Contraction facilitating a lifting organizing stretch
The release in the cervical spine from the knuckle and chin pressure feels so good when done with intention.
It's calculated. Methodical.
You're thinking contraction. Thinking lift and support.
Creating a deep adjustment for your neck.
We're stretching and compressing the neck.
In Pranayama, we're using the knuckles and the chin, a pronounced connection of allowing the neck to move in a supported fashion to create a pressure along the back of the neck on the exhale.
Pressure between the knuckles and the chin is glued, supporting the bending pressure on the neck. Combined with the eyes stretching when you look back and abdominal contraction assisting a complete exhale the neck gets circulation from the inside out.
In Pranayama, we're using the knuckles and the chin, a pronounced connection of allowing the neck to move in a supported fashion to create a pressure along the back of the neck on the exhale.
Pressure between the knuckles and the chin is glued, supporting the bending pressure on the neck. Combined with the eyes stretching when you look back and abdominal contraction assisting a complete exhale the neck gets circulation from the inside out.
When we talk about the fingers stretching on the inhale, that's the same kind of pressure that you want to use on your exhale.
With only the arms and head moving, you're getting full range of motion for all the joints of your neck.
The diaphragm pulled back and up amplifies the hydraulic release into parts of the spine desperate for fresh circulation.
We’re looking at how the muscles function with the breath and the joints allowing release in the neck joints themselves.
The shoulders, take a heavy weight off our yoga mats.
So, when we're training the diaphragm to engage on the inhale and the exhale, we're gaining control over and empowering the diaphragm to carry our rib cage as opposed to the ribcage draping off of our shoulder girdle.
We're getting the detox of the circulation and the unwinding that's happened from tightness and restriction of blood flow along the cervical spine.
Freeing circulation to the neck sends blood flow up to the prefrontal cortex securing emotional regulation allowing thought from a place of mindfulness, taking into account outcome of our actions.
Literally the yoga helps us meditate.
Everything we do is meditation.
The release in our necks from the knuckle and chin pressure is very important.
We're not just dropping the head back.
It's calculated.
It's methodical.
You're thinking contraction.
You're thinking lift.
You're thinking support.
As you create adjustment for your neck.
Contracting while in a static position is taking control of the nervous system. Think about how much awareness is needed to maintain the contraction during the stretch and breathing into it to allow for the decompression of muscles and joints.
It is very easy to think that when you feel a stretching feeling that you are getting a stretch. You are correct something is stretching, but we are looking for a shift in working relationship in function and in mind body awareness. Balance comes when we apply the yoga technique under the umbrella assumption that the body is inseparable from the mind and the breath.
Practicing the sequence sets a ground work base line of familiarity for your nervous system to reset. Actively contracting muscle in a static hold while pulling or rather lengthening the muscle thereby redesigning the muscular structure around the joints has to centre around breath focus. This is the real challenge - to challenge enough to create change, but not to overwhelm the nerves.