What would an intelligent, brain and heart happy "exercise" and/ or weight loss program look like?

Barefoot rock lifting

for the brain

spine

ribs 

pelvis

arms

breathing

awareness

brain

joy of it

Let's say you or anyone wants to:

lose weight and be healthier
or
just plain be healthier, their weight is fine and they know
they aren't really feeling "fit" as a human being
or
improve an ongoing skill in tai chi, yoga, music

How could we/ they/ you/ I
go about this?

Let's take some steps from the Anat Baniel Method
and
the Feldenkrais Method
and
a whole lot of other things that say:
Do something, no matter how small,
to get the ball rolling.

And the Buddhist and other traditions
that hint either subtly or not so subtly:
either we are mindful
or
mindless.

So:

If you keep being and doing the same thing,
nothing will change, so let's start with some small changes:

One:
In moving, I'd like to suggest ten minutes worth of "moving"
with awareness that could make a huge difference in
somebody's life:

One five minute package,
and set the timer, and quit at five minutes,
you can work up to more,
or do another five,
but for three or four days,
quit at the buzz or harp or marimba of the timer:

Go outside if you can
Get barefoot if you can
and do this:
Touch the ground (bend your knees all you want)
in whatever way comes easiest to you
and then
lift one or both hands up toward the sky.
Find a pattern and repeat what you have picked
for five to twelves times:

As you go up and down notice:
the shape of your spine
your breathing
(go very slowly on this, so you can feel/ sense and
savor yourself at every point of the movement)
where is the weight on your feet

which foot has more weight
what's going on in your ribs
are you keeping your neck soft
where are your eyes focused
are your fingers and toes and jaw soft and relaxed
what is the "five line" shape of you, two legs, two arms, one spine
how is your pelvis shifting in this


After a number of times,
stand up and just notice yourself,
and then pick another way of going down,
maybe a little twist
or just touching with one hand
or touching between your legs, or out to the sides
and as you come up
find another variation on what to do with your arms
and then
feel
sense
savor
learn from and enjoy doing this a number of times

Then stand and rest

Now, if you want to get a little strength from this
get something,
a rock
a broom
a gallon jar partly filled with water,

and touch that object to the ground,
and lift it up overhead

Have a pattern that you decide on
and repeat it
slowly
and with great awareness
a number of times

You can lift the object with one hand
lower in with the other

Lift it near your body
or farther away

Make circles in your lifting

many many choices

Pick one at a time
and enjoy really feeling and sensing this in yourself

Do all this for five minutes
and then stop

And what of the other five minutes:
get a bicycle and go ride it somewhere uncrowded

Play around with what is about 50% effort,
what is 30%, what is 80% and so on.

Then start at 20 % and increase up to 80%,
keeping your back easy
your jaw relaxed
your arms relaxed
your breathing through your nose

When you get tired,
slow to any amount of effort you pick
less than 50%,
keep breathing and recovering
and making sure the rest of you that isn't pedalling
is as relaxed as possible.

Then, when you pick, speed up to something above 50%,
you pick the amount,
you pick the duration,
but don't go until you are panting and unable to easily
breathe through your nose.

You pick when to slow back down to
less that 50% effort.

Notice where your attention is.
Can you look out at the world and sense inside yourself
as you do this.
It's only five minutes.
Enjoy.

And if you don't have a bike:
walk out of your house,
this has to be something you can do
as often and easily as possible,
walk out and
walk like this,
alternating less than 50% of what you feel like your
maximum effort could be
alternating that with some figure/ guess you pick
above 50%

This again: with looking
and breathing through your nose
and keeping all the places not involved in walking (neck, nose, jaw, fingers,
even toes except to push off and press into the earth) keeping
all of you as soft and aware and relaxed as you can
while you change up your speed and effort

Again, just for five minutes.

Later, a longer essay on eating,
and you can see the page at my website:
Food, Health, Weight Loss: Discoveries and Suggestions
from halfway decent shape 66 year old

Here's some starter ideas:

A green smoothie each day

Consider a diet without these:
flour products,
pasteurized dairy,
fruit out of season,
sugars like sugar and agave and the fake stuff,
soy that isn't fermented
nuts and seeds that aren't presoaked

Figure out what sort of high grade protein
might be wonderful for you

You can eat lots and lots of what's left:
high grade meat, eggs, vegies, soaked nuts, smoothies,
beans if that's your thing (not mine), butter, especially raw,
fish

Lots

a study went like this:
people of semistarvation diets
of 1000 calories:

90% fat lost .9 pounds a day
90% protein lost .6 pounds a day
90% carbs gained .24 pounds a day

raw fat,
in a raw meal,
will lose you weight
and build your body
and feed
your brain

(see Nourishing traditions, below)

Think about how a meal or two a day of
raw eating could figure in with the above ideas

Don't worry about it.
Make one shift today
and see how fun that could be.

Consider a "cheat day" per week where you go out,
buy and consume out of your house,
the various "left behind" elements.

Alight

Here's some "Eating a cooler and smarter way books:



For non raw this is amazing, and cured me from the vegan trap:
Nourishing Traditions



And for Raw eating,
this chick is 50 and hasn't been sick in 14 years,
eats raw meat, cheese and milk,
and has a lot of fun:
Raw Fifty



And these people
found at RawFamily.com
are sweet, amazing,
and the inventors of the
extremely useful and delicious
and life changing
GREEN SMOOTHIE:
Green Smoothie Revolution

spine, head and eyes in the "now" at our computer

Recent blog postings at the other two locations:

Monday, Hints for special needs parents with a child that likes/ habituates with a hand in the mouth
at  http://specialneedschildren-chriselms.blogspot.com/

Wednesday: the "Swiss Army Knife" movement for all 4 of our backs movements
at   http://wakeup-feldenkrais.blogspot.com/

Friday: here, Hi.

