There are some lovely breathing explorations in the last part of the lesson, intended to be done very mildly, smoothly, and gently. If you’re unfamiliar with Feldenkrais “paradoxical” or “seesaw” breathing please don’t do this lesson yet. First go enjoy Freeing Your Breath and Spine (37 minutes).

Please read the following carefully if you’re unfamiliar with belly-lying lessons, or the position tends to be uncomfortable:

Have a soft clean towel or pillowcase to lie on, something you won’t mind resting your mouth or nose on. You’re often invited to turn your head and rest it facing to the side while you’re on your belly. Please moderate how turned your head is based on your comfort – you might wish to turn your head far less to one side than the other. That’s great! Please only do what’s comfortable.

If you struggle with a sore lower back when you lie on your belly there’s an option discussed about halfway through the lesson: you may find that folding a bath towel a few times and laying it across your mat at the height of your iliac crests (the bones you touch when you put your “hands on your hips”) creates more ease.

Additionally you can experiment with other props as needed: a small soft pillow under a shoulder, a little height under the towel you put your hands and head on, etc.

When you lie on your belly with knees bent 90 degrees and you begin to tilt your feet to the side, the intended quality is the same as when you tilted your knees while lying on your back: only tilt as far as you’re able if the goal is to reverse the movement smoothly and pleasantly, without any strain. The range where that quality is available may be very small at first, and will likely grow larger throughout the lesson.

I’ve chosen not to edit out a reference to our “Rest and Recharge” Zoom lessons in December, 2020. Here’s my blog post about the vitality of rest.

This lesson is found in our Freeing the Spine, Chest, Shoulders, and Neck collection. Like most of our lessons, this one can be studied out of context, but you may find additional learning value by approaching it in the order of the collection it’s in.

And there’s another study context available for our Patron-level donors: this lesson is one of three we’ve created out of recordings of a sequence of classes taught in Jan-Feb 2021 called Embracing Our Differences. Click here to read about this somatic metaphor.

The three lessons are best explored in this order:

• Self-Hug, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons only) began the class sequence.
• This lesson, The Power of Prone: Twisting on Your Belly, was later in the sequence.
• Improving Rotation, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons only) completed the sequence.

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to download this lesson’s MP3 file.

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to view Nick’s comments about sources he used while developing this lesson.

Members and Patrons only. Please login or join the Project to view related lesson titles and links.