Breath.  How lucky we are that we don’t have to think about it, our breathing just sort of takes care of itself.  But have you ever been in a yoga class where the teacher told you to let the movement follow your breath?  Have you ever been to a Taekwondo class and heard the black belts practice their kia’s, or seen a sniper in a movie take a deep breath before focusing for a shot or told a child to take a deep breath and count to 10?  

The truth is our breath is not simply a passive event, suppling our muscles and organs with vital oxygen, it can be accessed deliberately to produce calm and focus, it can be harnessed to  produce powerful forces beyond what we thought possible, in fact, it may be the most profound core “muscle” we have.

Active breathing can fuel your success in:

• lifting heavy objects
• standing and sitting safely
• standing up from a chair
• managing stressful or emotional events
• opening a stuck pickle jar
• being understood during a conversation at a loud bar
• staying fresh during a long run
• getting a good night sleep and waking up actually feeling rested
• doing really good celebrity impersonations
• think more clearly creatively
• have less back pain

​…and so much more

I am 14 days into a 200-pushup a day for 30 days challenge.  My arms are sore, my chest is sore and I am tired of doing pushups.  The thing I didn’t expect was just how sore I would be in my ankles and knees. 


​It was a good reminder that nothing in my body operates independent of all the other parts.  




So when I started putting together my upcoming workshop at the Dailey Method studios in Berkeley looking to help folks relieve neck and shoulder tension, I got to thinking, what could I do elsewhere in the body that might make the neck and shoulder pain go away?  


Maybe making sure that they ankles are able to transfer weight successfully and easily, maybe making sure that the hips and lower back are playing along and doing their part, maybe helping to highlight how the skeleton can support the weight of the body so that the muscles in the neck and jaw and shoulders don’t feel the need to step in and try to be a hero by doing a job they are ill-equipped to do…


So, if you are interested in finding a lasting way to relieve stress in your neck and shoulders, using all of you together.  Please join us for my 4-part workshop at the Dailey Method studios in Berkeley (2631 Ashby Ave, Berkeley CA) Tuesday and Thursday the first two weeks in November (11/6, 11/8, 11/13, 11/15).

At the end of this month I will be traveling to South Africa with my daughter and my girlfriend.  I am super excited about the trip and as we get closer to the trip I’m starting to strategize about how to best handle the sleeping during the total of 18 hours, three flights and 10,575 miles it will take to get there.  I want us to arrive filled with energy and a joyful mood so that I can take in as much as possible.  Which has lead me to thinking about sleep in general and how important it is to regularly get a good nights sleep, to even have a chance of being the person I want to be.

Sleep is necessary.  Sleep has been shown to influence everything from athletic performance, concentration and creativity to weight loss, diabetes, stroke and heart attack. 

Sleep is also critical for learning.  Being well rested helps you acquire information and resting well after you’ve learned something helps consolidate the information and refine new skills.

Sadly, sleep is increasingly difficult for so many of us to obtain.  According to the American Sleep Association upwards of 70 million Americans have a hard time sleeping and the National Sleep Foundation reports nearly half of American claim lack of quality sleep has effected their daily lives in the past week.

If sleep is so important for maintaining health and feeling alive why has it become so challenging for so many of us to get a good nights sleep?  The answer is elusive and may be different for you than it is for other folks but there are some things you can do to help set yourself up for getting a good nights sleep:

• Go to sleep and wake up at the same time… having a sleep routine helps your body prepare for sleep so you can go to sleep faster and spend less time awake.
• Get regular exercise.  Getting the blood flowing during the day will make sure you have adequate oxygen to your muscles and organs.  Plus, it feels good to put yourself to bed knowing you worked hard that day!
• Eat your last meal with plenty of time to digest before bed.  Timing is going to differ for each person but it is harder to sleep and recuperate when your body is focused on digesting (plus this can lead to heartburn).
• Put the devices away, read a book instead.  The kind of light emitting from your smart phone or laptop is stimulating to your eyes and nervous system, literally causing you to stay awake.
• I know you may not love this idea but, don’t drink caffeine.  With a 7-our half life, you can do the math:  a cup of coffee at noon is life having half a cup of coffee at 7pm and then a quarter of a cup of coffee at 2am…
• Practice something to help calm your nervous system during the day so that you have a baseline of relaxation when it comes to actually putting yourself to sleep (see below for a simple somatic task that can help with this).

For help calming daytime stressors, soothing your nervous system and tapping into your body’s innate preference for rest so you awaken refreshed and ready for your day, please join me for a 2-hour workshop at the Dailey Method Berkeley Studios on Sunday June 24, 2018 from 5:30-7:30.  The cost is $25 for non-members and $15 for members... remember to bring your favorite blanket!

These somatic tasks can be done easily without drawing too much attention to yourself and they don’t have to take up too much time.