I sit at the computer, realizing, as sometimes I don't,
that sitting at a computer
is
sitting
and
looking.

So, reminders to you reminders to me:
is the screen about at head height.
Mine isn't though I have 7 books under my laptop
(I have an external keyboard, otherwise you end
up typing like a dog swims),

The top of the monitor is just above eyelevel
so I get to "so what"
and "it's too much trouble"
this awareness,
or actually get off my rear
(the sitting part of this)
and fetch a few more books, so the computer will be such that
the middle of the screen will be at sitting upright
eye height.

Oh, well,
up I go

And, I'd forgotten the pitfalls of gathering books
especially from a house wherein most of the books
are not "mine," and hence
full of rare jewels that I haven't gotten around yet
to perusing,
so many books, so little time


AND
I found just the right 4 more,
and of course, 4 or 5 "have to look at/ read' books
that didn't get used as props.

Okay,
eye level screen

and now
the sitting part


well, you know, I imagine
that leaning back in the chair is
nice for napping
and even for low grade yapping (when our mouths work
and we forget we have a body)
but for thinking clearly
and writing,
hey; try it and see,
sit forward on the chair,
both feet on the floor

feel your spine easily holding up your head

how to find today's nice placement
for your spine

round down, middle back back, nose
descending to the desk,
chin coming toward your chest, feel your weight shift to the back of your pelvis,

then un slouch by coming forward on your pelvis
and bringing your head to upright

leave the shoulders out of this
your spine with the attached ribs hold
up the shoulders easily and all on its own
but do soften and maybe bring your belly
forward a bit
so you feel your back muscles
holding up your spine
with the head at the top
a pumpkin on
a broom handle

(Need a haircut, but waiting until Monday to trade
with worlds's best slackline female,
Faith Dickey,
see their website: http://somewhereelseland.blogspot.com)

now you are have a good 20 minutes or so
on the computer

and it is legal to shift side to side a bit
and rock to mini slouch
and mini arch
to keep your spine happily in motion,
since we tend to lock into positions
that might not be exactly where is
best and easiest for us
just now
just today

good

A movement game: How are you sitting now: website "improvement"

This is lesson #3 from my book of Moving, Thinking, Feeling, and "Soul" activities.
Link here, if you'd like to see the 108 activities.

It is also on a new page on my website, called Movement Brain. Soon I'll have all the 4 brains on the website. The Website, as you probably know is http://4BrainFitness.com

Here' a game of improving
as usual
by a little of this
and
a little of that
and a
lot of
slowing down
and
AWARING.

GOOD:

How are you sitting or standing or lying down, right now?

What happens if you add on awareness of your eyes, and move them easily in a circle. Then easily right and left. Then easily up and down.

What happens if you are aware of your neck and nose?
What happens if you make a circle with your nose?
What do you feel in your neck?
Which way did you choose?
Try the other way, slower and try different sizes of circles.

Now put both hand on the top of your head, if you can easily do this.
In this position imagine making circles from in front of you and then up and then to the right and then down and then to the left with first
your right elbow,
then your left.

Find the pleasure in this.

Can you do it again and allow and encourage your pelvis to join the party.
Don’t try for “right.”
Try for learning, fun,
“interesting.”

And feel the added power when your pelvis is involved, and the change in your breathing.

Enjoy this, and keep moving slowly and with love of learning.

Rest.

Try the other elbow if you are in the mood.

How are you in sitting now?

feeding, F...ing, Fighting and Feldenkrais... a movement lesson to accompany

I recently, in my Life Potency Blog, had an essay of the sort: Feeding, F...ing, Fighting and Feldenkrais. Someone asked me to come up with a movement lesson for this.

Here it is.

Sit comfortably in a chair, with both feet on the floor and your back away from the back of the chair.

Feel yourself more or less upright, and feel what that is like. Perhaps closing your eyes can help you get a more clear Sensing feel of yourself.

Now, slowly, begin to bring your right hand to your mouth, and then place it back down in your lap. You've done this a zillion times, so go slower than slow and see if you can notice anything new about this life necessary movement.

Rest.

Now bring the back of your right hand just to the left of your mouth, and bring your hand back down, and as you repeat this movement, move toward bringing the middle of your right forearm to your mouth. After it's there, go back and forth from lap to middle of right forearm at your mouth.

Rest.

Now please come to this last position of middle of your right forearm on your mouth and begin to round and arch your spine. What does that mean?

To round your spine: bring your belly in and back, rock back a bit on your pelvis, let your sternum sink and your nose lower as if you are going to look between your legs.

All the while your arm and mouth are united, and this gives your elbow a downward trajectory as you round your back.

Then when you arch your back, your elbow will lift, your eyes and nose will look up, your sternum will rise, your belly will come forward a bit and you will rock a bit forward on your pelvis.

Go slowly and with pleasure and awareness in the arching and rounding, paying attention to all your parts:
spine,
ribs,
sternum,
elbow,
nose
belly
and pelvis.

