A couple of days ago, I sent you a little mind dance to try. Today, I invite you to take this mind dance into activity:

1) Imagine a spot exactly in the middle of the crown of your head, as if you were looking down from the sky at the top of your own skull, and you dropped a dot right into the center of it.

Aware of where this spot is, take a walk, move around, lie down….do any movement you wish. Just remain aware of where that spot is in you, and in space.

2) Imagine a spot at the tip of your tail bone, exactly on the tip. See the images below if you’re not sure where your tailbone is, as it’s hidden from view and not often touched. 

Notice the distance between the “top of your head spot” from the tip of your tail spot” in your own body, and enjoy locating them in space wherever you are.

Notice the dance they are doing already. Are they fixed in relationship to each other? If so, let them move, as you rest in stillness or as you move in space. Try repeating one of the movements you did in the first step, just to see if it’s any different when you add the second spot in your awareness.
The relationship between these two parts of you, your head and your spine, is the central thing in your life – ha! get it? I’ll be writing more about why that’s true.

PS: If you tried this experiment and discovered something interesting, I’d love to hear back from you. I’ll be teaching this material in a group class format soon, so stay posted for more info on that!

Ever have one of those days when you feel tight, stiff, sore…and none of your usual warm ups work to get you loose and easy?

Or your body is maxed out from the day before, and you don’t have the time to really warm up before you start teaching or rehearsing?

If this is you, let me introduce you to the vagus nerve, your friend! It’s the 10th nerve to emerge from your brain right near your ears, and has two branches that run down either side of your neck, wrapping delicately around the heart, trachea, diaphragm, stomach, and on down into your belly. It’s long, wandering, branching… a river of nerves that flows deep into all your organ systems. It also innervates a small area of skin right inside your ear canal, so you can gently stimulate it with touch.

This one nerve can help re-set your heartbeat and breathing rate, allowing your diaphragm to make it’s fullest, easiest excursion, which in turn releases the ribs, chest, and back, “un-stiffening” you from the inside out. Want to give it a try? Watch this month’s video here.

This video is only one part of my foolproof warmup sequence that I’ll be sharing in a workshop on June 10. Go here for more information.

Lots of love,

Clare

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS:

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We dance for a million different reasons, but one of the biggest ones is to feel our relationship to the earth. It’s the one relationship that is with us every day of our life. I hate it when I hear someone say “ I don’t dance”. Everybody dances.

Today’s dance:

Imagine a spot exactly in the middle of the crown of your head. (imagining this spot is a form of thinking/knowing that requires no tension. It’s your kinesthetic sense, simply knowing where something is in space.)

Imagine a spot at the tip of your tail bone.

Notice the distance of these spots from one another, and from the earth.

Notice the dance they are doing already. If they are fixed in relationship to one another, you are probably not breathing 🙂 and might feel stiff.

To dance with the earth, all you have to do is perceive it. Recognize where you are, what’s really important, where your primary support comes from. It’s so basic as to be completely invisible to most people, yet one of the most important things in your life, ever.

Check out this video about one of America’s greatest dance companies, Halau O Kekuhi, and what this connection means to them:

Want to learn more of my “mind-dances?” Go here for the next workshop, here for private lessons, and here for a free (you must bring a flower!) 30 minute consultation.