Anat Baniel Method Professional Training Transformational Movement Lessons

Anat Baniel Method Professional Training

Transformational Movement Lessons Segment 4

©Copyright 2016 Anat Baniel Method sm 1 ABM-(8)-Seg-4-tmls-ver-8.0.docx


Transformational Movement Lessons

Segment 4

Focus

The Spine: Delicacy and Refinement of Action

Trainers:

Anat Baniel

Marcy Lindheimer




Transformational Movement Lessons ABMPT Segment 4

TML 1: ON BACK, HOLDING BELOW KNEE TAKING KNEE AWAY (TO SITTING) PART 1 (2005) .......................................................................................................................... 5

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005 TML #1) .......... 5

TML 2: ROCKING MOVEMENTS OF SPINE AND HEAD IN SPACE (2011) ......................... 13(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec 3, 2011) ................................................... 13

TML 3: ON BACK HOLDING BELOW KNEE TAKING IT AWAY PART 2 OF TML 1 (2005) AKA FLEXING THE SPINE/HEALTHIER SPINE ........................................................ 22

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 2, Aug 21, 2005 TML #3) ........... 22

TML 4: TWISTING IN SITTING: PRIMARY MOVEMENTS OF SPINE (2011) ....................... 31(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel seg 4 Dec. 2011) ...................................................... 31

TML 5: ROLLING THE PELVIS WITH THE HEAD TURNED TO ONE SIDE (2005) ............. 49(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005) ...................... 49

TML 6: BALANCING PULLING ON KNEE (2011) .................................................................. 57(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec. 2011) ...................................................... 57

TML 7: LINE OF EFFORT, LYING ON THE BACK (2005) ..................................................... 73(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 3, Aug. 22, 2005) .......................... 73

TML 8: ON THE FOOT AND FOREARM: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HEAD AND PELVIS TO STANDING (2009) ....................................................................................... 79

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Nov 2009) ........................................................ 79

TML 8: On the Foot and Forearm: Relationship between the Head and Pelvis to Standing (2005) ............................................................................................................................................ 96

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg 4 2005) ....................................................... 96

TML 9: FIFTH KATA [PART 2 (2005)] ................................................................................. 101(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 4, Aug. 23, 2005) ........................ 101

TML 10: FROG MOVEMENTS IN LEGS AND LOWER BACK (2005) ................................. 109(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 5 Aug. 26, 2005) ......................... 109

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4


TML 11: TILTING LEGS, TWISTING SPINE, ON BELLY (2011) ........................................ 121(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec 2011) ..................................................... 121

TML 12: FIFTH KATA, PART 1 (2009) .................................................................................. 131(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Segment 4 November 11, 2009) .............................. 131

TML 12: Fifth Kata Part 1 (2007) ........................................................................................... 144(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Segment 4 September 2007) ......................... 144

TML 13: LINE OF EFFORT OF LIFTING (LYING ON BELLY) ............................................. 162(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer, Feb 22, 2014) ............................................. 162

TML 13: Line of Effort on Back in Lifting, (Lying on Belly), part 1 (2009) ....................... 174(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel) ................................................................................ 174

TML 13: Line of Effort on Back in Lifting (2005) ................................................................. 180(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 7, Aug. 26, 2005) ........................ 180

TML 14 PART 1: SITTING ON CHAIR, BENDING, ARCHING AND TWISTING THE SPINE (2008) ......................................................................................................................... 186

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; Segment 8 day 5, October 15, 2008) .................... 186

TML 14 Part 2: Sitting on Chair, Bending and Twisting Spine; Hand on Floor, Elbow Circles (2008) ............................................................................................................................. 193

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; Segment 8 day 6, October 16, 2008) .................... 193

TML 15: MAKING THE SPINE FLEXIBLE AND INTEGRATING IT (2007) .......................... 214(Transcription from Anat Baniel Seg 4 September 2007) ....................................................... 214

BONUS TML’S TAUGHT IN PREVIOUS ABM SEG 4 TRAININGS ..................................... 224

Bonus TML: An Extreme and Mental Twist 2007 Version .................................................. 224(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 day 2 and 3 September 2007 TML 4 and 5) .. 224

Bonus TML: Continuation of An Extreme and Mental Twist (2007) .................................. 229(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 September 2007) ........................................... 229

Bonus TML: An Extreme and Mental Twist (2005) .............................................................. 236(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer from Seg. 4, Day 2 Aug 21, 2005, TML #4) ................................................................................................................................................. 236

Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2005/2009) ...... 243(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Day 6, Aug 25, 2005) .................................... 243

Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2007) ............... 251(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer from Seg 4 Sept. 2007 day 6) ...................... 251

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4


Bonus TML: Bending the Elbows Past the Knee (2005) and The 3rd Kata taught in succession as one TML 2011 .................................................................................................... 260

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4, Day 9, Aug. 28, 2005) .................................. 260

Bonus TML: Fifth Kata part 3 (2007) ..................................................................................... 273(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; from Seg 4 Sept 2007 day 7) ................................ 273

In transcripts ‘TN’ means ‘Transcriber’s/Editors Notes’.

Editors: Deb Loest Deppe and Birgit Jung Schmitt

Transcribers: Sharon Tomsky, Deb Loest Deppe, Michelle Bensky, Josie Davenport, Barbara Van Valen




TML 1: On back, Holding Below Knee Taking Knee Away (To Sitting) Part 1 (2005)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005 TML #1)

Notes A big theme for this segment is the recurring response of people to the work, which is: you are not really doing anything, how come it can work? How come this is so different? We get over and over again the feeling of wonder and disbelief that we do so little and it is so powerful. Go only within the range of comfort. Use the lesson as an opportunity to use your imagination. Take charge of yourself, say: “This is how I’m going to do it. I’m not going to surrender to the part of myself that tells me to do harder, that I’m not good enough.”

1. Lie on your back.

Do the movements very gently and delicately.

Legs long, your arms alongside of you. Get the general feeling of yourself lying on the floor, the contact with the floor. Feel how you are breathing. What participates in the movement of breathing? Don’t try to correct, just find out what you are doing. Pay attention feel the contact of your right heel with the floor and the left heel. Feel the direction they are pointing. Compare the direction the toes point. From the right heel feel the contact of your lower leg with the floor. Is the back of your right knee touching? Follow now the contact of your left lower leg. Feel if the left knee is touching the floor or not. Feel the contact of your right thigh and your left thigh. And then locate your tailbone in your mind’s eye, and go up through the pelvis, the sacrum, the lower back, the middle of the back, in between the shoulder blades to the base of the neck. Feel which vertebrae are clear and which are not. Feel the 7th cervical, and go down the right arm to the tip of the middle finger. And then from the 7th to the left side to the left shoulder, down the left arm to the tip of the middle finger. Feel the point of contact of your head with the floor. Does it feel midway to the left or to the right? How close is it to the middle from top to bottom?

ABM Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4 TML 1 (2005)


Gently roll it right and left. Does it go easily or is there resistance? Go only as far as there is no resistance.

In a well-organized spine, chest, hips, etc., there is no resistance.

Stop that.

2. Bend your knees, put your feet standing spread comfortably. Lift the right leg, bent in the air. Bent, not straightened. Get a hold with your right hand below the right knee in front. Now very gently start moving the knee away from you. The idea is that by holding the knee the way you are doing with your arm, you are using the arm to translate the force through the arm to your shoulder and neck.

Sense, when do you feel the pull on your shoulder? What is happening in your sternum and ribs, if anything? Just go back and forth like this.

2a. See if the next time you do the movement you can do it slower.

Some of you are doing it fast like exercise, so do it slower.

As you do it, listen to what changes, what happens in the torso, in the ribs, in the shoulder blade and spine. And listen if anything starts to happen in the head.

[TO STUDENT] Hold your hand from the top of the knee and see what happens. What is the difference? Your hand kept sliding off, so it took more energy to get leverage. Now hold it from the side again and see how it is. Sometimes just doing a variation gets the brain to do it by itself. Holding it on the side, you have more leverage. Once your hip joint gets a little freer, it will be easier.

2b. Everyone get a hold below your leg again, and put the left hand behind the head and begin doing it again.

As soon as you feel a tiny pull on the neck, lift it with the help of the hand. So the feeling is that the leg first pulls on the arm, then the shoulder, then the neck, then the head, and then the head lifts.

Lift the head in an easy way, so the chin comes closer to the chest. It takes enormous effort to keep the chin to the ceiling.

Gradually coordinate the movement more. Don’t bring the head up because I say so, bring it up because you feel the necessity to do so.

Let that go and rest.

See if you feel a change in the way you make contact with the floor. Does the right leg lie differently? Does one leg feel longer? Does one shoulder lie differently? Is your breathing different?



3. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put your left hand below your left knee. Do a few movements without the hand behind the head. Feel the pull on the arm. Feel if your chest is complying with the movement.

3a. Put the right hand behind your head. Pull the leg away from you, and keep pulling until there is a pull on the head and then lift the head.

Some of you lift the head when you start to move the knee. Coordinate the movement.

Pay attention to your breathing as you do it. Are you inhaling as you do it? Exhaling? Holding your breath? The idea of using the hand is to free the movement of the hand and arm.

Leave it alone and rest.

Pay attention to changes in the way you make contact with the floor. Do parts of you touch the floor more clearly? The length of your spine.

4. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. With the right hand catch below the left knee. Put the left hand behind your head and continue doing the same thing. Slowly pull the knee away. Feel whether the necessity for movement in the sternum is clearer.

When you went on the same side, it wasn’t quite as obvious, but going across it’s pretty obvious.

Are you breathing in? Are you breathing out?

4a. Can you think of your spine growing longer as you do the movement?

[DEMO] Where would you make his life easier? The head. The way he is holding the head is doable, but the weight is kept up.

4b To do it well you have to take the chest back, let the chin go down, soften in the chest.

All of us have habits that make our life miserable. Some of the misery, and the challenges, are inevitable, but a lot of it is self-generated.

All of you go back, put your right hand below your left knee and your left hand behind your head.

Try to find where to go so the weight of your head disappears.

Excellent.



Should the head stay in the middle? Explore for now. It is supposed to go through the front, but see what happens.


5. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put your left hand below the right knee, have the right hand behind the head. Start with a tiny movement, and see what happens, and go back, until you come to the moment where you feel it’s time to lift the head.

It’s bringing the top of the head forward.

Notice your breathing. What is going on? Where is your leg going? Are you pulling it in or out? See if you can gradually keep it more on track.

Rest.

6. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Your right hand is below your right knee. Turn your head to the right and put your left hand behind your right ear. Keep the head turned to the right, the face and nose to the right.

Start pulling the knee away from you and again, the same thing, when you feel a pull on the neck start lifting the head.

See if the pull on the head can help you turn the head more to the right.

But do not accelerate or push. It’s a delicate process of discovery, learning and reorganization.

Feel what is happening in the sternum, in the clavicles.

Especially athletes have a harder time, because you have the power to try to overcome not being able to do it. Being able to do it well matters hugely.

Rest.

Feel what doing this movement means to you. Is one leg longer? Does one side of the face feel fuller? Does one side of you expand more when you breathe?

7. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Get a hold of the left knee with the left hand from below. Turn your head to the left and put the right hand behind the left ear.

Take the knee away from you. Feel how different it is on this side.



Your intelligence can take all your past experiences, accidents, etc. and figure out a way to do it. That’s the magic of being human.

Make sure the knee moves away from you as you lift the head.

6a. Exhale when you do it and see if it is easier to soften the chest and do the movement.

Rest.

Feel any changes in the way you are lying.

7. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Get a hold of your left knee with your right hand, turn your head to the right and put the left hand behind your ear. Take the knee away, feel the pull on the shoulder blade, and lift the head.

Here it is more challenging, because the head is turned in the opposite direction.

Leave that alone and rest.

8. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put the left hand below the right knee. Turn your head to the left, put the right hand behind the left ear. Resume taking the knee away.

8a. Now listen to the length of the spine, and the ribcage, the clavicles, the pressure on your left foot.

Gradually put the effort where you need it and let the other parts go. Do you need to clench your jaw, or tighten your foot? Gradually clean out what you don’t need.

Rest.

9. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put both hands below both knees.

Pull the knees away from you, have the knees spread, and have that pull on the arms, and the shoulders, and lift the head.

Are you also pulling the shoulder to the ears and can you stop that?

Many people automatically lift the shoulders to the ears when the arms are pulled.

Stop it and rest.



10. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put the right hand below the left knee, and the left hand below the right knee from above. Keep the knees a bit apart if you can. Pull your knees away, let the head lift, and go back down.

It is the movement of the legs in this lesson that dictates the rest of the movement.

10a. Change the hands over, and continue doing the same movement.

So that's a big part of working with the spine. A big part of learning to work with the spine and understanding the spine, is having a brain, having a nervous system that learns to recognize where to place the head, on top of the spine so that the weight of the head goes away. You see, what I just said is more important than 99% of anything you’ll ever hear about the spine and spinal health. It’s actually the skillfulness of the nervous system, the evolution of the brain of the person, to recognize the relationship to the gravitational force in such a way that the brain knows to stack the spine under the head. It’s not so much putting the head on top of the spine as much as stacking the spine under the head. And anyone who’s had ever the situation where you had a hard time keeping your head up for any reason, or if you’ve worked with children, or you have a child yourself who has a hard time being upright – a very big important, important piece of it is – that that nervous system, for whatever reasons, hasn’t developed the recognition, the patterns, the skill to know, to say: “Oops, here it is, now that the weight is gone. Now it’s a place, it’s a configuration that, where I want to be because the weight of the head disappears.” And actually it’s not a place, because we move. So it’s a constant shift that the brain constantly, ensures, that whatever you do with your arms, your back, your feet, that it reconfigures itself continuously to maintain the head on top of the spine in such a way that the weight of the head disappears. This is not a simple thought. It’s a concept. It’s not just a thought. It’s a concept, but we have to start somewhere.


Discover yourself now as you rest.

11. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Hold the right knee with the left hand, and have the right arm next to you on the floor with your right hand a bit closer to you than your elbow. Start pulling the knee away from you and see if you can direct the leg and the shoulder and the head so it gradually brings the weight onto the elbow.

We know to anticipate our limitations. We train our feeling of ourselves. This is the tool of our work.

Slowly. The left foot is standing.

Lift the head when you need to.



We are not passing judgment on what we are doing. We are discovering what we need to do.

Rest.

12. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Have the right hand below the left knee. Put the left arm beside you on the floor. Pull your knee away, lift the head, and let the force go onto the left elbow.

I commend those of you who are not sitting up yet. Make it OK not to sit up.

You have to shift the weight onto the elbow.

Lie on your back and rest.

13. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Have the right hand below the right knee and the left hand below the left knee. Pull the knees away and see if it is any different.

For some the feet are starting to touch the floor.

13a. Now put the right hand below the right knee and left hand behind your head, and do the movement and see if it is any different.

13b. Now change only the legs, so the right hand is on the left leg.

13c. Now change the arms and the legs.

13d. Then change legs.

Feel if it is any different.

Rest.

Feel the length of the spine. Feel your breathing.

14. Slowly roll to your side and stand up. Take your time. Feel the way you are standing now. Are your arms and shoulders different from the way they usually are? Is your head situated differently on your spine? For many the head is more forward, like a sumo wrestler.

14a. Walk around.



Feel the sense of height. Your hips. Those changes are not associated with whether you sat up or not. They are associated with the information you put into your brain.

14b. Try to come on your toes, see if it is easier.

That would make it easier to jump.

[END OF LESSON]




TML 2: Rocking Movements of Spine and Head in Space (2011)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec 3, 2011) Length of lesson: 53 minutes

NOTES

1. So first of all, just scan how you are lying, how you’re feeling. And do nothing to

breathe but breathe. That means air is going to come in and out. So you do really as little as possible.

1a. And now pay attention to your mouth, to your jaw, to your face, and feel, organize yourself in such a way that you could smile easily.

2. And now, bring both arms above your head.

[TO STUDENT] And those of you who are lying close to the wall I don’t know what you do. I mean we can put one of you down here, there’s space down here. And Robin you go to the back and there is a space next to Jerry. So the two of you that are left close to the wall. Okay, she can’t bring her arm, she’s fine. And you are, you okay, do you have space? Yea okay fine.

And now place the arm somewhere above your head.

But, by the way, notice if your arms . . . I’m looking at some of you. I remember how your arms came above your head in the first segment. Do you remember, recall?

[TO STUDENT] Eh, Oliver, maybe scoot over to the right or something, but you can put your arms longer? And you’ll adjust yourself, until it will work and if you happen to touch someone it’s not the end of the world.

And now do nothing with the arms, only think that the arms are becoming longer. Just think that the arms are becoming longer.

2a. Now, think only about your right arm becoming longer. Just imagine it, think it becoming longer.

2b. And then think your left arm becoming longer.

And notice what you feel in your shoulder, in your clavicle, in your spine. How about that? What do you feel along the length of your spine?



And think that somehow the air coming out helps the right arm get longer.

2c. Now think your left arm getting longer somehow through the breath.

And now, feel how the back of your pelvis is lying on the floor, and locate in your inner feeling, mind’s eye, the place where the first lumbar vertebrae comes out is above your pelvis. So the sacrum ends and you have the first large vertebrae.

2d. And then imagine someone is somehow standing underneath the floor and imagine someone is putting a finger on either side of your vertebrae, just above the pelvis.

And then slowly that magical person is moving their two fingers up slightly pressing so they are helping distance the vertebrae one from the other so you're getting a little bit taller.

Then those two fingers continue going gently up separating a little bit, distancing a little bit the next vertebrae and then the next one. And vertebrae by vertebrae those magical fingers are helping lengthen the spine from either side like that.

2e. And then you can feel it comes to the level where you have the ribs and you are just kind of move the vertebrae.

You are not doing anything but those magical fingers are doing it. The whole length of the spine.

2f. And if you’ve done it once start again, and this time, the fingers are pressing to move it up towards the head but also to lift it a little bit off towards the floor.

So the two fingers are pressing on either side to move it up [TN: towards the head], but also as if to take the weight a little bit moving it up, a little bit towards the ceiling. It's actually forward. It’s away from the floor and up towards the head.

And of course notice which of the vertebrae are easier for you to think about and do this imaginary movement with and which vertebrae are a little less available to you.

2g. And now imagine that someone is standing, holding just above your right knee, and very gently pulling down on the leg as if to pull down a little on the hip joitn to make more space in the hip joint, so the leg gets a little longer.

The hip joint gets free so the leg can then sink to the floor and get longer.

2h. And now think the same thing on the left knee. So somebody is holding just above your left knee, gently pulling down on your leg, helping it become longer that the feeling the sensation makes it so that the musculature can let go and of course its the brain that lets go and organizes the musculature that way and the leg gets a little longer.



2i. And now think someone is holding your right ankle and very gently pulling down on the leg at the ankle to do the same thing.

2j. And now imagine that that person has caught the little toe on your right leg, is holding the little toe and lifting your whole leg by - right leg - pulling it down and lifting it just by the little toe.

2k. And now imagine somebody holding your right ankle, I mean the left.

It just came out of my mouth thank you. And they are gently pulling down on the left.

2l. And now, they are holding the left little toe and gently pulling on it down and then lifting the whole leg just by holding the little toe.

2m. And now, imagine that someone is actually getting hold of your hair on either side above the ears and gently pulling up on the hair to very gently lengthen your whole spine.

3. And very slowly roll to your side and sit up. So roll to whichever side and slowly sit up. Put both feet on their side so that the palms [TN: soles of the feet] are… so bend the knees so the palms [TN: soles] are facing one another.

Yes, the palms of the feet. My brain I am so tranced out, I don’t know, I have to be careful what is going to come out of my mouth. I'm in that non-linear place right now. I have to be careful.

Don’t hold the feet though. Don’t hold the feet, simply just lean the hands somewhere comfortable for you. If you need to lift the pelvis a little, if it is hard for you to sit this way, you know, just sit on something, you know, up the pelvis a little bit.

Now what you are going to do, just scan your spine.

Don’t lean on the hand behind you so if you need to get a…to lift your pelvis a little bit that’s okay but don’t lean on the hands behind. And now scan.

See, visualize your spine, from - accurately is just above the pelvis where it starts - but from the tailbone up all the way to the base of your head to the top of your head.

3a. And now what I am going to ask you to do, is to start with a tiny tiny little movement of moving your whole, back, spine, torso without any movement relative movement in the spine or between the spine and the head. That means the movement is done only in the hip joints. So you are moving as if somebody glued your whole self from your tail bone as you are sitting.

If your back is rounded its fine, if your back is arched its fine it doesn’t matter but you move a very very little bit. Because otherwise it's not possible for people to do it correctly or follow the instructions.



So do it as if there is a very light wind on your back moving you just as you are a little bit forward and then a little bit backward.

But if you start to bend a lot forward then it’s hard. Start just by sitting as if you are sitting just looking at me listening, and from there, a little bit forward and a little bit backward.

A tiny bit, until you can feel that the movement is really done exclusively in the hips in the hips joints.

And notice where in your jaw, in your neck, in your shoulders, in your chest, in your abdominals, you are doing something. And just stop doing that.

3b. Only get the tiny, barely, so tiny that from the outside it is almost impossible to see, just a movement forward and backwards. And close your eyes if you don’t have them closed already, and continue doing this movement.

Very tiny forwards and backwards as you are no… Some of you have a little movement at the top of the spine under the head and you don’t know that. I see it, so just listen, scan your whole length where you’re working where you’re moving and just nothing except the tiny little movement in the hip joints. So the whole self like that is moving a little forward and a little backward.

3c. And now as you are sitting do open your eyes. And look straight forward and continue doing this movement tiny tiny but look forward.

And make sure there’s no movement. Make sure the head is not moving relative to the back, the shoulders, or anything like that.

And move a little bit forward, a little bit backward.

Free your mouth, free your jaw, so the head and the back everything is moving as one unit.

[TO ASSISTANT] I think she’ll be better sitting on a white foam this is narrow and weirdo.

3d. And now listen to what I’m saying. Stop doing the movement for a second sit as you are. And now what you’re going to do is you are going to do a somewhat slightly bigger movement but you are going to keep the head where it is in space. So that there will be a relative movement, but not by moving the head actively. It’s as if somebody put a rope and attached the head to the rope to the ceiling and sort of holding your head gently. But the head stays in space. So look forward with your eyes and see what you can do here.

So you move everything as it is, but the head does not come along. And see what you can do. But it’s not arching the lower back and rounding the lower back. It’s taking the whole spine as it is but keeping the head where it is.

So that means there has to be movement in the vertebrae of the neck. But not because you actively move it. It’s because you move everything underneath it a little forward and a little backward. Not simple to do. But it’s doable so if you keep going very slowly you’ll start carving the path.



And lie on your back and rest for a moment.

And feel what doing these movements and having this way of thinking has done to the way you are lying and feeling at this moment.

4. Roll to your side and sit up. Maybe roll through the other side and sit up.

Put the sole, you know the way you had it a minute ago. And now the soles of the feet touching.

And now first of all can I take your mat to go to sleep.

You’re going back to doing the movement of doing everything moving together.

Now see if that got a little clearer. Tiny little movement forward and back just in the hip joints. And notice if got a little bit clearer.

Seems clearer to me watching.

4a. And now stop that. Move nothing except arch the back and let it go. Of course when you arch the back you get a little bit taller. Of course you just do a small movement of arching the back and rounding the spine. But everything else is just doing nothing.

Many of you tend to throw the head back to shorten the neck when you do it. Do not do anything with the neck. You do not even know you are doing it.

You’re not doing anything that’s not..

The distance of the chin and the sternum does not change. Only the lower back a little bit and then back.

4b. Now let the lower back get rounded, not a lot. Just kind of settle and sit like that. Don’t listen to the lower back anymore. Locate in your minds eye, in your inner feeling, if you need to touch it for a second, your seventh cervical vertebrae.

And now, don’t move anything except the seventh cervical forward and backward. Very tiny, because you have no clue how to do it.

I promise you. Most of you are moving the chin forward and back. It’s not the chin. It’s the seventh cervical.

[TO CLASS] Hillary looks like her son right now. "You must be kidding me", she says. I might as well as tell her to move her liver. Thank you for giving me that idea, I just might do that. But you know guys, this is a wonderful moment because tomorrow I’m going to, I plan on talking to you guys about self-image. And self-image is a real thing. It’s not just an abstract concept. So when she says it’s like asking you to move the liver, it's like I don’t know where my liver is I don’t feel it as a thing, right, it's not in my personal map. So ask me to move my index, it's no problem, but ask me to move my seventh cervical, are you kidding?



Well, go for it, whatever you can. Just tiny tiny, just feel it, think it, and you’ll see. If you are looking to not to barely move it but to really vividly think it, and feel if something amazing will begin happening.

And it’s not in the lower back, right. It’s the seventh cervical between the shoulder blades there. At the top it moves relative to the rest a little forward and a little back, relative to the head.

So it's as if somebody is holding your head and when you do it its actually the shoulder girdle that moves under the head a little bit forward and a little backward. So then the head is moving relative to the body but it’s not moving in space.

4c. And now what you are going to do, I’m going to ask you to do, is to first arch the lower back and then you’re going to move the seventh cervical forward and then you’re going to move the head forward.

So you’re going to create like a wave combining all of those three movements.

And then you are going to wave it back down.

So you start by moving just the lower back, and then you’re moving the seventh cervical and shoulder girdle relative to the head, and then you’re moving the head relative to the rest and then you wave it back down.

4d. And now stay sitting wherever you are comfortable. And without doing any more of this relative movement, move yourself without doing relative movement in the spine, and so on, move to shift more weight move the whole spine as it is, the whole spine, the head, so that you move more of your weight a little bit to the right hip or to the right Ischia and then to the left.

But the head doesn’t bend sideways. Everything moves like you’ve been casted. The whole back and head move a tiny bit in space been.

You don’t have to move a lot to shift the weight a little bit. You actually need to move a very tiny bit for the weight to shift. But again move the whole back and head as one unit, with no relative movement between one part and the other.

4e. And now come to the middle. Imagine that somebody is holding your head in the middle so that everything is fixed in space and continue moving everything under the head. Shoulder, back, whole spine a little to the right and a little to the left to shift the weight.

Now the head will move relative to the body but not in space. Before it was moving together with the body, so it was shifting location in space. Now keep the head in space where it is.

But move the spine the whole spine a little more to the right and a little bit more to the left. So there is no movement in the spine itself except a little bit in the neck vertebrae there is relative movement between the head and the top vertebrae.

4f. And now again take the head together with everything and continue shifting the weight from one buttock to the other very slow. And see if taking everything together is becoming a little clearer.



See, I look at you and it is amazing the speed at which the clarity, the precision, and the ease of the movement increase. One variation, going back, bang, you’re already doing better.

4g. And now again leave the head in the middle, and just let the spine move as one unit right and left.

So the weight… but it’s not shortening one side and then the other. That’s the movement in the… no, the whole spine. There’s no movement in the lumbar spine. It’s not that you shorten one side you don’t shift the weight by bending sideways, you move everything as if it is literally put in a cast. But the head stays where it is.

4h. And now come to the middle keep the head in the middle and move only the shoulders the shoulder girdle right and left.

Not backwards and forwards, not taking one shoulder forwards and the other one backwards. It’s as if somebody took and displaced the whole shoulder girdle to the right and then slid it to the left.

Keeping the head in the middle so there’s going to movement in the neck vertebrae or it’s not possible. But the head stays in space and the shoulder moving right and left.

You’re either going to become geniuses from this lesson or you are going to lose your mind. We’re going to see.

4i. Now keep the head and shoulders in place, and just move the pelvis rock the pelvis right and left.

Can you keep the shoulders and head where they are?

So now of course the lower part of your spine has to bend a little bit but don’t worry about that. Just think about the head and the shoulders are fixed in space. So if somebody just looked at you from that level, they wouldn’t know you are moving.

And you see these movements… And stop for a second and listen.

1 ENDNOTE #1: MINI-LECTURE, THE COMMAND CENTER

Lie on your back for a second please.

5. So roll to your side and sit that way that you’ve been sitting.

And now just again see your whole spine, your pelvis, your head, your hips in space and do the initial movement moving your hips a tiny bit forward and a tiny bit backwards. Everything forwards and backwards as one unit. So there’s not relative movement. It’s all in the hip joints.

And feel if it’s a bit clearer. That you have a bit more say whether you are moving as one unit or not.



And this is what we are working with everybody and this is what we are working with your children. So infants are born and they have very little command capability and that is what they are going to have to grow. And then you can take children who have massive devastation and still be able to work with them through the movement through the touch. However, we do it to actually, develop into aware intelligent little beings within what they can do. And that’s their future. It’s everybody’s future.

5a. Now just arch the lower back a little and round it. Without moving anything else and see if that got a little clearer, just a tiny movement.

Because the very big movement it’s very hard not to move out of things. So just a tiny movement.

5b. And now just keep the lower back round and just move your seventh cervical little backward. And see if it starts feeling like something you might be able to do one day.

5c. And now move the shoulder girdle only without the head right and left. Tiny.

5d. Now move the head right and left without the shoulder girdle. The head only.

Indian dancers do that a lot.

5e. And now just shift the weight hip to hip without moving anything. So the head and everything is one.

5f. And now keep the head in the middle and shift the weight without moving the head in space.

See that it is what I talked about. I’m going to do this. How do I pull the pieces together to get this outcome? And of course a huge part of it is differentiation. However, you can be flexible and not be able to do any of this.

5g. And now leave this alone, come up on your feet, come up to standing.

And just feel how doing those movements impact the way you are standing.

And maybe you know even better where your liver is. You see how you are standing completely differently. Can you feel that?

Many of you are so much more on your skeleton. It’s not because we fixed your skeleton or your whatever posture. It's because when you stand up your brain knows how to put the pieces relative to gravitational field together in a better way a more efficient way.

5h. And now walk around.

And have a wonderful evening and I will see you tomorrow. Thank you very much.

[End of less 1 ENDNOTE #1: MINI-LECTURE, THE COMMAND CENTER



And these movements, these exercises of commanding, of organization, of I don’t know what the word is. What does eh well it's not execution [Hebrew word] becud [Hebrew word]. How do you say in English [Hebrew words] becud macaz? You see, it’s to command. It’s to command. It’s the command center. The central command, it’s above. That is what I spoke to you about earlier in other words. We are working on developing and evolving the command center. It is not control. Control is not quite accurate. It's command. And that has to do with the unique human ability. A unique human ability. An ability that is uniquely human. Which is to know what you are doing, to know what you know, that’s the awareness. So where is my head in space when I am moving my shoulders?

Now dogs may move their head one way and their shoulder girdle the other way. They may move a lot better than even we do. But they just do it. They just execute. They don’t have a command center that can know what it is doing and can change things around as to what they do. No, it has nothing to do with will, it is almost not will, it is really not will. It is skill. It is command, it is the ability the ability to know that you know and be your observer and command and evolve and choose your actions. It’s nothing to do. It’s command, it is the ability to know.

Lie on your back for a second please.

So a simple way to say it. A cat can turn right and a cat can turn left, right? You’ve seen cats moving to the right and then moving to the left. But the cat doesn’t know it turned to the right. And It doesn’t have the ability to say I turned right or to think I turned right and to say I’d rather turn left next time. That ability it will turn left and it might even choose better to turn in relation to things that are going on better than we do, I don’t know, like fire or something. But it doesn’t know, it doesn’t have the concept of "I turned to the right."

Try to stay with it and open, because it is really what this kind of movement. They also will get you to be more flexible and they will also be able to get you to be able to execute with power, with more power. And they will also get you to be whatever. But the main purpose is to get you to have a better brain. A human brain that one of its capabilities is to develop its command capacity. Its capacities to command, to organize. And it does it through knowing itself. Now you know the brain cells and so on. Knowing now I am walking down the aisle talking to my students struggling with how to communicate with them an idea that I don’t even have exactly the language for. I know that I am doing it. And that goes right with what I told you before. And let's do the, I think we have three minutes left.

And the moment you, your brain, figure out how to command, how to organize an action, you have no trouble executing it. You’re never not flexible enough, or strong enough, or young enough, or old enough, but if we don’t have it then, we can as hard as we want and we can throw in as much willpower as we want, and we will get whatever we get, but when we keep working on it without the capacities, the capabilities, the command capabilities, the organizational capacities of the system, we are using it like a metaphor. I like the description that, I like is that you know you have the thing where kids stand with one leg and push with the other, the scooter, not the electrical one just the old fashioned one I think we can you know be very lucky and inherit Uncle Harry’s few million dollars and you go and buy yourself a Rolls Royce, and you open the door and you put it on neutral and you start driving the Rolls Royce with one foot out. So God, you can call God Uncle Harry, gave you a Rolls Royce and most people ride it like a scooter. Unfortunately, I’m right. And the people who ride it on higher levels are magnificent. You know its magnificent when you meet people who are capable to use themselves in a holistic way that means they are also human they also care it's not just like clever or something.




TML 3: On Back Holding Below Knee Taking it Away Part 2 of TML 1 (2005)

aka Flexing the Spine/Healthier Spine

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 2, Aug 21, 2005 TML #3)

NOTES 1. Lie on your back please. Have your legs long. Feel yourself, the image you have of

yourself. The sensory image. The emotional image. The internal visual image. And once we start moving the kinesthetic image, the movement image. Feel. Scan your spine in your mind's eye. Your legs from the hip joints down to the heels, one leg, and then the other. The back of your knees. Your breathing. How you are breathing? Just feel that.

The back of your pelvis.

Feel the sense, the width of your shoulders. Feel. Go down from the right shoulder to the right elbow, right wrist and the tip of your fingers of the hand. The left shoulder through the upper arm, left elbow, left forearm down to the left wrist and hand and fingers. Feel the point of contact with your head to the floor. Where it is, locate it, place it in terms of right and left and up and down. Very gently roll your head very delicately right and left. Keep the head in the middle.

1a. Bend your knees put both feet standing. Now bring your legs bent up a little bit and put your right hand behind your right knee. Not in front, not below, but behind. All the fingers together. The thumb together with the rest of the fingers. Lift the left leg and put the left hand behind the left knee. Spread the legs a bit, make sure they are spread.

Let’s continue doing what we had been doing yesterday [TN: see Seg 4 TML 1] which is…

Slowly start delicately, start pulling the knees away from you.

Start with me slowly. My words are going to be slower than your movements. So go real slow.

You are starting to move your knees away from you. That starts straightening your arms if they are not straight yet. And then as you continue moving your knees away from you, you will feel it starts pulling on your shoulders, lifting your shoulders forward in terms of your body, or up and down towards the leg,



pulling on them and sliding your shoulder blades. And getting the clavicles to start moving and the sternum. And when you feel it starts pulling on your neck and moving the head and the chin starts moving away from the chest, at that point lift the head. Lift it. But lift it quickly. Continue moving the knees away at the same time. So lift the head so the head is not this horrible weight behind you.

Are you breathing in? Are you breathing out? Feel along your spine.

Why would we pick this lesson for a spine segment?

Very nice. Leave it alone.

All of you are working so beautifully attentive.

Let me tell you something important. It is very simple. I once heard Moshe say “the way to find out the degree of health of the spine is in its ability to bend to flex.” Does that make sense? People have all kinds of ways to measure the health. The health of the spine is to bend it and erect it. If you want to be upright, you want to be able to bend forward as well backwards. So maybe this is why I put this in my curriculum.

2. Put both feet standing. Get a hold of the right hand behind the right leg.

Simply pull the knee away from you and back.

And then put the other hand behind your head and when you feel there is going to be a pull behind your neck, lift your head too.

2a. Lift the right knee with your left hand. All the fingers together and the right hand behind the head. Slowly begin pulling the knee away from you.

The left leg and foot are standing.

Breathe in and out. What are you doing? Are you pushing?

How many of you are willing to admit to yourself that you are actually going past where you can really go well? That you are forcing it? Still there is that little devil in you that if you cannot go any further you are no bloody good.

If I were Moshe, I would go into a tirade of why people will do it with the leg long vs. standing. Try it yourself.

2b. Leave the left leg long. Do the movement and then put it standing and do the movement. And feel the difference.

Rest.

What happened to your physiological image of yourself? You have been here and you are on your fourth segment and you have felt parts of you get longer and shorter. When I give the lecture about the body image, there is a very dynamic image that I will talk more about later. If you do movements with attention and awareness the sense of



weight and length and size changes. That is the good news. We have access to ourselves and we can make an impact.

You see, that actually very frequently, we need the leg to be bent. Due to difficulties one doesn’t really feel the difference.

3. Bend your knees put your feet standing. Get a hold of your left knee with your right hand from behind. The right thumb with the rest of the fingers. Put your left hand behind your head. And very slowly pull the leg away from yourself. Let the right leg be standing. Lift the head when needed.

Pull the leg away gently and feel whether you can reduce the effort, the ambition and use clear intent.

Structure your intent. Part of your intent is to go slowly and be interested in what you are doing and how you are doing it and be interested in finding easier ways and trust that within the lesson there will be a transition from - we just know it is so and when we follow it we get the miraculous outcomes.

What stops you and your back, spine from following the leg more? Not by pushing harder, but where in the chest, back, neck?

3a. Just change over the hands. You take the left hand behind the knee from the outside and the right hand behind the head and resume this movement.

Relate this to the movement of the leg that pulls the head. We are looking to learn to pull on the arms so it gradually brings us up. Feel the movement of the leg and relate it to the pull on the arm, and relate it to your head.

Stop and rest

This is a movement in massage. The massage person pulls on the arm and pulls them away it is similar. The difference is that when I take someone and do this, the entire time I gauge and look, what do they know, what to do with this movement elsewhere? I have no investment in the movement itself. It is a way for me to gauge the evolution-knowledge-skill-coordination when I take someone’s knee and hand, I feel how easily the leg bends, the arm reaches, or if it cannot reach the leg. I have a video tape of working with this man who was brought to me from Phoenix. He had a brain injury when he was 19. He walked with a cane and was very tall. He had a break in the femur in one leg. When there is brain damage along with a break in the bone the bone grows, that leg was longer. He was tall. When he walked he spread his leg wide for stability and the discrepancy in his legs when he was walking was horrible. When he laid down I got him to a point where he could put both feet standing. But to put them together I felt I would need to dislocate his hip joints. I found a way to do it but there was no way to reach his arm to his knee. What could be done? A towel or any other means to connect them. Still getting the relationship between the head/shoulder/arm/knee. I used my own arm to do it.



4. Bend your knees. Now lift your right leg and get a hold of the right leg from in-between the legs. Right hand holding the right leg. Turn it and get hold behind the knee. The other arm behind the head, the left one. The left foot is standing on the floor. Slowly start pulling the leg away from you lifting the head at the right moment.

As you know what it is you see, how small variations in instruction are - when you have an appreciation of that, you will have so much freedom in facilitating for your client's major transformations. Don’t push past the point of comfort.

Now that it is a little harder to hold, it tends to slide.

When you do it, feel which parts of your spine are in the process and respond to your intent to do the movement and which parts act as if it is not happening or don’t know how to join the action?

For many people it is the lower back that doesn’t know to participate. You want a trick to get the lower back to participate more?

4a. Next time you do the movement, at the moment that you want the lower back to it, to change, put some pressure on the left foot and let the tailbone come a little bit up and roll your pelvis.

Use your foot, but you still move your knee away as you press on the foot, but you keep moving the knee away.

Did this work? For some of you.

Stop it and rest.

5. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. This time, take your left hand from in-between your legs and get a hold behind your left knee. Put your right hand behind your head.

Slowly, do not do the movement as if you know what it is going to be like because you did the other side. Approach the movement as if it were new. Don’t treat it like ‘known’.

When you are awake and aware, it is worth the time doing it and you bring the potency up hugely. The same way with your hands when you work with people. If you touch people like you already know, they don’t get much. If you touch them like you were a musician, like you were to create music all the time, you will get amazing outcomes.

When you come back, just let it go back to the starting point.

Are you breathing in and out?

Is your lower back participating in the movement or not?



Leave it alone please and rest.

6. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put both hands in-between the legs, inside, not crossed. Right hand to right knee and left hand to left knee. The legs a little apart. Do not squeeze the knees together. Slowly pull the knees away from you.

Leave it alone and rest please.

7. Bend your knees again. Put your feet standing. Lift your right knee and leave it in the air bent. Put your right arm in-between your legs, get a hold with your right hand from above the outer border of the right foot, like a monkey.

If it is difficult get a hold of your ankle or pants or whatever makes it so you are not tearing your shoulder out.

Put your left hand behind your head.

Very gently, start moving the foot in a wide arc toward the ceiling and the head toward the foot.

You don’t straighten the leg. You do it at the same time. The arm is inside the knee.

7a. Slowly listen to the image of your spine when you do this movement. The length of the spine as you do the movement.

Is the spine growing longer or sinking or the same?

If the spine is shrinking that means you are doing it in a way that is not working for you.

Slowly lengthen the leg a little bit. Bring the foot in an arc forward and up toward the head and at the same time the head does what the foot does in the opposite direction. Imagine the spine getting long.

[TO STUDENT] Just get over it. I want you to get the maximum benefit from doing this work. You have to be over it that it is not the size of the movement that will bring about the transformation.

[DEMO] If it hurts don’t do it! Her arm is pulled and maxed out from the beginning of grabbing the leg. Hold the leg closer to the calf. Go where it is comfortable. It is the only place you are supposed to be and you can learn. If you go where it is hard you will learn that it is not working. Now lift your head, but think you have a miraculous spine. Very slowly press on your left foot so the tailbone rolls up a little bit. Pull the belly a little in and lift the leg. You will lift your head but imagine your spine, a funny little elastic spine that gets longer like a tree growing. Slowly lift your head as you press on your foot, but get longer.



7b. Lift the right leg up, hold the foot from in-between the legs. Your left hand is behind the head.

And slowly bring the leg and the head up in an arc, like before. Gradually you move the head and the foot at the same time.

You can break it into two phases initially. But imagine the spine growing longer from the tailbone and the top of the head.

Leave it alone and rest please.

Feel for some of you very dramatic reorganization of the image of yourself. What feels longer, shorter, flatter bigger. The emotional image can change dramatically, the feeling of yourself, when you feel different.

In my training I felt like I was all in my belly and my pelvis was huge. A feeling of power. The head, neck, shoulders, eyes, face, and everything gradually comes in and becomes part of who you are.

8. Bend your legs put your feet standing. With the left hand from in-between the legs grab a hold from above the foot or the ankle or pant leg. The right hand behind the head.

Very slowly, don’t go where you pull, go where it goes easily [TN: Bring the leg and the head up in an arc].

You will learn and reorganize a lot faster. Look to do it in minor changes.

Listen to your chest, sternum, and length of the spine. Be sure to bring the foot and the head up at the same time. Gently. Loving. Friendly.

[TO STUDENT] Don’t go so far. For you it will be hard to not go so far. Go far later. But right now, explore shifting your idea of how far you are supposed to go. See if you can get some freedom from it. I read a book once that said a woman got free when she turned 75. Heck, let's start now.

Straighten your legs and rest for a moment.

9. Now bend your knees put your feet standing. Lift your right leg in the air. Get a hold of the outer border of the right foot from below with your left hand. The right hand behind the head and modify the grabbing of the leg as you need to. Resume lifting the head and the leg as you did before.

Are you using the standing foot? Are you using your thinking?

9a. Now change over the hands and the legs. Lift your left leg in the air. Get a hold of the outer border of the foot with the right hand from below.



Long spine. A lot of breath.

Very good leave it alone and rest please.

10. Bend your knees put your feet standing. From in-between the legs get a hold with the left hand the left foot and the right hand the right foot. Now lift both feet up in an arc and back down. The head stays down on the floor. Use any modification to hold the feet that you need.

10a. Put both feet down standing. Lift the left leg up in the air. Hold the left foot with the left arm in-between the legs catching the left foot from above. The other arm down alongside yourself. Slowly move the left foot up and slowly take it more towards your right. So you roll a little to the right like that and come back.

First you lengthen the leg like that and then you take it to the right and come back. You can take the foot to the floor on the right side. Your right leg may lengthen.

You can put your foot on your neighbor. You lift and then roll them. Combine the movement.

Leave it alone and rest for a second.

11. Bend your knees. Lift your right leg in the air. Get a hold of the outer border of your right foot or anything you want from above with your right arm.

Don’t drag your other leg on the floor.

Slowly start lifting the leg a bit. Don’t roll all the way the first time.

Feel how you gradually need to soften and reduce the effort in the shoulders, chest, rib cage, and abdomen so you can have mobility.

Soften to the ground. Mold to the ground. Roll to the left. Lift first, and as you lift, you start rolling. You don’t roll when the leg is bent, squished. You want the leg up.

Marvelous leave it alone and rest.

12. Bend your knees put your feet standing. Now again get a hold from in-between your legs your right foot from above with your right arm. Lift your left leg bent in the air. Now, you can straighten the right leg and bring it up a little bit and down with a little



swing and use the other leg to get yourself to sitting. You are going to sit straight forward not through the side.

Look, the nose comes forward and that makes it easier. The spine has to move. That is what we have been doing otherwise you have to have abdomen muscles like an elephant and you still can’t get up.

Don’t swing. Pull the right leg away from you. The other leg kicks to help. Remember the head has to come. Easier?

12a. Do it with the other leg. Feel how nice it is to have this control of the self.

You see it is soft. The leg goes forward not so much up.

All of you rest for a moment.

13. Keep the left leg long this time. Get a hold of the right foot from in-between the legs from above. The left leg is more or less straight. The left arm is next to your body. Lengthen and bring in an arc the right foot up and take it to the left and back.

13a. And next time you do it, bring the head forward and bring your head down. Come to sitting by doing this.

Here it is the opposite of swinging. Find the trajectory and use the weight of the leg to pull and bring you up and gradually bring you down. Palm down.

It is not an athletic movement. You can do it if you are paralyzed.

Very good. Take your time. Excellent.

The head goes hugely forward in order to do it and in order to stand up. Keep the leg long. Bend the right leg. If you have a little bump. You will get rid of it.

Rest.

What is happening to your body image?

14. Get a hold of your left ankle from the outside. Bring it over to the right side of yourself. Do it to the other side. Roll to the side and get up holding the leg, using the leg.

All of you stop it and rest for a second.



15. Bend your knees put your feet standing. With your right hand in-between the legs get a hold from behind the left knee. And from above get a hold of your right leg with your left hand.

Slowly bring your legs away and see what happens. You have to soften the chest and spine. The arms are crossed.

Straighten your legs as you come up.

15a. Change the crossing of the arms. Sit, put your feet standing. Put your right hand behind your right knee and your left hand behind your left knee. Very slowly melt yourself to the ground. Round your low back and see how far your head goes forward, and then come back.

You see how hard it was yesterday.

15b. Now lie on the back holding the legs and bring your legs forward and head forward and see what happens. The thumbs with the fingers. Go back.

You see, the head has to come forward a little sooner. You have to move the knees away, soften the chest. It is the excess force in the chest that keeps the people down.

15c. Up on your feet. Enough.

I have killed you here.

[END OF LESSON]




TML 4: Twisting in Sitting: Primary Movements of Spine (2011)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel seg 4 Dec. 2011) Length of lesson: 70 minutes

NOTES

1. Sit up. Cross your legs. Those of you who have a hard time sitting, I recommend to

support yourself a bit, so, you don’t have to struggle.

Cross your legs, if you can. Notice, cross, cross the legs, no, just for your, for the future, just… Notice if your right leg is in front, or the left. Whichever one you are doing spontaneously is fine.

Put your hands on your hips.

Put your hands on your hips. Get an attitude. You are at the ready, girl. OK. I’ll wait for everybody to get their props. So, put your hands on your hips.

I mean, it’s actually not on your pelvis, on your iliac bones.

Is there a word for this? Because this is not hips. In Hebrew we have two separate words but I do not know about English. Yeah, I am not talking about anatomical terms … [comment from a student] Yeah, but your hips are not there [TN: iliac bones]. [TN: inaudible]

OK, as if it will help you. “motnaim”. “Irikhaim” is hip joint, but “motnaim” is this [Anat puts her hand on her iliac bones] “motnaim.” “Agan” is the whole thing. King David had power in his “motnaim”. And, he did not pull in the abs.

OK. Begin turning your head, your shoulders, everything so the head doesn’t move relative to the shoulders and the shoulders don’t move relative to the chest, the whole thing just turns to the… You turn to the right, you come back.

Your hands on your “motnaim”. And, to the right, not to the left.

Just gently, slowly.

See, I see some heads whipping ahead of the spine and the shoulders. So, what do you need to do in order to maybe do the instructions as said? [TN: Anat echoes answers shouted out] Slow down, that’s great. What else? Small movement. What else? Hold goals extremely loosely. What else? Yup. About having to do all of those things, right?

And reduce the force.

And really feel, pay attention and gauge yourself, "what am I doing?"



Can you feel your “motnaim” [TN: iliac bones] moving or not? Excellent.

Can you … Because, in order to really move it as …

1a. Don’t let the… now, I am going back to what you call it, hips, don’t let them move and see what happens.

You see, in no time, it is really difficult to move as one unit. Do you feel that? If you really don’t move it, it starts being relative movement there.

1b. OK, just keep doing that [TN: repeat movement 1, without constraining the pelvis/motnaim]. Excellent. Slowly.

And visualize your spine, and feel how the head is sitting on top of the spine. And you are riding, turning like that, your whole self as one unit to the right.

1c. And now, look forward with your eyes. Come to the front like that.

Look forward with your eyes.

Notice where your head is in space right now. Continue doing the movement, except, keep the head where it is. So, the eyes and head stay absolutely where they are and you continue moving the rest of what you were moving before, to the right.

So, the shoulders go together with the torso, together with the pelvis like that, to some extent, and back. But, the head stays smack in the center and the eyes stay smack in the center.

Go slow enough and attentive enough so that you have a better chance of actually knowing whether you are doing that which you are … you think you are doing.

I would strongly recommend to put the glasses down. That would allow for faster changes in the neck and in the eye muscles.

1d. And now stay in the middle.

Get, come back to the middle.

And, this time, move, move only the head to the right, and the eyes stay to the front and the torso stays to the front.

Very slow. The eyes keep looking, just keep looking at the same thing whatever it is you are looking. And just the head goes. Not the shoulders, some of you are moving the shoulders.

1e. And now, keep the eyes to the front and take the head and the shoulders and the torso to the right. So, only the eyes stay to the front.

You have to think, Huh? I always say, only a Jew could develop such an exercise method. Definitely a genius. Any other kind of Jews? Unfortunately to tell you, yes. I would have loved to say no, but, lots of brilliant ones, but, the whole gamut.



1f. And now, stay in the middle and only the eyes go to the right.

Only the eyes. Only the eyes.

See if you can breathe.

1g. And now, do five quick movements like flicker with the eyes to the right and back. To the right back, like you saw something quick.

You all look like little thieves.

1h. And now, take everything together again to the right and feel if there is any difference.

[TO STUDENT] Hmm, I assume, Dan, it is a, yeah, enthusiasm.

Do you feel? And feel whether even though you are taking everything together, you are actually growing a little taller. Can you feel that now, when you turn, there’s a tendency to grow taller?

Anybody feels that? Isn’t it amazing? Just fantastic.

Lie on your back and rest for a minute.

The man was a genius. This is such a classic, one of his classic ideas. I mean the lesson can be done in many different ways.

2. Roll to your side. Sit up.

Cross your legs. This time, maybe, this time, change over the crossing of the legs.

[TO STUDENT] So, you are... how are you? Oh, you are using it under the knee. I see. OK, that’s clever.

You feel the difference? And you feel how come we selected the other way first? Isn’t it amazing the inner wisdom we have, that you don’t even know what you are crossing, but you know to cross what you are crossing? I always find this totally fascinating. Anyway…

Put your hands on your “motnaim.”

Turn everything to the right: head, shoulder.

Right, yes, I said same side, believe it or not. Some of you drove the head further than the head. The nose stays in the midline of your sternum as you turn. That way you know you haven’t turned the head more than the rest.

2a. So, do it again, and just turn as far as you can comfortably, not more, and stay there. And then, in this place, stay twisted now. You are not going back, you are just turning the head further to the right, and back to where it is now.



So, you are keeping your torso and your shoulders twisted while you turn the head more to the right and back to the middle.

So, once you’ve twisted, stay there. See if you can do that, or, how well you can do that.

2b. And now, turn the head as far comfortable.

When I say far, I don’t mean like you hurt yourself. But, you are twisted to the right. Now, the head is turned as far to the right as you can comfortably.

And, now, your eyes only, look at the bridge of your nose, and look back to the right. Bridge of your nose and back to the right. And, each time you go back to the right, turn the eyes as far as you can to the right comfortably.

Don’t give yourself a headache.

2c. And now, stay twisted like that. Notice, many of you are actually twisted a bit more. But, stay twisted, both shoulders and head.

Maybe come back to the middle and twist everything again to the right. Twist yourself all together, then keep taking the head further to the right.

So, shoulders, head, and continue with head. And stay with eyes to the right. Stay twisted like that and bring only the shoulder to the middle.

It can only be a small movement. If you do a big movement, if you do a big movement, you will bring other things to the middle.

So bring as much as you can back of the shoulders. But actually your spine stays twisted.

So, eyes to the right, head to the right, spine twisted to the right, torso twisted to the right, shoulders coming a little bit back to the middle. Many of you are bringing the whole thing back to the middle.

2d. And come back to the middle, everything, everything back to the middle, hands are still on the “motnaim.”

Now, twist, again, everything to the right, but keep the head centered. Don’t turn the head separate from the shoulders, so, everything centered to the right.

Feel how you are doing that, by the way. Each time.

And now in this position, bring, together, the head and the shoulders only, but stay twisted. See if you can do that.

So you stay twisted to the right, but your head and shoulder, the head stays in the midline, right, the nose stays in the midline of the sternum, and you bring the head and the shoulders to the middle, but you stay twisted. You stay twisted.



First, you have to twist or you can’t stay twisted if you haven’t twisted. I know it’s a riddle. I can see Hilary’s face getting all contorted. What is this woman asking us to do? I am not asking to tilt the ear to the shoulder.

2e. And now, come back to the middle and twist everything to the right, and then continue taking the head to the right the eyes to the right. And see if you are going just a little bit easier a little bit further.


3. Roll through your right side so you sit side sitting with your legs to the left, bent to the left, side sitting.

Your feet, yeah, there we go.

Put your hands on your “motnaim” if you can. If not, lean. If not, lean on the left arm.

But, if you can put your hands on your iliac bones, I don’t know, on your “motnaim”.

And now, resume twisting everything as one unit to the right, head, shoulder, sternum, ribs, spine.

That means you are carrying the spine, and not having any relative movement going to the right. But, you are turning to the right. You are not doing something else. You are turning to the right.

Stay turned. Stay turned like that. Only the eyes, take to the left. Maybe, do it with the eyes closed, first.

3a. And now, come back to the middle. And again, turn everything together to the right, but, as you’re turning to the right, take the eyes to the left.

So, head, it’s like somebody slid a stick from the top of your head through your spine to your tailbone. So, when you turn, the whole thing just turns as one unit, except the eyes go in the opposite direction.

Go slow enough, slow enough, slow, so slow that you can actually gauge what you are doing with your eyes, and that you can actually gauge that you are moving as simultaneously...

That means that you are continuously moving with the pelvis, head, you know, spine, back, head, shoulders and at the same time the eyes are moving in the opposite direction, so it’s a simultaneous movement.

Not passive movement by looking in the front but active movement. The eyes to the left as the whole self is moving to the right.

3b. And now, turn everything to the right again as one unit, but, take the eyes as far to the right as it can look now. And stay twisted like that.



And now, only the shoulders bring them a little bit back to the middle, only the shoulders.

I see some of you are starting to figure it out. But, it is not lifting the shoulder to the ears. And, it is not sliding the hands. It’s not moving the elbows in space. It’s not drinking a glass of red wine even though it might help. You are twisted and you bring just the shoulders back.

It’s can only be a small movement, a very small movement. Because, once you do a bigger movement you have no choice but to bring everything.

3c. And now, come to the middle. And twist to the right and as you twist to the right, turn the head to the left and the eyes, actively.

That means that you are twisting to the right and at the same times you are turning your head and the eyes to look to the left. And again, you do it simultaneously.

[TO STUDENT] But, you’re twisting, you’re twisting, twisting, twisting, twist, twist. Just think of uncorking a bottle of wine. There you go. That’s it. Twist. And you turn the head and the eyes actively over to the other side. Excellent.

3d. And then, come to the middle and twist your everything again over to the right and let the head turn more to the right and the eyes and see if you are twisting more.

See if the ...

Not just more but there is a different quality to the way you are doing it.

Look at you guys, you are looking good. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice.

Start by, start by taking the head and the shoulders together go as far as you can and then you can top it off with turning the head and the eyes. Otherwise, many still …

Lie on your back and rest. 1 ENDNOTE #1: INTEGRATING WHOLE SPINE AND BACK

4. So again, roll through your right with the feet to the left.

Okay, sit with your legs to the left. Don’t sit one leg on top of the other. You are not a mermaid.