Take rests if you get fatigued, or lose concentration, but do come back to this until you can feel and unity of sorts between your pelvis rocking forward and back, and your elbow raising and lowering.

Have thoughts, if you wish, about how this motion in the pelvis region could have something to do with s-e-x.

Rest.

Now, play with this a bit. Put yourself in the same position of the middle of your right forearm touching your mouth as you sit forward on your chair, and arch up so your elbow is more toward the sky/ ceiling and your pelvis is rocked forward more, and from here bring your pelvis into a kind of hula hoop circle on your chair, and allow your elbow to make a corresponding circle that you discover.

Enjoy this a bit, and then reverse the circle. Go slow enough to get a nice realization of your pelvis and spine and head as a grand team.

Rest.

Now for a bit of the fighting part;
Sit with your left hand on your left knee, and bring your right hand down and outside of your left knee, going down and twisting slowly and easily. Then rise up from this with an arching of your back as earlier, but this time raising your right hand forward and up and to the right, as if slapping someone with the back of your right hand, or slashing a sword up and to the right, and any other image you'd like (hitting a backhand tennis shot way to high, flinging a frisbee to the right and upward), whatever the image, feel your whole self participating in this curling down and twisting (as if to load your strike, throw, fling, slap) and then unfurling and letting your back and pelvis participate in a powerful move of your right arm and hand.

Rest.

This is all one sided. Please feel free to read the instructions and then imagine this all on the left side, and then perhaps do it just once on twice to see how clear your imagining was and what you you would need to remember if you were to imagine it again.

1004: The Importance of Living

We are all alive,
though the amount of time we spend following our breathing,
or noticing our spine holding up our head in space,
or feeling our feet on the floor,
while doing the "computer thing"
is pretty small.

Oh, well,
stand up for a minute and play with your spine in four ways:
one: fold forward,
two: arch up
three: rotate your shoulders left and right
four: side bend a little bit so your right hand goes down toward the floor, and then your left hand does, at your side.

Do these all "less than your limit"
Do them for the joy of "being alive."

Really, now, get up
(me, too),
let's move and wake to nowing.

Did that shift anything for you?

It did for me.

And now:
do all the spine openers as above,
with this addition: have your hands behind your head.

So when you side bend your elbow go side to side

So when you arch and round your head and back are more connected and
aware
of each other

So that when you twist you can feel this more all up and down your spine.



Okay,
inertia is hard and you are busy blah, blah,
and get the fu.... up and have more awaking
time

this is your life

your spine is "central" to who you are?

dance, sex, walk, sit, even sleep: spine is there, there, there,
so up we all go and more
awakening:

hey, that felt great

okay one more upgrade,
and if you know me, you know I could have about ten more levels,
but just
get up
(gads)
one more time,
and as you do the round, fold and twist,
let your eyes
easily,
slowly,
gently,
with awareness and love
go the opposite way of your head

like this:
folding down, head lowering, belly in, lower back back
and eyes going up

arching up, belly out, butt back toward the back of your head, head tilting up,
and eyes going down

twisting left from head, spine, pelvis,
eyes going to the right

twisting right from pelvis, ribs, head,
and your eyes going to the left

and tilting?
you play with some eye game

okay, up, up,
the computer will be a whole new world after this one:
treat yourself

come on,
do it
up
and move
and awake
and aware

ah, that's sweet and like many a "vacation"
being relaxed makes it "harder" to plow ahead
in the usual tense ways

oh, well:
that's it for today folks,
the importance of living
is
you
now

and moving with awareness is the treat
you can
always make
a mini
re
treat to

good

enjoy your day
and get up
and move now
and then

ciao
for
NOW

Chris

1000: Love as learning. Hey, it's the new year, don't be afraid.

Sit comfortably in a chair, near the front of the chair,
feet on the floor, and
feel your 5 line:
two arms,
two legs,
one spine.

Feel how you sit and hold up your head in this wonderful and
relentless world of gravity.

1. Turn your head easily right and left.
Go far less than your "limit."
Keep it easy and pleasurable.
If there is pain in any movement, do less, or do
none
and visualize the movement.

Feel the differences between right and left.

Rest.

2. Now pick which ever way is easiest to turn,
and turn just that way a number of times. Turn that way,
easily,
gently,
less than your "limit,"
with awareness and comfort,
and then
turn back to the middle.

Do at least a few of the movements with your eyes open,
so you can see what the starting range is for you
when you turn easily and without efforting.

Feel this as a movement that you can learn
from.
Study and be aware and enjoy this.

After a number of times, rest.

3. Which ever way you have decided to turn,
put that hand on the chair behind and beside you as support.

Then take your other hand, and put the back of that hand,
on the check opposite,
which is to say on the check in the direction you are turning.
(Throughout this movement lesson, you will keep turning whatever was your "easiest" way.)

These directions may seem "hard."

Oh, well. Go slowly in figuring them out.
Any movement you make is going to improve awareness.

So, one hand on the chair, the other hand with its back on the opposite side of the face.

Begin to turn in your chosen direction and back to the middle
a number of times.

Feel your elbow and ribs as involved in the turning now.

Does that make a difference?

Can you enjoy and learn from that difference?

Do this a number of times, and then
rest.

In the REST don't space out, but sit in a way to really feel what is going on in your body
and mind
from these movements.
This is important integration time for your whole being.

4. Sit again at the front of your chair if you rested in another position.
Put the same hand on the chair beside you, and the other hand a
about eight inches in front of your nose
with the wrist in a floppily relaxed position, thumb nearest to your face.

