Shoulders

this picture has nothing to do with shoulders.
or maybe it does

the human body
is a marvel

and one of the many, many
sweet marvels is the shoulder

one of our great gifts
coming down the evolutionary chain
are
our shoulders

here they are:
one on each side

hey
try this:
right shoulder forward
and left shoulder back

do that a couple of times
and check out:
did you move your ribs
and rotate your spine to do this,
or did you move your right shoulder blade
to bring the right shoulder forward
while bring the left shoulder blade
back?

that looks complicated in writing
and millions of years of evolutionary
engineering went into this marvel:
a shoulder blade that can take a ride
on our ribs
and can also move independently of our ribs

so
hey
play again,
right shoulder forward
just the right
and see if your ribs are part
of the game
and
notice
if you can notice just what your right
shoulder blade is up to

(it's fair to reach around with your other hand
if you can,
and feel the shoulder blade.
it's big.
and wing/ triangle shaped.)

have some fun:
see if you can discover what a right shoulder blade
feels
like
and
how it moves
and when it moves with your ribs and when it moves
on it's own

plenty more to do
and that's a nice start

Excerpt From: UP, Improve Mood, Posture, Thinking, Backs, Necks and Sex, ...and Help "Save the World"

AND THEN WHAT? (in book, paragraphs are "regular," here I spread things out, for easier viewing in computerland)

These prior 4 activities/ meditations/ practices/ lessons (first four of 21 activities that will be in the book) will increase your awareness of how you fit together as a human being on this planet Earth.

They will bring you into the present.

And soften and moderate your breathing.

And will lengthen your spine and improve your posture.

By involving your pelvis they will increase your sexual awareness and skill.

By involving your attention and thinking and awareness they will help you to solve problems better.

By connecting more of you to more of you in pleasant and watchful ways, they will increase your ability to love yourself.

This way of learning and exploring and discovery is ancient to our lives. It is the way we learned when we were infants and the best learners we’ve ever been. When we discovered how to crawl and roll over and walk and talk, we were little geniuses. We didn’t have a program of action, we didn’t do what we were told. Rarely, at least in the first movements, did we imitate anyone. (Speech required a lot of imitation, and yet: it also was hugely about “playing around” with sounds and discovering how to make the noises we heard out there.)

This way of discovery will access our brains, and call us back into solving real and literally tangible “problems.” How to move the head down as the belly comes forward and the head up as the back comes back, is a real feat of attention, and awareness.
And learning.

Learning as discovery.

This is how this work can be anti-aging, by reconnecting us to that young state of heightened learning and awareness, where we are pouring on the new cells in our brains.

When we learn one of these new and complicated movements, we are doing just that: laying down millions of new brains cells.

When we make the new, we become as if young again.

Aging, so called aging, can be seen mainly as a solidification of old and familiar and unaware patterns. We move and talk and sit the same way, wearing down mental and movement and emotional and speech groves (ruts) that tend to get a little more rutted and stuck each year. We think the same things, say the same things, do the same things, have the same reactions to the same situations.

We become predictable and programmed, and boring, although we probably don’t realize that.

So, now, these activities offer a chance to move beyond old habits and get back in the way of living where being present, and being curious and discovering are what our lives are all about.

what are these activities??
come to a Sufia yoga class, or movement class
and find out.

It's so much
fun
and you
really do
expand
change
learn
and become better able
to love yourself