The sole of the right foot is near the left knee. That’s right. Put your hands again on your “motnaim”.

You are going to know the word by the end of this lesson.

And now twist everything again as one to the right, just like you were doing before. And stay, but you are with the head now, the nose centered.



So maybe do it again. Come back to the middle and turn so there is no relative movement between one part and the other. Everything moves as one unit, very nice, very nice.

2 ENDNOTE #2: BECOMING A BETTER NOTICER

So sit sideways, same way. Put your hands on your “motnaim”, same way, the same way. And now, twist yourself to the right, taking your head on top of your spine, everything together, like you have been casted.

Don’t have to make it, you know, tense because of that.

And now, begin drawing, listen to my instructions, you are going to begin drawing a circle with the top of your head, but, you are going to keep the relationship between the head and tailbone, that means the whole twist [TN: spine] the same.

So, the head can’t move by itself. The whole spine has to move. Start drawing circles in space with the top of your head. The head does not move relative to the chest. The head, nothing moves relative to nothing.

What moves? Actually, your hip joints. The spine moves a little bit in space, but, the movement is done in your hips. Slowly, slowly.

[TO STUDENT The hands are in front. Just easy it like that, and, yeah. Just see if you can reduce a little bit the effort in the upper back. There you go. So, that’s excellent.

And by the way, Richard turned, after this little talk, perfectly together. That means he could feel it, but, somebody had to call his attention to notice it. And, I am trying to train you be the ones calling your attention.

4a. And now, change the direction of the circle.

And, feel, by the way, how it actually can be quite pleasurable to do this movement. There is something about it that reorganizes and connects us in a pretty nice way.

Make sure you breathe comfortably easily and keep listening, and listen that the circle is a circle to the best as you can.

[TO STUDENT] Drop down your chin a little bit, Dan. Drop down your chin. Drop it more. Drop it more. That is the neck not shortened. You feel how weird that feels to you? Bring it back to where you normally have it. It is shortened. Do you feel now it is shortened? Yeah.

Lie on your back and rest. Rest. Rest.

And of course, I didn’t mention it, but, I assume you start feeling differences between the right side and the left side, wherever you are.

5. Roll to your right side, left legs to the... I mean, the legs to the left.



Again, your hands on your “motnaim.”

It’s good to mix more and more languages together. There are more options.

And now turn everything to the right.

Turn everything to the right.

And then, continue turning the head and the eyes to the right past the shoulders as far as is comfortable. And stay there.

And now, in this position, begin bending your head and back in such a way that you move your right ear towards your back. You take your right ear, you bend your neck, you bend your head in such a way that you take your right ear towards your back.

And then come back.

I highly recommend to use the whole spine. I highly … What do you need to do?

5a. Let me make it really hard for you to do, for a second. Do it gently, though. Pull your belly in. Hold it in. And, do the movement. Hold the belly in and do the movement.

You see, I can turn you all into my private clients in no time.

So, now … It will be a good system to increase your practice, right?

5b. Now arch your back. Push your belly out. Lift your chest.

As you do it, don’t have to do a big movement with the head, but feel what happens the moment you even increase a tiny bit your idea and awareness of using your whole spine to moving the head like this. It is actually a nice movement. Clavicles, think clavicles too. They are kind of important.

5c. And now, bend your - stay turned like that - bend your left ear towards your sternum.

Of, course, I recommend to do the opposite with the spine.

So, the head is turned to the right, as far as you can have it. The whole self is twisted to the right. You don’t come to the middle. There isn’t like a funny movement going to the middle. You stay...

3 ENDNOTE #3: AWARENESS, BEING IN THE HERE AND NOW

5d. OK, so all of you now, sit this way.

I thought I would teach this lesson quickly. So much for my thoughts.

The legs to the left.



You see, in a class in a regular class to the public, I wouldn’t be doing all this. I would just help them with rough approximation because all they need the class is to get better. They don’t need to become teachers. With you, I think it is a shame to miss the opportunity to see in those seemingly relatively simple variations, the richness there is in there.

So twist again to the right like that. Put your hands on your “motnaim."

Thank you for helping me. Now, I can start talking to you like with my daughter. We speak sentences that sometimes start in English, have Hebrew in the beginning, end in English. We, I just shift language like whatever word is the easiest. Like she with the modern dancing, you know.

Twist yourself to the left - to the right.

That is what I said. You just have to understand my meaning.

Turn as far as you can to the right.

And now, one time, take the right ear toward your back and then continue taking the left ear towards your sternum.

And just do this wonderful movement. It actually does look like a dance movement. Lovely.

And only as far as you feel, first of all, the head doesn’t start coming back to the midline, and also, that it feels easy.

And feel, what you are starting to do with your spine.

Some of you haven’t moved your spine like this for decades. Excellent.

And, when, you take your right ear towards the back, think “sternum”. Is it lifting, clavicles lifting, chest lifting, spine arching? And then, going down, the other way around, spine rounding, sternum sliding down, ribs sliding down.

Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice.

5e. And now, come back everything to the middle.

And just one time, twist to the right, and see if you are twisting yet easier, still, a bit easier. Yes? No?

Do you feel how nice it is to get the whole self, more and more, into the game?


6. And roll the same way, sit the same way, twist to the right all the way and then the head and the eyes twist as much, you know, twist yourself as much as you can. Hands on your “motnaim”. And, stay twisted like that, all the way.



And, now, locate in your mind's eye your right elbow. Can you feel your right elbow?

You are twisted, look to the right. Turn your head to the right as far as you can past your shoulders. So you turn it as far as you can, without hurting yourself, without shortening the back of the neck.

And now, move, bend your head, move your nose towards your right elbow. So, you bend, now you are bending in a different way. You take your head towards your right elbow, the spine does now something different, And, back to place.

It’s as … even though when you bend the head the elbow also goes a little down of course. But, bend your head towards the elbow.

And see whether there is some bending movement in the spine where the right side gets a little shorter and the left side gets a little longer.

So, it’s the movement is not just in the hips, but, can the movement also be…

[TO STUDENT] No not the ear anymore, the nose. If you take your elbows way behind you, then it confuses. Have the elbows sideways. Ouchy ouch. Slow, slow, towards the elbow.

6a. And now, take the back of your head towards the left elbow. Bend your head your neck, your spine so that the back of the head goes a little closer.

And look this is something that most people …

4 ENDNOTE #4: STAYING TALL AND BENDING

Stay tall. Stay tall.

So move the back of the head now, towards the back elbow, the left elbow, and the nose towards the right elbow.

And feel it’s easier to bend when you take the back of the head to the left, because it is already bent in that direction. But see if you can, despite the side sitting, bend the other way. Excellent.

[TO STUDENT] To the middle and you don’t know that. I am talking to somebody specific.

And now, come back to the middle.

6b. And twist again to the right. And, feel if you are twisting differently.

Look at, some of you are starting see the other side of the world.

6c. And continue, and stay now, with the head in the middle. You don’t … Do it as one unit, stay as one unit.

And now, do three circles with the top of your head in one direction and three circles with the top of your head in the opposite direction.



And feel if doing circles now is different.

Don’t look up to the ceiling or you can be sure you are shortening your head, I mean, your neck.

You feel how much more you can do this now.

Isn’t that funny? You know what’s funny about this stuff. That it works. I, after all these years, I am still stunned that it actually works. It’s all darn made up, and it works.


Are you starting to feel a little difference between the right side and the left side? Yes yes?

7. And this time, roll to your side and don’t make assumptions, because you will. Roll to your side through the left side so you have your knees, I mean, your feet to the right, side sitting with your feet to the right.

Put your hands on your hips. By the way, feel how different it feels, I am sure.

And, now, guess what, twist everything as one unit to the right, slow. It is going to be a lot smaller, so don’t try to go far.

Twist everything as one unit to the right, and back.

7a. And, now, twist yourself like this to the right and then also take the head more to the right and the eyes more to the right and stay there.

And now, only the shoulders, bring them back. So, the eyes keep seeing the same point that it has been seeing so, and bring them back.

[TO STUDENT] And see if you can keep the head up, rather than tilting it, you know. Start from scratch, otherwise it is hard to know. Start from scratch. So have the head tall, that’s it, and turn tall, stay tall. Then, keep taking the head tall, twisting it. That’s it. Now you are doing it.

And now, keep seeing what you are seeing, and the shoulders...

[TO STUDENT] You are looking down. Look forward.

The shoulders come back to the middle, but, it can only come back a tiny bit or you are not going to see that point anymore.

[TO STUDENT] The shoulders, not the head, Betsy, the shoulders. The eyes stay the same place. That means the head, the shoulders move. The shoulders are not the elbows, even though the elbows move in space, but, think shoulders don’t think elbows.

7b. And now, stay to the right, and this time, move only the head back to the middle.



It’ll be again a very tiny movement, because your eyes are still going to see the same point.

The eyes still see the same point.

7c. And now, bring everything to the middle. And, turn to the right.

And feel if it is a little easier already. Is it a little easier? Yeah. Okay.

So stay twisted. And, have the neck long. Feel the top of your head and do a few circles in one direction.

[TO STUDENT] Not... If you are looking up, you have shortened your neck, guaranteed.

Makes circles by moving from the hips, so everything stays as it is. And, you draw as if you have a very long, thin pencil pointing towards the ceiling and you are drawing a circle.

7d. And, now, change the direction of the circle.

7e. And now, stay as you are, and bend your right ear towards the back, just what you did earlier, the right ear, you are twisted all the way with the head to the right, and you take the right ear back in the direction of your back.

And again, to the, try to, don’t move much where you look like you are about to get decapitated. See if you can actually move as long as you use yourself. And, if you can only move your spine a little bit, move the head a little bit.

No, no, no, it’s back back towards the back, the ear towards, here, it’s the other way.

7f. And now, the left ear towards the sternum.

That’s right.

7g. And now, combine the two. Combine the two.

And, lie on your back and rest for a moment.

8. And this time, roll through the right side so you side-sit with your legs, your feet to the left. And put your hands on your “motnaim.”

And first of all feel how you are sitting, and if just sitting up like this is very different.

And now, twist everything together to the right, and feel the quality. Feel how much you can sense your whole spine.

And, then continue taking the head and the eyes past the shoulders and feel how far you can see now and the quality with which you are doing it now.

And come back and do this back and forth a couple of times.



8a. And now, cross your legs. Cross your legs, that was the first position.

And, now, put your hands on your hips like this. And, twist yourself to the right, again.

And, feel, compare that to the beginning of the lesson. And, is it different for you?

And, feel how now when you do it, many of you are getting taller. That means that even though you are moving everything together you lower back is participating. You are getting the power, you are getting upright, and you are twisting on top of being upright, you are not collapsing and twisting. There you go. Very nice.

8b. Get up on your feet. Get up on your feet.

And just feel, first of all, the general feeling of standing up. And, what it is like to be up.

And, then, of course, feel the difference between the right side and the left side.

Some of you look like dual people.

Feel one eye, many of you the right eye is much more open. The tonus on the right side of the face is completely different.

Feel how the weight goes through the soles of your feet, the right side, the left, the shoulders.

8c. And, now, walk around and just notice whatever you do. You just pay attention to whatever comes to you.

And, feel to a great extent, you are imbalanced. Can you feel that? Yes, yes? Yes, no? Cherish it. Because this is a magnificent source of information.

Feel what it is like to step on one foot, what it is like to step on other foot.

How you feel in yourself on one side how you feel in yourself on the other side.

Familiarize yourself with the differences. Which also means you familiarize yourself with the possibilities.

Feel how the face is completely different on the right for many of you.

It is quite remarkable to see the differences in the face. And since we were not working on the face, obviously, the changes are more global. They are not just in where you moved your muscles, that is a big part of it. It is a reorganization of the whole side and then the whole self. I mean it is so general changes.

[END OF LESSON]



1 ENDNOTE #1: INTEGRATING WHOLE SPINE AND BACK

Guess why I am asking to do it that way. Anybody has a guess? [TN: inaudible response] You said, “uh huh”. Oh, I see you are not … [TN: inaudible response] Yeah, say full sentence.

[Hilary] Some people are leading with their heads through their necks rather than rotating the spine.

[Anat] Exactly. So, what happens is for so many people, the habit, organization, the mapping, is such that when we think of looking, it’s the neck, and twisting, shortening the necks, all kind... few of those things. And, the participation through whole spine, the back, the lower back … And we are going to talk in a minute about how the lower back needs to get organized, simply is either completely inhibited or partially inhibited, which is one of the main causes for neck pain, shoulder pain, you know, carpal tunnel, is actually just from that. If you just change that, you eliminate about 80, 90 percent of those problems.

I discovered that working in Tanglewood, the first summer that I worked in Tanglewood music festival. And it was so … I could see that they all needed it. I did it. And, most of the pains went away. And I started feeling like I am cheating. Because, I kept … I had to go to that because it was so basic. I, so that is all they have to do. Okay.

So, this lesson, once again, as you feel those improvements, should demonstrates that the difficulty, the experience, perceived difficulty is not an actual physical, so to speak, mechanical difficulty. It is not like the joint is not I don’t know whatever or you are too old or too young or whatever the idea is. The difficulty has to do with the central organization that is done by the brain that means the command center. And, when we increase, through differentiation by the way the main tool, there are actual many ways, the only thing I mean the primary thing after which comes integration, but, through differentiation the brain is provoked, is woken up is provoked to optimize the organization to improve it in a spontaneous way. So, when you take the head a little here or the eyes a little there, switch, you know, directions, you are actually working on the underlying capacities of the nervous system to organize itself and you. So, that is what we talked about or I talked about yesterday, and here is another example, because you are not stretching, you are not I don’t know whatever. It is really that.

2 ENDNOTE #2: BECOMING A BETTER NOTICER

Uh oh, some of you are taking the head. See, watch for a moment. Richard, may I demonstrate on you. Do it so it feels exactly the same way that it felt to you right now. And, look. Here is a man that has a high enough IQ to get an MD degree. So, you see, it has nothing to do with that. Come back. It’s just the power of habit is such and what a strong habit … and do it again. Just that it feels the same way, see? See how he combines both the turning of the head and the shortening of the neck and and it is invisible to him on the feeling level. It is invisible to him. How can it be invisible to him? You see how much it… Actually it has nothing to do with intelligence per se. How come it is invisible?

[TN: Anat repeats response from a student] It is habitual and what does that do when it is habitual? One of the things that happens in the brain, or, at least how I think it happens in the brain, what do you think?

So, how come? So it is a strong habit. What happens in the brain? Simple, quick answer. That will be a non-habitual thing. We need to give you a microphone.

[Artie] Your brain talk, but, we get good at what we practice.

[Anat] Okay. So, you are not answering my question. My question: What happens we don’t necessarily get good at it we get to do it … What? Let the gazelle get to you.

[Jan] It gets grooved in. The neuron pathways’ grooved strongly.



[Anat] And what happens when that happens? Something else happens when that happens.

[Kim] We are unaware.

[Anat] Yes, but that’s obvious. But, what happens in the brain? We have somebody in the back.

[Donna] The other connections get pruned away.

[Anat] That’s right. What happens is that the whole … you know people think of brain plasticity they think of it primarily in terms of creating more possibilities. But, the plasticity works both ways. So, when you do something over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. You, what you call “get good at it” or what happens is what you get grooved into it. The grooving in, it takes away … The pruning means …

Okay, let me just back off a second, because, what happens, and I am going to talk about it actually today a little, a lecture I want to talk about, is that all those in early childhood, a lot of random movement, later on, a lot of variations, that the system spontaneously generates actually generates the, a lot of what I call hovering connections. So, they are not … they are like options, they are possibilities, they are available for usage in the constant in a healthy vibrant alive person in this constant search so when you walk, even here I had to respond to stepping on something, right? But, this is what we walk on now is very predictable, right, flat surface. But, you can imagine that the brain was structured to manage very changeable grounds, right? So, that means that has to compute instantaneously as we... It is not enough to know to walk, you have to know to walk on what you are walking which changes. Makes sense? So, you can’t have “the” pattern of walking, because, if all of a sudden the ground… You have to have an additional skill of selecting the specifics every, continuously, you have to select continuously. That’s what many people lose as they age. Because they do walk as if it is predictable. Makes sense?

So, the … those hovering connections or statistical possibilities of minor shifts and changes and occasionally bigger shifts and when it gets to really big big shifts, reflexes tends to kick in by the way, right? You slip on a banana thing, you start slipping, it’s already kicks to something much more predictable and grooved in. That is kind of an interesting way that the system works. But when we through, in our voluntary system we get very predictable and rigid, and and do it again and again, then, we lose the ability to perceive fine changes and differences. So, then you get … you are not alone, I am just using you as an example. You get somebody like Richard, and he is listening to what I say, he is very interested. And you heard … you know the testimonial and he is using the work in very interesting, you know, way and all that stuff, still, moving the head again and again and again the same way. So, that’s first of all why we have a class and a teacher. But, beyond that, it’s a tricky thing that we are blind to our strong habits. We are neurologically wired to not notice the differences anymore. It is kind of like the system says OK, you are not going to do anything new here. You know we are moving towards the end, doesn’t matter, kind of thing. And, also it has worked for many years, so it also was successful so it plays on both ends. So, it is this funny thing that you have to seek to notice stuff in yourself that you are not built to notice anymore.

And that is when I repeat an instruction that is an invitation to you to say “am I doing it? Am I doing it? What am I doing? It feels to me like I am”. But, even if I told him to do what he’s doing it all feels the same. He doesn’t distinguish anymore. That is the whole point. You understand? So, when I say, “take it the same, do it the same”, ask yourself, not like a bad thing, am I doing it right, am I doing it wrong. It has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with good, bad, right, wrong, nothing. It has to do with developing a skill, a acuity, an ability to actually notice better and better. You become a better noticer.

3 ENDNOTE #3: AWARENESS, BEING IN THE HERE AND NOW

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Completely not understanding, Laura. So, let me demonstrate on you, so if anybody else not understands. Do it all at once. Go ahead and do it. I mean you are doing a very lovely movement; it just isn’t what I was talking about.



You are a modern dancer. She has her grooved in lots of connections as a dancer. You see what she does? Do what you do. Do it, then, do the other way. You see she does something completely different, you see? So, that’s …

You know how all the, I don’t know all, but, at least a lot of … You can stop for a second. A lot of the spiritual teaching, a very important part of, I think, I am not an expert by the way, on spiritual teachings, but, by my understanding, an important part of spiritual teaching is the ability to be in the here and now. Am I correct about that from people who are more experts in that?

[TN: inaudible comments from a student] What? Yes, the presence, the here and now.

Well, what we are talking about is exactly the ability or inability to be in the here and now. Because, if we can just follow the grooves that we have already created, if the here and now matches our grooves, we are in the here and now. And, if it doesn’t, we are not. So, really we are not. It doesn’t matter what happens, we are just doing our thing.

Anyway, so, so, it, and it doesn’t fault that which we are doing. It’s not about, again, like I spoke about yesterday, it is not about the content. It’s not, do again, Laura, the movement you did. You know, I could give an instruction, “Bring the head in a circle, towards…" I don’t know whatever how to describe it, "and do this" [TN: what Laura is doing], then it would be perfect. She is doing “this” very very nicely, except, “this” is not what she is asked to do, now. And this has an enormous amount of implications, but, I won't go into it now.

So, now, first of all, just don’t think of anything except bringing yourself in a twist to the right. Everything, everything, first your chest together with the head, first everything together with, no, together with the head, one piece, one piece, one piece.

You see, funny, funny. You, see, when I get her to feel, she was doing what Richard was doing, leading more with the head. Turn everything, shoulders, to the right.

[TN: responding to Laura’s question] With. No. Your whole self as one piece, as one piece. As far as you can go. And, then continue with the head and the eyes. And now, bend… Listen to the instruction, bend your left ear to your sternum. And, back. That’s it. Now, she is figuring out. And, come back.

And, now, bend your left ear down towards your sternum. Excellent. Come back. Come back. And now, from the first nanosecond that you are starting to do the movement, have your whole spine represented in the movement, so that your brain thinks, computes the whole spine while you do it.

Don’t collapse. It’s not a question of collapsing, it’s a question of coordinating. It’s a question of accounting for, nothing goes … You see, and here you are losing the twist. You see, how can you bend and…? No, if you start losing the twist, don’t go that far. This is what I am talking about. You see, do you feel the difference from what… It’s like two different actions.

[Laura:] I was actually thinking this [TN: pointing to her right ear] was my left ear.

[Anat:] That would have been a problem. But, you see, yeah, you may be little dyslexic which happened. But, you notice you will tend to do the mistakes when doing it correctly is a little difficult. So, that it is not you are intending to do it that way. But, the brain always looks for the easiest solution. It goes, “Oh, I am supposed to do what ear to the chest? Oh, this one. Okay.”Because this is easy for you to do. It is familiar. It is always the same darn thing. I mean, there are other elements to our actions, but, right now, I am focusing on that one.

So, that’s again who is overseeing whom, here? And, that is going to be such a central skill, working with people, not just in groups, also one on one. Because your ability to notice what is going on, right now it’s this ear that ear, this position and by the way getting this organized and differentiated, it is fantastic. It gives



you life, it rids you of pains. It does a lot of good things for you. With it, what you are getting is the actual underlying skill to know what is going on, to notice. And, that is the skill you are working with.

So, you walk into a room. You see somebody, and, you see, you feel, you notice, you might not know necessarily what to do with what you see of feel or notice, or you might not exactly now what it means. But, once you see it, you work with it. What you don’t see, you just you are like a freight train, you just go through and over it. And the more you can see and feel and notice the more creative you become, the more useful you are to people the more you can dance with the real person that’s there, and with what you have to offer. You understand? You, yourself become more and more like a Stradivarius.

4 ENDNOTE #4: STAYING TALL AND BENDING

That’s nice, can I demonstrate on you, Blake? So, look here. Some of you are doing it, but most are not, yet. And, I want you to see something. Go ahead. Twist, first of all take your time. That’s it. And, now, take the back of your head towards your left elbow.

You see to take the back of the head towards the … the ribs need to do this [TN: looks like she is spreading the right side of his his rib cage]. Many of you do this [TN: tilting backwards from the hips] You see the difference? So, you take it from the hips and you are not really moving the head towards the elbow, you are moving the elbow and the head down towards the floor.

So, this is a different movement. It is this, you see. [TN: Anat has one hand on top of his head, the other on his left ribs, bringing them towards each other as the head comes backwards towards the left elbow] There you go. That’s a level of differentiation, refinement and control.

And, then, let’s see you do it the other way. You see, it’s here [TN: Anat has one hand on top of his head, the other on his right ribs, under his arm, bringing them towards each other as the head comes forward towards the right elbow]. You see?

Now, many of you over here did this [TN: Anat has her hands on his shoulder rocking him from the hip], spine as one unit. And, now, again, do. That’s nice. Look at that. And, then that’s... Get tall, get tall, tall, the taller you are the more you can do. You see, now he’s twisting. Taller. If you collapse, it is much harder. Stay tall. Stay tall, and bend.

That’s one of the characteristics of the spine which are quite remarkable. The spine should have been a pole, right? It’s, you know, on top of it, we should have stuck a head. But, it would have limited survivability. So, what it does functionally, what the brain has to do, which is quite remarkable, which is to continuously sustain the quality of support while its moving. This is darn complex. And, that comes from the feeling or support. What it means, because, you can be supported, organize yourself in any angle. You can optimize the support. If you lose the support - [TO BLAKE] just collapse a little bit, not too much, just a little bit - you can still do it, but, you see, it is a whole lot more limited, because you are going to lose the support. You see, when you are like that [TN: Anat slouches/collapses her spine] you are already not very supported, then you, then there is a prioritization, staying up or doing a funny movement your teacher tells you. But, when you get tall, you see, you get the support, you don’t have to … The neck can stay free. That’s it.

So, when you get tall, on top of the, tall, you can do stuff. I figured that out, I understood that a while back. You see? That’s it. Aha. So, staying tall, most people when they get tall, they feel like they are rigid. But, a really, being tall gives you the freedom over the, tall, to do things. That means you are up and you are doing things while you are up.

All of you, try it, see if you can get a little bit of a feeling for that. You are welcome. It feels good, doesn’t it? And you feel how much more you can feel instantaneously and that is again the instantaneity of it is because it is a question of command, it’s a question of organization, how the command center organizes



the movement. It is information. It is not a question of the physical strength, even though you employ power. But the power is there to be employed. It is not a problem.




TML 5: Rolling the Pelvis with the Head Turned to One Side (2005)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 1, August 20, 2005)

NOTES 1. Lie on your belly. Turn your head to the right. Put the right arm up bent up by your

head and your left hand down along beside you on the back of your hand with the palm up. Your legs are spread a little bit comfortably. Now start rolling your pelvis a little to the right and a little to the left. Feel first of all the internal feeling of doing it. And after a couple of times, pay attention to the pelvis and notice if it rolls different as it rolls first one way and then the other. Is it easier or harder as it rolls one way or the other? Is there a slightly larger movement on one side rather than the other? Just keep rolling your pelvis easily. Don’t push hard as you roll right and left.

1a. Now simply change over your hands. The right one goes down along your body and the left one is now bent up by your head in back. And continue rolling your pelvis right and left and see if that makes any difference in the way and the amount your pelvis rolls.

1b. Bring your hands back like the first way, your right arm is up and your left arm is down. And continue rolling your pelvis.

Roll on to your back and rest.

Did any of you feel a difference in the way your pelvis was rolling when you shifted your hands? Quite a few. I am just curious to know.

Simply feel your contact with the floor. The feeling of length of one side of yourself and the other. Everything you have done so far is symmetrical except for one thing. The head. See if that affected the feeling of length, or what has sunk to the ground when you compare sides.

2. Please roll back to your belly. Notice which way you rolled and roll the other way next time. Turn your face to the right. The right arm bent up to the face and the left arm down along your body. Now roll your pelvis. And each time you roll the pelvis to the left, let the knee come up – bending the right knee a little bit. Draw it up a little bit and back down.

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4 TML 5 (2005)


The knee stays on the floor. Don’t push it. Take your time. Keep rolling the pelvis to the left and back. And each time you roll the pelvis in such a way that you get a trajectory that can let the knee come up and then allow it to go back down.

Feel what is happening on your side from your pelvis through the leg. What is happening in your spine? And of course in reality pay attention to your spine, and the ribs, they are articulated into the spine, and there are shoulder blades, clavicles, and the whole thing. But focus on the spine and see whether each time you do the movement you can lessen the effort and that you actually get more mobility.

When you use increased effort you actually get less mobility.

Leave it alone. Roll on your back and rest for a moment.

3. Roll back on your belly. The head is turned to the right. This time put your left hand up next to your head and the right arm down alongside yourself. Roll your pelvis to the left and draw the right knee up and then bring it down.

Continue doing the same movement. The only thing we have changed is the arrangement of the hands. And feel what a huge difference that makes.

You will see that the spine and the rib cage will learn how to involve the ribs, the neck and so on so that you will find that changing the arms needn’t make such a difference in rolling the pelvis and the bending of the knee. Many of you I can see feel a huge difference. And of course it is a question of the shoulders. You can see that if the shoulders are painful you will see what it has to do with the organization of the spine and the back. I have not worked with shoulders without needing to work with the spine and the back.

3a. Now change the arms around and keep rocking the pelvis and bringing the knee up and then down. Do you find that you move the leg in relation to the movement of the pelvis?

3b. How does it feel to move the leg and not move the pelvis? Feel what hard work it is.

Lie on your back and rest please.

Slowly bring your head to the middle because the change is getting bigger and bigger. Feel.

Some of you I can see a big difference between the right and left side. Notice in yourself.



4. Roll to lie through the other side to lie on your belly. Turn your head to the right with your right hand up and your left arm down. Spread your legs comfortably. Now roll your pelvis to the right and draw up the left knee and back down.

4a. Now just change over your hands. Slowly roll your pelvis to the right and draw up your left knee and back down. Do you feel the difference? What is happening now?

You see the head is turned to the right so that means the spine at the top is twisted to the left but at the bottom your twisting the spine to the right. It’s like squeezing water out of a rag you twist one, one way, and the other, the other way.

4b. Marvelous. Now just change the hands over back to the right arm up and the left one down and see if that makes it any easier.

If anyone here knows she is pregnant, if only a couple of weeks, it doesn’t matter, but if it is 3rd or 4th month take frequent rests.

All of you lie on your backs and rest.

5. Roll back on to your belly through the other side. Put the right hand up turn your face to the right the left hand down. Put your right palm on the right ear and open a space so you can hear what I am saying. Roll your pelvis to the left and draw up the right knee and down. Slowly.

This puts greater demand on other parts of the spine to move. Slow. Gentle.

Those of you with shoulder problems this can be fantastic, but you have to do it delicate, be un-ambitious in terms of size. But be attentive, attuned to yourself. Stop when it gets harder. Look for an easier way to do it. Keep the conversation going. Pay attention to yourself.

5a. Stay as you are. Bring down the leg and pull up the left knee and roll the pelvis to the right. And pull up the left knee and back down. And of course now the twist is bigger even bigger than before. Up and down.

Feel what is happening in those ribs in the middle of the back, the ribs on the left side and the right side.

For some people those ribs on the left side checked out long ago. You have to move the ribs and the spine. Not just squeeze the knee up somehow.

Very slowly take your right hand off your ear and bring your head to the middle very slowly. And only after your head is in the middle roll to lie on your back.



6. Roll back through the other side than before to roll onto your belly. Turn your head to the right. Put your right hand on your right ear. Now combine the two movements, you roll the pelvis to the left and you draw up the right knee, then you put the leg back down and you roll the pelvis to the right and draw up the left knee.

The legs are a bit spread so that when you are in the middle they are not tied together, the pelvis and legs are free.

Once one knee bends and then the other.

Leave it alone, slowly bring your head to the middle, and roll to lie on your back.

7. Roll again to lie on your belly please. Your head turned to the right. And bring up the left hand and put the right hand down alongside yourself. And put your left hand on your ear from behind. Or as close to it as you can. Roll your pelvis to the left and draw up the right knee and back down.

7a. Now start rolling the pelvis to the right and drawing up the left knee. Slowly up and back.

Just the left knee like this time a few times.

7b. Now combine the two movements, roll the pelvis right and left.

Try to leave the toes alone unless there is some reason so that the ankles are free and the feet are free.

What kind of movement do you feel now in your spine?

7c. As you do it, reduce the force even more and you will see that in seconds you will get more mobility, that all of a sudden you will reorganize yourself to move easier.

Just remember that when we force we can only do what we already know, nothing new. When we force we can count on it not getting any better.

Very slowly put the left hand down. Very slowly bring the head to the middle and roll on your back and rest please.

Just feel the contact with the floor, your breathing and the difference between one side and the other.



8. Roll back to lie on your belly. Turn your head to the right. Put your right hand up next to your head, the left arm down. Roll the pelvis up to the left and draw your right knee up and stay there.

The pelvis to the left and the knee is up toward your belly and stay there.

Slowly lift your head as it is on the side and lower it a couple of times. Lift and lower it.

8a. Lift your head and put your right hand on top of your head, at the crown, and help the head draw circles. The elbow is off of the floor. Draw circles with the top of your head, one direction first, whichever one.

Do it so that the nose stays to the right.

You have to do the movements with your whole spine and primarily your low back to keep the head turned to the right.

Stop where you are and rest. Don’t roll to your back.

9. Again lift your head up and make circles in the opposite direction with the top of the head. Keep the nose to the right.

You will feel a lot of movement in the front, in the sternum and in the lower back. You are like a snake or a lizard or something.

Roll to lie on your back and rest.

10. Back on your belly please. The head is to the right. Put the right arm up and the left one down.

Now roll your pelvis to the right and draw up your left knee and keep it there. Now put the right hand on top of your head, lift the head up and start drawing circles clockwise where 12 is toward the ceiling upward, 6 is toward the floor, 3 is in front of you to your right and 9 is behind you to your left. Go up, around to the right and down and to the left and back up.

Stop for one second.

Do not lean on your left hand. Leave the left elbow down.

10a. Now do the same thing, just in the opposite direction.

The left knee is bent. The head is toward the right. You go counter clockwise. That means, lift the head up and go to the left or behind you, then go down, then go in front of you or to your right and come back up. A circle.

Slowly bring everything to the middle. Roll to lie on your back and rest please.



11. Please come back on your belly. Again the head is to the right and this time the right arm is down. Draw the left knee up; put your left hand on top of your head.

And do a few circles clockwise and counterclockwise. Pace yourself.

Very good. Lie on your back and rest please.

We don’t know what is more work, doing the movement, or rolling back and forth. This is the only movement system that “moving more” feels like something is wrong.

12. Roll back to your belly, turn your head to the right, interlace your fingers and place them on your right ear and roll the pelvis left and right.

And feel what that is like. Feel if the pelvis rolls a lot easier.

I can see huge changes.

See if it is also more equal. Does it matter less? The turning of your head doesn’t affect the rolling of the pelvis?

Feel the rolling of the pelvis and see whether now your spine and your chest are organized in such a way that your pelvis can go equally even though your head is turned to the right.

12a. Now turn your head to the right with your leg down. Right hand up to the head, left hand along your side.

Now push your belly to the floor and stop, push and stop.

12b. Push your belly out into the floor now, draw your right knee up and stay there. Push your belly to the floor and back.

12c. Now push the belly to the floor and then draw it in so the belly goes away from the floor. It is not rolling the pelvis or lifting the right shoulder. Push it out and pull it in.

12d. Now straighten your legs and continue pushing the belly out and pulling it in.

When you push the belly out you can also let your lower back arch and when you pull the belly in the lower back may round.

12e. Now switch the hands. And continue pushing the belly out and pulling it in.

Feel in-between the shoulder blades.

12f. Draw up the left knee and stay there. The left arm is up by the head. Your head is to the right.



And again push the belly out and arch the back, pull the belly in.

Slowly leave it alone and rest please on your back.

13. Slowly again one more time roll to your belly. Turn your head to the right interlace your fingers and place your hands on the right ear. Roll the pelvis to the right and draw up the left knee, roll your pelvis to the left and draw up your right knee.

See if you can coordinate more clearly the movement of the pelvis and the legs.

There is no movement of the leg without the pelvis moving, the spine twisting, the ribs moving.

13a. Now accelerate the movements from side to side like you are a peculiar human lizard. Roll it like a ball. See if your ankle can be free. Are you holding your ankle or your toes? Let your toes go.

Some of you have one ankle rigid like a rock.

13b. Stay there. Put both hands on either side of the head. Spread the legs a little more. Turn the heels in and the toes out and that will arch the lower back.

Lift the head a little bit and make a couple of circles.

Feel what happens in the pelvis, the legs, the coccyx. Give yourself a rest when you know you need it.

13c. Do circles in the opposite direction.


14. One more time roll to lie on your belly. Simply turn your head to the right. Put your right arm up and your left arm down.

Simply roll your pelvis right and left, legs spread. Roll your pelvis right and left and see if it feels any different.

Notice how far up the spine the movements travel, how much you feel the movement in your ribs, clavicles, in your shoulder blades.

Feel the softness. Like you are a baby again.



14a. Very slowly from this position roll and come up to sitting and then to standing. Feel how you are standing. Your posture, for lack of a better word, has completely shifted.

14b. Walk around a little bit.

Feel in walking the general sensation. Then feel how you are carrying the head. Feel your spine. Are you a little more aware of your spine in standing and walking?

[END OF LESSON]




TML 6: Balancing Pulling on Knee (2011)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec. 2011)

Length of lesson: 66 minutes NOTES

1. Put your feet spread. Put your right ankle on your left knee.

Right ankle so the left [TN: right] knee is sideways like that. Excellent. And now get hold with your left hand above; you know, the left [TN: right] knee, from above, from in front. The left … Did I say the wrong knee? The right knee. I said the wrong knee and I want you to do the right one. Ha, ha. Clever, clever.

Put your right … No, first of all, just, just … Don’t do anything with the other hand. Put it down.

And just start doing very small, gentle movements of moving, opening the knee sideways, the right knee opening, moving it away from your face. Away …

[TO STUDENT] Just a second; just a second. There you go. You put the ankle just above the knee on the thigh. And now move the knee … Hold it though. Hold it. Hold it. Just like you did the first day with me. But don’t lift the head. Do not lift the head. But don’t let the hand slide.

Just do a small movement, and let the head drag a little bit on the floor.

It’s a different lesson than the one we did the first day. See how quickly you get a habit and an assumption?

[TO STUDENT] You’ll have to … But hold.

Hold the knee. Hold it, so when you move it away, it pulls on your arm, and it pulls on your shoulder, and it pulls on your neck and it gets the head, chin to move a little bit away from your …

[TO STUDENT] You can start with the other side, Jan. OK? So that way, you’ll, you know … That’s it.

1a. And now put your right arm above your head, as straight as you can on the floor above your head. The right arm.

I’m saying the correct side, yes? Above your head.

And now continue doing the movement of moving the knee away from you and letting it … Away from your face; away. Away. It lifts the shoulders, the head.



You don’t lift the head; you let it drag. And start with small movements. And then come back.

Some of you are not holding the knee. If you’re not holding the knee it’s not going to pull on your shoulder. It’s kind of like Newton decided that.

Arm above the head on the floor. Well …

[TO ASSISTANT] She would like a pillow. I think she will need a rounder one, she needs more space. And in the future, by the way, feel free to get up and pick one up for yourself. Yeah.

And pull the knee away.

Arm long above the head.

And feel that as the knee goes away from you, it pulls on the shoulders; it pulls on the head. The head starts dragging like that. And allow yourself to continue moving the knee away.

[TO STUDENT] No, no, no. You don’t just roll the knee to the right. You move it actively in the hip joint away from your head. And then you keep … And it starts … So the knee goes down away from your head, but it gets you to roll a little bit.

And keep going until this movement …

Now when I’m going to say it I will see at least ten percent of people who will just do it. So don’t.

But until this movement …

And take as long as it takes, as many repetitions as it takes - until this movement gets you to roll somewhat on your side so that your head comes on the arm.

But … And, of course, somebody’s already there. But you see how hard it is not …

Don’t lift the head. Do not lift the head. That’s the whole point. Now how can you not lift the head and do it? What does it require? It requires greater differentiation in the upper back, differentiation between the upper spine, the head, the shoulders, and the arm. That portion of the spine that tends to get functionally fused for people. It’s not really fused but it tends to get fused.

[TO STUDENT] You have picked up the head. You don’t know it, but you have picked up the head. Start with the head in the middle. And feel how the pull on the arm pulls on the shoulder, pulls on the neck. Hum.

[TO STUDENT] Oliver, move the knee away from you. You’re the person I made … No, you see, you are rolling before the knee even moved in space. The movement is moving the knee away from you. Can you bend the other leg a little more? Put the foot standing clearly. Now move the knee away from you. Keep moving it away. That’s why you are rolling. You are not rolling because I said to roll. It’s the movement of the leg that drives everything else—the movement of the right knee moving away from you. Keep moving it away. You see, you start pushing, pushing on the left foot and rolling the pelvis to the right. You confuse the two movements. Now you stopped moving the knee



away from you. That’s why you fall to the right. So don’t go so far. If something is not clear, the most intelligent thing to do is either to go much smaller or to stop altogether. Now don’t stop altogether, but go much smaller. There you go. Keep going. You see. Slowly, slowly, until the movement of taking the knee away from yourself, pulling on your left shoulder gets you gradually, gradually …

[TO STUDENT] You see, you did it because you lost patience. You didn’t do it because it really happened. You did it because you decided, “Enough, I want to feel what it’s like.”

And let me promise you that working with clients you will have many times, over and over again, where you will feel just like yanking your client to do what they should be doing already. And that’s exactly what you don’t want.

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO

[TN: repeating instructions] Bend your knees. Put your … What did you we do? … Right ankle above your left knee. Get hold of your right knee, your right arm above your head.

And get yourself into that state of actual anticipation to feel and discover rather than perform. That will happen. Once you know how to do it, perform it as much as you like. And go back and forth. And when you feel you can’t go easily further just don’t go any further. Come back. It doesn’t matter if it will take you another ten minutes, another 30 minutes to be able to do it. But then you will really be doing it. Anything before …

[TO STUDENT] Ah, ah, you are lifting your head. And your arm is not above your head. No wonder, because you are totally doing something else. Don’t lift the head.

Excellent. And feel … Some of you are starting to feel … What does the pelvis need to do? What does the lower back, the spine in the area of the lower back, actually need to do if you are really going to do it and you’re going to do it and not fall?

Because all of you can roll over to the side like that. There’s no doubt in my mind, but you will be falling. If you really do this movement, something actually also starts happening in the pelvis and in the lower spine, not just the upper spine.

And leave this alone and rest, please.

And just feel. Doing this movement, a number of times on one side only, with this quality, can you feel immediate change in the organization on the floor?

Yeah, I can see it. I can look and many of you look like you have been split into two people. But that’s the power of it.

And what I demonstrated on Mary, the biggest shift was the way she organized herself to intend the movement. Not just the doing of it, but how she organized her intention. In "Move Into Life" I talk about it, and I, sort of, that’s where I started getting the courage to make that distinction—that intention is an action. It’s not a thing we have and then it makes us somehow do. We intend; we do something. It’s an action. And like all actions it has to get organized. The brain has to organize intention. And the quality with which we organize intention can vary enormously, like any other thing we do.



2. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Bend … Put the left ankle above your right knee this time.

We are doing the lesson symmetrically. Hooray.

Put the left arm above your head. And now get hold, of course, with your right hand. Really hold the knee from just below the knee.

And now, start with a tiny, tiny, tiny movement so that you really feel. The instruction is: do a tiny movement, and that you feel how the knee moves away from your face, down away from your face, and it moves in the hip joint; the beginning of the movement in the hip joint.

And then feel how the movement of the knee pulls on the arm, straightens the elbow, pulls on the shoulder, pulls on the shoulder blade, moves, starts moving the seventh cervical - that place that you are practicing today, you know, pressing through - and then the base of your head. And then as you keep taking the knee further it starts rolling.

And the thing that happens … Anybody want … Oh, let me just have you all try the next time … Go back to the middle all of you so I can have, give you the instruction all at once.

2a. The next time you do this movement, do it and pull your belly in and see what happens.

No, really, do feel what happens. Pulling in the belly …

[TO STUDENT] Now, since you did it on this side, imagine it now on the other side.

When you pull in the belly, what does it do to the pelvis? It immobilizes the pelvis, more or less. Can you feel that? And it doesn’t allow the lower spine, the lower back to arch.

2b. So now, do the same movement. Pull on the leg, let it pull on the shoulder, and then keep pulling away and see that what happens is the pelvis actually starts rolling.

Keep …Yeah, that’s it. But…

Take the knee down to the ground away from your face, and then the neck arches too, right? The back of the head starts going backwards, and if you keep going, if that’s something you are ready for, until it rolls the head over to lie on your arm.

Once the head is … Don’t keep it in the air. Bring it onto the arm so you don’t hold it like that in the air. There you go. And go back. Slowly, slowly.

[TO STUDENT] But keep the foot standing. Keep the right foot standing.



And see whether you can gradually have the left arm less effort and the left arm gradually gets straighter, not because you straighten it, but because you stop contracting and pulling it away from the ground.

That means gradually you reduce efforts in unnecessary places. Chunks, you know, whole swaths of the map, being like one big clump of effort. And you learn where to put the effort and where to not put the effort. And that is differentiation and that is refined action and that is sophistication. There you go. [inaudible question] Well, if you want to a little bit, but, you know, just figure it out for yourself.

Stop it and rest, please.

And, of course, each time you rest just notice how you are lying.

3. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put your right ankle on your left knee again. Get hold of your knee, the right knee, with your left hand like before. This time move your right arm straight to the side, shoulder height. So the arm is not above the head. It is sideways.

[TO STUDENT] Actually you can move more here because you have the space. Move more here. I will not step on your arm. Because that … yeah. Lie on your back, lie on your back. Excellent.

Arm sideways, not head height. Shoulder height. You can use your eyes because many of you will see that your feeling image and your visual image do not match. So just check with your eyes that your hand is shoulder height. So many of you have the hand above the shoulder. There you go.

And now bend the elbow so that the forearm and the hand are towards the ceiling. There we go.

And now resume moving the knee away from you just the same way.

And pull, move the knee away, pulling on the arm, pulling on the shoulder. Keep pulling, pulling, pulling, and at a certain point - where it wants to lift the head - lift the head and use the arm, you know, and the forearm to come up to lean on the forearm. That means that at a certain moment let the forearm go down to the floor, but don’t push on the forearm, on the elbow.

It’s the yanking of the leg, the pulling, moving the leg away from you that creates the tension and lifts the head. And then you just use the bones of the arm to use that movement to lift you up on the elbow and forearm.

[TO STUDENT] No, you are pushing. You are pushing and you know you are pushing. And I want you to inhibit that. I want you to have a say so you’re not acting from such a, you know, early, primitive place. It doesn’t matter if you don’t succeed. Wait, wait, wait. Because if you’re going to do it by yanking, forcing like that, and pushing on the elbow you will never learn to do it the other way. And you are teaching yourself that you are not skillful. And I don’t want you to learn that in my lesson. So, if you don’t get up, fine. Pull the leg away until …That’s right. Pull on the shoulder. Feel how, if and how, it pulls on your neck. And keep pulling it away. You’re starting to go to the side. Pull away. Lift the head. Lift the head. Keep moving the … Now use your arm. You see, now lean on



the arm. You don’t push on the arm. You lean on the arm. It’s like when you roll a ball, it doesn’t push on itself. It rolls along the trajectory. You’re like a ball, and if you can’t go any further, you don’t. It’s not like something is wrong.

[TO STUDENT] Bend the elbow. Bend the elbow. That’s it. You start with the hand to the ceiling. No? No. Arm shoulder height. That’s it. And once you lift the head, just lift it. That’s it. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice.

[TO STUDENT] Can I demonstrate on you for a moment? Look here.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO

And go ahead all of you and do one or two more of these movements. But … And see if you can really make it so that the … Use the force you are generating in the hip joint by pulling the knee away to take the leg away and then lift the head when you are ready. Use the arm. Keep taking the knee away.

[TO STUDENT] No, if the elbow shortens you know you are not doing it. If your left elbow bends during the movement, you’re not doing it. Because if you’re doing it you are pulling the knee away and you’re letting it pull on your arm. So if you pull on your arm you don’t shorten the elbow. You lengthen the elbow.

Remember to take the arm down. You’re going to lean on that arm. Whew. There we go. That’s it.

[TO STUDENT] You see, now you are doing it again, David. You feel? All we have to do is stop looking at you.

All of you stop it and rest.

And feel what starts gluing itself to the floor. What aspects of you changed in response to this action and the way you have done it? Another way of saying it is by doing what you are doing now you’re also learning, differentiating and learning which muscles to not contract. Just use that—more and more differentiated. That means more just what you need.

Think of speech. How many of you speak a second language, but not terrifically well? How many of you have tried to express yourself in that language in something that you normally do in English that is sophisticated? How many of you have felt the frustration of not having sufficient differentiation and configurations? It’s the same thing. It’s articulation. It’s language. It’s expression that gives you an outcome in the end.

4. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put your left ankle above your right knee. Get hold of your left knee with your right hand. Put your left arm exactly sideways, elbow exactly shoulder height. Bend the elbow 90 degrees.

And don’t try to sit in one go. If you sat in one go, that means you did a poor job. So…

Start with a small movement and go back. And then gradually pull the knee away until it starts picking up the head. And then do lift the head and keep pulling the knee away until it sits you up. You don’t push to sit up, it’s that movement will end sitting you up.



[TO STUDENT] No, you’re pushing to sit up as I’m saying, “Do not push to sit up”. When you work with a patient, client that had a stroke and they do not know how to sit up—they forgot—and you start maybe pulling on their arm or doing something trying to help them to sit up and they can’t do it. If you yank them to sitting up, overriding their inability to do it, you are doing a disservice to them. Just like right now what we are talking about.

[TO STUDENT] The arm goes down to lean on it, not up. You can’t lean on something that’s away from your body.

[TO STUDENT] David, you are bending the arm up. If you are going to lean on it, how can you lean on it if it’s over here? It goes down. The hand comes down to lean on it. It doesn’t go up above the head. There we go.

[TO STUDENT] Foot on the floor. Foot on the floor.

[TO STUDENT] This is definitely the side that wasn’t mapped. You know, one of the things … Go do one movement on the side that is easier for you, or mapped. And then go and feel it. You can even imagine you are doing it on that other …That’s real sophisticated. You imagine you are doing it to the other side as you are doing it to the side that’s easy. And let’s see what happens. You either go crazy or it works.

[TO STUDENT] Have the elbow shoulder height. You see, your elbow is not shoulder height. That’s why you don’t know and you’re making such a big effort. You see, your elbow is halfway down. And you … And then you do an effort.

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO

All of you lie down.

[TO STUDENT] Be Robert Redford. Be handsome. What did she say there that’s so funny? [TO STUDENT] Lie down next to Robert Redford. [ANAT] That’s a good one. Oh yeah. The joke is coming across.

It’s the left leg. We are working with the left leg now. Elbow shoulder height.

You just saw a demonstration of that. Hello?

And leave that alone and rest for a moment. 4 ENDNOTE #4: DEMO

5. So bend your knees. Put your feet standing.

Too bad I can’t speak four parallel tracks at the same time and I could just pump your brain [TN: Anat makes gunshot sounds] with more information.

And now put the right ankle over the left knee. Get hold with the right hand—uh, left hand—and next to it put the right hand. So make room for the right hand to come next to it. Not on top of it—one next to the other.

Both hands are holding above the knee. Well, below the knee, in front of the knee. Both next to each other. I’m raising monsters, differentiated monsters here. Now I’m going to be held accountable for how clearly or unclearly I speak. Ouch.



Anyway, move your knee away from you.

I can’t be sloppy anymore. That’s it, over, I’ve trained you.

Push; push the knee away and at the certain moment …

[TO STUDENT] No, both from above, both from above. No, no, both from in front, in front. Next to each other, next, friendly. There you go.

And then at the certain moment when the head starts coming up, bring the head up and keep taking the knee away.

[TO ASSISTANTS] Can assistants or somebody help me so I don’t have to do … So many people are holding it not the way I asked. Hands, next, thumbs next to each other, just below the knee. Hands next to each other. Keep, keep looking. Keep finding culprits.

Move the knee away.

[TO STUDENT] Ah, ah. Don’t lift the leg. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh. That’s it.

Those of you who roll to the side more than you need to, but you can’t help it right now, bend your right elbow and use that help you come up.

[TO STUDENT] But don’t roll to the side on purpose.

[TO STUDENT] He’s not holding the knee. He’s sliding the right hand off the knee, you see.

Push the knee away from you.

[TO STUDENT] Ilan, away. Mmmm. No, if you’re shortening the elbows you’re doing a different movement. Do not shorten …

[TO STUDENT] You’re holding it … I corrected you, Zita. I was going to call you Tiza. I’m getting dyslexic here.

Leave it alone. Rest for a moment.

And feel how in the process, even though most of you, you know, weren’t able to do the movement all the way, you’re still changing. Your brain is in a search mode.

6. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put the left ankle above the right knee. Get hold with two hands from in front the knee, next to each other.

Start taking the left knee away from you and take both knees, including the right one, the inner side, towards the floor, but away from you. The top knee away from you. And then at the certain point lift the head and see if you can do it without falling like dead weight on the right. Gradually. There you go.

And what is, what is missing that you’d be easier to do? Do we know? What? Missing a third elbow? Missing a, a, a … What do you call those things, the big things? Crane.



Missing a crane. What’s missing is mobility in your spine. What’s missing is mapping your spine into this movement. You’re moving your chest like you have no spine. By the way, see what it really means to have abdominal muscles that work properly. Most people do sit-ups are … [TN: makes shuddering sound]

Don’t go too far to the side and as you go, if you need … Never mind.

Rest.

7. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put the right leg on the left knee—right ankle on the left knee. And catch the right knee with the left hand. Place your right hand above your head, with the palm actually down. You’ll see in a minute why.

Oops, above your head.

And now, begin taking the knee away to take both knees down towards the floor, to the right but not straight to the right. Down in an angle, down to the right. And now, lift the head, lift the two elbows high up and help yourself with your right hand, pushing on the right hand, to see if you can help yourself sit up like that.

Above the head, above the head. The arm above the head. See if you can. Don’t try to sit. Just come as high up as you can.

Bring the head … Bring the left ear to the left shoulder. Don’t try to sit. Changed my mind.

[TO STUDENT] Arm long, long, above your head … Like that will make it … Ah, wow. Can I demonstrate?

5ENDNOTE #5: DEMO

All of you go ahead, do it.

And actually it’s a movement that feels wonderful to do. It feels really nice. It feels great, doesn’t it? Yeh.

Remember your whole spine. Your whole spine. There you go. Push on the hand, though. Push. That’s it. Get yourself taller. You just did, you feel that? You just did. By pushing taller you bring the ear, the left ear, to the left shoulder—once your head is up, not before. There you go. Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. Not to sitting. You don’t have to come all the way to sitting. We changed the story, the requirement. That’s right.

[TO STUDENT] Look at you. And bring the ear to the shoulder. The ear. Look forward. Look forward. There you go. You see, and now you’re not falling anymore.

What’s wrong with you? Is it? Keep pulling on the knee. Keep pulling on the knee. Same thing. Push it away and then it counterbalances. Aha. Yes. Guess what? Change it. Nice, nice, push the belly out, Zita. Push the belly out. Excellent.

[TO STUDENT] And don’t shorten the neck but bring the ear to the shoulder. There you go.




See, there’s hope for you guys. Thank God.

And feel what that does to your chest, to your breathing, to all the parts of yourself that are letting go that you didn’t even know were not letting go because they were not letting go. You can take any one of these lessons and work with somebody for a month and it will still be useful. Bits and pieces, you know.

8. Roll on your … No; don’t roll on your side. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put your left ankle over your right one. Get hold with your right hand your left knee. Left arm above your head with the palm down.

And now, begin taking the knee away. Use your lower back. Let the head go back. Take the two knees down towards the floor. And now lift the head and bring the right ear toward the right shoulder.

Nice. The ear, not the nose to the floor. The ear to the shoulder. Huh.

6 ENDNOTE #6: DEMO

Anyway, all of you give it one more try.

[TO STUDENT] I’m glad you are laughing. Thank you, Oliver, for having a good spirit. I appreciate it. Yeah.

Actually, you see, now you watched her you are starting to arch your back too. Starting to get a lower back, there.

[TO STUDENT] Scott, arch your back. Arch your back. Push the belly out. That Scott, the one in the blue. There you go. There you go. And then lift the head and bring the ear … That’s it. And keep the back arched. Lovely.

Leave it alone.

You guys are doing great. No, no, you are. I mean this is, like, obviously not that simple and very sophisticated. Sophisticated use of self and the spine.

[TO STUDENT] Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Like stop. Yep,

Rest. Cease and desist.

I know, I know. I know I said it wrong, but as long as it makes you laugh. OK

9. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Put the right ankle over the left knee, above the left knee. Get hold of the right knee with your left hand. Put your right hand above your head. Regular, regular, palm up.

Do the initial movement of the lesson. You’re pulling the knee away and you’re letting the head drag on the floor. You’re not lifting it anymore. And you’re bringing, letting … Eventually the head will come on the arm. So keep taking the knee until you come like this partially on your side. But really the knee is still up. There you go.



Is it different than before? OK, did you learn something?

Oh, thank God.

9a. Change over the legs.

That’s what it means to have a brain connected to the spine, spine connected to the brain, working in conjunction with the rest of you. There you go. That’s it. Lovely, you see. Now you’re using yourself and the ground. And you slither and slide and it’s really nice. Nice. That’s really …

Are we getting a little sweep there? Yes, beautiful. Just beautiful. Now if somebody looked at it and they just said, “Oh, it’s just beautiful.” They lie down, somebody who doesn’t know how to do the movement. They have no idea how to do it. Because you have to go through the process of differentiation that you’ve done up until now and then what you’ve done in the lesson to be able to do that. Nice, nice, nice.

Feel how nice it feels to do the movement. Doesn’t it feel luxurious? Yeah.

Didn’t hear a lot of “uh, huh” but never mind. OK.

Straighten your legs.

You cannot not communicate, remember?

Put the arms next to you. And just take a few seconds to feel what you are feeling. The length of your spine. What it means to breathe. New meaning to breathe. Nice, huh? Mmm, mmm, mmm. Yumm. Roll to …

And it doesn’t even have calories associated with it. Roll to your side. You’re doing, mmmm, and I remembered my chocolate coconut something-something that I discovered, that every spoonful is a pound. But I love it.

10. Roll to your side and get up.

Look, you look beautiful. Wow, look at those faces. Nice. Nice.

