Moving Brain: Sitting and Moving, in a Chair, Rotation and Option

Sit comfortably in a chair, near the front of the chair,
feet on the floor, and
feel your 5 line:
two arms,
two legs,
one spine.

Feel how you sit and hold up your head in this wonderful and
relentless world of gravity.

1. Turn your head easily right and left.
Go far less than your "limit."
Keep it easy and pleasurable.
If there is pain in any movement, do less, or do
none
and visualize the movement.

Feel the differences between right and left.

Rest.

2. Now pick which ever way is easiest to turn,
and turn just that way a number of times. Turn that way,
easily,
gently,
less than your "limit,"
with awareness and comfort,
and then
turn back to the middle.

Do at least a few of the movements with your eyes open,
so you can see what the starting range is for you
when you turn easily and without efforting.

Feel this as a movement that you can learn
from.
Study and be aware and enjoy this.

After a number of times, rest.

3. Which ever way you have decided to turn,
put that hand on the chair behind and beside you as support.

Then take your other hand, and put the back of that hand,
on the check opposite,
which is to say on the check in the direction you are turning.
(Throughout this movement lesson, you will keep turning whatever was your "easiest" way.)

These directions may seem "hard."

Oh, well. Go slowly in figuring them out.
Any movement you make is going to improve awareness.

So, one hand on the chair, the other hand with its back on the opposite side of the face.

Begin to turn in your chosen direction and back to the middle
a number of times.

Feel your elbow and ribs as involved in the turning now.

Does that make a difference?

Can you enjoy and learn from that difference?

Do this a number of times, and then
rest.

In the REST don't space out, but sit in a way to really feel what is going on in your body
and mind
from these movements.
This is important integration time for your whole being.

4. Sit again at the front of your chair if you rested in another position.
Put the same hand on the chair beside you, and the other hand a
about eight inches in front of your nose
with the wrist in a floppily relaxed position, thumb nearest to your face.

In this position, turn in your chosen direction and back to the middle a number of times,
having the floppy wrist hand make that same amount of rotation.

As you rotate, allow yourself to come over onto the side of the pelvis
that is the same
as the direction you are turning.

Feel this movement from feet through pelvis thru ribs
up thru neck and even nose and eyes.

Enjoy this.

Rest.

5. Now do the same thing as the last movement a few times.

Then, do this: stop about halfway to wherever you are
turning,
and go both ways with hand and nose,
but these will be opposite.

Which means your hand will come back to the middle,
as your nose turns further in the direction you have been
turning,
and then they reverse,
so that the nose ends up looking forward
and the hand comes across to the side you
have been turning.

Let this movement have something like a neutral space
where both hand and head are turned halfway,
and the pelvis is flat on the chair then.

And each movement after that,
either hand to the side or
nose to the side,
let the pelvis shift that way.

Do this slowly,
don't make a big movement out of it,
keep enjoyment and learning and awareness as constants
more important than how far or how 'well' you move.

Rest and breathe and sense your five lines and integrate.

6. Sit at the front edge of the chair,
and put the same turning side hand on the chair.
Put the other hand on the opposite shoulder,
which is going to be the side to which you are turning.

In this configuration,
turn about half way to your chosen direction
and stop.
Now play the eye and head game.
Slowly.
Slowly and small.
Slowly and small and low effort.

Turn your eyes left as your nose turns to the right,
and then come back,
turning your eyes to the right, as your nose turns to the left.

Go slow.
Go small.
Follow your breathing.

Enjoy.

Rest in a neutral position.
Feel if you feel different from the beginning.

7. Now simple sit at the front edge of your chair and
turn your head right and left,
and see what changes have occurred.

Review in your mind the way the ribs and the shoulder and the eyes
and your pelvis can be involved in turning your head.

Now turn your head right and left again,
and feel yourself as a magnificence of possibilities.

Moving Brain: Sitting and Moving, in a Chair

1. Find a firm chair or bench or log or rock where you can sit with both feet on the ground and your hips are slightly higher than your knees.

