More light, easy arms

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A gentle, accessible lesson to connect the arms into the trunk. With all the crisscross movement of the arms, shoulders, and hips as you tilt the knees, you will find walking easier after this lesson.

Do not make a big movement of tilting and avoid stretching. Just a small, simple, easy movement across the back. The gentle tilting is also so yummy for relieving low back tension. It also calms and soothes a busy mind and tense muscles, taking away the strain of a hectic day.

This lesson tests many ways the arms connect into the back. Lying on the front, you test many ways of lifting the elbows, then you lean on the elbows in a sphinx-like shape to play with the spine between the shoulder blades. As you make more and more distinctions, you discover how easily the arms move when your whole self is more involved.

This lesson is wonderful for the upper back and tension between the shoulder blades as you reorganize the pattern of action across the back.

A lesson to soften the hands, wrists, and forearms. This is a classic in the canon of Moshe's lessons. You lightly interlace the fingers and keep rotating the hands. The rhythmic motion of the turning the forearms and fingers lowers the overall excitation of the system. You drop right down into the parasympathetic state.

You’ll feel calmer as the arms get lighter and lighter. It's such a beautiful, soothing experience. This one is good for knitters, artists, and anyone with repetitive strain injury in the wrists.

For more lessons with interlaced hands, see:
22 Reaching diagonally with soft hands

(Moshe Quest seminar, #2 & 3, rolling interlaced hands on back)

A classic lesson demonstrating the “hosting vs. levering” principle, which I love. This lesson helps the arms float, yes, float, backwards. Most of us use the arms in isolation without the help of leveraging the back. In this interesting movement, you will lower the tone in the fingers, forearm, and shoulder with the consequence of feeling more “power," but really it's just recruiting a larger pattern of action across your back. It's a wonderful “ah-ha” moment when you feel "the difference that makes a difference," as Moshe says.

This lesson is good for anyone who uses the arms, such as golfers, tennis players, piano players, swimmers, and more.

Tip: If you feel any torque in the neck when you lie on the front, place a rolled towel horizontally under your ribs just below the collarbones at armpit level. The ends of the roll will stick out to either side. Your arms will be just above. This will support the ribs and take strain off the neck.

(Gaby Yaron)

The second half of the flying lesson. I always feel inspired with the increase in connection from the fingers to the shoulders and into the back.

(Gaby Yaron)

I love this lesson as it effortlessly reaches the arm out into space. It does this by clarifying the weight shift across the back. Plus, the gentle rolling of the interlaced hands drops you down out of hyper-vigilance and into the parasympathetic resting state. (Any soft, rhythmic motion of the hands will do this.)

This is a gentle lesson with a lot of “just sensing" and slow, soothing movements of the arms.

For more calming, rhythmic uses of the hands, see:
Breathing and tapping series—help for anxiety
Bell hand series

This lesson literally remaps the left arm in your brain. Test it and see for yourself. The trick is that instead of moving the hand out in space around the center like we usually do, the hand becomes the center. You are challenged to move the rest of yourself around the fixed, or planted, hand. You are not allowed to move the hand. You must puzzle your way around it.

(If you are left-dominant, try it with your right hand.)

Tip: If you can’t comfortably place your hand on the floor from a standing position, just set the hand on a chair or ottoman. Remember, if you can't reach the floor, raise the floor.

(Gaby Yaron)