[STUDENT] Decadence? Is that the one?

[ANAT] I don’t know, I don’t remember the name. I ate too much sugar. My brain stopped working.

Stand up. Feel how you are standing.

[TO STUDENT] Look at … That’s … You feel? You’re standing. The meaning of standing.

That’s what happens gradually to Joshua. He gets to understand what standing is. Not understand like “do a gait analysis” but to know what it means to stand.

Feel yourself. Not bad, huh? Not bad, huh. We’re Jewish—not bad. Eh, eh? Walk around. Eh. Let’s see.

10a. Walk around.



You’re so articulated, you’re all wavy.

[TO STUDENT] Look at Jordan. Bend your knees, Jordan. It’ll help. I can give you a recording you can run, “Bend my knees.” Nice.

[TO STUDENT] You feel? You are standing differently than I have ever seen before. How is your back feeling right now? Much better, huh?

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO

Mary, may I demonstrate on you? So here we go. So I’m over here on the southwest corner of the room.

And now, start from the beginning. No, no, start from the beginning. Start with the head … That’s it. And now just watch how Mary does it. Go ahead.

And in what way does Mary not follow the instructions? Come back. I mean, she’s doing it very attentively. She’s doing it, you know, internally, very attentive. The quality of attention is good. And in what way is she not doing the instruction?

Go ahead, Mary, and do it just again. Yeah, so the whole organization of the movement … Do it again and don’t change, Mary. Do it exactly the same. OK?

You see, there is no relationship between the movement of the head, the shoulder, and the arm in the way that I’ve asked you to create that relationship. The relationship is not through the feeling of the movement. The relationship is through her understanding of what she thinks is supposed to happen. Do you understand the difference?

So am I correct? [TN: Mary agrees.] Do you experience it that way? That’s even better. We matched the images—my image of you and your image of yourself. That’s good. By the way, do you know how awful it is when two people get together and they don’t see the same when they look at the same person? That’s when marriages go fercock. It’s a legal term.

So go ahead and don’t change. Do it exactly the same way. So Mary heard me saying that the head is going to come over … Now she’s changing already because you see … Now she’s imitating herself. That’s excellent. You see, now come back. And now, you see, so I would suspect, I would suspect that you really are trying to make it happen.

So let’s see if you can just agree that it really doesn’t matter for the next 40 seconds whether it happens or not. Are you willing to take one minute, one minute where it doesn’t matter? Yeah?

So now what you are going to do is you’re going to move the knee away from you. You’re going to pull it away. Hold it while you pull it away and see what happens. Just pull it away, just pull the knee away, pull the knee away. That’s … Ah, ah, you stopped holding it. Is it painful or something to hold? No? OK. So it just has … [TN: Anat puts Mary’s hand firmly on her knee.] Now all you have to do is hold on. Alright?

You see, and now you can see her thinking. She thinks, “Oh, the knee is moving away, and the arm is not stretching.” So she really, by feeling, is not understanding the instructions. Obviously she is a very intelligent woman. She doesn’t have a problem. It’s not like “Oh, we’ve got ourselves a retarded one here. Oh my god.” Anyway … but the way she understands it, represents it, is such that if the knee is moving away the arm is supposed to get longer. She doesn’t actually understand that the arm is going to pull on her shoulder. And she knew that on some level. That’s why she had to move the head separately because she knew she couldn’t get it together. Funny?



Go ahead. Keep pulling away and see what happens. Don’t worry about the rest of it. Now, you’re tightening your neck. Stop tightening your neck and keep pulling it away. There you go. And come back. And just breathe. There you go. Come all the way back, all the way back. There you go. That’s it. Much better.

Now, now you’ve settled in to feel. That’s what it’s like to actually be ready to feel. That’s the most valuable part of this demonstration for you.

And now start moving that knee away. Slowly move it away. Move it away. Soften your neck. You’re holding … That’s it. There you go. There you go. There you go. [TN: Mary’s knee pulls shoulder and her head rolls onto her arm]. That’s it.

Feel the difference? OK, it’s nice, huh? I’m glad. It would be terrible if you said, “Yeh, but that feels like shit.” You know? OK, go for it. Have to tank my whole theory.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO

David, right? Very nice. Get back into the inner feeling you had because you were really connected internally. Don’t worry they’re watching you, not watching you. Really recreate the feeling. That’s excellent. Take your time.

[TN: David begins slowly moving the knee away and lifts head] No, no. That’s not the way you did it before. Take your time. Take your time. Take a breath. Don’t worry about it. You see you stop …

There are two things you are doing different. Three. One thing is that being watched obviously is a little startling for you. So you are tensing your neck so that the head is not doing what it did before. And that kind of kills the whole thing already. And then you stopped moving the knee away from you.

So you move the knee. You let the head drag first. So you see you let the head drag. That’s it. And now keep moving the knee away from you and then it will work. There you go. That’s it. Here we go. And you let this come down. [TN: David puts forearm down.] You see, you got tense from the fact that people are watching.

So now, go back down. Use the knee to regulate how you go down. And bring this up [TN: Anat indicates forearm] as you go down, you see. Because you did it earlier. It was like a perfect … You know those dolls that just go boom, boom. [TN: Anat moves arms synchronously] He was like perfectly doing it.

Let’s see if we can get you to get to feel it again. By the way, for you it can be a great opportunity to learn to not allow the sense of being watched and judged … You obviously … Most people have an issue with that because most people have been judged in a silly way. So see if you can just kind of like go sideways to that, and pull the knee away. Let the head, let the head, let the head respond. There you go. And now bring the head up like you did. Keep taking the knee away. And remember that. There you go. You see. That’s more like it. He did it perfect and being interrupted and being watched messed it up a little bit.

Would you like to try it one more time? You see, there’s effort there [TN: as David rolls back down]. Yeah. [TN: David starts again] You’re forgetting the arm completely. There you go. That was a little better. You see the idea. At least you get the general idea.

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO



Stop it here for a moment. I am just going to bore you to death because I am going to say the exact same thing again. So go show, show … Do, do just what you did before, OK? Like that. Yeah, like that. And go ahead and do the movement.

And look here. Look she’s pushing really hard. She’s using the shoulders, she’s …She’s trying to use the—how do you call those?—biceps and the pectorals to come up. You feel that? [TN: student nods.] And shaking a little bit, like good fitness. Right? And this moment—just as you get into that “Uh oh, it’s not working” and then you recruit yourself to put the extra effort—is a moment of choice. And the moment of choice can be, “I’m going to really try hard because I am not succeeding here” or “Let me see how to do it so it’s easy.” The second alternative is what I’m hoping for all of you to do more and more. Because, you see, you put the arm where it’s not supposed to be easy.

Remember I’ve been talking about the command center, the executive skills, whatever you want to call it, of the brain? One of the executive skills is, when it’s hard, you go like, “OK, how am I going to do it different so it’s going to be easy?” There is not one movement that the human body can do that when it’s done well it’s hard. It’s always easy when it’s done well. It’s always hard when it’s not done well. OK?

Go ahead. Try it this way. Let’s see. Maybe you will be able to use it, maybe not. I don’t know. Let’s go. Right now. I mean, eventually, of course you could. There you go. So you see, it’s physics. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not negotiable. The only thing is developing the inner ability to feel where the arm needs to be.

I give the instruction. Right now it’s exactly shoulder height. But, you know, we forget. We get the … But when it doesn’t work, that’s the wakefulness. That’s the aliveness. It’s like, “Oops, it’s about to go bad. Let me shift direction.” It’s about the quickness.

Any of you saw “The Three Days of the Condor,” I think it was called? With the handsome guy … what’s his name? Robert Redford, right? He’s handsome, no? OK, my distinction matches your distinction. Especially the women … look at the women’s faces. Yeh, they agree with me. I remember this movie—I think I saw it at least twice—because I thought the part that was so powerful in the movie is he was like that. He noticed, he sensed something, and he realized something is really wrong, and he was, he was able to respond. He was able to go. He was able to, to avoid being killed. By sensing what’s going on, it’s “Ah, it’s not quite right.” Bing, “what does that mean?” Of course, it took him a little bit. He realized something was like … when he saw six people killed. He realized something was really wrong. But you know … whereas you go and you say, “You know, something is really wrong, maybe something is wrong” then [TN: makes gunshot sound]. OK?

4 ENDNOTE #4: DEMO

[TO SYLVIA] Nice. Feels good, doesn’t it? Put the elbow a little bit more shoulder height. There you go.

Now let’s see how it will work. Ah, move the knee away. You’re just rolling it to the side. Move the knee away. Move the knee away. Away, away, don’t forget. That was better.

See if you can leave the foot where it was. See, you are using the weight of the leg to help you. Just use the knee moving away. No, you’re moving the other knee. Move the knee away. There you go. Ahhh. Helps to have somebody else, like an external drive.

Do it one more time so it’s more accurate, because you started taking the arm down too soon. Arm to the ceiling. Arm to the ceiling, to the ceiling, to the ceiling. There you go. Yeah, that’s good. And now go, go ahead. The knee, away. Away, away, away, away. Away, away, away. That’s it. Now you’re driving the whole …

Watch Sylvia here for a second. Don’t do it with this [TN: points to ankle]. The knee, the knee. You see, in your mind you’re going to do it with the power of this ankle. You can see dynamically the image of how it’s



working when you watch what people are doing, trying to get to the outcome. And you see how we mess ourselves up. Ah, ah, ah, ah. You’re already … not this knee. The other knee. This one [TN: touches left knee]. You have this one, away. In space. There you go. There you go. There you go. [TN: pushes right foot] Why is it sliding? There we go. And now come back. Knee away. You still take the knee away.

See. So what … you sink the spine. You sink the spine. You see, the head becomes vertical. There you go. In a minute we’ll do a movement … And bring the arm up as you go. There you go. Take your time, take your time. Ah, ah. You go fast, you start with this knee [TN: touches right knee]. Don’t start with this knee. Keep going, keep going. Keep going. No, no, no, no. You took the arm down too soon. You are ready to pull on your elbow. There, there.

Now the head has to come up before the arm goes down. There you go. And now, take the knee away, knee away, knee away. There. Now the head becomes vertical, you see? In a minute we’ll do a movement with everybody to actually do exactly that. Now, you go [TN: pushes head, keeping it vertical, as Sylvia goes back down to floor]. Pull the knee away, knee away. Stay vertical. Pull the knee away. Stay vertical. Pull the knee away. And bring the arm up. And then take the head down.

Do it one more time. You see, you felt that? See, the head can be vertical. So now, again. One more time. You take, no, you are taking the arm down already. You are getting ready to push on the elbow. Don’t. [TN: Anat takes Sylvia’s knee away] That’s it. Now lift the head and then now bring the arm down. There you go. That’s it.

And now, going down you keep your head vertical because that’s the important thing for … yeh, yeh, pull the knee away. Pull the knee away. Pull the knee away. Pull the knee away. Bring the hand up. Ah, you can let the head go now. That’s it.

You see, just feeling that will change to the next level for Sylvia the way she works with the children when she teaches them to sit up. Not that she wasn’t doing a great job up until now. But for her, that’s the next level for her. There’s the whole verticality … and we’ll do it in a second.

5 ENDNOTE #5: DEMO

This is how she tried to do it. [TN: Biaja has hand flat on floor with elbow in the air.]

[BIAJA] Well, you said elbows on the side, so I …

[ANAT] No, I said arm up.

Dan, Dan. What’s with you, Dan? And here we go. And I look at her and I think, “I don’t know. This looks like an accident waiting to happen. This looks like … Oh, my God. I have—how do they call it in the, uh, what people get in the elbow? … musicians—tendonitis waiting to happen.” So I went like, “Can her arm? …” [TN: Anat puts the arm down, palm down] and she went, “Ahh!”

So now let me use you to demonstrate. So pull the knee away. See the pelvis rolls and now lift the head, bringing the left ear to the left shoulder, and getting as tall as you can. And left ear to the left … [TN: Anat moves Biaja’s head toward left shoulder]. You see, she has no idea where her head is in space in this position. There you go.

See, more and more like a baby. Babies do that. They’re on their back and then as they roll and they get in space … Part of what happens until they can roll on the belly is … What they need is they always bring the head to vertical. And that’s what happens with the little ones that are put on their bellies before they can. There’s one thing the head is not—it is not in the vertical. They are flexed—it’s an automatic …That’s the level of maturation of their brain. And they rub the head, you know, they rub it, and they try to lift it, but they



lift it only in the neck muscles. Everything that adults do badly they teach children to do from the age of a few weeks.

Now, again, this … Think of that, and think of pushing on the hand, pushing on the hand, getting the ear … There you go. Uh, oh. You know why you fell? Because you didn’t arch your lower back. Let’s try it one more … You didn’t. No, you didn’t. If you say so, you’re the teacher. So how about you see, if you do this. Arch the back, arch the back. Now you know what it means to bring the ear … And keep arching the back. That’s it. And now you can push on the hand and you don’t lose control as much. [TN: Biaja falls forward]. Oh, and you see, but that’s what happens to babies. [TN: Anat flips Biaja onto her belly.] They go all the way on the belly. OK.

6 ENDNOTE #6: DEMO

Naomi and you, both of you, do … Look here for a moment. Go back. Look here at these two, Oliver and Naomi. And go ahead, slowly, and watch them doing it.

[TO STUDENT] Somebody has to move side. Johannes.

And look at the difference in the idea of the movement performed by one person and the other. And when you are here … You see, she’s pushing on the hand. Push on the hand. There you go. You feel? You see, now how the spine does everything. Now go back. I just want you to see the difference when there is more differentiation and control. That means the command center knows what to do with it. What just happened? I missed it.

[STUDENT] He couldn’t get back over.

[ANAT] He couldn’t get back over? Oh, my God.

Do it one more time. Oliver. Look at the articulation and the coordination and the timing. The head … the only thing you’re taking a while … That’s it. Look at that. And look here, look how much … Why are you laughing, guys? I don’t understand. Go on your back. One more time.

Anybody will tell me why everybody’s laughing? I’m missing something.

[STUDENT] You talk about how beautiful she’s doing it and then you say, “Look here.”

[ANAT] Look at the spine. Look at the spine, the belly, and look here. You see he … Now the head, Naomi. The head, the head, the head. And now she could sit up if she wanted to. Shouldn’t be a problem. There you go. You see, that’s the completion. Now slide the arm. Use the knee, use the knee, use the knee. Watch her, watch her, Oliver. Watch her. Push the belly out. You’re not pushing the belly out. There … and you forgot the leg and the ankle above the knee, the ankle. Now do it again slowly. Slowly.

See you have to think. You have to feel. And then once you know it, it becomes automatic—you do it just by feeling. But in the beginning an enormous amount of cognition. Pull away, pull away, pull away, pull away. There, and then come to simple up, upright. Simple upright. There you go. And now go back to tilting the head, sliding … You see the head? And then gradually bring the knee … Start taking the knee, the knee. No, I told you to do it a little too early. My mistake. Wait until you feel ready. Come on, start from scratch. Start from scratch. Do it by your own feeling. I’m going to shut up.

[TN: Naomi starts the movement] Push the belly out. Out. There you go. She told me I could talk. One more time. Don’t try to sit up. Just do the part they are doing. There you go. You see, now it starts becoming by feeling. Then, there you go. And the ear. The part …There you go. If you push the belly out the whole time. There you go. That’s it. Push the belly out, out, out, out, out, out, out, out. And, you see, it’s not totally easy for her because you see what her thumb was doing.




TML 7: Line of Effort, Lying on the Back (2005)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 3, Aug. 22, 2005)

NOTES 1. Lie on your back. Scan the way you are lying on the floor. Spread your legs

comfortably. Feel the contact of your legs with the floor, from your hip joints down to the heels; on the right leg, and on the left side, from the base of your head down along your spine to your tailbone. Which parts of your spine are clearer to you? Which parts are less clear? When you visualize your spine, do you think of the back of your spine? Do you have an image of the front of your spine? The volume of the vertebrae? Or is it just a line to you? You can imagine your arms coming from the 7th cervical. How you are breathing?

1a. Now, put your legs, feet and toes together.

For many people this is not easy at first.

And imagine that you have a fairly heavy ball, like a steel ball, and you put it just above your knees between your thighs, and gently roll that ball up your thighs toward your pelvic bone. You bend your knees just a little bit, the heels stay in contact with the floor, and get the ball to roll towards and then over your pubic bone; then you do something in your pelvis to roll the ball back down. [TN: We are combining actual movement with the imagination.]

And stop and rest. Primarily you rest for the legs.

You’ll have more appreciation for how hard movement is for Isabel.

2. Put the legs and the ankles back together. Do again the initial movement; place again that ball between the knees. Slowly bend the knees, and do it in such a way, to slowly, gradually, roll the ball up towards your pelvis.

[DEMO] Look at her ankle. It’s just like what Isabel does. And in this movement see how it unearths it. Surprising isn’t it? Spasticity is also a sign of insufficient differentiation. Lie on your back and do a few more movements.



Feel what, if anything is happening in the spine, and where. Feel how a seemingly small movement is such an intense experience. Feel if you are holding your breath, and find a way to do it that you are not having to hold your breath.

And now, pay attention if your head is moving at all. Is the chin moving a little towards the chest, and away from the chest?

Rest for a moment.

Use the opportunity to spread your legs, and let the adductors rest.

3. Again, put the legs, feet, heels together. And place the ball a little lower on the knees, just at the top of the lower legs; and move the ball down toward your feet. You bend the knees slightly and control the ball so it goes down toward the feet; the feet have to flex to catch the ball, so it doesn’t go flying off your legs. Then figure out how to get the ball to go back up toward the knees. If at any moment you point your toes, the ball will roll off.

If you feel that you are straining your low back or neck, do less; perhaps use some padding.

Do a few more of these movements and feel the trajectory of the ball. If the ball had some ink on it, and it goes down on your pants, would it leave a mark evenly on both legs? Or more on one or the other?

Stop it for a second and rest.

Where do you feel the impact on yourself [from 2009 training].

How many of you are feeling that is actually more challenging than doing what we might call a “regular” lesson? It is more challenging. You do it the best you can, and what you are doing is really training yourself in an intense way to think; it opens the possibility for changes that, I think, in other ways does not exist. You have to start applying yourself in this way for certain things to happen.

4. Put your feet and legs back together. Flex your ankles so you won’t lose the ball. Roll the ball up towards the pubic bone, and then back down all the way down to the ankles, then bring the ball back up all the way to the pubic bone.

And feel what real work it is to get the back and pelvis and the abdomen to do it. For most people, you’ll see that at least one ankle does not flex properly. And that’s okay; that’s one reason for doing the lesson.

And spread your legs and rest.



You cannot be agitated, irritated, exhausted and do this movement at the same time. An agitated nervous system cannot generate this kind of thinking and ability. And when you impose upon it this requirement, the agitation will go away.

5. Put your legs together, and gently place the ball on your neck between your chin and your chest. And lift the head and flatten the chest to roll the ball to rest on your abdomen and belly. Then lower your head and move your chest in such a way to roll the ball back up.

And feel the weight of the ball. The gradual rolling of the ball. Have the hands and arms next to you, with the palms down.

Leave it alone, spread your legs a little bit, and rest.

6. Put the legs together, the arms next to you. And do the last movement again. See if you need to lift the head from the beginning, or can you lift it only when you need to?

6a. Put your hands on your sternum, and do a few movements and feel what you are doing with the sternum.

6b. And then put them on the clavicles for a movement or two and feel what you are doing there.

Stop and let your legs rest.

7. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put your hands behind your head. Keep your legs together. And now the ball is on the belly button and lift your head and roll the ball to your pelvic bone, and do what you need to roll the ball up to your chin, and back.

Start with small movements as you move the ball from the pubic bone and back up to the head. What do you need to get that ball from the pelvic bone back up? Do you need to lift the pelvis? Wherever you notice the ball is, do things to help the ball along.

Rest.

8. And bend your knees. Put your feet and legs together, put your hands together in the non-habitual way and put them behind your head.



Now, lift your legs up into the air, and move the ball from your pubic bone up to your throat and back down.

What do you need to do? Roll the pelvis up, and then you have to lift the head up. First one [TN: the pelvis], then the other [TN: the head].


And feel the reorganization that is happening; your sense of yourself. Some of you look like you are melting down into the floor; the unnecessary contractions and firings are letting go. The nervous system is calming down.

9. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Flex your ankles lift your toes off the floor. Put the ball on your ankles, and slowly lift your legs to roll the ball up to your knees, and back down.

9a. Maybe bend the knees a little less. Have the legs straight down on the ground. Flex your feet, and slowly roll the ball up to your knees, and keep rolling it up to your pelvic bone, and up to your chest and chin, and back down.

9b. Put your hands behind your head. Anything that doesn’t need to keep working to make the ball travel let it go.

Leave it alone, and rest.

How many of you are finding now that it’s easier to keep the legs together [TN: during the movement]? Many of you. How come it gets easier? What is going on? Think about it. And rest.

10. Now, put your arms out sideways, at shoulder height. Check with your eyes that your arms and hands are at shoulder height. The palms are to the ceiling, back of the hands are on the floor. Now slide your arms up to about 45 degrees. Put the ball in your right palm and roll it to inside the elbow and back to the palm.

Don’t look at your hand. [2009 training comment]

What do you need to do? You actually have to move the shoulder a little.

Bend the wrist, roll the ball up the lower arm to the elbow, and keep it rolling up to the shoulder and then bring it back. What is the trajectory of the ball? Feel the pressure, in your mind's eye, of the ball rolling back and forth. Feel and imagine the ball.

When you roll the ball to the shoulder, flatten the shoulder and the chest in such a way to bring the ball to the corner in front of and just below the shoulder, where the ball can



be nestled, and then lift the shoulder in such a way to pop it out of there and back down the arm, in a controlled way so the ball doesn’t go flying off.

Do it slowly enough to create the feeling of the pressure of the ball.

Bring down the arms slowly.

And feel the change in sensation between the right and left arms. Feel it in your face, in your cheek, in the corner of your eyes. And feel the power of the reorganization of doing this, combined with the thinking and imagination.

11. Now bring your arms to the same place again. And now, place the ball at that place in the chest where it came to earlier, the right upper corner by the shoulder.

And do a movement in the chest and so on to roll the ball gradually across the chest to the left hip joint, think of the hip joint as deep inside.

We are looking to differentiate the clavicle and the shoulder and chest, back.

[DEMO] Look at this person, C, for a moment. Where is her ball? It’s off her, on the floor. What does she need to have happen? Greater differentiation… then watching C do it. Gevalt! Look at the effort, the enormous amount of power that is generated to try to get this to happen. I’d love to introduce for you the experience of reducing the amount of effort, especially in your shoulders. All we are doing is creating slopes to get the ball to move where we want it to. It’s not about how heavy the ball is. Put your hand here [TN: on your shoulder] to feel the slope. Gently. This is the “gentle police” here. Not so much tension in the neck. Go do your best. Reduce the effort. The more effort you do, the harder it gets.

Feel, every time you’re stuck, reduce the effort. Breath freely [2009 training comment].

You don’t have to keep the legs together now. And know that extraneous effort makes it harder to increase the differentiation. So the harder you work, the harder it gets to achieve what you want. See if you can mold your chest to get to feel that at least you are starting to be able to have a say in this. You can lift the head and right arm to get you to roll the ball to the left hip, and put the left foot standing and lift the left hip to roll the ball back to the right shoulder.

11a. Now add rolling the ball from the right shoulder diagonally down to the left hip, and continue down to the left knee, and to the left ankle, and back up all the way to the right shoulder.

11b. Now add to that rolling the ball from the right shoulder to the right elbow and the right hand.

You have to have the back of the hand on the floor or you will lose the ball.

11c. And now when you roll the ball down to the left ankle, roll it down the inside of the left leg; turn the foot out to the left.



So, you go from the right hand in a long diagonal line to the left foot, but this time the left foot is on its left side.

Leave it alone, bring the arms down slowly, and rest.

Feel inside yourself the general changes and reorganization, and then also the difference between the left leg and side and the right leg and side. Can you feel where the ball was rolling down and the aftereffect of the ball.

Roll your head side to side, and see how that is.

12. Put your legs together, feet together. And now roll the ball from the ankles up to the pelvis, and up to the abdomen and chest and chin, then you reverse the order, like you did earlier. You have to create an incline to move the ball in whichever direction it’s going. You lean on the elbow, lift the head or not, do whatever you need to do to accommodate for that peculiar wave like movement in the body.

12a. Bend your knees, put your feet standing, legs together. Interlace your hands behind your head. And roll the ball from the pubic bone to the chin, and from the chin to the pubic bone; and see if that has become clearer and easier to do.

12b. Put your arms down, and lengthen and spread your legs.

And feel how you are lying now.

12c. Slowly roll to your side and sit up.

Take a moment just to feel yourself, and make lots of room for your newness to be there.

12d. Get up now and stand on your feet. And feel yourself, the sense of yourself.

12e. And walk around.

Feel how soft everybody’s feet are?

[END OF LESSON]




TML 8: On the Foot and Forearm: Relationship between the Head and Pelvis to Standing (2009)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Nov 2009)

NOTES 1. OK. So, I assume you’re already scanning yourself. But, do it if you haven’t been

doing it, and be spine. Be your spine. Be your spine. That’s it. We’re going to do spine. We’re going to work from the, this perspective. You may bring in the head and the pelvis from time to time.

1a. So now, sit up. Roll to your side and sit up. Be a spine sitting up.

See if you can do that. That’s an interesting exercise. That means that you sit. And it’s not like you… If you feel other parts, of course… But…

Visualize, have the spine right there, and keep having the spine so it’s kind of like you create an animation of the movement, but you only show the spine part.

It’s an exercise that I do from time to time, which is… When I do this movement, or someone does this movement, if I only look from the point of view of the spine, if I only saw the spine, right, the vertebra, the bones, would I know what movement are they doing? See, if I only look at the right shoulder, can I see, know the movement that they’re doing? A lot less likely than if I look at the spine. If I have the spine, have the pelvis, I’m almost certain to know what they’re doing, to a great extent. Do you understand? So, spine.

So now, straight legs in front of you, spread. Now, lean on your left hand somewhere next to you, preferably with the fingers pointing towards your toes, but close to the pelvis.

Otherwise it’s going to be… You know, to the side of the pelvis somewhere.

And now, gently bend the elbow, the left elbow, and slowly go down, slowly. Don’t do it all in one movement even if you can.

You’re bending the elbow to go down, to lean on the left elbow. And you move…

[TO STUDENT] What about “don’t do it all in the first one movement” do you not understand? Don’t get offended. Get up. Get up. You see, you couldn’t do it, so you fell down. That’s a very good explanation. It’s called irreversible, uncontrollable movement. Didn’t intend to. OK, not a problem. We have to have that distinction too. Do you think that’s funny? OK. Now, what, what will make it so that you are more likely to be able to do this movement? The chest, that’s right. That same thing that you were struggling with on the floor.



1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO, THINKING AND FEELING

So all of you, put your left hand, and it doesn’t have to be perfect, but somewhere in that neighborhood of delicacy. And the idea I am going down to lean, and you’ll see the head actually comes forward, the chest. You’ll see. That’s, that’s right. It’s…

[DEMO] Now if you watch Jory. Jory put the hand quite far away from his pelvis. So if he were really to go to lean on the elbow… Look how far back. It’s kind of almost impossible to bring the weight over the elbow that far back. [TN: Puts hand on Jory’s head] There you go. That makes it a little more lightly to… see, yeah. Who knows. Maybe over here [TN: moving hand on mat]. Try it. Try it. Maybe it's too close for you. I have no idea. There you go. That’s right. There you go.

And feel, what starts happening with your right hip, leg, you know. And look to make it as easy as possible to simply bend the elbow, and lean on it.

That means that you bring your head, your weight, over that elbow, and try not to fall. So, use your spine. Move your back, your spine, of course the chest. Everything is attached to it, so…

But in such a way that you can go totally gradually. There is no fall.

The fall means that there is some rigidity in the back.

[TO STUDENT] But feel… If the…if you came to the elbow where you actually lean on it…You see you’re not really…. Put… When you’re down there, put your elbow somewhere where you feel you’re really leaning on it. If you were… No move it in space. If you were… Maybe that’s too much. Maybe… Feel where you’re really leaning.

All of you, feel where is it really leaning. If you were going to watch a ten minute video leaning on that elbow, where would you want it?

There you go. Excellent.

1b. And now, put your right foot standing. That means you bend the right knee. You spread the legs, right foot standing. And with the right hand, get hold from above your head your left temple.

That’s right, that’s excellent.

And very slowly, bend the head to the right and back.

But you’re leaning on the hand. You’re not leaning on the elbow.

And feel, bend the right ear to the right shoulder, and feel what kind of movement…. Think spine again, right? Think spine. And what kind of movement do you feel throughout the spine. And is anything happening also in the pelvis?

Now, some of you have turned the head either to the right, or to the left. Have the nose in front. Have the head looking forward, and then you bend it. So you bend, really, sideways. You don’t twist. Remember, we talked about scoliosis a little bit. When there



is a scoliosis, we tend to turn the head when we can’t bend it, when the spine doesn’t want to bend. There you go. Excellent.

1c. And now, go down to leaning on your elbow, on your left elbow and forearm.

And continue doing it.

And feel when you’re down there, does, when you bend the right ear to the right shoulder, does the pelvis move clearer? Or is it easier to get the pelvis to move?

[TO STUDENT] Keep yourself on the elbow, keep yourself down on the elbow, and see if you can put the foot standing. Can you bend your knee a little bit more? That’s perfect. That’s right.

So bend, sideways, slowly. Think spine. Imagine what movement your spine is doing in space while you do this.

[TO STUDENT] But lean on the elbow. You’re not leaning on the elbow, hardly at all. Lean on the elbow. Bring your body over the elbow. Put the elbow under your shoulder. If your elbow is way outside the shoulder in any direction, you can’t lean on it. See if you can put the elbow under your shoulder. There you go. Excellent.

And lie on your back, and rest for a moment.

And now, of course, feel the difference between one side. Feel how just doing these few movements can make very, very big, significant differences in the organization of self, of feeling of self. That’s the rate and speed at which, under the right conditions, we can really change very, very rapidly. And that I think, from my point of view, my vision, is where we miss as a society, we still miss huge, we’re just at the beginning of understanding this remarkable resource that we have within ourselves, and finding intentional ways to harvest those resources.

2. And roll to your side, and please sit up through maybe the not usual side, your usual side. And lean on the right hand behind you. Legs straight in front of you to begin with. Lean on the right hand behind you.

And, first don’t do anything, just visualize yourself, imagine yourself bending your, your right elbow slowly, and bring yourself to leaning on that elbow. But think it through. Don’t do it first. If you have an urge to do it, do it to the left, but think it to the right.

And feel when you think it, feel, imagine your spine, the shifting of the weight in space, the chest, the movement of the rib cage, the sternum relative to the spine, that you were asked to do in the earlier lesson today. You know, the whole…that kind of flattening of the chest, and sliding it backwards and downwards, and the shifting of the weight on your tush, and your breath, and the head moving forward and a little sideways. And there’s a whole lot. So think it don’t do it.



You’ll see that it’s much easier to do than to think to do something. And turn the fingers more to the front. For those of you who have the fingers sideways, the elbow can’t go to the side. Right? Yeah.

2a. And now, go ahead and slowly do small movement to begin with. Don’t go all the way down. And come back.

Just a small movement, and come back. And then come back, and then do again a movement, maybe a little bigger. And, self-correct.

Once you do a little bit, you, you sort of know where you’re heading. Do you realize it, that in the very beginning you have a sense of where you’re heading? Yes, yes? Yes, no? Do you have a sense of where you’re heading? So if you know if you’re heading to a disaster, don’t go. Come back, and change. Too simple to be done, right? [TN: responding to a student] No I didn’t, but, but I should have, right? No, no, not the head yet, not the head yet. Right. Not yet. Not yet.

2b. And now, bend your left leg. Put the left foot standing. Put the left hand on the right temple. And begin…

[TO STUDENT] First you’re sitting up. You’re not on your elbow. Straighten your arm, your right arm. Lean on your hand. Not the elbow, just your hand. Somebody help him. OK, a neighbor, save him.

And now, tilt. Make sure your nose is to the front, and tilt the left ear to the left shoulder, and back.

And feel from the very beginning, do you have an inclination to engage just the neck? Maybe the middle of your spine? How much of your spine is in the equation? What about your left hip? Is there shifting of weight, on the tush?

[TO STUDENT] But make sure not to turn the nose. You’re turning the nose to the right. I’m talking to someone specific, not all of you are doing it.

2c. And now, go down to lean on your right elbow and forearm. And stay there.

And then bend the head while leaning on the forearm.

Make sure, have your left foot standing very clearly, because you could actually help, with the left foot, to do the movement.

Gently, but you know you could actually help wake up your tush by slight pressure on your left foot.

[TO STUDENT] Just spread, spread the… That’s it. You see, when you have, put the foot back here, you see the pressure is not going to go... You see, it’s going to go there. So spread. That’s it. Now the pressure is going to go into the spine. There you go.

And of course, visualize the spine, and feel whether when you bend the left ear to the left shoulder, your tush is rocking a little bit.

For some of you it is, and for others it’s still not. That’s okay. That’s why we’re doing a lesson. There we go.



Lie on your back and rest, please.

3. Roll to your side, and sit up please. Lean on your left elbow and forearm.

[TO STUDENT] Are you in pain? How come? Since when? So just work, very small, very little, very little bits, so you have a chance to recover. And take Motrin at night, so to reduce the inflammation so it has a chance to heal. But do very, very little. OK? Because we’re doing a lot of motion in the hip in this lesson. So just go very, very easy. You’re going to do fine, Honey. But just… You might want to just even sit and watch people. Just take this, take some time out. Or, I’ll let you manage it, but feel free to sit in a comfortable chair and just watch. Yeah. Just see, see if you can do it. OK.

Alright. So you’re leaning on your left elbow, forearm.

Put your right foot standing. And now place your right hand on top of your right knee.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO, IF THERE IS PAIN

Alright, all of you do it. Lean on the way I did say it, on the left arm. Put the right foot standing, right foot, right foot. Spread the legs a little bit, and put the right foot [TN: hand] on top of the knee. Excellent.

And now, with the help of the hand, start drawing a circle, a full circle, with the knee. So that the circle would be drawn on the ceiling, right? Or parallel to the ceiling.

And let me tell you what you have no choice but to do. Let’s first of all, see what you’re doing. Slow. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down, slow down. You can do a small circle. It doesn’t have to be a large circle. But, feel.

3a. All of you, pull your belly in a little bit and immobilize your pelvis, and try to do a circle.

Come on. Give it a try.

Which is the direction that you can move the knee?

Right and left. But, if you hold the stomach… I mean, if you really tighten it, you can’t do anything with the poor knee. But you see, in other words, you absolutely need to allow the pelvis…. The pelvis does a circle, too, actually. But it rolls in a funny way because you have the weight more to one side.

And feel what happens in the spine. So now we’re back to the spine, right?

And, and then think the circle. Actually think “circle” with your knees. And feel, where is the circle? Where is the straight line? Where is it staccato? Where is it legato? Just feel that.

[TO STUDENT] Did you have already your private session in this training? Oh, so you have another one? Who is going to be doing it with you? Sylvia? Suzi. Is good. Yeah, I just want to know. Maybe I will make some suggestions. But there is a really amazing



thing that I discovered. Sometimes taking a Motrin, at night before going to sleep, couple nights, reduces the inflammation, allows the body to come home. Sometimes, you know, just the irritation, keeps aggravating.

3b. And stop for a second, and then do circles in the opposite direction.

There you go. You feel?

And when you really do the circles there’s a lot of motion everywhere. 3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO, A LOT OF MOTION EVERYWHERE

Go ahead.

Do small [TN: circles]. You don’t have to do it so big, but slowly wake up more and more of your spine, more and more of your pelvis.

There you go. And don’t decide how the pelvis is going to move. Just slowly allow yourself to bring in the different parts. So don’t do it by decision. Do it by feeling. And make sure you’re still leaning on the elbow. And you’re making a circle with your knee. That’s pretty cool, you guys. Nice. Very nice.

3c. And change direction, please. Slow. Slow, slow, slow.

And keep the foot flat.

The foot stays, oops, The foot stays flat the whole time.

The knee, the ankle, move around the foot.

If you’re lifting your foot that means you’re putting too much tension in your ankle. It’s your opportunity to learn how to get the ankle mobile. You see, you can stay on your foot, and move your body over the foot. And, anyway, you’re doing great.


If I could just say all of it at once, you could learn all of it at once. Wouldn’t that be good? No?

Who was here? Oh, Amy, yes. You’d think I’d remember. I am before Piaget’s stage where when something is hidden, you think it’s gone. I am still at that stage. Impermanence. I am. I am pre-object permanence. I really am. I’m in a permanent regression state.

4. OK. And now. Sit up, through whichever side. Just know which one it is. Lean on your right elbow, but make sure it’s not behind your back.

The elbow, but to the side, really to the right. The hand is closer to your body. The elbow is a little bit to the side, the right elbow. Bring the weight over to the right. Put your left…



Bend your left knee. Put your left foot standing, spread. Knee standing, up to the ceiling.

Put your left hand on your left knee, and gently begin making circles with the help of the hand, with your knee. Start slow, slow.

[TO STUDENT] Slow is a lot slower than you’re doing.

And, think spine. Feel what your spine is doing, and of course, you can always peek a bit at the ribs and the sternum and the pelvis. Notice that. But have the spine represented very clearly for you, at least some of the time.

There you go. Very nice. Some of you have really slowed down. That’s marvelous.

And keep the foot flat.

Flat, flat. Excellent.

4a. And now, stop for a second, and do circles in the opposite direction.

And leave that alone, and rest for a moment.

5. Roll to your side. Sit up, please. Lean on your left elbow. Put the right foot standing.

And OK, and now, with your right hand, reach behind the right heel, and get ho… [TN: get hold of the foot].

But the foot stays on the floor. No, no, no. no, no, no. Foot standing. And now… Reach from…

You can do it from either the outside or the inside, right? You’ll figure out in a minute. If you can’t get the heel, grab your pants.

And begin sliding the foot with the help of the hand like that, and make circles with the foot on the floor. Start with a small circle. Might be easier for you.

You see that catching the ankle, or the heel, from in between the legs makes it that you have more freedom to move the foot in a circle.

[TO TEACHING ASSISTANT] That’s okay, she’s doing fine; she’s doing, she’s doing fine. Thank you. Thank you for trying to help.

Don’t lift the heel off the floor. Catch it from behind, and slide it like that. And feel, initially it’s quite awkward. But very quickly it’ll become clearer and easier.

5a. And now, change the direction of the circle. And if you’re holding the heel from inside, hold it from the outside. And if you’re holding it from the outside, hold it from the inside.



And keep doing circles with the heel, a few circles in one direction.

And feel if, gradually, you start discovering how to move your chest and your pelvis despite the constraint that holding the arm does—I mean holding the heel with the arm does.

And, did I say change the direction? If not, I am saying change direction.

Lie on your back, and rest, please.

And feel whether you were able to hold your heel or not. Whether you were holding it one way or another. Whether it was clumsy or not. Feel still the impact and the change on you, having done this movement. I’m going to point that out over and over again throughout the training and the years, because, this is probably something that people tend to forget, and it’s extremely important: that the improvement occurs through participation in a process that is done successfully. The improvement does not occur when you’re successful at the outcome. The success outcome is the outcome of the successful process. So the changes happen in the process while you’re still not having the outcome perfectly.

6. Roll to your side and sit up. And this time lean on the other elbow, I believe it will be the right elbow. And put the left foot standing. Bring the foot as close to your pelvis as you can, and bring your elbow closer too. So, you know, so you’re, close, so you can reach. And now, get hold from, like you’re pinching from behind, the ank…, the heel.

And begin sliding in small little circles.

And feel in the beginning especially, certain parts of the circle can feel like the leg is made from lead. It’s like, it’s never going to go there. But as you reduce the effort and start thinking “spine"...

You see—I see some of you—that the movement of the heel can be seen in every vertebra of the spine. It sort of pulls on the spine, and lengthens it, and twists it, and God knows what. The whole thing.

4 ENDNOTE #4: DEMO, LOOK AT HER SPINE & TESTIMONY

OK, so all of you lie on your back and rest for a minute.

7. Okay. Roll to your side and sit up. Lean on your left elbow and place your right foot standing.

So, first of all, make sure you’re in that position. The legs are spread. The right foot is clearly standing. You’re leaning on your left elbow clearly. Lean on your left elbow. Excellent.

Now, take your right hand, and put the back of your right hand on your lower back.



Behind your back on your lower back, on that level of the spine. You’re there? Good.

And now, move the right elbow backwards. That means that your wrist is going to bend, actually. Your, the back of the hand stays on the lower back, and then bring the elbow back to place. And move it backwards.

Bend the wrist and take the elbow backwards.

And feel what do you, what’s your inclina[tion]?

[TO STUDENT] That’s right. Hah. All you have to do is have me look at you, and you wake up. It’s intimidating? It worked. Whatever works. There you go.

Feel that when you do that, you feel, you take the elbow back, takes the shoulder back, and you arch the back.

One or two of you are twisting. But it’s not so much a twisting movement as much as, you take it back and it arches the back, moves the belly forward, the pelvis, and... But keep the… You see. Hah.

5 ENDNOTE #5: DEMO WITH 2 PEOPLE

[TN: joking] All of you, imitate. No, don’t. Doesn’t matter what, doesn’t matter what you feel. Ignore your own inner sense of self. Just imitate. No, no, no.

Make sure you’re standing on the leg. That’s right. And the hand behind the lower back, not behind the pelvis. Behind the lower back. And then you take, you… Actually it increases the sensation in the, you can feel your lower back. That’s right. And see if you can keep the head up, so you don’t throw the head back. Remember that you did it in a twisting way yesterday? Spread the foot a little bit, that’s it. You stand on it so you could theoretically come to standing on it. There you go. There you go. That’s it. And then take the elbow back, elbow back, backwards. No? Backwards.

[TO STUDENT] Hmmm, you’re getting confused. Take it forwards. No, no. Take it forwards when you’re down here. Forward, forward, forward. The elbow. There you go. No? Not much, easy. And now, take it backwards, and arch the back. You see, that’s something that would completely change your experience of your back. You’re, go slow, until you, right now you’re still confused.

Lie on your back and rest. Lie on your back and rest.

8. Sit up. Lean on your right elbow. Put your left foot standing. Put your right hand behind your back—left hand, that’s correct.

And now, take the el… Put the foot standing.

And now, take the elbow back. Start with a small movement, until… the minutest movement of your elbow. Already your pelvis is… and the lower back are in action.

There you go. Elbow back, there you go. Connect the elbow, the lower back—the elbow, the lower back. So you think, “elbow, lower back, belly out.” Then you come back. There you go. So you feel, this erects the spine, it gets you taller. Very lovely.



Leave it alone, and rest please.

We’ll do a few more variations.

9. Roll to sitting. And now, lean on your left elbow. Place your right foot standing. And now, you’ll have to bend, somewhat, the left knee, and get hold with your right hand, your left foot from inside.

Like that, like a monkey, like you did a few days ago. From below, from below. That’s right. Everybody’s doing it? Good.

And now, in this position, a few times, lift the leg up a little, and put it down. Just a little bit, and put it down.

I’m turning you into real monkeys. You’re waking up your monkey brain. If you remember in the zoo, monkeys love this position. They do. That’s good. You can do the, “ooh, ooh, ooh,” if you want.

9a. And now, and now lift the leg a little bit and begin drawing a circle with the foot, with the toes, with the leg like that. Yeah.

That means that you have to move the pelvis, right? There you go. You take a circle around, parallel, more or less parallel to the ceiling. Take the leg around like that, in a circle. The thumb together with the rest of the fingers. That’s it.

Excellent, that’s how monkeys do it. They don’t have an option.

9b. And now, do it the other way around, the other leg is standing. That’s right, the right leg is standing.

You’re doing really good, you guys. Look at you. You’re waking up your ancient brain.

All right. Lie on your back and rest.

I’d love to hear your dreams tomorrow.

And of course, each time you rest, feel the profound changes, actually.

10. Roll to your side. Sit up. This time, lean on your right elbow. Put your left foot standing.

Excuse me ([TN: yawning] Oy, time to go home. Anyway…

Bend your right knee. Get hold with your left hand your right knee [TN: should be foot rather than knee] from inside, from below, all the fingers together. First of all, a few times, simply lift and lower the leg, just a little bit.



Gentle. Foot. You catch the foot. Have the left knee, the left foot standing. That’s right. Try to catch the actual outside of the foot, not the toes.

[TO STUDENT] That’s it, Nicole, otherwise, you know it’s, the brain goes like, “Danger. Those toes might be…” I don’t know.

10a. And now, bring it up, and start doing small circles in whichever direction.

There you go.

And feel your spine now. And feel whether there’s more and more absolute, immediate relationship between what you do with your leg and your spine, what you’re doing with your spine.

It doesn’t occur to anyone anymore to try and move that leg without something happening in the spine and in the chest.

10b. Now change direction please.

And lie on your back and rest please.

[TN: talking to herself] Hmm, that’d be fun.

11. OK. So, roll to your side, and sit. And this time, listen to what I am saying. Lean on the left hand.

Hand. Let’s see how many people still hear. Great. Put… You’re good.

Put your right foot standing, and… huh. And now put your right hand on your right knee, so you can lean on the right knee. Put it so you could lean on the right knee.

And now, lift, lean both on your… OK, so you’re going to lean on your left hand, and on your… slowly… and on your right knee with your right hand.

And you’re going to simply lift your pelvis up in the air a little, and come back.

Don’t fall on your tush, because I don’t want you to hurt my floor.

Now, put the foot… Where to put…?

This is where, is where to put the foot.

6 ENDNOTE #6: DEMO, WHERE TO PUT THE FOOT

Ok, all of you, go ahead and do it. Don’t imitate. Go slow, because this has really… You have to feel, how, what, how to spread your legs, how far…

[TO STUDENT] Put your hand on your knee—the hand on the knee. And then you lean both on the left hand, and on the right.



[TO STUDENT] Unless you have something in the ankle that does not allow you, keep the foot flat on the floor. You, you… yeah.

11a. So put the foot somewhere. Some of you maybe put it too close to the pelvis. Some of you put it too far from the pelvis. Some of you put it too much inside. Some of you put it too much close. So, so try. Experiment.

Put the foot one place. Put the foot another place. Change. Put the foot somewhere else. See what it’s like. Experiment a little bit with different places to put the foot. Assuming you didn’t just find the perfect place to begin with. And see if you can keep the foot so the ankle doesn’t rotate inwards – you don’t want to sprain your ankle.

11b. And now, when you do this—when you lift—swivel the pelvis and lift it like that, bend the left knee, and put the left ankle behind the right ankle.

[TO STUDENT] There you go. And then, bring it back. There you go. But, but, bring yourself so that you’re standing on your right foot.

[TO STUDENT] You see, you’re still holding yourself with muscles, so very hard to do what you’re trying to do. So you swivel, swivel and… That’s it, and bend, and put your knee down maybe, but the pelvis up. You see, and bring the head forward. It’ll immediately make it feel like, effortless. There you go. That’s what your daughter is learning to do. There you go. There you go.

[DEMO] There you go. And now when you do this, I’m going to catch your pants, with your permission. Yes, you. Yup, pants, I know you have pants. Here we go. Ready. Go. You see… and then bring the leg. There you go. And take the leg out. So the leg moves as long as the pelvis moves. You feel? And then that’s it, and then you can soften the neck the next time. There you go, that’s it. Now, you can also bend the knee. Put the… put… yeah. Put the ankle, this ankle, over here [helps student move left foot from position to the external/right/rear of the planted right foot, a position where the top of left ankle touches right heel]. Slide the leg so it’s here. There you go. That’s it. Now, do it yourself once. There you go. And now, swivel. Put… And lean, lean on it. Let go. You see, let that skeleton take the weight, anytime you can. You see, now you’re skeletal. There you go. Do it one more time. There you go, now you’re skeletal. You see, the moment she does it the muscles can let go.

All of you, give it a try.

But it’s not standing all the way up at this point. It’s, on purpose, to direct… It’s actually a very specific movement to direct one ankle behind the other. There you go. And back. That’s right. As long as you swivel and move the pelvis, and bring it up, it’s easy. The moment you stop moving the spine, the pelvis…

[TO STUDENT] But, but hey, think, “here, here.” [TN: indicating by touch, the two ankles in contact]. There you go. That’s it. Excellent.


12. Roll to the other si... I mean roll. Sit up. Lean now on your right hand. Put your left foot standing. Put your left hand on your left knee. The legs spread so that you can catch the weight. Now, first of all…



[TO STUDENT] The hand, the hand is on the knee. The hand, not the forearm.

And now, begin by just lifting the pelvis a bit, and putting it back down. Lift, and putting it back down.

Foohoo. Gentle, we don’t want to hurt the floor. There we go. That’s right. There we go.

12a. And now, as you do this, and the pelvis lifts higher…

[TO STUDENT] Maybe you put the foot a little too close if you have to lift the heel. You understand? You see, if you, if the heel lifts off… Put it somewhere where it doesn’t have to lift off as you come on the foot. Oh. What a th… [STUDENT] I, I feel like I can lift up from here. [ANAT] Try it. Try it in different ways. See. There you go. You see, you have to…. Anyway. And now, start bringing… Do whatever most comfortable right now.

12b. And now, bend your right knee. Bring the right ankle behind the left ankle. And sit. But bring it all the way behind so one ankle touches to the other, and sit down. And then, lift the pelvis, and straighten the leg, and sit down.

So you sit one way, and you sit the other way.

You sit one way, and you sit the other way. You sit both ways. You don’t just take the leg and bring it back down forward and sit. You sit one way. There you go. And then you sit the other way.

12c. And now, continue doing it, and find, instead of sitting, where can you put your right knee behind you so you’re standing on the knee and on the foot?

So next time you do it, take the knee to a place where you can stand on it. There you go, on the knee and on the foot.

And then come back. Swivel the pelvis so the legs can go easy.

That’s right. That’s right. That’s how you work for independent living. Seriously. You take people of any age, if you do it gradually enough, you can teach anyone to do that unless they’re completely, I don’t know, paralyzed or something. And then people can go up and down from the floor and they have independence. Yup.


13. And, roll to your side. Sit up. Lean on your left hand. Put your right foot standing. Put your right hand on your right knee. And now, lift the pelvis, swivel it up until you can put the left foot standing. So you’re standing on both legs like that.

Lean, not on the knee anymore, on the foot, and then back down. There you go. Foot… and back down. There you go.

Twist your tush. Come up. Twist your tush. Go down.

13a. Change over the legs. Do the same thing the other way.



And notice, by the way, in preparation for working with children in a year and a half. Notice where your head is going in space, and see how mistaken most people are in thinking what it takes to stand up. You see? What, what does it take to stand up? It takes to lift your tush off the floor.

[TO STUDENT] And twist it and swivel. Go ahead, do it. You see, there you go.

[DEMO] So if I use you again to demonstrate. Just a second, I have to find your pants here. Here we go. So watch here. Swivel. Swivel. [TN: Replying to student’s question] No. I thought you were going down. But just the head. There you go. So I want people to see. You see, you swivel. You see how far forward the head goes.That’s what a person needs to be able to do to be able to stand up. And bavavavava… And then all you have to do is use the lower back. You stand up. But when somebody can’t stand up and their abdomen muscles are like this [TN: indicating straining with sound of voice], and they pull and they, all the flexors work, and it’s everything but standing. Everything but standing.

13b. Go ahead. Do it once one way, once the other way, a few times until it gets a little easier.

And then, that’ll be enough for one day. There you go.

You feel? Excellent. Very easy. Excellent. Nice, nice, nice, nice. And you know, it’s about 2,000, 5,000 per cent better than an hour ago. Is it perfect yet? No, but you have to have something to look forward to in the future.

13c. Alright, do it whichever way, and stand up. Either one way or the other, and stand up. There you go. And feel what it means to stand up now.

[TO ASSISTANT] And quickly, quickly, I am actually going to do a 20 minute demo. That’s what you thought? You were right. Thank you. Thank you.

13d. Walk around. Walk around a little bit. Integrate. Integrate it into your walking, so that you can re-create it later. Alright. Amazing, you feel?

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO, THINKING AND FEELING

Now, this is perfect. Steve, may I please demonstrate on you, Steve? See him right now where he is. From a martial point of view, you are completely vulnerable at this moment. [TN: Steve raises and crosses leg] Still are. Come back up. And now do it exactly the same way that you did. What is he not thinking when he does? He’s thinking a lot of things. Good. [TN: To Steve] Keep going. Some of the things he’s thinking well, but he’s not really feeling the movement. Thinking, feeling it. Look, what is he absolutely not going to be doing? Leaning on his left elbow. [TN: To Steve] You’re doing everything but that. Well, you’re doing a lot of… Can I, can I make a guess? One, you’re Jewish. Second, second, you’re very intellectual. You use a lot your thinking, right? And you try very often, which is by the way a great thing. It’s not bad to think. I’m a big proponent of thinking. But, the thing is that you’re trying to figure it out by some level of… I don’t know, but it looks like some level of decision making that does not integrate enough, the feeling level. So it sort of gives you solutions that are divorced, to some extent, certainly from yourself, and somewhat from reality. Right? OK.

So, lean on your hand. That’s it. Already it’s… You see, now you’re already feeling. So don’t worry whether you do it well or not. But think, “Oh, I’m going to go down somehow, and bring my weight over on the



elbow.” That’s good enough. Now, come back. The reason I stopped you is because your sternum is not moving. Just exhale. Just exhale, just be a slouch. Be a slouch. Don’t work so hard. Don’t worry. There you go, and come back.

And now. There you go. I’m going to move my hand for a second, just right there. You see, feel, the lightness of my hands and the lightness of your head. And see, that’s OK if you want to bend a leg a little bit, and see if you can somehow match… That’s it. In your chest and your torso… You see, here it’s starting to get too hard. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s how you go about it. You go gradually, and you feel, “Where’s my elbow? Here’s my elbow. Where’s the ground? Where am I going? Where am I going? Here he gets a little too heavy. He gets too hard. He should go back. Or he should? He… I suggest you go back. There we go.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO, IF THERE IS PAIN

And, may I demonstrate on you for one second? Yeah? OK. So you guys get out of that position, and look. So when, so Amy has some trouble, some pain in her left hip. And look where… A little… Don’t… Just the hair. I’m just going to move your hair cause it’s all dark, dark hair, dark vest. It’s a little hard to see. And, this is dark, so it's a bit…

But look where her elbow is relative to her shoulder. There’s already enormous amount of, actually, work and tension around here. And I, I would guesstimate—I never know for sure unless, you know, I have some reason to know for sure—that Amy is doing, is trying to protect her head. So she is leaning on that side because I said so, but the same side, the healthy part of her brain says “no, we’re not doing that.” So the first thing I would suggest is to lean on the other side. Okay? Change over the legs. Is that not more comfortable? [TN: affirmative reaction from Amy]

So, that, here we go. An example… And that’s something that over time you will learn to do for yourself more and more, which is, if I say do it on the right side but you know that there is pain, do it on the other side. And if I ask, you say “I’m doing it on purpose,” so I am leaving you alone, so I don’t just think you don’t hear my instructions. And so you do it to the side that is easy. The side that is painful, you can just lie down and imagine. You can even do it that way. You don’t have to skip, and skip and do it until… Or you do one movement and then imagine. But always start on the side that is easy.

You see, because here, she still leans a little bit, but how about you shift the weight over. [TN: By contact, indicates to Amy to move right arm to the right, and to take weight off left arm and lean fully on/over the right arm] There you go. And now, can you put the foot a little to the side? No, to the side—to the side where you can. And put more weigh over here. You see? Is that better, or not? No? Where? Is this better? This is better. Is it still painful, at this moment? [TN: Amy shakes her head while replying] So just do two movements and rest, two movements and rest. And when you come back, go way through the side, so you don’t have to put pressure here. [TN: Anat points towards Amy’s left hip area].

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO, A LOT OF MOTION EVERYWHERE

Can I demonstrate on you? Slow, slow. Just slow down so they don’t think the speed is part of the success. Look at that. Look at this. Look how… It’s, nice. Kind of looks like a kind of deep animal ocean movement. Look at that. There you go. And then… Look and just… Keep doing it, just slow now. There you go. You see? There you go. You see, I’m helping her. She feels it’s a funny feeling. You feel? But you see the upper part of the spine and the whole question of being upright… That’s right. And now let’s do it the other way. There you go. And just still think about the knee doing circles. You see in this part… Now keep the circle. Here you… Keep the… Here you, go back. Go back. Go back the other way, the other way. That… and then go back, go back, go back, go back, go back, and now do full circles. [TN: with each “go back,”



here, Anat used her hands to have Sonia change directions of circling.] There you go, go ahead. But don’t throw the head back. [TN: Anat exerts light pull on Sonia’s hair.] That’s right. There you go. The one part, think, is moving, is this part. [Anat touches Sonia’s sternum, in high, middle, and low points.] This… That’s nice. You see now that brought in this part, of your spine. [TN: Anat indicates upper back between shoulders.] There you go. Who knew that moving the knee would take so much movement? Isn’t this pretty? Some of you did that too.

