As a yoga pose, Spinal Twist offers all sorts of benefits. From gaia.com, Spinal Twist "encourages movement and mobility in your spine and vertebrae; massages, stretches, and tones your internal organs; improves your digestion; stretches your chest, shoulders, lower back, hips, middle spine and your upper back; alleviates pain or stiffness in your lower back, spine and hips." As a movement in an Awareness Through Movement class or a Functional Integration lesson, even more benefits can be found from the same idea.
Read moreThe Psychological Impact of Posture
There was a great little article recently in the New York Times, "Your iPhone Is Ruining Your Posture - and Your Mood", that reminded me of a conversation I had with a new client a couple of months ago. Working together, we figured out that her lower back pain was coming from the hunch she held herself in, and a really important question came up while looking at how to come out of that hunch. "What are your thoughts and your approach on the emotional impact of not hunching?"
Read moreComputer and Phone Comfort
When you've been sitting at your computer for hours, it can be hard to remember that being comfortable was once even a possibility. Believe it or not though, there are lots of things you can do to stay more comfortable, and they all apply to how you use your phone too. Here are a couple of them, inspired by a Computer and Phone Comfort workshop I taught last month.
Read moreDominant vs. Non-Dominant Hand: 2 Mini-Lessons
Do you get hand cramps or forearm cramps in your dominant hand? Do you wish you were a little more ambidextrous? You are not alone. A couple of weeks ago in class, someone asked if we could look at the differences between our dominant and non-dominant hands, so last week, we did a lesson that explored how to decrease constantly held tension in our dominant hand and arm and how to increase coordination in our non-dominant hand. It was a huge hit, and is easy to do in most settings, so I'll share part of it here, along with part of a related lesson.
Read moreThe Stories We Tell Ourselves: Believe Them or Not?
If you have never heard of Brené Brown, you are seriously missing out. She's a social worker who started doing research into how women experience shame, and quickly moved on to how people are willing to experience vulnerability or not, and what makes it so scary and so helpful at the same time.
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