The Position of Your Head (Where Is Your Head?)

Why’s it important? Let’s begin with the assumption that in evolutionary terms, the human body came to be what it is as a result of a set of environmental and cultural conditions that have not existed for a very long time. The vast majority of Americans no longer have to physically compete for food, nor do we have to actively avoid predators, two primary conditions that contributed to the “survival of the fittest” resulting in the human anatomy we currently share. Historically, for the purpose of survival of a human being, there are few things more important than the most efficient means of transporting the teleceptors (eyes, ears, nose) toward a source of potential danger or sustenance. Because of this, in terms of our evolution (this is not only true of humans, of course) the development of the freedom of the head and neck as we grow and mature is given high biological priority. In his book, Body and Mature Behavior, Dr. Feldenkrais writes extensively of the process of human development and, in that context, of the importance of the placement of the head. Here is an excerpt in which he writes that effective movement of the head is a precursor to the development of consciousness itself, the very thing, one might argue, that most makes us human:

The anatomy of the head determines the conditioning of response to sound, and the reflective response to gravity. Next, the motility of the eyes is integrated into the already existing basic movements of the head. The first manifestations of consciousness will appear with the control of the head which allows the child to follow and direct itself towards moving objects or sources of sound. (p. 113)

He goes on to describe, in the developing infant, the importance of the position of the head to achieve any effective change of physical orientation as well as the ability in a well-functioning child to maintain an efficient head position nearly indefinitely:

Soon afterwards, the head begins to right itself to a special position [a somewhat confusing description of that position is omitted]. At the beginning, the head tends reflexively to this position, in whatever position the body may be. A baby, put on its tummy, lifts its head to this reference position, and remains that way as long as necessary. The tonic muscular contraction is practically [incapable of being fatigued]. With this position of the head is associated the image of oneself in one’s relation to space. And for correct appreciation of spatial relation, all acts involve a brief fixing of the head in it. Standing up, or changing attitude are sensed to be accomplished when the head assumes the reference position. Only after this can a new act be initiated without the reflex impulses contradicting voluntary control. (p 113-114)

In other words, before we can do anything, we have to orient ourselves physically and that orientation is accomplished by a learned reference point of our head that contains the teleceptors and the receptors for our vestibular system. As an organism we are predisposed to finding a “resting” position for our head that least taxes our neck muscles so that we can most easily move the head in any direction. The contraction of the neck muscles is intrinsically related to the habitual contraction of the flexors and extensors in our entire body. A positive or negative change on either side of this equation (the muscles of the neck on one side and the muscles that control our ability to remain upright on the other) elicits the same positive or negative response in the other side. It’s a matter of infinite degrees but many (perhaps most) of us live a life of relatively poor self-use and lack of attention to our physicality. Our habitual physical organization, both in movement and at rest, is affected by this inattention, often resulting in the “poor posture” that so many of us lament. For most of us, the optimal positioning of the head that we knew in our early youth is slowly lost and forgotten. In Body and Mature Behavior, Dr. Feldenkrais goes on to illuminate the detrimental effect of having a poorly aligned head. Here, he speaks of only one of several possible poor head placements:

…once the sunken head posture is acquired, a person will revert to the most awkward and tiresome (to normal people) procedure in turning his head, but will obstinately avoid lifting it into that position from which turning is normally easy. A parallel procedure is observed on the emotional plane, where the immature person uses detour, roundabout ways instead of direct, simple methods. (p. 118)

He’s saying that the more familiar poor head placement becomes, the more difficult it becomes for us to do what would be easiest. As a forward leaning head (or any other misalignment) becomes more familiar than a position that would allow simpler, easier movement of the head and neck, the position of ease of movement becomes more difficult to attain and maintain than a position of inefficiency. This sets up a deteriorating pattern in which our poor self-use and lack comfort steadily increase. The entire system suffers as a result. Conversely, the freer the head and neck, the greater the possibility of freedom in our entire being, both physical and emotional.

And that’s why it’s important. The position of your head and its freedom is a gauge for the freedom and effective use of your entire self. Finding the best position for your head can alleviate neck pain almost instantly. With more effective head placement, back pain will lessen in short order. Breathing will ease and become fuller and deeper. Your entire sense of well-being and personal security will increase as you improve the position of your head.

If you’d like to start that process, come join me on Tuesday, September 4 at The Feldenkrais Institute for my Feldenkrais Method^® workshop, “Where is Your Head?” For more information and to register online with a 5% discount, click here.

