A Moving Passion

The last few days have been busy with attending network events in Chelmsford and Swansea and organising myself for  my very first public event. So I must apologise for day 4’s later than usual update.

As the week has flown by and I’m receiving comments and tweets from all my lovely readers about the water challenge still, I thought it would be apt to include an entry today about how water relates to the movement challenge.

One of the comments I received was about waking up to that first cup of coffee, I forgot to ask you Roy,whether it was decaf?lol.x With my penchant for all things healthy and at times my backsliding into the odd unhealthy habit, I felt I would share another titbit that I received from Michele Pfennighaus, one of the lovely ladies and a featured writer (and fellow yogini), in my network at WomenCo.com. She adds cucumber to her glass of water and I tried it this evening and it’s glorious! Thank you Michele. That slice of lemon, lime or cucumber certainly perks up one’s love of the nature juice if you struggle with the often described taste of water, as somewhat “Bland.”  Drinking 2 litres of water, the cells are then well hydrated to encourage more movement and more flexibilty of the processes of diffusion and osmosis within the body’s intricate systems. It follows then, that your body will be more pliable and flexible when it is properly nourished and hydrated with food and water.

How did you get on with Day 3’s question? I was looking for some quirky answers to how you all sit down on a chair. It was by no means a trick question, I promise you. I was interested in how you think about what your spine does and how your hips articulate when you sit on a chair. The stunning curves of the spine, that move in and out in S curves are likely to be affected if we have the tendency to slump in a chair or to sit more on one side than the other.

Hmmmh… when sitting down, the hips go into flexion – ie, they  bend . And my fellow yogi’s and yogini’s out there will probably be familiar with how the knees especially and the hips make for some challenges with certain postures/asanas, like padmasana. It is believed that if the hips are tight, then the knees are less likely to articulate smoothly and more prone to injury.

Let’s discuss this briefly today. Our western etiquette of sitting on a chair, at a table for dinner is slightly different from the eastern etiquette of sitting on the floor cross legged on a cushion with a low lying table. Sitting in this position for any length of time for us in the  west who are used to sitting in a somewhat  ‘up the stairs and 90 degree position’ of the feet, calves, thighs and torso (my interpretation folks!), means that the ili0psoas which governs flexion of the hips can get rather tight and held. Also, when we are about to sit in a chair, are we mindful of creasing at the top of the thighs as we go to sit, bending our knees forward, over our toes so that our spinal curves work in accordance with the rest of our body in movement?

Tip 1

Open the knees  outwards as you  gently sit on your sit bones, in a cross-legged position  (providing you have no knee-related injuries) for 5 minutes inhaling and exhaling with this.

Tip 2

When articulating and moving your body through a range of dimensions and I would recommend experimenting gently and slowly in 3 dimensions, then your neural wiring transforms any set patterns to include new and marvelous ways of moving.

Why?

This is just like ‘inspiration’ and any ‘Eureka’ moments that you come across. Do you catch my point here? It’s similar to deeply held perceptions, beliefs and theories that can be disputed at any point in history and time as we have experienced in our lives.

Movement is the same. Saying something like, I’m really stiff – ok, why?  What is the belief system behind that? Are the beliefs and thinking Stiff? And the way that it is then articulated, is in your body’s biomechanics, the cellular structures and the wiring of your nervous system.

The frustration of which, encourages you to call out for help I guess, yes?  Especially when pain strikes. What do you think?

So just like there are no 2 left feet, there is no real bodily stiffness, in my humble opinion.  The body is incredible and whenever or wherever you are, there is constant motion, even in stillness. Look at how something as gentle and reflexive as taking a deep breath can have a profound effect on how you move whether it’s walking, dancing, talking, gesturing.

So tips for moving your hips through a range of exercises will be coming up shortly in a video (at last I hear you cry.  , I have finally caved in, thanks to Sally Ormond’s insight on Video, at the Essex Business Scene Event on Thursday evening – thank you Sally. )

Question 4:

Today’s question is:  Where do you place your hands when you are talking? x lol. I look forward to reading your comments.

Enjoy and many blessings.x

Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.

Kahlil Gibran