By:  Lisa Nelson, MA OTR/L, L.Ac., CIMT

3 Mindful Tips to Ease Neck Pain

Acupuncture gets high marks in relieving neck stiffness and pain!

In addition, doing a self-assessment on how you sit at a computer desk can be a helpful way to see if how your environment and body position may be contributing to your neck pain symptoms.

Here are 3 tips to be especially mindful of:

1. Are you using a laptop primarily? If so, during the times you are at your desk it is best to use an extra keyboard so that you can elevate your laptop to an appropriate eye level (use books or a shelf to adjust the height). Using a laptop can cause you to lean forward towards the keyboard or monitor causing neck strain.
2. Check to see the height of your keyboard is at elbow level (while at your side – see diagram). If your keyboard is too high, it is common that you will shrug your shoulders up or forward. This will cause muscle aches in your neck and upper back if maintained for long periods of time.
3. You may need to raise your chair to adjust your keyboard to the appropriate height. If your feet no longer are comfortably on the floor use a footrest instead of using the chair legs as a base of support. This will help you to sit back comfortably in the chair using the low back support correctly.