Relief for stiff neck and upper back

Most of us work on the pc all day long, sometimes continuing into the night. All this long exposure to certain repetitive movement causes stress injuries to muscles, tendons and soft tissues, especially when it’s done over poor sitting posture. 

After a few hours on the pc, I would normally develop neck, shoulder and upper back stiffness, which sometimes causes pain when I turn my head to a certain side. 

The best way to combat such injuries is to practice some simple yoga stretches which can be performed at your seat. This is what I would normally do.


Seated backbend

Open up your chest, lift up your chin, and stretch your hand to the back to hold the lower back rest. Breathe deep and slow. Breathe in and out 8 times.

                                            Pixture from Carolyn Weatherson




Hugging arms

While seated on your chair, do a hugging arm pose like the one in the picture below. Bring your chin down and try to touch your chest with it, keep your back straight. Breathe deep and slow.

Seated chair twist

Seated with the right side of your body facing the chair back. Hold the sides of the chair with your hands and slowly twist to your right from the base of your spine. Breathe deep and slow. Switch sides.

                                            Picture taken from here

Cow face pose (modified)

Perform this pose while seated on your chair. Keep your back straight, and open up your chest. And don't forget to switch sides.

Downward dog pose (modified)

This is my favorite pose, it works every time.

Place your hands either on your desk or the back of your chair. Fan out your fingers, press down your back and upper back to ensure it is flat, by walking your feet back and lengthen your spine. Keep your head same level as your upper body. Breathe deep and slow.

                                         Picture taken from Karen Voight

For early prevention, always listen to your body. The minute certain parts of your body tells you it’s sore or stiff or uncomfortable, get up and start doing some stretching. Your muscles and tendons need some loosening up, that’s all.

The above tips are from Yoga Journal. Feel free to check out their website here.

You might be interested to check out my other related post below :

1) Want a strong ankle, back torso & toned tummy? 2) Release negative emotions, improve alignment & back pain 3) Relief for insomnia, fatigue & stress

Blog name – carrot head and applemint

Points to ponder

                                            Heart Quotes


Keith Ellis, Bootstraps
Like the elephant, we are unconscious of our own strength. When it comes to understanding the power we have to make a difference in our own lives, we might as well be asleep. If you want to make your dreams come true, wake up. Wake up to your own strength. Wake up to the role you play in your own destiny. Wake up to the power you have to choose what you think, do, and say.


Doc Childre and Howard Martin, the HeartMath Solution
Look at life as an energy economy game. Each day, ask yourself, "Are my energy expenditures (actions, reactions, thoughts, and feelings) productive or non productive? During the course of my day, have I accumulated more stress or more peace?"


Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself, and how that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.


Ralp Waldo Emerson
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.


Albert Einstein
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.


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St Elmo's Fire - A beautiful film

St Elmo's Fire
(Click above for the lovely love theme sound track)

The story revolves around a group of friends who have just graduated and their adjustment to their post university lives, and the responsibilities of the encroaching adulthood.


Synopsis


Love the soundtrack.




Blog name - carrot head and applemint

Mom knows best – No midnight hair wash

                                              The first picture which I purchased online.. :-D

We’ve all heard this before I’m sure, and yes, mom is always right. Despite the fact that sometimes they may not know the real reason behind it, what they say could actually be good for us, especially ladies. For that, mom deserves a lot more credit than we sometimes give her.

No mid night hair wash, or rather don’t wash your hair too late into the night.

I am a strong believer in this, as it causes wind (Chinese believes), and will also bring about rheumatism and headache in your later years. You won’t feel it now, but you will later. Once you reach the age of 20 onwards, try to wash your hair before 8 pm. And each time you finished washing and towel dry, blow dry your hair. You don’t have to blow till it is dry dry, most important thing is that you keep the scalp dry.

How? Make sure you hang a hair dryer next to your dressing table or in the bathroom next to the mirror, to make it convenient for you to reach for it after you’re done putting on your skin care. This will save you time going around looking for it and to plug it into the socket each time. Once it’s convenient, you will find that it’s easier to keep to this routine. This is what I do with mine.

It’s ok, if once in a while you have to wash your hair late at night, but ALWAYS ensure you do not go to bed with wet hair. That’s the worst that you could do to your body.

Allowing your hair to dry naturally is fine only if you sit below a strong fan for about 10 -15 minutes. That’s because, the longer the hair remains damp, the more wind it will collect in your body, without you knowing it. 

Now you know why you have so much wind in your body? So the next time your mom says something, listen..

Oh by the way, the picture above (lady bathing) is the first picture that I bought online using credits. So so proud of myself, he..he.. *pat pat on my own back*

Blog name – carrot head and applemint

Points to ponder

                                    

              

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever - Isak Dinesen


Difficulty are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict - Wiliam Ellery Channing


Blog name - carrot head and applemint

My new toy

                                        

Nokia E72

Got this over the weekend and love it! So much more user friendly compared to my previous HTC Touch. I remember, after I got my HTC Touch, I kind of like lost touch with this world and lost touch with mobile technology stuffs (literally), to the point where I have friends who says I don’t seem to keep in touch anymore via sms like before. It looks good and sexy, but that’s it, period.


Anyway, I am still having problem trying to synchronize my contacts into my new h/p. Upon further investigation by the Nokia personnel, they told me that there’s something wrong either with my lappie’s USB port or it is the lappie problem. Sigh, I do seem to have been cursed, to have problems with pc/laptop. Once the h/p problem is solved, it’s the pc, once the pc is solved, it’s the wifi problem, the network problem, this problem, that problem… aaarrgh…!!!

Now I have to take my lappie back to the pc shop for trouble shoot, else I won’t be able to access and use the Nokia OVI Suite something something... 


The problem with this two item is that they are part of ever changing technology. And technology is something that seem to change faster than most can keep pace with. So there's no end to it.

But it’s ok, I have a new toy to fiddle around with now, so I will bear with all this nonsense. At worse, I will re-key in all the contacts one by one, not that I’ve not done this before. Will be doing it for the.., what…, 5^th – 6^th time anyway, or more, I cannot remember already.. :-D

What I like about this E72, it has a 5 megapix camera..!!! So does that mean if I take my own pix with it, I won’t have to do any touch-up…. ;-)


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Snapshot of the day

Picture taken by a friend - Christopher Harriot


--moon


Blog name - carrot head and applemint