Spontaneity and Summer Spine Essentials

At the Feldenkrais^® Institute of New York our theme for July is Spontaneity. If you've done Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) exercises, this may seem at least a bit incongruous. In ATM, everything seems planned. Each movement is carefully described. Often, movements are nearly identical except for a seemingly minor change in one component. Where is there any room for spontaneity in a structure like this? Even within a structure--any structure--spontaneity is there for you to find. In an ATM exercise, you are always encouraged to do only what is easy, only what feels pleasurable. If that means, to remain comfortable, you have to alter the instructions the teacher gives, well, that requires some spontaneity.

But more important is the realization that what we do in an ATM exercise is training. The human body, like all efficient systems, is nearly always capable of performing the same action in a variety of different ways. Your brain assembles or "organizes" movement—dictates which muscles will be activated and in what sequence and level of contraction, while also inhibiting other muscles from acting. Every Feldenkrais experience you encounter presents your brain with more options for how to organize movement. The specific way a movement is organized in the brain is dictated mostly by habit and, depending on how "well-organized" we are, by the circumstances under which the movement is performed. (I'm getting to the issue of spontaneity, I promise.) The training done during ATM exercises provides you with more organizational options for doing any number of different movements. And the more options you have available, the more spontaneous your movement becomes, changing and optimizing depending on what you're doing and why you're doing it. As you do more and more Feldenkrais work, your ability to be spontaneous increases.

So what does this have to do with my workshops, Summer Spine Essentials? The spine is the central core of support for over half your body mass. If you improve the movement of the spine, you improve the potential for nearly every movement you do. In addition, many common aches and pains, both the obvious ones like neck and back aches, and some less obvious like hip, knee and ankle problems, can often be helped by improving the ability of the spine to move effectively.

Summer Spine Essentials is made up of three related workshops, beginning on July 10th, when we'll explore turning and twisting. This workshop is great if you have neck problems, shoulder issues or back pain. Further, improving the ability of the spine to turn contributes directly to the ability to more easily bend forward and back, the theme we'll explore on Tuesday, July 17^th. In the third workshop on July 24^th, we'll look into how you can use your entire spine to move in all directions. As you improve your ability to sense all of your spine, you'll be able to better detect what parts of your spine are working too hard and what parts aren't doing the job they should be.

As you become better able to sense and utilize your spine, you can use that information to improve your posture, be more comfortable standing or walking, and sitting will become more effortless in nearly any situation. You'll also be able to better help yourself solve and prevent neck pain and backaches.

Spontaneity is usually something we believe we have or do not; something we're comfortable with or we're not. But as you do more Feldenkrais work, you may be surprised to find that you become more and more spontaneous. As your nervous system gains more tools to use in movement assembly, resulting in more spontaneous movement, you'll likely find an increase in the spontaneity of your thinking and feeling, as well. As a human organism, you're all one system. When you change and improve one part (like the way you move) the rest of the system responds in kind.

I invite you to join me for any or all three of the Summer Spine Essentials workshops. The cumulative experience of all three will be the best, but if you can only make one or two, each evening will stand on its own.

Why not try out a little spontaneity today? Use this link to find out more and register for any or all of the Summer Spine Essentials workshops. I hope to see you there.

Move. Moving... and Movement

This past Thursday, my wife and I moved out of our house in Brooklyn. We now live upstate in New Paltz, New York, where she's a college professor. We're going to keep an apartment in Brooklyn so I can commute in once a week and keep working at the Feldenkrais Institute.

We're beyond the place where we rent a truck and move ourselves or beg our friends to help us. Fortunately, we've used a Brooklyn moving company a couple of times in the past and they were phenomenal—on time, honest, economical (for movers), very quick but still careful.

Although we used the same company, last Thursday was different from those other times. The movers arrived at 8:00 am, as promised, and we were entirely packed and ready to go. All they needed to do was wrap some furniture pieces and get it all into the truck. They showed up with four guys and past experience told me they'd be in the truck and on their way around noon, maybe 1:00 pm at the latest.

