5 Exercises to Tone Your Neck and Jawline
Your neck is the beautiful bridge between your face and your body.
But with today's sedentary lifestyle and long hours in front of computer and phone screens, it is one of the areas where we can experience rapid and premature ageing. As the superficial muscle of the neck is sensitive to stagnation and tension, it easily becomes shortened (platysmal bands), losing tone (crepey neck and sagging skin), or pulled down by gravity (horizontal lines caused by fascia adhesions).
In this week's workout, we bridge the gap between face and body exercises, as I've collected my top 5 favorite exercises that will tone your neck and improve circulation and flexibility. Resulting in a more youthful-looking neck.
“There are two kinds of power. One is power over, which is always destructive, and the other is power from within, which is a transcendent and creative power.”
Starhawk
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Some information I find useful on the significance of the neck area and the importance of it’s upkeep.
Elizabeth Peru: THE SPIRITUAL GATEWAY: It's at the back of your NECK
Sore throat, stiff neck?
If you’re on your spiritual path and regularly experience a stiff or aching neck and/or a sore throat (particularly when there are powerful cosmic alignments occurring), it could be that your 'spiritual gateway chakra' is activating - you are connecting with other dimensions. This can be noticeably strong during your sleeping hours.
WAYS TO ASSIST WITH THE ACTIVATION OF THE SPIRITUAL GATEWAY :
Be keenly aware of using good posture at all times. Tuck your chin slightly in and lengthen the back of your neck.
Breathe deeply in and out of the belly.
Open your chest (and heart centre) by rolling back the shoulders.
Walk with an 'active foot' - meaning push through the entire length of your foot when walking and leave the heel down slightly before stepping off - this naturally opens up the back of your legs and spine and encourages your arms to swing naturally back and forth when walking.
Massage over the atlas bone each day with a sacred anointing oil of your choice. I also suggest that you massage over the heart centre, throat and third eye, as well. See all of these energy centres linking up in a golden pyramid of light.
Spiritual Unite: Holding Onto Neck Tension and Its Meaning
Holding
Holding on to past emotional pain can also lead to neck pain.
We often think of emotional wounds as only affecting our minds, but they can profoundly affect our bodies too.
When we feel intense emotions like sadness or anger for a long time without being able to talk about them or do something about them, this energy can build up in our bodies in places like our necks.
This can cause pain that lasts a long time until we deal with the source of the problem.
Lack of Balance and Stability in One’s Life
Another spiritual meaning behind neck pain is a lack of balance and stability in one’s life.
Our necks are important for the flow of energy throughout our bodies.
If these channels become blocked because of stress or other problems, it can cause neck pain.
This is the body’s way of drawing attention to an imbalance within ourselves.
Need To Release Tension And Stress
Another factor leading to neck pain may be rooted in one’s need to release tension and stress quickly before it accumulates into something worse, like anxiety or depression.
When you have big feelings that you keep inside, it can make your body hurt.
This happens because the pressure from the feelings gets displaced into your body.