Gentle lessons for meditative hips

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I call this section, “Meditative Hips.” You get to rest and give yourself permission to do less, which is the best thing for resetting the system.

A yummy, slow lesson. I suggest barely moving because the brain work around the pattern is enough to change the way you move through your torso. (Note: this lesson also has an amazing effect on the neck and shoulders. If you have “hunchie shoulders” from computer work, this is wonderful!)

For lessons similar to this, see:
201 Connect the shoulders with lines and arcs
456 Imagine hip and shoulder circles
4 Release the neck and shoulders
44 Loosening up to run
206 Hip and shoulder circles

Don’t be fooled by the initial wrist movements. This lesson starts by folding the wrists and grows to folding the ankles, then coordinates the walking pattern to include your whole self. I give this one to all my students who feel clunky, stiff, or out of whack (technical term!) with their walking. The slow, subtle movements reset your brain.

I feel bizarrely flat after this lesson. See what happens for you.

More lessons like this:
337 Dots and lines
338 Gentle folding to increase choices
344 Lifting four corners
158, 159 Ankles with wrists

(SF year 3, day 28, Hands and feet)

A slow, attentive, soothing lesson that is exactly what it says: A deep study of moving the hip and observing the breathing patterns associated with different variations.

The exploration is wonderful for running and walking as you sense how the breath and the leg find an optimal, efficient, easy relationship to your whole skeleton.

Tip: Even though this is one-sided, you are moving both sides. Consider how the side on the floor is the hip joint you are moving around. You can always swap sides another time.

For a wonderful complement to this lesson, see 44 Loosening up to run.

This lesson is counter-intuitive; it asks you to exaggerate your patterns. With slow, small movement you build on the initial orientation of your pelvis and grow the pattern throughout your whole self. What is it about spreading the pattern out from a single tilt of the pelvis? I can tell you I still find this lesson pretty mind-blowing, twenty-four years later.

Plus, it’s fabulous for easier walking.

Another slow, sensory-rich lesson. Throughout you sense the left hip and move it from the knee, the thigh, the pelvis, and the spine. A full sensory exploration using slow, small movement with big awareness. In the end, compare and contrast the two sides of yourself. Moshe often taught one-sided lessons using the left side as the right side of our brain is more image-oriented.

TIP: As with the hip forward and backward lesson, do just one side and feel the difference. Your brain learns better from extreme contrasts. Then, do the other side on another day.

This is a gentle lesson focusing on timing. As the timing gets more precise, the breathing calms and the whole system settles into the parasympathetic state, the “rest and digest” phase of the nervous system.

Many clients with sciatica find this lesson helpful. It connects the hips and head through the spine in a luxurious coordination of the whole torso.

For similar lessons smoothing out the movement of the hips, spine, and neck, see:
217 Roll chest, point elbows, lengthen spine
55 Gentle rolling across back with bell hand
85 Tilt knees, rotate spine, plunk pelvis

This lesson starts on the side. You lift a leg, then part of the leg. Then you connect the leg into the center of mass, clarifying the hips as they influence the spine.

Slowly the hips and shoulders start to leverage the floor. By the end, you feel like you’re floating across the floor with the newfound clarity of everything working together, making friends with both gravity and the ground.

For similar lessons, see
509 Integrating the leg into the spine
95 Integrating the leg into the spine