At around 10:00 am, two of the movers were sent to another job. They were gone before I knew they were leaving and when I asked the guy who was supervising our move, he assured me that two other guys were on their way over. But with only him and one other man working, things slowed down considerably. I began wrapping furniture myself and carrying things out to the truck. By noon, when no replacements had arrived I the office and spoke to a woman who gave me a heartfelt apology and assurances that replacements were "in transit." At two o'clock when help had still not arrived, I called again and spoke to the owner. Perhaps you can imagine, I was just a little perturbed at that point. He really is a nice guy, although at the time, I had no appreciation for that. He told me again that help was on the way and that "it would be made right" for me on the final bill. I said that would be nice but what I really wanted was to be finished moving before Friday. I got more apologies and, amazingly, a half hour later two more men showed up.

We finally left our house in Brooklyn at 5:00 pm. We stopped at a storage facility to drop a few things off that are going to the new Brooklyn apartment and left the city to go upstate at 6:00 pm, ten hours after we began. We still had to make a two-hour drive and then unload at our new place. I've been in better moods.

The two-hour drive took three because it was Thursday before a holiday week and we'd managed to hit rush hour at its height. We arrived at our new place at about 9:00 pm and things actually got a little better from there on. The movers had us unloaded by 11:15 pm and I managed to get into bed a little before 1:00 am.

We got back in the car at 7:00 am the next day to drive back to Brooklyn to close on the sale of our house. This seemed like pretty good planning when we'd anticipated saying good-bye to our movers around 6:00 pm the evening before. But under the circumstances, my mood wasn't improving.

I need to digress just a bit here to say that nine months ago when we at the Feldenkrais^®  Institute were planning our slate of workshops for 2012, it seemed like a great idea to me to teach a five-hour Feldenkrais workshop on Saturday, June 30^th. As I was driving back to New York at 8:00 am on five hours' sleep, having lugged boxes the entire day before, the thought of teaching all the following day made me want to shoot someone, mostly myself. But what are you going to do? (I don't much care for guns.)

I had been intelligent enough to arrange to stay with a friend on Friday night so I didn't have to drive back and forth to New Paltz again but I woke up at 6:30 am on Saturday with a sore back, a headache and a six-hour workshop that began before noon.

So, what did I do? After contemplating pretending to be ill or deliberately ingesting something that I knew would give me food poisoning, I did what any Feldenkrais practitioner would do. I did Feldenkrais work. I went over all the lessons I was going to teach in my workshop and although I abbreviated most of the work, by the end of the three hours I spent doing Awareness Through Movement^®, I felt immensely better. My back was no longer sore; my headache was gone; I felt awake, yet calm. I felt ready to do what I needed to do. The particular ATMs^® I did were irrelevant. I could have picked anything. What I needed and received from the Feldenkrais work was to be reminded of how much wasted energy I'd been expending, of how to move (and live) in a more efficient and pleasurable way, of how to breathe easily and in concert with every activity I undertake.

Even after doing Feldenkrais work for more than twelve years, I need these reminders over and over again. We all do. A process that continues to evolve in my thinking is that I look forward more and more to doing ATM, to the curative power of being reminded of what it's like to feel more human. And to be able to sense myself and the changes that occur within me in a finer and more detailed way as experience accrues. It's a process that I believe will continue for the rest of my life. I look forward to that, too.

By the way, the folks who came to the workshop on Saturday seemed to have a great time. And our new house in New Paltz is lovely. We've moved and we'll keep moving. So far, so good….

The Easy Way to Better Posture (Did you know May is "Correct Posture Month"?)

As far as I can tell, May was declared Correct Posture Month by The American Chiropractic Association (“ACA”). Where I practice, at The Feldenkrais^® Institute, although we're not so fond of the term, "posture," we know everybody uses it, so for the month of May we’re offering our own version of Posture Month. (We're leaving off the "correct." For more on that, read on.) Regarding the ACA’s standpoint on posture, there’s a lot that makes sense, but some of what they advocate is, frankly, a little closer to nonsense. Even to begin the discussion with the idea that there is such a thing as “correct” posture implies that there’s a stance or a way of holding oneself that is universally right for every human being. We who practice the Feldenkrais Method believe that little can be applied universally to all people. We see each of you as an individual and, while there may be some aspects of posture that apply to several or even many people, to advocate one set of postural “rules” without taking into account the huge physical variance to be found throughout humanity cannot be truly "correct."

Here’s a link to what looks like the "official" ACA post on Correct Posture Month. In it, there are a lot of commonly accepted ideas about posture, both good and bad, and as such, it makes for a good starting place for some additional thoughts on posture. To fully understand what I’m talking about below, I urge you to follow the link and read the Correct Posture Month post first. Again, you can access the post by clicking here.

