Movement 2, In a chair, rotation for the fun of it

Sit easily in a chair and turn to the left and the right
Do all movements with ease and as little effort as possible
and
as much attention and enjoyment
as possible.

Turn left and right a few times and notice the difference.

2. Now, just turn to the left and back to the center
Feel the neck vertebrae and feel what else in you moves
or wants to move
Do this and all movements an easy number of time,
six to twelve, say,
Feel each one as interesting, pleasant and unique unto itself

Rest
Close your eyes and simply, and deeply sense yourself

3. Now, put your hands on the opposite shoulders
and turn your shoulders
and your head to the left
and back
a number of times

Pause at the far left of this movement
Then bring your head back to the center
while leaving your shoulders to the left,
and then swap them around,
so that the shoulders come toward the center
and your head goes to the left

Rest
With ease and noticing

4. Feel your right knee
Push from your hip, your right knee forward,
so that your pelvis rotates to the left,
Do this a number of times

Pause

Now put your hands on your opposite shoulders as before
and turn to the left
with your head
and your pelvis
and your shoulders

Do this a bit
and feel it
and enjoy it

Rest

5. Now
with the hands in the same position,
push the right knee forward, rotate the shoulders
to the left
and turn the head to the left

Now split up your movement,
so that the head and the pelvis come back to the middle
as the shoulders stay to the left

and swap them,
so that the head and pelvis go to the left
while the shoulders come to the middle

as with all the movements:
slowly
easily
with pleasure awareness and a wish
for discovering something new
each time

Rest

6. Invent any other combinations you'd like

Rest

7. Now simply turn your head right and left
and see if anything has changed

Good

Tansformation via backing off: the importance of subtlety. written for "special needs children" parentk, applicable to all

We are here again,
as we always are.
You're here, is........
My here is .......

Just taking the time and attention to notice:
what is my now,
this is one of the most important subtle shifts in
our
whole life.

We are always in whatever moment we
are in.
To shift to noticing that
knowing that
experiencing that
is something that someone outside of us
might have no awareness or recognition of

And yet from the inside
it is like lying down on the floor when we are tired:
it creates a shift back to the "us" of us
that we often forget in our rush through "daily life."

So, Anat has found what Moshe Feldenkrais found:
that the little movements,
the little difference,
that we notice,
make all the difference in the world,
in improving and transforming our own
lives
and in improving and transforming the lives
of our children,
special needs, or otherwise.

A child who is noticed
when the mood is slightly shifted
when the skill is slightly higher
when the posture is slightly different
when the hunger or emotion is slightly different
is a child who doesn't need to go through
big swings of emotion or action to
get attention from itself
and from others

The more we honor the little shift,
the 109 degrees to 99, or 88 to 82, the more we
can appreciate the what is or
our life,
and not have some fixed temperature,
either in emotion, or heat, or activity
that is "the good one"

life is change,
the Buddha says: it's impermanent,
and as we notice the subtle shifts,
we find life an ongoing delight

With you and your child,
the feast is large:
the child's slight changes,
your slight changes,
and slight changes in the environment:
all these make each moment new
and potentially magnificent

and what would keep us from thinking every
moment is magnificent?

Having some fixed opinion of "how it should be"
could be one way

Not being free to experiment with subtle changes
inside ourselves when "things aren't going well."

And yet, it is the subtle changes
we
can trust, because
almost anyone can change their mood
by running a hard run,
or jumping up and down like crazy to wild music,
but what about sitting in a boring meeting
and shifting the focus from disliking the meeting
to the colors you see in the room,
distinguishing all the blues from the yellows say,
or distinguishing the quality of your in breath from
your outbreath,
or deepening your dislike feelings
and then lightening the intensity of them.

Would that begin to bring back
freedom
and
joy.

Something like this is actually exercise 2 in Anat's chapter on
Subtlety,
and she then has some inspiring quote kind of stuff,
that I'll put down here:

"The correlation between discerning subtle differences,
being in the now,
and vitality,
is impossible to deny.
Our sense of vitality is CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH
OUR BRAIN'S
ABILITY TO PERCEIVE DIFFERENCES ( my caps)
and it is through this perception of differences that our brain
creates new information.
Sometimes just a shift of our attention
in the direction
of noticing subtle differences
can be transformational,
awakening us to vitality in
new
and suprising
ways."

The capitals, and the messy line breaks are mine. In the book it's straight sentences.

Her book is worth reading straight ahead front to back, and also to just randomly opening a page here and there and soaking in what that has to offer.

Happy noticing of subtle differences today.

Chris

on back, arch, flex, sidebend....learn, learn, learn

Okay: here's some beginnings to an amazing learning.
These positions
are just places to come to and away from
slowly
with awareness
and
learning.

The more of yourself you can feel,
all your bones,
your shape,
what's happening to belly,
to spine,
to breathing,
to legs and arms.

Soft face,
easy neck,
awareness as you go,
not just at end points.

So, above: start with right foot "standing",
left leg under,
left hand behind your head.



Push very easily on your right foot,
and push out your belly,
and arch your back
and twist the right side of your pelvis to the left.

Go back and forth,
many times, between this and the "starting position."

Feel what happens in your spine,
your ribs,
your foot pushing into "ground,"
your belly coming out as your back arches,
your spine twisting also.

Feel, feel, sense, sense, learn, learn.

Rest after 10-20 times
of slowly, learning-ly, pleasurably doing this.

3.

Now, with both hands behind head,
both elbows staying down,
add a sidebending of your head,
nose staying pointing to sky or ceiling,
as you do the movement.

Feel all the above,
plus spine making three
different
and interesting shapes: arching,
twisting,
side bending.

Again, 10-20 times, each time learning
a little something more.

Rest.

4.

Now, if you can,
take the fingers of the right hand
into the toes of the left foot.

Take your time.

Go toward the foot
as you arch and twist, if your hand needs
some help.

Maybe "cheat" by lifting yourself a little
as per next step.

If you "can't" don't worry.
Imagine it.

5.

Now, combine doing movement #2, the
arching and twisting

with coming back to #1,

and then folding in like this in
#5.

Slow, slow,
resist the crank out, sittup urge,
do little,
do 80% of what you think you can.

80% of your "limit"
and 200% of your usual awareness.

This is great learning.
Great spine awakening.
Great awareness awakening.

Do 10-20.

Rest.

Imagine how this would be
on the other side,
everything reversed.

Rest.

#6

Take your right arm out
at about 45 degrees from your body.
Imagine the elbow as a fulcrum for
rolling up.
Push the elbow into the ground a number of times.


#7

This is difficult.
With left elbow behind head, roll over to the right,
weight over right elbow,
head kept low,
left elbow pointing low,
roll over right elbow until you are in this reclining position.

We need another picture here,
of after rolling up,
bringing the right elbow more
under your shoulder to hold you up.

This is to show the people already Feldenkrais
and Anat Baniel practitioners
some possibilities.

For the lay people,
once you are in this semi reclining position,
leaning back on the right elbow,
left hand behind the head,

you arch and
fold your back,

so,
as below pictured

#8

your back arches,
your elbow comes back,
your spine twists,
your belly comes out,
your spine lengthens.
And your foot presses down.

Go slowly from this "limit,"
again going to 80%
with 200% awareness,

to the folding in the next
picture.


#9

Feel the twist,
and what happens in ribs,
and all of your spine,
and your whole shape.

Go slowly, slowly
learn, learn,

aware, aware,

enjoy,
enjoy.