The Grand Horizontals - 8 - Sound Gong From Heart
Inspired by Zen monastics’ stillness, explore hands’ delicacy and strength. Quietly connect gestures from fingertip to heart, from heart to fingertips. A subtle lesson that penetrates the entire body and transforms rigid hands to extensions of intention.
BY ZOOM New Students: Register here
Read MoreThe Grand Horizontals - 7 - Corner Like A Cowgirl
How to you hold your corner as your horse digs deep into the sawdust to round the barrel without knocking it over. And then go full gallop down the line to finish your run in under 15 seconds? Hips and clavicles and calm. Also called the ‘half ass’ lesson, get the feeling of cornering a turn that works just as well on skis, in a kayak or teeing off. For the rest of us - balancing on New England winter ice…
Read MoreA year later, inaugural poet Amanda Gorman faces fear. “Though I spent the next hour shivering in my seat from nerves and the unforgiving January cold, as I stepped up to the podium to recite, I felt warm, as if the words waiting in my mouth were aflame.”
Read MoreBuddhist monk and global mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hahn is honored in ceremony and meditation. A look at ritual Buddhism and genuine practice.
Sitting in rows in the spare meditation halls, monks and nuns dedicated to non-attachment struggle to hold back tears as they recite familiar sutras.
The monks and nuns guiding the ceremonies and meditations are the definition of the gentleness and calm that we Westerners call “mindfulness.”
In another way, though, there is something very mundane about the practices: people stand, they sit, they adjust and readjust their robes, the pass along song books, they look around and then down at the ground. In other words, they too, are human.
Read MoreMoving freely and without constraint enables creativity. Proving, as Dr. Feldenkrais has said, a flexible body leads to a flexible mind.
Read MoreWhat’s so extraordinary about a 50 year old woman who published her first novel? The opera singer who changes her career to take over the family farm?
Maybe I’ve been out of the mainstream, surrounded by creative, curious explorers for so long, that what is commonplace in my world is extraordinary ‘out there.’ Maybe living Awareness Through Movement has something to do with it. Every class starts something exciting and new.
Read MoreScience Nerd Fun Facts: It’s never too late to begin moving. Once-trained muscles respond quickly to renewed effort. And moving freely and without constraint enables creativity.
Read More“Hope lies with the disciplined nonconformists…” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“[The Status Quo] changes when someone decides that the way things are around here needs to change, and simply and bravely begins to do something differently.” Seth Godin
“Nothing is permanent about our behavior patterns except our belief that they are so.” — Moshe Feldenkrais
Read MoreThe Grand Horizontals - 5 - Center Like A Blue Ribbon Equestrian
In dance, it’s called ‘the frame.” For riders, it’s ‘the Seat.” It’s about maintaining the core alignment as the torso/spine react to movement in the lower body. About letting the ribs and spine manage the relationships between the collar bones and pelvis to prevent tipping and losing balance. This lesson hones in on the connections between same side and opposite corner collar bones and hips for elegant posture and balance.
Read MoreThe Grand Horizontals -5 - Circle Like Serena
Arm circles are a part of daily life - from reaching into the back seat of the car to reaching that can on the top shelf. If you do stick sports like golf, tennis, softball, kayaking, etc. this lesson will enrich your practice. That motion - the reach, the turn, the twist, the spring-like action of the ribs - is what we are going for in this Awareness Through Movement lesson. With slow, careful attention paid so no rotator cuffs are harmed in the process.
BY ZOOM New Students: Register here
Read MoreFlourishing is the other side of the ‘meh’ of winter, isolation, no live music, that many of us feel at the moment. In Awareness Through Movement lessons, we follow the science and to take the path from ‘meh’ to flourishing: note progress after a lesson, savor the results of the learning, feel gratitude for our bodies, share the joy of embodiment, connect with self and others, find purpose in daily routines and be curious!
Read MoreThe Grand Horizontals - 4 - Swing Like A WPGA Pro
Some movements require the power and grace of the torso moving as a flexible, but connected, whole. This Awareness Through Movement® lesson riffs on a classic lesson designed to strengthen and release the spine, with an emphasis on the collar bones as the line that holds the entire shoulder girdle together.
BY ZOOM New Students: Register here
Read MoreThe Grand Horizontals - 3 - Reach Like A WNBA Star
For maximum extension from tip toe to finger tip, the collar bones (clavicles, “beauty bones”, “Grand Horizontals”) synergize with the hips and ribs. As useful for reaching that thing on the top shelf as winning a tip off.
(A variation of the classic 3-way hip lesson).
The Grand Horizontals - 2 - Glide Like a Classical Violinist: a side lying lesson to move the ‘beauty bones,’ shoulder blades and hips in coordination and grace.
Read MoreCollarbones, also known as the Grand Horizontals or Beauty Bones, say everything about your posture and alignment. Get yours flexing.
Read MoreDr. Andrew Huberman, Stanford Medical School, draws on the brain science to create an effective gratitude practice. A gratitude journal is nice, but repeating a story about receiving gratitude shifts your brain and body’s neural circuitry more potently than lists. Remember a situation, how it was resolved and who received the gratitude. Take a minute a few times a week to retell the story of receiving gratitude and deepen the groove to your gratitude center.
Read MoreIn “Finding Your Voice” on Seth’s blog, Seth suggests we practice using our voice so we are ready to speak with ease. Yet another reason to do ATM - with sound.
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