Invite Breath & Movement Between The Shoulder Blades

Hi,

This is Meg Ranali of Body Centered Inquiry and welcome to this Somatic Movement Audio,

Inviting breath and movement between the shoulder blades.

For this session,

You'll be on a carpeted or padded surface on the floor.

Important learning occurs when we change our habitual relationship to gravity,

As we do often in these sessions,

Which is why so many of them are on the floor or on a bed.

Please remove your glasses,

Jewelry,

Belt,

Have sock or bare feet.

If you wear a tight bra,

This would be a good session for removing it and or wearing a sports bra.

And have a rolled up bath towel for head or neck support.

And when you're ready,

Please come to lie on your back.

Adjust your head support as needed if you're using it.

And for now,

You can have your legs long or your feet standing.

If your legs get fatigued in the standing position,

You could wrap a belt around your legs to take over the work of the muscles.

Or you can just have them stand as usual.

Take your time to arrive,

Meet the ground and allow the ground to meet you.

Allow your breathing to become more even.

The inhale and the exhale to become more even.

Take your time.

Have your arms long by your sides or resting quietly on your body.

And again,

You can have your feet standing or your legs long.

Check in with yourself to see what's more comfortable for you right now.

And continue to explore that idea of the ground coming to meet you.

When we think of ourselves in a reciprocal relationship with gravity,

It actually invites more release and calm into the nervous system.

We can rest into the ground beneath us.

There's less extra work that we have to do to move in our lives or be in our lives.

And adjust your head rest if you're using it to softly and slowly allow your head to roll from one side and then the other.

Have your eyes closed or in a soft gaze and allow your tongue,

Throat and jaw to be easy.

And go slowly,

Even more slowly.

Synchronizing your movement and your breath.

The going slow part in this work is not for the sake of going slow or being trance-like.

It's for the intention of beginning to recognize how we organize ourselves for action,

Any action.

Our movement continuously reveals our self-image.

Take your time here.

Really take your time here.

Be aware of your breathing and the support of the ground beneath you.

And when you're ready,

Take a pause in that movement.

And if you need to,

Pause the audio so that you can linger longer in places that are interesting to you.

Now bring both hands up over you as if in prayer.

Place the palms together.

The arms are extended away from your shoulders.

Your arms are straight but not locked.

And begin to trace small imaginary circles on the ceiling with your fingertips.

You can draw circles of any size on the ceiling with your fingertips.

Palms stay together,

Arms stay straight.

Find the size circle you'd like to make right now and go clockwise with your movement,

Tracing imaginary circles on the ceiling with your fingertips.

Go slowly,

Breathing.

Keep your eyes,

Throat,

Tongue soft and then pause and bring your arms down to rest.

Bring your arms up again,

Palm on palm,

Fingertips facing the ceiling.

Your arms,

Wrists,

Fingers are straight but not locked.

So there's no extra work anywhere.

And resume making circles,

This time going counterclockwise.

Tracing circles on the ceiling with your arms extended,

No bending at the elbows.

The arms stay long.

And as you do that,

Bring your awareness to what's happening in that place between your shoulder blades.

There's a good chance your upper ribs,

Especially the ribs up under your armpits are moving and the ribs that articulate with the spine in the back are moving.

Could you imagine an echo of those circles being played out between your shoulder blades?

We want to encourage movement where the spinal column articulates with the ribs.

There are small joints there that allow us to get a full breath.

It's a small place that has big implications.

It's a place that bothers many of us but it's hard to get to it.

And let it all go and rest.

Be aware of how these few movements echo through you.

Allow your upper back and shoulders and shoulder blades meet the ground.

Imagine bringing more breath into that place where the ribs articulate with the spine.

Allow your arms to be long by your sides or resting on your body.

Be aware of your breathing.

Allow the inhale and the exhale to be even and slow.

And rest some more.

Be aware of the ground coming to meet you.

And see if that idea allows you to rest into the ground more.

Then you can have your legs long or feet standing.