At least once an hour stop what you are doing stand or sit someplace where you can see the horizon.  Gently allow your eyes to focus on a point on the horizon.  Keeping your focus on the horizon easily slide your gaze along the horizon a little to the right and then back through center and a little to the left.  Do not strain, let the muscles of around your eyes soften and relax the muscles of your face… allow yourself to drift off a bit, maybe daydream.

Rest with your eyes closed for a moment and notice the rhythm of your breath.

Next, float your gaze to the tip of your nose.  With your gaze focused on your nose slowly shift your focus left and then right… this will likely mean that you will keep one eye looking at your nose and the other will start to look towards the outside of your eye and come back.  If this is challenging, do not struggle.  Allow yourself to play with the movement without needing to “success”

Rest again with your eyes closed and notice your breathing.  Were you holding your breath?

Now, easily turn your head a little to the right and left. What do you do with your eyes when you turn your head?  Do they turn in the direction of you head or do they stay looking forward… or have you don’t something else with them?

Hello,

As you may know, I teach movement.  I don’t teach how to do a thing that requires movement, like a yoga teacher or a pilates or dance instructor, nor do I drill folks like a soccer coach; I am a tour guide dedicated to making plain — from the inside out — the many possibilities and intricacies of coordinated moving.  I use as my main tool, attention, otherwise known an awareness… so I am super embarrassed: while getting ready for a private client, I left a cabinet door open, forgot about it, stood up unaware and, BANG, blood pouring down my face!

I’m OK.  The blood was just a reminder not to do that sort of thing and was mostly for dramatic effect.  The thing is, how could I, a movement expert, a teacher of awareness, have let this happen?  How could I have become so unaware?  There is only one explanation: I was hurrying.

Hurrying ≠ moving faster.  

Hurry is an emotional state characterized by heightened anxiety, stress, fear and frustration.  Greater anxiety is distracting , imagine standing at the chalkboard doing complicated and unfamiliar math while your 7th grade teacher is yelling and throwing chalk… (wait, that is a story for another day).  All the emotional noise involved in hurrying takes up the cycles available for paying attention to what you are actually doing, hurrying makes it hard to notice the details.  Hurry makes you less efficient, less effective and more likely to hurt yourself, like I did…

So how do you move quickly when something is important and not drown out awareness of your environment (and thus not hurt yourself)?

Simple: breathe

Please don't misunderstand this exploration in breath: I am not telling you that this is the right way to breathe... it is simply a way to breathe. More variety leads to more available choices which leads to a more informed decision. We are trying to upgrade your pack of crayons from the 8-pack to the 64-pack.

Get comfortable. If you are sitting (and it is appropriate) slip off your shoes and feel your feet on the floor. If you can lie on a carpet or blanket on the floor, do that…

Take a minute to settle in and notice the places where you touch the ground.
Without changing it, notice your breathing, notice the parts of you that move when you breathe. 
* How long is your exhale? 
* How long is your inhale? 
* What happens when you are finished breathing out, right before you breathe in? How long do you pause? 
* What about the pause after breathing in… How long is that? 
* Does some part feel like it requires more effort that the other parts?

OK. Rest. Let you mind wander for just a moment.

Bring your attention back to your breathing and gently see if you can start to breathe in and out for the same length of time. You may need to lengthen the inhale and shorten the exhale or vice versa… but gently start to track the breath so that it is an even amount of time. 
* Is it easier to shorten the inhale or shorten the exhale? 
* Is it easier to lengthen the exhale or lengthen the inhale?

Now rest, breathe normally. Let your mind wander.

Once again equalize the length of time of your inhalation and your exhalation. Without strain, explore lengthening or shortening the pauses between breaths until they match the length of time of both your inhale and exhale. Eventually, slowly, over time, you will have four parts to your breath, all of equal length. 
* How easy is it to lengthen or shorten the pauses? 
* Does shifting the timing of the pauses make the inhale or the exhale harder to track?

​Rest again… breathe normally. Notice how you are breathing now. 
* What has changed about the movement of your breathing? 
* What is your mood like now? Do you feel calmer (or did something about the challenge of this rile you up?)

When I stop to think about it, I am amazed at how much I rely on the 52 bones in my feet to do for me.  I just finished a 7 mile run and not once did I wonder if they would show up for me!

​Give your feet some love and attention, support them as they support you so they can continue to do so for many happy years to come.

Join me to learn about the intricacies and mechanics of your feet and how they work as a team with the other joints in your legs to get you through the day:
​

• Where: The Dailey Method Studios (2631 Ashby Ave, Berkeley, CA 94705)
• When: Saturdays 3/3/2018-3/24/2018 from 1-2pm
• Cost: Drop-in $25, Full Series $80
• ​How: Click the button below to sign up

I was thinking about an experience from Halloween this year.  I love halloween as I get to roam around dressed as silly as I often feel; my outfit matching my attitude.  As I turned the corner I noticed a toddler standing next to her mother, crying, inconsolably.  When she saw me dressed with such unexpected panache she simply had to stop crying and check me out.  I could only imagine what was going on in her little brain, trying to figure out why I was dressed so differently than other people…  And it hit me so clearly in that moment: curiosity is greater than misery!

