Okay, this next technique has a very poetic name. It’s called melting the heart. I learned this in Anusara Yoga and it has to do with your chest wall and the space between your shoulder blades and the relationship that they have with each other.

So you could be technical and say your sternum goes in as your scapula come apart and then your sternum goes forward as your scapula come together or we call it melting the heart because that’s what it feels like.

You’re going to be on your elbows and your focus is on this region right here basically going concave and then convex and you want to learn how to do it with a softening energy so it’s not a hard muscular feeling.

You’re going to come down onto your elbows, your shoulders are over your elbows, your hands are interlaced, your knees are under your hips. You want to keep your head still and your pelvis still so there’s no movement in the head or in the bottom.

And the area right between your shoulder blades right here where we tend to get a little rigid and hard and stiff is the focal point. You’re going to press that area up so I’m creating a little hunchback.

Notice that I did not move my head or my hips and then I’m going to melt that space back down. You can see the rib cage drops, the entire upper back softens and the space right between the shoulder blades becomes soft.

I’m sure you’re familiar with what’s called Cat Cow. This is one of the most basic and popular yoga movements. Rounding the spine is called Cat, inhaling and arching and extending the spine is called Cow.

So it’s just like Cat Cow except no more pelvis and no more head. Just that mini Cat Cow action in the upper back. What you’re doing is moving the shoulder girdle back and forward. This helps to release tension that we hold in the back of the neck and shoulders from driving cars and typing and all of our other favorite activities, even cooking where our arms are in front of us and our head is down.

It also helps to break up tension like emotional tension and stress that tends to camp out in that area. This is a really important action before going into any inversions. So if you practice yoga in classes where they do headstand, handstand, shoulder stand, right before you go into it you want to soften that upper back and neck and melting the heart.