In this position, turn in your chosen direction and back to the middle a number of times,
having the floppy wrist hand make that same amount of rotation.

As you rotate, allow yourself to come over onto the side of the pelvis
that is the same
as the direction you are turning.

Feel this movement from feet through pelvis thru ribs
up thru neck and even nose and eyes.

Enjoy this.

Rest.

5. Now do the same thing as the last movement a few times.

Then, do this: stop about halfway to wherever you are
turning,
and go both ways with hand and nose,
but these will be opposite.

Which means your hand will come back to the middle,
as your nose turns further in the direction you have been
turning,
and then they reverse,
so that the nose ends up looking forward
and the hand comes across to the side you
have been turning.

Let this movement have something like a neutral space
where both hand and head are turned halfway,
and the pelvis is flat on the chair then.

And each movement after that,
either hand to the side or
nose to the side,
let the pelvis shift that way.

Do this slowly,
don't make a big movement out of it,
keep enjoyment and learning and awareness as constants
more important than how far or how 'well' you move.

Rest and breathe and sense your five lines and integrate.

6. Sit at the front edge of the chair,
and put the same turning side hand on the chair.
Put the other hand on the opposite shoulder,
which is going to be the side to which you are turning.

In this configuration,
turn about half way to your chosen direction
and stop.
Now play the eye and head game.
Slowly.
Slowly and small.
Slowly and small and low effort.

Turn your eyes left as your nose turns to the right,
and then come back,
turning your eyes to the right, as your nose turns to the left.

Go slow.
Go small.
Follow your breathing.

Enjoy.

Rest in a neutral position.
Feel if you feel different from the beginning.

7. Now simple sit at the front edge of your chair and
turn your head right and left,
and see what changes have occurred.

Review in your mind the way the ribs and the shoulder and the eyes
and your pelvis can be involved in turning your head.

Now turn your head right and left again,
and feel yourself as a magnificence of possibilities.

Another movement lesson, sort of advanced, sort of amazing

This is mainly, waking up feldenkrais blogspot dot com stuff,
but still
it could change your life
if
you want

or just
be a lot of fun

and hey:
let's do a poem, too;


rolling is rolling
and elbows can poke
another person
or push into
the ground
like a hand
and shift our weight
as
if

we were going to crawl

but in the lesson below
it's the changing from on the floor
to sitting
and

that's a big change

so play with it:
if you have the time
to enjoy
and learn

and don't expect it to be
"obvious"
unless it is

but once it works
it will change you
for
the rest of your life

really?

maybe
sure
probably

i don't know
if you really let it sink in
yeah
I think it will





Rolling to Sit: A graduate course

You can lie on your back and feel what this is all about: two shoulder blades on the floor, the back of your pelvis on the floor, the backs of your legs on the floor, some part of your arms resting down, down, gravity holding your self secure and calm.

How does your breathing go here?

What do you see in front of you?

What is the direction that seems “forward” to your pelvis and torso?

Ah, good.


Now, imagine this: you are sitting. You have somehow come to sitting from this lying on your back position. What direction does your head face now and at what are you looking? How is your torso facing and what is the position of your pelvis? Imagine this pelvis connection to the floor a bit more thoroughly: what parts press down, what parts are up from the floor, where does “forward” seem to be for the pelvis?

How is the spine connecting your head and pelvis in this imaginary sitting position?

Good.

There are a number of ways to get from on your back to your sitting position and this essay won’t go into them, but will suggest that a thorough and slow and almost endlessly delightful study in transitional possibilities from the lying down pelvis and head to the sitting pelvis and head is rich, rich, rich with learning delights.


And hey, another thought experiment: lie on your belly, and feel what is forward now, where are your eyes and nose pointed, what are your legs up and down to, where is your spine, how about your arms?

In this lying down position, it’s possible to come to sitting without using the arms, but why not be fully human and let the game be played as we would as a baby? So your arms are in what’s called “push up” position, and your head can come up and look at the world from any almost vertical axis and now the game: how to get to sitting from here?

Three games really: how to get to sitting look the same way with your head?

How to get to sitting looking to one side or the other?

How to get to sitting looking the way of “down,” the way your feet are presently pointed.

This can take a lot of slow thinking and experimenting and discovering.

All efforts with awareness in any of life are rewarded, and efforts such as this to discover transitional and functional movements like these can be highly rewarding.
Try ‘em and find out.



Now, for some rolling to sit that is a little like what can be found in the Alexander Yanai series, and a lot like what anyone who pays attention can discover who is willing to feel how gravity and their four limbs and the spine pelvis head thing cooperate.

We’ll start like this:

Rest propped up on your back, with your legs wide and easy, and your elbows holding up the top half of your torso and head in a vertical position. This is to say, you are half upright in head and chest, and the lower half of your back is on the floor.
Feel how the elbows holding you this way has all sorts of possibilities for a person/ child discovering all sorts of things about crawling, but for now, just shift a bit side to side and feel how one elbow and then the other supports most of the top half of you, including your head.

Have a little fun with this, and drop your torso a bit as you come through the middle, and come back up more as you shift your weight from one elbow to the other, always keeping your head vertical.

Then rest.

Come back to this propped position, and come with your weight more fully to your right elbow (we’ll cater to the world of right handers/ left footers for starts), coming enough to the right so that you can feel weight shift to the right side of your pelvis. And then come back.