I agree with much of the information in the post. On the other hand, as one who looks at physicality through the lens of the Feldenkrais Method, I would deem some of what's recommended not particularly useful. For example, let's look at this brief excerpt that seems like commonly accepted postural advice, "...keep your head held up, shoulders back and stomach tucked in." Like so many instructions that involve "how to be" physically, this seemingly simple advice is much easier said than done. I can't argue with the advantages of keeping one's head up. But how much of your attention are you willing to devote to doing it? What happens when you stop thinking, “keep my head up”? In other words, good advice is only as good as the tools provided to put the advice into practice. That’s what the Feldenkrais Method is all about, providing you with tools.

The rest of those recommendations are questionable on several levels. Shoulders back? How far back? What else happens when you bring your shoulders back? Do you tense your neck or clench your jaw or overarch your lower back? And do those actions, or whatever you do unconsciously in concert with pulling your shoulders back, contribute to "better" posture or detract from it? There is no single answer that fits everyone.

Keep your stomach tucked in. Why? Does it help preserve the natural curves of your spine? That’s doubtful. On the contrary, tucking in your stomach makes it more difficult to maintain a healthy lumbar curve. So, why the advice? Is it simply to satisfy the desire to look better and does that imply that thinner is better? Does tucking one's stomach in make any functional sense when thinking of posture? Depending on where one begins her individual exploration in search of "better" posture, reducing the lower back curve a little, which would result in moving the stomach back (not tucking it in), might be beneficial. But for some of us, tucking the stomach might bring on increased strain and even contribute to back pain.

The point is that people are different and so is each individual's pathway to better posture. This is the crux of the approach we take through the Feldenkrais Method. Each of you can learn to better sense yourself to the point where you will become your own coach in search of your particular version of correct posture. Using Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement^® exercises, you can learn to not only sense what is great posture for you, but as your nervous system begins to experience more equilibrium with less effort, you won't have to think so much about keeping your shoulders back or your head up or anything else, because your system will seek, not those external consciously-driven ideals, but rather, the vertical organization that feels the most effortless and natural for you. And when you do think about those particular aspects of your physicality, you'll be able to ease your shoulders into a more comfortable place, allow your head to move back to find balance over your pelvis and, most importantly, you'll be able to sense just what your own version of "correct" posture feels like and find it quickly and simply.

If you’d like to begin this exploratory process of finding your own “correct” posture, you might try my upcoming workshop at the Feldenkrais Institute, The Easy Way to Better Posture. All the details can be found by clicking here.

Also, the Feldenkrais Institute offers fifteen weekly Awareness Through Movement classes on a drop-in basis and throughout the month of May all of us who teach there have been encouraged to put the focus of our class choices on improving posture. A roster of classes offered at the Feldenkrais Institute can be found on the right side of the page that opens when you click here. So, whether or not you can make my evening workshop next Thursday, come join us anytime during May (or any other time) and find out how you can make being upright simpler and more pleasurable while you help yourself to just plain feel better.

Dynamic Sitting (and everything else...)

"dy-nam-ics n. a branch of mechanics that deals with forces and their relation primarily to the motion but sometimes also to the equilibrium of bodies."

That's from an old Webster's dictionary and I found it illuminating, particularly the juxtaposition of "motion" and "equilibrium."

A couple of weeks ago I was seeing a client for the first time. I was sitting on a stool and we'd been talking for a few minutes when she said, "I notice you frequently move while you sit."

I'd known that was true, particularly when I sit on something without back support, but I hadn't realized I did it often enough to warrant notice. After that, I started paying closer attention and I realize when I'm sitting I move, not quite constantly, but a lot. Further reflection led me to understand that what I'm looking for in my moving exploration (because that's what I'm doing, exploring) is a finer sense of both comfort and equilibrium. Don't get me wrong, I'm not usually uncomfortable sitting (although there was a time when I was), I'm looking to improve what's already working and, through those little adjustments, head off discomfort before it begins. I can now sit comfortably, with or without back support, usually for hours at a time, if need be and the whole process of fine tuning my sitting position has become mostly unconscious.

But it didn't start out that way. It started from doing Awareness Through Movement^® lessons that helped me to become more self-aware and gave me a context within which I could more effectively build skill, both consciously and unconsciously. I find great benefit from doing this type of ATM and so will you. Regardless of age or experience, exploring your movement dynamics will pay you great dividends. If you haven't yet done it, give the Feldenkrais Method a try and see how much better you feel, not only while sitting but during all of your activities. If you're in New York City, you can visit me and my colleagues at The Feldenkrais Institute. You'll find lots more information if you click here. 

