Learning from Trees - 4 - Roots Down, Heels Down with Gravity

Learning from Trees - 4 - Roots Down, Heels Down with Gravity

Softening the foot - and pelvic floor - to accept the ground

Based on “ATM Lesson #304: The foot and its movements in space” by Moshe Feldenkrais as taught by Lynette Reid GCFP®

The energetic torus of a plant as water ascends and food circulates and descends.

Connecting the feet and pelvic floor can happen through the breath. On the inhale, the pelvic floor releases and receives the breath and the belly contents that get pushed down by the diaphragm. Similarly, on the inhale, the feet soften, melt into the ground a little, to ‘receive’ and adjust to what is underfoot. .

Connecting the feet to roots is a stretch, but why not? The hook today is the way roots grow in gravity. Briefly, roots have cells that sense gravity and light. In roots, the ‘gravity’ side of the root sinks, while the opposite side grows more quickly, so that that growing root turns around the weighted, gravity side and points the root downward.

With feet, the heel sinks in gravity, and the top of the foot extends around it until the gravity again reasserts and the heel sinks.

The original version of this lesson is done on the belly, which we avoided. In this continuation, we will again focus on allowing the heel to sink on the exhale and the front of the foot to expand on the inhale. We will repeat the challenging movements of keeping the foot at a right angle to the lower leg while sliding the foot side to side parallel to the floor. Expect some popping and cracking; this might be very tiring as under-appreciated muscles and tendons get a whole lot of attention.

For those who can, we roll onto the tummy to hold the feet level with the ceiling and try the whole exercise in that relationship to gravity. Very different - but optional. Finally, heel circles because this is a Feldenkrais lesson, and testing all the directions in circles is standard procedure. Linking the heel circles to the pelvic floor is the final challenge, and very worthwhile.

This is a one-sided lesson. If you are right handed, and you tend to rest on your left leg, it’s all about the right foot. Lefties focus on the left foot. Seems unbalanced, but it all works out.

We will use the kidney healing sound: choooooo to help amplify your awareness.

Science Nerd Candy Bowl:

• Effects of auxin concentration on the growth of shoots and roots - Oxford Mastering Biology - (1:44) animation explaining how extra growth on one side of a shoot or root causes it to bend (towards light for a shoot, into gravity for a root)

• The Tree Listener - Maple Hill Tree - at 4:05 we hear the sound of liquids flowing in a Copper Beech tree

• SOUNDS FROM THE TREE (Bio Acoustics Of Plants) - Sonoquilibrium - (2:01) Just like it says - the sounds from inside a tree

• Ultimate Torus Animation - Leianne Wilson (1:42) - how the torus builds energy flows into a closed system

Set up for supine lesson with feet lifted and dangling:

• Lying on back holding right leg to chest with foot dangling free

• Sitting on a chair holding right leg to chest with foot dangling free

• Lying on back with bent top leg (right for righties) resting on the other leg (like a 4)

• Sitting on a chair with a rolled blanket or other support lifting thigh up so foot dangles free.
  
  How you might feel after this lesson:  Feeling taller with each breath; A new awareness and appreciation for ankles, heels and shins, Softer feet that make more complete contact with ground; Connecting feet to pelvic floor crown energetically; Relating pelvic floor to balance and power; A moment of relationship with nature and trees?