Healthy Neck & Shoulders Starts This Thursday!

If you're one of the many people who suffer from neck or shoulder pain, you know how it affects different aspects of your life.

Neck and shoulder pain affect your quality of sleep, it may cause you to skip our certain activities, it creates emotional stress, and if it's chronic, it can even lead to feelings of hopelessness and depression.

The relationship between the neck and shoulders is such that people who experience pain in one often experience pain in the other. Common causes of neck and/or shoulder pain include:

• poor posture (poor body positioning when standing and/or sitting)
• spinal misalignments
• being sedentary
• long hours in the same position (i.e sleep positioning and ergonomics)
• muscle imbalance
• spinal degeneration
• osteoarthritis

Our Therapeutic Series has been designed to teach you a tool box full of practices, ranging from yoga poses, to self-massage techniques, to better ergonomics.

We’ve found that this multi-pronged approach successfully helps manage, mitigate, and sometimes even resolve pain, so you can get back to your regular daily activities.

Join us for our 4 week Healthy Neck & Shoulders Series starting Thursday, April 20, at 11:45 a.m. Click here for details and to register.

If this schedule doesn’t work for you, no problem! I will be happy to work with you in a Private Session or two. Email us and we’ll find a time that works for you.

We hope to see you soon!

Emily
Yoga Teacher, Yoga Therapist, Massage Therapist
Director of Teacher Training

Share the Yoga!

This week I got to thinking about the fact that I do yoga poses everywhere I go. Whenever I feel an ache in my body, I instinctively move into a yoga pose to release the muscular tightness. I know most people would be self-conscious about doing yoga in public, but I'm pretty shameless, or maybe practical. I think about it like this... Yoga can help you make your body feel better, instantly, in some cases. So why not do it whenever the urge strikes?

I believe the more people do yoga in public, the more yoga will become commonplace, and the more people will be exposed to the benefits of yoga. That's why I don't give a second thought to taking my yoga with me wherever I go - I'm focusing my well-being and I might even inspire another person to focus on their well-being.

This week I visited my hair salon for a haircut. I sat in my stylist's chair for about half an hour, and when my hair was done my back and hips were tight from sitting still so long. So what did I do? When I went up to the counter to pay, I did a half downward facing dog while the receptionist pulled up my bill. It took 5 seconds, no one even noticed (except my hair dresser, who graciously snapped a photo for me), and I felt instantly relaxed and energized. Where's the harm in that?

I often tell my classes about how I practice yoga at the grocery store and when I'm in line at Chipotle. It's no joke!

And if I can convince my husband to keep the kids so I can do the grocery shopping by myself, the shopping trip transforms into a blissful experience with the addition of a few yoga poses.

My favorite is a half downward facing dog with my hands on the shopping cart. I do this one everywhere I go, because it's quick and easy and it helps the whole body feel better. Anyone can do it!

In line at Chipotle I once got caught in the middle of a standing hand to foot pose and I have to admit I was a little embarrassed, so now I stick to more covert poses like a little baby modified dancer's pose (shown at right) that no one will notice.

So what about you? Do you ever sneak yoga poses into your day? Or do you feel too self-conscious to try? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

AND! I've got a fun contest to inspire you to be present in your body, be conscious about how you're feeling, and move into a yoga pose whenever you might need it, even if it's in public.

Go to our Facebook page and post a photo of yourself doing a yoga pose in a public place and get entered into our drawing for a $100 gift certificate to The Yoga Room! We'll accept entries through November 15th and we'll pick the winner at random from amongst all the entries.

Go out and share the yoga! :)

Lots of love, Zelinda