Now do a kind of fun thing, where you shift your weight in a bit of an arc to the right and forward, so the head goes in an arc, and the weight on the pelvis shifts as if on a clock from 12 to 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 o’clock.

At six o’clock your weight could be forward enough so that you were sitting. (the right hand coming in handy somewhere along the way).

Play around with this. (Technical term: “fart around” with this.). Let the head arc to the right and then forward, and the pelvis rotate the same way and feel the legs provide the ballast as it were for this shift forward and up of the head and spine.

Notice the weight when your are sitting, and then coming back to the reclining position, notice the reverse shift in your pelvis and head.

Rest.


Now, maybe you recall an Alexander Yanai, when, on your back you scissors your legs one way to come more on your belly and the other way to coming to sitting over your elbow. Maybe you don’t. Either way is fine.

But, again, playing right elbowed/ left legged, from the reclining position, raise your left leg and bring it to the right over your right leg, and in this scissored position, roll the head and pelvis as before as you take the left leg back to the left, and see how sweetly and easily this goes.
Play/ “fart around” with this. Imagine, if you are a practitioner, guiding this movement either from behind the neck, or with the “free” arm, or with the “free” arm and the swinging leg. Realize how going slowly enough could teach a lot to ribs and sternum and head and chest and pelvis and weight shifting and gravity connecting and all that good stuff.

And rest.


Now, you are on your back, a baby, and you lift your left leg and fling it to the right. You roll mainly to your right side, but since you aren’t in a Feldenkrais lesson with your arms starting above your head, you trap your lower right arm under you.

Darn. This is annoying.
But, you feel a toy over there on the right side where your left foot is, and your head wants to come to it, and you swing your head that way, and your left leg swings back over to the left to counter-balance and get out of the way, and your left hand reaches down there for the toy and you have rolled up to sit through your elbow on the right side.
Yes, yes, the bending of the knees ways are “easier” in the world of rolling up to sit, and keeping the head even lower to the floor has a lot of amazing learning. Still, though, in the above you can sort of roll your head along the floor toward the toe near where the left foot landed over on the right there.

Isn’t this fun?

I hope so.

117: Movement Matters, Up and Down with a sweet Twist

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.

113: Moving

Pelvis, head, spine, eyes

Sit in a chair, and do whatever you “naturally” do. Lean back, or not, sit forward in the chair or not. From that position, see if you can sense your head and pelvis and spine, and begin to do these two motions:

One: bring your nose toward your pubic bone (sex area) and tilt your pelvis (pubic bone/ any other name) toward your nose, and let your belly come in and your back round out behind you.

Two: unfurl from this, and bring your nose up, maybe toward the sky or the top of the wall or window in front of you, and push your belly out and arch your back and tilt the back of your pelvis, aka your rear end, toward the back of your head.

Go back and forth on with these two end points, looking for an easier and more interesting and pleasant way to do this movement each time you do it.

Rest after six or eight or ten or twelve times.

Then come to a sitting at the front edge of your chair, and do the round and arching, slowly and pleasantly a number of times, while moving your eyes, slowly and as continuously as you can, in the opposite way as your nose (up when nose down, down when nose up).

Rest and consider eyes and head and arching and rounding all day.

Day 38: Twisting and Circling to come to Straight

Berkeley Rose Garden last Sunday

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.

Day Thirty Seven: Learning can take us to Heaven, especially waking up learning

Dogwood in bloom in Sonoma, Ca, in April


Brendan, my son, at the Anat Baniel Method training, Special Needs Children, Segment 4, as part of some 60 people doing grand learning

Movement with attention
is one grand path to feeling
younger,
to sharpening up the brain,
and
waking up to now

Try this:

1. Sit in a chair. Don't lean back. Feel your pelvis against the chair, and your spine holding up your head. Enjoy that. Close your eyes, and sense two arms, two legs, fingers, toes, breathing, and spine.

2. Do this for awhile, as if a meditation.

3. Imagine doing this sensing and awaring all day long.

4. Now, begin to move the toes of your left foot back and forth,
rotating at your heel. Go slowly. Go so slowly that each time you
do this, and do it many times, you can feel and sense and learn something new about your nervous system and your bones and your feet.

5. Take a rest.

6. Now, move the heel of your left foot back and forth (to the left and to the right),
slowly, pivoting on the front part of your foot. Many times, slowly, pleasurably,
learning.

7. Take a rest and feel the differences, left to right, and before to now.

8. Come back, if you've forgotten, to being present.

9. Lie on your back, and put both feet "standing," which means the foot is on the floor and the knees are pointed toward the ceiling.

10. In this position, a number of times rotate the toes of the left foot to the right and left. Rest. Then rotate the heel of this same foot. Rest.

11. In the rests, come into a deeper meditation.

12. Bring both feet to standing again, and push up your pelvis into the air. Do this a number of times, more and more arching your back, and pushing out your belly.

13. Rest with awareness and pleasure.

14. Again, feet standing, pelvis up, and bring the toes of your left foot as if for running. Toes on the floor. Put your hands behind your head on the floor, and tilt your whole upper body toward the left, and then back to the middle. It is as if the ribs on your right get longer and the left elbow comes closer, staying on the floor, to your left hip.

15. Rest.

16. Do all of 14 again, and use that to get your left hand to your left heel. Once there, rotate slowly your left heel right and left. See if you can feel the toes pressing the floor most clearly between the big toe and the second toe.