4 ENDNOTE #4: DEMO, LOOK AT HER SPINE & TESTIMONY

[TO STUDENT] Just keep, keep it flat, Mia. Keep it flat. OK. We’ll… She’s all the way back here, Mia. She’s part of the support staff, and of course she’s a practitioner. And, first of all, do it and then tell them, later.

So just watch how she’s doing the movement. You know sometimes I look at someone, and then I remember when they came to the training, what it was like. So watch. First of all, watch how the pelvis, of course, is rolling. But see how, if you look at her spine from the back, you don’t have to see it, but you can just from wherever… You can see how the location of the, or the movement of the heel on the ground, is reflected through the movement, the pull and the rounding and the lengthening and the arching of the spine. See that? She never stops leaning on her right elbow. That is a permanent thing. And the trick is for the brain to be able to have freedom to contort and change all the joints of the spine, and as a result… and, change the direction. And the ribs, while this [Anat indicates distance from where arm is holding heel to where arm starts at the shoulder] is constant. You see, at the beginning when you get someone to hold the leg like that, there is the feeling that nothing can move. “I’m stuck.” But then you find out that there is an enormous amount of freedom that can happen in between. So just go ahead. You see? In the shoulder, she is leaning on it a lot, and it’s, very nice. This leg is free (right leg). She’s not tensing it much. There, there you go.

So now, where is the microphone? Why don’t you sit up and just tell them a little bit what it was like when you started, especially that we have now, a little poor person there that’s sitting and suffering. [Mia] Boy did I suffer. In a good way. [Anat] She didn’t suffer because she came here. She suffered before she came here. [Mia] Very much so. And I found this work for my own pain, working with Sylvia. And then made the connection with the children that I was working with, and, just how potent it was. And I just, just transformed. I mean I, it’s kind of hard to describe because it happened to me. [Anat] Yeah, but do you remember, the back, the whole, I mean? [Mia] Oh, I mean I would just, cry… [Anat] What? (responding to comment from individual) Yeah, well that’s, we don’t have to go to… I mean you went to Rick Mandias mean you… huge. [Mia] I went to a lot of doctors and places to find help. And, even during the training I definitely had some ups and downs, even within the training. But I always grew, and always came back, and always just, uh, kept going up, up, up, up. [Anat] And how are we doing now? [Mia] Fantastic. [Anat]

Okay. It was pretty severe. I mean they looked for it from a neurologic point. I mean pains, and aches, and symptoms and stuff, and undefined stuff. And look at her now, and she does wonderful work with kids. She’s… You’re an OT by training, right? Yeah

5 ENDNOTE #5: DEMO WITH 2 PEOPLE

Juan Carlos, may I demonstrate on you? Yes? Okay, thank you. Okay. Go ahead. Do what you’re doing. You see. It’s a nice movement, by the way. It’s a very lovely movement, but it’s not what I asked to do. You see, by, by twisting, actually Juan Carlos makes sure that there’s no relative movement between the arm, the elbow, the shoulder, and the spine.

So, you stay with the foot standing. Are you leaning comfortably on your elbow? It doesn’t feel… Yeah. You are? OK. And now, take the elbow back, the elbow back. Hah, hah, hah. The elbow back, come back. The



elbow back. Back. Yeah. But keep the… How about you just arch your back? Take the elbow back, but don’t throw the head back. You see? There you go. So, and come back. See, what you did before was this. Yeah, yeah. You didn’t understand? That’s good. There you go. Slowly, slowly. You see the…

Brian, why don’t you do it. Show it. Show it to the group for a second. [TN: laughing while repeating Brian’s words] “Movement with Anat’s attention?” There you go. That’s right. Pretty cool, huh? And look that when you… To think the elbow going back, and go back… And now, before you do it again, before you do it again, put, put your… No, no, no. Don’t move the foot, just put the knee over the foot. That’s it. And now you can do it and press on the foot. You see? There you go. You see, so it really brings the movement towards standing on the leg. And not right now, but you’ll see that eventually, that’s a lesson that gets you to stand up. Here, there you go. That’s it. Buwhooa. And take the elbow back. There you go. Excellent.

6 ENDNOTE #6: DEMO, WHERE TO PUT THE FOOT

So, if…. Eh, Michael. If you can turn around and do what you just… That was a good swivel. Uh, you had your foot here. Put it where it was. No, it was touching your thigh. Yeah. Yeah. You see, we do need external awareness from time to time. And now, slowly do the movement. You see? Very difficult, very difficult because?... [STUDENT] His weight isn’t… His leg is going straight down. [ANAT] When he starts lifting, there isn’t a bone to catch the weight, very readily and very fully. Basically, that’s another way of saying it. So if I’m going to bring my pelvis over, is there something taking over the weight? Or is… My leg is here, and whatnot.

So, now put the foot somewhere that it’ll have… There, that’s maybe better. We don’t know. Try it. There you go. And see something funny that happens. Not only is it easier to do, but what changed in the movement? Put it back close, close, close. And do it. You see this… He does… Now he, now he adopts what he learns. You see the brain is so quick to change. You are a bad example person. You learn too fast. The way you did it before was straightforward, was straightforward. You see? Yeah, and then you, you didn’t twist. You see, now you learned from the other way. You tried to come straight forward. You see it’s hard work, it’s terrible work on the thighs and everything. Now, put it here. [farther from left thigh] And now, do it. Look, you see, he doesn’t even, didn’t even plan for it, and he starts swiveling the pelvis and the way it comes over on the… Do it again, gently. There you go. Just, just as much as…




TML 8: On the Foot and Forearm: Relationship between the Head and Pelvis to Standing (2005)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg 4 2005) NOTES

Lie on your back. Scan how you are lying.

1a. Roll to your side and sit up. Spread your legs straight in front of you, wide as comfortable. Lean on your left elbow and forearm, to your side. Bend your right knee and put your foot standing. Hold your left temple with your right hand from above. Slowly bend your head to move your right ear toward your right shoulder.

Do not create tension in your neck. Don’t go so far. Start looking by scanning, by feeling, so you can bend your head like that without tension.

Do you feel any relationship between your head and your pelvis? How many of you have a dormant tush? You need to wake up your tush.


2. Roll to your side and sit up. Go to the exact same position. Make sure that you are to the side, not backwards, not forwards. Intentionally bend the head to the right; use the right foot to help the right hip.

Then take the left ear to the left shoulder; roll the pelvis to the floor.


3. Roll to your side and sit up. Put your left foot standing now, right leg long. Lean on the right elbow and forearm to the side. Get hold of your right temple with your left hand, from above. Use your left foot to inform your left tush. The action is bending the right ear towards the right shoulder, and then bend the left ear towards the left shoulder.

See how much movement happens in the middle of the body to truly have no tension in the neck.

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4 TML 8: (2005)


Make sure your left foot is standing, so it is useful to you.


4. Sit up again. Put your right foot standing, the left leg straight. Spread your legs. Lean on your left elbow. Put your right hand on your right knee. With the help of the hand start drawing circles with your right knee. The right foot stays in place.

Feel what you are doing with your pelvis, your chest, everything else to make that circle happen. The pressure changes on the foot, but don’t lift the foot. Make circles with your knee.

4a. Now reverse the direction of the circle.


Feel the difference in sensation between the right leg and the left leg.

5. Sit up and do the same thing on the other side. The left foot is standing; lean on the right elbow; left hand on left knee. Do circles with the left knee.

5a. Then, change over the direction of the circle.

5b. Now do the movement a little faster, smaller.


6. Please roll through your side and sit. Lean on your left elbow and forearm, right foot standing, left leg long. Get a hold of your right heel, the back of the heel, from in between the legs. And slide the whole foot in circles on the floor.

6a. Do the circles now in the opposite direction. Find a way to move; imagine that your ribcage and pelvis can still move.




7. Roll to your side and sit up. Put your left foot standing, the right leg long. Lean on your right forearm. Catch from the back your left heel, from in between the legs. Sliding the foot, make circles on the floor.

7a. Change the direction of the circles. Look to do it with ease. Move the chest and ribcage. Move the pelvis. Reduce the effort.

Rest.

8. Roll to your side and sit up. Lean on your left elbow and forearm. Right foot standing, left leg long. Put your right hand on your low back, the back of the hand on the back. Move your right elbow forward and backwards.

Feel, what are you doing with your back now? What do you have to do when you take it backwards? Arch, arch, arch. When you move the right elbow forward, round the back, bring the head forward, but don’t exaggerate the movement of the head.

8a. Do quick movements like a bird. Feel what your upper and lower back can do and feel how it is connected to your pelvis.


9. Sit up and lean on your right arm and forearm. Straighten your right leg and stand on your left foot. Do a tiny movement. The same thing.

Every rib and vertebrae is there to participate. Then you can do big if you want to.

9a. Now take the head with the elbow. The elbow goes toward the floor, the head goes to the floor, and take the elbow back and the head back.

9b. Now take the head in the opposite direction.

Leave it alone lie on your back and rest please.



10. Roll to your side and sit up. Lean on your left elbow and forearm. Put your right foot standing. Left leg long. Now take your right hand and get a hold of the left [TN: right] ankle or foot. If you need to from the top of the toes. If you need to catch above the ankle that is good enough too. Gently lift that leg off the floor and put it back down.

How do we do that? Roll the pelvis. What else? Breathe. Round the back. Take the middle of the back backwards. Move your pelvis, twist around.

10a. Now keep the leg up and draw a circle with the foot.

Small slow eensy-weesy. Catch the ankle.

10b. Change over the direction of the circle.


Do you feel gravity a little friendlier?

11. Roll to your side and sit up. Lean on your left [TN: right] elbow and forearm. Right leg long. Left foot standing. Get a hold of your right [TN: left] ankle and lift it. Keep the leg up and start drawing circles.

The more you let the rest of you participate, the more you will be able to make your circle.

Change over the direction of the circle.

Rest.

12. Sit up and lean on your left hand. Put your right foot standing. The left leg long. Place your right forearm on the right knee. You will know in a few seconds if your hand is in the right place. You will lift your whole pelvis off the floor a little bit and then bring it back.

How would you do that? What is the first thing to do? Lean on your hand. Keep the head way forward and round the back.

All of you start very small and start to look for that relationship. The pelvis lifts up without you pushing off the floor. Not with the hand or the foot. You guide yourself in space so the pelvis starts detaching. Small. If you have any difficulty it is because you are stiffening the chest spine shortening the neck. Do slower and smaller. Until you discover a feeling that might be new to you. It does it



almost as if it does it by itself. You don’t have to make it happen. The point of the lesson is to feel the necessity to have the relationship between the head and the pelvis.

12a. Do the other side.

When you feel difficulty, bring the head way forward.

12b. Sit one more time. Put your right foot standing, your left leg long. Lean on the left hand, put your right hand on your right knee.

Lift the pelvis and draw the left leg to stand on the left knee beneath you.

12c. Do it on the other side.


13. Sit, lean on your left elbow and forearm, right foot standing like before, left leg long. Put your right hand on your left temple from above. Do the original movement of bending the ear towards the shoulder, and feel the freedom of movement between your pelvis and your head.

13a. Do it on the other side.

Feel if the head is completely vertical now.

13b. Lean on your right hand, twist and lift the pelvis and come up to standing.

Feel yourself standing up.

[END OF LESSON]




TML 9: Fifth Kata [Part 2 (2005)]

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4, Day 4, Aug. 23, 2005)

NOTES 1. Sit up. Place your hand on your neck from in front of the throat and feel the

muscles. Many of you have a habitual way of carrying your head.

To the extent that you can feel, move your head a little down, a little up. If the ceiling came down very slowly, where will it touch first?

If it would touch first the forehead, it means you’re shortening your neck big time. If it touches the back of the top of your head, you’re holding your head tall. Find the place where you have the least amount of tension in those muscles. Imagine there is a rope from the ceiling. It is keeping the head upright. It will go backwards but stay upright and in front of your shoulder blades.

1a. Put your feet standing if you can. Lift your pelvis a bit if you need.

Slowly start rounding your spine and get the feedback from the sides of your neck.

Do it so there is no change in the tonus of those muscles as you do it. If you feel a change, come back and do it again with less effort. The pelvis rolls back. If it isn’t, it means you’re taking your shoulders back but not your spine.

1b. Now cross your arms like yesterday. Make sure they’re hanging. Even if you can do more, don’t do much. See if you are keeping the head up as you are rounding.

Sometimes in order to feel you need to close your eyes. Sometimes at a certain level of action, you want to open your eyes and see where you are. See that you are looking at the horizon or imagining that you are. It looks like you are moving but you’re not moving like the floor is sinking from under your pelvis.

1c. Change the crossing of your arms and repeat.

Are you breathing?

See how the top of your head shoots both forward and up. Are you straining or lifting your shoulders?

The little details actually make a difference.



Leave it alone. Slowly roll thru your side. Lie down on your back and rest please.

2. Roll to your side paying attention to which side you’re rolling so you can do the other side next time. Spread your legs.

How do you know how much is enough? By trying. What is it that happens that you know? What happens when it is not easy to sit? The pelvis is rolled back and the low back cannot work properly in that position. It makes it so the person cannot roll the pelvis forward. What happens? My stomach muscles are working all the time to keep me up. What happens when I come here (roll the pelvis forward)? I’m using the muscles very little. The weight is carried primarily by my spine. The muscles have very little to do. They are available to contract, to go anywhere. I am available for action. All the movement we do is to learn the elements of easy, effective action. How to act in the world. When I sit with the pelvis rolled back, I eliminate an enormous amount of possibilities. People who sit like this would never choose a stool like this. We go with the system. “I’ve tried so hard and given you so much. How come you’re not happy?” We look for what the other person wants. You go with the system. If someone is sitting like this, we lift the pelvis up so that it is easy to bring the pelvis forward.

Put your arms behind your back and catch the elbow of the one arm with the other hand.

Whatever is for you comfortable, not like you’re going to die.

Very slowly start rounding the back with the head staying up.

How do you know? The stomach will feel like it’s not working hard. You soften the ribs, the clavicles.

Athletes, the better you do this, the better you’ll succeed in all your athletic endeavors. More and more of you are working with great attentiveness.

If you don’t roll your pelvis, then you’re not moving your spine from your tailbone to the base of your head.

2a. Change over your arms and continue doing it.

Leave it alone. Lie on your back and rest please.

Just feel any changes in the way you are lying, your contact with the floor, and the contact of your legs with the floor. Anyone feel the legs lying flatter? How come? You’re rolling your back and thinking of your head and your legs are lying flatter on the floor. It means unnecessary tensions in the legs and hips are letting go. How come?

3. Sit up again.

Make the lift under your pelvis [TN: e.g. the folded blanket you are sitting on] so that the space behind you the same height as your pelvis for at least a foot or two.



Fold your arms behind you holding the left elbow with the right hand and place just the left foot standing.

Start going back like you did earlier until you can touch with your right elbow behind you on the floor. The head is still up. The only thing that changed is that you have the left foot standing and you’re going back toward the right elbow.

The psoas muscle! It’s better than Pilates because I’m not telling you to hold in your core.

[DEMO] How do you know what to do next? The way he’s doing it is like Pilates or the way most people do Pilates. Pilates would be turning in his grave. How does he create the suffering? The head moves together with the shoulders. He missed the first two days. As I keep your head forward, sink and feel how you’re rounding. And start bringing your right elbow into your consciousness. You feel the huge difference. It’s a whole other thing like moving from French to Chinese. When I go to exercise class, often the instructor moves very nicely but there is no access to how to do it well. The habitual kicks in before you know it kicked in. Now slowly, go back to your mats and Find a way to round your spine.

If someone broke their leg in 3 places and also broke a toenail and you said we have to get the pedicurist here right now. It’s a detail at the moment. If I go out in the evening and some of the nail polish goes off, then I want to attend to it. If someone broke their leg and the nail polish on the big toe is spoiled, we wouldn’t really pay attention to it.

Again, slowly round your back to touch slowly with the right elbow behind you.

If you have any ‘fall’ at all, forgive yourself, but don’t fall again. If you fall, it means you go too far.

Judo Masters spend years to perfect it. How about you just listen as you round your back. Feel what you could do to help yourself but not force yourself. It’s so important.

[DEMO] Would you mind coming here and doing the movement. When I look at the top of her, the relationship doesn’t change. Her breathing isn’t interrupted one single time. Do you mind doing it again with the arms behind? Put the left foot standing and think of taking the right elbow to the floor behind. Soften the chest and don’t shorten the neck. Did that answer your question?

3a. Keep the same leg up and holding your elbows. Get your own feeling of your own head. Feel it and round. And think that you are going to be touching with the left elbow behind you.

One of the rules of Feldenkrais world is that you don’t demonstrate and you don’t show and you don’t correct people. I break it all the time but I don’t feel like I’m correcting people but I have to rely on you that you don’t run to imitate what you see. The power of contact and the power of fully paying attention to someone can change their life.

3b. Now do it once to the right -

[TO STUDENT] Not the power of the abdomen muscles. The more your head is forward, the more you feel your skeleton, the less you need the muscles.

Once to the right and once to the left.



Do less.

And rest.

The movement itself is neither hard nor easy. Every movement is easy to do when you know how to do it and hard when you don’t know how to do it. What is really hard about this lesson is that it demands a huge level of awareness; heighten your sensitivity and feeling.


If you pay attention, the transformation can be huge.

4. Roll to sit please. This time put your right foot standing. Get hold of your left elbow with your right hand and your right elbow with your left hand.

Go back toward putting the left elbow on the floor as if you had something to lean on.

Or it is hard to lean on it?

As you go down, feel the chest, the sternum, the clavicles. It’s as if the head is moving forward while the elbow is going down and back.

4a. Now do the same movement but to the right elbow.

Which leg, if you lifted into the air would help you go toward the right elbow? Don’t lift it right away, only when you feel you need it.

[DEMO] Did you see how slowly she moved? You have the attention on her that she has on herself.

By leaning on the elbow, will help you improve and then we’ll do something else.

Now do the right elbow. See if you can find the floor with your right elbow.


Feel whether you were able to bend your spine or not. Feel the change in how you’re lying.

For those of you who work with voice, maybe we’ll do it when you get up - one of the ways to know if you’re seizing with too much effort is to make a sound and listen to the quality of the sound. If the sound stays the same, you cannot tell from the voice what you’re doing with your back.



5. Roll thru the other side and sit up. Place your left foot standing. Get hold of your elbows however you want.

Start a small sound and start rounding and go toward leaning on your left elbow. You round your back and go to lean on your right elbow, and then to lean on your left elbow, and then back up.

Has it become easier?

It looks so. All of you are doing nicer and nicer.

[DEMO, THREE STUDENTS] The three of you, put your left foot standing, hold your elbows behind you, and go to lean on your elbow behind you. See how her head is vertical. The leaning should free you, not make you stiffer. As you are going rounding your back, you should be thinking of the elbows already because you are going somewhere. You lean when you know you don’t need to hold yourself anymore. As people clean out old idiosyncratic contractions, they’ll look more and more similar. You’re not used to being watched by a large group of people so you got tight in the neck.

All of you go ahead and do it.

5a. Do whatever is the other way around so you’re doing circles, whatever circles you get. Do whatever you can and we’ll work on it more and more.

Head forward. Every time it’s a little tough, head forward. Soften the chest so the head can go a little more forward. See if you can go down to actually lean, so you can feel what it’s like when you don’t do so much work.

Leave it alone.

6. Stay on the floor. Sit up on your mat. Interlace your fingers behind your head. Put both your feet standing and round backwards like we’ve been doing and don’t go any further than you can straighten your legs and come back forward until you can maybe put the whole back of your pelvis on the floor.

Don’t lift the legs until you need to. Come back all the way.

See if you can gradually each time, you use your legs, you straighten them and come back to sitting until you straighten your legs less and less until the weight of your legs brings your head forward.

Leave it alone. Lie on your back and rest please.

You can get a sense of what it would take to apply the abdomen muscles powerfully and fully. As long as the chest is stiff, you cannot contract the abdomen muscles fully and get the full power. To have a really powerful abdomen, you have to have a really soft chest. Our power is in movement not in being a wall like a building.



7. Put your hands on your hips. Take the elbows a little behind you. Round the back and come back onto the elbow and then come back. Round the back.

And feel where you stop rounding the back and that’s the part where you fall.

If your head is in the middle and your elbow is on the side, you’d have to be 150 to lean on that elbow. Some of you move but not as if you’d lean on the table. Round your back.

7a. Now go to the left elbow behind you.

Not on the side, behind you. But round your back.

Keep the head up and in front.

7b. Go to your right elbow move behind you to the left elbow and come back.

For some of you it’s becoming real easy, obvious.

7c. Now reverse the direction. Think tall.

[DEMO] Put your hands on your hips. Go slowly and do it. I’m going to hold your head and you do the movement.

All of you do it the other way.

We are aware of the head moving around the torso but we’re not used to moving the torso around the head.

[TO PREGNANT STUDENT] Try to visualize. Most people have this part of the chest dead. The more movement you get here the more room you’ll have for the baby. Once it moves, you don’t need to seize here so much.

Do a few movements now that you’ve seen in these two demonstrations.

7d. Go to one elbow, then to the other elbow and then make a circle in the other direction.

The less you get the skeleton to do, the more the muscles have to work. The more the muscles have to work, the stiffer and less capable you get.

Then we make it into a religion like “No pain, no gain.” Is it good to be strong? It’s fantastic to be strong as long as it’s with intelligence. They’re not exclusive. They can go together.

8. Roll on your side and sit up. Catch your elbows behind you and arch your lower back.

And go as if you’re going to lie on your back. You keep your lower back arched and you go down as if you’re going to lean on your elbows.



Keep your lower back arched. The rest I’m not talking about. Take the elbows back to lean on them with the back arched.

Don’t throw the head back. It’s too much weight.

8a. Do the same thing to lean on the right elbow with the back arched.

That is a lot of strength but the lower back is built to be strong. See how many of you are dying now to round your back.

8b. Now do the same thing to the left.

8c. Roll to your side and sit up.

Let’s up the ante.

Hold your hands up interlaced overhead. You keep the head forward and go back. You can’t really do it all the way.

[DEMO] Look at what she is doing. First with the arms behind your back. She uses her back very powerfully. Now with the arms overhead. [TN: To another student who tries]. Arch your back and go a little bit back.

All of you - a few movements.

8d. Come a moment on your knees. Interlace your hands overhead. Arch your back and slowly place your hips on your heels. Don’t change the arch. Push the belly out.

As if I’m hanging you from your arms. Sink, but don’t let go of the lower back.

You think it’s hard to do? Try to teach it. Belly out. Get the lordosis. Do the wrong thing.

Belly out. Belly out. That’s how you lift weights. Keep the head free. Don’t push back.

That’s how you lift weights. They don’t just ruin their body. They ruin their minds. Anybody with intelligence would refuse to do something so awful.

8e. On your knees, leaning on your head and forearms long on the floor, arch your back and come up onto your knees. And then reverse the action, going back down to lean onto the head and arms on the floor in front of you.

It's done with powerful muscles but when done well the feeling is one of less effort.


Feel what parts of your back are touching now. How come more parts of your back are touching when you did so much with it?

9. Sitting with your legs long and arms crossed and hanging in front of you, round your back and slowly lower back down to the floor and come back up.



Feel if you are doing it differently now.

9a. Come to standing.

[END OF LESSON]




TML 10: Frog Movements in Legs and Lower Back (2005)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 5 Aug. 26, 2005)

NOTES 1. Lie on your back. Put your arms next to you.

So when you asked me for instance do I have a goal in a lesson? My goal for instance in this lesson is what I describe for you to do. It is an unusual way to think of goals. Usually a goal is to get more range of motion or to flex or extend or to get out of pain or something. My goal is to move you towards a better capacity to move the legs without stiffening your chest unnecessarily. So you learn how to act without introducing the internal feeling of inability that you are not even aware that you are introducing. And then learn what it means to have true skill. It is a better to hang in there not knowing for a while longer. Experimenting to get a real skill than to have to believe you know something you don’t really know.

Just scan quickly the length of your spine. It will be relevant for you in the image of the movement. The length of your legs from the hips down. Right hip down to the heel. Left hip down to the heel. Of course the length of one leg. The length of the other leg.

The width of your shoulders. And now also feel your lower back. That will be relevant for this lesson. How is your lower back? Can you feel it? Can you feel it clearly? Is it on the floor? Off the floor? Don’t push it to the floor. Just feel where it is.

1a. Bend your knees. Place your feet standing. Interlace your fingers behind your head. And lift your head. Hold it for a second. Feel where is your lower back now?

Bring your elbows closer to each other when you lift the head. Make it easier. Does it feel now that the lower back is touching clearer for you?

1b. Put down the hand. Lengthen the legs. And put the head down. See if the lower back is less in contact, or the same in contact, just become aware of what it is.

1c. Do it again. Bend you knees place your feet standing. Interlace your fingers behind your head and lift your head.

This time pull the belly in and see if this makes it even clearer the way the lower back touches the floor

1d. Put down the head and the arms. Keep the legs standing. Start with the legs spread.



Slowly let the left knee drop down towards the floor but at the same time whatever feels like the right moment, lengthen the leg. It is basically a movement of lengthening the leg.

First drop it to the left and when it feels the right time, start lengthening the leg.

Not all the way the first time and come back.

The left knee falls out to the left. ‘Falls ‘maybe is not a good word.

Gradually drop the left knee.

For those of you who have done the lesson, especially practitioners. Approach it as if this is new. It is. You make it as if you are intensely interesting in what you are doing. If there is some degree of familiarity use it to your advantage so that you can pay attention to more of yourself. Because it is more familiar, don’t make familiarity into automatic mindless action, because then you reduce the learning you are going to get from it.

Very slowly, continue doing it like that. A light movement. Light. Light. Look to only go as far as is comfortable.

At a certain moment you are off the sole of the foot and on the side of the foot. When it feels like it is harder to pull back towards your pelvis start bringing the knee up and see if it makes it easier.

Feel whether the movement of the leg is smooth or if there are bumps and jumps while you do it.

Keep the feet standing and rest for a moment.

A short rest. I am asking you to do the ‘rest’ on purpose, not because you are exhausted.

2. You are going to continue doing the same thing with the left knee. Listen to the extent that you can that the rate of the movement is constant. Slow and constant; that means that you don’t accelerate and decelerate at certain moments of the movement.

Start dropping the knee to the side and then whenever it is the right moment for you, start sliding the leg, moving it forward, lengthening it. But you do the whole thing at the same speed at the same rate of movement. First the knee goes sideways and then on the side of the foot. You slide the leg like that. Looking to do it at an even, constant rate.

As you do it start paying attention… This is also always an exercise in awareness.

As you do this movement and looking to do it at an even rate, pay attention to what is happening at the left side of the lower back, of the whole left side of the lower spine and of course also the right side.



Is there a change in the organization of the lower back? Does it come off the floor? And then when you bring the leg back, does it come back more towards the floor in standing?

See. Think it. You can’t force it. The trick here is the chest has to become really free. And the breathing has to become really uninterrupted for the spine to not be lifted off the floor when we straighten the leg. The more you tense around it, the less you will get there.

The way to be ambitious about it is to not be ambitious! Kind of funny isn’t it? In a certain way the movement- neuro physiology - physics meets our spirituality the quality of our internal existence.

[TO STUDENT] You see you start with the feet spread and then you end up with your feet together. So find a way to end up where you started. You’ll have to change a little bit how you do it.

2a. Each time you do, look, maybe do a portion of the movement and come back. Do it again with a slightly bigger part of the movement. And come back.

And see that each time that you do it, you let go more of your chest, unnecessary tension in the spine, and you will see that your lower back stops lifting off the ground. Or it lifts less or whatever version. You disengage the chest from the movement.

And next time you go to do anything that you have a moment to pay attention to, like when you go to the gym, feel this.

Unfortunately, when we go to exercise classes they are usually done too fast. Yoga is done slowly. Yoga gives you time. Of course I would go in and out of it for a while before you stay in it the position but when you go into the pose listen to your chest.

Go back, go back and see if you can get yourself somewhere without getting the chest all seized up. Which we do not feel.

By the way the same is true for weight lifting. That is the trick to do powerful movements without introducing unnecessary efforts. And the chest is always the first thing to go.

Very slowly straighten both legs down and rest for a moment.

And see if you can feel a difference between the right and left side. Is there a difference and what is it? Straighten both legs and simply pay attention.

3. And slowly bend your knees and put your feet standing. And first of all feel, recreate the length of the spine. And the back of the pelvis. Your arms. Your legs. Your face. Your mouth. Your head. Come home.

Before doing anything always go from home, you go there from home. You come back home and you go from home. Very, very important. Now when you feel you are home, you are there, you feel yourself that you are ready, you could do what I say with the same ease you could also not do it. You don’t have to perform to prove anything to anyone. When you have that reversible attitude to yourself, then you can choose to do it.



What you are going to do is drop slowly the right knee to the right and come back. Don’t do the full movement, just a small part.

And as you start dropping the knee, feel if there are already changes in the lower back.

If it is already changing [TN: moving] that is ok. It is not as if you have created a sin. It is just shining the light on it.

3a. Keep dropping the right knee to the right like that and slowly, when it feels the right time, start lengthening the leg like that but don’t go all the way at all. Just the leg a little bit, and start bringing the leg back and putting it back fully on the foot. Slowly. Slowly. Next time you can do the same amount, less or a tiny bit more. And then go back.

3b. And gradually lengthen the leg more and a little bit more. And next time go slower down to half the speed you are going.

If you were going very slowly you are going to barely move and if you were going fast you are going to go a little slower.

All the time listen to the length of your spine.

Pay attention to your breathing. Less work. Just the leg.

And notice what is happening in the lower back. And one of the easiest ways to notice what is happening in the lower back is to feel what happens when you come back. Very often, when the lower back slowly detaches from the floor, it is hard to feel. But it is easier to feel when you bring the leg back and the lower back all of sudden frees and touches the floor.

3c. Pay attention not just to your lower back but to your chest, to your abdomen. To your ribs. Your mouth. Is it free? Is it kissable? Is it a mouth that could smile easily? Is it tight? Is it a mouth that is working really hard? Is it a mouth that is holding some aggravation from this morning or a year ago? See what kind of mouth it is right now. See if it can be free. Lips that could smile. Cheeks that could move.

When people are depressed their cheeks don’t move I don’t know if you have noticed that.

And of course notice your breathing. See if the breathing can continue uninterrupted.



By now you can have the leg fully straightened unless you have a reason you don’t want to. Slowly take it to the side and let it go long and feel if you can just somehow gradually find a way of doing it so that the chest gets less and less engaged.

Actually there are movements there. But it is not a movement of stiffness and lifting of the spine.

And make sure your breathing is free and continuous.

And slowly put the leg standing and feel whether with the two legs up you are lying different. And then slowly lengthen the legs. And then rest. Let both legs get long and rest. Put the arms down next to you and simply rest.

4. And slowly bend the knees put the feet standing. Have you bent the knees through the side or through the middle?

Slowly let the right knee fall sideways and slide the leg and the foot down. Lengthen the leg like that. Looking to leave the lower back and chest alone with as little change as is possible.

That means not engaging those parts. Not enlisting the chest muscles. And very often people hold their breath in anticipation of difficulty.

And then bring the right leg back and do the same thing with the left one. Back and forth. Once the right and once the left.

Feel if with one leg, it is easier to maintain the lower back and the chest uninterrupted. Are they the same or is one harder?

Or whatever. One leg then the other.

If you find your pelvis rolling all the way to the side maybe you should not take the leg so far sideways. The whole idea is to look to keep the lower back quiet without much change. So the degree to which you bend the leg sideways, when do you start lengthening the leg, all that is decided by the intent to leave the lower back and chest alone.

And it is not like you are never supposed to move your back when you move your leg. We will do lessons where you will be required to do the exact opposite. But right now that is what we are working on. You might have to shift your habitual way of bending your leg and moving it up that you had learned from this work or somewhere else that you have adopted. The intent is to organize the movement of the leg in such a way that it will leave alone the spine and the pelvis. Primarily it is working the leg muscles.

Lengthen your legs and rest for a moment.



5. And now bend both knees put both feet standing. Spread comfortably. And begin moving now the two legs together. That means you draw up the right knee to the right and the left knee to the left. Slowly start straightening both legs. Don’t go all the way to begin with. And come back to standing.

And of course you do it in such a way that you look to leave the lower back alone as much as possible. The chest and the lower back alone as much as possible. Feel, here it is more demanding. Also look to do it simultaneously. Look to move the legs exactly at the same time.

You begin moving the legs to the side simultaneously.

5a. A suggestion on how to do it, you begin moving them to the side when you start to exhale and then you can bring them back as you begin to exhale.

You listen carefully while you move them like that, that you move them at the same rate and the same speed. I am sure all of you are realizing that it is not obvious to do. You may be recognizing that one leg is very different from the other. And all the time listening to look to see there is a way that you could leave your chest alone and the lower back is the least impacted as possible by the movement of the legs.

In order to do that and especially to do it simultaneously, you really need to learn how to move to the next level of the organization of the back and the chest. So you can disengage them from the movement and the movement is done pretty much with the muscles of the legs. And somewhat with the muscles of the pelvis.

Bend the knees put the feet standing.

And feel the way your pelvis and spine lie on the floor now. Whether it is different than earlier. Listen to feel the length of the spine.

6. Now interlace your fingers and put them behind your head. Visualize the spine getting longer while doing the movement and before you do the movement.

Very slowly lift the head up and feel if the contact of the lower back with the floor gets clearer and then put it down. And do it a few times. And do it gently.

The feet are standing. Lift the head.

And are you shrinking your spine as you get ready to lift the head? Or can you think the spine long.



Again it means that you do not seize the chest in any unnecessary efforts.

6a. Now keep the head up wherever you can hold it up for a while like that. And make sure you can keep breathing with the head held up.

And very slowly begin to let the left knee move to the side and then lengthen the leg.

Slowly, it is not fast. ‘Slowly’ is when you will do it ‘slow’. If you are just doing it, you are doing it fast.

See if you can do it where there is no change of your lower back contact with the floor. Again, you most likely will feel it more clearly when you bring the leg back. Pay attention throughout the movement both ways.

6b. Breathe in in an uninterrupted way. If someone was watching your chest, they would think that you are not doing anything. Breathe at the same rate in and out, easier, as if you are sleeping except you are very awake.

Don’t hold the head way up. Hold it wherever you can hang out for a while. Don’t hang on your neck. As always you seek to do it in a way that will leave the lower back quiet.

6c. Now take the left knee to the side, lengthen the leg, looking to leave alone the lower back with the contact of the floor. Keep the left leg long. The head is in the air.

Once it is like that, very slowly begin taking the right knee to the floor. And lengthen the right leg looking to leave the contact with the floor the same.

Feel, how do you need to breathe so that will happen?

Your left leg is long already. Now you are doing it with the right leg that sort of joins the left leg.

You feel with the head lifted like this many more of you are able to keep the lower back relatively calmer.

6d. So now do both legs at the same time. See whether you can do it with both legs without making efforts with your lower back unnecessarily.

Bring the legs to standing when you come back and try to keep them apart. The feet are not together.

When it gets harder to bring them back, simply bring the knees up and have the feet standing and then the other way around. Slowly. Slowly.

Leave it alone and rest for a second.



7. And slowly bend your knees put your feet standing. Now put your left hand behind your head. And get a hold below with your right hand below the knee from in front. Very slowly, first of all, feel the contact now of the lower back with the floor the right side and the left side. Listen to the sense of length of your spine. Feel, see, listen to the front of your chest. The sternum. The ribs in front. The clavicles. The line in front all the way down to your belly button, to your pubic bone. You have the line from the tail bone to the base of your head or the top of your head. And you have the line in front from your throat down to your pubic bone.

You need to let me finish my sentence before you start moving.

Very slowly looking to have the image of the spine growing longer from both ends if possible. Direct very gently with no ambition to go far or touch, anything like that, direct the right knee to your forehead and your forehead to your knee.

Not the leg first and the head second. Very gently. What you are after is not moving the leg and the head. And you are certainly not after touching the knee to the head.

What you are after is to be able to visualize the spine growing longer as you do it, and to feel a sense of ease as you do it. And listen to the contact of your lower back with the floor.

So go ahead and do it. But know what the anchor and focus of the movement is. Just as long as the spine feels long. Just as long as it feels easy.

You direct the head to the knee and the knee to the head. Do not touch. Listen to my words carefully, Not just the head to the knee and not just the knee to the head. That means that both have to move in space knowing that they are heading towards each other. If the knee is moving all the way to the right, then the head has to chase the knee or any other variation you might be doing. Gentle and feel. You have to stop, you cannot keep going and going because the remaining rigidity in the chest and the front pulling hard or moving more is not going to change it, but reducing the effort will.

7a. Now change only your hands. That means your left hand holds your right knee. Your right hand is behind your head.

The knee stays the same. You change the leg. It is still the right leg.

Don’t move for a second. Recreate the image of your spine. The image of your ribs in the back and in the front. The sternum. The clavicles. Your belly. Your abdomen. Your pelvis. The back of your neck and the head. And then again the spine getting longer. You start lifting the head and moving the knee one towards the other.

Do not tilt the head to the right. Bring the knee more to the head. The head is in the middle. So if the knee is all the way to the side the head has to chase it to the side.

Do a smaller movement. Do not try to touch. It is a shift in what we are making important right now.



You will see it is always true. It’s biologically true. It is not just psychological or something is wrong. We tend to recreate what we do well. What we do well, we tend to repeat over and over again because that is where our safety lies. If I am very ‘flexible’ I will try to introduce my flexibility in my body every time. If I know I am ‘clever’ with my words and kind of intellectual that is what I will try to bring every time whether it is called for at that moment or not. Being flexible is fantastic. Being clever with words is fantastic, being intellectually potent is fantastic. Everything else. If I am very strong and powerful in my muscles, I will tend to introduce that. Because we tend to repeat what we have experienced works for us. The trick is to be willing to shift. I am doing it the best I know how to, to create an environment where you can take the risk. Where you can take the risk and experiment at something you are not yet great with. Something you have not necessarily relied on before. And discover what that contributes to you.

Stop it. Straighten your arms and legs and rest. Feel the difference.

I look at some of you and you look like you have two different bodies. One leg is one way the other leg is the other way. Feel how the whole right side now is lying on the floor. The right hip. The right leg. The back of the right knee. And see how the reorganization is general. It is not just the parts that you thought of when you were moving. Feel the feeling of length in your spine and the sense in your ribs.

It is so much so that you may have experienced in on many different occasions. Like when one goes from one academic department to the other academic department. Or what Randy mentioned yesterday how different it is here from going into a corporate environment; what people are safe with, what is permitted as a result of that environment. Like if I go to talk to a group of medical doctors, the language I have to use changes dramatically. The language I would use with a group of psychologists or the language I would use with school children is different. I might be introducing or saying the exact same thing or ideas but I will have to change my language. Then when I have enough connection and people trust me I can start shifting the language more, or I will lose them. They will think I am some kind of kook and they won’t listen to me anymore.

8. Bend you knees put your feet standing. Feel your lower back as you do it.

You are still there.

And now put your right hand behind your head and get a hold with your left hand below your left knee. Take some time to get the image of your spine. Feel your ribs your chest your sternum, throat, hip joints, pelvis, head.

Notice that the least that we are paying attention to is the leg itself. Even though great changes will happen in the reorganization of the leg.

When you are ready, feel, imagine, visualize your spine growing longer making is so it’s easy for the knee to go toward the head and the head towards to knee.

Don’t go as far as you can. See if you have it in you to stop before you hit your limit. Before.



You cannot go all the way to your limit before you find out where you have to stop. Maybe stop way before you find out. Experience how difficult it is to stop before your limit. Feel how difficult it is for all of us to not go to the limit. Is it physiological? Is it mental? Is it physical? What is it?

8a. Now change over the arms only. Do the same thing.

8b. Now interlace your fingers and put both hands below the left knee. Continue moving the knee towards the head and the head towards the knee. And very slowly, leave the head alone.

For some of you it becomes hard. What makes it so hard for the head to lift?

The same thing that makes it that the lower back lifts when you move the leg. It is exactly the same thing. It’s just another part of the same picture. If you can flatten your chest and lengthen your spine, then lifting your head is not a big deal.

But if the chest is not accommodated, if the chest remains ‘stiff’ then it is hard. Say to yourself "that is interesting” and just know that the process we are doing here is certain to give you outcomes. It has yet to fail. You are not that unique. So that means you are going to be getting better.

8c. Interlace you fingers in the non-habitual way. Put them behind your head. Keep the leg in the air. Now continue talking the knee to the head and the forehead to the knee.

Do not crunch. Do not push hard.

See if you can somehow stop yourself from doing that, if you can guide yourself into deliberate measured intentional but non-ambitious action. It is enough to want to. We don’t need the extra force.

Leave that alone and rest for a moment.

9. Now bend your knees. Put your feet standing. And slowly drop the right knee to the side and slowly lengthen the leg. Do it so the lower back is uninterrupted. That everything stays quietly on the floor. First of all, see if it is a little easier to do. And do it in a continuous movement.

Some of you drop the knee all the way to the side before you start lengthening it. Feel when is the moment that is called for to begin straightening the knee as you drop the knee. And when is the moment when you bend the knee back to bring the knee back and up. It is not about pulling the knee all the way to the side to have it there. It is taking it to the side to facilitate the lengthening of the leg. This is the least effort trajectory to bring the leg up and down. Bringing the leg from the front is much harder. It does not take advantage of the circular hip joint.

So when you work with somebody who has a hard time, like a paralysis or stroke or car accident, you want them to get that leg to work. You want to show them the easiest



path to move, not the hardest. And then why not you use the easiest path. That way you have the muscles and power to generate movement not just generate efforts.

9a. Now slowly take the right knee down and lengthen the leg long. Straighten the knee completely. But not from the middle, from the side. And very slowly.

You will see the lower back and back of the pelvis is now touching the floor. Start taking the left knee now to the side and straightening the leg just as long before you start feeling the contact is detaching. Until you can lengthen the left leg fully without changing the contact or hardly changing the contact with the floor.

The arms are down by your side. Not up or sideways but down.

9b. When you are down, bring both legs up at the same time. And keep them standing. Keep the legs standing. Now very slowly begin opening the two knees exactly the same time just a little bit and bring them back, if you want to do it at the exact same time. Do it when you are exhaling. And then you come back.

Then you do it again and continue doing it as long as you feel no change in the lower back.

The ‘no change in the lower back’ means the legs can really go together. The moment you move one leg faster than the other. That means the lower back on one side is engaging and it twists the pelvis and it makes one leg go in front of the other. So to have the legs really move together you have to do really nothing with your back. Try to bring the legs so they do not end up being one on top of the other. Don’t worry about it, it is a learning process.

9c. Bring the feet back to standing. And simply just the left knee. Let the leg drop to the side and straighten it very slow. Drop the knee to the side and lengthen it.

Feel if now you are able to do it with less movement in the lower back, less participating of the back muscles. If the breathing continues quietly, uninterrupted.

This is an excellent lesson for people wanting to improve the use of their voice.

9d. Do the same thing with the other leg. Bring the left one up and now drop the right knee to the side. And leave it uninterrupted. And feel to what extent you have been able to clear the movement from unnecessary efforts. Breathe simple. Can you breathe the same way the whole time?

Simply stop and rest, whichever way you want.



Listen feel the length of the spine. The contact of the back of the pelvis with the floor. The feeling in your face. And of course those who have your legs long drop your legs to the side and let them be long. Feel how the legs are lying on the floor now. Are the back of the knees closer to the ground which means that unnecessary chronic contractions in some of the leg muscles have let go. That way the back of the knees can touch the floor.

10. Slowly roll to your side and get up. Feel what it is like to stand on your feet now. How you feel now.

Feel your spine and your chest as you come up keep feeling yourself as you come up.

Sense how you are standing. How you are carrying your head. Feel the contact of the soles of your feet to the floor. Walk around. Feel how your arms are hanging.

[END OF LESSON]




TML 11: Tilting Legs, Twisting Spine, On Belly (2011)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Dec 2011)

Length of lesson: 53 minutes

NOTES 1. 1. Lie on your belly. Put your left ear on the floor. That means your face is turned to the right. Put your

arms long at shoulder height, sideways, both of them on the palms.

And now, as you lie like that, put your, just before you put your legs together… think, feel, listen to the length of your body.

Remember yesterday when we talked about scoliosis? When movement is organized optimally or ideally, the spine is always at its longest.

So feel now the length of your spine, the length of the legs, the legs from the hip joints, which are inside your pelvis, to your ankles, and your arms. So it's from in-between the shoulder blades, the full length right and left. And again, just recreate those five lines. So it's the lines of the legs, of the arms, and of the spine. You can do it from the top of the head, the base of the head, whatever works best for you.

1a. Put your legs together, tie them together, bend them in the knees 90 degrees. Excellent. Now recreate the sense of the length of your spine in your inner feeling, in your mind's eye.

1b. Now, first of all, with the two legs tied together…

We've done this movement, not this lesson, in I think, your first or second segment. I don't remember, but…

… tilt the two legs together to the left.

So the right knee will have to leave the floor. If somebody tied gently your ankles together, there can't be relative movement between the legs, so the weight of the legs, use the weight of the legs going together like that, tilting your pelvis, I mean tilting your legs and that rolls the pelvis. The right side of your pelvis lifts off the floor, and that twists your spine, and then you come back.

So you move both legs together to the left, and that means the right knee needs to lift off the floor, or otherwise there is a relative movement between one leg and the other.



1c. And now keep the legs in the middle, and move only your left leg. The knees stay together, and you move only the left leg.

Only the left leg is not the right leg. So you move only the left leg. You separate the left foot from the right foot, and you move it to the left.

And you bring it back. And see whether, even though it's only one leg, and even though the knees are going to stay touching each other, and even though the right foot is going to continue to point towards the ceiling, the right lower leg stays vertical….is there a way to still have the pelvis help with the movement of the left leg?

And you see now that I said it, some of you immediately started doing it. But you see before, because of the constraint of keeping one leg up and one leg moving, most people inhibit the movement in the rest of the body, and try to do it only in the hip joint.

1 ENDNOTE #1, COMMENT ABOUT EVOLUTION OF SELF

Leave that alone, lie on your back and rest for a moment. 2 ENDNOTE #2, COMMENT CONTINUED

2. So roll back on your belly. And again, both arms sideways, and this time put your right ear on the floor. And recreate the length of the five lines, and recreate them as long as you can in your mind's eye.

2a. Bend your knees, put the legs together. And first of all, imagine that the two ankles and the two knees are gently tied together.

And tilt your two legs over to your right. And again, your left knee needs to leave the floor.

And I want to commend some of you, I can see you are doing the movements very slowly and gently, and feeling what you are doing.

But the head is turned to the left. It's the right ear that's on the floor.

2b. Now keep the left leg in the middle, and the knees together.

And just separate the right leg to the right. Separate the foot, the knee is still touching. And see if you can gradually, while you are….you see in space your left leg does not move to the right, you can still use the movement of the pelvis and the spine to help you take the right leg to the right.

That means there is going to be relative movement between the pelvis and the left hip joint but the leg itself will not move in space. And don't worry if you didn't follow what I said, that's okay.



And every so often, renew the thought of the five lines, and renew the thought of the length of the spine.

And lie on your back, and rest for a moment.

And while you are resting…the five lines…renew the five lines, the length of the spine.

3. Roll again on your belly. Arms are to the side. Put your right ear on the floor. The head is turned to the left. Put your legs together. Bend the knees 90 degrees. Again tilt the two legs together to the right…together…to the right…that means the left knee has to lift off the floor pretty much right away. And go as far as you can to the right and stay there.

So the legs are sort of leaning over like this to the right.

And now, in this position, imagine that your arms get longer in the direction that they are lying, and that the palms lift a little off the floor.

Do not lift your arms. But think that your arms are getting a little bit lighter, and are lifting a little bit off the floor. That means, don't press on the hands, they get lighter.

3a. And now, keep the legs where they are, but very gently bring back only the left foot.

So the legs are tilted to the right, the knees are still one on top of the other, but you are separating the feet and you are bringing the left foot as much as you can back to the middle and then back to lying on the right foot. You don't slide the leg onto the floor, it stays on top of the other knee.

So, one knee is on top of the other. So you do it so you put the leg down, take a breath, bring the leg to the middle, take a breath. Put it slowly back down, take a breath and feel whether each time you put the leg down if the two legs go a tinier bit lower down or not. Many of you will feel that, if you are still feeling anything.

And roll to lie on your back, and rest.

[COMMENT] You see, the changes that you are experiencing, are 90, I am making an educated guess, are 98 % your attention and your perception of what's going on. They are 2% contraction and de-contraction of the actual muscles.

I'm going to say that again. The reorganization, the changes, the increase of range, the ability to do something you couldn't do before, the ease of action, is 98% driven by your feeling of what's going on, your perception of what's going on, knowing what you are doing, knowing what you are not doing, the attention, the awareness, and 2% the actual exercise. The movement gives you what to pay attention to. The movement gives you the opportunity to notice and to think and to create. But that's 2%. Otherwise if it were the movement itself that drove changes in movement, everyone would just keep improving because people are moving all the time.

How come you can live for a year, and you are not one iota more strong or more flexible? And usually if you just take it a few more years, you are just worse. But you can take the same movements or similar movements and you build into it the variations and the attention, and that's what drives the changes. And when you really feel that in



yourself and you start knowing how to call upon that in your students, that's when you become invaluable.

4. Roll to lie on your belly. This time put your left ear on the floor. Your arms are long. Recreate the five lines. Bend your knees, put your legs together, and this time tilt your legs to the left. And leave them leaning like that one on top of the other, to the left.

And first of all, just listen to your breath, and imagine that your arms get longer, each one to its own direction, and lighter so that they start lifting.

Don't do it. Do not do it, think it. Think that your arms are getting longer and lighter.

4a. And now, very gently, begin bringing your right foot, detach it from the other one, and bring it back to the center a bit, and then back down.

And soften the chest while you do this movement. See if you can soften the chest.

The lesson you did yesterday with Sylvia, was a major exercise of learning how to do powerful movements without recruiting the chest unnecessarily. See if you can use that right now. And bring the right foot back, but keep the left one to the side. Don't bring both legs back to the middle, just one.

4b. And each time, just take a breath, move the leg to the middle, then take a breath, and bring it back up. So you take your time.

And each time you feel what's happening. And do the lines of your legs and of your spine, of your arms.

You guys are doing good.

And slowly leave that alone, lie on your back, and rest.

And just feel the changes. I am just watching all of you breathing. Isn't it fun to breathe like this?

3 ENDNOTE #3: STORY ABOUT QUARRELING WITH MOSHE

5. Come back to your belly. And now put your two hands like for pushing up. So you put the two hands towards the chest and the elbows in the air vertical, your legs together again. Bend them. Put your left ear on the floor. And now, tilt the two legs to the left and back.



And feel whether already the way you are doing the movement, the way the spine is participating, the ease of the movement, the clarity of the movement, if it's somewhat different from before.

And with many of you who had your ankles really tight before, or the inside of the ankles couldn't touch, more of you have the inside of the ankles touching. Can you feel that, or clearer?

5a. And now turn your head the other way. Your right ear is on the floor, and tilt your legs to the right… and back.

And of course notice if it is the same or different. It's usually different for people.

5b. And now do the following. Bring the legs back to the middle. And at the same time, turn the head the other way, and tilt the knees the other way. So it's one movement, you'll see.

The first time I say the instructions, it's difficult, but turn it into one movement. So the head turns at the same rate the pelvis rolls and the legs tilt. So the head doesn't finish it's turning before the legs finish tilting, and vice versa. So it is kind of like you are a doll, and you are being wound one way and then the other way. From side to side. And again, remember the lesson with Sylvia.

Soften the chest. Just think of doing it lightly, and that alone will recruit the powerful muscles that are supposed to work.

See if you can do it so that the other elbow stays in the air, the back elbow stays in the air. That means you can't fully roll on your side. You are twisting the spine, rather than just rolling on the side.

See if you can have the feet together the whole time.

Leave that alone. Roll to lie on your back, and rest.

And renew the thought of the length of your spine, your legs, your arms, notice any other changes that you feel.

6. Roll again to lie on your belly. And now put the arms together the same way, the legs together bent in the knees 90 degrees. And now, tilt your legs to the right or to the left, it doesn't matter, but turn your head in the direction of the tilt.

Let's do it together. Take, all of you, the legs to the right, and the head to look to the right. That means you put your left ear on the floor.

The hands standing as if for a push up.



And then vice versa.

Put the hands for pushing up, some of you have the arms long.

The head towards the direction the legs are going. It increases the twist a lot.

Take it in one movement. Some of you want to be sure you do it in the right way, so you turn the head first. Take them at the same time.

So if you are tilting the legs to the right, you are turning the head to look to the right. If the feet are tilting to the left, your head and eyes are turning to the left. Excellent.

6a. And again resume the idea of the length of the spine, the softness of the chest, et cetera.

Leave it alone, roll to lie on your back, and rest for a moment.

And again, renew the thought of the length of the five lines, and feel how clear they are now, what they feel like.

7. And come back on your belly, please. And your right arm long to the side, and your left hand like for pushing up. And now, the face turned to the left, bend your right leg only, and begin tilting the right leg to the right. The knees don't have to be held together, now.

And notice if you start the movement of tilting the leg by pushing on the hand. Just do it again and see for you, how you organize the intention to get the leg to tilt to the right. And see if you can avoid doing that. See if you can think more pelvis, lower back, soft chest.

So the trick here is to use the powerful muscles without rigidifying the chest, which is what primarily limits the tilting of the leg. And see to what extent you can leave your left shoulder alone. So you can use it to direct some force from the hands, you have been doing this from the hands on, from the spine, to that hip, to that leg…..but you are still doing the movement in the spine, in the lower back, in the pelvis. See if you can free your abdomen. See if you can get access to your power, to the force by having the back wake up, the muscles wake up, the abdomen free, the chest free.

7a. And slowly change over the head, the arms and the leg, and do the same thing to the other side.

And feel by the way how wonderful it can feel to do this.

So your left arm is long, your right arm is standing like for push up, you bend your left knee this time, your head is turned to the right. But very gently…don't take your heel to your butt, the foot is 90 degrees, gently tilt your leg to the left now.

Start with a small movement. Listen to how you are doing it. Feel when can you feel your spine twisting, your ribs perhaps moving, softening the chest?



Listen also to the length of your spine, the feeling of length in the legs, in the arms. Each time less effort, which means unnecessary effort. The feeling of effort, but more precision and power.

Slowly roll to lie on your back and rest for a moment.

And feel what of you has sunk to the floor. And by the way, this question is still out there: How come you do movements and parts of you sink to the floor usually? And which parts sink to the floor?

8. And again, roll to lie on your belly. Recreate the length of the lines and how you feel those lines to the extent that you can.

Slowly roll, maintain the image of the lines as you roll on your belly. Have the two arms to the sides, like you did before, long. Put your right ear on the floor, that means the head is turned to the left.

Feel whether your armpits are closer to the floor than before, by the way, your chest is closer to the floor.

Bend your knees, put your feet to the ceiling, and now in your mind's eye, tie the two legs together, and gently tilt the two knees to the right.

And feel if the tilting is easier, more organized. And notice if, it's like all of you have been oiled, or in butter or something, can you feel that?

And feel how much is the coordination of the intent to take the feet to the right and the movement of the pelvis, and the accommodation of the spine to twist, the lower back to work at the same time and the ribs to stay very free. Which, by the way, also frees the neck and the shoulders.

8a. And now slowly turn your head the other way.

Slowly. Because many of you are now twisting the neck more than you have for a long time.

And tilt the legs the other way. And now compare what it means to tilt the legs compared to about forty minutes ago.

And very slowly straighten your legs, and lie on your belly just for a second to feel how you are breathing, and if your lower abdomen is moving more clearly against the floor as you breathe, that your floating ribs are moving, and that you are lying now on the floor more like you used to lie on your belly when you were a child.

That means more of you is down. And feel the sense of calm and comfort and wellbeing that can come with that.

9. And now slowly, roll your pelvis. Let's say all of your heads are turned to the right.



Roll your pelvis to the left, then bend your left knee, slide it from under the right one, bring the head towards the knee and sit up.

And you see that for many of you my instructions made sense to you once you heard the words "sit up". Get back on your belly. That's a great demonstration of how we organize ourselves in a context, we organize ourselves with an intention. So I am going to say it again.

