Yin Yoga for the Head & Neck

Namaste Yogis, welcome to Yoga & You. My name is Pallavi Rajankar. I am a yoga teacher as well as a counselling psychologist. My work is basically using yoga to understand not just physical health, but also emotional and mental health.

Today in our Yoga & You series, we are doing a four-part Yin Yoga series. Now Yin Yoga is kind of like a branch of yoga. It's one that is extremely special to me because I feel like especially in today's world where everything is so fast-paced and everything is all over the place and we are being pulled in a hundred different directions, Yin Yoga essentially allows us to slow it down.

So this practice is very different in that a lot of Yang practices, you know you are jumping around in Vinyasa and Ashtanga, you are moving from one side of the mat to another, it can be quite fast and Yin Yoga is basically being very slow, holding just a few poses for a longer period of time. It works on the physical body, what we call the fascia, which is almost like the surrounding covering around the muscles, we are stretching that out. But also as you might know in the yoga philosophy, there are different chakras in the body that hold different kinds of emotions. So as we work into some of the physical parts of our body and stretch out that part, we are also working towards releasing certain emotions, right?

So in this first video, you are not going to use any props. So we will basically start going into our posture and our breath, right? So gently bring one heel into your hips, bring the other ankle in front, allow the knees to go as wide as possible, gently place your hands, your palms on the knees, and if you like, even the palms facing the ceiling, once you've done this, allow the eyes to close.

For the next few minutes, as we do some calming, centering breaths, try to keep your eyes closed and just trust in your ability to hear the instructions rather than watching me. Okay? So just take a few seconds of silence here, bring yourself back to this present moment. Allow the knees to go wide, relax the hips.

Bring your awareness to the spine and notice whether you might be leaning forward or you might be leaning backward. A lot of us have a tendency to do either one, come to the center and lengthen through the spine. Imagine the crown of your head wants to touch the ceiling, lengthen, lengthen as much as possible, and your shoulders automatically might move towards your earlobes — I want you to roll them back and rest them down. The neck is elongated, the chin stays parallel to the earth.

Without trying to change or alter the breath, just notice what the breath is like in this present moment. Is it short, is it shallow, or is it more deep and nourishing? I'm doing this practice for myself in the morning and most of you might do it too in the morning. You might find that after you've woken up from six to eight hours of sleep, the breath is quite short and almost quite soft even — we're going to go into the body and use our breath as a tool to elongate the breath and also to calm the body down.

So with that intention, gently place one palm on the belly and one palm on the chest. Allow the fingertips to spread as wide as possible as you slowly and gently push into your own body. Allow the touch of your hands on your own body to be loving, to be of kindness. Be gentle with your own body.

With the palm on the chest, notice whether you can feel your heartbeat. Is it slow, is it fast, and what is that saying about your own mental state today? With the hand on the belly, notice what the breath is like. Is the breath constricted, or is it full?

Together, you and me, we're going to take a few long, deep inhales and exhales together. This is ready — inhaling for three, two, one, and exhaling for three, two, one; longer still, inhaling for four, three, two, one, exhaling for four, three, two, one; we're going to take it even longer. Inhaling for five, allow the belly to come into your palm, for three, two, one, exhaling for five, four, slow and controlled, three, two, one; longer still, inhaling for six, five, four, three, allow your chest to also expand, for two, one, and exhaling for six, five, four, three, two, one. Just two more breaths — inhaling for seven, six, allow the belly to fill, the chest expands, the ribs expand all the way to your collarbones, for three, two, one, and exhaling for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Last breath, make it big — inhaling for eight, seven, six, pushing the belly out into your palm, for five, four, three, two, one, and exhaling for eight, seven, six, five, four, pull the belly button into the spine, for two, and four, one, good.

Just release your palms to your knees with your palms facing the sky, dropping the shoulders down, and just notice what the breath is like now. The breath might be a little longer and it might be easier for the mind to stay quiet and the eyes to stay closed. Just take a second of silence — we want to maintain this breath throughout our practice. It's just a calming, centering, grounding breath.

We'll close our breath by gently bringing our palms together and slowly and gently rubbing one palm against the other. And then picking up the pace, build a heat within your palms, rub, rub, rub, just a little bit faster, and then once you feel ready, gently place your palms on the eyes. Allow your palms to go down your cheeks, your jaw, your neck, give your shoulders and your arms a nice little massage. Even your thighs and your legs, if a part of you feels a little bit tired or sore, and then gently open your eyes.

We're going to go into our first stretch, which is basically going to focus on the head and the neck. Right? So first, once you open your eyes, gently place your left palm on the floor. With your right hand, hold the left ear and gently tilt your head towards your right shoulder and stay here.

Remember that a lot of us have a tendency to lift the shoulder up to the ears — I want you to drop it down and stay. Be gentle with your neck, a lot of us have sensitive necks and we have a tendency to pull too much. Be very aware of your body today, okay? Only as much as what is permissible for you, and hold it here for five, four.

