AY #100: Cardinal head movements

Wow. This seems to me to be an almost perfect lesson. It is so simple, so elegantly symmetrical in its construction and yet has just as global an effect as last week's much more difficult (but fantastic) lesson #99. This lesson involves moving the spine in essentially a circular motion in several different orientations: on the back, on the stomach, on each side and then on the back again with the head turned. The lesson is not difficult--just about anyone could do it. I would guess that the benefit of the lesson, for those who haven't done much Feldenkrais before, might be enhanced by doing lesson #96 (Sinking the spine between the shoulder blades) first, as moving the spine relative to the shoulder blades is a particularly rewarding part of the spinal movements in this lesson.

AY # 101: On side; lifting the leg and straightening it

This lesson is difficult. At least for me. But one of those that, despite its difficulty, was extremely rewarding. The change I experienced was satisfyingly large, providing me with a genuine sense that I had learned something. The lesson is done on the side, taking hold of the uppermost foot with the uppermost hand and (as the title indicates) lifting the leg and straightening it in several variations. For me, something "sticks" on one side of my lower back that makes this shockingly harder to do on that side (actually on the opposite side from where the "stickiness" occurs). By the end of the lesson, my ability to do the movements had dramatically improved on both sides, and I realized that certain limitations that, for years, I have ascribed to living exclusively somewhere in my rib cage seem to also have a big summer residence in the sides of my lower back. Cool. There will be people who "cannot" do the initial (and oft repeated) move of taking hold of their foot while lying on the side; the lesson can be modified for them (starting by taking hold of some other part of the leg), but the lesson does involve strenuous rotation of the hip joints in every direction. Those who have had hip surgery or experience hip difficulties might want to pass on this one.