You can put your hands like for pushing up, that will help it a little bit. Turn your head to the right, nose to the right, left ear on the floor. Keep the feet on the floor. Roll the pelvis to the left, until there is room for you to slide your left knee towards your head, bend it towards your head and come to sitting. Slide your left knee from underneath towards your head. And if you didn't understand it, try it one more time. Get up, stand up.

Don't worry. We will do this whole thing in the children's mastery. There's a whole big thing around that.

9a. Stand up, and just feel yourself in standing, and feel how such simple movements, done the way you just did them, impacts the way you stand, the way you carry your head, the way you feel, and the way you think.

9b. And walk around.

We are going to take a twelve minute break and be back at four.

Thank you.

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: COMMENT ABOUT EVOLUTION OF SELF

Remember Martha's question from a few days ago? What does it mean when we think about self-image? That parts of our self simply disappear on us or don't exist? Well you see on the belly, for a lot of people, the legs together and I am asking you to separate them and to keep one vertical, for some it's clear and for some people, they have no access to it.

2 ENDNOTE #2, COMMENT CONTINUED

And by the way, I assume you noticed it because she said it like a million times. First of all, I want to clarify that Randy adores children. So you could think that, from the way she talks about two year olds, that she is a child hater. And she has raised her two kids in the most wonderful way, and when she coaches, she is actually wonderful with children. She really gets them. But watching, I was listening to her, and I thought, oh my God, some people might think that she hates kids, or kills kids, or something, the way she was talking. Anyway, she has her style of trying to create distinction for people. But if you notice the below the line, you see that so much of it has to do with the way we are or act when we are in an undifferentiated mode. So another way of saying juvenile or infantile, it's really…. Children are magnificent. Children are



supposed to have these behaviors. When people say, “Oh, the kid is just trying to manipulate you.” I say, they are not even trying to, they are just doing what kids do. I mean that's their job. Their job is to make sure that their caretakers do their job. It's built like that. And it always goes from less differentiation to more differentiation. And below the line for adults...when a child has a temper tantrum, they are not below the line. They don't have an above the line. They are just doing their job. I mean, we don't want a kid in a temper tantrum all the time, I think you get the gist. But with adults, it's surprising to see how much of people's behavior is a below the line behavior. Because it hasn't been developed, there is no access to it, but there could be access to it. And this work is 100% of literal, concrete, evolution of self. And that's what we are doing right now in these lessons.

3 ENDNOTE #3: STORY ABOUT QUARRELING WITH MOSHE

Satisfying. Fun. Fun is below the line. Actually below the line can be pretty good. Did I tell you my sad story of intentionally wanting to be below the line? While traveling with Moshe? Remember that story? And by the way, you can take anger, you can take any one of those things below the line and do it in a way that it's above the line. So that's another story. So this flight, where I was not allowed to vegetate, because of, the story, some of you don't remember it… I'll tell it again sooner or later. But this one, we get to, it was exhausting to be with Feldenkrais. It was so tiring because this man was so awake. Not like hyper, he was extremely calm, but he noticed everything. And from time to time he pointed things out to me. You couldn't just go into this background, like a parked car where the engine is still on. You couldn't do that. You had to drive and know where you were going. So by the time we got to the hotel, I got my room, he got his room, I think it was the Sheraton in Manhattan, and I get to my room and I remembered from when I was a child that there used to be those soap operas on during daytime. And I thought, I'll go into my room and I will watch a soap. I was still going to get my vegetative shot, right? Couldn't do it next to him, but I was going to do it anyway. I had my own room, my own TV, I could do what I wanted. And I turned the channel on, you know in a second if it's a soap opera because there are two people in a very dramatic state. And there's a knock on my door. And I think…so I turned the TV off, because I figured it's him. So I turned the TV off so he wouldn't know what I was doing. As if he didn't know what I was doing. So I opened the door. And, to have this man's attention, the time, was beyond a huge gift, right? But I opened the door just a crack, because I wasn't going to let him in, and he has this huge smile on his face, from ear to ear, and in this sweet, honey infused voice, "One thing you have to admit, Anat, being with me, there is never a dull moment." And I went, "Yes." Whatever. So I closed my door and I thought, how do I get back home, now? I have to go home. I cannot tolerate this. You have to understand, I had no money, I was a student. I was like his schlepper, or whatever. And it was the days where you couldn't change a ticket for seven days. It wasn't like you had to pay some money, you couldn't change it. You had to buy a new ticket. So that was not an option. So I was not very rational…I thought, if I have a psychotic breakdown, they would put me away, and that's a way to get away from him. I mean, I was desperate. I was in my twenties, what did I know? I had very few options. I wasn't below the line. I was like, outside of my whatever. I was like ahhhh! It was funny, but it was hard for me when I was experiencing it. So then the phone rings. And he says, "Are you hungry?" And I was. So I go, "Yes." So he says, "Would you like to meet by the elevator and go and have some food?" And I said, "OK." I mean I had to say yes, there was no other option. So I said yes, and we go down. And he sits facing me. And he says, "Anat, would you like to quarrel before we order, or after we order?" It was one of the most valuable moments of my life. He said, I looked at him, I'm pretty feisty as you can see, I looked at him and I thought, no way, no way will you get off the hook by being so intelligent. So I said to him, "I would like to order first and quarrel second." So we ordered, and after you know you have those menus, we put the menus to the side and he said, "Let's quarrel now. How would you like to start?" And I thought about it, and I started quarreling with him. So, let me tell you, you don't have a lot of Feldenkrais's around, so I didn't have that experience very often. It was an intentional quarrel, and it was fantastic. I mean we completely, I mean of course he was like 50 years older than me, he had that big breadth there, and he was a genius…we quarreled. I think we quarreled for at least 20 minutes. We didn't yell or anything, but we quarreled. I can't tell you what he said or I said, but whatever it was, we quarreled and it was over. And I didn't have to go psychotic anymore and I didn't have to do any of the other things, so you see you can even take that…I



don't know anybody who has had this experience before. It was magnificent. And I have no doubt, though I have never thought of this before, that this is part of what informed me when I work with the children. So when a child starts having a tantrum or they believe the end of the world is coming, and they scream and they cry and they look at their parents, and I look at this dynamic and I think, "oh my God, just turn the damn thing intentional." And I said to the kid, "You're crying. Do you know that you are crying?" Because sometimes they don't even know that they are crying. They are just "blahhhhh!" They don't even know they are crying, they don't know what they are doing, because they are so undifferentiated. "So, do you know you are crying?" And they go like [TN: startled look] "Yeessss." I say, great, fabulous. Do you want to cry? Do you like to cry? And with a certain percentage of kids, I did it with Cypress, just a few days ago. And he looked at me and said "No." So I said "Don't do it." So he stopped. Now sometimes it's more complicated, sometimes it takes more. But anyway. It might give you a few ideas when you are ready to quarrel next time. The only thing is, you have to have a willing, capable partner.




TML 12: Fifth Kata, Part 1 (2009)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Segment 4 November 11, 2009)

OK now. Remember slow. Remember gentle. Remember information over brute force, or just plain force. You don’t even have to go all the way to brute. And now, some of the movements in this lesson are going to be familiar to you. Some of them you have done earlier this segment. So I am inviting you to do them new, because you, because you are doing them now. So get into the movement with interest and opportunity for healing and discovery. I think you know what I am talking about. You know, “I have done that before: 1, 2, 3 - 1, 2, 3.”

See if you can go like, “I wonder. I feel. Pay attention.”

NOTES So now bend your knees, put your feet standing. Interlace your fingers behind your head.

And now lift the head and lower it with the help of the arms. And let the elbows come a little closer to one another.

I still see some people leaning their elbows to the side and shaking when they lift their head.

1a. All of you leave the elbows to the side and lift the head, with the elbows sideways, and feel the difference. Spread the knees and the feet. And do it like that once, or twice, and feel the difference.

Remember a perceived difference is an existing difference.

1b. And now, as you do this movement visualize your spine. And feel, see, sense, imagine what is happening in your spine. You can feel where, of course, there is more pressure on the floor.

Do you feel you are shortening your spine? Do you feel your spine getting longer? Can you think the spine getting longer from both ends? Both tail end and head end?

Rest. And leave this alone and rest for a moment.

2. For a moment, roll to your side and sit up. Cross your legs simply. Look at me so it will be easier for you to understand. You are going to put our hand on either side of your [neck] muscle very lightly just to feel the muscles of the neck. [TN: Anat puts her right hand around the front of her neck.] So if you move [your neck] you would



feel it contracting. Actually, you can put each hand to either side of your neck. And now very gently and slowly begin rounding your back.

Let me tell you what you will not be doing. But one day, you eventually, one day, you will.

That is that you are going to round your back, and slowly, slowly in the middle, vertebra after vertebra… First of course, the pelvis, put it on the floor, on the floor, until you lay on your back, but without any contraction at all in any of your neck muscles.

So you go just as far… And most of you wouldn’t be able to go far at all. All of you won’t be able to do the full movement under these constraints.

So what you are doing is putting your hands at the base of your head like that. [TN: Hands around neck with the little finger just under the jaw line to the base of the back of your head.] And now slowly, slowly. And feel… You see? I can see that you don’t even feel that something happens there. Go just as long as nothing happens there.

It is not "go as far as you can". It is "go as long as nothing happens in the neck". That is a very different thing.

2a. And leave that alone. Lie on your back. Leave your feet standing. Arms alongside yourself. And this time, lift both knees, legs up towards your chest and back down. So you are going to lift the legs and lower them. Before, you lifted the head, now you are lifting the knees.

So you lift them slowly towards the chest and you put them back down. You don’t straighten them. You don’t touch the neck any more. That’s not relevant.

Some of you are straightening the feet towards the ceiling. Don’t do that. It has nothing to do with straightening the legs. You simply bend the legs towards the chest. Keep the knees bent. Some of you are straightening the knees and don’t even know it. Just let the lower leg hang. The heels hang down.

And stop it. And rest for a moment.

3. And bend your knees and put your feet standing. Interlace your fingers and put them behind your head. Keep the feet standing on the floor, like that, the knees are spread. The feet are spread. And now, what you are going to be doing is, you are going to lift your head—the feet stay on the floor—and you are going to direct the two elbows in the direction of the knees. That means that the right elbow in the direction of the right knee and the left one in the direction of the left knee and then you put the head back down.

So you know where your knees are and you know where your elbows are. Very, very slowly. Listen if the way you are doing it, does…



The way you are doing it, does your spine feel like it is getting shorter, or does the spine feel like it is elongating, as you do the movement? And don’t do it any further, or any harder, but what is it that stops you from going any further?

[TN: repeating student's response] Your chest. OK. So you feel how something needs to happen differently in your chest in order to continue, and obviously the spine.

So leave that alone lie and rest for a moment.

4. As you are lying, bend your right knee only, and put your right foot standing. And now, you bend the right knee, the right leg towards your chest. You leave the left leg alone. And each time you move the leg towards your chest, you flex your foot, your ankle. That means you bring the toes closer to the knee. And then you put the foot back down. Slowly, slowly.

And feel what happens in your lower back. What happens in the rest of your spine? What happens in your chest?

Very slowly, you flex the ankle and bring the knee in the direction of your chest.

Feel anything happening in the tailbone? Anything happening in your pelvis? The sternum?

4a. Now, lengthen your right leg. Bend your left leg. Put it your left foot standing. And continue doing the same movement.

That means you are bending the left leg this time. Flexing the left foot. And bringing the knee forward to your chest and back. See if you can begin flexing the ankle as you begin lifting the leg. And flex the ankle gradually as you lift the leg gradually.

And some of you are still adding to that the motion of straightening the knee towards the ceiling. Let the knee bend.

[DEMO] Yesterday you asked about differentiation. First she has to discriminate. So you see, even though what I see her doing looks obvious, you would think she is bright and lovely and been around for a while, she probably knows this is the thigh, this is the lower leg, this the knee, this is the ankle. So if I say to her, “Leave the thigh where it is and drop the lower leg,” she would know what to do.

One of the ways you can be most valuable to your students is to never assume they already know something. And when they don’t know something really simple, it’s not simple. It is a missing piece. You see? So they are not wrong for not knowing it. They are not stupid for not knowing it. It is just how it occurs.

You see, now she remembers it. Now she gets a kinesthetic sense. And you will see that when somebody does something, especially when you take your right hand and



move it to the right and they do the opposite movement, it seems so obvious to the outside observer that they know what they are doing. But they don’t. If they knew what they were doing, they would be able to do the movement that you told them to do. So discrimination is a very important part. It is called waking up, being in the here and now. I am saving you some time reading a few books.

4b. So now bend both knees, put both knees standing, and combine the two movements together. Do it with both legs at the same time.

And feel if in one of your legs, you start flexing one of the feet before the other.

And some of you don’t even start flexing the feet until you are half way there.

And see if you can start flexing the feet in coordination with the movement of the legs, and see if you can leave your knees alone.

Some of you are still straightening the legs, creating a 90° angle between the thigh and the lower leg, which means that you are straightening the leg.

4c. All of you create a 90° angle between the thigh and the lower leg as you flex the leg. That’s perfect and that’s not what you are supposed to do. So don’t do that.

4d. Next time lift the legs, flex the ankle, bring the knees closer to the chest, and leave your knees alone. Don’t use your quadriceps to straighten your legs.

You see some of you, when your brain flexes your ankles, your brain flexes your quads. And it is so habitual you don’t feel it. Now, it is not a bad thing to do. It’s just a problem if you don’t have a say in it.

4e. And now, interlace your hands behind your head, maybe the non-habitual way. And then lift the left knee only.

Flex the foot, and direct the right elbow to the left knee, and lift your head at the same time.

The right elbow and left knee move towards each other. It has nothing to do with touching, it is just a direction.

And now as you do this movement of directing, pay attention to your spine again.

And remember to flex the ankle. And do not straighten the leg. It is amazing how sometimes certain things are not simple to change. They are actually simple to change, but what is not so simple is to actually wake up.

4f. And now do the other way around, slow. So you have time to feel what you are doing.

You remember fast you can only do what you already know. So if you want to do something different you have no choice but to slow down. Not my rules. Excellent.



Leave it alone and rest for a moment.

5. And now bend both knees and put your feet standing, and cross your arms, whichever way is comfortable for you. And get a hold with the right hand behind the left knee, and the left hand behind the right knee. So you catch behind the knees, but with the arms crossed. And just notice which arm you have on top. It is either the right or the left. Just become aware of that. Spread your knees a bit. And now, slowly begin pulling them towards you, very slowly and gently.

You have quite a lot power with your arms like that.

5a. And now, slowly begin pulling the knees away from you as if you are going to place the feet on the floor.

5b. Now swing. That means, take the legs towards the head and then see if you can swing yourself to sitting like that, holding the knees.

And do that a few times. So go back on your back and swing yourself to sitting.

5c. And if you absolutely cannot swing yourself to sitting, sit yourself however you can and cross your legs, and stay sitting like this holding the knees from behind.

So stay sitting, whichever way you got there, your feet are more or less standing. Put your feet standing. Don’t cross your legs. Put your hands behind your knees, the thumbs together with the rest of the fingers. Have your head bent forward. You are going to keep your head way forward as much as you can for as long as you can. And what you are going to do is, you are going to start slowly sinking first the back of your pelvis, then the spine, vertebra after vertebra, towards the floor, keeping your feet on the floor.

So you are going, just go not that far. And of course the arms begin very gradually to straighten. And you slowly, slowly lower the back of the pelvis and your back to the floor with your head forward. You don’t let go of the knees. And then you come back. It is always the same thing. You do what you do and then you come back. You repeat it.

And each time you do this movement, lessen the effort. Lesson the effort in the chest. You see now you can use this position and the gravitational pull to train yourself how to do that

The feet flat on the floor. You might want to bend the knees so the feet stand clearly.

5d. Change over the crossing of the arms and continue doing the same thing.



5e. And now roll like that on your back. Simply hold your legs and roll on your back. The thumbs are together with the rest of the fingers. And now, stay on your backs and do a few movements of moving the knees up towards the chest. The head is sitting on the floor.

And see if that s any different than before.

And stop it and rest for a moment.

6. And now, bend your knees and put your feet standing. Interlace your fingers behind your head. Now keep your feet on the floor. And lift your head with the help of your hands. And one time when you lift your head, direct your right elbow to your left knee. Then you bring down the head and direct your left elbow to your right knee. That means you alternate.

Slow. Some of you are starting to do it as if you are doing sit ups.

Listen to the length of your spine. Feel which direction the spine twists.

If you are lifting your head in the middle, you are not directing your head to the opposite knee. That means you are not thinking the movement the way I intended.

6a. And each time now. visualize, feel, imagine the spine like you have a rubbery spine. And each time you do it, it gets longer, both from the tail end and the head end. And if you can’t feel it, imagine it, reduce the effort until you stop shortening your back muscles. You can’t feel the spine lengthening when you shorten those muscles.

And stop it and rest. 1 ENDNOTE #1: DISCUSSION, WHY NOT SHORTEN THE NECK MUSCLES?

7. Now bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Interlace your fingers the other way than before. And every time you lift your head, direct the left elbow to the right knee, and at the same time, at a certain moment, straighten both legs down to help bring you up to sitting. Don’t kill yourself. And then you come back and put the feet standing.

So you fold yourself. You direct the left elbow to the right knee. But you don’t go all the way to the left [right]. You don’t roll on the left [right] side over the chest. You direct the elbow towards the knee, only to the left [right], not to the right [left]. So you move



towards the right, but you lift the left elbow towards the right knee, and you straighten the legs so at a certain moment you can use the weight of the legs to help you come up. Some of you are closet ambitious people, so ease up. It is an opportunity to improve the functioning of the spine and back for the rest of your life. Don’t miss it!

There you go. Find the place that you stop. That is the place where you haven’t figured out how to do it yet. That’s excellent!

7a. Now do it a few times the other way. That means the right elbow to the left knee. And use the weight of the leg to help you come up. But don’t come up in the middle. It is the right elbow to the left knee and the left knee comes away.

Rest.

8. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Turn your head to the right. The left hand under the right ear. And now lift the head with the left arm and direct the left elbow to the right knee. Just the elbow to the knee. The feet stay on the floor first. Do a few movements like that.

Feel that it twists you. Have the right arm bent a little bit in the elbow, alongside yourself. Don’t over-twist your neck. 8a. And now, move the right leg down and use your right arm to help you to

gradually sit up.

You start with the right leg bent. The head is turned to the right to begin with. The right ear is lying in your left hand. You don’t straighten the leg before you lift the head.

And rest for a moment.

9. Turn your head to the left please. Put your right hand behind your head. The left arm alongside yourself, bent a bit in the elbow. And bend both knees. Put both feet standing. First simply lift the head. Don’t try to sit up or anything, but lift the head. And direct the right elbow to the left knee. Take your time.

It’s not rolling over.

9a. And now slowly, as you twist yourself like that and direct the right elbow to the left knee, begin straightening the left leg to help you sit up. You don’t have to sit up. It is just a directive.



2 ENDNOTE #2: MINI-LECTURE, HAVING THE CHOICE TO NOT COMPLETE THE ACTION

So lie on your back and let’s go for that. And see, probably most of you won’t sit up yet. OK. So? So you turn your head to the left. You put your right hand behind your head. You put your left hand along your body. You put your feet standing. You take the right elbow towards the knee. You can straighten one leg. You can straighten both legs, I don’t care. Just go as far as you can…

[TO STUDENT] So Jory, even less effort than that. That will give you a chance to learn how to move the spine differently. Just remember you can use the legs, and feel when you can start using them. And how to shift the weight. And how to start bringing the weight over the elbow. A lot of stuff there.

9b. And now come to lean on both elbows and forearms.

Let's do just a few more variations.

And now, lift your right arm and extend your left leg. You elongate your right arm forward and extend the left leg and feel what happens. And then come back to the same position. Start with legs bent, feet standing.

And then in order to extend the right arm, what do you have to do to really be able to that and not kill your abdominal muscles? Shift your weight over to the left elbow. So put the elbow where you can lean on it. So you lift the arm, you shift the weight, you elongate the right arm forward, lengthen the left leg, let the head come forward. What will happen eventually? You will sit up.

[DEMO] Patricia, watch her. I am going to direct her with my words. So first of all lift the arm up. Use the weight of the arm and use the head that could be even a little more, not down, but forward. And start bending the elbow and bending the spine very slowly and taking the arm as late as possible back. You are bending the left elbow, but the right arm you are using as a balance. And you start taking the back of your pelvis and the low back backwards. And there will be a moment where you feel like bending your left knee, which is when you will do it. And keep going. And how do we know she is doing the movement? The head is going forwards as she is going backwards. And that’s how the nervous system, when it is well tuned, it organizes the weight. Now reverse the movement, because it is a hundred percent reversible movement. Slow, slow, slow. You see now when she slows down, now her brain is awake to her head and the bearing of the weight.

That’s what a child that can’t learn to move, the brain needs to wake up for. So when I work with kids and start pulling on their arm, I watch to see



if the head is moving in the right direction to catch the weight. If it doesn’t, I don’t pull them up. I don’t pull them any farther.

[TO STUDENT] Now Jory, you still got tempted. If your leg is fully straight, you should be sitting up already. You straightened the leg too fast. You see if you really coordinate the weight, you, you want it all to be one action. And if you feel you get stuck at certain point, don’t go any further. That’s the whole point. That’s excellent.

So all of you now, inhibit the urge to go past where you can go. And when you go back, that’s a great opportunity to learn more how to do it right, because you can sink gradually.

9c. Now, next time, change over the arms and do it to the other side. You come down on the elbows and forearms, not on the back. So you are leaning on both elbows and forearms, both feet are standing.

Rest on your back for a second.

And just feel the way you are now, after doing this movement. Let go of your thumb. Let go of your jaw.

10. Roll to the side and come to leaning on both elbows and forearms now. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. And now what you are going to do, is to begin straightening the legs. And at the same time, pushing on the palms to gradually use the weight of the legs, with both hands, to bring you to sitting, all the way, leaning on the hands. And then you are gradually going to go down. But take your time, don’t sit up necessarily from the start.

So with most people, the difficulty at this point is with the ability to bend the spine and to sink the chest. The thought, as you come forward, is the head comes forward. And when you go down, you are going to bend the knees gradually, and go down. As you go down bend the knees and the spine at the same time. So it is really the ability to bring the head forward and soften the chest and to time it between your hands and your legs.


11. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Put the two legs together. Lift the legs in the air and slide the right hand and forearm behind both knees. If you need to catch the pants, or whatever you can, or whatever variation you need to do.

But bend the knees. Don’t hold them up to the ceiling.



And now put the other hand alongside yourself. And first of all, pull the knees closer to your chest a few times. Leave the head on the floor. And feel how the tush tends to come up a little, asymmetrically.

11a. And now, like that, move the legs and the arms, lift the head, use the arm on the floor and sit up like that. It is actually very easy to do, if you know how to direct yourself in space, because once you lift your head you are a ball.

If you try and do it exactly in the middle, you are screwed. This is medical terminology. See if you can find a way to shift your weight in space so you are up. You don’t have to do anything except shift your weight a little bit. Let your bones do the work. And if you need a tiny little swing in the beginning, OK. But gradually figure a way to lower the swing and simply shift your weight in space, impeccably.

11b. Now the other way around. Change over the arms.

Lie on your back and rest. And just feel.

12. Come back to leaning on your elbows and forearms. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Feel your hands. If you bring the weight of the head enough forwards then you can press on the hands. Straighten the legs and see if it has become a little bit easier to sit up.

Feel what you are doing with your back. Feel what you are doing with your chest. And each time you do it especially when you go back, delay bringing the head back. You take the spine back. You round the spine.

You take the spine back. You don’t take the back of the head back, which is a mistake that people do.

And that is what happens to children that cannot sit up. That’s what they do. They throw their head back. That is why it is important not to sit them up until this underlying organization, and feeling, and relationship to gravity is formed. Make sense? Otherwise you just implant in them the mistake, more and more, and they don’t know how to sit.

12a. And now do it one more time and come up to standing. Maybe use what you learned yesterday, remember? [TN: TML #6: On the Foot and Forearm: Relationship between the Head and Pelvis to Standing] You had one leg standing and one leg bent. You leaned on one hand, and twisted your tush and stood up. How about you use what you learned? It was easier to do that too. Did you



feel that? Because it is easier to bring the head forward, because your spine is working better.

12b. Walk around. Just feel how you are walking. How you are standing.

[TO STUDENT] You feel? You are smack on your skeleton right now. Very nice.

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: DISCUSSION, WHY NOT SHORTNE THE NECK MUSCLES?

And I am asking a question into the group: Why not shorten the back muscles when you lift the head? Does anybody have a response?

[STUDENT] The muscles in the back contradict the lifting of the head.

[ANAT] Anybody else?

[STUDENT] I intentionally contracted my back muscles and felt all the work in my belly and chest.

[ANAT] It is an excellent comment. You see, when he contracts the back muscles, he actually feels a lot more work and effort in the front muscles. How come? It is basically an answer to the same question just a slightly different way of posing it. Who else wants to talk?

[STUDENT] If you are contracting your front and backside at the same time, they are working against each other.

[ANAT] That’s right. So what happens is, that when my intention is to lift the head when I am on the back, or bring the head forward when I am sitting or standing, and I say to myself “I am going to lift my head off the floor now,” and my brain says, “ Oh great. I am lifting my head of the floor now – lets contract the back muscles.” You go like “Hello”. That is what most everybody does to some extent. Let me tell you why I know that. How come I know that? What would happen if your head didn’t go, “ Oh, we are lifting the head, time to contract the back muscles”? What would happen if you didn’t contract the back muscles?

[STUDENT] If you didn’t contract the back muscles you could sit all the way up.

[ANAT] Exactly. Effortlessly. Very important to emphasize effortlessly, because everybody here can sit up. But this way, if there was no opposition, no contradiction, it would be effortless to sit up. So basically most people, the organization of the use of the spine in the back in relation to the front—it always is in relation to the front, you can’t have a back without a front—is disorganized. It is disordered for most people. And even if it is not acutely disordered, there is plenty of room to make it better. For every one pretty much. And what happens when we do strong abrupt, powerful crunches and stuff like that?... So in other words, when we go powerfully and fast, we can only do what we already know. We reduce differentiation and we increase our disorder. And so the back works harder, and then the person feels the feeling of excessive effort in the abdomen and in the chest, which is considered to be a good sign when you are working on your fitness. Get it? So when we work our back muscles together with our front muscles, in order to lift the head, you have to



work extra hard and extra hard. And when you do it hard, you also work your back harder. So you really don’t get much more outcome except the experience of effort. And the faster and more powerful you go for it, the more you are likely to do it in a disordered manner. That feeling of intense effort in the abdomen muscles and all that stuff is construed to be a sign of progression towards greater fitness.

2 ENDNOTE #2: MINI-LECTURE, HAVING THE CHOICE TO NOT COMPLETE THE ACTION

If we had to take a single criterion for the health of the spine, it would be its ability to bend equally. That means the same rate of bending throughout the spine. So it is the ability to actually fold the spine. If you wanted to check a spine for its health or its functional health, it is the ability to fold. Now when we are doing those variations and I am asking you to hold the head and direct your elbow towards the opposite knee, and slowly use the leg and leaning a bit on the arm, some of you yank yourself up, push on the elbow. When do you need to yank yourself up in terms of the spine? What is happening in the spine if you need to yank yourself up? It’s not bending.

There are two opportunities here that I would like you to take advantage of. One is to see how difficult it is not to push and accomplish the outcome. It really takes a state of mind, and internal freedom, and a sense of self, OK-ness about the self, that few people possess. I am not talking about somebody that says, "Oh, I am perfect. I don’t have to try and do anything. I am already all right". I am not talking about that kind of comfort. But I am talking about someone that says, "Oh my goodness, look, it is not something I can do right now. That’s interesting. Let me see what is going on." Get interested. That is the place where you get to explore, to wonder, to ask a question. The realization that we can’t do something tends to provoke, whether we are aware of it or not, a degree of anxiety, a sense of insufficiency that usually was instilled in us at a young age, unintentionally, by people around us that were anxious about us not accomplishing. They were not trying to mess us up. I think they are over it now, but there was a period in the United States where they taught children should have self-esteem. And the way to get to self-esteem is to tell them to have it. So if you failed or you didn’t fail, you did good, you didn’t do good, you did amazing. You did wonderful. I remember the first time I encountered it, I wondered, "what kind of nervous system distortion that will do?" Because if you don’t know the difference between this is effective, this is a little less effective, how are you ever going to become effective? But that is very different than, "When I am not effective, I lose the love of my parents, or something." That is a whole other thing. It creates a stress that is completely irrelevant to the process. That is why punishment is really ridiculous because it is something different than what you are trying to accomplish. You can set how things are going to go, but it is not as a punishment. So the two things to gain from this, is one: to realize how really challenging it is, almost universally, for people to not yank on themselves and go, "I don’t want to know my spine is not bending." "I don’t want to feel that uncomfortable feeling of not having accomplished it, especially if, out of the corner of my eye, I think my neighbor is succeeding." That is really a killer isn’t it? "She is doing it and I am not doing it. Oh, I am no good!" Whatever helps you. We can give you those stickers that they give you in school that say, "I did not reach the goal today – one point". And the end, if somebody has ten points I will give you a candy or something. Really, the freedom, first of all, it is terribly important for you. That opens the opportunity for you to actually discover how to accomplish that which you are trying to accomplish, and do it in a way that is really high quality, high end, masterful, effective. You see if you sit like this and force yourself, you will do it during the lesson. And then, out of the lesson for the rest of your life, you will never use it again because you are too intelligent to adopt something that is so uncomfortable. But if you find, discover, a way to do it that like you are moving paper in air, that’s how light, that is what we are working towards. So if you get in that approximation, that is one of the things that you can keep using and doing for the rest of your life.



Now this is for you as a student. This is for you as a recipient of the work right now, for your own benefit. Flip that, and think of yourself as the practitioner. So you have your hands on someone and you try to get an older person, or a little child to sit up. And you start moving them and taking them to the side. Now they are light. You can do anything with them. You can hang them from the chandelier. They don’t have to have any skill. But when you start picking up the child and you feel, if you are not possessed by your sense that the child has to accomplish what you feel you have accomplished, then you can really start working with what really is. And that is when the miracles start happening. And the more you become astute at dancing with what is really happening right now, this moment, with your clients, with yourself, with whatever is going on, the more you can make a difference for yourself and other people. The reason I am telling you this is not because I care how you sit up. You can sit up any way you want. I mean it is your body. I am not trying to control you to that degree. What I am trying to get you to have access to is to your own ability to have a choice to not complete the action because it was described all the way to the end. You understand? Not to mention that you get a better spine. You get a live spine. You get a brain that manages the spine the way it can and you would like it too.




TML 12: Fifth Kata Part 1 (2007)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Segment 4 September 2007)

Notes 1 ENDNOTE #1: INTRO, CRITERIA FOR HEALTH OF SPINE

1. Lie on your back.

We’re going to see how much movement one group of people can have in one day. And it’s a short day, but I’ll try it. I am experimenting, I am shifting a bit. I am teaching the same thing I taught last time. Same in terms of the curriculum. Shifting a little bit how I am doing it. Quite a bit actually. I will see how it works. I love experimenting.

Scan the way you are lying in contact with the floor. Contact with your spine from tailbone to base of head. And now, the length of the spine, back of spine, front of spine, the whole circumference of the spine, the ribs. I am going to be very brief. See if it’s a little easier for you to become aware and sense all these areas and parts.

And now feel the legs from the hips. From the two lines, the right leg, the left legs, and behind the knee. Just gauge that. Your now baseline. The distance of the back of the knees from the floor. And the two arms.

1a. And now, bend your knees, put your feet standing. We’re not going to do many repetitions of the movement. So I would like you to move very gently, reduce the force, and intensify your awareness.

That means, use the opportunity to do the movement, don’t rush doing them faster, but infuse what you do with your attention, your awareness, and you can help yourself by going slowly and with less force.

Interlace your fingers, put them behind the head. And lift the head with the help of the arms. And let the elbows come closer to really help and lower the head.

That’s simple movement, we’ve done it before.

And as you do that, listen to the whole length of the spine. See if the spine gets to feel longer, shorter, or the same. Which part of the spine stays clear in your awareness? Which not?

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Seg 4 TML 13 (2007)


And if, by any chance, you feel that you’re doing something with your pelvis and the tip of your tailbone?

OK, leave it alone, put your arms down, straighten your legs and rest for a moment.

2. And now bend your knees, put your feet standing, and simply lift this time the two legs bent as they are, the two knees spread. Lift them toward your shoulders, or your head or whatever, and back. And now do that slowly.

And feel, what is your spine doing now, or what are you doing with your spine? And feel, what is it that you need?

Don’t straighten your legs, that has nothing to do with straightening the leg. Have the knees spread; and the legs spread. Some of you have the knees almost together.

What do you have to do with the spine? What are you doing with the spine to be able to do that? Anybody that can say that in word?

You round your back! And which area do you feel clearer that is rounding right now?

[TO STUDENT] Please listen to what I say. Do not straighten the knees. Do not point your toes. You're lifting your legs. Do not flex... Slow down. You’re either extending or flexing your ankles. Do nothing with your ankles. Do nothing. There you go. Do nothing with your knees.

2a. And now, put the legs down. Interlace your fingers. Put them behind your head. Keep the legs standing, Keep the legs standing. And lift the head, and see if now you are doing something different with your spine, after you’ve lifted your legs? And what is different?

Don’t lift the legs. Don’t lift the legs! Legs down. Legs down. Let the elbows come closer to one another so you actually help support the head when you lift it.

Anyone can say what you are doing differently? Say it.

The pelvis rolls. That means the lower back is starting to round too. Your feel that?

But do not lift the legs. Leave the legs down, otherwise the experiment is meaningless.

Stop it and rest for a minute.



3. Bend your knees. Put your feet standing. Interlace your fingers in the non-habitual way. And now you are going to continue lifting your head with your arms, but direct your elbows toward your knees.

Don’t kill yourself. Gently and slow. I’m upping the pace of the lesson, but I am not asking you to rush. As if you are going to touch your knees with your elbows.

But you leave your feet on the floor.

And let me tell you one thing. Let me make your one solemn promise. The more you try, the less you reach you knee. And why is that? Aside from God punishing you? And you force? What happens when you force? What do you actually do? You restrict your chest. And when you stiffen your chest, that is the reason you are not getting there to begin with. That means you need to learn to use your spine in a way… No, we are not doing crunches.

And by the way, crunches in a fundamental way, the way people do them, are really a repetitive, disorganized movement. And the people who do it tend to get, they get very often more tone in the muscles, but they get very stiff in their chest, and their lower back gets more and more disorganized.

3a. Now. Put your arms down. Put your head down, of course, and your arms down. And lengthen only your left leg. Keep your right leg standing. That’s excellent.

And now, move the right knee, the right leg, right knee, as it is, toward your chest. And back.

[TO STUDENT] The arms alongside yourself. The arms next to your body. The arms away from the head. [TO ASSISTANT] Don’t correct her, I want her, to wake her. [TO STUDENT] Take the arms from behind your head and put them down. That’s it. And slowly, slowly, bring your knee toward your chest.

And what are you doing now with your spine, your sternum, your ribcage?

3b. And let’s just do an experiment. Next time you lift the foot, stiffen your chest, and pull in your belly. Hold your breath, stiffen your chest while you do it.

And feel, how does that affect your hip joint? The movement in your hip joint, how does that affect the movement or lack of movement in your spine?

See it is immediate, you can feel it, but you see this is very informative. Because both for you with you, but also for you when you work with people.



People will come to you and say that they don’t know why that their hip joint is stiff, that their older, that they cannot bend down so well anymore.

[TO PREGNANT STUDENT] You can do this movement on the side. Yeah, but just as much as you are comfortable. Whatever feels like too much, don’t do. There you go.

3c. And now, lengthen the right leg, bend the left knee and do the same thing with the left leg.

Slow. Very attentive. The attention that you are able to generate while doing the movement is the key to the changes.

The attention that you pay is it. And if you read or when you read the book, that I recommended yesterday in both of them, but in Sharon Bagley, she specifically is interested in the subject of attention, because that is very close to the whole practice of meditation. And they, I think I told you that already. But they found that an action done, you’ll read the details, but when an action is done without attention, there was not a change basically in the brain. The same action, the same thing, the only difference was that attention was paid to the action, or to the movement, or to the sensation, and then there is dramatic growth and change in the brain.

Straighten yourself and rest.

Feldenkrais used to really go ballistic, when people called what he did exercise. What he taught. And he used to say “Exercise is for donkeys.” You know, it’s not for human beings and he was a big sports person. He was black belt in judo, he was a soccer player, he was a boxer, and he used to swim in earlier years. So, it wasn’t like he was against doing sports and stuff.

He had the understanding all the way back in the 40 and 50’s that the goal, the diamond, the treasure lies in the human ability or the quality of the human brain to actually be able to grow and transform and change. And that’s where you want to teach. That’s what you want to communicate with. And you do. And you use it anyway you like, so you can do Judo, or you can run, or you can play tennis, or you can waltz, or ballroom dancing. Or sing, or dance, or sit by the computer and do what you want.

Bend… What are we going to do next, I don’t know.

4. Bend both legs. Put the feet standing.

And now. Do the thing again, that you did before, the two legs to your chest. Lift both legs to your chest.

And feel. First of all, if it’s any different.

Don't swing. If you do a swinging movement in this lesson, then you are missing again the opportunity. If you find it difficult, don’t have the legs together.



The legs are spread. Slow. If it’s difficult to lift the legs initially, see maybe you can reduce the effort in the chest even further, and then you’ll be able to figure out what you need to do to use to lift your legs.

4a. And now every time you lift the legs, flex the ankle; shorten the foot, like that.

And see if that helps a little bit. Does that help?

No? OK. Anybody that it does help? We’ll have to have a vote and the majority is right.

And now, straighten your legs and rest for a moment.

Each time I am going to request we rest, you scan quickly your spine and any dimension of the, you know perception. Length, width, contact, comfort, discomfort, whatever it is for you. And then briefly you might scan to the legs and arms, but mostly we are focusing on the spine right now.

5. And now interlace your fingers, put them behind you head. And now as you are lying, lift your head, and direct your elbows toward your right knee.

Think of directing. OK, let's do it differently, clearer. Let’s just say think of directing your left elbow to your right knee. So you lift your head. I know you're lying down; I know you're not going to reach that knee, definitely not for now. But you lift your head and you direct your left elbow to the right knee. Now agreeing that you're not going to reach your right knee, so you're not going to try harder.

Do less effort and see, feel, and notice what is it that stops you from continuing until you actually reach the right knee.

Theoretically that is possible. Stop the movement when it gets more difficult. I just want to see if you can identify it.

5a. Change the interlacing of fingers and do the same thing the other way. That means, direct the right elbow to the left knee. Gentle, Gentle, gentle. Since you are not going to reach the knee anyway, you might as well go less. And feel.

You have the bones, you have the muscle. What you don’t have yet is the brains. Literally. In the sense of the specific organization, differentiation and organization that would allow you to do this movement.



[TO STUDENT] I don’t know where you think your knee is, but if I were to continue to the line from your right elbow, your moving over to her knee, and that’s not allowed in class.

Stop it and rest.

6. This is a nice one. Turn your head to the right. Put your left hand behind your right ear. Let the elbow go sideways.

You are not going to lift the head. So, do not even, you do not have to hold the elbow up.

Keep the face turned to the right, and the hand and elbow where they are.

And now, bend your right knee, put your right foot standing. And now direct your right knee towards your left elbow. Maybe before you move, in your mind’s eye, locate your knee in space and locate your elbow in space.

We’re not pushing. Your right knee to your left elbow. You start with the leg standing, so that you don’t have to do extra work. Locate them in space.

[TO STUDENT] But don’t lift the head or the elbow at all. The elbow stays down. The head stays down. The knee, the leg, the knee is moved towards the elbow. Slow. See? What kind of funny thing is happening now in your spine? And how is that happening? Something you are doing with you…No, no, no, your elbow is over there, your elbow not over here. Ah, you see, you start, you take it, but then you start moving sideways, so slow down. And go just as far as you can still maintain the correct trajectory. There you go. And then gradually you will feel and figure something to really reorganize in your spine, completely. That is not available yet. It’s not available in the nervous system; it’s not available in the back. Because the back is nothing. It is just a set of bones and muscle, I mean, they can’t do anything on their own. Terrific.

6a. Change over your legs and change over your head and your arms.

And do the same thing the other way. 2 ENDNOTE #2: STORY, JEWISH EXERCISE SYSTEM

Did you do it the other way, Right, yes? Good, good.

7. And now, turn your head again to the right. Put the left hand behind your head. Bend your right knee.

Some of you are not sure which side is which anymore.



And now direct your left elbow, to your standing right knee.

No swinging. No acceleration. But do, keep the head… Amy, to the side.

The head is on the side from the start. And on the side like that lifting the elbow toward the knee will turn the head even a little more to the side.

But you don’t bring it back to the middle.

Now do you think your abdomen muscles are not strong enough? You know what the answer is by the tone of my voice. No? So well, it has a little bit to do… You have to use your abdomen muscles to come up. But what stops you from going all the way up? That you are working other muscles at the same time that pull you in opposite or other directions. Or in other words your spine is…

7a. Change over arms and legs and do the same thing to the other side.

Marvelous. Rest for a moment.

8. And now. Bend your knees, bring both legs up. Catch with your right hand behind your left knee with your left hand behind your right knee from above.

The left hand from above. From behind the knees.

Cross from in between the legs. Just remember which arm is on the top. All the fingers together, the thumb with the rest of the fingers.

And now very gently, with the help of the arms, bring the knees closer to your chest.

But don’t bring the knees to touch each other, just closer toward the chest. Very gentle, nicely.

And see if you are making great effort with your shoulders, your elbow, and instead of that, see if you can make it easy for the knees to come closer [TN: to the chest, not closer to one another].

Instead of using great muscular force with your arms, shoulders, make it so that it doesn’t need a lot. If your pelvis and spine say “Yes” to the movement, you don’t need great force to do it.

8a. Change over the crossing of the arms. Make sure the thumbs are together with the rest of the fingers and continue doing that.

8b. And now, start moving the feet toward the floor and see, lift the head of course, and see if you can sit up like that.



Remember you did it earlier in the segment. If not, you can swing a little bit, because I want you up sitting like that.

8c. Whichever way, come up to sitting up like this. Hold the knees with the arms crossed.

And now very, very slowly, keep the feet down on the floor for as long as you can, and let your pelvis roll back and round.

But put the feet standing. Thank you. Keep them on the floor. Think I am standing on your feet. There you go. And now you go down. Slow, slow, slow. Slow, slow. Keep the feet down, keep the feet down.

Keep the feet down as long as you can. That means, how much can you let go of your chest before you…? See, we can do an experiment the other way around.

8d. Stiffen your chest and try to go down and see what happens.

If you really stiffen your chest and your shoulders, go down, see what happens. Your legs come off right away. You feel that?

8e. So now do it the other way. Just melt, melt, melt, round your back.

Remember, the gauge for fully healthy spine is that spine is that spine that can do that.

And then you come back up to sitting. And then you do it again.

Leave that alone and rest for a second.

[TO STUDENT] What is going on in here? What’s the party? Patti asked me if I want her to correct you if you put your feet together. My answer is no. I would like you to wake up and keep your feet apart.

9. Now. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. And now, interlace the fingers behind your head.

And lift the head directing one time the right elbow to the left knee, then you go down. And then the left elbow to the right elbow. So alternate like that.

One time the right elbow to the left knee, and one time the left elbow to the right knee.

9a. And now. What I’m going to do is, next time you direct your right elbow to your left knee, just to say something specific, as you direct it, at the



same time, keep going in that diagonal direction, but kick your legs, straighten your legs, and see if you can help yourself to come up to sitting like that.

By straightening, by kicking the legs.

And go back.

Don’t worry if you don’t sit. Kicking probably both legs will help more.

[TO STUDENT] No, no, don’t’ lean on the elbow. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I know you can sit up. We have established that many times. So…

Now some of you do something interesting, - You do it, but you look with your eyes up.

9b. See, all of you look with your eyes up. And see what it does.

9c. And then try to look where you are going and see what that does.

[TO STUDENTS] But you see, you’re rolling over to the, your sides. You are doing the same mistake. Both elbows. Oh yeah I see, directly, but don’t go to lean on the other elbow on the floor. There you go.

Some of you are starting to figure it out. It’s a peculiar little thing. That’s it.

Put the legs down before we start… Yeah, That’s it. When you come down, I don’t want you to down with a straight spine. No we are doing round back, not straight back. Oh, don’t kill yourself there. Don’t worry if you don’t get up. We are going to do many continuations. Don’t worry.

Leave it alone. Rest please.

Those of you who can do it, do it; and those of you who are not doing it, are killing yourself, so stop.

10. Turn your head to the right. Put your left hand behind your head. Bend both leg, put them standing. Now right arm along yourself, that should already be a hint. And now you lift your head and you direct the left elbow to the right knee, and you at the certain moment you can straighten, kick the two legs and come up to sitting along your right arm. Don’t do it all in one movement.

Let’s see. There you go. And do it. And come up, your legs are straight. When your sit your legs are straight. Straight. There you go.

And then you bend the legs to help you balance when you go down, so you use the legs as an extra leverage.



[TO STUDENT] And each time. But it’s not the movement of rolling over to the side to come along the elbow. You… Direct the elbow, the left elbow to the right knee. You do the same kind of thing. You go from in front. You direct the elbow to the right knee; you just can use a little bit your right arm. And the legs. But straighten both legs. If you keep one leg bent, it pushes you back down. There you go. So you direct the elbow to the knees slowly until you feel how to do that. Use the legs, use the legs. There’s a moment if you kick the legs, or straighten the legs, the weight of the legs will help you overcome the stiffness in your back.

[TO STUDENT] Yeah, but you're coming thru the middle, sweetheart. It’s a diagonal movement. It’s a diagonal movement. It’s the left elbow to the right knee which lead you along the right arm, just because you are structured that way.

Leave it alone.

11. And do it to the other side. Until you really feel that what sits you up is mostly directing the right elbow to the left knee.

The rest of it is just minor little details. So there is no big umph, when the abdomen gets short abruptly, and the chest gets stiff, and the spine gets stiff and it can’t follow your intent.

By the way, this is a marvelous lesson. And if you don’t think so, you better start thinking so.

Leave it alone, like on your back and rest please.

12. And now. Come up to lean on your elbows and forearm. The head and shoulders in the air. So lift your head and shoulders. Lean on your elbows and forearm. By the way, see if it is easier to do now than if you remember in the past.

Yes, the knees are bent and the feet are standing. Who asked that? Kay, it sounded all of a sudden like you have a southern accent. That was so strange.

Now. What I am going to ask you to do is, to straighten your left leg and lengthen your right arm so it will bring you up to sitting. Both legs are standing to begin with.

Both feet are standing to begin with. You lengthen the left leg and the right arm in front of you.

When you lengthen the left leg and the right arm, the left leg and the right arm, detach the right arm and use it to come to sitting. And then bend the leg



back. When you come back, go back to the original position. It’s a reversible movement. And Slowly. That’s very nice.

[TO STUDENT] There was a little fall there, but you know, the fall was associated with you forgetting the leg. Now go, do it forward. Just watch. You see he is doing it, it’s the head, it’s the head, it’s the spine, it's the… And there you go. And now, going back if you leave the head forward as long as you can. Start bending the leg. Don’t forget the leg, use the leg, and use the leg. There, there, just round the spine a little more. There you go. You feel it? That’s it.

12a. So all of you, do the movement until you feel that it's almost even, you don’t know how you got up to sitting. What got you up there it almost, feels like you don’t know. You’ve done nothing, and you’re there.

And scan yourself. Do you have tension in your left shoulder or right shoulder?

Do you see you’re are still doing the oomph thing? So if you feel you are doing the oomph thing, this is an opportunity for a real shift. Next time you do the movement, look where the oomph is, and don’t go past the oomph. Go a little back, get a little forward until…

You start with both legs bent. You start with both legs bent. There you go.

So you really want to use your abdomen muscles as little as possible.

Not as much as possible. You use your abdomen muscle a lot when you have to use them against the immobility of the spine. You want everything to say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, we’re moving forward. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, every vertebra, every rib, everything, like knowing what you're doing and having you go there, figuring out how to do it. There you go. That’s very nice.

[TO STUDENT] I want to see again, slowly. Don’t worry that I watch. Very nice. So you never have to push on your left arm. And you never have to push on your left hand. It’s just there to lean on a little bit. That’s all.

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO, LINKING IT TO WORKING WITH CHILDREN

12b. All of you do it to the other side. Lean on your elbows and forearms now.

[TO STUDENT] You are going to do what? You tell me. What? The other way. What’s the other way? To the right. OK. So your left hand, there you go. But you see? You’re keeping the head behind still. Every time the head stays behind, that means that you are overcoming with muscular effort that’s unnecessary. But you are so used to it, that you don’t even know you are doing it. You see, that’s what I mean when you do it…

[TO OTHER STUDENT] Pushed Anita! Saw, I saw, I saw cheating. Don’t push, keep the head free. That’s it. And for you, especially with your back, you have



to reduce the efforts. If you want a better back, you have to reduce the efforts. There we go.

This was supposed to be a short lesson. There we go.


13. And now. Come up on your elbows and forearms. Lean on your elbows and forearms. Bend both knees. And now.

What you are going to do is straighten the legs and you’re going to bring the head forward so that you will sit up in the middle. Leaning on your elbows and forearms. Your hands are touching the floor.

They’re not going to go anywhere. That’s exactly where they stay.

The elbows have to come up. And see if you can somehow straighten the legs and come up to sitting. You can use a little bit the pressure on the hands.

But slowly, so that it feels as if there is this magical… No, both sides at the same time. You come straight in the middle. That’s right. Excellent, you did not come up all the way to sitting, because you’re really feeling where "oops, it’s not going to work". So when you already know it’s not going to work, why keep going?

There you go. That’s nice. Some of you are starting to get the hang of it. Legs are apart.

I’m looking to see one person that does it and really likes it. You’re keeping your head way behind. [TN: Unintelligible comment by student]. I don’t think so. That’s a shame.

[TO STUDENT] Or you are not moving your arms at all? How are you going to sit up if you do not straighten your arms? Well, that is really, really bad, I mean you have your geometry all messed up. Oh, the arms don’t seem to want to move? Well, well, let me tell you. Let’s send them a note in the mail. Yes, you are pushing on the hands a little bit, if you want to.

You know early, early on in my career, I was teaching a class. I was very lucky.


I was really very lucky in this work from the very beginning. So I was this graduate student in Jerusalem in the university. And I had a full class, which in those days was 15 people, eh 15, 18 people. And they signed up for twice a week for every month. So you know they paid on a monthly basis, and they came. And there was this man in the group. And I gave some instruction. And he did the most peculiar movement. And I don’t know how I got to that, but I said to him. “Are you a mathematician by any chance?” Turns out he was a professor of mathematics in the university. And I said to him, “Only a



mathematician can misunderstand my words this way.” It was so abstractly bizarre. You reminded me of him, Neil. A little bit.

14. Put your hands behind your head, interlace your fingers. Put your feet standing. Lift your head, straighten your legs. And see. Direct your elbows to your knees. Straighten the legs and see if you can sit that way. And maybe it’s a little easier to do than before.

There we go. Gentle. Gentle. And those of you who are not pushing even though you’re not doing it, that’s excellent.

But you do have to move the upper part as you move the lower part, if you want that to have an impact. If you just straighten your legs and lie on your back, that’s not going to sit you up.

[TO STUDENT] No, you see, you need the big kick, that means it is not going to work.

14a. And now. Put your head on the floor, bend your knees, put the legs together, slide your right arm behind both knees, and lift the legs in the air. Your right forearm behind both knees. And simply in this position, gently, push the knees a little closer to your chest. And then let go a little bit.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No sitting. Nothing to do with sitting. Just squish the knees a little bit towards your chest and stop; and squish and stop.

14b. And now. With the help of your left arm on the floor. On the floor next to you. See if you can lift your head and sit up like this.

Ha, ha, good response Amy. Good response. But actually it’s a lot easier if you know how to use the physics. How is it easier? How come? Anybody can say? Because you’re a little ball. And if you just shift the weight of this little mass to the left then it comes up along the left arm. You don’t even need to swing. Don’t need to swing. Just move a little forward and go along the left arm. In other words, you use your abdomen muscles to the point of nearly choking. There you go. You see? Little ball. If you’re not yet a little ball. This is learning to use, this is too much to his side. Have to lift the head. It’s a training. It’s a marvelous training in how to use the gravitational force in your skeleton in a really efficient way. And let me tell you, that will translate to standing and other movements. Because the knowledge how to organize yourself in space is a… I’m saying something very important and you guys are chit chatting, that’s ok.

Ach, ach, you’re swinging, I saw it. There you go.



14c. Do it the other way. Do it the other way. Sometimes one side can actually be easier than the other.

There you go. That’s not true, you can make a ball and you're swinging. There is a fine. Five dollar fine for each swing. Ha, ha. A latte, at every swing, a latte. Not that I drink coffee. Haven’t drunk coffee in twenty and some odd years. Yeah. I am not a coffee person. Imagine me on coffee.


Ha, ha, ha. I don’t think it would work very well. What?

15. And now. Just one more movement. I’m just curious. Bend your knees. Get with your right hand from outside behind your right knee. Left hand behind your left knee. Start pulling the knees away. Legs spread. Legs spread. Start pulling the legs away from you. I already… behind the knees. All the fingers together. Thumbs together. And see if it’s very different than it was a few days ago.

I see for a few of you, it’s worse; but otherwise for most of you it’s better.

Lift your head. I would presume you would lift your head at a certain point. Once it pulls on the neck.

And see more and more of you with… no acceleration. Do you feel that? And then when you go down, let go, let go, let go. You see? Some of you are moving a little bit through the right or left of the pelvis, but that’s ok. Gradually that can be corrected too. There you go. Slow. That’s nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice, nice, very lovely.

15a. And those of you find a hard time, maybe you want to swing a tiny bit, and see whether with a little swing, it becomes doable.

And if not, we’re going to continue.

15b. And come up on your feet. Stand up. Walk around. See what it like is to be upright now. And you might feel a big difference in the way you stand and carry your head. And my question to you is how come doing all this folding of the spine gets you to be upright differently? Can you feel that? Feel that? Much clearer?



I’m giving you a twenty percent surplus on your tuition! Your spine, your upper back, you feel how straight it is? That’s a first. Not bad. Don’t sink back into your habit. It’s OK to have it this way. Be proud for a few seconds here. There you go. That’s it.

Look at that. You gained an inch, two inches. I don’t know how much you gained. Walk around. Look at that.

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: INTRO, CRITERIA FOR HEALTHY SPINE

When we think about the spine, which is the focus, the primary focus of this segment. Then we can think about what might a healthy spine mean. What, if you were to think, “Oh this person has a healthy spine or maybe not so healthy.” We’ll need a microphone here. I’ll take a few minutes here. What would you think? What would you call healthy or not healthy spine? What would be criteria for health? Let’s make the question so that it doesn’t go both directions. But what might be some criteria for health of the spine?

[STUDENT] First thing that popped into my mind is its availability for functional, or for movement; how available is it for us to actually use to accomplish things we might want to move into.

[STUDENT] I think of it as being flexible and fluid, juicy.

[ANAT] Flexible and fluid. OK

[ANAT] Anybody else?

[STUDENT] To be able to distribute movement evenly. Throughout the spine. OK

[ANAT] To be able to support - to support. Something you’re not doing right now. How about you sit up when you talk. OK?

[STUDENT] To be able to support the head, erectly.

[ANAT] Alright. So basically, two things, that are I agree with. One is that it can move well. In as many directions, I mean that it is structured to build and at the same time that it can do its functional weight bearing. So the spine is interesting in the sense that if you to think of the leg, the leg is composed fundamentally from two sections. Right? So when you want to support yourself skeletally over the leg, there’s relatively little you need to do, you either straighten the knee or you lean on the knee. Right? Or you- if you don’t do that you have to use more muscle power to support. Same thing with the arm.

When it comes to the spine, it has many segments. What is the total number of segments of the spine? Twenty? Anybody remember? I always have to recalculate it. 7 in the neck, 12 in the torso, that’s 19 and 5 that’s 24, and then the sacrum, you can think of it as 25. OK. So, you have either 24, let’s say 24 segments or 25. To, that, you have to somehow coordinate to bear weight as one entity. Right? The spine and at the same time because of their segmentation they allow for movement. So it’s an interesting dual thing - that as we move we keep supporting ourselves. It’s not like we move and then collapse, right?



One of the ways if we wanted to take a direction of movement in the spine… If we were to take the different directions of movement. I am going to be speaking of the spine right now in terms of movement, we will be going into the, support later. The direction of movement into both, gauge the health of the spine and work towards getting the spine to be more functional-healthy, is actually our ability to fold the spine, to bend. Surprising, right?

