Monday treat, Chapter 61: Easier neck, smarter brain for those who sit at computers

The normal Monday posting is at my Special Needs Children blog.
It's about the amazingly vast field of opportunities parents or
anyone has to create learning in themselves or another, by
NOTICING DIFFERENCES.

As I rewrite and upgrade the book I sell as a pdf,
I keep find chapters I'd love people to experience right
away, whether or not they buy the book.

Here's chapter 61:

Sit somewhere comfortably where there is a desk or a table in front of where you are sitting. Put your forearms on the table/ desk, such that one hand is on top of the other. Then lay your head on your hands.

Practice rolling your head right and left (nose going right and left, rotating in your neck and spine) in two ways:

1. Your forehead rubs along your hands, so that as your head rotates, the spot on your hand stays roughly the same. Do this a number of times.

2. Your head actually rolls right and left, as your nose rotates. So as your nose goes left, the part of your head touching your hand rolls toward the right on your hands. As your head turns, you touch a new spot on the hands at each part of the moving. Your head shift a bit to the right. Sense this moving point of contact, a, from the point of view of the backs on the hands, and b, from the point of view of your head feeling where it is touching/ pressing against the tops of your hands.

Of course, coming back, your nose goes right and head travels to the left.

Do this “many times” (eight to thirty), slowly and easily.

Rest.

Now switch which hand is on top and do this movement the second way, where your head rolls along the hands, again “many times,” and as you do it, shift easily your focus:
What’s happening in your neck?
What’s happening in your ribs?
Where is your nose pointed?
Can you feel a tendency to shift in your pelvis?
What are you eyes doing, or do they want to do?
Do you have a breathing pattern with this?

Rest.


Now do the head rolling way, again shifting top hand, where you deliberately:

1. Shift your weight side to side on your pelvis and thrust out your ribs a bit on the side to which your head is rolling (which is opposite the way your nose is pointing. Keep sensing the point of contact between your head and hands).

2. Let your eyes swing like a pendulum actually looking farther to the left and right than your nose is.

Go slowly. Gently. “Many times.”

Rest;


Now, the final variation. Roll your head this moving along your hands way. (Put the other hand on top). And move your eyes in the opposite direction that your nose is moving.

If you really want to pay attention, notice that your eyes and pointing the way that the pelvis is shifting.
Go slowly. Follow your breathing.
Enjoy learning this and picking up more clarity about yourself and being present.

If you want all 108 Wake Up/ 

Move and 

Be Happier and 

Think Better and 

Cultivate "Soul"

lessons,

feel free to

order the book,

links above will give you views of the contents

of all 108 lessons,

and the text of the first eight lessons.

here's the pay pal
thing, if you'd like to order now

108 Paths to Awakening

4 Brain Transformation

What Can We Learn, Right Now

All this moving and learning
is so great

and then the grand question:
why aren't we in awareness and learning
all the time?

Think about how great you feel when you do a movement
lesson.
BE curious: what would it be like to be
like
that all
the time

Or, hey, since perfection and always
is the hobgoblin of the attached ego mind:
more of the time.

(Remember the discussions in here about "getting better"
as a lifelong joy
vs "getting it Right" as lifelong hell).

So, you sit in front of a computer reading this.
I sit in front of a computer writing this.

What shift can we create by awareness and variation
and a bit of playful exploration?

One:
What shifts if we become aware of our breathing?

Notice this isn't about: Thou shalt be aware of thy breathing.

This is about: what shifts when we become aware,
now,
this now,
even before this sentence ends,
as this sentence is unfolding,
aware
of each breath?

It goes in.
It goes out.

We don't command it, and it goes
and goes.

Nice.

And curiosity is our game here:
what shifts when we wake up to our breathing?

Okay, that's one.
Next must be two:

Two:
Let's do two things at once as per the hint
of the number two.

Let's look up, and beyond the computer, and look for the farthest away
thing we can see.
Let's pay attention to how we use our backs to be part of/
or not to be part of looking up and beyond.

And then come back to the computer.
Two objects of attention in looking: the computer, the up a bit and farthest away thing,
and two places of attention in our bodies: our neck shifting
and something happening or not happening in our bodies.

Three:
rest a bit, and see how the idea of following our breathing is faring.

Good, breathing awareness in the movements and in the reading this
and in the rests and in and out throughout your day
IF YOU LIKE THE SHIFTS
THAT BEING AWARE of your breathing brings.

