Is it Up & Forward or Is It Forward & Up?

My teacher Marjorie Barstow asked me that question in 1986.

She was sitting on a high bench in Cremorne Point – looking into Sydney’s sparkling Harbour - and I had just returned from a jaunt down below.

“What do you mean Marj?” I asked innocently.

“Well look,” she said – and proceeded to show me two ways of moving head and whole Self.

To my unpractised eyes at the time, it was hard to discern a difference. And maybe that was her point? Marj moved beautifully at all times and – as I have written elsewhere – did not seem to have and ‘on’ and ‘off’ switch when it came to being awake, aware and exploratory.

I shrugged - wondered what she was going on about - and that was that.

*** 

Now, as I have been running 5k a day for a year along the Meguro river, I finally understand what she was talking about. 

33 years later!!!

Did she know she was planting this seed to sprout?

It’s dramatic. And hard to communicate. I want to show you, just like Marj showed me. Online I can, with BodyThinking concepts I can.

Till then – here’s the closest I can get.

A slight forward tilt of the head – at the atlanto-occipital joint – will trigger an upward surge of the entire spine when done precisely. Imagine a young child playing the game of tilting forward and running down a hill. That’s the picture.

However, just doing that can result in the head/spin curving down in the front – looking at the floor – and this becomes an inefficient way to move. Hence you want to be looking ahead to the horizon – which means that your spine lengthens up (or back really, in the neck area at least).

But which do you do first? 

Your head tilting forwards or your spine moving up? 

Both happen together - and words are linear - so which comes first in your thinking?

As I was running, I discovered the different powers of each method. Marj was obviously harnessing this energetic insight long before I could even recognise its existence.

These delicate requests of spinal movements are nothing like the military-like stiff movements to be ‘upright’ – those are forceful, superimposed and take a lot of effort. The hallmark of an ‘Alexandrian’ movement in harmony with Mother Nature is empty of effort.

You don’t feel a movement; you feel an absence of effort.

Which is why most people find lessons hard to explain:

“What happened in your lessons?” friends wonder…

“Well,” you reply, “I felt much easier.”

“Show me how! Please!!!” your friends beg.

And that’s the catch.

Do you show them forward and up, or up and forward or none of the above?

For more on solving this postural mystery, join my online BodyThinking course and get a consultation with me thrown in. That alone is worth almost half the price.

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/offers/K87m8DG9