Fidgeting is good for you

December 6, 2011 By

Fidgeting can help us function better

A recent article  in The Globe and Mail confirms what many of us already knew, that moving is good for our brains as well as our bodies. Fidgeting and doodling helps you to be more attentive and enhances memory and overall brain functioning. Our bodies were designed for movement! When you fidget you repeat a few small movements which helps to keep your body loose and your brain awake.

  • You can “fidget” or move frequently while sitting at work, at a performance or lecture, in your car and in an airplane.
  • Gently rock your pelvis forward and backward. This will help reduce lower back tension and keeps your pelvis moving. Inhale and let your lower belly expand and feel your lower back arch as your rock your pelvis forward. As you exhale roll your pelvis backward and feel your back and whole spine rounding. Repeat several times.
  • You can also fidget while standing – in a checkout line, at a performance, in a waiting room or while waiting for someone at a street corner. Stand with your feet slightly apart, with the front of your feet a little further apart than your heels (e.g. your feet are not parallel), let your hands hang comfortably.
  • Do some gentle small knee bends – bending your knees slightly and then straightening them again but without locking them.
  • When you bend your knees notice how your pelvis and tail bone move downward in the direction of the floor.
  • As you come upright inhale and feel your trunk and chest expand to the sides. Your chest and breastbone lift, your neck lengthens and your gaze lifts upward. Repeat several times.

We have two more weeks of Awareness Through Movement® classes this year. Drop in and try a class if you haven’t already.

December offer: First class free to all new students who mention they saw this newsletter.  Offer good until January 31, 2012.

Details of our winter term are now on our website.

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Turning your head with comfort

November 30, 2011 By

A human being’s head turns around the vertical spine. A freely moving head, connected to smooth eye movements, can soften the muscle tone in the rest of our body and impacts how we can do everyday activities such as sitting, running, walking, playing a musical instrument, etc.

With this short movement sequence you can explore how the connection of your eyes and head can change how you turn.

  • Sit forward on a chair with your feet resting on the floor shoulder width apart. Move your back so it is not resting on the back of the chair.
  • Close your eyes. Turn your upper body to the left and return. Repeat twice. At the third turn stop where you feel that the movement is no longer smooth and easy.  Notice where you stopped and then return to sitting facing forward. Pause for a moment.
  • Keep your upper body facing forward, close your eyes, and turn only your eyes and head to the left a few times. How does your neck feel as you make these movements? What do you notice through the length of your spine? How are you breathing? Are your eyes going ahead of your head or are your eyes and head moving to the left together – check this out a few times with your eyes open.
  • After you repeat a few times stop, come back to the centre and rest for a few moments.  Repeat the movement of turning your upper body – your head, shoulders and trunk – to the left and notice where you can easily move to now. More importantly notice how you are breathing, how your trunk and ribs move and how your neck and head feel.
  • Now, focus your eyes on something in front of you and keep them there while turning your head and upper body to the left. You will likely notice that your turning range is greatly reduced. Repeat a few times. Pause for a moment.
  • Finally, close your eyes. Repeat the first movement of turning your upper body, head and eyes to the left and notice where that is now. Compare it to what you noticed and how you moved at the beginning.
  • Take a moment to rest in sitting before getting up and resuming your day. You can do this exploration any time during the day for a quick neck and shoulder release.

During our weekly Awareness Through Movement® classes we explore this powerful relationship between our head and eyes, as well as others, and also learn how to organize the rest of our body, and mind, for easy movements. Drop in and join us.

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Happy Feet Quiz

November 22, 2011 By

This weekend we ran another successful workshop, Happy Feet, our last scheduled for 2011.

We reviewed the basic structure of our feet to better understand how the foot’s structure and function influences how we stand, sit, walk, dance, ski and do many other activities. We did several Awareness Through Movement® lessons to increase awareness of the whole foot as well as of the individual toes. We explored the connections and relationships between the soles and heels with the ankle, leg, knee, hip joint, pelvis, neck and head. We also did a movement exploration focused on balance and discovered how important our feet are in helping maintain balance.

