When clients come to me with headaches or migraines, there are 2 common threads:
1. A misalignment in the cervical spine (neck)
2. More time spent in the logic/thinking and less time in the body
Of course there are the other things that lead to headaches and migraines which are:
1. Dehydration
2. Change in caffeine intake
3. Hormone imbalance or shift
4. Stress
5. Fatigue
6. Weather pressure change
7. Sensitivity to food/light/sound
The Energetics:
The throat chakra or vishuddah is one of our creative centers. It’s where we verbally express ourselves. When this fifth chakra is in balance, we’re able to communicate honestly without fear. When the throat is locked or there's not enough energy in this chakra, we can have a hard time sharing our thoughts, speaking up, or being honest about our feelings.
In Chinese medicine, the physical embodiment of joy is singing. I notice when I sing without thinking, that I’m content.
My old therapist told me that the neck is the bridge between the head and the heart.
When these two parts of the self are not communicating with each other, neck pain is the tell. I’ve found that I’ll have tension in my neck when I’m not being honest with myself about something. It might be choosing to hear what I want to hear, see what I want to see, or believe what I want to believe. The mind is a powerful thing.
Neck pain can come about with spiritual bypassing too. We get the intellectual understanding of something but emotionally it’s a different story. If we don’t allow ourselves that process, we’re connecting to the superficial without the depth of truly knowing. We have to go down to go up and contract to relax.
True knowledge is in the application of what we learn.
The power is in the process.
Your power is in the connection you have to your process; your authenticity.
The Physical:
The spine has curves and these curves relate to each other. The neck is connected to the lumbar/low back and also the coccyx which most people refer to as the tail bone. If we address one part of the spine, we also want to stabilize the other. If we don’t address the foundation first, what we shift at the top won’t last.
Another thing to note is that there are a LOT of protection mechanisms around the neck. This is because there are important things in our body that are vulnerable up there. If I try to release or realign the neck first, the body is still in protection mode. I’ll get more positive change when I realign the connected foundation parts first. When that happens, the nervous system is relaxed so it feels safer to realign the neck.
Once I get the hips and low back in place, then it’s up to the shoulders to stabilize the shelf for the head and the neck. If I try the neck and I don’t get much movement, then it’s down to the diaphragm. This tells me that there’s an anxiety component that’s maybe making the person circulate in their head.
When we’re anxious, we tend to hold the breath and also hold tension in our ribs. Once the diaphragm (our strongest breathing muscle) is released, our nervous system is in a more calm state. This lets the neck move with more ease. In chronic patterns, this takes some time and some conversation to understand what sets us into fight or flight.
Most of us don’t even know when this happens, because we’re so used to it. Slowing things down to reconnect to our body allows us to be in our parasympathetic nervous system. This is vital for us to relax, sleep better, and listen to what our body is telling us.
This month’s video is a yummy, gentle release for the suboccipitals which are the muscles at the base of the skull. These muscles tilt the chin up and very easily get overused when looking at a screen, whether it’s a tv, monitor, tablet, or phone. It goes very well to follow the two exercises from last month and is a great add on to the nervous system reset class for the most restful night’s sleep.