17. Rest. Imagine other moves you could make. Imagine being aware of your ankles and which toes press into the ground as you walk forward today.

18. Get up to standing and go forth to a life of slowing and awaring and happying.

Good.

Day Thirty Four: Happy Feet, Happy Toes, Better Backs, Comig to Now, Wow!

We walk each day, many times pressing down into the floor and Earth with our feet, and this pushes goes through us all the way up our spine. We usually don’t notice this. We have five toes on each foot. We usually don’t notice this. Today is as good a time as any to begin more and sweeter and happier noticing of these things. And more.

Lie on your back, please on a firm but comfortable surface. A lawn, a wood floor with a carpet or blanket on it, or a very firm bed. Feel your back pressing down. Feel the Earth pressing back up. Feel each leg in the sensing way, sensing the bones and muscles and blood and everything of each leg, one leg at a time.

Then sense your arms, one arm at a time, from finger tips to shoulder blades.

Now sense your spine, along the floor, where does it touch, where does it lift up? Sense the top and bottom and back side and front side of your spine.

Sense your arms and legs and spine and see if your had your toes, as part of that. If not, add them in, and your head and ribs. Sense your whole self on the floor.

Good.

Just that much, if you stay present with it, can change your life if you do it a few times a day.


And let’s do more.

Please raise one knee toward the ceiling, so that one foot is as if “standing” on the floor, sole pressing down. Pick either your left leg if you are right handed, or right leg is you are left handed, unless one leg foot toes ankle are in some sort of pain. Then pick the un-pain leg and foot, or the less pain if both don’t feel so great.

Good. Now begin to press this standing foot into the floor, and use this push to raise your pelvis on that side, so it lifts and rotates. Go slow. Only have half the pelvis coming off the floor. The side of the pelvis on the straight on the floor leg side stays down.

Do this slowly, many times, push the foot down, feel the pelvis rotate, feet your back arch.

Many times, each time with a sensing of a different part of you: toes, ankle, knee, hip joint, pelvis, spine, ribs, neck, head, arms. Feel different parts and all of you at the same time if you can.

After many times, say twenty to thirty, take a rest, let your leg down and feel the difference side to side. Rest long enough so that you feel your body and brain integrating what you learned, then raise your same foot to standing.

Throughout this lesson, if will always be this foot. At the end, you can get up and walk around, and feel some big differences and ten or twenty minutes later come back and do all this on the other side. Or right before you go to sleep is a great time to review and redo this lesson on the other side.

So stand the same foot again, and press again, first three times so the your knee falls in toward the middle as you press, and three times so that your knee head out over your foot as you press. Go back and forth three times each way, and sense how this is very different in your hip joint and in your toes.

Rest again and integrate.

Now, stand the same foot again, and from now on in the lesson, press your foot so that the knee is heading toward over the standing foot. Begin to press, and as you press, raise one side of your pelvis, rotate, arch your back, and push your belly out.

Really notice your belly going out on the pushing and arching phase of this movement. And now practice sometimes breathing in as your belly goes out, and sometimes breathing out. Feel the difference. Enjoy both ways.

Rest and integrate.

Always find pleasure and learning in each movement.

Standing your foot again, and press a number of times, knee toward over the standing foot, and belly out, and add this on: for three times, as you press, start the press as you have been all along, in your heel but now for three times, as the back arches and the knee moves a bit down toward the foot, push through the big toe of that foot. Three times. And then three times through the next toe, the index toe. And then three times through the middle toe. Then three times the ring toe. And three times the little toe.

Rest and integrate.

Stand the foot again. Always move slowly, with learning and enjoyment, and finding out about all parts of yourself, not just the toe that is pushing, say. Now, go through the previous movement, but the other way: 3 times the little toe, and so on working your way back to the big toe and sensing ribs and spine and breathing and pelvis as you press through your heel and then the selected toe.

Rest. Enjoy. Breathe. Feel yourself on the floor. Feel differences side to side. Feel differences in your general state from the beginning of this short lesson.

Roll to your side and get up and walk a bit, feeling the lopsidedness and the learning and the amazing results from going slow, from being present, from giving yourself the present of learning.

Good.

Enjoy your day, sense your toes a lot, and sometime during the day, go through this game on the other side.

Day 16: Why Wake Up, part one

Why Be Aware?

This is a silly question,
except if we are running around
in one of our usual
daze
days.

And then, in a pause say,
or walking across a lawn,
or talking to someone
and realizing we are just pumping
up inside getting all ready
to spring our next
over used download,

or putting off someone
who might love
desire
need
real
attention
in the real moment

and suddenly,
we realize:
OMG (I learned that recently,
teenage talk, slang: Oh MY God,
said as one word, OHMYGOD)
I have been on autopilot
the last...ten minutes,
hour,
day,
week.

And then we are aware
of ourselves,
in this moment.

Something shifts.
That can be our game today:
what shifts,
how?

Does moving slowly
in the Feldenkrais
patterns
help that
waking to now?

Try it:
connect to gravity
and from awaring of that,
moving some part of you,
gently, easily
and see what else that shifts,
and how it involves
and possibly shifts
your use of gravity.

Rest.

Move another part of you,
thinking
and awaring of the first
while you move and aware
on
the second.

Rest.

Play with combinations.

See what happens.

See how awareness
and awaring
come into your life
while you do this.

Enjoy.

And then,
see how awaring can be the
main game of your day,
today.

