Another chapter (21) from the book: wonderful wake up to gravity while on your back

On your back, arching and twisting (and learning).

Lie on a comfortable surface, a floor with a nice rug, a lawn with a comfortable towel, some firm surface. Preferably not a bed, unless getting to the floor is not a do for you, or you are lucky enough to have a very firm bed.

Bring your left foot up to “standing,” which means your left foot is sole against the floor/ ground, and the left knee is pointed toward the sky/ ceiling.

With left foot standing, and keeping the left knee pointing toward the sky/ceiling, rotate your left hip forward/ toward the sky/ceiling. Do this in a way that combines:
pushing your left foot into the ground/ lawn/ bed/ floor,
rotating your left hip to the right,
keeping your right hip not lifted
and pushing out your belly and arching your back.

Then come back down, “easily” at least twelve times. More times is great, fine wonderful, as long as each time is “now and new” for you. Don’t crank out the movements.

DON’T CRANK OUT THE MOVEMENTS.

THIS IS ABOUT DEVELOPING YOUR HUMAN BIRTHRIGHT TO BE PRESENT AND TO LEARN, not to be a better donkey/ exercise machine.

Each time you do these feel as many individual vertebrae as you can. Feel the lower vertebrae twisting more than those higher up. Feel the arching in your vertebrae.

Feel as many ribs as you can. Notice your breathing pattern. Sometimes breathe out on the push/ arch/ twist. Sometimes breathe in. ,Always push your belly forward with your lower back, or allow it to expand forward.

Belly forward and your hip rotates and your spine rotates and arches.

FEEL THIS, SENSE THIS, GROK THIS, LOVE THIS.

Feel the connection with the foot and the hip and the pelvis and the spine. Feel as much of you as you can, with as much ease, clarity and pleasure as possible.

After twelve, or twenty or thirty times of this (each one new to the now), let your leg go long, and feel the difference in your right and left side.

Rest and integrate.
Rest and love yourself.
Rest and let yourself learn / sense and feel more about how you are as an embodied and present being on this planet Earth.

Then maybe bring your left foot back to “standing” and do the movement again, even slower this time, for another ten or twenty or thirty times, and find more pleasure and awakening and learning. ( Yes, yes, we are still on the left side; we are after maximizing learning, not “balance”. This is about the “brain” aka you, much more than the “mere” body.)

Then rest and feel sense and aware yourself pleasurably some more.

When you come to sitting, please roll through a side and keep your neck and back as soft and supple as you can.

Feel the differences side to side as you sit.

Learn forward until the weight of yourself is over your feet before you gently rise to standing.

Notice the differences side to side. Enjoy and be curious about these differences.

Enjoy and learn from and be amused by any “lopsidedness” you feel, for at least a couple of hours. Then “do” this game / learning activity/ meditation on the other side, if you wish..

( Book for sale, links to the right for 4 prices, above for contents)

The basic "Swiss Army Knife" movement: for backs, necks, ankles, hips, knees, brains

Last Friday's essay at SlowSonoma.http://chriselms.blogspot.com/com was on "Weird and Strange" and even being the "Fool" all just were about being in a new world other than our accustomed programming.

 Monday's essay in my special needs children blog was about ways of using a child's habit/ wiring of "hand to mouth" as the basis for "connecting not fixing" in action


Today's essay here is going to continue with the movement I find
most useful to recommend to people who are willing to slow down,
pay attention
and get huge benefits from being out of gravity and into awareness.

I call it the "Swiss Army" knife movement,
because it has so many uses.

I've touched on in many times.
Most recently, on Wednesday, March 16, I published in here
an essay on using the foot, foot standing on the table
while you are lying down,
to push into the table
and
rotate your hip
and
arch your back.

Here's the link:  Hip, Back and Brain blog entry

Here's a reminder picture:

You don't see his foot on the table, but imagine it there.

Notice the chain of action:
foot pushes into "ground"
things happen
in
ankle
knee
hip joint
pevlis
back
ribs
neck

So, let's say it like this: this simple movement,
especially if you experiment with how
HARD IT IS IF YOU TIGHTEN YOUR BELLY
and
how sweet and liberating it is
when you release and PUSH FORWARD YOUR BELLY
(which is to say, use your back muscles)
can help ease and clarify all the above "parts" (hip, knee, ankle, back)
and can
help you understand how your back works,
since this movement involves:
1. ARCHING
&
2. ROTATING
our back,
which is two out of the four things a back does.

