Twisting in Sitting, Chapter 25

TWISTING IN SITTING

Sit comfortably in a chair. Feel how this is.

Move to the front edge of the chair and look around behind yourself to the left and to the right. Notice the difference. For this learning we’ll just go to the left. So, just look to the left five or six times and notice how easy this is, and how far your head turns. Rest.

Now, put your left hand on the chair to your side or behind you, and put the back side of your right hand on your left cheek. Now turn to the left, using the ribs and the upper spine as well as your neck.

Do this a number of times, at least twenty, “easily,” and learn about your spine.

Rest. Rest means, to deepen your connection inside. To feel at ease. To feel in the sensation way of feeling what learning and awakening is happening inside of you. To notice changes in your breathing, your sense of length, your ease in sitting, your sense of aliveness. And anything else that comes to you.

Be present.

Give yourself, over and over, in all these lessons, be they moving, thinking, feeling, or soul, the present of being present.

Even reading or hearing this, just now, if you aren’t “doing” the lesson, breathe, close your eyes, feel your spine, and be with yourself, right now.

Come to the above position (right back of hand on left cheek), and turn about half as far as you go to the left. Then take your hand from your left cheek and put it about a foot in front of your face. Now, “easily,” and “many times,” move your right hand in a circle around where your face is pointing.
Watch the hand with your eyes and let your head turn with the watching. KEEP A SMALL DISTANCE BETWEEN THE HAND AND YOUR NOSE AND KEEP THIS DISTANCE FIXED. So when your hand goes up your nose comes forward and up, when you hand comes down your nose stays the same distance away.

Even more, use your back, as if you are “looking” at your hand with your whole spine.

Go slowly with this.

Have someone read the directions to you, or do it small, small piece at a time.

When your hand goes up, arch your back a little and push out your belly, as if your whole spine is lifting your nose.

When your hand goes down, fold and round your back a little, bringing in your belly, again as if your whole spine is bringing your nose down.

When your hand circles to the left, come to sit on the left side of your pelvis, and when your hand comes to the right, shift your weight that way.

Read these directions a few times and really get it, going back and forth between the hand circle and the head/ back/ spine/ pelvis circle.

Feel the pelvis’ rotation in all of this. This is huge to notice and will change your life forever if you do something like this every ten minutes when you are at a computer.

Come back to the middle and rest.

Rest deeply as per all the above suggestions.

Come back to the first position, with the back of your right hand on your left check. Again turn halfway to the left, and this time make the head/ hand/ back/ pelvis circle in the opposite direction, but this time with the hand touching the face.

Feel the circle your elbow is making as well as the circle your nose is making as well as all the shifting in your vertebrae and your pelvis.

Slow down.

Really enjoy this. There is tons to learn and love and like and discover and enjoy.

Feast on it all.

Rest, again, fully and deeply, with pleasure, presence and learning.

Then simply turn left and right and notice whatever learning and ease has come to this simple human action.

And then get up and walk around with whatever new feelings and sensations are in you.

(the book is for sale as pdf,

see link at top of the page)

this is chapter 25


In case you want the book
without looking at the table of contents that
this link will get you to,
here's the pay pal
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108 Paths to Awakening

4 Brain Transformation

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

Qigong part two, balance is not falling over, lengthening is reaching to heavens above and Earth below

Stand on the easiest foot

Bring the other foot back, and lightly use your toes to balance

Form a ball with your hands in front of your standing leg, opposite hand of standing leg on top

Reach up with top hand, down with other hand, arch your back, breathe out and lengthen

Come back to the ball near the hip of your standing leg with the other hand on top, ie same hand as standing leg

Then lengthen up and breathe out

Rest and do this to the other side

Now,
the advanced version

Stand on one foot; I'll say left to make it easier

Bring your right knee up toward your chest and your hands in a ball, about six inches apart,
right hand on top

Bend/ fold in a bit, so your stomach in back,
shoulders head and sternum down
pelvis tilted up (as in tailbone under, sex toward nose)

From this fold/ round/ crouch: breathe in
I know it's weird, but do it, breathe in,
and

breathe out
and lengthen,
right leg behind you and still in the air
right hand easily high above your head
arch your back
look up easily without shortening your neck toward your hand,
left hand down

Breathe in
and come into a crouch again
still on your left foot,
right knee forward again,
this time a ball with the left hand on top,

Breathe out,
lengthen left hand high, right hand down,
right leg back again,

Do this back and forth about 3 times.