Participants received a learning quiz about the feet. The complete quiz and answers are on our website and can be accessed through this link.

In the meantime, here are a couple of teaser questions:

What has greater grasping power – the infant’s or adult’s foot?
How much pressure per square inch does the spike of a high heeled shoe exert with each step taken?

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Dynamic Sitting

November 8, 2011 By

Welcome back to our regular and popular Boost Your Well-Being movement tips. We took a hiatus while our new website was being designed and built.  The tips are now being sent out via newsletter and adapted here. For a copy of the newsletter click here.

This tip brings back a favourite, how to sit comfortably and effortlessly. This past weekend we ran a successful workshop, Sitting With Ease, where we explored several movement sequences to help re think the idea that sitting is a static position. Instead we explored sitting as a dynamic activity which makes it easier to sit  without being fixed, constrained or restricted and without overworking our muscles. With support through the feet and pelvis and balance in the pelvic sitting bones we can move freely, bend down, and shift weight easily.

Here is a checklist for dynamic sitting:

  • If you are sitting on an adjustable ergonomic chair, lower the height so that your feet can rest on the floor. Adjust the lumbar control so that the lower back is slightly arched.
  • If you are sitting on a regular chair, sit on the front part of the chair without leaning on the back of the chair.
  • If your back is resting on the chair’s back, support your lower back with the contoured seat back or a lumbar roll.
  • Balance your weight evenly on both pelvic sitting bones.
  • Let go of unnecessary muscular effort and tension in your body.
  • Place both feet hip width apart and uncrossed on the floor.
  • Breathe freely and easily.
  • Get up frequently even if for a brief moment, at least every 15 minutes.

 

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Launch of new website

October 31, 2011 By

We are excited to announce the launch of our new, improved website. We invite you to visit us and email us to let us know what you think.

We have updated our site to include easier navigation, integration with our blog and newsletters, new photos and teachings from Moshe Feldenkrais. We are looking forward to providing more information about classes and workshops on the Feldenkrais Method as well as new offerings and exciting news.

With the launch of the new site our regular Boost Your Well-Being Movement Tips will return in newsletter form and will again be available via the blog.

And this Sunday we are holding our popular Sitting with Ease workshop.  Let us know if you would like to join us, a few spots remain.

And we are planning much more… so stay tuned. Read more….

 

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August 16, 2011: Sitting with ease

August 16, 2011 By

Many of us try to sit more comfortably by lifting our chest in an attempt to get longer. When we do this though we often also hike our shoulders up to our ears, tighten the area around the neck and between the shoulder blades.

Try this exploration to discover what it means to go down – into the sitting bones – to come up for more support in sitting.
• Sit with back away from the chair with your feet firmly on the floor, hip width apart.
• Sense the weight in your right sit bone and then in the left one. Do they feel the same? Does your right and left shoulder feel the same or different? What do you notice in your lower back?
• Gently lift the sit bone that you feel has less weight a little off the chair so that more weight goes into the sit bone that felt it was more supported on the chair. Then shift back to putting weight into both sitting bones. Repeat a few times trying to keep your head oriented over the pubic bone – e.g. not leaning over to one side.
• After a few movements stop and pause and feel your support in sitting.
• Repeat shifting weight onto the other side.

To learn more about comfortable sitting join us at Sitting with Ease, one of our scheduled Fall workshops. Fall workshops begin Sept 10 and classes on the 13th. Please see our website for complete details.

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Aug 9, 2011: Lighten your step on the stairs

August 9, 2011 By

Two weeks ago we described how to lighten your step by striking the ground with the heel and feeling the motion move through the whole foot. Can you lighten your step as you walk up stairs?

