Embody Your Movement - Love the Body You Live In!

On today's Alive! Bodies in Motion show, I had a great conversation with Eric Franklin; dancer, movement educator, author and founder of the Franklin Method. We discussed how we can use one simple tool to feel better in our bodies. Imagery! It's portable, we don't need any equipment and it costs us nothing! And yet, by playing with it, especially in the things we do everyday like walking, sitting, standing and even breathing, we can quickly begin to feel better in our own skin!!

Eric outlined a couple of simple principles for us. An image works when it is a clear picture. Whatever you are imagining - see it, feel it, even smell it! It must be a vivid image, full of rich detail. When the image is vivid and meaningful to you, your body will respond. 

We get better at what we do most of the time - so play with things that you do regularly. We take 20,000 breaths a day - but when was the last time you practiced enjoying the breaths you take?  Feel the freedom of your gait as you walk, enjoy the ease in your shoulders as you work at your desk. You can use imagery anywhere, anytime!

Eric has some wonderful aphorisms that he uses in his training:
~ Embodying function improves function.
~ Balanced mobility creates stability.
~ Don't solve problems; experience solutions.
~ If you want to change your body, first change your mind.
~ Your flexibility is only as good as your alignment permits.

And my personal favourite...
~ The best image is the one that discovers you.

Change your thoughts to change your body!!
You can hear my interview with Eric Franklin on Alive! Bodies in Motion on VoiceAmerica's Health and Wellness Channel.

Alive! Bodies in Motion

Moving Spirit on Voiceamerica.com Health Network!

Hosted by Susannah Steers, "Alive! Bodies in Motion" is a new internet radio show on Voice America's Health and Wellness Channel. Join Susannah and her special guests as they inspire change through lively dialogue about the many ways that physical activity is important in our lives; as a connection to ourselves and to the world around us. Beyond topics in traditional fitness, "Alive! Bodies in Motion" explores integrated, holistic approaches to physical activity, sport, play and embodied living and presents inspiring stories about people who are enriching their lives and the lives of others through movement. The show unveils a path to health and vitality that respects the mind, the body and the spirit within, better connecting us to our own lives, our families and communities!

Join us live weekly on Thursdays from 1-2pm (Pacific) starting June 3, 2010.Call in and join the discussions!

EXPLORE! Applying an Holistic Approach to Movement Training

As Wikipedia describes it, holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave. Certainly we've seen a rise in the number of people looking beyond allopathic medicine to find professionals who espouse holistic practices. The increasing popularity of so-called "body-mind" practices speaks to people's desire to find a more integrated approach to movement as well.

For most, those body-mind practices tend toward activities like yoga and tai chi. Activities like these have given us a language to use in connecting to movement in a holistic way. They have opened a door to modern fitness enthusiasts into moving and thinking about moving in a different way. The quality of breath is important, not just the speed with which respiration returns to normal after exertion. Finding a degree of ease in movement, no matter what the level of exertion, is important too. With a little awareness and a little practice, one can begin to apply a holistic perspective to training movement of all kinds.
That being said...Where do we begin?

1. Breathe
Probably one of the easiest places to start is with breathing. Notice the quality of your breath. Where do you feel it moving through your body? Is each breath free and deep, reaching down in to the bottom of the lungs easily? Do you feel any restrictions along the pathway of your breath: in the throat, the shoulders, the spine, chest, belly, pelvis or tailbone? As your level of exertion changes, how does your breathing change? What does your breath sound like? Different movement modalities often teach different breathing techniques. Play with some of them in your day to day movement and notice the effects.

2. Feel Your Skeleton
Our bones provide a solid structure which enables us, with the assistance of the muscles, to move our way through space. We tend to focus so much on muscles, that we often forget that the bones are supports and levers that we can use too. A simple way to play with the skeleton is to feel, in a variety of positions, the stacking of your bones in relation to each other and to gravity. How does gravity move through the bones into the floor? What feels supported - and what doesn't? As you release your bones into gravity, can you feel the support of the floor underneath you? Does this have any effect on the sensations in your muscles?