So, here we go with the rest of the lesson,
the 2 more things that the back does,
which are:
3. SIDE BENDING
&
4. ROUNDING/ FOLDING

Okay: You bring one foot to standing,
and this time you interlace your fingers and put your hands
behind your head

Then as you push with your foot
and
rotate your pelvis
and
push out your belly as you arch your back,
you also
slide your head along the floor, table, ground,
toward the pushing foot.

Feel what happens in the ribs as you do this.
I have a picture here,
taken at night, so it's lousy,
but maybe you'll get the idea,
and later I'll put in a better picture:

Let's try again with a day picture,
noticing the left elbow heading toward the left foot

Two variation are
One: to bring the knee toward the center,

Two:  is more to push the knee away from the head
and keep it as much as possible pointing toward the ceiling/ sky

This second variation creates a more interesting opening
at the hip joint

Anyway:
here's 3 out of four for the back:
arch
rotate
side bend;

Notice here, the ribs on his left (the right as we are looking) are shortening together,
and his ribs on the right side (left as we look) are expanding out.

Imagine his belly pushed forward,
and how the lower back has to rotate more than the upper back.

Now,
to get the final use of the back:
bring the knee that is forward/ toward the sky/ ceiling
toward the head
and the opposite elbow toward the knee,
now using the famous "abs" which are cool,
but only about a quarter of what "core strength"
is really about

Here's the elbow to knee,
ROUNDING/ FOLDING/ FLEXING THE BACK
part of the movement:

Now you know
and I know
you can "crank" through this movement
and it will still be a hell of a lot better than
nothing
or
most yoga,
but
but
but:
if you go slowly,
and really feel the vertebrae
and your ribs
and notice how your ankle
and feet
and toes are working
and really let your back
alternate between using the muscles in the back
and the front
and the sides

discover two ways of breathing with this:
which I won't even describe

take lots of rests

do it "many times"
on one side
and notice the differences

then imagine it on the other side
and just
do it
a few times

with huge
delight
learning
and
awareness


good

new blog, a movement lesson in using your hip and brain

I have started a new blog, on Mondays,
about special needs children.
It's label is http://specialneedschildren-chriselms.blogspot.com

The first posting was about a 5 session weekend I spent
with an 11 month old baby, of name Maggie

there's some pictures
like this:

And here's today's message/ essay/ idea

This is the one thing I recommend to people to improve
back
neck
hip
ankle
knee
breathing
brain
it's this simple movement:

Lie on your back

Start with the nicest, easiest, least injured leg,
bring that foot to standing
push on that foot

here's the start:
foot pushes into "ground"
(like life, eh, standing up for yourself,
getting grounded,
walking,
moving forward)

(weird things happening in blogger, enjoy the big foot standing demo)

push with that foot,
rotate your hip to the opposite direction,
push your belly out
(try it with belly tight)
and sense, feel, notice, enjoy, improve:

foot connection to "ground"
what happens in ankle
in knee
in hip joint
in pelvis
in lower spine
in mid spine
in ribs
in upper spine,

which way does your head want to turn

do it slow
slower

slowly

and sense at least 6 areas,
one by one
foot and toes
ankle
knee
hip joint
pelvis
spine
ribs

and coming back down,
is a movement too
sense at least six areas,
both one at a time
and
all at once as you come down

rest
lengthen your leg
feel the differences
then do the other side

Good

Power Outages in Austin, rolling black outs, between them, a bit of power and the internet, la la

I've got a book for sale that rotates between improvement "games"
or
"waking up to Now" "meditations"
in
moving,
thinking,
emotional learning
and
"soul"

IT's available by contacting me,
which is silly,
but I haven't officially published it yet.

I just revised section 41, a great movement lesson. I'll paste it in a bit below.

First:
Here's the table of contents of the first 32 sections,
which is how you start, for $12.

Tao of Now, part 1

Transforming Your Life by
Coming into the Present
in
Moving, Thinking, Emotional Learning, & “Soul”

Using the work of Byron Katie, Moshe Feldenkrais,
Anat Baniel, and Chris Elms

1^st 32 of 108 sections

by
Chris Elms, M.A.

