When you hear these two words, you probably think of one thing: a challenge to see another point of view. Doctors suggest that you should think of something else as well—body and brain health, particularly blood circulation.
The simple process of blood flowing throughout your body is very important for your health and longevity. According to Dr. Dewall Hildreth, “good muscular tone and upper back alignment and flexibility not only assist circulation carrying nutrients to the heart but waste products away.”
As we age, it is easy to become more physically inactive. And as we sit—viewing computer screens and televisions, looking at books, magazines or crossword puzzles—it is easy for parts of our body to become less flexible.
According to Ilchi Lee, originator of the Brain Education System Training (BEST) and co-author of In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging, “The neck is one of the most likely parts of the skeleton to become misaligned…[it] is often changed for the worse by the things we habitually do.”
To help yourself stay aligned, Lee suggests practicing stretching exercises to keep healthy circulation—for your body and brain. Use the following exercise, neck stretch, to keep your blood flowing and to maintain neck alignment.
From Ilchi Lee (Excerpted from In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging)
• Move only your neck and head, very slowly. Relax the rest of your body. Stretch your neck backward, pushing your chin upward.
• Bend your head sideways to the left and try to touch your left ear to your left shoulder.
• Repeat this movement in the opposite direction, trying to touch your right ear to your right shoulder.
• Slowly turn your head to the left.
• Repeat this movement in the opposite direction, turning your head to the right.
• Next, rotate your head to the left.
• Repeat this movement in the opposite direction.
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Be flexible.
