Stress and neck pain usually go together. We don’t call something a pain in the neck for no reason. Stress does have a physical impact on your body and especially your neck.

When we get anxious we activate the stress response, known as the Strauss reflex, releasing hormones into the bloodstream and tightening the neck muscles.

You can see it in action when there is a loud bang; we lift the shoulders, tighten the jaw and our eyes widen. Some believe it’s a natural response to protect our vulnerable necks in a dangerous situation, many mammals show the same action.

Whilst a stressful situation doesn’t bring about quite such a dramatic response, it does activate it to a lesser degree. This becomes a problem when we spend several hours a day in this state – that’s why we end up with stiff necks.

Long term stress can play havoc with our health. It’s a modern day disease and difficult to avoid unless you sell up and live in a cave. Hormones released when you are stressed increase bodily functions such as breathing, the heart rate, sugar metabolism and muscle readiness. In short bursts it is a valid response to a perceived threat. However if the stress response is sustained over long periods it does have implications to your health. The stress hormones effectively shut down systems not immediately required for the fight or flight reaction such as the immune system.

Stress And Neck Pain
It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

It is important to be aware of your response to stress. It is possible to use the stress response to your advantage. An important point here is that stress is not the stimulus - it is your reaction based on your perception of a situation. If it is your reaction it is possible to learn how to not react.

It is difficult to not let yourself react poorly in a stressful situation, one of these reactions being to tighten the neck. It is difficult because most of us don’t practice not reacting.

In a fast moving world we belief we need to react faster just to keep pace. We have become used to the knee-jerk reaction, so much so that we do not even consider other ways to behave.

Did you know that only you can make yourself stressed? We tend to say things such as "my boss is really stressing me out today", whereas we should say "I am allowing my boss to stress me out today". See the difference?

As a teacher of The Alexander Technique I have learnt how to stop and chose how I react in certain situations. I can’t do it all of the time, as my kids really can try the patience of an angel at times, but I have developed to control myself in many situations that would have previously caused me difficulty.

The techniques I use with my clients are now available in my ebook, ‘How To Treat Your Stiff Neck’. It has 56 pages of advice on stress reduction, stress relief, posture and relaxation that will help remove the stress from your neck. And if it doesn’t I will give you a full refund (although less than 1 percent ask for one!).

To get started right now at your desk please click here to download your copy



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