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Mar 5, 2023Liked by Campbell Edinborough

Thanks for the lesson. I find myself having trouble with tilting the head forward in order to stand for the sitting position. Since I have some tension around my shoulders from too much laptop staring, I felt that I was overworking my neck. So I find more “comfort” in standing with my head up.

The breathing helped me to release tension in all the other joints, and by the end found myself walking with ease.

I loved your theoretical discussion on the habits and beliefs on the comfort zone.

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Mar 6, 2023·edited Mar 10, 2023Author

Thanks very much for this. It's useful to have the reflection. I'm glad to hear you found yourself more at ease at the end. With regard to the tension around your neck and shoulders when coming to stand, it might be useful to play with initiating the movement of the head from the pelvis. You can focus on keeping the alignment between head and pelvis constant, and start the learning forward from the hips. It might help to place a hand on the sacrum to get the feeling of initiating the leaning forward from the lowest part of the spine. (A bit like slowly bowing your way to standing.)

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Mar 10, 2023Liked by Campbell Edinborough

Thanks, this is helpful :)

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Feb 27, 2023Liked by Campbell Edinborough

Thank you for this, Campbell. I loved following this lesson, I thought it was well paced and encouraged me to focus on comfort (in spite of pain) rather than pushing myself to meet the requirements of the exercise.

It was interesting to notice exactly where I'm clenching in this movement, and to notice whether or not I'm holding my breath in anticipation of movements I find difficult or painful, and how I might bring a sense of ease or comfort into those movements. I think it's really helpful for me to consider whether I can "do less" with particular muscles, using the idea of counterbalance or rebalancing rather than pushing or pulling and forcing myself into particular positions.

As someone fairly new to movement practice(s), I'm looking forward to thinking about how I might establish a sense of the edges of my comfort zone on a moment-by-moment basis. Very curious also to continue to explore the relationship between comfort/habit, ease/unease, function/disfunction. Thanks again.

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Thanks very much for this reflection. That's great to hear. After 20 years of engaging with the Feldenkrais Method, I still find the rigour of attending to what's comfortable difficult sometimes. It's a life's work!

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