Gentle lessons for shoulder release

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A detailed exploration of how the shoulder blade can move separate from the ribs. Eventually, you start “plunking” the shoulder, which means an uncontrolled drop. This lesson is wonderful to do before bed if you’ve been typing or driving all day. Your shoulders and nervous system will thank you. It lets go of tension across the upper back as you engage and disengage with the musculature around the shoulder blade.

Continue to challenge the musculature around the shoulder blades. This lesson includes the left side, and invites more variations on both sides. 

Once you've done these lessons, you can do these movements any time. 

For a short version of this lesson, see: 
10 Release shoulders by plunking and tapping, 16 min

This is a slow, luxurious, unwinding kind of lesson. As you fix the arms, you roll slowly away from the shoulders. Be careful not to lift the shoulder. This deconstructs all the co-dependent relationships around the shoulder and ribs. Train yourself to let go in the shoulders, and then let go again and again.

For more like this, see:
29 Beginning bridge (Esalen workshop)
Bridging series under Longer series from trainings

(beginning of AY438)

This lesson is done with just the left side. Do it as indicated unless you cannot lie on your right side. Why? Because Dr. Feldenkrais thought a lot about the hemispheres of the brain. He may have thought about the right and left dichotomy, which has been disproven in recent years as the two hemispheres are deeply interconnected. Even if some activities occur more on one side, it’s not a personality issue so much as a functional one.

One 2018 study reports that, “Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people don’t tend to have a stronger left- or right-sided brain network. It seems to be determined more connection by connection.” This, in itself, is a reason to do the left shoulder!

One thing we know for certain is that the brain thrives on contrasts. Try this lesson to find out what a clear contrast feels like. Your brain will thank you as the learning could not be more clear.

(Esalen workshop)

A soft, gentle lesson with the suggestion to move a millimeter. Give yourself permission to feel this without striving. The striving is in the attention, not the doing. This lesson calms me right down as the more I attend to just the quality, the more the movement improves and I can make a bigger movement with less jerkiness. If you start big and jerky, you'll never smooth it out.

For more like this, see:
120 Hip and shoulder circles
456 Imagine hip and shoulder circles
4 Release the neck and shoulders
44 Loosening up to run

Over time, through computer work or simply getting through the day, most of us end up gluing the shoulders to the ribs. Trying to yank them apart by cracking, circling, stretching, or forcing does not repattern the brain. You'll go right back into your rut unless you change how you use the entire chest and back. This lesson starts the process of ungluing the shoulders.

Lying on the front, you move the arms in a way that asks the shoulders to move outside your normal habits. Once you are outside your habits, your brain starts waking up new patterns of action. I call it unplugging the socket and plugging it in somewhere else.

By continuously asking questions, your ribs, spine, and upper back start to support the shoulders. The arms become less cumbersome and the shoulders slide. Run the experiment yourself.

For more like this, see:
212 Ear to hand
57 Integrate neck and upper back
233 Ear to hand with fluid neck and eyes
215 Sphinx, sink spine, slide shoulders

For general neck lessons, see Help for the neck.

More sliding shoulders. Feel how light and fluid the arms become as you discover what to do with your back and neck.