3. Layer the Work of the Muscles
Play with feeling the layers of work that exist in the muscular system. There is one group of muscles that essentially snugs the bones together (local stabilizers) and another group that moves us through space (global mobilizers). Coordinating these muscles in different ways creates different qualities of movement and sensation. How different can it feel doing a pilates class or walking the dog, or playing a shift of hockey, skiing a slalom course or dancing petit allegro variations in a ballet class? You can tweak your coordination of these layers of muscles to find the optimum support for YOUR body in any of these situations. Your activity will determine to some degree how you use these muscles - but a conscious connection to them may offer possibilities you hadn't considered before.

4. Connect to Other Systems in the Body
Practice making connections to other systems in the body while you are moving. Feel your heart beat. Can you find a sensory connection to your ciculatory system anywhere else in your body? Can you feel the blood moving through the arteries in your arms or legs? What is the quality of that sensation?

Visualize your major internal organs. They are densely packed within the trunk, and in their own way provide a kind of support for the structure of the body from the inside out. Each organ has its own mobility and motility within the body. Can you begin to differentiate different organs by their feel: weight, quality of suspension in the body, vibration?

Imagine the intricate web of your nervous system: the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves themselves and moving further down the scale...the nerve synapses themselves. One way to begin getting in touch with this part of the body is to become aware of the overall "vibration" in your body at various times.

5. Cellular Movement
Yeah, right. Right? Believe it or not, it is possible to get a deeper sense of movement on a microscopic scale in the body! This is movement that may or may not register as "movement" to the eye of an oustide observer, but that can be perceived as movement within the body. Often times, these kinds of movements are felt as waves or undulations in the body - a flow of spirals, whirls and eddies that wind and unwind within. No doubt it is best to begin tapping into this kind of thing in a more meditative state, graduallly allowing your growing perception of these flows to create "micro-movements" which may or may not inspire larger movement. Let go of any preconceived ideas about what "should" happen, and just feel what is there.

These few steps are a very brief overview of some of the ways you can connect to a more holistic view of your own body in movement. At first, you may want to explore each of these pieces on their own. Be aware though, that our bodies are much like holograms and that all of these pieces exist in the body at the same time. Our sensory awareness becomes an ongoing stream of information. As we develop our skills in embodying the information, we improve our ability to understand our bodies and can make better choices about how we are working them.

A body working with attention to the whole is a little like a moist sponge; supple and resilient. This sponge is able to absorb from without and release from within. One can twist it, bend it, squish it - and it simply returns to its original shape. Every cell is included - not just the ones outside we can see and touch. This sponge has a huge potential for movement! Take the time to begin to know your body in a new way. The simple act of exploring a new perspective can open a vast array of inner resources on which you can draw for living a vital, healthy and moving life.

The Living, Breathing Spine

The human spine has an incredible ability to support, move, inform and nourish the rest of the body. It acts as the integrating factor between the upper and lower halves of the body and supports the weight of the head, limbs and organs. Protected within the spine's bony structure lies the spinal cord; a key element of the body's neural network. Around the spinal cord we find the dural tube, a conduit for the "fluid" body. To function at its best, the spine must be stable, mobile and balanced. We can choose to support the spine's best function by working it biomechanically. I think though, that by adding a little "magic" we can considerably enhance the movements of the spine, finding the inherent life and breath in this fascinating structure.

In movement training, when we look at methods for supporting and mobilizing the spine, we would do well to take this structure's many and varied roles into consideration. Most often, the biomechanical approach gets first view. Are the multifidi and other local stabilizer muscles being recruited well and consistently enough to stabilize individual vertebral segments in relation to load and range of motion? Are the spinal curves balanced? Can the spine articulate segmentally? Can it work as an integrated unit? In a clinical or traditional fitness setting, what I see most often are strategies either to "hold" the spine in a stable position or to articulate spinal segments individually . In my mind, this translates to a relatively passive role for the spine; with the action of the structures around it taking precedence. That's fine, as far as it goes. Can the spine have a life of its own?

