BodyLogos Blog

Pretzel Neck Remedy

Curling up with a good book, bingeing on favorite television episodes, and napping with your beloved for hours on end (be they a two-legged or four-legged) are all wonderful things to do on cold winter days. A few months of contorting your body into positions that resemble a pretzel, leave you feeling like a pretzel!

Here’s a quick remedy for a pretzel neck…

Place two fingers lightly on your Adam’s Apples, central in the front of your throat, and swallow. You will feel the Adam’s Apple jump. Keep your attention on your Adam’s Apple and take your hand away. Now take a deep breath and imagine your Adam’s Apple gently gliding back within the circumference of your neck as you exhale. This will be a very subtle internal movement that changes the relationship between your neck and throat. Keep relaxing back with your breath until the sensation of this adjustment leaves you pain free.

When successful in adjusting the flow of subtle energy you experience relief multidimensionally. Physically the area feels more spacious, like a yawn; mentally you feel more present, like time has slowed down or even stopped.

Use this remedy as a preventative posture any time you are entering into a stressful situation that typically triggers holding patterns in your neck, throat, or shoulders.

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Redefining Strength

I want to change our perception of strength. Strength is the ability to meet resistance and influence an outcome without compromising ourselves. And we already have it.

Strength is not an attribute; it’s a state of being. Gladiators, bodybuilders, and football players demonstrate strength through brute force, sheer willpower, muscle mass, and relentless pursuit. But we’re also quick to identify dancers and martial artists as strong. Their medium taps into a sense of vulnerability, balance, alignment, controlled power, and grace—but no one can deny their strength. Strength may look different on each of us, but it is an inherent part of who we are.

You are not weak by nature; you are stronger than you think. Your strength is not something you need to kill yourself to gain—it is already within you, waiting to be excavated. The key is to stop chasing something you already have and tap into it, so you can manifest that strength in your everyday life.

Because we don’t think we’re strong, we approach resistance with the idea that we’re not enough. We throw everything we have at it and push past our physical, mental, and emotional limitations. We see strength as domination, but it’s not.

When you learn to listen to your body’s divine wisdom, you cultivate a sense of where your body is developing tension instead of standing in its strength. You end the vicious cycle of unrealistic expectations, injury, and self-criticism and learn how to consciously embrace responsible growth. You stop compartmentalizing your strength into emotional, physical, and mental pieces and operate from the strength of your being at all times.

You learn how to align yourself with gravity—instead of working against it—so you can channel your strength to meet life’s resistance. As you meet resistance with equal parts power and alignment, you transform tension into strength

As in the sword dance above, the power lies in bringing just the right amount of force—not too little and not too much. By meeting the sword’s weight, I meet gravity. I am tapped into a larger source of energy, free of tension, and discover a strength that is wholly and uniquely mine.

About Tammy Wise

Tammy Wise is a widely respected mind-body fitness expert based out of New York City, owner of BodyLogos, Inc. author of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind. A former Broadway dancer turned Tao minister, Tammy was voted the Best of Fitness by Time Out New York and has appeared in Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine, New York Magazine, Natural Health, Shape, and Thrive Global. She’s a Transformational Authors Contest Winner and regular contributor to Honeysuckle magazine and Medium. Visit her at bodylogos.com.

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