Massage: neck

Stiffness in the neck to the point that you cannot turn your head freely anymore, can take away at least half of the joy of life. Very often it is the result of bad posture, tendency to bend your neck too much or to keep your head lifted all the time. It might also be the result of neck injuries and lack of exercises or it is simply a mirror of our general approach to life as we model our body according to our physical and emotional experiences.
Trying to have massage regularly combined with exercises such as Pilates, which build body awareness, can help enormously. In the meantime try this:

1. Place index, middle and ring fingers along both sides of the top of the neck vertebrae using both hands. Make sure that the middle fingers of both hands are placed in a groove at the junction of the scalp and the neck
2. Take a deep breath and when you start to breath out press into the grooves using your middle fingers
3. Hold for several seconds and then slowly release
4. Press again, but this time instead of holding, make five slow circles
5. Move your fingers lower down the neck and repeat. Now you can use pressure of all three fingers as you work along both sides of the neck.
6. Repeat until your reach the shoulders.

Originally published in Stella Magazine, the weekly supplement of The Sunday Telegraph