Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 2 (12 min)

Chair-seated. This brief lesson directly follows up on the previous one and is intended to be explored after a short break. Turning relationships of the head, eyes, chest, pelvis, knees, and sitbones are explored, using imagery of sitting in the driver's seat. Part 1 of the workshop is here.

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Before you begin read this for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below.

Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, this lesson is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only.

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Study tip: Directions are always relative to your body. For example, if you’re lying on your back “up” is toward your head, and “forward” is toward the ceiling.

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Study tip: If you can’t find a comfortable way to do the initial movements or configuration of a lesson, it’s ok to skip it for now and go on to another lesson.

Tip 4 – Padding

Study tip: Comfort first! Carpeted floors usually work well, but it’s great to have an extra mat or blanket nearby in case you need a softer surface in some configurations.

Tip – Complete the Movement

Study tip: Complete one movement before beginning the next. You’ll improve faster if there’s enough time between movements that you feel fully at rest.

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LESSS is more: Light, Easy, Small, Slow, & Smooth movements will ease pains and improve your underlying neuromuscular habits faster than any other kind of movement, no matter who you are or what your training is!

Tip 5 – Discomfort

Study tip: If a configuration or movement causes any increase in discomfort, or you feel you just don’t want to do it, don’t! Make it smaller and slower, adapt it, or rest and imagine.

Tip – what to wear

Study tip: Wear loose, comfortable clothes that are warm enough for quiet movement. Remove or avoid anything restrictive like belts or glasses.

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This lesson uses the same chair configuration described in Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 1.

After completing this lesson check out our Easier Sitting Workshop Principles page with info that was emailed to participants after the workshop.

If you’re struggling with the “bucket” seats of modern vehicles, I talked about a product I use to deal with that problem which I recommend to many of my students, the Yogaback. (I have no promotional relationship with this business. I just love the product!)

For reference again, here are the illustrations workshop participants had in hand:

sit bones sitting

Here’s an illustration from Alexander Technique London to help you find your sitbones! Click on it to visit and read a post I can recommend called “Stand on your bottom, what?!”. Sometimes people are surprised by how relatively close to their midline the sitbones are.

This lesson is found in our Easier Sitting collection. Please visit the collection page to find the brief talks and prerequisite lesson.

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4 Comments

  1. Chris Sigurdson on August 7, 2018 at 9:38 am

    This is great workshop. Even though I have been doing some of these lessons in an isolated form over the years, this brought it all together. I discovered some bad habits had reimerged that I thought were gone. NOT. Thank you so much. I need to do this workshop regularly.

  2. Martina on August 18, 2019 at 12:30 pm

    Dear Nick, Thank you for sharing the wonders of the Feldenkrais Method on this beautiful hompage!
    I’ve just been doing the whole 85-minute workshop (tracks 1 to 4) and I think it’s fantastic! Nevertheless and despite frequent rests, I managed to end with lower back pain. I did use a proper chair and follow the instructions very closely and, as I’m conscious of several issues in my lower back (severe degenerative discpopathy L4-L5-S1 and sacroiliac joint dysfunction), my movements were really tiny. This was my first seated Feldenkrais class. I usually don’t get back pain when I do your lying-down classes. So, should I not do seated classes for the time being?

    • Nick Strauss-Klein on August 19, 2019 at 11:16 am

      Perhaps for now you might not go right back to seated lessons, and play instead with lessons that focus on the hips and spine. Or if you do try seated again so, see if you can observe any sensations that seem related to the pain you had after the last one. Often our task is to refine our noticing of all the fine pre-pain signals, listening to subtler and subtler messages until they’re clear and we can change our behavior before we hurt. Another thought: have you tried Driving and Dynamic Sitting 1? It’s mostly floor-lying, with a little floor-seated work. Perhaps it will help you find and improve what was challenging you. Let me know how it goes!

  3. Jerome Henkin on November 27, 2023 at 5:42 pm

    I had hip replacement surgery last week. The Easier Sitting lesson (12 minutes) was gentle and helpful. Thank you.

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