Good.

Day Twelve, 5 lines in folding, on the back version

We can do something in sitting and then again on our backs, and experience the way life can be amazing when we try things out in a variety of ways.

On day five, we went into an exploration of sensing our five lines and of folding forward from the sitting position. Today we’ll lie on the floor or a firm bed or table, and do the same sequence, again as slowly and we as much awareness, enjoyment and playful discovery as possible.

First lie down, and simply sense yourself on the floor or table. Where is touching? How big do you feel? Can you feel each leg, and each arm and your spine, the five lines of you? Can you notice your breathing?

Can you notice a difference that come to the floor and leaving gravity behind makes in your ability to release, so called “relax,” and not so called, but for real, pay attention to yourself?

Now. Lets go through the same sequence.

1) First feel down your left leg, from knee toward your foot with your right hand.

It is of no importance if you “get there” or not, just take it easy and feel each part of your back and ribs and pelvis that is available for you to pay attention to.

Go back and forth slowly, and without any effort to “go to the limit.” And each times you aren’t folding in, come all the way back to the table or floor and release any effort.

2) Rest. Feel yourself on the table, and what is new in your awareness.

3) Bring your right hand behind your head and your left hand behind your left knee, and bring your right elbow toward your left knee. Slowly, not trying to “get there,” any there. And coming back to complete release between each movement. And each time feeling a little more in your spine and ribs and pelvis.

Keep your neck and breathing free. See how to make this pleasure, not “crunches.”

4) Rest again, fully and enjoyably. Not look to the left and put your right hand behind your left ear, and your left hand behind your left knee. Bring elbow toward knee again, each time allowing yourself to twist a little as you fold and each time coming back to the table and completely releasing any efforting.

Do this many times, with ease, slowness and curiosity. And pleasure.

5) Rest again. Last variation (though you can invent ten or twenty more, if you wish). Hold your left leg as you did in sitting, left hand at the left knee and right hand and the left ankle, and bring your leg and head toward each other.

Many times, releasing, folding, releasing, learning. Enjoy.

6) Rest.

7) Go back to the original move, or exploring down your left lower leg with your right hand. Enjoy.

8) Lie back and sense the differences, in feeling/ sensation in your back, in breathing, in length of your spine, in internal ease. Enjoy.

And today, if you wish, fold and unfold in sitting and lying down, and sense your five lines all you wish.

Good.

Day Eight: Getting Straight or Not, A Real Spine Moves

A spine is not meant to be “straight,” but to help us move and orient in the world. By furling and unfurling our spines and ourselves, we come to a clearer understanding of what it means to be human.

Many of us, at one time or another, get the idea into our head that we want “better posture.” Often this idea was drilled into us in teenage years, with some adult saying, in usually not so pleasant a voice, “stand up straighter,” or “stop slumping.” Or some such commandment.

Whatever the baggage and past conditioning, it does feel better to stand with a fuller and longer spine. Much of yoga works toward this, and we’ll go for a sort of brain yoga as this book unfolds. I am trained in what is called the Feldenkrais Method®, named after a man, Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) who was a physicist, engineer, judo master and student of babies and human development. He wanted to heal something in him that medical surgery couldn’t repair at the time, and he did, discovering along the way a system of attentive moving that awakened awareness and propelled people into all sorts of improvements in their life.

I’m also trained in the Anat Baniel Method, developed by, not so surprisingly, Anat Baniel, a student of Moshe Feldenkrais who has spent 30 expanding and deepening his system.

Be that as it may, stand in your socks or barefoot on some comfortable floor or ground.

Feel the you of you in standing.

Now, hold your arms straight out to your sides, begin to roll your arms forward, so the thumbs orient from up, to forward to down. And as you roll your arms forward, bend your knees, and let your whole upper body round toward your pelvis, as if you were curling up in a ball. Then uncurl yourself and rotate your hand and arms backwards, so the thumbs come back to up, and rotate to point to the back. While this is happening, arch your spine and let your head look up a little and soften your belly and let your belly come forward as your lower back comes in a little.

Don’t worry if this isn’t obvious right away. Give it a try. Go slowly. See if it can make “sense” to you and deeply, pleasurably and full of pleasure, sense and learn about yourself.

Go back and forth like this. Read the directions several times, and figure it out. Go beyond reading about it. DO IT. SENSE YOURSELF IN MOTION, SENSE THE SPINE ROUNDING AND ARCHING. Breathe as you do this. Sense both arms and legs.

When you finish doing this, sense your “posture” all day.

day106: Up and down and twisting and awaring, 5 lines to boot

Moving all ways and sensing our five lines

Here’s one way to get the spine, your spine, going through all it’s possibilities.

Stand, easily and tap your heels for a warm up.

Smile and look outside yourself and find three or five things to like about what you see.

Then take your right hand down along your left leg toward your left shoe. Fold and twist a bit as you get smaller and smaller and lower and lower.

Now unfurl, bringing your hand up in front of your chest and then on up toward the sky or ceiling on your right side, look up and watch it, and twist to the right with your hand and body.

When you are as far as you can go here, stay and enjoy and then begin side bending to the right and the left in this position/

Don’t worry if this isn’t obvious reading it on the page. Go piece by piece and really enjoy this.

Find different ways to breathe as you do this.

After many times, rest.


Then go left hand down, and up and twist and arch and side bend.

You’ll get it.

Go about the rest of your day full of spine and possibility.


And be of good cheer.

