Notes on Coaching Movement, Part 1

Notes on Coaching Movement, Part 1

A deeper level of somatic education can lead to lasting change in the way someone inhabits their body. This approach invites the client to become aware of their habitual movements and to explore sensations that stimulate new movement behaviors.

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What IS Posture?

What IS Posture?

in reality, posture is dynamic. It’s a process of moving the body through time and space. Ideal posture is only a moment in time. At any given moment we must be perceptually oriented to the ground and to the spatial field surrounding us. That perceptual orientation allows us to feel secure enough in our environment to express ourselves in response to what we are facing.

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Yoga, Alignment and Movement

Yoga, Alignment and Movement

Diminished spatial perception creates compression in the body. That diminution of interior body space is a major cause of poor postural organization and limited range of motion. Changing how you stand or move is not the answer. Changing how you perceive and interact with the world is.

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A MEDITATION FOR YOUR EYES

A MEDITATION FOR YOUR EYES

Avoid imagining a baby’s face, a lovely sunset, or a pleasant event. Instead, let your eyes gaze at a doorknob or a light switch—ordinary things.  The purpose is not to induce a mental or emotional state, but simply to notice the physical sensations in your body that accompany smiling with your eyes.

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Tongue Support for Diaphragmatic Breathing

Tongue Support for Diaphragmatic Breathing

Within your oral cavity, you now have both descent (your mandible resting down) and ascent the subtle lift of your tongue. Notice what that does for the sensations at the juncture of your head and neck.

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Strength: A Wake-up Call

Strength: A Wake-up Call

I have never been very robust in my fitness program. Having a flexible body, I’ve always been drawn to movement disciplines where that is at the forefront: yoga, improvisational dancing, Tai Chi. Strength training and competitive sports were not my thing.

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Spatial Orientation as a Source of Support

Spatial Orientation as a Source of Support

This exploration is one I share with nearly every one of my private clients.  Awareness of the space around our bodies is uplifting. It emancipates joints, making movement freer, as I hope you’ll be able to feel for yourself..

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Pelvic Tilt and The Neutral Spine

Pelvic Tilt and The Neutral Spine

Dr. Rolf treated everyone (including me with my too flat lumbar spine) as if they were hyper-lordotic. What that did for me was gap the lumbar facets (so they were in constant slight flexion) and make my lumbosacral area unstable.  I had low back pain for years after first being Rolfed. IMO Rolf got most things right, but not this. 

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Perceptual Tensegrity

Perceptual Tensegrity

Tensegral body attitude, by expanding the space within the torso, grants more living room to your organs, beneficially affecting all visceral functions, including circulation, respiration, and digestion. And, because expansive visceral space contributes to high vagal tone, it can positively affect both health and social connectedness.

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Posture and Perception

Posture and Perception

The contemporary workplace, where our eyes are trained on screens for many hours, skews the natural balance between peripheral and foveal vision (sharp, central focus responsible for details). This has a profound impact on our bodies.

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Liberated Body Interview: Posture, Perception and Presence

Liberated Body Interview: Posture, Perception and Presence

It is my great good fortune for this to be my second interview with Mary Bond (the first can be found here) Mary has an MA in Dance from UCLA, and studied with, and was certified by, Dr. Ida Rolf, the originator of Rolfing Structural Integration. Mary is currently Chair of the Movement Faculty of The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration in Boulder, CO. She also teaches workshops online and in person tailored to the movement needs and interests of various groups such as runners, dancers, Pilates and yoga instructors, and massage therapists. Mary is also a prolific writer whose articles have appeared in numerous magazines and she has written several books. You may know her best for her book The New Rules of Posture, and in today’s conversation we’re talking about her forthcoming book: Your Body Mandala: Posture, Perception, and Presence. And her mission, which, much to my delight, is to contribute to humanity’s deeper embodiment.  —Brooke Thomas, Liberated Body

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