Blog

This post relates to the first two lessons in the breathing series - The links to the actual lessons alternate with each photo or GIF.

The lessons work with breathing and explore how it relates to the sense of being, the scope of our awareness and our ability to move and function.

Do we restrict ourselves by breathing poorly? Do we restrict our ability to sense what is actually going on?

We’ve been considering the movement of our respiratory cavity as we breathe and following its effortless rhythm. You may have experienced a great sense of ease in the way you were breathing after each of the classes we’ve been doing but if we increase our workload or the range of interactions we share we may need to do a little more.

However, increasing tension to achieve this rarely works. As with the finger trap, the more we resist the tighter we become.

Breathing in harmony .. meaning that most of the time our breathing is peaceful and returns to that peace after periods of aerobic activity .. means that we are harmonious.

Breathing is circular just like the tides. Moving with that natural flow is not so simple in the chaos of human life. However, if you pay attention to your breathing as a daily practice it’s much easier to find that cyclone centre.

How do you go with the flow of life? So that with each change or fluctuation of circumstance you adapt like water in a river. Ancient Chinese sages spoke of paying close attention to where you are now in order to better predict what would be useful for the future.

In that case you were ready when the changes occurred.

Paying attention to where you are and what is happening is a pretty obvious thing but in reality it’s not that simple.

This lesson explores the role of the head and neck in that experience of stillness. The jaw, the eyes, the tongue .. they make a huge difference.

So in last weeks class we refined a way of perceiving and freeing our head, neck and torso using the breath.

This week we’ll explore larger movements in that context. We’ll examine how we can develop more power and ease through awareness of breath.

This lesson is an improvisation on one of Moshe’s most famous lessons. We’ll explore it within the prism of our ever freeing breath.

It’s so simple but the effect is just lovely.

The vividness of our internal life & the dance of the way we feel & function is a remarkable thing. It’s so easy to be seduced into thinking there is an objective world that exists separately & to believe our internal judgements are statements of fact. For me, observing the shifting landscape of sense, thought & feeling make that seem less certain.

This universe is a strange and beautiful place.

How to look up at the stars effortlessly .. or maybe to reach for the stars. So many movements involve a movement of your body behind the coronal plane. We’ll be looking at our relationship to gravity as a starting point. One of the major challenges many people face is that their idea of ‘up’ is distorted. It’s hard to go up if your idea of up is down or if it twists away to the left. So we’ll set the instruments for the heart of the earth and consider the steering wheel for ‘up’.

This lesson explores the position and significance of the Sphenoid bone. It’s part of the base of the skull & the top of the back of the nose. It sits in front of the skulls centre of gravity, is shaped like a butterfly and our breath passes beneath it. How can awareness of this exquisite bone assist us to feel the delicate balance of the skull on top of the spine? or the weight of the skeleton in its dance with the space in the airway? Or the sense of freedom in our eyes? Go for a walk afterwards!

This lesson considers the role of smell in our orientation to the world.

We’ll explore another extraordinary bone - The ethmoid which sits at the top of our nose and also forms part of the base of the cranial skull. Here’s a representation from the front ..

This lesson goes right to the heart of the paradoxical nature of our bodily experience. The sense of hard and soft .. spacious and dense .. all at the same time. We’ll be right in the heart of our visceral skull .. The Maxilla and Mandible .. and we’ll be looking at it in relation to the rest of our body. Here are the two maxilla bones highlighted ..

Through touch we understand & through action we expand our horizons. The practice of writing is an interesting way to reflect on our experience. Thought and feeling are so fleeting. To commit them to paper is to bring them into a form of existence. Who knows what is possible for each of us if we all work together? If we listen to our world with all of our senses .. and converse with our whole being ..

Where do ideas come from?

What is it that allows us to realise that we could do something we had never considered but know it’s exactly what we’ve been looking for? Is it a random accident? or is it already there as a possibility somewhere within our structure?

The tendency is to think of structure as that place bordered by our skin but what if we considered our environment as part of our structure?

How do we approach the more challenging experiences of our body?

Those parts of ourselves that seem too troublesome to bother with. It’s so easy to ignore them. The tight shoulders! The restricted neck! The sore hip or tight hamstrings!

It’s a challenge in all movement systems - When we practice we like to do the things that feel nice and avoid the things that take more effort. If we consider what we need and spend a little time each session doing that it makes an enormous difference.

Gravity is a magnetic force pulling us toward the centre of our mass - toward the centre of the earth. We are a part of the earth’s mass. That means we’re contributors to the force of gravity. As you read this now you are being drawn down to the centre of the earth. In every moment we are falling. To surrender to that falling is to move with the flow of life ..

Our feet are like ears, capable of the most spine tingling sensitivity. They are connected by bone and the resonant inner spaces of our body to our inner ears.

We are a miracle of interconnected segments entwined and enclosed yet open to the vast spaces of existence dancing within the shape of gravity’s force.

Our feet, on the earth, are a voice of our presence.

The width, depth and volume of our body is the space of life. There is something wonderful about the shape of our sides. Orientation through the our ears .. The expression of width through our hands .. and the movement of breath ..

You can be on your front or your back and still be on your side .. or you could be in the middle. But where do you experience the middle of your side?

Is it an area? or is does it extend in a line through your body?