Yoga

I had my first turn with David after the holidays, I experienced more of my asymmetric use, and some of my 'Alexander student' habits. I think I will dedicate this week to observe my habits at school, being banned from coffee during the Aurum experiment can certainly help.

Observing without glasses, however, still feels quite odd. I could pick up some patterns while we worked in Lailani's group on walking, but then, the average use certainly improved already a lot.

I can still get into my old yoga habits, I certainly often 'stare' when doing asanas. Layer by layer by layer. The shift from reaching a position to observe the movement doesn't come easy, yet becomes more and more enjoyable.

ShouldersI

I explored walking in my term with Duncan. I still have (at least) one area in my back where I shorten my torso, probably a remaining part of the pattern to pull the shoulders back. While doing lunges I noticed a similar pattern in that activity, and found a simple optical check for the state of my back.

We played a lot with bones in our anatomy session, I liked assembling clavicle, scapula and humerus together most. I had only a faint idea about the glenohumero joint, and seeing the hinge joint between humerus and ulnar proved fascinating as well.

In our group work we played with the monkey again. I discovered some variation that can give me an incredible amount of extra length, something worth playing more with.

Walking up

I was working with David and a chair in my turn. Although I managed to move with releative ease there were still some unsynchronized movements. When I had to walk I caught the impulse to rock back after Davids hand left my neck. The second time I managed to inhibit this impulse to tried to get used to the sensation of falling forward, and David could see more "up" in me.

The group work with Matt felt quite physical, monkeys in all variations. I got some sore spot on my back today, reshaping my shoulders seems a bit painful.

Twisted

I try my best to start school on time, which usually means that I have my turn in the first round, this time again with Jeremy. It went wilder than usual, as Jeremy twisted me around, leading me into some awkward positions. Doing this prevented me easily from anticipating his moves, and felt more like remote control.

I observed some sore sensation around the teres muscles, which might indicate an release in this area (or overuse during yesterdays Wing Chun session). The scapula can move a bit more around, something that I notice usually after some minutes of semi-supine.

The turn helped me in identifying the moving parts during walking, the slight rotation of the lumbar region, counteracted by swinging the contralateral arm, and slightly turning the head ipsilateral to the moving leg. Knowing which parts move where didn't lead straight away to a more natural gait, Jenny's directions to keep the thoracic region above the hip, keeping the hip as part of the back back worked a bit better.

As the lower part of the body feels a bit disconnected, I still start walking with my hips leading. We looked with David in the group closer at walking, and the relation of ankles, knees and hips. I noticed some subtle head movement while just thinking about moving the legs, and the temptation to regain the familiar feel of walking by throwing the shoulders back and shifting the hips forward. Straight walking feels at the moment a lot like falling, so I better focus on my directions while walking and ignore the faulty sensory appreciation for a while.

The anatomy session dealt with the scientific terms for directions and joint types. Jeremy played little games to deepen our understanding and use of this terms, which made the session really enjoyable. I realised that my idea of the location of the heart had nothing to do with its actual position... luckily we don't need to direct our hearts.