I won’t go into much theory about it as I will speak to it later. But I just wanted you to have this idea. I also want to remind you that anything the teacher tells you is always possibly wrong. OK. So I know you really trust me and I like that. And I believe that anything I say is right, but you don’t have to take me at face value. But I want you to think about that idea and we’re going to start working with it in terms of movement. You’re fascinating. Always be there. I like having this effect on you. It’s so wonderful.

2 ENDNOTE #2: STORY, JEWISH EXERCISE SYSTEM

I told you the story about me teaching in Paris the workshop? Then, telling them that this is a Jewish exercise method. Only a Jew could dream up such an exercise system. That all you have to do is think. I mean, you know, I really think that it’s a cultural thing. I mean it is, it is so peculiar. You develop a whole exercise thing where the big deal is do less, move less; just think, think, think.

Did I tell you that Moshe’s great great grandfather? Did I tell you about Rabbi Pinchas? You don’t know about Rabbi Pinchas? Ha, ha. Rabbi Pinchas was a Rabbi. Corsther I think was his last name, I am not sure. And he was the man who was very revered and important figure in the Hassidic Jewish movement.

Put down your legs and your arms. And rest for a second.

I tell you a story for moment before I terrorize you again. I move from sweet story time to "pay more attention to what you’re doing."

Anyway, he was, the man that, you know the Hassidic movement. You heard about the Hassidic movement? The Jewish Hassidic movement? OK, if you didn’t never mind. And the tradition started with Barshanto. And Barshanto, the meaning of the word, by the way, barshanto, is the one - the owner of a good name. That’s what it means. The one who. The possessor of a good name. Interesting Karma to have a name like that. Anyway, he told these stories and he taught his teachings orally. There is nothing written. And Rabbi Pinchas was the Rabbi who put it all down in writing. And he was the great great grandfather or something like that of Moshe. And so Moshe was a direct descendant from Rabbi Pinchas. And how did I find out about it? Because one day I was watching Moshe work and this Hassidic Jew came in and he literally wanted to touch Moshe’s shoes. So I asked Moshe afterwards, why was he so interested in his shoes. And he told me. (Laughter.) What was so wonderful about his old shoes? Anyway, and Moshe’s father was, he wasn’t a Rabbi, but he was a Shiva student, and he was a louee. A louee is again the height, it’s what the student of the Yashiva, who study the Jewish studies, the ones who are outstanding, the ones who excel, are the Louee, the higher one. And it is a very, very, very rare and remarkable title. And that was the father. But the real power of the family was the mother. She’s a little gal. I never met her, I saw pictures of her. She a little gal: little, little. And she actually, - once you know the war started and the family lost all the money, she was the power. She was the one who ran the family. She was the one who kept everything together. And Feldenkrais left Eastern Europe and came to Palestine at the time on his own. He was what, 12 ,13? Something like that when he started the journey. - By himself and then



joined other people. But he left his parents and the rest of the family behind. And then, when Hitler - Before Hitler came up to power, despite what Hacman Adj –ad- jud is saying, Feldenkrais actually thought that Hitler would actually be able to succeed. So before he came to power, he actually brought all his family to Palestine. He said that Adolf Hitler will be able to act upon his intentions. And he understood his intentions and he took him seriously. So he brought the family to Israel. I mean it was Palestine then. And, you know, it was after he did this. No. Then no, he went to France, He escaped, it’s a whole long story. I tell you another time. But he literally escaped Paris as the Germans were entering Paris. World War II. With all the documentations from the Radium Institute in Paris- from the Curie's. And he handed it in person to Churchill. That is how that was transferred by the way from France to England. Yeah. He had an interesting life! Anyway, then he came back to Israel; and, but that time, you know in the early 50’s he was brought back as a scientist but he was doing this work already. He was already in the process of developing it. And then eventually stopped doing his work as a physicist and just opened a private practice in the basement apartment of his mother. He was a good Jewish boy. So he went back to live with his mother, sort of. Ah, ha. And…

I don’t why I’m being sarcastic this morning. I hope I get over it soon. Then the story is about the mother, so you get who he grew up with. So the ma – Dyam; Dyam was ordered by Ben-Gurion. He was given a military order by Ben-Gurion, who was at the time the prime minister, to go and work with Feldenkrais. That’s another story I’ll tell in detail at another time. And Ben-Gurion. - And Dyam walked in. And in order to get into where Feldenkrais was working you had to go thru the front room to get to the back room. And the mother by that time, by that time Feldenkrais worked with her - he taught her to do headstands and you know sit lotus position. So here is this woman probably in her 70’s sitting lotus position, mending some clothes. And…. What? And Dyam walks in, and his button, fell off from his pants. And it was the first session. And she saw it and she said where is your button? And he, I guess he had it in his pocket and he said “It just fell off.” She said, “Well, let me sew it for you.” And he said “No, I don’t have time now. I, I will do it later.” She looked at him, she said, IF I said later all my life, I would still be a virgin!” So here is this old woman sitting lotus position, and he was the chief of staff. Of Israel. Right? Guiding all the wars and all that stuff. She said, “Take off your pants now!” So he took off his pants. She mended his button, he put it back, and he went in. Feldenkrais said to him “Why are you late?” He said “Your mother made me take off my pants.”

So, there you go. That’s the genesis of this Jewish system of exercise. If you mix a rabbi with this mother, that’s what you get. Alright.

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO, LINKING IT TO WORKING WITH CHILDREN

Uh, you see, JR. Can I demonstrate on you for a second? So, look what JR is doing. It’s a perfect demonstration. Go, let’s start. He’s doing it very nicely, but watch for something here. Ah – here he had to push. You feel? That’s uh… Do it again, so people can see it again. Some have not gotten to see it yet. Take your time. And do it again. You see that, ah, here he was going to push. OK.

By the way, for children, or also adults, they are hurt like in stroke or stuff, but for children who have never sat up, that little "ah", will be the thing that will stop them from sitting up. So when you work with children, you need to learn to recognize it. And know what to do to get it to so there isn’t that point where they have to use muscular effort to overcome the disorganization of the movement. Because all of a sudden the way the body’s is doing the movement is not built to do it properly.

Now, if you already know how to do the movement, excuse my incorrect language here, you can be as idiotic as you want. As least for a number of years. Because you keep doing the oomph over



again, and the oomph over. You know, like the great muscular effort to overcome the disorganization. But that you can do only when you already know how to do it. So, when we know to do something, and we know where we are heading, and we’ve felt how to come from point A to point B, we can do it many different ways. And also in poorly organized ways; but use excessive muscular force. But if we have never done it before, we don’t even know how to make a big effort to succeed. So we can make big efforts, but we can’t succeed.

So, go ahead JR, do it very slow so I can… There you go, and now from here just take the leg a little back, the leg a little back. There you go, you see now. That’s it. Already it’s going to be better. You see just now the leg…nope, here you expect there needs to be effort, but you don’t need it anymore. There you go. Slow, slow. So now, let me hold you here, and now you go down. Start going down, that’s it. Now come back up. Now, again. When you go, when you go down, start going down and start bending the knee. No, you see you are but that is too fast. Just tiny, go down, go down there you go. And feel, ach, the head is going too far behind you. You see? Go down, but keep the head forward. Keep the head forward. Keep, keep, go down, keep the head forward, go down, keep the head forward. Come back up by the head forward. That’s it! That’s all you need. See the head… The head forward. Let go of your shoulder. Let go of your shoulder. Your shoulder has nothing to do with it. There you go. That’s it. Now, feel the difference? And you feel your spine folded now.

Give me your hand, and now, start doing. Nope, you’re doing… And bend the head. That’s it. It’s a whole other idea of what it takes to do it. You see, even though you have the opportunity, you still do it because you anticipate those efforts, because you’ve done them all your life. You feel? So it’s really the biggest part of it is here. Now go down and use your leg. That’s it. You see, the spine all of a sudden is so much freer. You see? It’s here. It’s here, it’s here. There you go. From here to here, it doesn’t mean anything anymore. You know, that’s just the final part. See? There you go, you see it's the head. It’s the head. You have to be able to bend. That’s excellent. To bring the head forward.




TML 13: Line of Effort of Lifting (Lying on Belly)

(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer, Feb 22, 2014)

NOTES

1. 1. Enjoy lying on your back. And first listen to the cardinal lines of your skeleton; the two legs, the two arms, the length of your spine.

1a. And now draw a line from your right hip joint to your right shoulder and sense the length of that line. And then draw another line from our left hip joint to your left shoulder. And is one line longer than the other?

And now draw a line from your right hip joint to your left shoulder. And where is it that it crosses over? Is it closer to your belly button, or to your sternum, or right in between?

And then draw a line from your left hip joint to your right shoulder. Is one of those lines quite a bit longer than the other?

And now draw the line from your right hip joint to your left shoulder, and leave the line there.

I don’t know if you are drawing it in black or in red, but certainly you can choose a color.

And now draw the line from your left hip joint to your right shoulder, and now you have both lines. Where do they cross? At the bottom of the sternum, just above the belly button, the middle of the sternum?

And now draw a line from your right thumb to your left shoulder. Leave that line there, and draw a line from your left thumb to your right shoulder. Which line is longer?

And now draw a line from your right thumb to your left thumb, and from your right thumb to your left ear lobe, and from your left thumb to your right ear lobe. Which line is longer?

Now I could do this all day, but I think we should go on with the lesson. But do you see, how you have never to be bored again?



2. Please lie on your stomach. Now put your hands one on top of the other underneath your forehead, so your face is towards the mat, one palm is one the floor, and the other palm is one the back of the first hand. Have your feet so that the nails of your toes lie on the floor.

2a. And now in this position draw your line from the left sitting bone to the right shoulder, and leave the line there, and draw the other one from the right sitting bone to the left shoulder, and notice where they cross now. Is it similar to when you were lying on your back and noticing where they crossed on your front?

2b. And now feel, sense, where your right heel is, especially the back of the right heel, just below the ankle but in back.

And imagine that the most wonderful practitioner takes two or three of their fingers and presses into the back of your heel, so that you actually feel the bony structure of your heel, and then they move a little bit upward and touch the…, and go deep enough, sink deep enough that you feel the bone of your lower leg just behind your ankles - you are one the right leg now - and slowly they go one movement by another, taking time to sink into the back of the lower leg to the bone, so that you feel the bone, and then they move up and again sinking in, and going all the way to the back of the knee. Give them as much time as they need to go from the ankle to the knee.

And once they are at the knee they turn around and go down towards the ankle again. And see if you can listen to the feeling to where your bone is, giving enough time for that wonderful practitioner to sink into the tissue all the way to the bone, so that you feel the cardinal line of the lower leg.

And see if the practitioner would use a little more pressure would it be easier to feel? And what if the pressure would be so light that you couldn’t even feel your bone? And instead think of them pressing in enough, gently but clearly, to the bone.

2c. And leave that. And now imagine the practitioner has a heavy steel ball, one that has some weight to it, and they put it on the back of your ankle, or your heel, just a little bit above at the Achilles tendon, and they slowly roll the ball up the back of your leg to the knee and then back down to the heel.

And in your imagination, is the ball more like a tennis ball? Maybe a basketball would be too big, a beach ball would be too big, but maybe the size of your palm, that the ball would fit easily into your hand. And what if you think of the ball being heavier?



2d. And now the practitioner goes back to the back of your heel and starts pressing again with their two or three fingers into the bony parts of the lower leg, sinking in to where the bone is and slowly moving towards the knee. And at the same time the ball is behind the practitioner’s fingers and rolling, following the fingers upward to the knee and back again to the heel.

2e. And now, again the fingers starting at the heel, with the ball close behind, the practitioner presses into the lower leg, the bony part of the lower leg, all the way up to the back of the knee, and then the thigh, slowly, one press after another press, to the right sitting bone, and back down again.

And leave that for a moment. Put your head in a position that might be more comfortable. Notice your breathing. Feel if one leg is longer than the other.

3. And now bring your hands under your forehead again. And now in your mind’s eye, bring the ball to rest on your heel, on the back of your heel, or the Achilles tendon just above the back of your heel. And now, is the ball going to roll off? And which way is it going to roll? So now adjust your leg so that there is no way that the ball is going to roll off.

The legs still spread apart, but just adjust where the heel is oriented, so that… and the feet can be on the floor, so that the ball is not going to roll off the Achilles tendon just above the heel.

Now begin to roll the ball towards the knee. Now what kind of angle can you create if you lift your foot just a little bit so the ball will gradually… it’s a heavy ball so it’s going to gradually roll towards the back of your knee. And then as you bring your foot down the ball can roll back to the Achilles tendon.

So now you are in charge of the ball, the practitioner has disappeared on you, and you are rolling that ball by lifting the foot just a little bit and then bringing it back down.

3a. Now put the ball on the Achilles tendon and begin to roll the ball on the lower leg, and do something with your lower legs… so do something with your leg so that the ball rolls off. Decide which neighbor you want to roll the ball to.

The foot can stay on the floor. That’s it.

3b. And now roll the ball to the other neighbor.

3c. Now come back to the neutral and see if you can better find that place where the ball can start at the Achilles tendon, just above the back of



the heel, and it’s going to stay right on your leg, it’s not going to roll to either neighbor.

And begin to roll it towards your knee, which means you lift your foot to create a little angle. And now how can you roll it all the way up to your right buttock?

That’s right. Some of you are getting the feeling of lifting your leg.

And now roll it back down to the Achilles tendon.

And do that a few times. Make the movement very minimal. And start to see how your contact with the floor changes.

Do you pull in your belly? Or do you expand your belly into the floor? Does the weight of your torso go more into the left shoulder or more into the right shoulder as you do this?

And leave this. Lie on your back and rest.

And feel the length of the five cardinal lines of your skeleton. Do you feel something is different? Are one or two of the lines longer?

4. And please roll over - notice which direction you roll by the way - onto your

belly. And now bring your left arm to be long above your head. So position yourself so it can be long, the elbow softly straight, the left side of your face on the floor, your right hand near your face, or under the left side of your face, whichever is most comfortable for you.

And now the ball magically appears and comes to rest on the back of your hand, your left hand. And begin to roll it down to your left wrist and back onto the back of your hand or the back of your fingers.

And what do you do to create just a slight angle so the ball will roll to your wrist and then onto the back of your hand?

4a. And now continue to roll the ball very gradually – so it’s heavy enough that it will go gradually – and roll it from the back of your hand to your wrist, and all the way down to your elbow, sinking into the bone that it touches on your arm.

So you feel the bone, the bone, the bone, all the way down from the back of your hand, where it’s very easy to feel the bones, through the wrist, down the back of the arm to the elbow, and then back to the hand, back of the hand.



4b. And now feel, can the ball really stay where you expect it to stay? What would you do to have the ball to go to your neighbor on your left? Try that. Start at the back of your hand and sometimes surprise your neighbor and roll the ball. Even with the slightest movement.

4c. And now surprise your neighbor on the right and roll the ball a little bit to the right.

4d. And now see if it can be easier to find just how your arm and hand need to be positioned so the ball does not roll off. And begin to roll the ball all the way to your left shoulder.

Take your time. The ball goes slowly but smoothly right onto… the pressure right onto the bone, the bones of the back of your hand, the wrist, the lower arm, over the elbow. How do you get it to go onto the humerus, the bone of your upper arm? How far up do you have to lift your arm to bring the ball onto the edge of your shoulder blade and then back to your hand?

Now some of you have such a magical ball that you don’t even have to move your arm So, we’ll get a full report about that at the end of the lesson. But maybe you could try it as we mere mortals do, where we actually lift the hand, lift the wrist, lift the elbow, lift the arm, in order to get the ball come onto the shoulder. Some of you might be asleep.

And go several times from the back of the hands slowly to the shoulder and back again. And see what angles do you need to create? And as you create those angles that will make it easier and easier to go to the elbow and go to the shoulder, how does the contact of the front of your chest, the front of your pelvis, change? Does it change?

And as you lift your arm, do you pull in your belly or do you expand the belly into the floor?

And now please leave this. Roll to lie on your back and rest.

Do you have a preference as to which arm you would like to take home with you? Does one arm feel bigger? Does one corner of your chest feel more clear to you? Is it more differentiated?

5. And now roll onto your belly, but the opposite way that you usually roll. Bring

your left arm to be above you head. The left side of your face on the floor, the right hand near your face, or under the left side of your face, whichever is more comfortable. The nails of your toes on the floor.

And now put the ball on the right… not the back of your heel, but the Achilles tendon, above that. And have your right leg in such a way so that the ball will



not fall off. And begin to roll it slowly, having it sink into the bone as it rolls up the lower leg and you lift your foot so that it easily goes to the back of the knee, and then you lift your leg so it goes to the buttock, an over the buttock in the trajectory, in the direction of the left shoulder.

And feel how far up the spine does it go? Where does it cross over to get to the left shoulder?

5a. And now to roll it back down to the right Achilles tendon, do you need to lift your head? How do you, what do you do with your shoulder in order – it’s the left shoulder – in order that you can bring it down, you can roll it down, you can get it to roll on your back towards the right buttock, over the buttock? What do you need to do with your pelvis? And down your leg to your right Achilles tendon.

5b. Now each time you roll the ball on that path, see if you can do it a little more easily. One way would be to see if you breathing could be absolutely even through the whole path. See if there is any place that you tend to hold your breath.

And when you get to the left shoulder, then how can you move your shoulder to roll that ball, which is sinking into the bones, going down across the back to the right buttock. And now does the pelvis have to lift up a little bit to get the ball to go down the right leg?

5c. Now, bring the ball to be on your right buttock and do something with your pelvis so that it rolls to your left shoulder.

5d. And now do something with your left shoulder, so it rolls to your right buttock.

5e. Now reduce the effort.

5f. And now follow the feeling of the contact of your chest with the floor as you do this movement.

And now lie on your back and rest.

And if you were lying on sand, which parts of you would be sinking deeper into the sand?

6. And please roll unto your belly. Put your left arm long above your head, the left side of your face on the floor, the right hand near your face or under the side of your face. And again bring your right leg to be so that the ball will not roll off it.



And bring the ball to be on the right Achilles tendon. And now feel free to paint the ball in your mind in a prettier color than metal, dark steel, and maybe make the ball a little heavier, or a little lighter, a little bigger or a little smaller. So it’s different for you, but that it still will sink into the bones.

As now it’s going to roll… You’re going to… You are going to roll it up to your knee, and then from your knee to your buttock. And feel what you do with your whole self?

And from your buttock across the back to your left shoulder, and from your left shoulder to your elbow. What do you do with your shoulder? Than from the elbow… What are you going to do with the elbow? … to the wrist, to the back of the hand.

6a. And now slowly, lift the fingers, and the hands, so that you can roll it to the wrist, and then roll it to your elbow. How much of your arm do you have to lift to do that?

And from your elbow to your shoulder. How high do you need to lift your arm to bring it over the shoulder down to the right buttock?

And then down to the back of the right leg, sinking into the femur, the back of the knee, the back of the lower leg to the Achilles tendon.

And follow that path a few times. And each time you follow that path, that you roll the ball, think about letting it be heavy enough that you are really are aware and feel the pressure of that ball on your bones.

And feel as you lift the foot, and the lower leg, then the whole leg, the pelvis, the right hip, how does your contact with the floor change?

6b. And one final time come back down to the right Achilles tendon and let the ball roll to your neighbor.

6c. And lie on your back please. Actually, come to sitting, and come up to standing for a moment. And feel what foot do you stand more clearly on? Which leg is your head organized over?

And lift one arm towards the ceiling. And now lift the right arm towards the ceiling, most of you did actually, but feel if there’s a line from your left foot to your right hand. Feel how the right side of your chest expands.

And now bring your arm down and lift your left one. Feel if there is any difference. You feel any difference? Which one do you want to take home?



The right. It’s alright if it’s the left, I understand, especially if that’s your dominant hand.

7. Please lie on your belly. And now bring your right arm to be above your head.

Put the right side of your face on the floor, your left hand near your face or under the right side of your face. And now see what you can do with the organization of your left leg so that you can put the ball on the Achilles tendon, just above the heel.

And now think of everything you have learned already about rolling that ball.

So you are extremely educated to do this now. So put that beautiful ball on the Achilles tendon and begin to just roll it to your knee, in other words do something with yourself, make it minimal.

Some of you are really good at making it minimal, I just want to mention that.

And roll it towards the back of your knee and back again to the Achilles tendon. And do that a few times, and each time you do it, make the ball heavy enough that you really feel the bone that the ball is rolling on.

7a. And now do something with yourself, that you can start at the Achilles

tendon with that ball, roll it on that bone of the lower leg that it’s rolling on, the back of the knee, do something with your leg so it can roll up the femur onto the left buttock and then again back down to the Achilles tendon.

Roll the ball slowly, but not so slow that you have to hold your breath in order to do the movement.

7b. And now keep rolling the ball all the way to the left buttock, and do something with your left hip that will bring the ball onto your back, rolling it on the bones onto your back and across to your right shoulder. And then slowly down to your left Achilles tendon.

See as you do these movements if there is some place where it would really help to hold your breath. And then try it breathing easily, what I like to think of as a sleeping breath, where it’s very even, very easy, it doesn’t change no matter what you are doing.

And now bring your leg down. Feel how much of you sinks into the floor at this moment.



8. And bring the ball to be on the back of your sacrum. And begin to roll the ball towards your lower back, towards the lumbar spine. Just go up two vertebrae, and then back to the sacrum.

8a. Now what do you need to do with yourself, with your pelvis, to roll the ball, let’s say four vertebrae?

You can leave your legs down and just use your pelvis to roll the ball up four vertebrae.

8b. And now make it six vertebrae. And go two by two all the way up to C7.

Do you feel like your body, you are starting to be, I guess not a worm,

but you feel a wave going through your spine as you do this?

Keep the toes, keep the nails of your toes on the floor. And slowly roll that ball, so that the ball sinks into each vertebra.

You can think about how you move your back in order to do this. And when you get to C7 how you move your shoulder blades, your upper back, to get the ball to go down to your sacrum. But you can also think, where do you expand your belly, where do you need to pull in your belly, where do you press your chest into the floor?

8c. And roll the ball all the way up to C7 and then do something with your upper backs so you can roll it back down to the sacrum.

And please leave that and let yourself sink into the mat. Turn your head if you need to.

9. Again, bring your right arm to be above your head, the right side of your face

on the floor.

And now bring the ball to be on C7 and begin to roll the ball to your right shoulder and back to C7.

9a. And now roll it down your spine and back up to C7. Letting it sink into the bone and smoothly rolling and onto the right shoulder and back to C7.

And feel, where is it that you need to flatten your chest more into the mat in order to do this?



9b. And again from the sacrum up the spine to C7 and to the right shoulder. And now over the shoulder to the right elbow, sinking into the right lower arm to the wrist, to the back of the right hand.

9c. And now again lift your fingers, lift your wrist, you feel it on the bone, sinking into the bone, outlining the bone, going to your right shoulder.

What do you have to do with your right arm?

To the spine, going down your spine to the left buttock.

Now how do you have to lift or move the pelvis to get the ball to roll down to the femure? Sinking into the femur, down to the back of the knee to the lower leg, to the Achilles tendon.

And now as you roll onto the back for a rest again, notice which diagonal do you feel the most? From which Achilles tendon to which shoulder?

Do you lie flatter on the mat?

What is your breathing like? Do you feel participation in the breathing all through the chest, the ribs? Can you feel the movement of the diaphragm?

10. And now roll to lie on your belly. And now lift your left leg and your right arm

from the floor, so you create kind of a shape of a bow. Left leg and right arm.

And now begin to roll the ball from your left Achilles tendon all the way to your right hand and back again.

And each time… You can roll the ball faster now. Don’t you love that? And each time see if it can be more clear the shape of this bow, so the ball can easily roll.

Those of you who are pulling in the belly, try expanding your belly into the floor, and see if that makes it easier.

Between the left Achilles tendon or the left heel and the back of the right hand.

And leave that and rest on your belly for a moment.

11. And now bring both arms above you head. Put your chin on the floor, or as

close to the chin as you are comfortable.



And think of the ball, bring the ball to be on the back of your occiput. And begin rolling it to C7 and then up your neck to the occiput, and do that several times.

And feel what do you need to do, you keep your chin on the floor by the way, what do you need to do with your back, your upper back, and how do you pivot on your chin in order to bring it between C7 and the occiput?

11a. And now gradually roll the ball further down your back and then up to C7 and then up to the occiput, keeping your chin on the floor. Until you go down the vertebrae all the way to the lumbar spine, and back again.

And in doing this, can you gain greater and greater differentiation? Feel when you can expand your belly into the floor, and when you need to pull your belly in.

Feel if it would help you to look with your eyes at a certain point upward towards the wall in front of you, and at another point towards the floor.

11b. And now, lift your right leg and your left arm, and once or twice you roll the ball from your right heel all the way to the back of your left hand.

And see if it’s clearer where you, where you cross over, what vertebra you cross over in order to get to your hand and then again to your foot? And is it the same one in each direction?

11c. And now leave that and lift your right arm and your left leg. And go from the left heel to the right, to the back of the right hand. And remember, you don’t want the ball roll off your leg.

And bring your leg and arm down. Put your side of the face on the floor, whatever is comfortable.

12. And now put the chin on the floor again and bring the ball to the sacrum and

roll it up your back to the occiput and then back down again. Up the spine, down the spine.

12a. And now bring both arms above your head and continue doing that.

Do you feel like a worm? Would it help to feel like a worm?

12b. Now put your hands underneath your forehead, rest your forehead on the back of your hand. And now continue and see if it’s easier in this position.



And see if it can be more and more a smooth wave movement. Feel if there is a moment where you press the elbows into the floor more. Is there a moment where you press the knees more into the floor?

And now rest on your belly for a moment.

And again, as you did in the beginning, draw the diagonal line from your right shoulder to your left hip, and from your left shoulder to your right hip. Draw them and leave them there and see where they cross now. Is it in a different place than in the beginning of the lesson? Is it clearer to you where the line goes?

13. And now lie to roll on your back.

And now in this position draw the line from the right hip to the right shoulder, and from the left hip to the left shoulder, and compare them. Is there a difference? Between them and from the beginning of the lesson.

And now from the right hip to the left shoulder, and the left hip to the right shoulder. Feel the length of those lines and where they cross.

And now from the left big toe to the right shoulder, and the right big toe to the left shoulder. And where do those two lines cross?

And leave that and listen to your breathing. Feel how your back, your cardinal lines sink into the floor. Are you more aware of the bones of your cardinal lines?

And I just want you to know that you can take your balls home with you so that you could do this at any time that you would like.

13a. Roll through your side and come up to sitting, and then to standing.

And maybe you will be talking to someone one day and they just don’t stop talking and they are really boring and you can just draw the cardinal lines , you know these diagonal lines, and same side lines and really look interested as they are talking to you.

Please walk around.

[END OF LESSON]




TML 13: Line of Effort on Back in Lifting, (Lying on Belly), part 1 (2009)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel)

(Note: The 2009 version includes only the beginning of the lesson –there are more imagination instructions. See the 2007 version for the full lesson.)

NOTES 1. Lie on your belly. Stomach, belly, front, not the back. Excellent. Put one hand on top

of the other. And put your forehead on your hands, just like that, in the middle.

I’ll need probably a few people up, perhaps. You know. They took all the what? Oh, okay, that’s alright. People are going be fine.

And now, have your toes extended straight backward so that your heels are pointing to the ceiling.

So you don’t have the toes out or in, but at the best you can, but not standing on the toes. The toes are flat, so you’re on the top of the foot. But you know, straight back. Simple, simple, just simple, simple like that. The idea is, ... the heels are towards the ceiling, but do not lean on your toes. You’re not leaning on your toes. The toes are straight back.

There you go, that’s right. And now, and now, imagine that someone is… Can you put your forehead on your hand, and one hand on top of the other, and your forehand, one hand on top of the other and…

[TO ASSISTANTS] Assistants, if you don’t mind, just doing a quick scan in the room?

And what you’re going be doing is: imagine someone touching your right heel. Just the top, the part that’s pointing towards the ceiling. And then with the finger keeps going up and touching along the lower leg towards your knee. Now, when you imagine someone touching like that, pressing, pressing, not just touching, but gently pressing, you know, one going up like that along the leg, the pressure, they’re looking for that place where they feel the bone, a bone under their fingers. So it’s not like where they feel the meat, the muscle, the skin only. But that when they press they can feel pressure coming back because they’re just above the bone.

And so, somebody is going like pressing one spot after the other all the way to the right knee and then they press back down towards your right heel.

1a. And now, replace the image of someone ‘s finger or couple of fingers doing the same with a metal ball, steel ball, pretty heavy but not too big. You know like a tennis ball, or if you want to, if it’s too big for you in your imagination, you can think of a golf ball size.



A steel ball that someone puts, on top, on the top of your heel and with their hand they slowly roll it up towards your knee, but they roll it along the trajectory, the ball rolls along the trajectory just above the bone.

Otherwise it’s going to… That’s the trajectory the ball will find if you roll it up really slow. It will go, it will find, it will go along above where there is the bone, the pressure back.

And of course you roll the ball. Imagine someone rolling the ball like that very slowly towards the knee and then rolling it back down. And notice which points going up to the knee or back down to the heel are not very clear to you or that you skip over.

And remember the while discussion about body image. So see if you can locate those points or become aware of that. And then go as you go up see if you can get yourself to feel.

Go back and forth a bit, so you fill in the gap. So you clarify. So you don’t skip on anything.

1b. And now bring the ball up to the right knee and continue rolling it up along the thigh.

And again look, you can maybe exchange back and forth a few times. Maybe somebody doing it with their fingers. Again finding where that bone is.

And actually with the thigh, the first part of the thigh for many people may be easier, because it’s one bone, it’s a bigger bone. It’s easier to recognize. But then as you get closer to your buttock many will feel that it becomes blurred. So just go as far as you can where it’s clear. That you can still visualize your thighbone and you go all the way up to the buttocks.

1c. And now extend your left arm above your head. It doesn’t have to be completely straight, but kind of little bit bent in the elbow, but not completely bent in the elbow.

The left arm is above your head, but more or less straight. Almost straight and if you find somebody’s foot just move yourself a bit to one way or another so that you can do it. There you go.

And now have someone, ... Imagine someone is putting the same metal ball on the back of your hand, the left hand. And find where to put it on the hand so that it doesn’t roll. If you put it too close to the little finger it will roll that way, if you put it too close to the thumb it will roll that way. So put it where it feels that the ball would balance. And then very slowly imagine that someone is rolling the ball down along your forearm, so you feel the pressure, so you feel the point of the pressure.

And again feel along the bones, actually there are two bones, between those two. And you feel the pressure on the bones because the ball goes in the groove up towards your elbow, actually it’s down, and then back up towards



your hand.

Very slow and also here, notice if there are blank areas, slowly, make sure to fill that in.

1d. Again you can replace the ball by someone touching up along from the back of your hand to your elbow and back to the hand.

1e. And now place your left ear on the floor. So you turn the head that way.

And continue doing that.

You can put your ear on the floor or on your hand, your right hand. Either way, doesn’t matter.

So all the blank parts, the blurry parts, see if you can move the ball, or have somebody touch, go back and forth like that, until those points get clear to you. Bring them to alive, recognise their existence.

And now continue like that.

That somebody is rolling the ball from the elbow to your left shoulder, all the way to the shoulder. And then back from the shoulder to along the upper arm. So the ball goes along that bone, roll.

Somebody is rolling it down and then from the elbow to the hand along the forearm.

And again take your time and fill in the image the best you can.

And unless it’s intentional that you’re not doing it, put your left ear on the floor or on your hand. Just put the left ear on the floor.

1e. And now stay as you are and go back to your right leg in your attention. And put, place the metal ball on your ankle, on your right ankle or heel, or whatever.

And then very slowly, lift the leg just a little bit, bend the knee just a little bit to roll the ball very gradually along above the bones of the lower leg, to your knee. And then keep lifting the leg a bit more so that you can have the ball roll all the way along your thigh to your buttock. And you bring it all the way past the buttock to your lower back, slowly.

If you do it fast, let me tell you somebody is going to get hurt with the metal ball.

There is no need to bend the knee ninety degrees. All you have to do is very small, very slow.

Where are the toys? In my toys, they are under my table, I have a little orange ball that has some weight I want to show you.



Some of you, ... it’s interesting, because once we start imagining having a ball and moving it and controlling its movement, it start being a much more complex relationship between the self and the environment and the feeling. First of all, it requires for you to be able to move yourself in certain ways, but also to have a sense, yes.

[TO ASSISTANT] So… and I need something. You know one of those light foam things that I do to fish…? A floor, one of those would work very well. Yeah, thank you very much, yes, yeah, I know, it’s ok, we’ll just continue the lesson another time.

So why don’t you sit up for a moment. And I mean, it’s sort of like you know it, but then knowing and doing is two different things. So, if I balance this ball here. So I balance the ball. And then I’m asking you, that’s your calf and this is where your knee is. And I’m asking you to move the ball over there. Some of you do it like this. So there’s no control. Now, some of you, let me add another dimension to it. Some of you do it like this. You see, you’re not sort of moving in the middle, you go fast, you don’t know what you’re doing.

So, and I have never tried to do this before, so I have to figure it out myself. But if I wanted to have some control of the ball going there, you see. And once it moves you see how fast it goes. So, so and look how little, what kind of, you see, and now it’s parallel. The surface is a little uneven so it causes a little more friction. But look. You see? And then I brought it actually back up to slow it down. So that’s how you’re moving the ball. If you do this with your knee, you have very little control, if this was a light little rubber ball. If this was a metal ball, it would shoot in a very sharp, depends on the exact direction, in a very sharp angle.

So we’re going to do just a little bit more of the lesson, then we have to stop.

1f. Lie down and put the ball, the imaginary ball on your ankle and move your leg.

Start bending your legs the way you saw now. That you’re really feeling the ankle and when that ball gets enough for rolling, enough angle in your leg.

The left arm is above long, above the head. There you go.

And then, and then once it gets to the knee, it gets a rest, the back of the knee, gets like a resting place. It’s at the bottom there. Then you need to lift the whole leg from the hip to create an angle in the thigh.

I just saw somebody lifting the leg, vavoom, the whole leg.... Now it’s not easy to lift the whole leg slowly. Have the right arm, yeah, the hand bent a little. There you go. Very slow and then you see, ... There you go and then slowly bring the leg down so that the ball rolls back down to your knee and then keep going down, flattening the ankle so that the ball can roll down to the ankle. There you go.

1g. So you bend, roll the ball to your knee, and then you keep going along the thigh. And then you lift the leg so that the ball can go past your buttock to your lower back.

But there’s no need to bend ninety degrees. Why bend the leg ninety degrees? You bend the knee a little bit and then you never need to bend it more. You just have to bend the whole leg. If you have the knee, if you have the foot all the way up to the ceiling, that’s at least ninety degrees in the knee. There you go. Once you got the ball to the knee there is no need to bend the knee more and if you really bend it you’re going to lock the ball behind your knee.



1h. And now, put the ball on the back of your left hand, and have the right hand bent next to your face. Have the left arm more or less straight.

Not completely straight, but some of you have the elbow really bent a lot. And of course if you can’t, you do what you can. And now put the ball on the back of your hand.

And then very slowly begin. First of all, lifting the hand itself and then the forearm, very gradually, to roll the ball to the elbow.

And then you keep....

Do this just a couple or three times and then backwards from the elbow.

You need to lift the elbow a little bit and roll the ball back to the back of the hand. And add to that feeling the pressure.

[TO STUDENT] But, Robin, your arm is to the side. You see, the upper part of your arm is to the side. Bring it so it, bring it in continuation from the right foot to the left hand.

1i. And now next time you do it, lift the hand. I mean, roll the ball gradually along and feel the pressure. Actually, create in your minds, through your internal imagination, kinaesthetic imagination, create the feeling of pressure along your forearm and then continue when the ball is on your elbow, continue lifting the arm so it rolls to your shoulder and shoulder blade.

And then reverse it.

Leave that alone. Roll to lie on your back.

And just feel from this, you know, few movements, the feeling from your right foot to your left shoulder, and the left foot to the right shoulder. Feel the kind of changes you may be experiencing. Scan your spine, feel what your spine is feeling like right now.

2. And slowly roll to your side and stand up.

We’re going continue this lesson at another time.

But just feel what twenty minutes, fifteen, twenty minutes, of dense attention, like you’ve been doing, how it affects your, the way you’re feeling and also compare the sense of how you stand on your right foot and how you stand on your left foot.

If there are for are any clear changes or reorganization already, just from, not just, 15 to 20 minutes is actually a long time, depends on what you do with it.

2a. And walk around. That’s excellent.

And feel by the way, feel how much are you over your skeleton. And is that more than it was five days ago? More than your habitual. And if it is, notice if you like it, and become aware of it, so that you can recreate it. And it becomes more and more the way that you actually stand and move, carry yourself.



[END OF LESSON]




TML 13: Line of Effort on Back in Lifting (2005)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel from Seg. 4 Day 7, Aug. 26, 2005)

NOTES 1. Roll to lie on your belly. Put one hand on top of the other. Put your forehead on the

hands. If you need to turn the head a little, that’s okay. Locate your right heel in your inner feeling.

And imagine somebody is pressing gently on the heel where they would feel the bone underneath it.

It will get clearer shortly.

Imagine that person pressing the finger up on the back part of the heel, then continuing up on the lower leg. Find the place that that person would feel the hardness of the bone, so you recreate the sensation of the bone in your mind’s eye. Slowly go up, as if someone is pressing on the back of the leg, up toward the knee, with their finger. Then continue up on the thigh.

The thigh can be less clear for some people.

How would that person press to feel the hardness of the bone under the finger? Do it all the way up to the right buttock.

1a. And now in your mind’s eye, place the medium sized metal ball (the size of ball that would fill your palm) on your leg. You have to place the leg in such a way that the ball won’t fall off. Start with the ball on the Achilles tendon. And very slowly, very gradually you start bending the knee, so that the ball will start rolling up to the knee.

Do it in such a way that the ball is traveling up the hard part, that means the bone. The ball would select to go over the hard surface, and not get absorbed in the soft area. Very slowly bend the knee.

Are you interrupting the breathing? If you are let the breathing be free.

Feel how the ball presses on the bone of the lower leg. And when it reaches the knee, let the ball roll back toward the ankle, very slowly.

Feel the quality of the movement of the leg, the muscles. Is it smooth? Can you regulate the movement?



Initially, for many people, the movement goes in jumps, not smooth. It’s with increased differentiation of movement that we get more refinement, more accurate; that you can really hit what you want.

1b. Now continue, once the ball gets to the knee, continue rolling it up toward the buttock.

Bending the knee a lot more will not get the ball to roll more up. So how do you get the ball to roll further up? Lift the leg a tiny bit to create an angle to get the ball to roll.

Most adults have lost the ability to control the movement in this way. Do not lean on your toes to roll the ball, unless you have to. Then roll the ball back down to the knee, and to the ankle.

1c. Now imagine that the same wonderful person who first touched your leg is back, and they again press on your leg, and the ball follows. The person creates the path for the ball to roll on; it’s kind of like they are chasing each other, but they are not rushed. Do it back and forth.

Slowly roll to lie on your back and rest.

And feel the way you are lying, of course, and the contact of the right and left leg on the floor. And compare the sense of length in the two legs. Do you feel the right leg longer?

Remember the conversation about body image? The sense of body image is active, dynamic. How come the right leg feels longer? For most people, an injured or affected side will feel shorter. And when the person is healed, or feels the possibility of movement in that leg again, the leg will feel longer. You can’t force a limb or spine to feel longer. Our image of ourselves can change back and forth. And the limit has to do with how far we have developed ourselves. The healthy image is that which corresponds, matches, more closely to the (objective) reality.

2. Lie on your belly again. Put your left arm to lie above your head on the floor, fairly straight. And your right arm is bent and up by your face, so you can rest your head on the back of your right hand. Place the ball on the back of your left hand, and create in your mind’s eye the sensation of pressure.

And roll the ball toward your wrist, then continue towards your elbow. And again roll it so that it is going over the hard part, the bone. And when it gets to the elbow, continue rolling the ball all the way to your shoulder, to the edge of the shoulder blade on your back. Once the ball is past your wrist, you don’t need to keep the wrist stiff. Once the ball has gone toward the elbow, the wrist can get free.

We are looking for a greater level of sophistication in our movement, and this happens the more we eliminate unnecessary efforts. The ideal movement is when we use just the amount of force that is necessary to generate the movement, and no more. Roll the ball back and forth.



2a. Place the ball again on the right Achilles tendon, just above the right heel.

And again begin rolling the ball along the hard part beneath the surface of the leg, that means the bone, and roll it towards the knee, and back.

2b. Then the next time continuing rolling up toward the right buttock, and then up over the buttock and up toward the left shoulder. At a certain point, you lift your buttock to roll the ball to the left shoulder, but be careful that the ball does not fall off. Roll the ball all the way from the right ankle up the leg, over the buttock, across the spine to the left shoulder and back down to the right heel.

The ball is always rolling in a way that it is moving over the bones.

You can color or decorate your ball any way you want to. It doesn’t have to be metal gray. What is the path that the ball rolls on? Does it go in straight lines, or does it curve? The head can stay down or lift up if that helps.

Roll over on to your back, and feel the internal sense of your image now.

Do parts of you feel bigger now? Sometimes one even feels an inner sense of beauty. Feel the contact of yourself with the floor, the shifts in the contact with the floor. Feel the length of your spine.

3. Roll on to your belly. Get back into the same position. The legs are spread comfortably. Left arm long above the head. The head resting on the right hand.

Again roll the ball from the right heel to the left shoulder and then continue rolling it all the way down the left arm to the left hand.

At first you may need to lift the head, and then see if, with greater differentiation you can keep the head on the floor. Roll the ball back and forth, from the left hand to the right heel and back to the hand. Very nice.

3a. Now slowly get up for a moment, stand up on your feet. And just feel yourself. The way you are standing on your right foot. Feel the left arm. Feel the face, one side and the other. The carriage of the weight.

3b. Lift one arm, then the other.

Do you feel a difference? Does one arm feel longer? If you imagine lifting one arm up to the ceiling, which arm would you lift?



3c. Turn your head to look one way, then the other.

Which way is it easier to turn the head?

3d. Now walk, and feel the contact of your feet with the ground.

4. Please, go back to your places, and lie on your belly. Spread your legs. Extend your right arm above your head. Put your right ear on the floor.

Place the ball on your left heel.

You need to place your leg in such a way that the ball stays on the leg, and doesn’t fall off.

Slowly, find the bone in your mind’s eye. You can always bring in the person with the finger touching you if that helps you. Take your time, think that you are on vacation, on a Greek island. And slowly and gradually start rolling the ball up the knee and back a couple or few times.

4a. Then roll it a little further up the buttock, and back. Repeat a few times.

4b. Then up to the right shoulder, and back. See if your breathing gets interrupted, or if it stays even. Slowly roll the ball back and forth.

4c. Gradually you can roll the ball all the way to the right hand.

How many of you have essentially skipped the back? It’s like the black hole of consciousness. Make sure to include the back. How do you need to move the back, the abdomen to include the back, to get the ball to roll in the direction that you want it to go?

4d. Put the ball on your spine, on your low back.

Move it a little up another couple of vertebrae, and back to the low back. Each time move it up a little further, a few more vertebrae at a time, and back down.

Do you feel your backs start coming more to life?

4e. Move the ball up to where the bra-line would be; then up between the shoulder blades, and eventually up to the 7th cervical vertebrae.

4f. The next time, take it from C7 to the right shoulder; you flatten part of your chest, so the ball can go there.

4g. Then roll it to your right hand, and back down.

Leave it alone, slowly bring your arms down, and roll to lie on your back and rest.



5. Roll back on your belly, please. Same position. From the left leg to the right arm. The right arm is long above your head. Now lift the left leg and the right arm a little. And roll the ball back and forth from the left heel to the right hand and back, keeping the bow shape in your body.

5a. Slowly come up onto your feet, and feel yourself. Wider and wider shoulders. Feel how the weight on your feet has shifted.

The changes for each person are different. For some people the sternum is lower. For some people the sternum is higher. As you reorganize yourself, the sternum will go more to where it should be. Whether that is higher, or lower, it depends on where you started.

Does one leg feel longer?

6. Lie on your belly. Both arms now extended above the head on the floor. Place the ball on your neck, at the base of your head.

And roll the ball to your 7th cervical and back up. Keep the chin on the floor. The spine sinks between the shoulder blades, but you angle it, once one way then the other. Be sure that the ball rolls in the middle. Go slowly so you can know exactly where the ball is every moment.

6a. Gradually roll the ball all the way to the low back, and back up to the neck. All the time you know where the ball is. Feel how differently you are doing it now than say fifteen minutes ago; the greater differentiation.

6b. Bring the ball to the lower back. And lift the right leg and the left arm, and roll the ball back and forth, gradually, keep the bow going. You lift the arm a little more, and then the leg a little more. Push the belly out, it could help.

6c. Change over the leg and arm [TN: lift the left arm and right leg], and gradually roll the ball up and down.

6d. Again put the ball on the lower back. And roll it from the lower back to the base of the neck, and back down. Feel if you get more of a wave movement now in your spine.

Roll on your back, rest. Feel how you are lying. Feel the image of yourself.

With a client/student you can put your finger on them in this way, like you just imagined, and have them follow the path with an imaginary ball.

Stand up, feel yourself, and feel the “me” that is “you” now. Walk around; discover the sense of yourself now. And make room for yourself to feel the shifts.



[END OF LESSON]




TML 14 Part 1: Sitting on Chair, Bending, Arching and Twisting the Spine (2008)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; Segment 8 day 5, October 15, 2008)

Notes:

1. [TN: Students are seated in chairs] Okay. Sit at the edge of the chair.

Wait. I saw Amy and, of course, I immediately think that she has long legs.

[TN: For people with long legs] So, we need the mats folded [TN: and placed on the chair seat] so that the hips can be a touch higher than the knees.

[TO STUDENT] That’s not a lot, but a little bit higher, that’s not a problem. But, if they are lower it really gets in the way.

[TO CLASS] And that leads me to what I would like you to do between today and tomorrow which I say now, so I don’t forget. Tomorrow, I am going to start talking with you about sitting and the function of sitting and how to think about it and so on. So, I want you, today, in the afternoon, evening, by tomorrow, to maybe write it down, like short little notes for yourself, of anything you can think about sitting, anything related to sitting. So let’s say that you were going to teach a class to a group and you were going to teach them about sitting, or sitting well, or getting out of the chair, or all kinds of stuff around sitting. Dream up stuff that you think, or think through stuff that you can come up with, that you could talk about, and think about the whole subject of sitting. Okay? Great. And then we’ll start discussing it tomorrow.

So sit at the edge of the chair. Feel the way the weight comes through your ischium and the way you are holding yourself, your shoulders, the right shoulder, left shoulder.

Are your knees above your feet or not? And are they more like, over, more like between the big toe, second toe, or more over the little toe? Where is the pressure on your feet? Where do you feel the pressure when you sit on your feet? Listen to your breathing. Feel what participates without you trying to change it. What participates in the movement of breathing right now for you? Do you feel that your neck is long, as long as it can be and still be upright? Not looking down? Or, is it a little shortened? Of course, the way you hold your head is how you’re used to holding your head. So it probably feels just right, which is great. Otherwise, you would be continuously suffering. However, pay attention right now.

Another way of thinking it is, for now, the distance between your chin and your chest, or your chin and the notch between the clavicles, because the chest might



move around. And also, that notch can move around, anyway. The best we can do. Think of the distance.

1a. And now place your right hand behind your head. And use your hand to…

Uh, roll—which hand did I say, the right—roll your head to the left. So use your hand—you put a little bit of pressure on the back of the head—and you roll your head to the left. Actually, how about we start to the right, because the right will be easier. So…

…roll the head to the right. Roll the back of the head to the left and the face to the right.

See, once you start thinking in more details, your head is both rolling right and left: the back is going to the left and the front is going to the right. Do you know what I am talking about? You’re so quiet I don’t know.

And notice when you do this movement, notice where, do you feel the movement? So, you probably feel it in your neck. Do you feel it elsewhere?

Good. Some people want to yell out places you feel the movement, areas? [TN: Inaudible student comment] Sorry, sit bones you said? So you feel shift of the weight, of the pressure, of the weight, yes. [TN: Inaudible student comment.] Which part of the spine? [TN: Inaudible student comment.] You feel twisting in the middle of the spine?

And put the hand down, and just rest for a second.

And just feel a few movements, like that, infused with attention, done slowly. Hopefully, without excessive force. Feel the kind of changes, reorganization, that happen right away.

2. And now, put the hand behind your head again. Roll the head. The same hand.

Same hand. The right hand, behind your head.

Roll the face to look to the right, the back of the head to the left.

And when you have rolled it like that, and the elbow starts moving back, you know, it opens and it tends to move a little back behind you, take it to the back like that, and then start lifting it up towards the ceiling.

So, you let the elbow open, open, open. You don’t have, you don’t have…

[DEMO with student] Okay. Look at me. It will just shorten the process a little bit. You put your right hand behind your head. Some of you are holding the hand like that. Start with the elbow sideways, to the extent you can. Some people cannot completely open the elbow. And then, in this position, you begin rolling the head. And then, as you can see, the elbow tends to go back and up any way. And then continue moving the elbow behind you and up. The head will be, of course, turned to the right. The face will be turned to the right.



Now start with a small movement and do it back and forth many times. And feel, what you need to do? What has to work to allow you to do that? And allow you to do that safely?

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO

2a. But all of you imitate this. [TN: sitting with a rounded back with the weight more behind the sitting bones] Do one, or a couple, or three movements.

Because you will get people doing this more often than you can imagine. You can take this next, what we started yesterday, and the next few days we’re going to work on the chair and make it your whole career, and you’ll be fine.

[TO STUDENT] But you’re not doing it. I mean you have. He [TN: the demo student] was sitting and he had his back somewhat rounded, and he was sitting way behind himself. So if you are going to really do what he did, do what he really did. Don’t change it. Do it. Imitate him. Imitate him. Stay the way he did it, and feel what that is like. Gently, gently so you don’t hurt yourself.

But this is serious business. I mean, most people sitting by their computers, most musicians sitting in their chair playing their string instrument, most people do at least some of that, and that is the source of a lot of the trouble people have, because it doesn’t work well that way.

Now, you can always round your back and sit back. I mean, that’s part of what we should be able to do. There are times when we need to do that. But, if we are to put our hand behind and roll and look up, let me tell you, having your back rounded and the weight of the shoulder and the back behind the hips, not recommended. But I want you to feel it, because many of you do some of that. Maybe you don’t do it extreme, but you do some of that.

So now, sit at the edge of the chair, as you bring your head behind yourself…

2 ENDNOTE #2: MINI-LECTURE, SHICHLUL AND UPGRADING YOURSELF

2b. So sit again, and let’s do the same movement again. Put your right hand behind you and roll the head, again to the right.

First of all, a couple of movements, and just with these movements, feel, spread your feet, spread your knees, and see if you can put your feet under you, or whatever is closest to feeling.

You can only start where you are. You cannot start anywhere from what you can't do. But you can, do it with the shoulders a little, your back, a little more forward, a little more backward, I mean, whatever. Feet one way, feet another way.

And now, roll the face, like this, to the right, take the elbow back, and then continue taking the elbow up and back, and feel what do you need to do. What allows you to do that movement? Put the hand clearly behind your head, not on your neck, behind the head. There you go. And actually feel that you are rolling your head.



Remember the rolling the head between the hands lesson that you did last segment? Do you remember? Yes, yes; yes, no? So feel that you are actually rolling your head.

[TO STUDENT] You are pushing your head with your right hand. You are rolling, pushing the back of it, yes.

2c. And now, act as if, for those of you who are not doing it, follow your right elbow with your eyes. So what happens is, you roll your head, you see the elbow with your eyes, and then you keep doing it following the elbow with your eyes.

But keep, keep your feet standing. Keep your feet standing.

I would suggest you take the glasses off.

Keep your feet standing.

And leave that alone. Put the arm down, and rest for a second, just a second. Put your arm down and rest please.

And you know I had a TV on for a few minutes this morning and they showed the piece about this man. They were talking about the economy and health care, and elections, and all that stuff. So they talk about this poor guy, very nice man, two teenage girls. Their life was perfectly fine, and it was regarding health care. And, first his left hand, a year ago or something, he started losing control. He started shaking, and they couldn’t figure out what it was. And then, his balance started giving in and so on. And his posture started changing. And then they realized he has Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is, of course, a huge devastation. But, the part I am looking at, at this moment, is how much we know of what’s going on with us through the way we move? I mean the window to the brain is movement.

3. So put your left hand behind your head. And now roll the head first to the left and look at the left elbow each time you roll the head.

And see whether, is there room for you to use more of your lower back, your spine, maybe, if you moved a little bit more forward? Maybe if you didn’t move? Maybe if you moved a little back? I don’t know, but are you using your power center to its best capacity for this movement? Is it doing for you the proportional work it could?

Let me tell you, when would you know that it is? When it gets real easy.

You’re good, you’re good.

And look at the elbow. Look at the elbow. That will dictate, also, what you do with your head.

3a. And now, continue doing this movement, and take the left elbow further back. And look at it and take it up to the ceiling.



But, as you take it up to the ceiling, which side of your back is working harder now, when you take it up to the ceiling? Is it your right side or your left side? You feel?

See the right side starts working really, over time, and if you don’t bring your weight forward you are squishing your poor back and you are not using your power as well as you could—especially the right side. See the right hip tends to travel forward. It’s a very complex movement. And if your neck gets to work really hard, that means that you’re not using your back in the way you need to.

[TO STUDENT] But think of arching. Think of arching. See, it’s arching this-a-way, looking this-a-way, to the elbow over here. There you go. You see this, ack? But that way you will get a real back and your hips will be happier. You don’t like the ack, but your eyes just came to life the moment you did it. You push the belly out when you do that. There you go. You see, what does that do? You see?

Put your hand down.

And I’ll say some more about this.

3 ENDNOTE #3: COMMENT, IDEAL ORGANIZATION OF MOVEMENT

4. Sit at the edge of the chair, and then we’ll do a few more movements. Put the left hand behind, and this time do the movement, and give yourself permission to do it terribly.

That means, in other words, give yourself permission to move a lot forward, a lot. Do one movement, pull in the belly. Do another movement, roll your belly out. Do another movement, move a lot forward. Lean a little forward. Another movement stay straight up. Do another movement in between. Another movement that’s sideways more.

I mean, just explore, and give yourself permission. And you see that you don’t do certain things because there are areas that haven’t moved for so long that you can’t even do explorations around with those areas. So you have to build around it and gradually coochy-coo it into the repertory of what’s available to you.

4b. And, of course, then bend, take the elbow up, and bend like that and look at the elbow.


5. And now sit at the edge of the chair, interlace your fingers, put them behind your head. And now, bend yourself with your upper body to the right, and turn your head, your face, to look at your left elbow. So your elbows are open.

It is kind of like what you did a minute ago, just the two hands are behind the head. So you turn, you bend your body to the right, you turn your head to look at the left elbow.



And then, once you’ve done it, twist your body to bring the right elbow in between your legs or in the direction of between your legs, and then you come back. That’s right.

5a. And some of you are doing the movement and you’re using your abdomen muscles. All of you try to do the movement by pulling the belly in. Because you can twist your body with the belly in, but see what that does.

So you roll the pelvis back and do this movement. You roll the lower back, back and do this…

[TO STUDENT] But don’t, don’t, don’t. No, no, no. You’re doing the movement, just from the hips. Roll the back, the lower back, backwards. Twist like that and come down, and then twist and look at the elbow. But rounded. Do it slowly, gently and feel what that does.

5b. And now do the movement, arch your back, arch your back, bend sideways, come forward like that, and then twist and bring the elbow in between the legs. And feel what that is like.

There you go. Excellent. Some of you are starting.

4 ENDNOTE #4: DEMO

Do a few movements. Slow. Not so big. But still, you see, this is like coming to life, you guys. Just don’t overdo it. Yep. Slow. You can’t force yourself to do this. Let me promise you, you have to work real gently. And you can do a movement that is just tiny, but start feeling those elements. That’s it.

[TO STUDENT] Don’t go any further. And, now, turn around, turn, but see, you are starting to contract the abdomen muscles.

Push the belly out, and twist. See if you can do that—even if it is tiny. That’s it. All right. Excellent.

[TO STUDENT] Ah, you started to pull the belly in. Most of you, when you twist to the left, you do it by pulling the belly in. You’re pulling your, the belly in. Now it’s okay to pull the belly in. It’s a totally legitimate way to do this movement. I’d just like you to start experiencing the other way.

[TO OTHER STUDENT] You’re leaning way back, sweetheart. You have to bring your shoulders way more forward. Not the hips, the shoulders. See. Free your abdomen. Arch your back. Arch your back and bring this forward. There you go. Yes. That’s right. And, don’t go any further than that. Push the belly out like that. That’s right, and then coming back, push the belly out to come back. There you go.