Then switch to standing on your right foot
and reverse everything

this will do ya
good

ciao
chris

Let's make up our own chi kung / qigong

In English, a q is always followed
by a u
sort of a poem,
that

but qigong is fancy,
no u
and still the q

and what is qigong

Well, in wiki, you can read this WIKI QIGONG

I'll just say that when I studied Tai Chi
with Ben Low
one of the foremost students of Cheng Man Cheng
(see this video
I'm you'd like to enjoy the form I learned)


Ben said that the way we did Tai Chi
slow,
putting all our weight one foot at a time
mindful all the way out to the fingertips
relaxed body
straight spine

that was qigong

I took a few classes from a friend in
Sonoma
and the part that impressed me most was how
much it reminded me of a book title of a book
I've never read,
something about how
Conductors live Longer

To me the conductors and the qigongers
like to wave the arms up above the head

this is rarely done
this is
"good for"
all sorts of things:

breathing
using the lower back
posture
understanding how to push down to raise up
ribs
head
neck
eyes (if you look up now and then at the hands
floating up)

So, here we go:
Try this:
stand mainly on one foot
say your left, whichever is easiest

put the other foot back
and just touch with the toes of that foot for balance

in this position,
raise from waist level your right hand forward and up
in a graceful arc
arching your back just slightly as you do this
and push your left hand down and a bit back on your left side,
breathe in or out
as you do this,
or better:
try both ways

after lengthening out like this
bring your hands together near your lower belly
and switch,
so the left hand floats up high and
your right hand floats/ pushes downward

go back and forth like this
more and more
feeling the entire length
from grounded left foot
up to the fingertips of the floated up hand
and also feeling all the way to the fingertips
of the pressing down hand

if you want to get fancy
and fold in a little rounding
your back and lowering your head
as you bring your hands together
and then arching out as you separate your arms
and float one hand up
be my quest. (guest,
got waylaid by the q syndrome,
and be my
quest,
is a nice little twist on the "habitual'
isn't it?)

do this a number of times

rest

and then switch the
forward
weighted foot
and do all this with your weight on the right side

something like high at your hand
and the sky
beyond

*****
if you can get to an outdoor place
and bare foot
yourself

all the better

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???

side to side: head and ribs and pelvis as a sweet happy aware of each other team

Side to side seems easy
and
often people get "confused."

Good. As our buddy Albert E says:
"Show me someone who's never made a mistake
and
I'll show you someone who's never learned anything."

One of the key principles of this work is
to sort of groove
on unknowning
to
relish ambiguity
to get
excited
about the state of :
what is going on?

In that state,
we can be new
and
if we are honest
that's always the characteristic of being "now."

Okay,
side to side.

Sit forward in a chair, both feet on the floor, spine straightish and feeling
as if it is holding up your head.

Lean a tad forward so you could hop up or to the side
easily

Now,  here, more or less on your skeleton,
play with this difference:

Head rotating left and right

Head tilting left and right

In the ROTATION, your nose goes left and right

In the TILTING, your nose stays straight ahead and your eyes tilt
so that when you tilt your head to the left, your right eye goes
up a bit and your left eye goes down.

In all movement lessons, always go "less than your limit."
About 80% at most.
And much less force than you think you need. At cut out
half the force, maybe more.
And go slowly: at least half as slowly as habitual.

And all that slow, and soft and less than limit
is
FOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN.

At habitual speed, force and cranking out to the limit,
no learning is going to take place.
You'll be a great donkey, but
why throw away the greatest anti-entropy organ
in the universe (that we know so far): the human brain.

Your brain.

So: to repeat: slow,  gentle, less than your limit. Always in something
you want to improve. For awhile at least.

Do the titling very slowly and feel / sense what is going
on in your neck
Be really honest if you are rotating your nose and neck, too.

Go back and forth: rotating, and tilting,
so that you can really, slowly and deliciously tell the difference.

2. Good. Rest. Sit upright, eyes closed and feel what a small
amount of aware and soft and learning oriented and not going to the limit
can do to organize your whole system.

3. Now play with your ribs, as such:
take each hand to the ribs on the opposite side,
and sitting upright,
pull your ribs first to the right,
and then to the left.

As per always: slow, gentle, less than limit.
And AWARE.
Notice the shape your spine makes when your ribs go
left and when the go right.
Notice which verterbrae move and how.
Notice any tendency to shift your weight as this happens.

