Blog
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.
Staying Mobile While Sheltering in Place
I take my time, resisting the urge to “fix” what I think should move more gracefully. If I stay within today’s comfort zone, movement gradually becomes freer without force.
Body-Mind Connections—Part Two
Twenty years ago I took a basic course with the Bodynamic Institute. What I like about this approach to body/mind correlation is that I can feel the reality of it in my body. Other groups’ formulations often feel more cerebral than physical.
Body-Mind Connections, Part One
When we cradle an infant, our hands automatically support the tiny sacrum and cranium. Without thinking about it, we touch with delicacy and awe.
Essential Proprioception*— Part One
Crown center and perineal center are primal, intimate locations in your body. At first, simply feel them—taking time to know where they are.
A Movement Disorder
Exercise doesn’t increase dopamine levels in the brain but it does affect the efficiency with which available dopamine is recruited to serve brain circuitry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
How to Sit in Your Car
Car designers seem to devise seats to support the lowest common denominator of posture, believing that people need soft seats that cradle the derriere, and backrests that ignore the capacity of your spine to support itself.
Use Your Toes to Protect Your Knees
When there’s a problem in the knee, there are probably imbalances in the feet. My friend had no complaints about her feet, but when I watched her move I could see that, especially on the side of her knee surgery, she wasn’t using the full articulation of her foot.
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.