2. Come to the front of the chair, so your spine holds up your head and you aren't leaning back on anything.

3. Feel what this is like if you sit more or less upright.

    a. Feel how your pelvis sits on the chair.

    b. Feel how your spine rises up out of your pelvis

    c. Feel how your head is held up by your spine.

    d. Notice your shoulder blades, and how they rest on the ribs of your back.

    e. Feel both arms and both legs and your spine all at once.

4. Sit for a few minutes as if this is your meditation: noticing and sensing your arms and legs and spine. Find a certain peace and clarity in this.

5. Rest by leaning back, or walking, or just wiggling very slightly.

6. Sit forward again, and begin to round yourself into a ball as you sit in the chair.

    a. Let your head roll down and toward your chest.

    b. Let your sternum sink in and go down and backwards.

    c. Bring your belly in and backwards.

    d. Let your eyes come come toward looking at your belly button.

    e. Rock back on your pelvis, so that you are tucking your tail bone in a little and as if bring your sex toward your face.

     f. Undo all this and come to "upright," but no more.

     g. Then round down again, feeling each time a little more ease and awareness of all the parts of this.

     h. Begin to be aware and in enjoyment on the unfurl back to upright part, too.

     i. Do this many times, each time finding something new, and something more releasing or interesting or both.

7. Rest again. Sit in the meditation of 2 arms and 2 legs and 1 spine and just BE for a while.

8. Come to the front of the chair, and put your hands on the sides on your face, with your fingers pointing backwards, thumbs below the ears, fingers above. In this position, very slowly and easily begin to opposite of the movement in #6.

     a. Push your belly forward.

     b. Arch your back.

     c. Look up with your nose and eyes and the arms connected to your head.

     d. Roll forward to the front of your pelvis, as if you want to show off your rear end to someone behind you.

     e. Don't go too far, or "to your limit." Make it easy and enjoyable and about learning. Feel as many ribs and vertebrae as you can.

     f. In this movement, the sternum lifts and comes a bit forward. (The shoulders are soft ant easy. No "throwing the shoulders back" nonsense. This is about waking up to our spines, a central line to our lives).

      g. Come back to "upright" from this, but go no farther.

       h. Do this many times, each time concentrating and learning about a different part.

9. Rest in walking or sitting. Sense both legs, both arms and your spine. Feel if you are taller and more at ease.

10. Come to the front of your chair. Put your hands on your face and head as in #8. Now combine #6 and #8. Roll forward into a curled in ball, and arch up into a looking up person. Do not, do not, do not bring your neck back "too far." Just have your nose tilting up easily in a way the it feels as if your neck's curve is a continuation of your spine's curve.

    a. Go back and forth from belly in and rolling back on your pelvis, to belly out and rocking forward on your pelvis.

    b. Feel each vertebrae.

    c. Feel all the ribs.

    d. Feel the sternum moving up and forward and then down and in.

    e. Begin to sense your neck as part of your spine, not separate from it.

Brief tidbit for clarity in all of your life: THE FUNDAMENTAL UNIT OF INTELLIGENCE IS THE PERCEPTION OF DIFFERENCES.

Good.

11. Do the #10 again, rounding and arching and as you make and aware this movement notice differences between the folding part and the unfolding part:

    a. in the ribs

    b. the spine

    c. the sternum

    d. the pelvis

    e. the head

    f. your breathing

    g. your eyes

12. Rest.

(These steps, 13-17, got stepped ahead to the next day.

Enough is enough, and learning about learning

as the Noticing of Differences that make a difference

is huge,

and enough for today)

18. Rest in sitting in the 5 line meditation, and then rock forward onto your feet and feel the length of yourself in standing. Walk around and stay in the awareness mode for as long as you can. Notice the arms hanging from the spine and the legs holding up the pelvis and the pelvis holding up the head.

19. Enjoy being you today.