gijsbertvdl

Thanks a a lot, Gabrielle and others, for your advice. I re-viewed the video about elbows in your pockets, and also the video about effective breathing I found very useful.
The thing with elbows in your pockets is, that I can apply it in standing, also with great effects in walking and sitting in daily life, in class it helps me a lot in bringing up my arms sideways – but then… I don’t know how to put my elbows in my pockets when I stand with my arms against my ears and my handpalms compressed. And that’s exactly the spot where I might get into problems. By the way, this week I have very good experiences with focussing on relaxing and keeping down my shoulders in many poses. But again: half moon with shoulders down? Namaste, Gijsbert

I was kind of shocked by the idea to have to skip neck backbends, because there are so many of them in the postures, and I was afraid it will be difficult to have to change so many poses. Besides halfmoon backwards and camel are among my favorites!
So I decided to spend some classes on neck awareness and self observation. What I found out, is that problems arise, where I shorten my neck with my neck and shoulder muscles. My most ‘dangerous’ postures are half moon, awkward, balancing stick, triangle, wind removing, the sit-up, cobra, locust… I re-read the HotYogaMasterClass on neck problems, and I thought: ‘engaging muscles in the head, neck and shoulders’ is not what I do in back bends (in fact I love to drop my head backwards), but IS what I do in postures where my head is in line with my body. So what I try now, is ‘think length’ in these postures, concentrating on relaxing head, neck and shoulder muscles before and while engaging muscles elsewhere in the body that make me shorten my neck. Turning my head in Sawasana-on-the-belly and in spine twisting pose still is not easy and painless, but it’s getting better now!