• Stand facing the bottom of the stairway and rest one hand on the banister.
• Pull yourself onto the first stair by pulling one foot up and then return the foot to the floor.
• Repeat several times with the same foot. Notice the effort involved, if there is strain in your lower back, leg or anywhere else. Pay attention to how you are breathing.
• Then pause with both feet on the floor.
• Start to lift the same foot but this time simultaneously allow the heel of the other foot to peel off the floor. Then let both feet rest solidly on the floor again.
• Repeat several times and notice if peeling the back heel helps the other foot lift onto the stair more easily.
• Experiment with both ways to discover which way allow you to breathe more easily and is more comfortable for your back.

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July 26, 2011- Heavy Footed

July 26, 2011 By

Do you or others in your household sound like a heard of elephants when walking? That noise is an indication that you are not using your skeleton as efficiently as you can while walking.

To lighten your step, try the following, initially in bare feet indoors:

¨ When you walk think about striking the ground with the heel of the foot and then feeling motion move to middle of the foot, then the ball of the foot and finally feel the toes make contact with the ground. Sense a rolling motion through the foot.

¨ Visualize your spine from the tailbone to the top of the head. With each step, think of lengthening and getting taller through the spine. Think if the top of the head reaching further toward the ceiling. Compare that image with walking without thinking of lengthening the spine and notice the difference.

¨ After you can feel differences in your walking indoors, experiment wearing shoes while walking outdoors.

To sense more differences in how you walk and do other activities, try an Awareness Through Movement® class this summer. Classes continue on Tuesdays at 6 pm and Wednesdays at 7 pm, through August 16 (no class Aug 2 and 3). Drop ins welcome. Click here for complete details. Private sessions are available by appointment.

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July 19, 2011- The art of falling

July 19, 2011 By

One of the workshops I attended at the recent Feldenkrais conference was called The art of falling and dynamic stability, taught by martial artist and Feldenkrais practitioner, Moti Nativ. As Moti said, Moshe Feldenkrais taught us that falling and stability are not opposite actions, as one would think, but are part of the same continuum. In the workshop, one of the actions we learned was to move from our back to side sitting and then return to our back; the latter action is really a movement of falling but because we learned how to get up and down easily it didn’t feel like we were falling.

Explore dynamic stability in standing:

¨ Stand with your feet hip width apart, arms hanging gently. Notice if you are standing more heavily on one foot and pay attention to the weight distribution in each area of each foot – in the heel, middle of the foot, ball of foot and toes.

¨ Slowly and gently shift your weight from one foot to the other, without raising either foot off the ground. Feel one get heavier and one lighter.

¨ Notice how your upper body shifts along with your feet. How does your head move as you move onto one foot and away from one foot? What happens to your breathing? Are your knees straight or softly bent? How does your pelvis move?

¨ Continue moving from side to side, slowly exploring different dimensions of the movement.

¨ After a few moments, gently stop the movement. How do your feet feel on the ground? What do you notice about the position of your head relative to your pelvis and feet? How do you feel overall?

When we stand on our feet with support, e.g. when we are dynamically stable and know how to fall, then we won’t fall. And if we do, we can learn to get up, keeping our dignity intact!

Summer Awareness Through Movement® classes continue on Tuesdays at 6 pm and Wednesdays at 7 pm, through August 16 (no class Aug 2 and 3). Drop ins welcome. Click here for complete details. Private sessions are available by appointment.

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July 5, 2011: Walk for health

July 5, 2011 By

Now that summer is here this is the best time to start a regular walking routine. Last week we presented a tip way related to walking stride and watch for more helpful walking tips.

I was really inspired by Susan Pedler’s story of how she resolved to walk each morning, as part of CBC’s national health initiative, and how she galvanized her community to join her. Click here to see her story, featured on CBC’s National last night.

Anyone want to start a walking group here?

Summer Awareness Through Movement® classes begin this evening, Tuesday, July 5 at 6. We also have a class on Wednesday evenings at 7. Click here for complete details. Private sessions available during the summer, by appointment.

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