You'll feel the stretch move all the way from the base of the ears to the shoulders. For three — if this is getting quite comfortable for you, you can even move the left hand to the left shoulder and stretch it out. Give yourself even more of a stretch and it'll get a little more intense. Staying here for three — if you're someone who stores a lot of tension in the neck, holding this left arm here is going to help you a lot more, okay?

For two, one little inch, go closer, you'll feel it all the way up till your shoulder. Last little breath here and for one. If your left hand is up, gently release it, slowly bring your head back to the center, and we're doing the same thing on the opposite side.

So right palm stays firmly planted on the floor, with your left hand hold on to your right ear and gently pull your head closer to the left shoulder. Remember the same instructions apply here as on the opposite side. There's no need to lift up this left shoulder, keep it relaxed down, this head stays down. If possible, look up to the ceiling and then pull a little closer.

We're holding this here for five — our bodies have such a tendency to store tension. Even though I did these stretches this morning, when I'm repeating them now, there's still some more to be stretched. We'll hold it for four, looking up to the ceiling, adjust your head if you need to. For three — remember, Yin Yoga is all about holding simple poses for a longer period of time.

For two, if your body is allowing for it, bring your right hand to the right shoulder and stretch the shoulder and the head into opposite directions. Remembering to breathe through it, these stretches can get quite intense. Keep breathing for two, last little breath here and for one, slowly and gently bring your head back to center, release both of your hands.

I'm going to turn to this side of the mat so that you can see this next pose better. Allow your hands to interlace, fingers are interlaced, thumbs come up. With your thumbs, place both the thumbs right below your chin. I'm going to look at it in this direction so it's easier for you to follow.

Go towards underneath the chin and very gently, slowly push the head back. Remember, don't hunch the spine — keep the spine straight, look up to the ceiling. Your entire front portion of the neck will stretch; it's the space of the thyroid as well. These poses help in hormone regulation.

You'll notice what stiffness, what pain might be coming up in this motion of the stretches. As we go through the practice today, you'll notice that different parts of our body start acting up in different poses. The emotion that we hold in the neck is that of inflexibility, not trusting the process of life, of stubbornness. So if these poses on the neck are quite difficult, you can use this physical practice of yoga almost as a mirror for your mental and emotional health.

Hold it even more for another three, four, two, remembering to breathe, last little breath here. Look up to the ceiling if possible, even look to the back of the room, four, two, and four, one, slowly releasing your hands, allow your neck to come back to center.

Remember, when we move in and out of the pose, don't whip in and out of it, especially if you're someone who has, say, low BP — the blood rush can be quite uncomfortable. So take it slow while you're moving through the poses.

For this next pose, we're going to interlace our fingers like this. Thumbs go apart, spine is straight, neck is long, interlacing the fingers, it goes behind the head, okay, from here bring your elbows closer together and just bend at the neck. Remember, once more, we're not bending into the back — the back remains absolutely straight, elbows together, and stretch.

When you do this pose, you'll also notice that a lot of our stored tightness is not just in our neck but also in our shoulders. As you're doing the stretch you'll notice the tightness in the muscles that go all the way from the base of the neck to the outside of your shoulders. Hold it here, imagine your chin is trying to touch your chest, for another six. Now or five, continuing to breathe through it, staying here for another four.

And if there's certain pain or discomfort that's coming up in the neck, notice where in your life, in which experiences, in which relationships, you notice stubbornness. The experience of inflexibility, not allowing yourself to flow through life. Just notice for yourself without any judgment — what happens on the mat is very reflective of what happens off the mat, which is why I love this Yin practice. It's very simple, but if you allow it to be, it can be quite deep as well.

Staying here for another three, don't come out of the pose, just a few more seconds. For two, taking deep breaths, last little breath here, feeling that stretch across the back of the neck — it even extends up to your scalp, right, just notice. Last little breath here and for one.

Now from here, don't come out of the pose, stay where you are, elbows are still closer together, and gently, vertebra by vertebra, just hold the back, allowing your forehead to come closer to your pelvic region and stay. You can shift your weight forward so that the very bottom of the spine also feels that stretch. This is a beautiful stretch for the back and it's very telling of the state our bodies are in.

Holding it here for another six, almost like you're curling, pulling into a small little ball, for five, stay. When we're in these poses for a longer period of time, the body will automatically want to snap out of it — I want it to stay in the pose, resist the urge to leave it. My teacher always says that yoga begins when you want to leave the pose. So talk to your mind and stay here for another four, go even closer to the floor if that's accessible to you, four, three, deep breaths in and deep breaths out, four, two, and four.

From here, taking your own time, don't rush out of the pose, just let go of your hands, allow your palms to come down to the earth, and vertebra by vertebra slowly allow your spine to come back up, almost like one vertebra stacking against the other, slowly as you come back and just sit with it. Your neck might feel a little bit sore and a little bit sensitive, and that's okay.

Thank you for sharing your practice with me, Yogi. Today we stretched out the head and the neck in this first video of the four-part series. In our next video, we're going to go into our shoulders and our arms and it's going to be quite a deep stretch. Namaste.