Why not, it’s your life.

day 105 sitting and side bending, spine awakening, spine fun

Sitting and side bending.

Sit comfortably on the front edge of a chair. Breathe easily and do just very slightly a rounding and arching of your spine, to feel your pelvis more clearly on the chair, and the lengthening of your back when you arch.

Come to a sitting position with a slight arch, and your belly a bit forward and soft and free. Breathe in and out a number of times this way, and then interlace your fingers and bring your hands behind your head.

Now, keeping your nose pointing forward, tilt to the right, so your left elbow goes toward the sky/ ceiling and the right elbow comes toward your right hip. Notice what is happening with the weight on your pelvis. Is it going to your right “sit bone” or your left? Probably the right.

Now learn how to do this: as you tilt your head and elbow directly to the right, raise you right hip toward the right elbow, as they come closer, and allow your weight to shift to the left side of your pelvis.

Do this many times. “Easily.” And then rest.

Now, bring interlace your hands the “non-habitual” way, bring them behind your head, and tilt to the left. Two ways: first, shifting your weight left as you tilt, and then, many times, shifting the weight on your pelvis to the right. Feel the shape of your spine as you do this. Many times. Rest.



For today, play with remembering your spine and playing with the ways the spine, the ways your spine moves.

Folding and coming into a ball.

Arching and lengthening and rising to the sky.

Twisting.

Side bending.


See if you can discover a movement that will combine them all.

Day 97: rotation an easy way: on our backs for learning's sake

photo from my daughter's trip to Turkey

Rotation, lying on our back, easy, good, smart

Lie on your back, or some comfortable and firm surface. Bring your left foot to standing (= foot on ground, knee up).

Press your left foot into the ground, and rotate your pelvis to the right while arching your back. Do this the usual “many times.” Each time as if new. Each time feel more of yourself.

Rest.

Put your arms across each other, with your hands resting on your opposite shoulder. As above, press your left foot, rotate and arch your back. Add on, three times rotate the shoulders “with” the twisting to the right, and the next three rotate your shoulders to the left as your hips rotate to the right, back and forth, “many times.”

Rest.

Bring your head into the fun. Do all the above, and have your head rotating, “easily” in the opposite way of your shoulders.

Rest.

If you want to add on the eyes opposite your head, be my guest.

Rest.

Go slow, and feel all the differences each time you add on more complexity.

In the end, go back to the simple arching and twisting. Just push through your left foot and feel the twist and arch in your back. Notice the difference. Then lie quietly and notice the difference side to side.

Then stand and feel differences side to side in your walking, and standing and maybe even breathing.


If you’d like to repeat the entire sequence on the other time a little later in the day, or right before going to bed, that would be interesting and useful, most likely.

For today, notice when you rotate, and have some fun playing with pelvis, ribs, head and eyes in this.

93: Upload your life: arch and round and twist with awareness, then do the Thich Nhat Hahn Meditation

Mind and body and learning: rounding and arching in sitting, with a twist.

Sit in a chair or on a log, or bench, near the front so both feet can be on the ground, and your back is not leaning on anything.

Interlace your hands and put them behind your head, and in this position, do the arching and rounding we have described several times. Do this for a bunch of pleasant and aware and waking and learning times.

Sometimes have your eyes going the way your head is going. Sometimes the opposite.

Go slowly.

Know how you are breathing.

Feel really good.

Rest.


Now try this, when you round, bring your elbows forward, as if they want to touch or straddle your knees. When you arch, widen your elbows out, and one time twist to the right and up with your right elbow, following it with your eyes. Then bring elbows forward, come down, round, and breathe out. Then go to the left, breathe out again (you figure that one out), push your belly out, and lift your left elbow up and backwards, feeling your whole back involved.

Do this a number of times.

Go slowly.

Feel the whole shifting that is going on in your spine.

Enjoy this.

For the rest of the day, simple be present to breathing and to being in your body. You might want to try a famous Thich Nhat Hahn meditation: breathing in, I sense my body; breathing out I smile.

This is a good one, and today, and do sense your spine when you sense your body.

89: Arch and round, breathing 2 ways, waking up the lungs

Arch, round, breathing two ways

Awhile ago we practiced paying attention to and enjoying our spine arch and round with our hands at the side of our face, thumbs under the ears, other fingers over the ears, pointing backward.

On the arch, we push our belly forward, come forward on our pelvis, lift our sternum, look up a little.

On the round, we bring our belly back, round our back, let our head (in our hands) come down and forward, and let our sternum sink.

Do this awhile, back and forth. Notice your breathing.

Now play with this: as you round and pull your belly in, push the air out and breathe out. Do this a number of times and then rest.

And once more, belly in, air out, round the spine, curl up as if into a ball, feel the whole spine rounding in from the top and the bottom as the air goes out. Hand on the face so that the whole ribs and back acts as a complete unit.

Rest.


Now, try this way: as you bend forward and round your back, let your stomach come in as usual, but think of filling your lungs with air to make them bigger.

That is to say: as you round, breathe in. It may seem “strange,” but strange means “different” or “new” most of the time. So hang out there in the new, the learning, the amazing. Then as you arch your back and lift your head as you hold it in your hands, breathe out, push your belly forward. So this is belly forward and breathing out.

Do it a number of times.

Rest. And do it again.

Rest. And feel your spine. Do this a bunch of times today, and enjoy your spine all day. See how curiously aware you can be about the whole thing.