Rotating, Interlacing, and Integrating the Hands, into Palms Lengthening Overhead (Patrons)
See below the audio player for a photo of the hand position described near the beginning of the lesson.
Reduce anxiety and organize your nervous system by refining simple, pleasurable actions of your hands, arms, and shoulders. Integrate them better with your head and eyes. Eventually expands into lengthening your whole self, with surprising effects on stability. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
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If you need head support while lying on your back, be sure that it is smooth and level, and no more than you need for comfort.
You’re welcome to have your legs long or knees bent, changing as you wish. Later in the lesson leg positions will be specified.
Lying on your back, when you’re asked to stand up your forearm and hand, it’s like in this photo:
Forearm, wrist, and hand plumb with gravity, wrist loosely straight, fingers pointing loosely at ceiling, palm relaxed.
The elbow is bent 90 degrees and always rests on the ground.
As the forearm rotates on its axis the palm will face different walls of your room.
It resembles the movement of the arm you might make to open a doorknob, but the hand is in a more neutral position.
Got a question for Nick, or a thought about this lesson?
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This was super fun. I could move my shoulders much better and smoother than I thought I could.
I am trying to do an hour a day of one of your lessons. I want to see what changes I can feel throughout my body after this intense 21 day exploration.
Exciting! Please let us know in additional comments what you discover as you go through this intensive you’ve created! I’m also on a daily ATM journey right now of 1-2 lessons every day, and I’m struck by how powerful the experience is.
This was profound.
I decided to do this one because my brain felt full from lots of forward planning I’ve had to do for an upcoming event and I needed something to relax my brain and help me feel more spacious.
Wow! The shift from being completely in my head with anxiety to being completely settled in my body was unbelievable! Like someone flipping a switch!
Also when I faced my palms toward each other the magnetism between them was surreal.
Thank you for these absolute gems.
I am fascinated to feel, through these explorations, how daily life habits cause me to tether my neck; and how that might originate in focused hand and shoulder actions. So that by playing with the whole body through the journey you take us on here, everything moves freely and together again, without any one part needing to hold on. So hard to describe this. The ending with one knee bent for the twist and reach was sublime! Thank you for your creativity.
My pleasure! A joy to hear all this detail about your self-discoveries and process. Thanks for commenting. It’s helpful that you’re modeling an aspect of the subjective Feldenkrais learning process: the useful things we simply notice after lessons, the spontaneous observations that give us a chance to sense and change our habits. You described this phenomenon very well, and I hope your comment is an inspiration for others!