Being presented with something unexpected forces us to think, to struggle a little to make sense of something… our minds are called into play where they were more than likely running on auto-pilot.  It is a beautiful and special moment when we are called to actually pay attention to something rather than simply gloss over things as expected.  And here is the really wonderful part for those of us concerned with continuing to run well into our later years: curiosity is something you can consciously cultivate… you don’t have to wait for the cognitive dissonance to hit you over the head.  You can use your curiosity to help you manage your pain.


Lets try it out… you can do this anywhere you are running, working, doing dishes, riding the bus, commuting in your car (you get the idea).


Without changing it take a moment to notice your breathing -- is that even possible?

• What do you notice first?
• Do you notice something different on your second breath?  
• Maybe there is a coolness or a warmth as the air passes moves through your nose, mouth or throat.
• Maybe you feel movement in your chest or belly or shoulders or someplace else.
• When you start to notice your breathing do you change it?  Does it get deeper, calmer more steady?
• Can you find something you didn’t know before about what you do when you breath?

My neighbor told me the other day that she couldn’t run anymore because her hip hurts because she is getting old.  Her statement sparked a question: why is it that we seem to lose skill as we get older?  I mean, as babies we are terrible at doing pretty much everything and then somehow, we ggetot better.  Wouldn’t you think that we would just continue to get better as we age instead of slowly losing the ability to do all sorts of things we love, like running?  The answer most people offer is simply, “wear and tear,” using ourselves up over time.  From this perspective, your ability to run is like a piece of furniture, after so many years of use, it is going to break.  This is not only depressing… its down-right wrong!  

Click here to see someone prove folks can do amazing things well into their 80s and 90s:

So, why do some people get better with age and some people lose ability and how can YOU be one of the people who continues being able to dance the tango at 80 and run when you are 90?

The truth is you are going to stop running (dancing, climbing stairs, playing with your children or grandchildren) if it hurts, and maybe you should.  Pain is a reliable indication that something is wrong.  But you are not a couch ready for the trash, rather you are a beloved (now grown-up) child in need of nurturing.  It isn’t necessarily the running that is the problem, generally it is the how you are runing.  To turn this around you don’t need new running techniques you need new learning techniques.  Spend some time exploring, with curiosity, the fundamental building blocks of human movement: bending from side to side, folding and extending, and twisting and breathing…  It is hard to change your habits of doing something, while you are performing.  So take some time out of your day and dedicate it to exploring (like a child) what it is like to fold and bend and arch and reach and push and slide and, well anything you can think of... without any particular goal in mind.  This is the sort of thing that I do with my clients.  We create a safe place to play with the components of movement so that when we go back to doing the things we love we have more information about the details...

Developing a habit of playful exploration around your movement options supplies your nervous system with a sensory-rich, detailed and highly accurate image of yourself including both the “how” and the “what” of your movement.  This multi-layered approach to understanding your movement allows you to make spontaneous choices appropriate in each moment, keeping you safer, healthier and boosts your longevity.

Here are some ideas for supporting yourself as you grow a sustaining habit of curiosity:

Be gentle with yourself…
      …it is really hard to learn new skills when being scrutinized by a harsh critic!

Go slowly...
      …it is hard to read the warning signs if you are roaring down the highway!

Do just the beginning…
      …your nervous system has the whole thing figured out by the time you start moving so if it isn’t smooth and easy to start with it is not going to get any easier! 

It is about the process not the goal…
      …overly focusing on the end point and you are likely to miss vital clues along the way (plus maybe where you think you are going isn’t where you really want to go and you want to reserve the option to change your mind)

Be persistent but not insistent...
      …take breaks, let your mind wander and then come back to it… remember you are doing this so that you can run when you are 90, you’ve got the rest of your life to figure it out, there is no rush!

There are so many experts out there telling us how to succeed, voices forming our opinions day by day about ourselves and others.  There are trainers and teachers and friends and parents, all telling us how to behave, what "good posture" is, what foods to eat to lose weight... there are so many voices it is sometimes impossible to hear the most important one -- yours!

A good friend from college has been working hard at being the best fitness expert and trainer that she can be and has become something of a star!  She has her pictures in national magazines and does show on television... Years of training as a dancer and then even more years working with all different types of people on how to get and stay fit.  If there is an expert she is undeniably one... And still it isn't for everyone.  Some people like running, others swimming, some people hike and others kick ass with my friend in NY.  Just like there is no one, right way to get and stay fit, there is no one right way to do ANY movement... There is only one expert in how you should move and that is you! But remember it takes years of dedicated practice to become an expert and it is never to late to start (or start again).

Some ideas for becoming an expert in yourself:

• Get curious about how you do things, not so much about what you do...
  
• Cultivate the feeling of ease and grace, even if it only a tiny feeling to start...
  
• Spend some time imagining how you might act and then reality check it agains an actual attempt...