When you turn to look over your shoulder,

when someone calls your name

to back your car out of a driveway or parking place

in your movement practice

do you feel like you just don’t have enough neck to do the job?

If you are not an owl, keep reading.

Imagine a tornado or twister in your mind.

The twister doesn’t just twist at the top. If it did, it would do far less damage. It turns all along its length. It’s pretty efficient. It twists, it sucks up stuff and moves on.

Our power to turn easily and efficiently doesn’t come from the top of us, or our necks. That’s only the beginning. Our necks are just not designed for that kind of range of motion. Remember: owl, not us.

Our neck is only a few inches worth of ability to turn.

Below that is the remaining length of our spine, the stability of our pelvis and mobility of our feet and ankles.

Try this and see how you might make turning more useful:

Find something to sit on that is firm-to-hard, and allows you to place both of your feet solidly flat on the floor. Sit comfortably at the edge.

Without holding yourself rigidly upright, s l o w l y roll forward and backward, just a very little bit to find your sitting bones.Might feel a little like sitting on walnuts. Then slowly roll right and left, that very little bit, noticing when one sitting bone wants to lighten or lift from your seat, then the other.

Come back to the middle. Feel how you sit in the middle.

Repeat the above, but this time, as your weight shifts in your sitting bones, notice how your weight shifts in your feet.

Does your weight come a little more into your feet as you roll your pelvis (and belly button) forward?

What about when you roll your pelvis back (and your belly button pulls s o f t l y toward your spine)? Does your weight lighten? Or move toward the back of your feet?

And when you roll right and left? When you roll to the right does the weight in your feet shift toward the outer edge of your right foot and to the inner edge of your left foot?

Does the opposite happen when you roll your pelvis to the left?

Practice these sequences a few times today, then tomorrow and maybe the day after, each time noticing what you notice.

Resist the urge to speed up your movements or to make them bigger. Keep it slow and in a range that’s easy to feel not only what happens in your pelvis, but what happens in your feet as well.

Is it easier to roll forward or backward? Right or left?

What happens to your breathing as you move through these sequences? Does your normal breathing change? Do you hold your breath? See if you can allow yourself to just breathe naturally as you move through the sequences.

See you Thursday or Friday for more.

What do these have in common?

Backing out of your driveway or a parking place.

Rolling over in bed.

Getting in and out of your car.

Rising from a chair.

Sitting comfortably.

Reaching for that high shelf.

Yoga triangle pose.

Plies that don’t hurt your knees.

A strong pelvic floor.

What is it?

Your feet!

(More details coming up later.)

For 1 month, twice a year, 5 days a week, I drive into and out of the city of Chicago to attend and participate in the Feldenkrais Method teacher training program.

During those days my morning drive can take any where from 55 minutes to 120 minutes and my drive home in the afternoon 120 to 180 minutes. My training experience is beyond worth the drive for me. I still have to employ a kind of zen frame of mind. I know it’s going to be long and in many spots, s l o w.

During these drives I spend a lot of my time with trucks – big trucks – the ones that have 18 wheels. I’ve discovered that when I need a space to merge and one is not readily available, I can look for a truck and chances are good that one will become available. When these behemoths behave according to standard driving mores, there is flow. When they don’t, it can be terrifying.

I’ve come to realize that I no longer  view this experience as just being in traffic. I’ve begun to see relationships and interactions. Cars move or dance in between and around the boundaries the trucks provide, not entirely unlike watching parents setting physical boundaries while walking down the street with their playing children.

My perspective has shifted so much, to regarding this as organic, that yesterday morning at an unexpected location in the highway, I saw that we were gradually coming to a complete stop. I laughed to myself as I thought:

“Oh, look, a gathering!”

I suspect that I m not the only one who finds holidays with family more than a little stressful.

Every year I make sure that I pack clothes to dance/exercise/move in, a mat for yoga or stretching or for collapsing on the floor in an emotional heap.

To put it plainly and shamelessly:

this year, my Awareness Through Movement® practice kept me sane and calm in the face of challenging family circumstances.

In other words, this daily practice helped me to avoid losing my temper after being told that

first, my mother had been moved to another facility without my having been made aware and

second, no one had any idea who approved it or

finally, who moved her – AGAIN.

My practice helped me to avoid a meltdown  when the nurses caring for my parents STILL had no idea who I am and thought that my parents’ daughter is their accountant named Susan.

It also helped prevent me from making a snide, snarky and possibly regrettable phone call to said accountant.

This practice soothed my jangled nervous system so that what was usually the heart-wrenching experience of watching a shocking downhill decline became more manageable.

While I  experienced some the usual emotional roller coastal ride that usually occurs during my visits “home”, it wasn’t as dramatic a ride this year.

My heart could be quiet rather than constantly foreseeing imminent  tragedy. My mind was less occupied with future loss and could be more present, making the time I spent with my parents richer.

I am grateful.

Limitation is defined as “a limiting rule or circumstance; a restriction”.

Obstacle is defined as “a thing that blocks one’s way and hinders or prevents progress”.

Weakness is defined as “a state or condition of lacking strength”, also “a quality or feature regarded as a disadvantage or fault”.

These are merely words. Sounds, and shapes that are combined to convey attitudes and beliefs. Our perceptions.

They are not truth.

They are what we make them.

We fuel them simultaneously  with belief and doubt.

And we make them real.

We feed them and nurture them.

Until they almost exist independently of us.

Almost.

But without us, they do not exist.

Without our belief, they would disappear; cease to exist.

Perception is not reality.

It is only belief.

Belief is not truth. It is belief.

Reality is fluid.

Our brain shapes our world and all of our senses.

Change your brain.

If you know that you do not have to believe the things you do,

you can change your world.

I love learning. I especially love learning when it results in reducing pain and finding what was difficult is no longer so difficult.

The day after brought with it learning of a different, but no less valuable sort.  I woke up with a movement hangover.

I woke up thinking to myself: “why am I still working so hard?!” followed by dramatic sighing, eye rolling and as much slumping as my sore back would tolerate.

How l o n g is it going to take for me to learn this and change what I do?

More dramatic sighing.

So this is going to be a multi-part learning thing.

And more dramatic sighing.

(Better than whining!)

So it’s going to be a while before this Awareness Through Movement® lesson is comfortable; before my mind and body can move through the lesson with less and less effort.

Every time I go to the floor and move through this lesson it will be different. I will be different and hopefully each time I will be able to bring less and less effort to my practice.

How long will it take?

As long as it takes – as long as I explore without struggle and striving. With struggle and striving (ambition)?

Much, much longer!!