Austin, TX; Orcas Island, WA; Sonoma, CA
4BrainFitness.com
360-317-4773

Copyright, 2011

Contents

Intro One: The Dance of Learning    5

Intro Two: Game Plan of the Book    7

1. Moving: Leaning and shifting in standing    10

2. Emotional Learning: Admired in another, find them in yourself    12

3. Thinking: Turning left in a chair, head, eyes, ribs: noticing differences    14

4. “Soul:” Outside and Being    17

5. Moving: Sitting: rounding forward    19

6. Emotional Learning: Liking in our life, what do we like, clue toward what we are really like    22

7. Thinking: What are other people like, what do they like?    24

8. “Soul” Liking and loving in Nature, toward
who we really are    25

9. Moving: Sitting: arching and rounding    27

10. Emotional learning: 3 “positive” and 3 “negative” of another/ ourselves    30

11. Thinking:  Habits, possible changes and options    32

12. “Soul” : Doing nothing, meditation, pause, rest, wait    34

13. Moving: Stand, arch & round, breathe two ways    35

14. Emotional learning: Happy vs. unhappy, write it down    37

15. Thinking: Reality vs. interpretation of “the frown”    39

16. “Soul:” Walking with belly eyes ears nose and toes.    41

17. Moving: Standing round, arch, twist, hands behind head    43

18. Emotional Learning: End emotional suffering, the work of Byron Katie; #1: Is it true?    44

19, Thinking: Walking with Variation    47

20. “Soul:”  Gratitude    49

21. Moving: On back, one leg standing, twist, arch, learn.    50

22. Emotional Learning: BK, Q #1: Is it true? again    52

23. Thinking: What is fact and what is opinion?    54

24. “Soul:” Taking a walk in fact    56

       

25. Moving: Twisting in sitting    57

26. Emotional Learning: BK: Question  #2: Absolutely know?    60

27. Thinking: Thinking about our habits.    62

28. “Soul:”  Spiritual habits    64

29. Moving: Rotation in standing    65

30. Emotional Learning: BK, Question #3: How does it feel…    67

31. Thinking: BK, Question #4: Without the thought, who are you?    68

32. “Soul:”  Taking a walk in What Is    71

Here's section 41

Side bending on our backs.

Come to a firm and useful lying surface. Raise the left foot to standing. Push through that foot, keeping the knee pointing more or less toward the ceiling/ sky, and arch your back as you rotate the left side of your pelvis to the right, keeping the right side of your pelvis on the ground/ floor.

Do this a number of times, in review, pleasure and learning.

Rest. The “usual rest” of learning and integration and deep sensing of yourself.

(Imagine a time, later today, when you’ll do the other side.)

Now interlace your fingers, and put your hands behind your head, left foot standing, do this amazing movement of pushing arching rotating engaging the foot leg hip pelvis back neck and brain. To this add, moving your elbows on the ground/ floor, and “trying out” sidebending your head and neck and ribs three times to the right and three times to the left.

“Sidebending” means that the ribs on one side “shorten,” which is to say, come closer together, and on the other side expand out, like an accordian.

You keep your nose pointed to the ceiling.

You feel your ribs and head and everything involved in this, not just your neck.

Notice you are “sidebending” as you arch your back and rotate your pelvis.

Pay close attention to which “fits” the movement, sidebending to the right or to the left.

Once you’ve figured this out, rest.

Then do the entire movement and feel it and yourself as a unified person/ body/ being/ organism, pushing your foot, rotating your pelvis, arching and twisting your back, and sidebending your back and ribs, too.

Lots of things to enjoy, learn about and pay attention to in this movement.

Good.

Do this again, a few times. So slowly. Notice with pleasure and learning your ribs, different vertebrae, hip joints, shape of your spine, breathing. Reduce efforting. Come “back to neutral” equally slowly, and full of awaring. Maybe more than a few times, just make each time a movement of awareness a “game” of “meditation” and learning.

Rest.

Do this again, and at the “end point,” stop, keep belly firmly out, and let your head rotate easily right and left. Two ways: one you sort of rub the back of your head on one spot on your hands as it rotates. Two: you allow your head to roll to the right and left as you rotate. Enjoy.

Up until now your nose has been pointed to the ceiling. Now your neck and nose rotate as you back stays arched and powerful.

Then let that go and do the “sidebending” once more, noticing the difference with your nose toward the ceiling.

Do this several times a day and it will be worth the cost of the entire book as far as ease, power and clarity in your life.