And stop it and rest for a second. How is it coming along? Are we feeling some of that already. I heard two yeses—that’s a lot from the whole group. That means there’s some hope.



6. Interlace your fingers in the non-habitual way. And now, bring the hands behind you and bring them so you don’t have to pull on the short muscles. That means you have to do something in your back, not after the fact, as you bring your arms up.

That’s it. Good.

And now, start bending yourself tall like that [TN: to the left].

But, bend yourself to the left now? Yes. Thank you.

And then, come back.

And then, after once or twice, feel what it means to stay tall with a long spine and bending sideways. It doesn’t mean you shrink.

6a. And turn your head to look at your right elbow. And then twist yourself like that, with the left elbow a little in between the legs, towards bringing the elbow over the legs, to the legs.

6b. Okay. And leave that alone and simply sit at the edge of the chair. Just sit.

We are going to continue this lesson tomorrow. But sit at the edge of your chair.

Put your right hand on top of your head, and think: that’s it. And when you bring up your hand, counterbalance in your chest and lower back and so on.

And now, tilt one ear to one shoulder, and the other ear to the other shoulder, and feel if it’s any different. And do you stay tall? And does your spine get longer now when you bend your head?

[TO STUDENT] On top of the head, sweetheart.

6c. And change over and do it with your other arm, with the left arm.

Make sure you don’t turn your nose. Make sure you don’t turn your nose right and left, but you bend your ear to the shoulder. The nose stays to the front.

6d. Okay. Leave that alone and stand up and just feel yourself in standing.

Wow! More and more of you are standing like sumo wrestlers. But, you feel what people talk about, being centered? Right? That’s one way of being able to speak about that.

[END OF LESSON]



TML 14 Part 2: Sitting on Chair, Bending and Twisting Spine; Hand on Floor, Elbow Circles (2008)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; Segment 8 day 6, October 16, 2008) [DVD begins] Mat preparation, right height of legs, etc.

5 ENDNOTE #1: THE POSSIBILITIES OF WORKING WITH CHAIR LESSONS

Notes 1. Sit at the edge of your chairs, spread your feet.

[TO STUDENT] You are so good, you are taking your glasses off. You are so good.

[TN: Students are adjusting the height of the chairs with folded blankets as necessary so that the hip is level with or a little bit higher than the knees].

6 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO AND MINI-LECTURE, "READINESS FOR ACTION" AS A STANDARD TO DECIDE IF SOMETHING, E.G. HEIGHT OF CHAIR, IS "RIGHT" OR "WRONG"

OK. Put your right hand… [TN: behind your head]. I just want to review [TN: from TML 14 Part 1].

Feel how you are putting the hand behind you. Feel when you bring this weight of the arm behind you, what in you balances, so you don’t fall backwards? Are you doing it by pulling your belly in and tightening your chest? Are you doing it by rolling the pelvis forward? By moving the solar plexus a little forward? By lifting the sternum a little up?

I don’t know how you are doing it.

[TO STUDENT] Behind your head, not above you head.

1a. And remember, you rolled with the right hand your face to the right a few times. Just a few movements.

And feel how you are doing it now.

Of course, after you have done the FS this morning, probably, there’ll be some changes.

1b. And look at the elbow. And as you do that, start taking the elbow further behind you, sort of twisting it backwards and lifting it up to the ceiling, as you look at it.

Take your time, and feel, again, how are you organizing yourself? And what works?



I mean, the big muscles attached to the pelvis are built to work hard. They’re built to produce a lot of power. The muscles attaching the head to the shoulders and the back are not built to work as hard. But all the muscles attached to the pelvis are structured to work powerfully.

1c. Now do this same thing with the arm down.

1d. Put the left hand behind your head. And roll your head to the left.

And feel how alive you are, in the sense of when you roll the head, your rib cage, your lower back, your hip joints, the soles of your feet…

Not that you are wiggling yourself. No, no. That’s not it. But…

How full is your body image, your dynamic body image when you do this movement? Which parts are linked to the movement of the head and the arm, and which parts are sitting there, kind of like they don’t know they belong?

1e. And take the elbow further back, and lift it toward the ceiling, and look at it, all at the same time.

And leave that alone and rest for a moment.

And feel if that has become easier, simpler, clearer than yesterday.

2. Interlace your fingers, place them behind your head, elbows sideways, and put the arms down again.

And see if you can do it generously. That means, let your whole self, sort of, be part of that action.

2a. And do it again, and see if you can do it even more generously, like you were a two-year-old doing it.

And feel a little embarrassed, like, “Oh my God, I’m just pushing my chest or belly forward. What am I doing? I’m an adult, not a three-year-old.”

2b. And one more time, just real generous. Real silly. And stay there.

And bend to the right, and at the same time, turn your head to look at your left elbow. And once you do that, twist yourself and bring your right elbow in between your legs, or towards in between your legs. And come back, and do this movement a few times. And stop.

2c. And now interlace your fingers in the non-habitual way, and put your hands behind your head.

And bend, with your left elbow, exactly to the left, and your right elbow comes up, exactly on the side, towards the ceiling. Don’t turn your head yet. I’d like



you to feel you are really up, and the head stays exactly to the front as you bend exactly sideways. And once you are bent sideways, twist your whole body, bring it forward, so that your left elbow comes toward in between the legs. You can look over to the right elbow when you do that.

2d. And now do it once one way, and once the other way. But be really in the middle.

Do the bending, where once the left elbow goes as close to the floor, and the right elbow up. Just then, when you go as low as you can like that, that’s when you turn your eyes to look at the elbow. And you twist your body and you bring your body in between the legs. And then you come back to the middle and you bend the other way, very clearly. And then, after you’ve bent to the side, as much as you can, that’s when you twist and bend forward.


3. Come to the edge of the chair. Interlace your fingers behind your head. And now, you’re going to bend to the right, sideways, exactly sideways. Twist yourself, bring the right elbow in between the legs, and stay there. So now you are oriented with your face to the left.

In this position, staying twisted to the left, you come up and move your left elbow toward the back of the chair. So you keep facing the west wall and then bend back and come, put the right elbow between the knees. That means your back works the whole time.

Don’t change that shape. You’re twisted the whole time and you bend the right elbow down, and then you go the other way.

And you think of touching the back of the chair with your left elbow.

3a. And now, once you touch, or almost touch, doesn’t matter, the back of the chair, start moving the elbow along the back of the chair, as if you are cleaning the dust off the top of the chair back.

Take your time, don’t kill yourself, and find out how to organize your back so you can really take, you know, your elbow back and forth. If your elbow can’t touch, imagine some sort of extension.

Feel what it’s like moving your elbow, especially to the right side of the chair. What do you have to do?

That’s nice. Some backs are coming to life.



And reduce the effort. Breathe freely. Reduce the effort in the chest, even though the back works really hard, you can do it easier.

And very slowly, untwist yourselves. And rest.

4. Come to the front of your chairs. Interlace your hands, non-habitual. Put the hands behind the head. Bend yourself to the left, then of course twist yourself and bring the left elbow between the knees and the right elbow up. And stay there.

This time you are looking East [TN: to the right], and just bend yourself so your right elbow comes toward the back of the chair. Slow, slow, slow. Towards the back of the chair.

Don’t decrease the amount of the twist. Just go as far as you can, but don’t bring your face back to the front. Just make it smaller until you feel, what do you need to do with your lower back, in between your shoulder blades, hip joints.

It’s the relationship between the parts that’s very novel to most of you. So you don’t know how to do it initially. So do a small movement. But stay awake. And stay thinking. And know what it is that you are actually doing.

4a. And then take your right elbow toward the back of the chair as much as you can at this time, twisted like that, and, very gently, start cleaning—feeling how it’s your lower back keeping you up the whole time—the back of the chair, really or virtually.

Either do something [TN: in your imagination] that extends down from your elbow to help clean. Or if you touch the back of the chair, do that.

Slowly come back, leave that alone. Rest.

And when you do, listen to your face. Listen to your mouth, around your eyes. Feel if the muscles of your face are getting softer, less tense. Feel if there’s a change in the feeling in the face. Whether your jaw is freer.

5. And now, as you are sitting, make sure you are at the edge of your chair, your feet are spread, the whole deal.

And now, bend down and place your left hand on the floor, between the legs.

Probably most of you can do it quite easily after what we’ve done. [TN: you can raise the floor with a prop if necessary]

Now put your right hand behind your head. Leaning on the floor with the left hand, come back and forth twisting so the right elbow is toward the ceiling and looking at the elbow. And come back, and feel what that requires.



5a. And how about all of you come to the starting position, with the hand down, and now, really pull your belly in. And hold your belly in. I want you to feel what that does if you try to do the movement.

In this position, you are toast, you cannot do it.

So part of what we do is that we move from position to position, not just position, but required action, and gradually, if you’re going to do the movement, you have no option, but to push your belly out in this arched and twisted position.

5b. With belly out, bring your right elbow toward ceiling and look at it while you do this. And feel the kind of freedom you get when you do this, the whole length of the spine. Put your hand somewhere where you feel you are leaning on it, so it will help you actually. If you need pads to raise floor to the hand, do this. It will help the back muscles, and to let the belly out and the whole thing to work on your behalf.

5c. Now stay with the elbow as far towards the ceiling as you can.

And start making circles with the elbow. You move your whole back and head to draw circles. But don’t put the elbow down closer to the face and up. The elbow and the head stay in the same relationship and the elbow makes circles, in whatever direction your elbow is right now.

Supports to lift the hand from off the floor are an option.

5d. And now change the direction of the circle.

Leave that alone and sit and rest.

Feel the total revolution that’s happening in you. It’s like you’ll have to go and get yourself a new ID. Change the idea of who you are and what you are.

[TN: Responding to a comment] In this case it’s not identity theft, it’s identity creation.

6. Put your right hand down on the floor. Put your left hand behind your head. Lean on your right hand and twist yourself so the left elbow starts moving toward the ceiling and back. Start with a small movement.

Find where to put your hand where you can really lean on it. And if it’s hard to reach the floor, bring the floor up a bit. If you start with the hand a little higher up, it’s easier to do the movement, and actually, the changes will happen faster, not slower.

6a. And now, stay with the elbow towards the ceiling and start drawing circles in one direction, however far you’ve come. And then start drawing circles.



And, of course, the idea is to do a real circle. And the areas where it is hardest to do a smooth and clear circle will be the areas where you are having difficulty in your back. You’ll skip certain parts.

6b. And now do a circle in the opposite direction.

And again, you can do a tiny, eensy weensy circle, but do a circle. And wherever you feel it’s not a circle, go a little back and a little forth, until whatever in you, whatever ribs, whatever vertebrae, whatever aspect of the hip joints needs to start moving differently, or moving altogether, will do so.

Sit and rest, please.

7. Back again, put your left arm down on the floor, or whatever you are putting it on. Put your right hand behind your head, and turn your elbow toward the ceiling.

First of all, see if it’s a little easier. In this position, move the elbow a little bit further back and a little bit forward.

Not circles. Forward and back. Rotating the elbow more towards the ceiling, as if to go behind yourself, and then back toward the floor.

7a. And now stay where you can with the elbow back.

And move the elbow a little toward the back of the chair and then the other direction. Feel what you need to do.

You have trapped yourself. The left arm is on the floor. The legs are fixed. And now, I’m asking you to move the elbow toward the back of the chair and towards the floor. What is left to move? Don’t roll the head. Move the elbow from whatever position. What’s left to move?

7 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO, WHAT'S LEFT OT MOVE?

Okay, all of you, put whatever hand was down there. Left hand down. It’s not just the size of the movement. Feel the quality, the smoothness. Do the movement more. Look how it completely revolutionizes your whole idea of sitting. Look at that. This is a Buddha-like posture. Look at all the Buddha sculptures. First of all, there’s no Buddha with the belly in. So Buddha did not do Pilates, and he did a different kind of yoga. What you get is the clarity of bearing weight through the spine and the hips. Everything gets quiet. All the nervous, compulsive tweaks, get really quiet. We have a really calm nervous system that knows its home.

7b. Down on your hand. Don’t try to do a big movement. First take the elbow forward and back. Then go as far up as you can and then take it towards the chair and then towards the floor. It doesn’t have to be big. Let the quality of the action guide you, and the accuracy.

What starts happening? Is the pelvis rocking, as the ribs participate?

Small, small. Easy.



But the pelvis starts to participate. In this very twisted position you are learning once again: if the pelvis doesn’t participate, it’s never going to work well. We’re upping the demand. Without the pelvis, you’re toast. If we want to live lives of a bigger scope, we need to learn this way of upping our organization.

7c. Put your other, your right arm down. Bring the left hand behind your head, and bring the elbow towards the ceiling.

Do forward, back, a few times.

7d. And then stay twisted. Then move the elbow toward the back of the chair and towards the front. Slowly.

You have to go so slowly, or you won’t know what you are doing, and you wouldn’t have a say in it. You’ll just stay within the boundaries of your existing restrictions. You want to get past your existing restrictions, you cannot go fast.

7e. And now try connecting the dots. Do a small little circle.

And stop it, and rest.

And feel what it means to sit. The whole meaning of that is changing.

8. Come again to the edge of your chair. Put your left hand down. Put your left hand on the floor where you can really lean on it.

Now this time, twist your back and bring your right arm straight, toward the ceiling. Do a few movements of going back and forth like that, arm to the ceiling and back toward the floor, until, to the extent that you can, you have a straight line, from one hand to the other.

Don’t force it. Forcing, if you haven’t figured it out yet, isn’t going to work.

8a. Stay there. Make a fist out of your hand. Don’t make circles with the hand, but just rotate the fist, so the fist rotates clockwise and counter-clockwise.

One way the arm gets longer, one less long. Thumb inward, longer, thumb outward shorter.

In boxing, when you rotate the thumb in, the arms get to be more like one continuous line. When you punch, to make the arm longer, you rotate the thumb in.

Now rest. Now it’s really up to you to gauge yourself, not to over-exert. I’m running you through the possibilities. You have to find your place in it.



9. Put your right arm down. Put your left arm up. And back down a few times.

And more and more have a relation between the moving of the arm and the whole spine. And feel how, here, too, the lower back has to arch, or you can’t really lift the arm.

9a. Make a fist out of this arm. And again, rotate the fist, inward and outward.

Rest.

10. Put your left hand on the floor. Turn your right arm to the ceiling, and put your right hand on top of your head. Bend your elbow so the elbow is towards the ceiling, on top of your head, not behind.

And now use your hand to bend your right ear toward your right shoulder and your left ear toward your left shoulder. Slowly, slowly, slowly. The nose is looking to the left. Like the side is your new front.

Feel, can you get those ribs and the lower back and spine engaged to help lift the head? Feel. Do a small movement. Tiny.

All of you are doing way too much.

Tiny little movement. And in that tiny little movement you have the opportunity to discover what you can do. Discover you have to lengthen the spine, arch the lower back.

10a. Switch the hands and the [TN: direction of the] head, and simply do it to the other side. Above the head, the left hand above the head.

Tiny, eensy, weensy little movements. Only as long as you feel it’s easy and the spine moves.

Stop and rest.

11. Put your right hand behind your head.

Feel what it means now, to put the right hand behind the head. You don’t even have to think of engaging the rest of you.

Good. Try it again, so you get familiar with it.

So if you are playing a cello, or violin, or piano, when the arms move, the middle of you would just go along for the ride, as if there’s lots of strings attached to your arm. And in every direction you move, every vertebra is involved. For musicians I create this image: from every vertebra you have strings radiating out, so whatever way you move, your whole spine, ribs, hip joints, pelvis, they’re all involved, they’re all one very rich image. That pulls itself together all the time.



11a. So now, put your right hand behind your head. Roll your head so that it faces to the right, and lift the elbow up and behind you, and look what that’s like now.

Twist back behind you. Twist and take the elbow back. And look up.

11b. Now do it the other way. Left elbow up and back. Slow, slow. Up to the ceiling and see if it’s a different story.

All of you are doing a million times better.

[DEMO] I’m going to ask you to stop, and you [TN: two students] to keep doing it. See, even guys can move well. [TN: Coaching student one, near the top of movement] At this point, push your belly out. You see, he grows taller. Any movement that is done well, we grow taller. Look at how [TN: student two] is twisted to look at [TN: student one]. You see, it’s immediately adopted. Doesn’t that feel good? Look how tall he is [TN: to student one]. He looks like a dancer, for the first time in his life. He’s been dying to look like a dancer and now he does.

11c. All of you, get up on your feet.

11d. And walk around.

So, that’s the power of transformation. When you build a process and you have a teacher, and that’s going to be you, you have a teacher that has the eyes to see through you, into the future. So, I see into your future. If I get bogged down in how you show up, then we would all be threading the lukewarm existence. So a big part, and that’s a big part of what I consider to be my method, the capacity not to be codependent and run around trying to fix people. But the capacity to see through people, that lots more is possible. I don’t know what is possible, I might not know even remotely what is possible, but I know lots more is possible. So much more is possible.

First, one little thing, and then another little thing and in the process you teach people to have better working brains. To have brains that expect to do the next movement forward. So when I work with people, the first lesson, two three, they come in and I work with, they get elevated, they sink down. I get them back. But by the third or fourth or certainly fifth lesson or tenth, you see it with the kids, they see the table and they get driven towards the lesson. They start changing before you even put your hands on them.

Because a big part of the process is not just what we do today, but the underlying engine I work with, the hum, that says, “We are moving forward,” like Moshe says: We are moving from the impossible to the possible. So we are intentional.

[TO STUDENT] You see how you are standing? It’s just remarkable.

In my work, then, I get a brain that anticipates that process. That’s the learning switch. I get everyone coming in saying, “I don’t know what will happen. But something will.” Then you have to do less, and the outcomes are better, because everything you do, that brain says, “What can I do with do with this?"

11e. Walk around.

And by the way, when the brain is in that mode, it is really responsive, so you have to be really careful with how powerful your words will be. Know what you are saying and who you are saying it for. That’s enough.



[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO

Hmmm? Interesting. Can I demonstrate on you for a moment? Yes? All right, so, how about you turn yourself with the chair, with the face there, so the camera and people can see it easier. Thank you so much. All right. And go ahead and just do the movement the way you were doing it. All right.

First of all, do you feel that you changed a bit, what you are doing? So can you do it the way you did it before? Okay. You don’t have to analyze it, but, if you can recreate the feeling you had, that will recreate, the sensation, the feeling. And that will recreate the way you did it. See here, what you did is, you turned. What I was going to show is a number of things, but go ahead. You see, he’s already using more the back and the lower back.

But what you were doing is, you were actually moving the head, holding it with your hand. Many of you, what you are doing is, you begin by rolling the head.

First of all, if you can, put up the hand. You see even putting the hand clearly behind the head is not easy for you. You see, because, just to reach this place, maybe we need to do that. You see, so if you sit here, and try to do it, what happens? So the head goes in here, and then to roll it is practically impossible. So to actually really use, so if you .... In a minute, I’ll have you all try it. But if you sit like that and you try to turn your head, you have no choice, but to not do it. So then, you do other things. So you do it a little bit, and then what you did is, you moved the head and then, you attempted to go up.

So now, just because I am here, I can—look how much further forward. And then, look what will happen. What will he need to change to make it safer and easier for him to bring much more of the weight forward to do this movement?

[TN: Inaudible student comment.] Yes. What about his feet? See right now the feet were actually out. Did you move them already a little forward? No, so when you sit, the feet are there to both to come up to stand on, but to also help stabilize you, a bit, and make sure you don’t fall on your face. Right? Because if you had no legs and you sit just on the ischiums, any little movement could topple you over. There are dolls that work like that, right? They topple over and then they come back up. Now, I don’t want to go and say “put the foot here.” It’s not like it has to be a central correction, reorganization. But, how about trying to bring your weight more over yourself. There you see. Now, for you, it probably feels like you are way forward, right? It’s like, this woman must be absolutely crazy. But put your feet somewhere, now, that feels good to you when you’re sitting that close.

Oh. See, so he is actually doing what he wants to do to begin. So just keep doing it the way you are doing it until you will reorganize. You see how correction does not help?

2 ENDNOTE #2: MINI-LECTURE, SHICHLUL AND UPGRADING YOURSELF

Okay. I’m going to stop for a second. I want to remind you. I think we spoke about it. Tell me if we didn’t, then I’ll elaborate more another time. But it’s one of those things that is a little hard, usually, to get excited about. Because the translation from the science, from the physics, to our personal experience, is not obvious.

I just had the most wonderful interaction back and forth with Dr. Daniel Graupe. He said he will write for me the foreword to my book. And Danny has done some remarkable work in his life. I don’t remember all his formal titles, but he is a professor in a big university in Chicago. He’s a bioengineer and he’s a neurologist. He was the chief editor of the neurology something, medicine something magazine. I met him through



Elizabeth Natenshon’s family, he’s a family friend. And Elizabeth, you know, was devastated when she was a baby. She didn’t move and what not. And so that’s how he knows of me and my work. So we have known each other for a long time.

And he’s pure, he’s brilliant, but he’s like some of those scientists, you know. He’s not exactly naïve, but kind of naïve. He’s been around for a long time, and he’s too, but there is that thing. I don’t know quite how to describe, but he’s so committed to knowledge and accuracy and truth. And, and he has been pushing me. I’ll help you publish, professionally, in one of those neurological magazines. Just write something. And so finally I told him I’m writing a book. He was so happy. He’s personally taking credit for the fact that I am writing, that I’ve written a book. But, he was profoundly disappointed when he found out that I wrote a popular book. I said to him, “Danny, I don’t want five people to read the book. One of them is you, anyway, and you already know what I do. So I want more people to have the knowledge to bring it into use in daily life.”

And he said to me, he was supposed to have a hip joint replacement because there is barely any cartilage left. And eight years ago at a dinner party I showed him just a few of these things, sitting in a chair. And, he says, “Anat, I have no pain. Yesterday, I jumped three stairs. I was fine.” He has seven grandchildren and was so thrilled. But I thought, why are you doing jumping? And he said, “It’s that thing you showed me at the dinner party.” So here is a brain that you show him one thing and look what he does with it.

So, anyway, in my book in the last chapter, I think I told you, now, the ninth essential is awareness and the concept of Shichlul. Right? It is the improvements and increased complexity. That is the summation chapter. That’s not an essential, because I kind of knew that all along, but, with a question from my editor, that this is not an essential. This is the consequence of using the essentials. That’s where you get by using the essentials. So I had to rewrite the chapter because we had awareness and Shichlul sort of together. And I separated those, and wrote two separate chapters. So the last one is pretty short, but I tried to explain to people the idea and give them the feeling of the speed at which adding another possibility, another element, another variation, another possibility into the group of elements, what kind of increase in number of possibilities it gives.

So I talk about it; I do the duck. You know, I did it with you, the duck from the pieces? With three or four pieces, it is very hard to create the shape of a duck. If you have ten thousand tiny little ones, you can fill a duck, but you can also do a bird, and you can also do a tree; there is actually a million things, an infinite number of shapes, you can make with it, because the pieces are small enough to be able to maneuver into any number of shapes. I have a little diagram for that from this artist who has done the drawings. And then, I give this mathematical thing, and I’m doing a factorial, right? And when you start showing it mathematically, it can get very, very complex. Because you can say, if you have only A, then you have only one possibility, right? One option, one action, one configuration. You have to kind of get a little loose about that. But if you have A, and you have B, then what’s the number of possibilities you have? Well, it depends. If AB have to stick together, then how many possibilities do you have? Two. If they have to stay together, you have AB and BA, right? But if they can be separate and together, you can have A, you can have B, you can have AB, and you can have BA, right? But if the order doesn’t matter, then how many possibilities do you have? No. You have three. You have three because you have A, you have B, and you have A and B, right. We don’t care what the order is. I’m just writing it that way. All right? So there are three different ways to calculate that. And these are not the only ways, because you can say, can something can repeat itself more than once? I mean you can go into truly enormous complexity, and it’s called -- I just forgot the name. No, no. Not factorials. Eh. I’ll remember in a second. It’s a whole field in math. No. Somebody said it. Binary whatever. Yes.

So I wrote the one, and then the one multiplied by two, and one multiplied by two by three. One multiplied by two by three by four. It grows really fast. Right? That’s factorial, and I put that as an example, and, of course, I kind of spoke about it very generally. But, I just wanted to give people the feeling how quickly it grows. Sure enough, I get an email from Danny saying that, “there is something wrong with your logic, or your math.” Oh, you know, every time I think I can slide by, somebody in my life shows up. So when I was working on that I called Eilat, my friend who is a mathematician. She was in Japan, so I talked to her son



who is a mathematician. So he explained and so I selected to do that. So I called Shauli, and I said, “Shauli I need your help again,” and he caught it immediately. So I said that I am not trying to teach math here, but I have this Danny Graupe who is not going to be able to stomach it if it’s not accurate. And I don’t want it that way either. So, if you’re talking about the number of combinations that the full group can have, but you have the full group all the time -- so if you have four, how many combinations do you have within those fours. But you don’t have 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 and that could do combinations. That’s what that is. So, that’s it. Yes, I used the word, “exponential growth,” in my text. And I said, “exponential” meaning “very fast,” right, for the reader. And I changed that to say, if you use all the elements that you have, the number of possibilities you have uses all of them. Then, I gave them the numbers. It comes to three million six hundred and something thousands very quickly. And I said now, if you also can use just part of it, and change the order, then you get even a whole lot more possibilities. So I just tried to give the feeling.

OK, so I thought I did really well and I emailed it to Danny. I got back an email just before I came, and that’s one of the reasons I was a little late, and I apologize for that, because the book is going into the galleys. I want to have the change in the galleys before it goes into print. So anyway, he says, “well, exponential is a very specific word in math, and what you’re describing is bigger than exponential.” Now he says, “I am aware that exponential is also used colloquially as ‘very fast,’ but you might have a few readers that actually know what exponential means.” I had a very easy editorial thing. I took out the word “exponential;” and I just put “extremely fast.” I mean. I’m not teaching math. I mean, he comes from the academic part and so. Actually I found it very interesting. In that email, he’s the sweetest guy.

He told me, I can’t repeat it exactly, but he says that this math, this understanding, was developed by the Jews in the Talmud. They were already working with the numbers this way, and that’s the basis for this math and they already knew that, as if I would have ever known, right? And that Professor Rabin and another guy made it, have given the proof, and now it’s, whatever, in the mathematical theory.

Well I grew up with Rabin. Rabin was a close family friend. You know it is so exciting and so sweet. I remember having dinner with him. I have a wonderful story about Rabin and his wife. His wife was, you know, raised kids, and around age 40, she decided to study law and became a high-level prosecutor in Israel, for the justice system. And she was very bright, but she, she was not a mathematician, and she didn’t care to be mathematically accurate. And we’re having dinner. I was a small child. I’ll never forget that exchange. My mother offered something, whatever it was, that I don’t remember, and she said, “would you like some?” And she (Rabin’s wife) said, “I’ll just take half.” And then Rabin said, “I’ll take the other half.” So my mother cut it, and his wife says, “I’ll take the small half.” And he looks at her and says “How many times do I have to tell you that there isn’t a small and big half. Half means it’s the same size.” She says, “I don’t care. I want the small half.” Ha, ha. So this is what I had to deal with this morning. But it’s very challenging. I mean I love it. I love it.

So the question is, how do you take math and physics and bring it to life and then get people passionate about it? Not, I mean, you can also be passionate about it from the theory and all that point of view, but for yourself that you become the manifestation of physics. Right? And it doesn’t become this abstract, woo-woo, leave me alone, thing.

So, this is very good, because when I gave the manuscript to Danny, he immediately got it all, because he looked at it. And I said, “Danny, this is a popular book. There shouldn’t be mistakes. Everything I have said should be scientifically accurate. I quote research.’ He says, “When are you writing your next book?” I told him, “Just put this one in the book. You have to put this thing in the book.” I said “no, that’s going to go in the book about the children.” He says, “When are you writing this one, another twenty years?” I said, “I’ll do it faster.”

Anyway, so, we have all those bones, right? We have all those bones, and the ribs, and a lot of joints. A lot of joints: joint, joint, joint, joint, joint, [TN: Anat draws a stick figure on the board] And all the joints can change shape. Well you can also move a box; you can drag a box on the floor if you put wheels on it. So, but what does it do in relation to what we just spoke? Huge number of possibilities. Having joints allow us to reshape ourselves in infinite number of configurations, basically, right? You may take just whatever; anything you do, and it allows us to reshape ourselves in infinite number of ways.



Now, what we call posture. I’ve given you already a posture lecture, right? What we do in posture is that organization, when we are not going somewhere, that’s where we are. That’s our habitual place. That’s our neutral, our exit point. But, by those numbers that I just gave you, the skeleton creates really remarkable amount of possibilities. I mean, that the joints in the skeleton create. So, there are not that many bones in the body. How many? There are about 630 something. What? Oh. So that’s the muscles. Yes. The bones, oh, you see, but the thing that is very important to understand is that at any moment it has to be a unified, one shape. Let’s call it, for a moment, one shape. So, every fraction of a second, everything somehow has, there needs to be some sort of a summation. So, from the experiential point of view, it’s a continuous curve of shapes, right? So it just keeps moving. It’s not discrete in, it’s not staccato, staccato, staccato. It’s a continuous thing. The brain has to manage that.

The brain has to manage all that. The muscles allow for the movement, and for the correction, and for, for shifting from position to position. This is all done in the gravitational field. So what happens is, when you do that in the gravitational field, there is an objective reality in the sense of, that at any given second, or fraction of a second, however you have organized yourself in space in relation to gravity, there is the ideal organization. And it’s a true ideal. The criteria for ideal -- I’ll remind you in a second -- are decided upon. But from the point of view of physics, there is the ideal. The ideal how to do that, how to organize oneself in relation to the gravitational field.

What’s the ideal? What are the elements? Do you remember? Minimum effort, a very big one. What does that create? It creates reversibility. Reversibility is a result of minimum effort. It is kind of like the same thing. If you want to have full reversibility, you have to be at minimum effort. It’s kind of like the same thing, except you speak about it in two separate ways. So, we are talking about minimum effort in relation to gravity, at all times. And, you can do the movement in more than one way. And in each one of those, you can have minimum effort.

So it is not about the right, one way to do the movement. But within the way you choose to do the movement, there is always the minimum effort organization, which also shifts from person to person. It depends how tall you are, how long your legs are, how heavy you are. All kinds of -- if you carry a backpack on your back, or not. I mean there are always more elements.

That is a very, very, very, very, very important part of the apprenticeship of the nervous system from birth on. It is really busy doing that, in that process of learning to manage oneself in the gravitational field and put the parts of ourselves together into an identifiable action that gives us an identifiable result. It includes in it development of thinking and perception, and the image of self, and feelings, and emotions. It all works as a very complex, rich, thing. Right? Whatever you want to call that. The quality with which we do that is one of the entries, or windows, to look into the quality with which we use our brain.

Now that is not correlated with how athletic you are. So I can take somebody who is paralyzed, had polio, or is partially paralyzed, or something. I can still look at the quality with which they move. So you can see people that have, for some reason, very limited movement, but the quality with which they move, where they can move, can vary enormously. And that is a hop in understanding that is not intuitive. It’s not obvious. We tend to associate good movement, or high quality movement, with extremes. Now, there is no question that you can do that, too.

So if you look at Michael Phelps, he does combine the two. I mean he combines an amazingly refined and precise, but he also works that way. I mean, to just, for me, to watch him during the Olympics, how he wouldn’t ever allow his attention to wander. He completely insulated himself with those iPhone things. And when he had contracts to give time for interviewers, he was very friendly for that time and then, he shut off. He knew exactly. He kept all his resources, kept upgrading himself, just remarkable to watch how he did it. So it’s not like it can’t go together. And getting to a very high level performance requires at least enough of that, or you never get there.



But, you don’t have to. And people who can, who are very flexible, do some things very powerfully. It doesn’t mean they use themselves, necessarily, all the time that way. And these are, very often, the athletes. Either they don’t make it as far as they could, or get injured a lot, because they replace the skill, they replace the fine tuning with force. So it works for a while and then it stops working. But you can see it in any movement. So now, if at that moment you’re not organized, like with the demo, I showed that you sit behind, or something, it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t do it. But it means that you have desensitized to yourself and desensitized to this conversation. You don’t seek information in that way. So now, we’re going to continue in a second with the lesson. But it’s very important that you understand that if you work with someone, they can be 90 years old, they can be 50 years old, they can be 20 years old.

In my world, the more we are asleep to that conversation of me and the gravitational field, the gravitation is not going to change. It’s the best teacher we can ever, ever have. I really, I use it as a model because it is the best teacher in the sense that it is not judgmental. It doesn’t love you. It doesn’t hate you. It’s not disappointed with you. And it’s always going to give you the same outcome based on what you do. Couldn’t be a better teacher than that. I have [had] perfect teaching. But, we need to use it as a teacher. Now, as children growing up, we used it as teacher, because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to move. But now, when we are already adults, most nervous systems go to sleep. And that’s one of the resources of this conversation, and is the result of many other conversations. It is like the core. It’s the heart of our being. It’s the heart of our aliveness, of our vitality, of our, I don’t know, of us.

So, as we continue with the lesson, see if you can again inhibit the desire. Some of these movements I ask you to do, that are actually a little bigger, or you don’t get too right. So, if I asked you to do this, you have to get to here to do that. But within that, do small movements, do easy movements. Do and really get interested and move yourself. I mean, nobody said you can’t experiment a little bit. Move yourself a little forward, see what it’s like. Move yourself backwards with the idea of, “let me see if I can find an approximation closer to the ideal of the movement.” And, of course, what happens, once we find a configuration that really gives us a more optimal relation to the gravitational force, is enormous freedom. It’s enormous freedom because, the moment we are on our bones, the muscles are free to do whatever. They are not occupied and the brain is free to guide those muscles to do whatever. And that correlates, of course, on the emotional level and other levels.

3 ENDNOTE #3: MINI-LECTURE, IDEAL ORGANIZATION OF MOVEMENT

A huge piece of what the brain does, when we move in space, and I know I talked to you about it, but it’s like, so what? I mean, you can talk about it a million times. You put your arm forward. How many pounds is my arm? I have no idea. How much in pounds does an arm like mine weigh? Three pounds. Okay. What? Three and a half. So you take the small half, three and a small half. Very good. So, I take these three and a half pounds and I put them forward, as a lever, right? It’s a lever, so it actually has more impact on my body than if I just did the three-and-a-half pounds here, right? Do the three-and-a-half pounds here. If I did nothing else except this, what will happen? I’d fall on the floor. I’d fall on my face, right? So obviously I need to do something to counter the pull forward.

So let’s assume for a moment that I am ideally balanced with minimum work for my muscles. As a result, my breathing is free, my diaphragm can work. Everything is terrific. By the way, the best way to improve breathing is to organize the weight over the skeleton, because then the muscles are free to move to breathe. It’s a spontaneous response. It’s not something you [TN: Anat demonstrates with a big inhale], one-two-three-four, one-two-three.

So I put my arm here. So, I’m ideally organized. I’m moving my arm forward, right? So something has to happen to counter that. So what are different things that I could do to counter it?



You all stand up for a moment and slowly lift it. Stand where you feel you are as best balanced as you know, at this moment. And then, very slowly, lift your arm forward and feel what are you doing to not fall? You’re doing something whether you know it or not. Slowly. Slowly. Feel it.

[TN: inaudible student comment.] Hm? You are leaning back. Very accurate. Is this the best solution? Depends for what. But, if you had a really cute guy behind you—one of those men Randy had lying down yesterday—maybe you want to do it this way.

What do you do? [TN: inaudible student comment] Oh thank you. You take your tushes back. How do you take your tushes back? You know what tushes is, right? That’s Yiddish for “tush.” It’s all Swedish. I translate from Yiddish to Yiddish. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

I’ll never forget, apropos Yiddish. There was this Shakespeare the [undecipherable] you know who was translating to Yiddish, and actually I saw it and it was [undecipherable] translated, shortened, and improved into Yiddish. Ha, ha, ha. Shortened and improved. Ha, ha. That’s so cute.

So tell me, I mean, I saw, what did you mean? What can you say? Too bad, you know. So what do you do? What do you do with your, yeh... You feel. What? What does that mean? Oh you do your abdomen muscles. Of course you. I get it; I get it. I didn’t understand. OK

So, sit down so you lean back. If you lean back, what will work most? I mean you both lean back and you give it some weight. But if you lean back, you use belly muscles. Very, very common.

What people do is they contract the muscles. What does that contract? Yes. Some breathing. But functionally, from a functional point of view? When I lift my arm like this, and I use my abdomen muscles to stay standing like that, what have I done in a more general sense? What I have done is I’ve replaced the skeleton with the muscles. I have overlapped two functions, two purposes. I have bones in my body and I have muscles in my body, and when I go back like that, I am all of a sudden using my muscles as if they were the skeleton.

Whereas what the job of the muscles is, is of course to displace us in space. But to, to keep moving it, always to the place where the muscles work the least, so they are free to continue moving. That’s where our power lies. See, I told you, the talk is about power.

We are going to talk about true power, not either pretend power or limiting power. That means [TN: Anat demonstrates pretend power with sound effects] it’s a false power. You know, if this kind of person came for me, and they had muscles like this and, and they wanted to squish me to the ground, they probably would succeed, you know. We did that, they’ll take my arm. But there, but how are you in the sense of action and outcome doesn’t necessarily come with the thickest muscles. Very often these people are actually targets to be beaten up or killed than lithe and flexible and brilliant and ingenious people. So, the, or animals. So what happens is, we use the muscles to replace the skeleton. That’s a faulty use, or a brain that needs to be corrected, made to work better. You see, that’s how I think of it.

So when I see a child with cerebral palsy and he goes like this [Anat demonstrates] So let’s for instance this little, I always forget his name—the kid who walked for five hours in the hotel and said—Skyler, I’ll never remember, Skyler—so think sky, sky, Skyler. And when they brought him to the first lesson with me, and I think he was already Cheryl’s client, and Cheryl referred them to me. Am I saying it correct, Cheryl? That’s how. Yes. So he walked on those metal things. He pulled himself. And the legs were tight together, and he grabbed and he would drag. He would lean on the walker, and he dragged the two feet and then, sort of, balanced. And the stomach was. Little guy. He looked like he was, you know, ninety-eight years old. He looked so old. He was pale and sad and constrained, and he would move this a little bit, then he would drag the legs and oh. My whole being said, stop!

This is not standing. This is the furthest from standing. This is not walking. But, what is it? So it is not what it’s supposed to be, right? But what is it? It is a very extreme demonstration of a nervous system that had initial difficulties from lack of oxygen, whatever, at birth. Who knows what it is. And then was made to do



things in a way that deteriorates the quality of use. And by the way, keeps it like that. And by the time he becomes a little heavier, and also, the hormones kick in, and they can start rebelling. They’ll never stand up and use walker. How many of you know as adults, kids, by the time they are teenagers won’t walk with a walker? They insist on being in a wheelchair and rightly so. I mean, I would say yes, to that. But the sad thing with that is the lost opportunity to develop a brain that organizes movement well. And that any brain can do within the range of available movement. Any brain can. It doesn’t mean that it will do all movements. But all brains can learn to organize themselves well within the movements they can do.

And that is what we do with this work. And I don’t believe you will hear it truly, at this point, anywhere else in the world, because it is not a simple shift in thinking. And partly, why you can do the shift in thinking is because you are experiencing it within yourself. There are the actual mechanisms, and you all, Moshe developed the lessons, and I use those, and I do whatever I do with them. There is the actual content with which to do that theory. People can’t even think it because they have never experienced it.

That’s why the people we work with—children and adults and that includes your child—what they do, they start doing very high quality. So when I work with the person, I look at the quality when they come in, how they present themselves to me, so to speak. And, then, what I look at is how quickly that quality shifts. Not, how quickly can they reach their toes without bending their knees, or do the splits, or somersault backward, but the quality. How quickly do I start getting a system that goes: "Oh, by golly, I could do this easier, I’m going to go for it." That is, it recognizes and it has the wherewithal to go for that, so that the function of the skeleton is properly organized, and the function of the muscles is properly organized, and the function of the emotions gets better organized, and the thinking gets better organized. All these are functions. All these are aspects of ourselves. Yes?

Okay. So now, this is not simple stuff. And, this is the kind of stuff that you get, and initially, you get it, you lose it. You get, you lose. It’s kind of like it comes and goes, because it is very unfamiliar and it is a much more complex. It requires more differentiation and complexity. If you just go, oh, flatten your belly muscles and do lots of crunches because you are strengthening your core. That is a good idea gone real bad. Because it is more complex than that. It’s not this or that muscle. It’s within each action, and those muscles are organized to allow constant, optimal use of the skeleton the whole time. That’s what gives us the power. That’s what gives us the I can kick, or push, or pull, or row, or do, or go slow, or go hard. You know that also gives us the swiftness, the changeability. Not like crazy changeability, but that we can shift. You know, we can deal with it.

4 ENDNOTE #4: DEMO

Can I demonstrate on you for a second? This is a bit against my teaching principles, but… I’m breaking my own rule, so I’ll go punish myself later. All right.

So, put your hands behind your head. You see? Look what she did to put her hands behind her head. She is sitting. She’s a happy-go-lucky person. And now, hands behind your back. Look what she does. Look. You see she brought the weight of the middle of her chest where the solar plexus is to counteract the weight of the arms, and that’s what the brain has to decide all the time what to do. So the arms. This goes forward.

Do it again slow. So when she is sitting just regularly, she doesn’t have to do more than that. I don’t know if it’s an ideal, but it’s a good approximation. She’s comfortable. She can breathe. Maybe, if she sat a little bit here, it would probably be a little better. There we go. Feel that? And you say, how come I didn’t think about it? Right? It is weird.

Now put your hands, slowly, behind your head. You see, and she does it at the moment she needs to. She doesn’t prepare it ahead of time. And then, she does it so the system responds to the necessity and brings the closest way to get which really balances it. Great.



And now, look how much she is up with the power of the back, right? Which is pretty much what we all need to do with the hips, and so on. And, now, do the movement. Bend to the right. And that’s what I wanted to show you.

See, I started talking about it yesterday. And she’s turning the head, and the back stays up. You see, the back stays up and that’s something that most people don’t do. Little ones do that, you know, when they are on the floor and they are one year old, two years old. But, look at that. I mean they couldn’t do quite such a refined movement but the idea of it.

You see, she has never lost the arch. She just bends sideways. What most people tend to do is when they go to the side, they go like that. I don’t know quite how to speak it, but it is all collapsing to the side. But it is not collapsing to the side. It’s, oops, you might want to sit on the chair a bit more, there you go. And now, she goes to the side, turns the head, and then stays tall. You see? And then goes down, and here, she starts rounding the back a little bit, if she wants to go further back.

To come back up, look what she’ll have to do. She’ll have to do this. You see? Then she’ll have to do this, if she wants to reverse it. So sit a little deeper on the chair. That’s it, because she brings so much weight forward and the chair doesn’t know how to balance. There you go. So now, you see if you come a little bit even more forward. That’s it. You see, this gets freer, and you see immediately if you are a little bit more forward.

Now if you are not used to it, it feels like you are exaggerating galore, but she is balanced now. Now, she’s going down. Look. No big deal; nothing to it, because she’s up the whole time. She’s just bending down over the up. She superimposes. And look, by the way, how far she could go, you see, because there’s nothing stopping her, because she’s free to move because she’s up. You don’t have to move that far. Look at your elbow. And now, look at that. What’s the big deal? Then she will have to round, you know, and arch. There you go. That’s it.

5 ENDNOTE #1: THE POSSIBILITIES OF WORKING WITH CHAIR LESSONS

Are you starting to get the feeling that there is a whole world, working with people in chairs? And there are, actually, and that’s…. You are going to get more of that than any other training before, at the basic level. So, I sort of shifted the program some, because first of all, because people sit in chairs a lot. In the afternoon I will go, a bit into the theoretical stuff that I asked you to think about. Did you think? Did you do that? You didn’t think? You slept. You are forgiven. What did you do instead of thinking? Maybe I don’t want to know? That’s good enough.

So, anyway, there are times when, actually, it’s not advised, or almost not doable, to put a person lying down. And the way to work with them, is in the sitting. So you actually start in the sitting. As a therapist, you know that, right? People come in a wheelchair and you’ll see that there are times where you’ll have to use your best judgment, whether, how should I say it, efficiently. What will it do for a person to move them, let’s say from the wheel chair to the table and put them lying down, if it is going to be extremely awkward and cumbersome and they’re going to feel fear. And, if they’re going to feel fear about getting back into the chair. And if you’re by yourself, there, or they are heavy. All those things, are not very exotic, but they are very real. So, as a practitioner, you’ll see that as you work with people, you’ll integrate into your calculation a lot of things that normally you wouldn’t even know to consider. So, there are times that just getting somebody to lie down is not worth it. No matter how well you’ll work.

Just like, for instance, I remember years ago, I was still living in Israel, and working, I had this Orthodox Jew, who was referred to me, a male, a guy. And I started working on him, and he just wouldn’t breathe. And at a certain point it dawned on me. This is against his belief, a woman touching him. I don’t even know why…. I don’t know what he thought I was doing, that he signed up with me. I don’t know what he understood. So now I know if it’s an Orthodox woman, I would send them to a woman. If it’s an Orthodox man, I would send them to a man. Sometimes, you know, there is a very special situation, then they might



go to the Rabbi to give them special permission. If the Rabbi gave them permission, they could breathe, maybe, hopefully. But, this is very important, if you have someone there, feeling all the time they are doing something wrong. I’m not after changing their belief systems, right?

And then there are times for, so called, physical reasons. Sometimes people have had head injuries. I remember the first time I witnessed that was watching Moshe give a lesson to a woman who had a bad ski injury. And I anticipated him to ask her to lie down, and he did the whole lesson sitting up. Didn’t even get her to lying. She was too injured. So, right there in sitting was actually the best position to work with her.

Then there is this huge world of possibilities of working with people in sitting. Of course the computers, the corporations, the airlines, the what? You can demo anywhere and you can actually do the work in sitting. I mean, you can get the benefit, but you don’t have to have a floor. And Desk-Trainer is doing that.

And by the way, the more comfortable you will get and more knowledgeable you will get about working in chairs, we won’t do all of it, here, but there are lessons where you use the chairs, off of the chair, you understand? You use the back of the chair, you use the front of the chair. You learn to jump. I did that in the high performers. They actually learned to jump on and off the chair. These chairs. Only two chairs went bad. Yes, they did. Because, with the big guys—they must weigh over two hundred pounds—and they, actually, were able to jump and squat on the chair and get off. But the chairs didn’t do too well. But, the rest of the chairs are still OK. But they did fine. These were bid guys. Off and on. And, when I say to you, now jump on and of the chairs, like uh-h-h. So, we can move it further and further and do really athletic stuff around the chairs. It’s a lot of fun, it’s a big conversation, I want you to start learning it.

6 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO AND MINI-LECTURE, "READINESS FOR ACTION" AS A STANDARD TO DECIDE IF SOMETHING, E.G. HEIGHT OF CHAIR, IS "RIGHT" OR "WRONG"

[TO STUDENT] I think that is very strange, what you do. Your idea of yourself is a little different than my idea of you. Do you normally have this [TN: support] under your feet, when you do the lesson? To make you do what? So, let’s look at that. Put it under your feet. Put it under your feet. And look. That’s interesting. No, no, no, no. This is a learning opportunity. It feels better for you. OK, it feels better, that’s interesting. That means for her, this time, actually having the knees higher than her hips, feels…. Because she is tall. She has long legs. So, does anybody have a free mat that I don’t have to work…. I want a folded mat. Thank you. So, I was walking, and I thought why is she, why is she having her feet lifted? Let’s take this off. Now, what feels comfortable has to do with how we are organized. It’s not where we are heading. I would certainly not put this under, but this is still, for her, I would probably do, maybe even this much [TN: Anat is trying to decide how many folds of the mat to have her sit on]. I don’t know, let’s try this much, this way, first. Sit just like that. You see, that’s it. That’s already…. Do you see what just happened? You can use your lower back. Now get up. It’s still not as good as it can get. You see, it also allows you to sit at the edge of the chair. Whereas, otherwise, you have to slide backwards. I think…. Just one second. I forgot my, no, no. I just want to be. This is thicker. This is a little thinner [TN: at the front of the chair]. OK, sit here at the edge of the chair, and feel what that’s like [TN: student sits up much taller]. You see. So, you have all those options. You can feel happy this way. You can feel happy that way. But you see in terms of…. OK. So let’s take you back, and let’s have you sit on the chair, and let’s put this under your feet. There you go. You see. What has changed for you, aside, of course, that it is different and it feels a little different?

[MINI-LECTURE] But, you see, when you are looking and saying is this “right,” or is this “wrong?” Is this “correct,” or is this “incorrect”? By what standard? What is the standard? How am I going to decide that? What am I going to look at to decide if it is working the way that I want it, could work better, or not? [TN: Answer from class] If she can move in all directions. [ANAT] What? If she could move in all directions? Yes, and? Yes. Can she move from here? What will it take to get up? One of the ways to…. A very important way to decide whether the way someone sits is good or bad, optimal or non-optimal—I don’t like



the words “good” and “bad,” you know, it’s opinion and judgment. Creates all other kinds of other bad things—is the readiness to move. Even more so, the ease and readiness to act. We are talking about action. So, movement is always in action. You can’t act without some form of movement, at least, internal, like thinking, imagination. For me, imagination is an action. It’s not just jumping up and down that is an action. So, I told you that, already, I think, that if I had to define my profession, very briefly, I say that I am an action coach. I facilitate action for people. So, I facilitate it on the so-called physical level, I facilitate on the intellectual level, I facilitate it on the emotional level, I facilitate it on integrating all the elements to make action easy. To be able to think, intend, translate intention, or thought into action, with the least amount of complication, you know, resistances, confusions, you know.

[STORY] So, my ex-, my daughter’s father, is very, very bright, has two brothers. And his youngest brother—they are all very young, very bright, you know, he’s a prof in Berkeley, and his brother joined the PHD program, I think it was, in Berkeley. His father came to town to visit, and it took me a fraction…. You see I used to… I studied and worked in the mental health field. You know, as a student, I had to work in mental hospitals and stuff like that. So I saw psychotic people, highly disturbed people. So I had some background that way. But he comes in, and you know, he starts doing the normal thing. “Hi Anat, how are you?” Whatever. And he starts moving towards me. And it’s amazing how he managed to have truly fragmented action. So it is like he started and he moved a little back. And then he kind of [TN: she wiggles], and then he moved sideways. And then he turned a little back, and he…. And it was all those little fragments of the back and forth and sideways, irrelevant. God knows what was going on inside this young man’s head. Until he was actually able to do the “hello,” or whatever it was. And I watched him the rest of the evening, and he was, he was just fragmented. And I remember telling Philip, on the way home, I said to him, you know, I think your brother is about to have a psychotic breakdown. [TN: Anat indicates an adverse reaction]. And you know, that was not a great delivery, you know. Me, with being so focused on what is going on, I forget the fluff, and you know. So, sometimes I do the right thing, but it is too hard for people to absorb. I’ve been working on it the last few years. I think I’m better. So much better, anyway. And so, I explained to him. And sure enough, two weeks later, he had a severe…. They didn’t listen to me. I said, how about working with him now, before he is completely disintegrated, in a big way. So, prophets have a problem. You know, I have a tendency. I see things, and I realize that, very often, I lead the way, and I turn around and I’m alone. Very effective leader here [TN: said with sarcasm].

[MINI-LECTURE CONT.] So, the whole thing is we work with action. That’s life. Life is action. I don’t mean you run around in circles and get crazed and hyperactive. But I mean action in terms of intention, outcome, you know….

[MCCAIN-OBAMA DEBATE] How many of you watched the debates, yesterday? Quite a few, or part of it. It doesn’t matter. It was enough to watch it for five minutes to get the whole thing. Now you know the content, and it’s a bit like a boxing match. You look at somebody being punched and you wonder if Obama is going to fall over and start foaming at the mouth, or not, and all that stuff. But what was behind it is the quality of action, not content. What is really…. And people, whether they are conscious of it or not…, how does Obama organize action, and how does McCain organize action, and the degree of freedom and where don’t they have freedom? Obama is not very good with the sideways punch. He’s not very flippant. He’s not very quick. And I think, partly why he doesn’t do it, because I would suspect that if he did it, he would be so sharp, he would be like a true, what would come out of his mouth—he is very bright, incredibly good language—he could really kill somebody with a sentence. So, I think he is backing off from doing that, either. But he can also can get, you know, [TN: Anat looks a little dazed] a little like that. But, between the two of them…. you know I watched McCain, it was actually—aside from hating him and how he was and what he was doing—he has so little freedom. So he was sitting, virtually, kind of like, you know, imagine it. He was sitting [TN: Anat approaches previous student, who thinks Anat is indicating that her seated position is like McCain. But Anat pulls her knees way up above her waist, saying] He was sitting like this. He was sitting like this. Try to get up from here. [TN: Student shakes her head.] I mean, you could, but you would have to roll over [TN: indicating to the side], yes, exactly.



[BACK TO MINI-LECTURE] So I think this will really give you a way…. And a very important element of action, effective action, very important element of effective action is the ability to move, or not move; move or stop movement, in any, in all directions. So you could move forward, or not. You could move sideways, or not. You can combine something. You have the freedom to pull pieces and integrate them into action. And our ability to translate thought in…. First of all, to formulate thought and take some time to think, and then to translate…. So when you watch somebody and they clench their teeth and they hold their breath and a big portion of their energy goes to inhibit the action they are about to take, if they were not to inhibit it, like punch the other guy in the face, or something like that. It’s enormous lack of freedom. It’s enormous lack of freedom. Inhibition, sitting on something and using a lot of force not to, it’s the same thing like having your abdomen muscles fully contracted. And you’re not free to use your back, ever. You are not free to move.

So basically, I wasn’t planning on talking so much, but couldn’t miss this opportunity, because this is…. Doing the movements is very important, but understanding what you are doing, what is the usefulness of it. So, I think even if you understood very little, and just teach these lessons very nicely, they are so powerful, because of how they are built, and the vari…. I mean the lessons are built to include basically the essentials. So they are effective even if you don’t really understand it. But, if you start looking at…. You put a group of people in the chairs and you ask them to move, and you say, “How ready are they to be moved from sitting to standing? Or from sitting to be on the floor,” or whatever. This is a whole other world, because you have an opportunity to get these people, their brains, their systems to start functioning, being more alive. Really alive. Like you can act. Like you can move. Like you can transition from point to point.

Then you can start to understand aging and limitation and stroke. And all those other things. That’s a window of looking at it. So if I look at a person with a stroke, and let’s say that they’re never going to get, as far as I can do it, full movement in their leg and arm. Let’s say that’s not possible. I still, then I look and say, “OK. How could they organize themselves so they can still get out of the chair, easily?” And there are ways to do it. There are ways to take a person that’s half paralyzed and get them to still move effectively. You see, I’ve worked with somebody whose hip joint is fused. I’ve worked with somebody whose arm has been amputated.

You take an imperfect body, or you take conditions within that body, but you use, you understand that the job of the brain is to organize action. So if you give it more freedom, if you give it more options, it could figure out how to do this thing, whatever it is we are looking at, simply differently than most other people. So we’re not trying to get people to do things the same. We’re trying to get people to have the freedom to do things. You understand? And that’s where this work, as far as I’m concerned, right now, as to what I know is done out there—and a lot of wonderful things are done—but this sort of moves it to a level and an understanding, that simply, I have not seen anywhere else. And it opens possibilities that will not be there without that, as far as I can think of it, that are here but not elsewhere, because it’s the same bodies, it’s the same brains, it’s roughly the same movements, the different techniques teach, you know, of course, this has a huge, rich variety. But you think Tai Chi, you think martial arts, they teach…. Yoga has a lot of positions that they teach, or poses, whatever you want to call it. But it is how do you get somebody there? And when you understand that the job of the brain is to organize action, and everything I have just said to you and everything else I have said to you in the last two years, then you can take someone and help them do that. And once they do that, they are well. And pain tends to go away and vitality goes up and people do better. Does this make sense?

Sit at the edge of the chair. I’m going to…. Alright. [TN: responding to comment from student] It’s amazing, it’s more than good. Remarkable. That’s why I don’t want to miss the opportunity, because it is relevant. I don’t like a curriculum to say, “OK, today, we are going to talk about action.” But, I mess up with my own plans.

7 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO WHAT'S LEFT TO MOVE?



[DEMO] You see, can I demonstrate on you for a minute? You see, he is sort of doing it, but he’s also doing something else. You’re going back to the front a little bit [toward his right side as he goes down, not keeping the movement in the middle]. With his hand trapped on the floor: what’s left to move? Well, guess what? It’s the rib cage.

