I was lucky to have my friend and professional dancer Karen Gleeson and photographer Angie Pappas Constable with me in my office to give you a glimpse of how a Clinical lesson might look like. I think Angie took some beautiful photos – check out her street photography work here: www.angieconstable.com , so I want to share some of them with a little insight of what you see. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Karen has received a Lesson two and we worked on her right side. I use my hands to provide a proprioceptive feedback for her to move with, while she contracts and releases her muscles (this is a bit hard to see in a photo – she is leading the movement rather than me). We work on differentiating those contractions – being able to refine the movements without ‘white noise’ of co-contracting muscles that are not needed to do a movement.
The better you can get at differentiating your muscular effort (for example if you sit, you don’t need to shrug your shoulders, which might have become a habit for some reason – if they’re up at the moment, see if you can relax them and you will know that they don’t need to be near your ears to be able to sit), the better your efficiency and energy levels will become. Imagine having to make a tight fist for the whole day – it would be exhausting and excruciating! Think Bruce Lee vs a bodybuilder whose heart rate goes dangerously high from only lifting his arms. Less energy expense for everyday movements leave more energy for all the other things you want to do!
It’s not only movement we change with this approach – another equally important aspect is that Somatic Movement Education calms the nervous system and your busy mind. If you mull over the same thing over and over again, if your response to situations is ‘stuck’ in the same pattern, you can start approaching your approach through small changes in how you move. With practice, you might notice a change in how you deal with things – it’s a similar response like the one evoked by zen meditation. In fact some of my clients think of their Somatic Movement practice as a moving meditation. Your mind is your body is your brain is your body…we are sensory beings continuously adapting to our environment.
If you want to learn how to move like water my friend – fill out the contact form on the booking page and I can give you a call back if you want.