Improving Performance with the Feldenkrais Method (Skiing)

If you know “what” you are doing and even more important “how” you use yourself to act, you will be able to do things the way you want.
--Moshe Feldenkrais, The Elusive Obvious

In a previous post, entitled Feldenkrais^® Is Not Therapy, I introduced the idea that learning to use the Feldenkrais Method could open the door to the process of self-healing. Inextricably tied up with that idea is the concept of self-improvement and, today, I'd like to give a personal example of how I use the Feldenkrais Method to improve my physical performance, something that has nothing to do with healing.

A little over a week ago I returned from five days of skiing in Colorado. It was the first skiing I'd done in two years and I skied better than I ever have in my life. Since becoming a devoted and consistent practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, this phenomenon of improving my skiing, even when I don't ski, no longer strikes me as miraculous, but rather, as something that I now expect.

I was first introduced to Feldenkrais work when I was just over forty years old. I'm now fifty-six and my skiing has improved more over the past ten years than it had for the thirty-five years previous, despite the fact that I'm what most would consider far past my physical "prime," I'm not in the best "shape" of my life, and I ski fewer days per season than I did during my twenties and thirties.

What accounts for my improvement? My ever increasing ability to sense myself and to translate that sensation into concrete and immediately available physical knowledge of how I do what I'm doing. When I was younger and taking ski lessons, I recall being frustrated when instructors would give me directions like, "Keep your shoulders facing downhill and let your legs do the turning." Sure, that made sense to me, but I had no idea how to do it. Partly because the instructors' language wasn't particularly clear. "…let your legs and pelvis do the turning," would have been much more accurate although, at the time, I doubt I would have found those words any more useful.

(Here's a link to a VERY short video of me skiing. 5 secs in, a couple skis into view; I'm the one behind in the yellow jacket.)

I began to sense what was involved in twisting myself, differentiating the movement of my pelvis from that of my shoulders. My improving sensory ability told me which of my ribs and vertebrae participate more or less easily in the twist, how each of my hip joints responds differently, how the musculature of my lower back and abdomen work better in concert with one another on my right side than on my left. I began to build a useful kinesthetic "toolbox" to improve my technique. I can now consciously (even as my nervous system does the same unconsciously) use my musculature and skeleton to find better harmony with the forces of gravity, the changing terrain and my ski equipment. Instead of thinking about my place in the sport as a fight to be won, it has become more of a synergistic give and take between me, the mountain and the snow. For example, I became better aware of how to allow my weight to settle just forward of the center or my foot over the downhill ski as I eased my knees into the hill (utilizing the aforementioned twist, along with some side-bending), thereby directing the downward gravitational pull on my body mass to find a near perfect balance with the upward force of the camber of the skis to make the ski do exactly what it was designed to do: carve a perfect turn.

This sense of dancing with gravity and terrain, not conquering, but using my skill to find harmony with a well-designed piece of equipment, creates a feeling of euphoria that I have found unmatched in any other physical activity in which I've ever engaged. And the big bonus? I keep getting better. Each time I go, my skill improves and it's more fun.

But that's just me—I love to ski. The real point is that the skills that are improved and refined through your work with the Feldenkrais Method will improve any and every physical activity in which you chose to participate. Or even those you might like to try but, heretofore, have not. Golf? Tennis? Volleyball? Squash? Handball? Swimming? Body Surfing? You'll find you have greater skill at anything and everything as you increase your facility to sense what you do, improve your ability to activate your musculature in very specific ways, find greater physical efficiency through a heightened awareness of how to sense and inhibit unnecessary actions and become more adept at detecting how force is most effectively transmitted through your skeleton.

Don't worry if that last sentence leaves you thinking, "How can I learn to do all that?" Nothing more is required than patience and a willingness to show up, be present, and allow yourself the luxury of engaging in the process that is inherent in the Feldenkrais Method.

As a society we have become over-reliant on our brains, to the detriment of our bodies. Some of us, consciously or unconsciously, look at our bodies as having no more use than a bag of bones that carries our brain from one place to another and processes fuel to keep that brain alive. Our body can provide us with so much more joy than that. It's never too late; you're never too old. Use your body and learn to use it better and better with the Feldenkrais Method. The rewards will be gigantic.

See you in class.