Ideas

Yes

I start with yes. Can do. Happy to.

Hope

We can increase comfort and ability. We can reshape ourselves. We can feel good.

Enjoy

This feels good. Think of enjoying a warm shower. The water flowing on you feels good. We work together like that. We make it feel good.

I’m friendly, here to help, and good at this. Doing this together feels good. How I teach and what I teach feels good.

Comfort

We move better together when you feel comfortable. Listen to yourself, listen to how you feel, and show or tell me how you become more comfortable.

Simple

Keep it simple. I see difficulty get in the way so I took yoga apart.

Ease

Discomfort gets in the way, makes us move less well. First we ease discomfort.

I ask you: “Show me how you feel.” Then we move to improve how you feel.

One Thing

We allow ourselves so many distractions. We interrupt ourselves so often. Working together we enjoy giving ourselves to doing just one thing. You will feel my gentle total focus given to you.

Imagine

Look inward, feel how you would like to move. Imagine how you would like to stand, imagine how you would like to walk, and imagine inward how you feel doing so. Each time rekindle this feel for yourself. Hold onto this feel, keep it in mind. It guides us.

Feel

It is about how you feel, in each part and all the way through.

We move to feel into ourselves. I guide you to move and to feel yourself move. Our flesh speaks clearly when we listen close. I guide you to feel what fits you.

Guide

You don’t get it by just watching and trying.

I guide you. I show you and explain. I guide you to feel how you move and follow your feel.

Gesture

Words are inadequate for much of what we want together. I guide you in ways. I use gesture, sometimes my hand or all of me moving, sometimes a bit like contact improv. I guide you to follow where the gesture suggests rather than focus on the gesture.

Lead

I listen to you with all my senses. I listen for what fits you. I lead you to ways of moving and ways of feeling. You can lead too.

Mend

Things happen. How we mend ourselves makes the biggest difference to our lives.

Moving better is part of how we mend ourselves.

Kind

We give ourselves too little kindness. And we learn kindness from receiving kindness.

We here together practice kindness in every moment.

Blind

We follow how we feel not how we look. I guide you to feel. This is inward.

Sway

We move to feel ourselves. As we sway, we feel how we move and feel our way in. We feel what fits us.

Touch

We can feel what we cannot see. Touch guides us.

Sedentary and repetitive life focused outward takes us away from feeling ourselves. With touch as we move we practise feeling ourselves.

Light touch helps us feel ourselves move. Firm touch guides us to feel into ourselves. Deep touch helps us release.

Support

We simplify. Support lessens work and distraction. Support helps us. For example, folding forward with support feels better and works better. I guide you in specific support.

Anchor

Pressing against something stable changes how we move. For example, a push-up differs from a dumbbell press. So too when we extend: it feels better and works better when anchored. I guide you in specific ways to anchor.

Repeat

Do it again.

Do it again tomorrow, that does more than doing it longer today. Do it again today, that does more than doing it harder.

We are not pulling weeds. Just yanking on it doesn’t get us there.

We move to persuade ourselves. We move to reshape our ways. We are retraining ourselves, making and reminding the many not conscious details of moving well.

One side

One side at a time works better.

With time or injuries we come to move less well. And we hold on to these ways of moving less well and ignore them. One side at a time we feel these differences.

Symmetrical motion, like walking or running or cycling, allows imbalances to build, and our ways of compensating go unnoticed until our eventual discomfort. We move one side at a time to feel what we need.

Patience

We reshape our ways of moving, some quickly. A few minutes a day can improve comfort in a week.

We reshape our habits, and habits take time. We give gentle patience to ourselves and have persistence. Given well these feel good.

Palms Open

Palms down is what we do to work. Palms in is when we stand at attention.

Together we hold our palms open and soft. How we hold ourselves shapes how we feel. If we hold ourselves tight, we are tense and closed to learning together. If we hold ourselves relaxed, we open. We start with our palms.

No Lines

We often place ourselves square to the room around us, as if we were furniture. And without thinking about it, we follow the walls as we move. But we’re not furniture.

We are shown ourselves like stick figures with straight lines and crisp angles. But we’re not stick figures.

Following the walls and the lines would mislead and misalign us. We will sit off-square together, and I will guide you to feel how it is good for us to move, giving gentle focus to each uneven part.

Begin Anew

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Laugh

If you like piña coladas
And getting caught in the rain
If you’re not into yoga
If you have half a brain

Rupert Holmes – Escape – 1979