WELCOME!
These four mini classes will show you how Freeing Your Body
will start you on the step by step path to a
better quality of life by improving your ability to move.
These classes are designed to take you step by step through the process of learning to find easier and more comfortable ways to move. They don’t teach you specific ways to move. They provide you with tools you can use any time to look at how you move. They teach you how to discover new ways to solve movement problems – how to look at moving your body from a new point of view so you can discover solutions from there.
Be as comfortable as possible in whatever position you’re in during the classes. You can use pillows, bolsters, cushions, blankets or anything else to support you in any way.
If a position just isn’t comfortable, for instance if you’re lying on your side and your shoulder hurts, pause the recording and see if you can arrange pillows to lean on so you can be comfortable. In the case of your shoulder, see if pillows in front of your chest or behind your back can support you so you can roll forward or backward enough to take the pressure off your shoulder. If nothing works or it doesn’t work very long, lie on your back or another position and do the movement in your imagination. There’s more about this later.
In these classes it’s important to keep your movements within your range of comfort so you don’t feel any strain or pain. If you do get there, stop, back up, and proceed more slowly and not as far, so you stay safely away from the pain. It’s really hard to discover a new and beneficial way to move when you’re in pain.
It’s also important to keep your movements within a range where it feels easy, where you don’t feel a lot of resistance and have to make a lot of effort. Some modalities are based on pushing past limits, which is fine for them. However, in the specialized work you’ll be doing here, pushing limits is counter productive, and I encourage you to avoid it in these classes, where slower and smaller movements get better results than big fast ones. Hard to believe, right? Too good to be true? Definitely not!
So, if you’re repeating a movement and you find a place where your body’s resistance to the movement gets strong, on the next repetition, see if you can stop before you get to that place so the movement stays easier, more simple. This is what I mean when I ask you to stay within your personal range where you don’t feel a lot of resistance. It takes practice, so don’t worry if it isn’t clear how to stay in this range right away.
Sometimes this range may be really small, and you hardly feel you have any room to move. That’s OK. Trust your body’s own process. If you stay within your range, in this work you’ll make more progress than if you push your movement through strong resistance. And you won’t run the risk of being sore later.
It may seem counter intuitive, but letting resistance be will help you find better ways to move that are easy for you, simple and natural for you. The resistance will change on its own, and your range of motion will improve more quickly this way.
During class I stop for pauses periodically. Pauses give our body and brain a chance to reboot. If you feel a reboot would serve you well but I haven’t mentioned one, feel free to pause yourself for as long as you need. One of many advantages of recordings is you can hit the “Pause” button any time and continue the class whenever you’re ready.
Another good reason to hit the pause button is if you find a particular movement interesting and you’d like to spend more time looking at it.
And yet another time to pause is when you think it would be interesting to compare a movement you did earlier to the movement you’re doing now. There are lots of reasons to compare moving one way to moving another, so take the time any time. It can be very beneficial.
Sometimes during class you may yawn, sometimes frequently! Give yourself full rein to yawn big and as long as it takes. This goes for stretching, too. Yawning can lead to stretching and vice versa. Let your whole body get involved with a yawn and a stretch if it wants to. They’re a great combination. And both can lead to the urge to shift, to move a little, to adjust your position. Feel free to let yourself go into any or all of these spontaneous responses at any time during class. From my point of view, wanting to yawn or stretch or adjust your position means the movements you’ve been doing have shown your body it can be more comfortable if it does something different. These natural reactions will help you figure out new and different ways to move and to rest so you’ll stay more comfortable.
If you’re going to repeat a class and would like to try a variation, a very good way to work from time to time is to do some or all of the movements in your imagination. This is also a good way to work during the class if you’re having difficulty finding a comfortable way to do a particular movement. Instead of doing it in reality, imagine yourself doing the movement perfectly and without discomfort. Imagine as many details as you can, each step you need to take so your body will move in that particular way, how it will feel, how other parts of your body will respond. And in that ideal place in your mind, make particular note of how easy it is, how comfortable, and completely without resistance, discomfort, or pain. Our brain has the ability to improve how it works when we consciously direct our attention, whether actually doing a movement or imagining it. That’s what can make working in your imagination as beneficial, and sometimes more beneficial, as actually doing the movement. Neurologists call this “brain plasticity.”
Finally, these classes don’t have to be finished in one go. You can do part of a class this morning and finish it tonight or tomorrow. Your schedule is yours to adapt the classes to, not the other way around.
If you ever have any questions or comments about the classes or how to approach them, please send me an email.
Enjoy!
Introduction to Free Your Head and Neck 101
This is the first of four mini-classes introducing you to
Free Your Body 101.
Photo by Valentina Aleksandrovna
In this class sometimes you’ll bend one or both knees and have your feet flat on the floor as they would be if you were standing. Your bent knees will be up toward the ceiling. When your feet are standing like this, they may slide a little. To prevent this, a yoga mat can help. You can also wear socks that don’t slide or put a towel or some other material under your feet.
Introduction to Free Your Shoulders 101
Photo by Kazuo ota
This is the second of four mini-classes introducing you to
Free Your Body 101.
Introduction to Free Your Hips and Legs 101
This is the third of four mini-classes introducing you to
Free Your Body 101.
Photo by Gratisography
Near the end of this class I’ll be asking you to lift your knees. It may be easier for you to use a length of soft cloth. A very simple option is to use a long sleeved shirt. You can also use a long sash, a belt from a bathrobe, or any length of material you have around. Don’t use anything that gives, because material that stretches makes it harder.
Introduction to Free Your Back 101
Photo by Yogendra Singh
This is the fourth and final mini-class introducing you to
Free Your Body 101.
In this class you’ll be lying on your side. Have something to put under your head to support it so you don’t strain your neck. You can use bolsters, pillows, a folded up blanket, whatever feels comfortable for you. You can have other pillows or supports to put between your knees to help your hips, and anywhere else you like.