Sixth Cervical Vertebra

It often begins with a stiffness in the lower neck, a pulling that cannot be localised, a dull pressure that sits on your shoulders like an invisible weight. The sixth cervical vertebra — C6 — sits deep in the neck, where the transition to the thoracic spine begins. It helps carry the head, enables rotation and tilting, and when it is afflicted, it restricts you. Sometimes the pain radiates into the arms, sometimes into the shoulders, sometimes it takes away your ability to move your head freely.

Orthopedics sees wear, disc problems, pinched nerves. And all of that is real — on the physical level. But the sixth cervical vertebra sits exactly at the point where a deep psychosomatic theme manifests: the burden you place on yourself when you try to control the lives of other people — because you don't have your own under control.

Your neck carries what you will not let go of.