YTTC Experiential Anatomy Workshop 1 The Spine Is Like a Tree 14:00 15:30

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1 YTTC Experiential Anatomy Workshop 1 The Spine Is Like a Tree 14:00 15:30 10 mins What is the purpose of Anatomy To study and understand physiological function In the world: locomotion, gesture etc Inside the body: breathing, digestion, respiration etc. Movement Mobility Motility What do we mean by grounding and lengthening? What does that mean to us? Discuss a little some ideas in the space. 20 mins Grounding to Lengthening Journey Grounding o Standing tuning into grounding with eyes open and closed o tuning into grounding through shifting of weight o shifting weight and going to the ground Lengthening o How do I come up o Tuning into lengthening by allowing the arms up and the breath in o Tuning into lengthening by allowing the spine into extension 40mins How do we know anything about ourselves through our bodies? The Basics of Body Image We know because we move (movement, mobility, motility) We have a body image that has percept, affect and content Body Schema a noetic my action in the world Body Image noetic my experience of my action in the world Weight Grounding support Volume Lengthening opening to space Containment connecting the two We can talk about GROUNDING because we experience weight or mass that is contained o Ebriologically we come from a contained, landed egg or shell o Our kyphosis: occipitals, shoulder-blades, sacrum, calcanei

2 o The foot and lower leg are built for the event of support and landing. o Dorsal and Ventral ++ Back and front of the leg // this inverts at the foot Bones: 1. Sitbones 2. Greater Trochanter of Femur 3. Distal Femur and condyles lateral and medial 4. Condyles of Tibia lateral and medial 5. Tibia 6. Fibula and head of 7. Malleoli 8. Talus 9. Calcaneus 10. Navicular 11. Cuboid 12. Cuneiforms Articulations 13. Tibio Talar articulation 14. Sub Talar articulation 15. Transversetarsal junction Structures: 16. Baroceptors 17. Retinaculae Support under foot 18. Calcaneo-Navicular Plantar Ligament 19. Longitudinal Plantar ligament 20. Plantar Fascia 21. Interosseus membrane Muscles behind are bigger than muscles in front. Why? 22. Soleus + Gastrocs 23. Peroneals + Tibialis Anterior 24. Tibialis posterior Function Concepts 25. Dorsi and Plantar Flexion 26. Heel Strike 27. Talar Glide 28. Toe Hinge 29. Landing Foot & Take off foot 30. Inversion and Eversion 31. Local & Global 32. HAPTOS touching and being touched 20mins Weight Grounding support Lets work with weight in malasana (rolling through the structures of the foot Lets work with weight in standing back bend

3 15:30 to 16:00 Break 16:00 17:30 The Spine is Like a Tree Vanda Quote What is Posture? What is Movement? Sherrington Bernstein Head & Holmes The Triangle of Standing -- Magnus Vestibularity Visual Field Baroceptors Head Orientation and Spine & Back lengthening o Explore how the eyes help Focal & Peripheral Short and Far Vanishing point o Explore what happens without the eyes o How does the Vestibular system help o Sub-occipitals o Layers of the Back Volume Lengthening opening to space Lets work with volume in bakasana Lets work with volume in standing back bend Containment connecting the two Lets work with containment in child pose Secondary Concepts and Terms to put into the space Planes of Space Sagittal Flexion & Extension Frontal Side bend & Abduction and Adduction Horizontal Rotation; internal and external

4 The Spine Is Like a Tree What is this new teaching? A revolution has to take place. A revolution based on one very simple physical truth. There is a division at the center of the spine, where it moves simultaneously in two opposite directions: from the waist down towards the legs and feet which are pulled by gravity, and from the waist upwards, through the top of the head, lifting us up freely. The pull of gravity under our feet makes it possible for us to extend the upper part of the spine, and this extension allows us also to release tension between the vertebrae. Gravity is like a magnet attracting us to the earth, but this attraction is not limited to pulling us down, it also allows us to stretch in the opposite direction towards the sky. This is a natural process, ever-present not only in human beings but in all upright living things, in trees, in growing flowers and in plants. The roots of a tree are pulled deeply down towards the centre of the earth while the trunk grows vertically towards the sky, elongating and spreading through the branches into the space around it. The deeper the roots penetrate into the ground, travelling below the surface of the earth, the taller and stronger grows the tree. Above the surface of the earth the tree, mostly through its leaves, receives air, sun and rain water enabling it to develop its sap. Below the surface of the earth, by absorbing water and minerals through its roots, the tree receives nourishment and strength. This central point of the tree, where it touches the earth s surface, corresponds in our body to the waist at the level of the fifth lumbar vertebra, where the human spine moves in both directions.... Each of the yoga poses is accompanied by breathing and it is during the process of exhalation that the spine can stretch and elongate without effort. We learn to elongate and extend rather than to pull and push. Elongation and extension can only occur when the pulling and pushing has come to an end; this is the revolution. from Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening The Spine pp 9 and 10

5 Movement professionals and Body-workers often project the way they experience movement onto others their own stories onto their students or clients. The details of proprioceptive information the feeling of a flesh and blood self that is dealing with its context is the keystone that lends meaning to the emergence of body movement and consequently to the establishment of identity. There is a tender, fragility around the learning, exploring and teaching of movement. We look for security for constancy for something to grab onto in the sense of a stable identity that knows or of a stable and constant world that can be grasped as known. This security, this need for constancy, is articulated around one single permanent event that provides us with the context: the force of earthly gravity. In living beings, this force leads to a second force that is unique to each individual. Each movement, therefore, comes about through a force that opposes gravity. This game, this dialogue, this struggle, or this cooperation will serve as the raw material for the gesture. The hazards of our relationship to gravity and its variations is fraught (loaded, drenched my addition) with history. This is the only information that a newborn perceives with regard to those who are around him or her. Gravity is the organizational movement beneath his or her first dialogues and interpersonal exchanges. The newborn does not yet have the power of symbolic construction or language to back and support a particular meaning. He or she only perceives variation in the tone, rhythm and melody in others, as well as accentuations and intensities that are reflected by faces and bodies. He or she will respond in kind. This creates a field of exchanges and meanings that are later used as a framework for the development of language, symbols and movements. Our vertical axis in gravity will be the frame and field to shoulder and support every thing that comprises our viscera, respiratory, circulatory, and motor functions, all of which are major phenomena that shape the way in which we stand up in, to and with the world. Our relationship with weight and spatial orientation is never self-evident because it is overlaid with all the events that constitute our first relationships. We can only perceive the objective weight-related self through the veil of subjectivity through the meaning that each individual gives to his or her affective history. Hubert Godard from the Forward by Hubert Godard to How Life Moves by Kevin Frank and Caryn McHose

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8 Lost Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you, If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here. No two trees are the same to Raven. No two branches are the same to Wren. If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows Where you are. You must let it find you. An old Native American elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner, in The Heart Aroused - Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America by David Whyte, Currency Doubleday, New York, 1996.