up to your ears, one, two, three, drop………(sigh).
And one more time. Shoulders crunched up to the ears, one, two, three, drop ………(sigh).
Now, again doing this within your safe comfort limits, I want you to roll your shoulders forward, lift them up and roll them behind you in a circle. Do that two or three times just to release the tension in all of the muscles in that area. And you might find that you want to reverse directions, do it forwards a couple of times and then backwards.
And you might want to give yourself a little should rub and a little neck rub.
Can you feel how much clearer your mind feels? Can you feel how much more relaxed you feel? And it was just a few minutes of relaxing and de-stressing your shoulders.
If you do this at stress points during your day, you will notice a difference.
So that is the first technique I am sharing with you on this mini de-stress course. I will be back next time with another simple effective de-stressing technique.