Pleasure should/ could/ might/ delightfully be a motivator in
our lives, think you / feel you not?

Okay,
three:
feel your pelvis on the chair.
Rock forward and back a bit on your pelvis,
and then make this more pronounced by pulling in your belly and
slumping down a bit in the front
as you rock back on your pelvis
and then
when you rock forward on your pelvis
push your belly out a bit
and raise your sternum some.

Do this slump and unslump
back and forth
two ways:

way the first:
breathe out as you slump down
and
breathe in as you unfurl up

way the second:
breathe in (feel it in your back lower ribs area) as you slump down,
and
breathe out as you rise up and push your belly forward

rest,
and breathe
and notice
whatever you notice

Four:
Now combine
looking up beyond your computer
to the farthest thing away
with unfurling a bit and pushing your belly forward,
and then don't curl up/ slump,
but do come back just a little on your pelvis
as you look at the computer
and then come forward on your pelvis a bit as you look up
and
beyond
and let your belly come forward

This is enough for playing with now
and movement today.

I hope you enjoy this.

Chris

first posting on new blog, Waking 108

I'm going to come up with 108 ways to wake more fully to life. I have done this before, but it's the first of the year, and new place, new love, a vision of myself as providing some things of immense value to others.

The new blog will alternate moving, thinking, feeling/ emotions, and soul. 

It is at http://waking108.blogspot.com
(later
note:
this blog doesn't exist any more
and it's "baby"
http://4brainfitness.blogspot.com
is lanquishing,
HOWEVER,
 the book,
the Old book
TAO OF NOW
and the only 108 day/ way
book there will be for awhile, is just fine

it's great, in my opinion,
buy it and change your life
if you are so
in the
mood)

Here's the first entry, a movement lesson you may have all done. Good. Do it again before you meditate or every 20 minutes at the computer, if you wish.

1. Find a firm chair or bench or log or rock where you can sit with both feet on the ground and your hips are slightly higher than your knees.

2. Come to the front of the chair, so your spine holds up your head and you aren't leaning back on anything.

3. Feel what this is like if you sit more or less upright.

    a. Feel how your pelvis sits on the chair.

    b. Feel how your spine rises up out of your pelvis

    c. Feel how your head is held up by your spine.

    d. Notice your shoulder blades, and how they rest on the ribs of your back.

    e. Feel both arms and both legs and your spine all at once.

4. Sit for a few minutes as if this is your meditation: noticing and sensing your arms and legs and spine. Find a certain peace and clarity in this.

5. Rest by leaning back, or walking, or just wiggling very slightly.

6. Sit forward again, and begin to round yourself into a ball as you sit in the chair.

    a. Let your head roll down and toward your chest.

    b. Let your sternum sink in and go down and backwards.

    c. Bring your belly in and backwards.

    d. Let your eyes come come toward looking at your belly button.

    e. Rock back on your pelvis, so that you are tucking your tail bone in a little and as if bring your sex toward your face.

     f. Undo all this and come to "upright," but no more.

     g. Then round down again, feeling each time a little more ease and awareness of all the parts of this.

     h. Begin to be aware and in enjoyment on the unfurl back to upright part, too.

     i. Do this many times, each time finding something new, and something more releasing or interesting or both.

7. Rest again. Sit in the meditation of 2 arms and 2 legs and 1 spine and just BE for a while.

8. Come to the front of the chair, and put your hands on the sides on your face, with your fingers pointing backwards, thumbs below the ears, fingers above. In this position, very slowly and easily begin to opposite of the movement in #6.

     a. Push your belly forward.

     b. Arch your back.

     c. Look up with your nose and eyes and the arms connected to your head.

     d. Roll forward to the front of your pelvis, as if you want to show off your rear end to someone behind you.

     e. Don't go too far, or "to your limit." Make it easy and enjoyable and about learning. Feel as many ribs and vertebrae as you can.

     f. In this movement, the sternum lifts and comes a bit forward. (The shoulders are soft ant easy. No "throwing the shoulders back" nonsense. This is about waking up to our spines, a central line to our lives).

      g. Come back to "upright" from this, but go no farther.

       h. Do this many times, each time concentrating and learning about a different part.

