Those terrific or tense (or both?) shoulders! Did you ever notice how your shoulders can affect your world? When they're tight or knotted your ability to turn your head is severely limited - so you can't even see much of your world.
And I find that when my shoulders are open and relaxed I am amazed at how much I can lift or how much energy I can expend in digging a hole. Just saying - because it's not like I'm out there hole-digging every 5 minutes - I'm not in the grave digger biz (monster truck OR obituary related)!
So, for today's Body-Part Wednesday post I thought I'd ask you to write, sing or dance about your shoulders. And I thought of a cool exercise I wanted to share with you that might help you relax those lovely shoulders...
Well, before I get to my amusing (and cool) exercise I'll tell you a couple things I try to do when I notice that my shoulders are tense. First - I try to only notice - not bite myself on the a$$ over it (altho, the stretch required to bite oneself on the a$$ might be pretty good for loosening the shoulders ?). Second - I shrug both shoulders, then alternately shrug them. One then the other. Repeatedly and fast (unless they hurt - in which case I go slow).
That helps me get my shoulders out of my ears (something my pal Tina Marks Shirley once told me she reminds her yoga students - it made me laugh when she said that - and also made me aware of how often I do have my shoulders in my ears...).
I also (we're dropping the "first" "second" and whatever comes after those because I'm getting confused) roll my head slowly all the way around (but not like the Exorcist girl) - and then do the same thing in the opposite direction.
And now we've come to my cool exercise (I've been stalling because I'm going to have to show you my doodle - and lord knows I don't go around showing my doodle to every Tom and Harriet! I'm kinda shy...).
Here goes:
Ok, now stop laughing. No, on second thought - keep laughing - laughter is definitely good for relaxing your shoulders. But when you're done, please read on...
I decided to draw (term used loosely) a picture of me (idealized version, check out the tiny waist and curly hair!!) and my shoulders (yes, those are the two horizontal lines below my head and extremely long neck - no one said I was good at drawing!!) and write what weighs them down.
So I listed - across my shoulders - a number of things that feel like they are weighing on me - causing me to have tense shoulders. And then I pictured relaxing my shoulders (I once heard a yoga tape where the instructor said to imagine your shoulders relaxing down - like melted butter) and having those troubles just melt right off.
You can try the same - either draw a pathetic doodle like I've done or just a horizontal line - and list your troubles. Write down what's weighing on and tightening your shoulders. And then picture the troubles melting like butter onto the floor (yuck, who is going to clean all this up?). Fun, huh?
Please, please, please - remember to comment ON the blog to be part of next Tuesday's giveaway! Just post your comment, picture, or dance on your blog or Facebook - and then come over to the Square-Peg Reflections blog to leave us a note about where your shoulder info is! Or just comment on the SP Reflections blog itself. We'll use the random number generator on Tuesday to choose a giveaway winner.
