Quintessential Poses for Our Culture: Pose I

I have a few poses I consider to be the “quintessential” poses for our culture. The ones that counter our tendencies to keep us balanced. I will be sharing each of these poses over the next few posts. I like to include these in most of my practices to help keep me balanced.

The first is so simple! And there is power in simplicity...Shoulder Rolls. Yep, so easy and can be done almost anywhere. Sit tall, creating length in the spine. Then bring your shoulders up under your ears. Circle them back to draw your shoulder blades together. Circle them down and forward, rounding your upper back. Do 4 or 5 in one direction then change direction. Do them slowly and make them really big. Use your whole upper torso.

Shoulder rolls help squeeze out the tension in our upper back and chest, opening the breath and releasing the upper trapezius. They also help counter the forward hunch many of us have.