9. Rest in walking or sitting. Sense both legs, both arms and your spine. Feel if you are taller and more at ease.

10. Come to the front of your chair. Put your hands on your face and head as in #8. Now combine #6 and #8. Roll forward into a curled in ball, and arch up into a looking up person. Do not, do not, do not bring your neck back "too far." Just have your nose tilting up easily in a way the it feels as if your neck's curve is a continuation of your spine's curve.

    a. Go back and forth from belly in and rolling back on your pelvis, to belly out and rocking forward on your pelvis.

    b. Feel each vertebrae.

    c. Feel all the ribs.

    d. Feel the sternum moving up and forward and then down and in.

    e. Begin to sense your neck as part of your spine, not separate from it.

Brief tidbit for clarity in all of your life: THE FUNDAMENTAL UNIT OF INTELLIGENCE IS THE PERCEPTION OF DIFFERENCES.

Good.

11. Do the #10 again, rounding and arching and as you make and aware this movement notice differences between the folding part and the unfolding part:

    a. in the ribs

    b. the spine

    c. the sternum

    d. the pelvis

    e. the head

    f. your breathing

    g. your eyes

12. Rest.

13. Now do folding and arching, almost like #10 and #11, but don't put your hands on your face and head. Notice the difference in how your head relates to your back without your hands on your head.

    a. then go back and forth, hands on face to round and arch, and hands off

    b. pay amused and delighted attention how one way connects up the movement of your head with the arching and rounding in your back.

14. Rest.

15. Now, do the movement of #10 with this added complexity:

    a. Notice what your eyes are doing as you arch and lifted your head and round and tuck your head in

    b. Deliberately move your eyes (open or closed, try both for more differences to experience) down as your head goes down and up as your head goes up

    c. Now, try this, and go very slowly, and do just a little bit: but as your head goes down with rounding, have your eyes move to look up, as if at your forehead, and as your head (connected by hands to your back), lifts in the arching toward up, move your eyes slowly, slowly and gently down.

    d. Do this many times. Take rests. Make the up and down of your head very small if you get wozzy or confused. Just notice the new difference: head up and eyes down, head down and eyes up.

    e. See if you can become calm enough in this to begin to sense your spine and ribs and sternum and breathing and pelvis again, while still moving your head and eyes in opposition.

16. Rest.

17. Imagine doing #10 with the eyes in the same direction at your head. Don't DO anything. Just imagine.

    a. Then do the movement once, and notice what wasn't available in imagination

    b. Imagine it again, more fully.

    c. Do it in reality.

    d. Back and forth like this as long as you are curious and learning and in ease.

18. Rest in sitting in the 5 line meditation, and then rock forward onto your feet and feel the length of yourself in standing. Walk around and stay in the awareness mode for as long as you can. Notice the arms hanging from the spine and the legs holding up the pelvis and the pelvis holding up the head.

19. Enjoy being you today.

the computer... as i sit here on a gray today, is waking in the game plan?

So i sit here typing

la, la

usually this is fingers doing
what fingers have been trained to do

but something holds up those fingers
let's call it a hand

let's hand it to the hand
knowing how to do handy things

like type

but what holds up the hands

well the table actually

and what holds up the things the hand
are connected to
called arms

the part called the shoulder

and what holds that up

okay
okay

the cat's out of the bag:
we have a spine

and what holds the spine up?

ah,
well

we do

and the chair under my rear
the chair that is tilted forward on its two front legs

so my legs
and its legs make a four legged creature
with my spine coming up off this
and then the shoulder area
and the arm things and
the hand things
and the fingers

so could i create variation
that would help my spine
realize its "spineness" more?

yes

i can round, and the chair has a shift for that one

i can arch, and the chair shifts the other way

this has to be too boring to read unless you are playing
in your own chair hands eyes spine

and side bending
the tilting tower way
and the curving like a C and a backwards C way

those do a lot for a spine at a computer

and we haven't even come to twists
yet

but i could twist my shoulders to the right
and head to the left
and keep my eyes on the computer

and do that yoga still
push push look at me go

or internal learning
let me love and learn about me style

you could play with that if you want

a kind of pre Christmas present to yourself today

as you talk, walk, sit, dance, shop
what are you doing?

what shifts
little
unknown to anyone but you
could you make

that would make all the difference
in your awakeness???

Feet on Ground, Eyes Glued to the Computer

How do we stay awake
while in
this mode
(eyes on the monitor mode)?

Maybe awareness
that we are
doing what we
are doing
while we are
doing it.

and how
to get that awareness?

Practice.

Practice.

Get up walk around.

Break it up.

Remember the middle:
feet on the bottom
eyes and ears on the top

and in the middle:
air and breathing
pelvis and muscles
and movement
even micro mini
not much
movement
if done with awareness

is a lot

yes