Chair lesson, for back ease and neck clarity, and joy of learning

Sitting and twisting in a probably new way

Sit in a chair. Let one elbow and forearm, your left, say, rest on your left knee, so you are bent forward and holding yourself up a bit with this left arm and elbow combination. Now take your right hand and place in behind your head, if you can comfortably do that. If not, put the back of your right hand on your check to the left of your mouth.

Either way, tilt your right elbow up toward the air, toward the sky, toward the ceiling and begin to make circles with this elbow. Imagine a long pencil or pen or feather dipped in ink with which you can paint on the ceiling or the sky. Make a nice circle from the elbow.

Go so slowly that your feel your ribs moving, so slowly you feel this in your pelvis, and so slowly most of all, so that you feel this in your back. Feel an arching when the elbow reaches a certain part of the circle and a folding in your back when the elbow comes to the other side of the circle.

Go slowly enough to notice where your circle gets away from a really round shape. Find the tension or hurry at those points and try to go even slower and with even less effort and see if that will help you draw the circle.

Bring your hands both to your lap and sit up and rest. Feel any changes.

Now, same left elbow down, and right elbow up and make your slow and interesting and pleasurable circles in the other direction

Rest again;

Now, switch arms and do the circle one way a number of times, and then rest, and then the other way a number of times, and rest then.

Feel on this side to a way to feel and connect and as if direct these circles from deep in your lower back and pelvis. Don’t strain. Don’t hurry.

Learn and enjoy.

Five lines of our us, six directions of our spine

we sit in a chair

five lines:
two legs, can we sense them,
five toes each side, usually
the calf, the knee, the thigh
the hip joint

sense both legs,
heels, ankles
both legs all of them


two arms
more digits,
fingers this time
all of them
and the hands
and the wists
you know the parts,
all the way to the shoulder socket

where do these guys fit:
sense the spine pelvis ribs shoulder blade

might as well throw
in awareness of the head
and the end of the spine

that's us

that's a lot


and sitting:

on what?

where are we balanced
out with gravity?

and the directions of the spine:

the earliest
the fetus:

1. bending our spine in a C pointing forward
mid back back
pelvis rotating forward at bottom part
sternum down
head forward

sort of the slump thing
and it could be a lengthened
C forward

can we do it
both ways

2. the easiest for the spine
wrists behind head
if we can
or back of hand to opposite cheek
and rotate,
feel the spine shifting
one vertebrae atop another,
rotate right

3. rotate left


what's left?

rest



4. C pointing backwards
belly forward,
arching back
looking up in a lengthening way
not shortening neck
butt rotating up toward back of the head
breathing soft
rotating to front side of pelvis
feel us
getting taller

rest

5. wrist again behind head
or hands interlaced
now making side facing
C's

tilting left first
not a pizza tower
but left elbow down
left hip up
shortening ribs over there
and back to center
C pointing left (open part of C)

6. open part of C to the right
right elbow down
right hip up,
shortening R side ribs
lengthening L side,
feel weight coming all
to L side of pelvis

and sitting
5 lines
6 spine moves

this can be a little
or
a lot
of awakening of awareness

good