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

Mary Bond is a world-renowned movement teacher, an original student of Ida Rolf, accomplished dancer and brings 73 years of wisdom to the discussion of how and why move well. We dive into specific tips on how to develop your felt body sense, how our perception affects our movement and how to break away from a mechanistic mind and body. A true pleasure having the opportunity to have such a wise soul on the show!

We rarely think of our feet as the amazing complex multi-boned platforms that allow us to walk upright. And in fact— they are sensory organs with a deep affinity for balance, movement and listening to the environment. This is an encore interview with our guest Mary Bond, who joined us on EAP020 for a discussion of Presence and Movement. We’d planned to talk about feet, but got delightfully sidetracked with breathing and how that opens the spine. Today’s show not only takes deep look into foot function and movement, but also touches on neuroplasticity and how expanding the movement in our feet not only helps with balance and comfort, but expands the neural maps of the body in the brain.

“Your posture is determined by the moment before you move…”

How often do we think of posture as something that is fixed, static, out of awareness and somehow outside of us?  In this show Mary Bond explores with us subtle motions in the body that can lead to a vast opening of awareness, movement and ease.  Listen in as we explore breath, the gentle spacious moment that proceeds movement and a curious ease that comes from dropping our “efforting.” While many of our interviews make for good company while driving or otherwise engaging in activities of the world, today’s episode invites a turn inward. Give yourself some quiet unfettered space to engage it.

Mary Bond, author of The New Rules of Posture, talks about how and why the word “posture” is problematic, how poor posture becomes chronic, what muscular armoring is and how it interferes with our functioning, the distinction between support and stabilization, the relationship between facial and spinal tension, and what it means to be a tongue gripper and how that affects people.