[PODCAST] Shoulder Release – Episode 71

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Transcript: 

[00:00] Introduction
Hello, friends! And welcome to Move Into Coherence. I’m Pamela Stokes. In today’s episode we’ll be doing a motion that will help you to release your shoulders, and this is a place where a lot of people have some tension that’s built up. It’s a place where we tend to hold our tension because it’s part of what we call the trauma reflex or the trauma response, and you can learn about that a little bit more in Episode 7, which is called Alignment and Soft Power. You can also learn about that in Episode 12, which is called Trauma and Resilience, and as well in Episode 13, where I talk about neck pain relief. It’s called Neck Pain Relief Now, and there’s some shoulder things in there as well. This is a motion that you do standing—it’s helpful to be standing—and you’ll need a wall to be up against. Up against the wall. No, actually, it’s gonna be a good thing. When we have tension in the shoulders, this can affect all kinds of things. It can affect our breathing; it can affect our jaw and the tension in the jaw; it can also affect the lymph system because there are lymph nodes that are under the arms and also at the side of the neck, above the collar bones. When we have tension in the shoulders, and they’re being held up—sort of toward our ears—there’s less space between our ears and shoulders than there could be. This is sending a signal that there is a problem, so the nervous system receives this signal and it says Oh, we’ve got a problem—High alert! and we go into sympathetic activation. And, like I said, you can learn more about those trauma reflexes or trauma responses in those episodes I mentioned. So let’s get into it.

[02:12]Noticing
Please come to standing. And we will be putting ourselves against a wall so that we can feel the shoulder blades making contact with the wall. So just noticing first. Maybe you’re noticing some tension. Maybe you’re noticing that the space between the shoulder blade and the spine on the right side feels different from the one, the space, on the left side. Perhaps you noticed that one shoulder is a little higher than the other shoulder. So we’re just taking a snapshot. There’s no agenda to fix anything, and there’s no judgment here. It’s just simply what are you noticing right now before we begin the motion?  Notice the space between the shoulder blades and the spine. Noticing the difference between your spine and your shoulder blades—what that feels like against the wall. So you can kind of move them around and kind of see where they land there. And then also the muscles in the upper back. So all of those things is taking notice right now what does it feel like for you. And maybe what’s different between the right and the left sides. Just taking a moment to notice.

