Thursday 19 April 2012


Your Shoulders and your Energy

“You are not carrying the world on your shoulders – the world is carrying you” - Vedanta

In many traditional approaches to health there is no separation between the body, mind and spirit.  Emotional tension can lead to physical tension and vice versa

Tension can also deplete our energy reserves.  Try clenching your fists for a moment.  It takes far more effort to clench your fists than it does to leave your hand relaxed.  If you are carrying tension – you are wasting Energy.

If you can relax your body more, you will feel more emotionally and mentally relaxed and have more Energy.

A good place to start is the shoulders.  Most people carry tension in the shoulders at some stage of their lives.  It is usually accompanied by the fact that they are trying to do too much.  We all need to “shoulder our loads” but many people take this too far and try to shoulder too much.

Is this you?  Do your shoulders ache?  If you do not think that it particularly applies to you, I bet that you can think of somebody you know who is always trying to do too much for other people.  Look at their shoulders.  Ask them how they feel.  It will not take long before you are finding tension.

Learning how to relax the shoulders will help you to look after the shoulder and neck muscles better.  This means that you will have less “stiff necks” or sore shoulders.  It will increase your sense of wellbeing by reducing the tension in your body.  Interestingly, it can also lower your centre of gravity and make you feel more balanced.

In Tai Chi, Chi Gung, Shiatsu and meditation there are many ways to reduce tension from anywhere that it manifests.  The following exercise is very simple – but also very effective.  Give it a try!

1.    Lift your shoulders as high as you can.  Really try to get them close to your ears.

2.    Take a BIG deep breath and hold it whilst you count to three.

3.    Release the shoulders and the breath in one go.
The release of breath is quite sudden and the shoulders will drop to a more relaxed position.  Try it a few times and see how it feels.

Ray Pawlett
http://www.ki-ways.com/

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