Every second Tuesday (morning) will be available for NEW PATIENTS booking in for a first, second, third or fourth visit.
Every other Tuesday (afternoon) will be available for "OVERFLOW" appointments.
-> to save the neck from that form of over-use that comes from stiffness and under-use of the chest and thoracic region of the spine, and
-> to learn or improve on a movement you may not have been able to do since childhood, if ever.
BEGINNERS, LEVEL 1
a)Raise the chest without extending the neck (i.e., without tipping the head up and back) and without extending the lower back (i.e., without leaning backwards).
b)Keep breathing (i.e., don't hold the breath).
c)Notice the breathing-induced movement in some small (about the size of a 20c coin) part of the rib-cage for about four seconds.
[In some (Feldenkrais) circles this is called a "learning".]
d)Allow the chest to return to usual posture.
e)Test the "learning" by asking yourself if you can still feel the region of the chest you were concentrating on.
If you can, the exercise is completed, if not
f)Begin again at a) and repeat the exercise till you "pass" the test above.
When you have "passed", select a different region of the chest to concentrate on when you next do the exercise.
ADVANCED, LEVEL 2
a)Raise the chest WHILE BREATHING OUT (perhaps saying "ahhh!" as you do so to guarantee you are doing it correctly).
b)Proceed through the rest of the exercise as in Stage 1.
NOTE
1:
The noticing is more important than the moving, so the test step "e" above is the most important.
2:
Beginners are advised to do this exercise about 30 times a day for three or four days and thereafter a dozen times a day.
After you have "learnt" about many little regions of the chest, perhaps a hundred or so, you will probably find chest-raising will happen spontaneously (as in childhood).