[03:41] The Motion — Shoulder Blade Release
Let’s begin the movement. Moving from the bottoms of your shoulder blades, gently move them slightly up and down, up and down. And these are small movements. Just this shoulder blades. Up and down. We’re trying to keep the shoulders themselves out of the motion, so we’re moving from the shoulder blades in the back. Up and down. And then take a pause here and a breath. Breathing through the nose. Turning off all your efforts. And now we’ll move them again. Again from the shoulder blades themselves. And we’re gonna slide them just slightly to the right and back to center and then to the left slightly and back to center, and pause. Take a breath here. Take a break. We’ll do that again. So both shoulder blades to the right slightly and then to the left slightly, and back to center, and pause, and breathe. And we’ll do that one more time. Shoulders, both shoulder blades to the right and to the left. And these are slight movements, very small movements. Trying not to involve the shoulders themselves, just the shoulder blades. And then back to neutral. Take a pause here, breathe. And if you’re not finding a whole lot of movement, that’s OK, we’re getting there. And the muscles will relax; the fascia will relax, over time. And the more that you bring your awareness to this area, the more you’ll notice it later on throughout the day. And now we’re going to do something that’s a little tricky, but I trust that you can do this. We’re going to move both shoulder blades toward each other—toward the center. And again this is a very slight movement. And the reason we’re against the wall is to feel the movement, so noticing that. And then back to neutral. And then we’ll move away from the center, so sort of outward with the shoulder blades. And again back to our neutral position. Take a break here, and breathe, and let go of any efforts. And then we’ll repeat that. So both shoulder blades coming toward one another—towards the center, towards your spine—and then back to neutral. Then away from center—away from each other, sliding them away, and then again back to neutral, and take a break take a breath. We’ll do this one more time. The shoulder blades move toward each other—toward the center, and back to neutral. And then away from each other and back to neutral. And pause and turn off all of your efforts and take a breath. And you may notice your breathing is a little easier. Maybe something has softened already. And now we’re going to do some circles. We’re going to be moving both shoulder blades at the same time in small circles, clockwise three times. So here we go. Circling to the right, and we’re going to take it kind of slow and small here. Small circle all the way around and back to center. So you may have noticed how many seconds that took to do that. It’s kind of slow. And then we’ll repeat that same circle to the right again, or clockwise, again. Small circle, both shoulder blades moving together as easily as you can, as effortlessly as you can, and all the way around and back to neutral. And pause, turn off your efforts. And then a third time. Shoulders (blades) move together in unison, clockwise around. Imagine a clock face and just going around number by number by number, and then coming back to center. Turn off all your efforts. Take a break, take a breath. And then we’ll do small circles. This time we’re doing them counterclockwise. So both shoulder blades together. Small circle counterclockwise around the clock face, imaginary clock face. And it’s very small. So it’s a small circle and around and back to neutral, and turn off your efforts, and take pause. And we’ll repeat that again, counterclockwise, so to the left. And imagine you’re going around trying to touch all the numbers, but this is a small circle, maybe the size of an alarm clock. Just little. All the way around and back to neutral. We’re going to do that one more time, and again counterclockwise. Both shoulder blades moving together. It’s a small circle about the size of an alarm clock, and we’re going counterclockwise. This is our third time. All the way around the entire clock and then back to neutral. And turn off all your efforts, take a pause, take a breath. This time the circles are a little bit bigger. So you can imagine maybe like a clock that you would have on your wall about the size of a dinner plate. And making circles with your shoulder blades again in the clockwise direction. We’re going to do three in a row, as if we’re going around a clock so 12-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12 keep going 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8- 9-10-11-12. One more time 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12 and back to neutral. Take a pause here. Breathe. Turn off all your efforts. And now we’ll do that counterclockwise, backwards on the clock face. Both shoulder blades together 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-12 and again back to the left 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-12 and one more time 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and 12, and then back to neutral. And breathe. Pause.

[12:27]Noticing What’s Different
And now step away from the wall, and see how you feel in your shoulders, in your throat, and your neck, maybe even in your pelvis. Just anything that might be different from when we first stood here and took notice of the body. Now we can see what’s changed. And just let your shoulders move in different ways, so forward and back, side-to-side, all around. Making circles with your shoulders. And just see what kind of ease and comfort you may be noticing. Yeah. And noticing how you’re breathing too. Maybe you feel a little bit more able to get a big breath—a nice easy full breath. Anything that’s different. And perhaps you even notice that the distance between the shoulder blades is more expanded, or maybe it’s more even—the right and the left. And maybe the height of the shoulders feels more balanced to you. Anything that you’re noticing is good information for the nervous system to know. We are noticing ourselves. We’re paying attention. We’re connected. That’s a really good message for the nervous system. And then as we release the tension in the shoulders, in the shoulder blades, in the neck  and the throat, we’re also sending a message that all is well in this moment. There’s nothing that we need to be afraid of, and we can turn down that sympathetic activation. Thank you for joining in today.

[14:06] Free Session
I would like to also invite you to, please, if you’re curious, to sign up for a free 45-minute session with me, where we can talk about your health goals. We can figure out what kinds of things that you could be doing to help yourself find optimal well-being. And you’ll experience some of the work that I do in Somatic Release, so that you are familiar with what does this even look like? What is a Somatic Release session? So please set yourself up, and sign up for that 45-minute, free, 45-minute session with me. And we work over Zoom, so you won’t have to travel anywhere. You can do it right there in your own home.

[14:56] Our Release is Good for All
And I really hope that you will see the importance of self-care and releasing trauma from your body and your mind and your emotions, because this not only affects you, it affects everyone around you. And we are all connected by the Quantum Field, so as you are releasing these challenging energies and coming into a more balanced, more peaceful, and more calm state, you are actually sending out ripples of that kind of energy out into the Field. So it’s not only good for you, it’s also good for everyone else that’s here on the planet with us.

[15:41] Sign Off
So thank you so much for taking the time to be with me today, and send yourself some appreciation for being here. This has been Move Into Coherence. I’m Pamela Stokes. Take it easy.☺️