This is a fusion of two ATM lessons. Please read the HOW TO to the right. 

This lesson is a twisting lesson on your abdomen, with the knees a bit apart, letting your feet touch.
Watch how your neck is impacted by the movement of your legs and pelvis.

Source: Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais "The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature"

This is a variation on Extensor and Flexor lessons similar to lesson 5 in the book Awareness Through Movement. Mostly we are lying on our backs, often with legs crossed, and arms long extended forward towards the ceiling. 

How would you like to approach your learning? If each of these lessons is an experience in which you get to try on your learning--how would you play with that idea? 

A possibly challenging lesson, as all lessons are. Be mindful to make your padding for your knees wide enough that you have many options for how wide to place your knees as you move. 

The sound changes a bit for the second half, as my ear piece dies, but I did amplify it, so perhaps it is alright. Half of this lesson is active, half in the imagination. 

Position: Feet standing, 

This is the first lesson back in the Cottage for the winter. 
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Part of a playful series that incorporates being on hands and feet. To make this more accessible, let your knees be bent, and have two solid chairs for an option under your hands, so that you don't need to worry about bringing your hands to the earth. You may find that over time, your choices will expand. 

Remember to read the How-to
Less is more. If you have any current concerns, or aren't sure on the instructions, try imagining the moves first, and do so little you barely sense movement. 

Direction is always in relationship to you. That means, up, is in relation to your head--lying down, up is towards the wall above your head. In standing, up is towards the ceiling/sky.

Two links, this week, since I paused the recording and restarted. I'll combine them again for you later.

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Use everything, try everything in a slow, playful way. Get confused. Breathe. Don't worry. 
In the transcript of this lesson, Moshe watches everyone jump to do what they are told, which they apparently do without feeling how. He says: "Whoever [does] it immediately can go home because it is a sign that he doesn't know what he is doing" --what we are really doing here is learning to be in a process of learning. Doing the movement is not the point. Being in the process of learning is the point. Learning how you work, learning how you are with yourself, learning what is available for you--that's the point.

Remember, the lesson isn't about the feet, exactly. Or is it? And how do you keep the whole sole of the foot on the Earth, while you circle? Must be something to do with the feet relative to the lower leg (ankles) and the leg relative to the hip joints, and....what is happening in the spine and ribs and head? 

This begins with an exploration of Brian-the-skeleton and the shoulder. The shoulder is connected to our neck, jaw, ribs, spine, from tailbone to skull. Perhaps this is why so often trauma to the rest of us shows up in the shoulder?

This is a very quiet, one-sided lesson. Feel free to do a small amount, or even explore in bed. 

 This may be a challenging lesson. Try on an attitude of curiosity, rather than going for a goal. The end point is not important, it is the learning along the way that matters. 

The magic comes from letting the head be HEAVY. Not lifting the head...

The recording at times is not the best, which probably is when I'm working with students in the room.