What causes pain in your neck?  Most often the cause is muscles.

Unless you had a traumatic accident which shifted your neck bones, muscles are generally to blame.  Even if the pain is caused by pressure on nerves, muscles are still the bad guy.  Muscles caused the pressure on the nerves to start in the first place.

Here are some ways to relax those neck muscles and take pressure off the nerves.

1.  Ice massage.  Use ice to massage the muscles in front on the sides and in back of your neck.  Also do the base of your skull and the top of your breastbone.  Go to http://SimplePainRelief.com and look for the Category for Ice and Heat.

2.  Do subtle, gentle movements.  Don’t try to force movement in your neck.  Rather, ALLOW it to happen.  Here are some examples.

>    Lay on your back and turn your head to one side (turn your cheek to the bed.)  Turn only as far as is comfortable.  Rest there.  If you feel that your neck WANTS to move a bit more, allow it to.  If nothing happens, that’s fine.  Practice again tomorrow.  Now do the same in the opposite direction.

Forcing your muscles to relax just ain’t gonna happen.  That is not how bodies work.

Feldenkrais Therapy is a gentle tiny teeny movement therapy for your whole body.  Guess what happens when your whole body relaxes?  Your neck does, too.

Since you cannot force your neck to relax, take the time to do thoughtful, gentle, tiny movements.  That may be the perfect therapy for your neck pain!