4. Rest and sense yourself.
Notice shifts in breathing, ease, sense of your spine  etc.

5. Combine tilt your head and bringing your ribs right and left,
so that you begin to understand
THE NECK FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS:
YOUR WHOLE SPINE

Huh?

Well: go slow, gentle, aware and less than limit and explore this:
As your head tilts to the left,
pull your ribs gently, slowly, awarely to the right,
so you feel as if the tilting in your neck goes all the way down
your spine making a crescent shape in your whole back.

Go slowly , and at first just do this head tilting to the left (go slowly and gently enough
to catch yourself if you start to rotate the head, and then stop:
just tilt)
as your ribs in the middle are pulled to the right.
Notice that the top ribs and bottom ribs go to the left.

Really explore.
You get an A+ no matter "how you do."
See how delicious you can make this:
tilt your head left to involve you whole torso.

6. Now rest.
I know we haven't tilted right yet. Good.
Notice if the two sides feel difference
and notice any additional sweetness to your whole
self.

7, Now come back to readiness to move,
and IMAGINE tilting your head to the right, while
you pull the middle ribs to the left.
IMAGINE this several times
and then do it ONCE.
Notice in the doing what you skipped in imagination.
Imagine it again.
Do it again.
and once more: imagine, filling in more and more.
Do it once and see what you missed.

8. Rest.

9. Now, hands on ribs, IMAGINE going left and right tilt
with your head as the ribs make your spine into a long
crescent.
Then do this both ways a number of times.
Each time see if you can feel and notice and enjoy
something new.

10. Rest and feel all of you.

11. If you want to stop, this is a nice place to get up and take a walk.
If you want to continue, all good movement needs
to include the pelvis, so come back later, or forge ahead now to
the seat of you.

Notice your pelvis.
Shift your weight to the right "sit bone" and raise your left hip
a little off the chair.
Now shift to the left "sit bone" and raise your right hip
off the chair.
Go slowly.
Do this a number of times just raising the right hip and pressing in the left.
And then a number of times just raising the left hip and pressing down
the right.

12. Rest

13. Now, make the crescent shape of tilt your head
the full spine by practicing, exploring, enjoy this:

tilt your head to the left
pull the middle ribs to the right
(noticing the bottom ribs and top ribs going left)
put your weight on the right side off your pelvis
so your left hip can raise and complete the crescent shape
in your back.

Just do this way a number of times.
Until it is delicious.

14. Rest and feel your breathing and your spine.

15. as above, IMAGINE  doing the tilt to the right:
head tilt to the right
middle ribs to the left,
right side of pelvis up and toward the right ear
left side of the pelvis pressing down.

Now DO IT ONCE and compare to the imagining.
Go back and forth with doing and improving your
imaginary version.

16. Rest.

17. Go tilting of the whole spine both right
and left,
be slow, gentle, less than the limit, aware,
looking for pleasure and learning each time.

18. Rest.

19. If you really want some fun,
go through the whole thing again, at
each step singing some simple song
you love to sing.

20. Feel yourself in sitting. Compare to the beginning.

21. Come forward onto your feet and stand. Shift weight to the
left and right and see if something solid and easy and connected
has occurred in you.
Walk around.

enjoy you day and your life.

I take questions via email ChrisElms@vom.com
and invent these lessons to suit what's bothering
you.

Ciao
Chris

Up and down with a sweet twist to start the day

Awaring of twisting and awaring of lengthening

Stand somewhere pleasant, perhaps in a yard or a park. Feel your feet and ankles and pelvis and spine and legs and arms and rib cage and head. Breathe. Be present to the wonder of being in a human body.

Now, leaning your left hand on your left knee, and bending both knees, easily and with pleasure, bring your right hand down the inside of you left thigh, down towards the ground, and then bring your hand back up again. Go slowly, let your head hang loose, feel and sense your breathing, and feel how this could lengthen and release various areas in you. Feel going down and coming back up equally with pleasure.

Rest in standing. Close your eyes and feel yourself in gravity and life.

Again: left hand on left knee, take your right hand as before, down your left thigh towards the ground and this time as you come back up, keep your right hand going up and to the right, so you spiral a bit to the right as you lift your right hand above your head and to the right. Watch your hand as you do this. Go easily, and slowly.

Let your neck be soft. Go up and down with this a number of times, and after a while, stop at the bottom and gently move your head side to side, with your eyes moving opposite your head. Same at top.

Rest. Then do the other side.