Yoga for Headaches & Migraine Relief - Gentle Yoga for Tension Headaches

Transcript

hi everyone welcome to my channel my name is Cassandra and today we're doing a short sequence for headaches let's begin in a comfortable seated pose starting with alternate nostril breathing use your right hand and you're going to seal off your right nostril with your thumb and you're going to bring your middle finger towards your forehead take a deep breath in through the left nostril for a count of four five or six once that breath is full you're going to seal off your left nostril with your ring finger or pinky finger and exhale out the right nostril for that same count of four five or six at the end of that exhale take an inhale once more through the right nostril for that same count really filling up and then seal off the right nostril exhale out the left for a count of four five five or six so repeat at your own pace for a few more rounds so a very simple breath you're always just inhaling out of one and exhaling out of the other keep the shoulders relaxed and the eyes can be closed imagine the breath can go all the way up into the back of the ey top of the head back of the head and all the way down through the nostrils a soft cooling breath take about two or so more rounds here finishing up your last one and after that final exhale you can rest the hands on the tops of the knees let your breath come back to a natural pace and natural rhythm moving into a neck release sequence which is a really great way to help relieve tension caused headaches you're going to drop your right ear towards your right shoulder keep the chin slightly elevated and if you'd like to go further you can extend your left arm out to the side and you can use your right hand gently placing it over the top of your head and see if you can pull your left ear further away from your shoulder so keep pressing that left shoulder down and take deep breath breaths in and out through the nose and imagine that the breath can go all the way down from the top of your head in the temple down into the ear the side of the neck and into the shoulder using minimal effort and from here start to roll your chin down towards your right shoulder and armpit stretching a little bit more towards the back of the head and the back of the neck keep the breath going finally we're going to stretch the unders of the neck so start to tilt your head up so you get your chin looking up towards the top right corner really lean your head back until you get a nice stretch underneath the jaw and down at the front of the neck this area can build up a lot of tightness which can lead to headaches and release bringing the head all the way back back to Center maybe do a few shoulder shrugs and we'll set ourselves up for the other side so this time the left ear drops towards the left shoulder keep your chin slightly lifted if you'd like to go further the right arm can extend out to the side a couple inches and you can use your left hand to lightly press towards the top of the head but instead of pressing down think of pulling your right ear away from the right shoulder so creating even more space from the ear all the way down always backing up out if it feels painful in any way the neck can be quite sensitive so we don't want to go too far or past our Edge and now drop the chin down towards the left shoulder and left armpit stretching towards the back of the neck make sure you're still sitting up nice and Tall finally start to look up as you lean your head back and point your chin towards the top left corner feel a nice opening underneath in the jaw in the front of the neck you might feel it down into the pectorals even if you're very tight here release and come all the way back to Center maybe a few shoulder shrugs if that feels good here again sit in knee pile so stacking your right knee over the top of the left if this doesn't work just sit in a cross-legged stance bend your elbows at a 90° angle and you're going to wrap your right arm underneath the left binding once or twice press the shoulders down keep the elbows lifted The Palms are away from the face and then tuck your chin down towards the chest as if you were going to bring your forehead to touch the biceps as you press your forearms towards one another you should start to feel the space between the shoulder blades open up and a little bit of a stretch towards the back of the neck and the back of the head stay with those same slow deep inhales in and out through the nose relax the facial muscles let go of anything that does not need to work right now you are welcome to stay in this pose if this feels best to you if you'd like to go a little deeper into the hip opener you can fold and release all the way down either letting the elbows rest on the knees or down towards the floor so part of releasing and relieving headaches with yoga is learning to let go learning to relax and learning how to use our breath in a way that supports and nurtures our body Engage The Belly to lift the chest all the way back up take a deep breath as you reach the elbows up and exhale release the pose bring your palms behind you and your feet forward so knees are bent feet are flat on the ground squeeze your shoulder blades behind you keep your elbows hugging in towards one another and focus on lifting your chest up getting a little bit of a stretch at the front of the chest release to make your way into the fold on the other side so knee pile this time with your left knee stacked over the top of the right remember you can just do cross-legged if you prefer with the elbows bent you're going to swing your left arm underneath your right binding once or twice press the shoulders down reach the elbows forward and up and Tuck the chin down towards the chest let your head be heavy neck is relaxed and soft take a moment to do a little bit of a body scan and notice if there's any area of your body that is trying to work right now you can stay in this pose or you can go a little bit deeper by folding forward feel the tension melt away as you hold the pose for a few more moments and then lifting your way back up as you breathe in reach the elbows up high uncross the legs and the arms take that chest opener again hands behind you feet in front lift your chest pull the shoulders back squeeze your shoulder blades behind you and make your way into your tabletop stance on hands and knees Palms are underneath the shoulders knees are underneath the hips just one cat and cow so as you inhale drop the belly lift the Gaze exhale round the spine chin to chest and with that rounded back press back into an easy child's pose hips go towards the heels forehead rest towards the ground keep your thighs about hip width distance apart or so and then you can reach your arms back so the Palms are reaching for the heels let your shoulders rest over the tops of the knees and just soften and get heavier and heavier with every breath that you take feel the forehead in contact with the ground and just imagine that that soothing pressure can help to relieve your headache relieve the migraine interlace your fingers behind your low back coming into rabbit pose you just need to rock some of your weight onto the forehead or the crown of the head whatever is most comfortable to you let the knuckles drop down towards the floor so really most of the weight here is in your knees you're not applying too much pressure on the crown of your head take a few deep breaths and we release coming into downward dog pal Palms are shoulder withth distance apart feet are about hip with distance apart or so lifting the hips up and back take this as an opportunity to soften your neck and just give your head a couple shakes on the yes and no letting the head be heavy like a bowling ball bring your knees back down to the floor swing your legs forward and lower onto your backs we'll take a length spinal twist before coming into chiasa reach your arms out to the side into a te and you can lift your hips and move them a little bit over to the right before letting both knees drop down to the left try to keep your right shoulder blade pressing down on the floor The Gaze can either be straight up or you could always turn your head to look over your right shoulder let gravity do the work for you Engage The Belly as you float the knees back up and we'll go to the other side hips go over to the left drop your knees down over to the right this time focus on keeping your left shoulder planted down on the floor breathe into your low back into the outer edge of your hip wherever you feel this most lifting the KNE knees back up to Center let's make our way to chiasa our final resting pose straighten out the arms and the legs take up some space Palms facing up towards the sky allow the eyes to close or the Gaze to be soft and let yourself rest here truly rest so feeling the body get heavier and heavier as you let go of the need to work or the need to use strength or effort let yourself be supported by the floor and the ground underneath you so I welcome you to hold in this pose for a few minutes or really as long as you would like when you are ready to get up do so slowly and mindfully thank you all so very much for doing this practice with me I hope you found a little bit of relief from it and I hope that you will and give the video a thumbs up it really does help me quite a bit thank you again namaste see