Neck tension is annoyingly difficult to get rid of. I carry enormous amounts of tension in my neck and shoulders, even when I’m otherwise quite relaxed. It’s painful and can also make me look uncomfortable for no particular reason. You’d think that lying down and taking the load off of your shoulders would release the tension, but no such luck. It is as though those muscles have been tight for so long that they’ve forgotten what relaxation means. I know that many people have basically this same problem.

Today I experimented with consciously willing my neck muscles to stay loose, which is a much more bewildering task than you might think; it turns out that, because of the way the nerves are configured, it’s hard to tell where and how much those neck muscles are straining. I found these articles especially helpful. I started out trying to push myself into a “good posture,” but that always makes the tension worse somehow. This much more subtle notion of “directing” or thinking of uprightness and looseness works wonders.

I’ve been speculating that this neck tension that so many people get is a symptom of our urge to deny our physicality: to pack all of our individuality into the symbolic and spiritual sides of our nature. More on this later.