Now do bring your feet to standing,

Knees pointing toward the ceiling.

And bring your right hand to the left shoulder.

And bring your left hand to the right shoulder.

As if to hug yourself.

And make note of which arm is closer to your chin.

Without any extra work,

Allow your arms to rest on your chest as much as possible.

Arranged like this,

Notice your connection between your shoulder blades and the ground.

And breathe.

Allow your face,

Throat,

Eyes,

Tongue,

Jaw to be at ease.

Now begin to gently rock yourself from one side to the other.

Let your left shoulder come away from the ground and allow your head to roll to the right.

Return your left shoulder to the ground.

Then lift your right shoulder from the ground.

Play with that until it becomes clearer for you that you're rolling from one side to the other.

And for now allow your head to roll right as you lift the left shoulder.

And allow the head to roll left as you lift your right shoulder.

Be playful and curious.

Keep it soft and simple.

It could just be a small movement,

Just the beginnings of the movement.

Paying attention to just how we initiate a movement can change our awareness of how we use ourselves,

Of how we develop a self image,

A self image.

We are exploring here how you organize for movement,

Not how well or how large you do the movement.

When we gain insight as to how we organize for a movement,

We also begin to get glimpses of how we create our self image.

We're looking for a tone,

An intention,

How the mind reveals itself in our movement.

So continue to rock from one side to the other slowly,

Allowing the head and neck to be free.

And then when you're ready,

Let it all go and rest.

Notice your connection to the ground,

Especially through your upper back,

Shoulder blades,

Imagine that space between the shoulder blades.

Be aware of your capacity to be supported by the ground beneath you.

Keep it easy in the throat,

The tongue,

The jaw,

The face,

The eyes.

Have your arms long by your sides or resting on your body.

Have your legs long or feet standing.

And rest some more.

And come back to the first movement we did.

Arms extended,

Palms together,

Fingertips pointing toward the ceiling.

Arms straight but not locked.

And this time imagine a rubber band that connects your nose and your thumbs.

Allow the head to follow the rotation of the arms as you trace circles on the ceiling.

Rest clockwise,

Slow,

Smooth,

Gently.

A few times in that clockwise direction and then pause.

And then trace the circles on the ceiling with your fingertips going counterclockwise.

A few times in that direction,

Noticing which way is easier.

Remain soft and easy,

Open in the mouth,

Tongue,

Jaw,

Throat,

Eyes.

Breath soft and available to you as you do this movement of tracing circles on the ceiling,

First going one way and then reverse and then going the other way.

And then let it all go and rest.

And come back one more time to hugging yourself.

Change up the organization of your arms so a different arm is closer to your chin as you cross your arms to hug yourself.

One hand going to the opposite shoulder,

The other hand going to the other shoulder.

And explore here again,

Rolling from side to side.

Allow the neck to be free.

Allow the head to be available for movement.

Meanwhile keeping the face,

The tongue,

The jaw,

The throat,

The eyes soft and easy.

When do you breathe in and when do you breathe out?

Inviting a softening into the ribs,

The upper ribs that go from the armpit up to the clavicles,

The middle ribs,

The middle of the back and then the lower ribs which are down closer to the waist.

The ribs are pliant.

They're made of cartilage,

A little bit like bamboo.

And let it all be.

Let it all go and rest.

Be aware of your connection to the ground beneath you and also your capacity to get a deeper breath.

Gently roll your head from one side to the other.

Noticing how that is now.

Keeping it in a range that's safe and easy and comfortable.

Soft,

Supple,

Gentle.

And pause.

These kinds of movements can be wonderful for letting go of tension in the neck and upper back.

Those areas tend to plague us especially when we spend so much time looking at our phones.

It's a lot of stress for the neck and upper back.

Check in with the ground beneath you and your breathing.

And when you're ready,

Take your time.

Roll to one side,

Slowly,

Very slowly come up to sitting and gradually up to standing in your own good time.

Thank you.

That's the end of this session.