Marc Boivin, a veteran modern dancer from Montreal, PQ suggests that "the spine to coccyx line can be perceived as a fifth limb (like the fifth limb of the starfish integrated within the spine and behind the bellybutton). Listening with perseverance to the dance between the head and the coccyx as an initiation for movement is also a great way to learn about our strategies of movement. We often choose to contract a part of this dynamic opposition in order to push against another body part; this then closes a part of the body and inhibits the movement from travelling totally through us." Suddenly, the spine is not just a complicated series of joints that need stabilizing and mobilizing, it is an active and independent structure that can move and be moved to enhance the quality of our movement overall!

Mr. Boivin's suggestion allows us to introduce a little magic to our biomechanical approach. In an exercise setting, one can visualize his idea in this way: with spine as a train or roller coaster on a track. With the spine in a neutral position, visualize the moment where the cars on the train begin to move. As the lead car on the train begins to move along its track, the following cars on the train (individual vertebrae) engage lightly with each other . The spine becomes an active, integrated unit. Experiment with the different feeling of initiating the movement of the spine from either the engine (head) or the caboose (tail). Feel how the vertebrae in between can be drawn into the action. I have found that quite often, as one taps into this sensation, the inner unit core musculature is activated spontaneously.

What happens in spinal flexion or extension? Imagine the cars on the train moving along a roller coaster track. The cars on the train must stay on their track, following the lead car (coccyx or head) as it moves into space. As the spine moves into flexion/extension by initiation from the head, the tail and all the vertebrae in between are drawn immediately into that action. The vertebrae will move along the identical track that the head has set - only sliding into flexion/extension when it becomes an anatomical necessity for that to happen. The result is a long spine, suppported at every level as it moves into flexion or extension. You will probably notice that the core musculature works more efficiently with this focus as well.

For those with an interest proceeding further, we can begin to play with our magic on a much deeper level. By virtue of its role in the fluid body and nervous system, the spine has internal tides and breath that deserve to be respected and nourished as much as the muscular systems that often receive the bulk of our attention. There are treatments and therapies that will address these living, breathing tides (like craniosacral therapy) - but is there a way to tap into these through movement as well? Absolutely.

Continuum movement is a prime example. Developed by Emilie Conrad, the movements in Continuum "are designed to enhance the undulating spirals and circularity of the fluid system. A full range of non-patterned movement, from dynamic full-bodied expression to subtle micro-movements, stimulates neurological growth and vibrancy. Undulating wave motion permeates tissue, softens boundaries and amplifies sensation. Wave motion is the primary access to our bio-intelligence that is not bound by time, space or condition. "

Body-Mind Centering (BMC), created by Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen offers a whole different approach, including developmental movement patterning. BMC "is an experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind." By experiencing one's own movement patterns, one can begin to see where there are possibilities for moving in a fuller, more open range.

Contact improvisation, a dance form that began in the 1970's offers an opportunity to explore the flow of movement in an organic and fluid way - playing with weight, flow, fall & recovery, contact, connection and sensory listening. It is playful and contemplative, furiously athletic and still. The movement of the spine and pelvis is central to this work.

Beginning to explore the movements of the spine beyond what is merely "functional'' opens up a multitude of possibilities for movement and self-discovery. The spine comes alive and infuses a new vitality to our whole bodies our lives. Explore the possibilities - a healthy, living, breathing spine can be a sublime experience!

For more information:

Continuum Movement: http://www.continuummovement.com/

Body-Mind Centering: http://www.bodymindcentering.com/

Contact Improvisation: http://www.edamdance.org/