Effortless posture

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This lesson establishes more balance between the flexors in front and the extensors in back. It is one I go to again and again for this property of feeling more poised, balanced, and kind of ironed out. It’s lovely.

This is a version of coordinating flexors and extensors with arms overhead.

Other versions of Coordinating Flexors and Extensors:
76 & 77 Coordinating flexors and extensors
87 Tilt knees, rotate spine, fold chest
91 Tilt knees, roll chest and head
211 Eyes, neck, arms, triangle
3 Tilt the legs and free the neck (Esalen version)
380 Gentle twisting with flexors and extensors

A classic lesson taught at the beginning of nearly every training. It coordinates the rotation of the spine with the movement of the arms and legs. It can be a bit of a brain scramble, but when it’s all done I feel much smoother. When I go walk the dog, my arms and legs swing easier.

Note this lesson is done mostly lying on the right side moving the left arm and leg. Switch the instructions if you prefer the left.

For a wonderful complement to this lesson, see 122 Hip forward and backward with breath.
For more running lessons, see Running/hiking/walking.

This lesson is a training in weight-shift and counterbalance. Notice when you tighten your belly—that means you're no longer coordinating but compensating. If you grip, you fall. If you lengthen, you glide.

(This is one of my favorite lessons. The elegance and logic of the counterbalance slowly comes into focus, it's so yummy when it does.)

For more counterbalance lessons, see Counterbalance 1 & 2

(Amherst, week 4, 28 June 1980)

As advertised, you will need a rolled up blanket for this lesson. You can also use a thick towel.

This lesson sinks your knees to the side with a rolled blanket under the low back. You learn where you’re holding in the ribs, jaw, and belly that’s inhibiting the freedom of the pelvis. Then, with the blanket under the sacrum, you circle the knees in the hip sockets. This is one of my favorite moves that I give to almost all my clients. The sense of the leg hanging in the hips is lovely and freeing.

At the end, when you tilt the knees again there’s a sense of flow and connection without all the pernicious holding in the ribs.

I tell my students, “when you feel supported, then you can let go.” It is true in movement, and in life.

(Ruthy Alon, Mindful Spontaneity, magic roller series)

Do the whole magic roller functional stability series:
230 Release the neck on rolled blanket
89 Dip the hips on a rolled blanket
59 Release the mid-back with a rolled blanket

One of the most dysfunctional things we can do to disrupt our uprightness is contract the belly. We need a balance between front and back, and this lesson invites letting go to support your balance. You’ll feel calm and settled after so much non-habitual breathing. In Feldenkrais, we teach how to decouple the breathing habits so you are free to respond to life's demands. A contrived or stressful breathing pattern will only get in your way when life demands something else.

This is a deconstructed, slow version of seesaw breathing.

For more lessons like this, see
Responsive breathing
Free the diaphragm

For more on breathing, read Help! I breathe wrong! in my blog, Vital Clarity.

An amazing lesson about letting go. I keep repeating “letting go” because effortless posture is about “not doing” rather than doing. This lesson brings a quality of dynamic stability to the whole spine. Once the small muscles along your spine have stopped contracting, you have so much more “resting” in the back.

Plus, it's amazingly healthy to sense the support of your bones without your muscles in a pitched battle with gravity.

For more like this, see the oscillating lessons under A healthy spine and More healthy spine.

Feel how the ribs carry the arms in this lovely connecting lesson. It’s a widening and opening that feels free and light. I often suggest my students do this lesson when they forget the ribs and spine can move with the arms.

This is the “beach ball” lesson where you end up rolling the pelvis and ribs with your arms in a hoop, holding an imaginary beach ball.

The other “hoop arms” lesson (58 Arms in a hoop to free the neck and shoulders) has the arms overhead sliding side to side with many turns of the head. Then the soles of the feet are together sliding side to side. You activate the middle of the back to support the head and neck. There is no rolling of the ribs and pelvis like in this one. Try them both!

For similar lessons, see:
58 Arms in a hoop to free the neck and shoulders
81 Arms, legs, torso bending
You might also like: Super light arms lengthen whole self #1, 2, 3