Several years ago, back in about 2004, I severely injured my neck.  At the time it happened, it didn’t feel too bad.  I thought it was something I would just shake off and keep going.  However, when I woke up the following morning, I realized I was in severe pain and couldn’t move my neck.

After panic subsided and I managed to crawl out of bed into a hot shower, I figured the warm water would loosen it up and I’d be fine.  The hot water provided some initial relief, which allowed me to begin to move slightly, but not by much.

Fast forward to later that day at the doctor’s office.  She examined my neck, checked my range of motion (which was non-existent!) and then prescribed muscle relaxants and talked about surgery.

Surgery?

Drugs?

Ummm… no thank you!

Back at home, lying in my bed feeling sorry for myself, I began to think about how I could start to help myself and heal my own neck.  I began to work on mobility far from the source of my pain.  Starting with the fingers and hands, I worked my way up my arms and into the elbows.  Since this felt okay, I tried the shoulders.  That hurt.  So I backed off.  Again and again just working shallow range of motion on the rest of my body until I could reach, and begin to move the neck.  Each time I was able to do a little more, go a bit farther.

When I was finally able to work into my neck, these are the exercises I did:

This was not an instantaneous process by far, but gradually, bit by bit, day by day, and week by week, I was able to increase the range of motion and decrease the pain.  Eventually, I was able to completely restore the full, pain free mobility back to my entire body.

In the video above, I also mention some breathing exercises I did along with mobility to help heal myself.  The main exercise is quite simple, yet extraordinarily powerful.  Using your mind to locate the source of pain, inhale directly into the pain.  Visualize the breath bringing healing energy into the area.  Then exhale from the pain.  Visualize your breath pulling the pain out of the body and expelling it.  Repeat until you feel the pain begin to decrease and the area feel warm and energized.

If you would like to learn more about healing yourself with mobility, breathing and posture, I highly recommend you check out:

The Warrior’s Health System: Reintegrating Breathing, Movement, Alignment