Tense neck muscles can be the source of several painful trigger points throughout the torso, arms and hands. Massage & Bodywork Magazine printed the following article which gives an interesting, Taoist explanation and modality for understanding and treating neck tension.

Neck Massage
The Taoist Way of Rejuvenation

By Mantak Chia

The neck is the busiest traffic site in the body. In addition to being the channel of the chi energy of the organs and the passageway for air and food, the neck is also the location of the thyroid and parathyroid glands, which regulate the body’s metabolism and other functions.
Because many energy meridians run through this pathway, all our emotions also pass through the neck.

Emotion Meridian/Associated Organ
Anger Liver/Gallbladder
Fear Bladder/Kidneys
Grief Large Intestine/Lungs
Hastiness Heart/Small Intestine/Triple Warmer
Worry Spleen/Stomach/Pancreas

When we are under stress and emotional strain, the neck muscles unconsciously tighten, attempting to block out pain. This produces something like a traffic bottleneck in the neck. The emotions passing through the meridians of the neck become jammed. As tension in the neck accumulates, it interferes with the free flow of chi to all organs and parts of the body. Keeping the neck soft will help chi flow to the higher center located in the brain, keeping the mind and body in harmony.
The neck is also the site of the power of speech, known as the site of courage. While tension in the neck can block self-expression and make us less courageous, the proper flow of chi energy through the neck fosters our ability to express ourselves appropriately at the proper time and place and in a proper way.

Performing Neck Massage
• Begin by bringing energy to your hands. Hold your breath, clench your teeth, and press your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you rub your hands together vigorously. Mentally picture energy flowing to your hands. When your face and hands are hot, exhale, breath normally, and direct your attention to your neck. Remember your hands must always be warm for self-massage. Feel your neck turn exceptionally warm, and know that your energies are flowing.

• Spread your thumbs apart from your other fingers. Alternating hands, rapidly wipe the neck from the chin to the base nine to thirty-six times.

• Alternating hands, use the middle three fingers to rapidly wipe down the middle of the neck from the chin to the base nine to thirty-six times. The thyroid and parathyroid glands are in the front section of the neck. Use your thumb and the three other fingers to massage these glands. Find the painful points and massage them until you feel them open. Massaging this area will help increase metabolism and the power of speaking.

• Massage the points along the sides of the back of the neck. Use your fist to hit along the neck, starting from the shoulders and going up to the base of the skull. Find any painful or tense spots and massage until they are released. This will greatly help to release the tension of the neck and help to release the toxic accumulations in the neck area—the causes of so many headaches.

Mantak Chia is founder of the Healing Tao System and director of the Tao Garden Integrative Medicine Health Spa and Resort in northern Thailand. This excerpt is published with permission from Chi Self-Massage (Destiny Books, 2006).


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