[TN: Anat lifts under lower, left side of ribs as elbow comes away from back of chair toward floor ahead of the student, and presses on upper-right ribs, pressing down, as his arm and elbow come toward the back of the chair. As he continues this, she searches around for un-cooperating ribs to join the party.] Aha. That, all of a sudden, frees the hip joint. Look at that. And most people, for the life of them, have not done this movement. And now the pelvis rolled forward [TN: as she pressed in and toward the floor on the top side ribs]. Reduce the effort a little more. There, you see.

And now the elbow forward and back, a bit of relief. See how far the elbow comes back now. Look, look at the elbow with the eyes. And do that, [TN: roll elbow forward with whole back], and that [TN: roll elbow back with whole back, Anat uses her foot to encourage belly out. As he continues back and forward, she pulls in his belly at bottom of ribs and elbow comes forward and keeps pushing his back forward and his elbow comes back.]

And now, come up to sitting like that, two elbows, both hands behind head, twisted to the side, one elbow up, looking at that elbow, one elbow down. [TN: Anat guides the lower, left elbow, down between his legs.] See what it means now to go down. Because what does it? Look at all that. [TN: She indicates his whole lower back and ribs.]

And now, [TN: Anat brings his top, right elbow toward the back of the chair]. You see how clear. And what keeps him up? The back. The powerful muscles of the lower back. So now he can go back and forth easily.

There we go. How are we feeling? Student: “Good.” You heard your voice? [TN: It was deep and powerful.] You’re starting to get your real voice. Hear the full resonance? And our voice is us.




TML 15: Making the Spine Flexible and Integrating It (2007)

(Transcription from Anat Baniel Seg 4 September 2007) 1 ENDNOTE #1: MOSHE STORY, "YOU WANT TO CHANGE, PROVIDED ONE THING, THAT YOU STAY THE SAME.”

This is the integrating lesson for this segment and what are the themes of this segment that we spoke about early on? Imagination? Yes, and, someone got it, safety.

Notes 1. Bend your knees. Bring your feet standing. And think spine throughout all the

movements, length of spine. Lift your pelvis from the floor and feel how you are lifting the spine from the floor vertebra by vertebra. Think that it lifts like a chain and notice how much it is like a chain. What lifts and how much? Don’t make any special effort. Do it easy. Don’t lift especially high. Pay attention to how it is. And back down. Which vertebra come, one after the other, and when does a chunk of vertebrae come up off the floor?

1a. Now, leave the pelvis quietly on the floor interlace your fingers and put the hands behind your head. And now, lift the head and lower the head.

The pelvis is on the floor, and lift the head and lower the head with the help of the arms and feel which vertebrae come off as they leave the floor and then how they come back down onto the floor.

1b. And now lift the head like that and keep it up in the air. And then as the head stays in the air, lift the pelvis and lower it. Pay attention on which vertebra do you lean.

1c. And now, keep the pelvis up, keep the head up, feel you're like a bow, right? Can you sense that?

And rock the bow.

That means, keep the distance between your head and your pubic bone the same. And lift the pelvis a little bit higher so that the head goes the same amount lower. Then lower the pelvis a little bit and lift the head but don't bring the head or the pelvis back completely to the floor.

We can talk about absolute ideal movement – using the least amount of muscular effort to move - but then we can talk about approximations in that direction. And the good news is, there are lots and lots of approximations so we don't have to be perfect or nothing. And feel if you can continue breathing freely while you do that.



And leave it alone, straighten your legs and arms and rest. And listen to your spine.

2. Roll to your side and stand on your hands and knees. Have your knees spread and your hands, of course, spread. And now let your head go down. Keep the elbows straight but lower your head and keep it lowered like that. And now round your back pull your belly in as your head is hanging down and then let your back come back to be straight again or wherever it was.

And as you round your back notice, pay attention, which vertebrae are going closer towards the ceiling?

Listen to your whole spine, see if you can stay in a sense of length in the spine and feel which vertebrae do you feel go towards the ceiling? And then you know you free the belly and then you pull the belly again and round your back.

By the way, those of you who were here yesterday when I did the demonstration on this gentleman, lovely man. Did you see the disorder? Out of ignorance, out of a lot of hours of training. And the use of the organization of the back, the pelvis, the head – and he's still relatively young. It's a disaster!

2a. And now, do the opposite. That means, arch your back and lift your head.

Don't lift your head as far as it can go, because then you will do a disproportionate amount of work in your neck.

Arch your back and lift your head a little bit and gradually, as you feel that there is more and more movement throughout the whole spine – and for most people the part that doesn't know to move very well is between the shoulder blades – so that the neck doesn't yank the head up but it's really related to the movement of the back and the hips and the tailbone.

There you go, keep the elbows straight so that the weight goes clearly.

2b. And now combine the two movements. Round the back, pull the belly in, listen to the whole length of your spine.

Feel where it is moving, and that it stays long from the tip of your tailbone to the base of your head. And then arch your back, free the belly, free the chest, free the area of the solar plexus.

2c. And now, do the opposite in the sense that when you round your back look up and when you arch your back look down. Take your time.

When you round your back look up and when you arch your back look down; at the same time. Go slow, slow, slow and small movements.

Some of you do it half way and then just feel the effort but are not doing it. So make sure to go slow enough and small enough that you actually know what you're doing.



2d. And now go back to doing it the way that it's spontaneous for most people. Round the back and look down. And then arch the back and at the same time look up. And see if that has become a little clearer.

And roll to lie on your back and rest please.

And of course, scan the way you are lying, the feeling of the length of the spine. The three dimensionality of the spine. What of it are you perceiving?

3. And now, roll to lie on your belly. Have your arms easy but spread long above your head. Whatever you can do comfortably. Spread your legs. Have your forehead on the floor. And now, slowly, what you are going to do is push your belly out. You're going to make a big, big, big round belly and at the same time look up easily.

Don't try to look very high up. What's most important is that you sustain the image of your spine and feel whether you feel which parts of the spine are arching and getting closer to the floor.

So you lift the head. You push the belly out especially the lower abdomen and feel.

Can you feel some movement in the spine? And when you do that does your spine feel like it's getting longer as if somebody is stretching it from both ends? Or does it feel shorter? Or do you lose the image of the spine altogether, or portions of it? Just notice what is happening for you.

3a. And now, when you lower the head, take the head to see your belly button. That means you need to round the back pull the belly in and round your shoulders a touch, but don't lean on the elbows.

Go again and lift the head. But, don't worry. It will take you a few times to figure out how to do this.

But don't lean on the elbows or the hands, it's not leaning on the elbows and the hands.

3b. And now, lift the head and push the belly out and then round the back and look down as if you're going to see, of course for most of you the shirt or something is going to get in the way, but that you're looking towards the belly button to see your belly.

And feel which vertebrae are moving closer to the ceiling when you do that?

See if when you look towards your belly, you can put your forehead on the floor and slide the forehead down.

There, you see more and more people are beginning to figure it out.

And leave it alone, lie on your back, and rest for a second.



4. And now, bend your knees, put your feet standing your arms next to you. And you're going to do the following, but listen to me first, it's going to take a couple or three sentences. You're going to arch your lower back so that the weight of the pelvis comes toward the tip of the tailbone like in the pelvic clock. You're not lifting the pelvis. Now, you are going to arch, and then at the same time that tends to bring the top of the head towards the floor – you've done it a few days ago – so that you're arching the lower back and do it in slow gradual movements until the shoulders come up a little off the floor and the whole spine is like a big arc. And you are leaning on the tail bone and as much as you can on the top of your head. Start with partial movements.

So you arch the lower back, push the belly out. If it's too much for you, imagine it, but do small movements so it doesn't become too much. So we don't feel sorry, OK? Arch the lower back and then start arching between the shoulder blades and the chest also goes up towards the ceiling. And you move your head towards the top of the head. But you're not coming up on your elbows you're just lifting your shoulders. There you go. That's it, and then you come back down. So you roll the pelvis, big belly.

Keep doing the movements a few times. Arch your back, roll the pelvis towards the tip of your tailbone and arch the whole spine to the top of the head, don't kill your neck, use the whole spine to do that.

Leave this alone and rest.

One, two, three…

5. Roll to your side and come onto your knees. Interlace your fingers and put the back of your hands on the floor in front of you, so that you could put your forehead or the top of your head, whatever you like, [TN: inside your palms].

But, stand on the knees, don't sit on your heels. So put the hands far enough forward, not too far but wherever it works for you so you can put your forehead or your head inside your palms. Excellent.

And now gently pull the belly in and roll the weight more over to the head. That means you pull the belly in, and you round your spine. That will roll you forward.

Let me promise you that.

5a. Now, don't necessarily pull the belly in, but whichever way, you can roll the body forward and feel which vertebrae are participating, which vertebrae in the spine you can feel are moving and are part of that movement of rolling forward; moving your weight forward and rolling more on the head, towards the top of the head. And what happens is you roll with the head forward like that, the back of your



neck gets longer. Do it softly but let the head bend like that, the chin comes closer to your chest and you are rounding also the neck.

But you have only one head and you don't want to decapitate yourself. So please go gently. Yes, the top of the head is the preference. So if you can put the top of your head in your hands and then roll forward it's even better, but some people can't start that way.

Soften the spine. See how many vertebrae you can feel like a ripple going throughout the spine. And can you feel a movement in your neck? The back of your neck, in between the shoulder blades that perhaps you haven't felt before? Think sternum, think clavicles. Everything there. Pull the belly in. Exhale.

And leave that alone. Lie on your backs and rest a minute.

6. Roll again on your knees. And this time stand on your knees and on your elbows and forearms.

So instead of your hands, your elbows and forearms palms down like a sphinxlike kind of position.

And now, what you're going to do is you're going to round your back, you’re going to pull the belly in and you're going to take the head to look down towards your belly, in between your legs and towards the belly. And see if you can allow the vertebrae between the shoulder blades and the lower back, the whole spine, to round. And then sink the lower back, free the belly, and lift your head and eyes forward; up and forward. And then round.

So you stay leaning on your elbows and forearms and knees the whole time. And feel which parts of the spine round and go towards the ceiling.

You free the abdomen, you arch the back, you look up and then you do the opposite and listen to the whole length of your spine.

6a. And then see if gradually there's a way – believe it or not – it's like you slide the top of your head down along the floor.

And then to look down, you slide the top of the head down, there you go.

And then your arch the back, you look up. And the other way around.

And rest for a moment please.

7. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Cross the right knee over the left knee. Turn your head to the left. Interlace your fingers and put them on the right side of your face, the temple, cheek and the two elbows down.



Basically you put the arms there to stabilize the head with the palms down on the side of the face.

Now gently tilt the knees to the right and listen to the spine.

Feel if you can sense your spine twisting and what's happening in the sternum and in the clavicles as you tilt your knees to the right. And of course come back and do it again.

And see whether you can feel movement now, lower back, middle back, in between shoulder blades. Excellent.

7a. Come back to the middle and slowly switch the legs and the head. And do the same thing the other way. Very nice.

7b. And now undo your legs and your hands and let's try to do a couple of twisting movements on the knees. So come up on your knees and your hands. Cross the right knee behind the left knee.

And tilt the pelvis to your left, towards sitting down. Don't go sitting in one go, but feel. There you go.

7c. Do a few movements to the right, first, probably will be easier. Go to the right. There you go. And feel the twist in the spine and the ribs and the movement in the head.

7d. And now do it a little bit to the right and a little to the left.

And see if you can reduce the effort in the chest and reduce the effort in the belly and let the shoulder blades move. That's lovely.

7e. Go down on your elbows and forearms and continue doing this movement a few times both ways.

See that when you are on your forearms the twist gets more extreme. Can you feel that? There you go.

And feel, does every part of your spine now move, or still there are areas that you are not moving, as far as you can tell?

7f. And now come back on your knees and your hands. Cross your left leg behind the right and twist both ways slowly. It could feel very different on the other side.

Start slowly, take your time. And by the way, that's an excellent example of having to combine the force of gravity with your muscular lack of effort.

7g. And now come down on your elbows and forearms and do the same.

Some of you feel it.



Can you get also the spine between the shoulder blades to move?

7h. Now, if you want to have a really interesting experience, cross your right elbow in front of your left elbow. Cross your elbows too. Ha, ha, ha. Cross your elbows, forget which one, just cross your elbows. Cross and keep them crossed like your knees. Ha, ha. Just cross your elbows and stay there with your palms down.

Your palms down.

And see, doesn't that make it much harder? How come?

It's a lot more twisting and what else? You have a very narrow point of leaning. You don't have a wide base in the arms or legs any more. So you really have to know what you're doing.

7i. So uncross your arms and just move the pelvis a little bit left and right and see if that made it a lot easier.

[TO STUDENT] Uncross your arms Steve, you are right in front of me. Is it a little easier to take the pelvis now? That's it.


8. Bend your knees, put your feet standing, legs spread.

Slowly, very slowly start pulling the belly in, rolling the pelvis. And slowly, slowly, start lifting the pelvis up vertebra after vertebra.

And feel if it's different than before and if it's easier, clearer. And actually the pelvis will lift higher.

8a. One thing that is terribly important is where you put your feet.

[DEMO] So don't change anything any of you because I want to do a mini demonstration here. Watch these three ladies do the movement. Steve, you watch too because it will demonstrate your question. Look at where the feet are. It's to different degrees but none of them have the feet where they can really be under them.

Anybody feel like they have their feet under them? You lift the pelvis well but look at the amount of work the thigh muscles have to do because of where the feet are. Look at where the point of support is kind of like under here. [TN: Anat gestures to the floor directly under the knee, the foot is farther away from the pelvis than that mark]. But she puts the point of support here [TN: points to the foot], so that when she lifts her pelvis… [TO STUDENT] Go ahead and lift your pelvis, as you lift your pelvis, the weight is carried, it splits. Part of the weight goes down to the foot. That part that pulls to the floor and there's no support has to be countered by muscles that pull in the opposite direction [TN: thigh]. So, take it down.

Now I have no idea why she's doing it, it may have something to do with the knees. Who knows. [TN: Anat lifts both legs, knees bent and plops them down and the feet land this time under the knees]. There you go. Try to lift and see what happens, look at



that. [TN: Lifts high] Look the speed, the ease. There you go. So what really is behind it, is simply a habit of feeling movement with a certain degree of difficulty and that's the zero, the neutral. So this is when you need both to think for yourself to become aware and you can use a teacher. Do you feel? So the same amount of force, actually less amount of force giving her a lot more outcome and a lot more control eventually. Because you see, once you can keep the pelvis up there, you have choices, you could shift weight to one side, lift one leg in the air, you could cross the legs, you could decide to flip up to standing. I mean there's all kinds of things you could do from there. But if the legs, take the legs where they were before, the feet where they were before, and now do it. And now she's going to hate it. You feel? Aw. It's like the neck gets tight, the breath is held, I mean, she doesn't like it any more.

All of you lie down, do the movement, and make sure your feet are under you. Otherwise you are doing unnecessary work. And getting in your own way.

And feel if you are pressing equally on both feet or on one foot more than the other.

8b. Keep the pelvis up there wherever you are. Interlace your fingers, put them behind your head.

Do not lower your pelvis, and lift the head as much as you can, without lowering the pelvis.

Don't kill yourself. The pelvis is up first. And then you keep it up and then you lift the head.

8a. Now keep the two there, the distance between the pelvis and the head constant, and lower the pelvis a little, lift the head a little and vice versa. So you do a little seesaw like that.

And feel most of the movement is over the upper vertebrae right now. The ones between the shoulder blades. There you go.

Leave that alone. Straighten your legs. Put your arms next to you. And simply feel the way you are lying.

Listen to your spine, the length of your spine, your breathing, your legs, your arms, your head, your whole self, the image you have of yourself at this moment.

Slowly roll to your side and stand up. And walk around. Stand and walk and feel yourself and think of yourself again in terms of the spine, the length of the spine, on top of it the head and on the bottom connected to the pelvis. Now the spine is standing or sitting on top of the pelvis. Walk around.

[END OF LESSON]



1 ENDNOTE #1: MOSHE STORY, "YOU WANT TO CHANGE, PROVIDED ONE THING, THAT YOU STAY THE SAME.”

You know I remember Moshe talking and introducing his work and it used to be a painful experience. Here would be this genius like really true unbelievable genius that no one in the audience was even remotely on his caliber or his contribution, right? And people would be so critical and so pissy and so stingy so suspicious and so… Ahh! It was terrible. And he would have an audience of, you know 200 or towards the end of his life 300 people. I remember we were in Dominican College and it was like packed full, whatever this auditorium or whatever it was. And they opened the thing for questions and this woman says, “If your work is so good, how come you're so fat?” You know if it were to happen today, I would have taken the microphone and I would have said, “Your question does not dignify an answer from this man. I will talk to you later in private.” You know I would have, but I was in the audience. I just wouldn't have allowed it. It was awful because he got somewhat defensive. It's like, you sit in front of a genius, are you going to get the best out of him or are you going to get the worst out of him? And I believe I pretty much always got the best out of him, not because I knew to think in those terms but because I was always present to his enormous greatness. And I was truly filled with gratitude for the opportunity continuously for years. I mean I never lost sight of that, I didn't know I was doing it. I felt it, I was aware of what I was feeling but I didn't have any meta-idea of what it was I was doing. I was just being it right?

But, look, some of my peers in San Francisco were pissy and critical. Once he had to go to a doctor and he came back fifteen minutes late and someone calculated how much money they should be getting back from their tuition. Oh. You know, so two things happened. First of course, he was a human being, you know so he felt it, right? Secondly, he was aware that the persons were not getting him. So he was not going to try because there was not a listener there. There wasn't a brain that was great enough to receive. In Amherst, there was a subgroup. He didn't want people to write notes like I don't for very good reasons, I mean, neurological reasons for their own good. But people got really suspicious that he was trying to “withhold knowledge” and the whole thing was being recorded. He was trying to “withhold knowledge” right? So they did a system where they would put four people (points to corners of the room) and it was a huge group, on the side to take notes. So they were not even doing the class and they were taking notes. So they really didn't know what they were doing. And it took a while and then he caught what was going on. So he said to me and to Jerry Karzen, “I'm going home”. That was it. “Give them back their money, I don't need this.” He said,” It's hot, it's humid, and they're idiots. I'm going home.” So we kind of sat on him and said wait, wait. And these people met you know and I just walked in on their meeting, you know that sub-group. And I gave it to them. Oh God, I said to them, “The only reason that you're doing it and you think that he's withholding his knowledge is because you're not smart enough. And you don't have a big enough heart or soul to get what's going on. I said, now you either are going to acknowledge and accept that you are really in the beginning of the road and you have a ways to even get what you're standing in front of, or he's going home.

Pick your choice. I said no notes, you're going to honor him you're going to respect him. Then he agreed to come back in. That's when he came back and he said, “You take two months off, thousands of dollars off, why do you do all this great effort?” He said, “Because you want to change, provided one thing, that you stay the same.” That's when he said that. So, it was painful. I traveled with him for quite a while and I was in the US Senate when he gave a presentation. I mean it was like people just didn't get what he was talking about. They had no idea.

[STEVE] Is it possible to the movements so exquisitely that you're using gravity so well that you aren't using very much muscle?

[ANAT] Yes

[STEVE] So that could explain some of his body form.

[ANAT] Oh no, he was strong! Oh, he was powerful. He was massive. No no no. He was strong but part of his strength was he knew how to use it. No, he told me. He had decided to lose some weight and he had no problem, he lost weight and he didn't like it. He said there is a certain weight where I feel comfortable.



It's my body image, that's where I like it. And that's where he was. He was like a sumo wrestler, you know. He was also barrel chested.

Let me tell you strength. He was teaching in my training an evening class and he had these two judo black belt young men. Did I tell this story yet? So they came, they adored him, they got it right. So I was sitting, it was after the lesson and I was like, let's say where that table is and he was, let's say where I am and these two young tall guys show up, right. They went to talk to him after class. He was sitting on a regular sized stool, not on a tall one, and they were standing. And he was a short guy to begin with, and they were towering over him. And obviously asked something. And then he asked Marty Weiner who was in my class to go and get a hanger. And he took the clothes hanger and flattened the metal part, the hanging part, so he made it smoother all around. I guess there were two hangers. He told Marty to go away. Told the guys to attack him. I didn't know what he told them, I later on read an article about it. They both raised their hands as if to strike and then they were on their back. He never got up. And he was 70, 70 something. So, you could see they were a little disoriented. They could do it. They were black belts in Judo. It was built-in, they knew how to fall. It was safe. So they didn't expect this to happen. They stood up, and then he asked them to do it again. And I could see that they were hesitating, but this time not because they were worried about him. You know the first time they were worried about him. The second time they were worried. And he did it again, they did it, they knew what was coming, they couldn't help it, they were on their back. And then he explained to them whatever their question was.

When you do movements really well, that means your brain is really working and evolving and doing it better and better and especially the more we get complex movements. The brain knows how to calibrate and differentiate the muscles that need to move and the muscles that don't need to move don't move. And in there you use gravity. So for instance when I bring my arm my brain calibrates that force. And some people move like there isn't gravity and they do look very spastic. It can be a manifestation of mental illness.




Bonus TML’s Taught in Previous ABM Seg 4 Trainings

Bonus TML: An Extreme and Mental Twist 2007 Version

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 day 2 and 3 September 2007 TML 4 and 5)

NOTES 1. Lie on your back. Straighten your legs. Arms along your side.

Feel reconnect sense your spine. Take a few seconds to feel how you are lying down right now. The kind of relationship you have with the ground at this moment.

1a. And now roll to lie on your right side. Put the left knee, leg in front of the right one, both legs are bent on the floor. The right arm is in continuation of the shoulder in front of you.

If you need something under the head put something under the head. Otherwise lay with your head on the floor. Your palm is toward the ceiling. The arms are in front of you one on top of the other, shoulder height.

Scan yourself while you wait for the other students to get their supports for their head. The assistants, thank you for giving support for the head. Everybody got what they need?

Your Right arm extended forward in continuation of the shoulder. Put the left palm on top of it so the left arm is also extended.

Now very slowly begin lifting the left arm up towards the ceiling and letting the eyes and head follow the head. And go back. And just do this.

And feel, what is this movement. What are you doing? You are twisting the spine.

We are getting to this conversation from a variety of different directions.

1b. And now take the arm past the ceiling a little bit behind you, wherever you are comfortable, and stay with the arm hanging behind you.

And now, first of all, in your thinking – remember I told you we were going to start practicing thinking or imagination – imagine that you are straightening – don’t do it in actual movement – imagine you are straightening your right leg down.

Your left knee stays on the floor so your arm cannot go that far back. Take the arm as far back as you can without the left knee being lifted. And now your head can look to

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4 Bonus TML:


the ceiling. The back of your head is on the floor or whatever you are lying on. And the arm hanging. Most people will not have the left arm all the way down.

1c. In your imagination, imagine that you are extending the right leg down. That you are straightening it. And then imagine that you are folding it.

Do not actually do it, but imagine doing it back and forth. And as you imagine doing this movement, think, feel, do you know to think feel what will you be doing with your back with your spine?

You might not have a clue. It doesn’t matter.

1d. And then imagine bending the knee and then straightening it.

1e. And now imagine it and at the same time you are lifting the head a tiny bit off the floor.

It is as if you are starting to straighten the right leg and at the same time lift the head to peek at the left foot. Imagine it.

1f. Now actually lift the head a tiny bit but don’t lengthen the leg. Just lift the head and imagine you are lengthening the leg.

[TO STUDENT] Can you turn your head toward the ceiling because otherwise you are lifting it with the side muscles?

1g. And now add to that, don’t straighten the leg the whole way, but lift the head and just begin straightening the leg straight down so if it were fully straight it would be in continuation of the spine, and lift the head a tiny bit.

And if you are stiffening your ankles, is it necessary? Or your jaw or anything else.

And gradually let the leg straighten more and more, the right leg as you lift the head.

Gradually straighten the leg more and more.

Feel what is happening in your chest and in your spine it is a peculiar twist that happens.

1h. And now very slowly, in your thinking imagine that you are lifting the head and lowering it.

You imagine lifting the head and lowering it

Leave it alone lie on your back and rest for a moment.



2. Roll back to lie on the same side. Bend again both knees and put the left knee in front of the right. Lengthen the right arm in front of you the left arm, also then lift the arm, roll the head, and take the arm behind you where you can hang it with the left knee staying on the floor. And stay where you are.

And without hurting yourself, turn your head a little bit more to the left and then come back to the middle. And do that again.

2a. And now keep the head as far as you can to the left comfortably.

And in this position, expand the belly and expand the chest.

Remember you did this before. You pull the belly in and expand the chest all around and then you flatten the chest and you push the belly out. You do this seesaw movement. You expand the belly then you expand the chest. Think more and more, all over the rib cage.

2b. And now do the movement a little faster.

2c. And then slow it down again.

Push the belly out. I want to see this belly coming out. And then pull the belly in. It is not arching the lower back and rounding the lower back. So push the belly out all around, as if the whole pelvis expands and then the whole chest expands all around.

2d. Now stop that movement and simply roll the head a little bit to the left, and see if the stopping point is a little further.

Roll the head a little bit further. Can you? There you go.

And slowly roll to lie on your back and rest.

And just feel the right side the left side.

3. Roll to lie on the right side that same side as before. Put your left knee in front of your right knee bent. Put one hand in front of the other again lift the left arm follow it with your head. Let the arm hang behind you. The nose to the ceiling.

And now bend your left elbow and put your left hand behind your head. The left elbow is open to the side. Gently slowly begin lifting the head and lowering it.

The elbow is open to the side. The left. Not close to your head. Have the eyes and the nose to the extent that you can toward the ceiling.

3a. Now, each time you lift your head, straighten the right leg down.

Lift the head and straight the leg at the same time.



Can you feel something starting to happen in your lower back when you do that?

It is a funny movement.

3b. Keep the right leg long.

And now lift the head and the right leg at the same time.

Lengthen the leg down not in front, it needs to be in continuation of the spine.

Feel if lifting the leg helps to lift the head. Does it?

How come doing more work makes it easier? It is not logical. What is happening is that lifting the head and lifting the leg requires the same configuration, and when you do them both together it kicks in all the parts.

3c. When you do only the head, now lift the head without the leg, and see if it is easier?

You see it is easier. Because you figured it out. You see now you don’t have to lift the leg. It is up to you.

Leave it alone and lie on your back and rest.

You see, when babies learn and grow they literally grow new connections a day – migrations of cells and migrations of connections, it is a big conversation going on in their little heads. What is interesting and what was so remarkable that Moshe understood and applied in the 40s and 50s, long before people even knew to consider it, that the adult brain, under the appropriate conditions, does the exact same thing. The books “The brain that changes itself” and “Train your Brain Change your Mind”, both of them tell stories and research about brain neuroplasticity. That the adult brain can restructure itself. 1.8 million new connections per second. Estimated. Not all of them stay. But it doesn’t happen unless you do something that is perceived by the system as new information. Just to give you a feeling that when you take an adult person and you engage them in process like this on an ongoing basis, you are bringing life to that adult in a concrete way. When you don’t do it a funny thing then happens – Hebbian plasticity – that when you do something, the same over and over again, the more you do it, the deeper the patterns get engraved, and the more you get the inclination to do it again. So when you do something you have the pattern, and that pattern has all sorts of connections and it is ready to do other things. Make its own variations. But if you powerfully and repeatedly do the same thing, those extra connections start disappearing. So it’s like you get a freeway with no bridges anymore. Once the bridges are gone you are toast, and that toast is called being old or having compulsions or obsessions.

4. Roll your head right and left and just feel how it is rolling one way and the other.

And feel if the general movement of the head has improved and if there is a difference between one side and the other.

4a. Leave it alone listen to the length of your spine now.



We will continue this lesson tomorrow.

4b. Roll to your side and stand up.

Feel, are you bringing your head forward in a generous fashion as you get up?

I see some of you do it and some of you don’t.

4c. If you take your hands forward you will see that one is clearly longer than the other.

4d. Walk around.

[END OF LESSON]




Bonus TML: Continuation of An Extreme and Mental Twist (2007)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 September 2007)

NOTES 1. [TN: lying on your back] Feel the vertebrae that are clear ones, that are less clear.

See if there is already a change from the first day of the training.

Create in your mind's eye the ribs that attach to the spine in the back. And then how they come around to the front and connect to the sternum.

Feel your clavicles imagine, feel, sense your shoulder blades.

Reconnect to the spine and the top of the spine where it articulates into the skull.

Feel you’re your head the point of contact with your head to the floor and then the whole head.

1a. Roll to lie on your side. [TN: both knees bent, put the left leg in front of the right]. Both hands in front of you. Lift the right hand and follow it with your eyes, slowly back and forth, a couple of times.

And let the arm go behind you if you can. Keep the left knee on the floor if you can.

1b. Stay with the left arm hanging behind you, wherever you can right now that is comfortable for you. And have the head, nose to the ceiling, again to the extent that you can.

Put the left leg in front of the right, your right arm at shoulder height, your left arm to the left and your nose toward the ceiling.

Very gently begin to move, to straighten the right leg [TN: down, in continuation of the spine, like standing].

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO WITH 2 STUDENTS

Go back and give it a try but not in the sense of imitating. But feeling what you do and gradually figuring it out. We will do more and more variations to gradually make it more available to all of you. So the left knee if front of the right. Bend both legs, have yourself twisted the face toward the ceiling and very slowly [TN: straighten] the right leg down.

You can bend the ankle so the heel is the longest part down, and you can feel as if you are taking the heel little behind you.



Don’t worry you won’t take it too far behind. Stay twisted, so you don’t roll back to the right. Do it in a way that you stay twisted. And slowly, slow.

Some of you might not be able to straighten it a hundred percent if you keep it underneath you. Keep straightening it as long as you feel movement in the pelvis and in the lower back. If you feel that at a certain movement that you are moving only at the knee… Then you can train yourself how to engage your back in the action.

1c. And now, at the same time that you lengthen the leg, lift the leg to look down. At the same time.

And feel, what parts of the chest press into the floor? And notice your breathing.

Do you breathe in or out when you do this movement?

1d. Do you breathe in or do you breathe out? And see that it might be easier to let the air come back into the lungs when you go down. When you lift the head and lengthen the leg you exhale.

[TO STUDENT] Just make sure the arm is not above your head. Add to this, a very small movement that you lift your head.

Lie on your back and rest slowly. Long pause.

2. Roll back on your right side. Again place the knees bent, the left one in front of the right one. Twist yourself with the left arm somewhere behind you have your head turned toward the ceiling. Straighten your right leg and leave it straight. In small movements, begin to lift your right leg and feel what you do with your chest and your back and your pelvis.

2a. Now, at the same time, lift your head. Make this such a fine movement.

When you lift your head, think of bringing the chin towards the chest rather than up towards the ceiling. See if that makes it easier for you.

Leave this and lie on your back and rest.

3. Roll back on your right side. Again place the knees bent, the left one in front of the right one. Twist yourself with the left arm somewhere behind you have your head turned toward the ceiling. And put the left hand behind the head. Let the left elbow open sideways. In this position, first of all expand the belly and then expand the chest.

That means, do the seesaw movement, pull the belly in and expand your chest all around, and then flatten your chest and expand the belly. And have the image that you



are expanding all around your pelvis, so it is not the movement of arching and rounding your back. It is another kind of movement.

3a. And now, lengthen the leg and lift the head.

So you lengthen the right leg and you lift your head and make sure your head stays towards the ceiling your nose.

And at the same time let the left elbow open out to the extent that you can.

See if you can leave your left knee on the floor.

That's it. It is not simple. But it is worth while staying in the process.

3b. Now lengthen the leg, lift the head, and now in that position, begin to expand the belly and expand the chest.

And feel what presses into the floor.

The left knee is on the floor, the head is toward the ceiling, you keep the head up, the leg is long, and you expand the belly and you expand the chest.

Let go of tension in the hand, the thumb. That is a big giveaway that we are using too much effort.

We reduce the differentiation. We are doing more than we can manage. You are all doing great though. I am asking you to do a lot of stuff.


Feel the changes and if one leg is starting to be different than the other. Lying differently feeling differently the whole left side the right side. It is not the same on each side. Just feel the differences just sense.

4. Roll to lie on your right side, left leg in front of the right knee. The arms shoulder height. Lift the left arm, let it lean behind you. The head to the ceiling. The left knee on the floor. In this position, round both arms in front of you as if you are hugging a big tree trunk. Stay twisted like that with the nose to the ceiling.

Now do a delicate movement.

Lift, if you can… If you can have the right elbow off the floor to begin with. Don’t hug such a big tree trunk.

Now in this position, lift the head and the two arms off the floor. But don’t roll back to your right.

For many people the shoulder does not lift off the floor, because the chest is not mobile enough.



Tiny little movement whatever you can, lift the head the shoulders the two arms. There you go.

And go back, and feel where do you work really hard that rarely do you know to do? What part is working that usually doesn’t work so much?

You press on the ribs on the floor the diagonal muscles on the other side try to squish those ribs because it is a twisted position. You will see what it does to your breathing because you were twisted this way.

4a. Make sure your fingers and your wrists are free. There is really nothing that you are doing with your hands and the wrists. So any tension you have in the hands and the wrists shows excessive work or force in the system.

See if you can trick yourself into doing this strong powerful movement but keep your arms and face soft – even smile.


5. Now, lie on your right side, the left leg in front, the right leg long, the left arm behind you. Put your right hand behind your head with the elbow out to the side. And slowly straighten your right leg and keep it straight under you. And in this position lift the head with the help of the right arm and the right leg, all at the same time.

Look at what you can do now. See how malleable you are. How brilliant. You just have to have time to discover it.

5a. Each time you lift exhale.

5b. And now stay with your head and leg up in the air and put your left hand on your forehead and begin to lift [TN: roll?] your head.

Notice, does the left arm sink more as you lift the head?

Remain lifted, stay in the air and put your left hand on your forehead and roll your head between your two hands. Roll it, see if your head can be totally free.

And lie on your back and rest.

We haven’t done this lesson of rolling the head in this training yet. Does anybody have a guess why we do this? The head is free to move. We can think of it from a biological point of view. We need to have the freedom to move the head. To protect ourselves. [TN: short lecture not transcribed]



6. Lie on your right side. Put your left leg in front, your right arm long in front of you, your left arm behind you, and your nose toward the ceiling and slide your right arm on the floor at a 45°angle toward your head. With your left hand, bring it up over your head and catch your right temple. From above the head. Left knee is on the floor. In this position – keep the nose directed toward the ceiling – begin bending the head, moving your left ear toward your left shoulder. A tiny little movement.

And from the very start, what has to move? What has to move if you'd not want to start decapitating yourself? Sternum. Clavicles. What else? The ribs and what else that you might not have thought about. The lower back. Same thing that you have to do in order to straighten the leg.

[DEMO WITH 3 STUDENTS] Watch what they do differently from each other. Do you see first of all that it looks different? That is a good first approximation. [TN: One student rolls her head to the left.] We know she is intelligent. She is doing it this way for some reason that servers some purpose. She is not using her back. She feels like she is doing a movement. She is just doing something. [TN: Anat guides her to take her head back. Touches iliac and top of head with her hand. Then helps lower back arch presses on lower ribs and trochanter. And has her straighten her leg as she does it. The right leg].

6a. Add to that straightening the leg. As you tilt the head. But take the leg back, not just straighten it in the knee.

And see if you can feel that the moving of the left ear to the left shoulder helps you organize the leg, to straighten the leg.

It is a funny movement to do. Isn’t it?

[TO STUDENT] You turn too far to the right. Keep the nose to the ceiling. There you go.

That is lovely, very good.


Feel of course changes in the way you are lying.

7. Roll back on your right side. Put the left knee in front of the right twist yourself around like this. Again put the arm 45 degrees up. Put the left arm from above your head and get hold of the right temple and tilt your head to the left and straighten your right leg and stay there. Go as far as is comfortable and safe and stay there.



Then expand the belly and expand the chest.

7a. Now bring the head back to the middle. Put the right hand behind the head and the left hand hanging back.

And now lift the head and the right leg at the same time like we have been doing.

Feel what your left arm is doing, and see that when you go back down the left arm goes lower down. Lift the head with the help of the right arm and leg. And then back down and up and down.

Fold yourself on the side to rest for one movement. Just a few seconds rest.

8. And now go again to take the left knee in front of the right knee. Both legs bent. Take the left arm around yourself and put your hand to the ceiling.

And simply do the initial movement of the leg, which is straightening the right leg. Feel if you straighten it differently now. Feel if you sense clearer movement in your back.

8a. Now lift your head and lengthen the leg at the same time and see if that is also very different. There you go.

8b. Now keep the leg straight and lift the leg and the head at the same time.

And if all the sudden the ribs on the left side know better what to do? Feel this peculiar multidirectional movement.

This is marvelous lie on your back and rest.

Feel your breathing. Feel the movement of breathing along the left side and the right side. Feel if one side moves more readily than the other in terms of your rib cage.

9. And move your head right and left.

9a. And leave that alone roll to your side and get up walk around.

Feel the right side, the left side, your face, the way you carry your head. Feel if you have more [TN: balance] with on one leg and then the other. Balance on one leg and then the other and see which one you balance on first. The right one or left one?

Walk around and see what you feel. Where do you feel changes? Where do you feel yourself different?



[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: DEMO WITH 2 STUDENTS

[DEMO with 2 students] You go ahead and do it again T. [TN: Anat asks other one to do it]. See the difference. [TN: Anat asks first student to repeat doing it]. If you were to describe the difference between how they do it, one is using one part very clearly and the other is using another part of themselves in doing the movement. Watch both of them again. Anyone would like to speak?

[CARL] Christopher is engaging his back and his torso. You can see the movement throughout his body. Whereas it is isolated to Tom's leg. [TN: Tom is changing as he is doing it].

[ANAT] Tom is using his thigh muscles more than Chris does. And now it is a little different, Tom does engage the center, yesterday his leg was very forward and he pulled the belly in and rounded his back and less twisted. Chris arches his lower back. By arching the lower back, it directs the heel to come under the hip joint and under the head. So even though the position is this contorted, twisted position, it looks like standing. So when he does it like this. [TN: Anat presses thru the heel and it goes thru to his head.] This is standing. For Tom it does not travel the same way. He uses more of these – abdominal muscles and at a certain point the pelvis and back stop participating, [TN: when she presses thru the heel] the force gets absorbed in the lower back. The head does not end up over the leg and the hip is not over the foot. There is not a clear engagement like Christopher has with his lower back.

It is not something you can force. I want you to just feel how you are doing it. And the idea is that when you are lengthening the leg rather than lengthening it here [TN: she sticks her leg out in front of her] and I want you to lengthen the leg, you really want to bring it under yourself and when you lie on your side it feels like you are taking it behind you. {TN: She demos the leg behind] rather than doing this [TN: she bends her knee and moves her lower leg only and it is in front of her]. Many are using these thigh muscles. And by the way, that is, see for instance for runners, the ones that are very good don’t have as much muscle mass in the thighs, and what they have is very powerfully developed buttocks. It allows the legs to move. They don’t try to propel yourself forward with your legs. The brunt of the movement comes from the pelvis and lower back. The biggest mistake when we walk and run is that we overuse the legs. And CP, the legs are important, but as long as the neural configuration is not formed with the lower back, they are not going to do it well. Lengthen it behind you. See when you lengthen the leg.




Bonus TML: An Extreme and Mental Twist (2005)

(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer from Seg. 4, Day 2 Aug 21, 2005, TML #4)

NOTES 1. Lie on your back. Listen to how your heels make contact with the floor and any

differences between them. Notice the backs of the lower legs. Does one lie heavier or wider on the floor? How does your pelvis lie on the floor? Are you tilted more to the right or the left? Which side lies more heavily on the floor? Feel where the spine curves away from the floor in the waistband area and where it curves back to the floor, and your weight on the floor. And where are you feeling more weight, on the right side or the left? Feel how each shoulder blade makes contact with the floor and how each elbow lies on the floor. Now follow the spine from the tailbone thru the sacrum, the lower back, the middle back, the upper back, the neck, the head. Then follow it downward, C7, the large vertebra down thru the back and feel where does the spine curve away from the floor and where does it curve back to the floor. Go up and down the spine and follow those curves. Listen to your breathing. Where do you feel the most movement - in the belly or in the chest? Is it more on one side than the other? Do you breathe thru your nose or thru your mouth?

1a. Roll to lie on your right side.

I don’t think you’ll need anything under your head.

Bring your left leg in front of the right. Put your right arm out at shoulder height and rest the left palm on the right hand. Lift your left arm in the air and to the left of you to find the easiest place where your arm floats in the air and your nose is more or less toward the ceiling. The movement is simply a way to find that place depending on how easy it is for you to twist.

1b. Stay in this position and only in your thinking, think how to move your right leg to be straight. Your left arm is to the left where it is comfortable, not on the floor; it is floating



in the air. It has to be comfortable. If you can’t, bring it to where it is comfortable.

1c. Imagine moving your right leg to be straight as if it’s going to be your standing leg. Now at the same time, imagine lifting your head as you would lengthen the right leg.

Imagine what that would feel like in your chest, in your back. Slowly, think it many times - to straighten the leg and at the same time lift your head.

1d. Then think just of lifting the head a couple of times. Thinking of your chin coming near your throat with your left arm continuing to float in the air.

Bring your left arm to the right and rest on your right side for a moment, with the left leg on the right if you want that’s fine.

2. Again put the left leg in front of the right, your right arm at shoulder height, your left arm to the left and your nose toward the ceiling.

Very gently begin to move, to straighten the right leg.

Is it only in your knee, or is something happening in your lower back, or in the hips joints, or all the way up your spine?

2a. Add to this, a very small movement that you lift your head.

Make it easy. Notice if you’re breathing if your jaw is easy.

2b. Each time you lengthen the right leg, can you imagine that you would stand on that leg?

Lie on your right side and rest.

Notice your breathing.

As you lie on your side like this, can you feel a part of your spine that is very clear to you, the low back maybe, the neck?

3. Again bring the left arm backwards to float. Notice, does it float slightly lower? If it does, great. If it doesn’t, great. Is it easier to look toward the ceiling now?

3a. Straighten your right leg and leave it straight. In small movements, begin to lift your right leg and feel what you do with your chest and your back and your pelvis.



3b. Now at the same time, lift your head. Make this such a fine movement. When you lift your head, think of bringing the chin towards the chest rather than up towards the ceiling. See if that makes it easier for you.

Feel what happens to the right side of your chest. Which parts of you press more into the floor? When you come back to the floor, what stops working?


Sense the difference between the right side of your body and the left side, the right leg and the left leg. What areas are very clear to you? Has your breathing changed? Do you find that more of your chest is participating in the breathing?

4. Again roll onto your right side. The left leg in front of the right. The right leg is long. Take the left arm behind you and look at the ceiling where the twist is not effortful at all. Put the left hand behind your head and have the left hand become the artificial floor for your head. Take the hand away and feel where the floor supports your head and then put your left hand in exactly that place. The elbow is out to the side. Gently using your left arm, begin to lift your head and feel what areas of your back press against the floor. And when you return, could that be another movement? The movement away from the floor and the movement back to the floor.

The elbow moves more to the left rather than the right.

4a. Continue, but begin lifting that standing leg at the same time.

Notice your breathing. Are you breathing? Do you exhale as you lift or do you inhale?


Again feel the length of your right leg, the length of your left leg. Do you feel that your right leg is becoming your standing leg as you lie here? Is your pelvis twisted to the right or the left? What parts of your back lie more fully on the floor?

5. Again lie on your right side, left leg in front of the right, right arm shoulder height in front of you, your left arm floating behind you. Maybe your face turns more to the left. Staying in this position, begin to pull in your belly and make your chest big, and then shrink your chest and pushing out your belly.



See if you can leave your back alone. I don’t want you to effort in your back to do this.

5a. And now do it quicker.

5b. And now very slowly.

5c. Stay where you are and roll your head to the right and then to the left.

See if it’s getting easier to roll your head to the left.

5d. Place your left hand behind your head, elbow out to the side and once again lift your head and the standing right leg and see if it got any easier. Feel what happens in the chest.

[DEMO WITH TWO STUDENTS] Lie on your right side and let’s look at the difference in how they do the movement. Both of you lift your head and lift your leg. R’s helping herself because she had surgery on the left shoulder but what’s the difference? Direction? Trajectory? R’s lifting her head and see what has to happen in the chest. D has more of what I call the door syndrome. She doesn’t really have to do much with her chest because basically she’s rolling. D, now watch R. Now, just go a little slower so you don’t have to turn to the right. At the moment you feel you have to turn to the right, that’s your clue to go back to the floor. Do just a little less. Her orientation is a little more to the right which will in itself make it a little different.

5e. Now go back and see how you’re doing it.

In the lesson, Moshe talks about the left leg, that it may come up a little bit but don’t decide to bring it up. Don’t roll on your back and have your knee in the direction of the ceiling.


Notice if one side of your back lies more heavily on the floor than the other, one heel, one buttock.

6. Again lie on your right side, the left leg in front of the right, the right leg a standing leg, your right arm in front of you at shoulder height, your left arm behind you.

See if it’s easier to float your arm or to look at the ceiling.

Round your elbows as if you are hugging a big tree in front of you. Begin to lift your head and your shoulders a little off the floor and back again.

Notice if your right shoulder comes off the floor at all.



For some of you, getting the right elbow to come off the floor is a big event. For some of you it’s very easy to have the arms in front of you.

6a. Now lift your right leg with the tree [TN: rounding your elbows and lifting the arms, head and shoulders], that long standing leg, and listen to how you fold. See if the lower ribs on the right side can go down and backwards.


Compare the right side and the left side.

7. Now lie on your right side, the left leg in front, the right leg long, the left arm behind you. See if it’s floating lower and lower without more effort. Is it becoming so that the right and left leg are getting further apart. Put your right hand behind your head with the elbow out to the side. And begin to lift your head.

7a. Continue – notice, does the left arm sink more as you lift the head? – in the same way but lift the left leg, the standing leg, at the same time.

7b. Remain lifted, stay in the air, and put your left hand on your forehead and roll your head between your two hands.


8. Lie on your right side. Put your left leg in front, your right arm long in front of you, your left arm behind you, your nose toward the ceiling and your right arm above you at a 45-degree angle. Bring your left arm around the top of your head to your right ear, temple, or cheek but around the top of your head. Without changing the orientation of your nose, begin to drag your head to the left in an arc on the floor with the same orientation of your face to the ceiling. Stay to the left in this fairly extreme position and begin to pull in your belly and make your chest big and then flatten your chest and push out your belly.

But easy like water moving from your chest to the belly.

8a. And now a few fast movements.



8b. Now bring your head back to the middle, extend you left arm to the left, put your right hand behind your head.

Notice where your left arm is floating.

And begin lifting your head and your standing leg and see if it became easier.

This is a very good example of more and more complex variations.

8c. Lie on your back and compare the right side to the left side, the left side to the right side.

Remain really quiet sensing yourself and come up to standing and walk and feel which is your standing leg, where your head sits over your spine. More over your right or your left?

8d. And walk a little bit, maybe around your mat.

Please lie down. Once you feel like you really sensed the differences, then lie down.

Lying on your back like this, feel the length of your right leg, your left leg, how the backs of your legs lie on the floor, your heels and see if you can equalize the sensation in your legs so that they become equal behind the legs, in the pelvis, in the chest.

9. Roll to lie on your left side, put your right leg in front of you, your left arm long in front of you, your right arm floating behind you wherever it goes easily. In your thought only, think of lifting your head several times from the floor. Think of what happens in your chest, the back.

9a. Think of lengthening the left leg. Think of it. Think what you would feel in the hip joint, in the lower back.

9b. Now actually lengthen the left leg.

9c. And stay there. And think of lifting your head again.

9d. Think of lifting your head and your leg and allow the air to go out of your lungs as you think it. As you think it, is your right arm sinking down more or more easily?

9e. And think of pushing out the belly and flattening the chest and pushing out the chest and flattening the belly, only in your thinking.

9f. Now actually, lift your head and your standing leg together. Leave your head and leg up in the air and put your left hand on your forehead. And without doing it, think of rolling your head right and left.



9g. Now bring your head and leg down. Put your left hand behind your head. Leave your right arm floating behind you. And think of lifting your head with your left hand and your left leg.

See if just thinking it is already making a difference in how your right arm floats behind you.

9h. Bring your left arm to be in a 45-degree angle above your head and put your right arm over the top of your head.

And begin to drag your head to the right and back to the neutral, gently.

9i. Stay to the right and do a few movements of filling your chest and pulling in your belly, and pushing out your belly and flattening your chest.

The movement very free.

9j. Come back to the middle. Put your right hand behind your head and begin to lift your head and your leg, your right elbow more to the right.

9k. Roll to lie on your back.

Feel in those 7 to 8 minutes, did you actually do as much work as in the 40 minutes before based on your experience on the other side?

9l. Please roll to your side. Come up to standing and walking.

[END OF LESSON]




Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2005/2009)

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4 Day 6, Aug 25, 2005)

NOTES 1. Please lie on your belly. Place your right hand next to your head and left arm down

alongside you. Feel which side you like to turn your head to in this position. Which way would it feel easier? For some of you it’s without a question! Not that you couldn't turn. For some of you it’s not so obvious.

If there were no scoliosis. Scoliosis can override it.

1a. Now keep the head the way it was, and change the arms. Feel if it is as comfortable or if you feel a difference.

1b. Change back the arms and see what that does.

1c. Again change the arms.

1d. Change the arms again. For those of you whose head is turned to the left, what is easier, having the left arm down or the right arm down?

1e. Change over and check.

For most of you it is the left arm up.

1f. Now those of you with the head to the right bring the right arm down and the left up and see if it is easier or harder.

For most, it’s harder.

1g. All of you now, have the head to the right, and bring the right arm up and the left one down. Now, slowly start rolling your pelvis right and left a little bit.

Feel, when you roll to the left how does it feel in the shoulder and neck. And do the same for the right.

1h. Now, begin rolling your pelvis to the right and drawing up the left knee, then bring it back down. Very slowly.

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4 Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2005/2009)


Eventually find a way to do it without lifting the foot in the air. Feel where you feel movement. In the spine. In the lower back. On the left side. On the right side.

1i. Put your right hand like for pushing up. Continue rolling the pelvis to the right and drawing up the left knee.

The right hand is standing, and you roll the pelvis right and draw the left knee up.

Leave it alone, lie on your back and rest for a moment.

Feel the way you are lying. The length of your spine. The difference in sensation between the right and left sides.

2. Roll to lie on your belly. Turn your head to the right and have your left arm down, your right arm standing. This time roll the pelvis left and draw up the right knee.

Feel if it is different from the other side.

How much do you lift the right shoulder in the air to do that?

2a. Try to do it with the shoulder down, then push a lot on the hand and let the shoulder go up and back a lot. What is the difference?

2b. Do it one way, then the other way.

2c. Now, one time draw up the left knee and one time draw up the right knee. The head stays to the right and the right hand stays like for pushing.

Try to leave your toes alone.

2d. See if you can reduce the feeling of effort in the shoulder. What does it mean? What happens to the organization of the movement? What takes over when you make it less effortful in the neck and shoulder?

Is this important for somebody who had a stroke? For somebody who plays a violin? Terribly important for someone who wants to be an ABM practitioner, who wants to have arms that are delicate but strong?

2e. Do a few quick movements. Roll your tush.

Think you are in a diaper and roll.

Stop and gently bring the head to the middle. Roll on your back and rest.

Feel how you are lying. Spread your legs comfortably. Feel your breathing. For some of you half of your chest operates differently from the other because of the twist.

What’s so shocking about his work is that it actually works!



3. Roll on your belly. Turn your head to the left. Put your right arm down and have your left hand like for pushing. Roll the pelvis to the left and draw up the right knee. Gently.

It’s probably the most demanding thing to do and it can only be done by approximation. It is demanding to the spine, certainly to do it easily.

1 ENDNOTE #1: MINI-LECTURE, EVEN DISTRIBUTION OF EFFORT

Lie on your belly. Your head to the left, left hand standing, and right arm down. Roll the pelvis to the left and draw up the right knee. Do only what you can.

We are going the hard way [TN: This direction]

How do you know if your spine keeps twisting? When there is more resistance, when the knee feels like its jamming, the spine has stopped.

You see you are doing it completely differently. Your interest is not in how far it goes; your interest is in yourself. This is what value you have to bring to people. This is not taught anywhere that I know of. Not as a fundamental principal.

3a. Now roll the pelvis to the right and draw the left knee up. Visualize your spine like a chain.

If you bring your shoulder all the way up there is no twisting to be done.

3b. Now turn the head to the left and put the left hand standing, and draw the left knee up.

This is called walking on the belly.

This is what babies do all the time. It helps the calcification of the skeleton. To develop properly, it needs to do this.

3c. Now do it once one way and once the other.

It will take you as long as it takes for you to slow down.

3d. Do a few quick small movements side to side.

Free the chest.

Roll on your back and rest.

4. Roll on your belly. Put your left arm down, your right hand standing.



Slowly start moving your head towards the gap that is formed by the arm. Your arm is like a bridge. You are looking to bring your nose under the bridge. Slowly.

This is a lizard movement. Lizards move side to side.

Take the head under the bridge. Push on the hand to help move the head.

That’s what babies do when they start to crawl, what you are doing with your spine and your neck.

Are you crunching or are your taking it in a long line?

For those of you who are not doing it, look to coordinate the movement of the head with rolling of the pelvis to the left. There is a little bit of a twist but mostly folding forward.

Is your tailbone coming toward your head? Don’t compress yourself.

Rest on your back.

5. Roll through the other side than before to lie on your belly. Head to the left, left hand standing, right arm down. Slowly, with a tiny movement, move your head in the direction of the gap that the arm defines.

Feel each time you do the movement which parts of you participate, and which don’t.

Once the head stops moving there is no point doing anything else. You want an accurate intelligent system; you don’t want to just exercise. When we work with children, it’s always associated with the emergence of intelligence. It’s where the intelligence lives. The animals that are mostly preprogrammed are remarkable, but they are not very bright. It’s predefined. Our intelligence has room to manifest because we have to learn it.

5a. Very nice. Put the other arm up and do it once to the right and once to the left. Both hands are like for pushing up.

Moshe liked the image of Patek Philippe, the ultimate in precision watches. Every little piece is matched to every other piece in such a way that the outcome is always perfect timing.

Don’t go further than the best of your ability will take you now.

Roll on your back and rest.

Feel the impact of those movements the way you’ve done them. What you do is important; it plays into the outcome. But by far, how you do what you do is the most important. It’s not so much what we say, but how we say it. How we do 95 % of it. If you



are more or less there, the quality of doing it will decide the outcome. When I work, if I bring this ‘God’ like quality, where you really feel the person, the transformation already occurs. The content is almost not known. Think of “I love you.” How you say it is important. We say the right words but we pretend to ourselves.

6. Roll on your belly. Head to the right. Right hand for pushing up.

Continue bringing the head in the direction of the bridge, but roll the pelvis to right and draw the left knee up.

Ah ha! You have no choice but to do it carefully. Looks like a modern dance move.

6a. Now roll pelvis the other way and draw up the right knee and see if that is different.

Some of you are still not rounding your back.


7. Roll on your belly. Head to the left, left hand for pushing up, right arm down.

Take your head under the bridge and roll your pelvis to the left and draw up the right knee. Slowly.

Each variation is a golden opportunity. Whenever you say ‘you are not smart enough’, change the words to say ‘I’m not slow enough.’ The reason you can’t do it well yet is you have lots of competing efforts that get in the way, and you have to learn how to do it. One of the worst things that can happen to us in childhood is to be made wrong for not knowing.

7a. Now go back to drawing up the left knee. See if that go easier and simpler. If somehow there is more even distribution of effort.

7b. Lie on your back and rest.

When I was in school I would daydream and the school thought I was retarded. They couldn’t get my attention until high school when I thought I’d get more attention from the boys. My father said if anyone makes me stupid for not knowing, a. they don’t know the material. You’re never wrong for not knowing, but for not asking to find out. Very lucky gift I got from my father. Recently, my father said “You don’t know that!" And I said “Don’t you dare make me wrong for not knowing.”



8. Come back on your belly. Head to the right. Left arm down. Right arm for pushing up. Bring the nose toward the knee and the knee toward the nose.

Are you applying your abdomen muscles?

Go gently. Be nice to yourself. Each time, sternum, chest, spine, the length of the spine. We truly don’t care how far it goes.

8a. Stop wherever you’re comfortable and imagine someone has glued a stick between them [TN: head and knee]. Move them together up and down, like the head is chasing the knee, and then the knee is chasing the head.

Leave it alone. Roll to lie on your back and rest for moment.

9. Roll on your belly, each time through the other side. Put the left hand like for pushing up, head to the left. Take the head toward the bridge and the nose toward the knee and knee toward the nose.

Lessen the movement so it becomes pleasurable and you create a whole different sense of self.

When children come to me they are all out of their body.

9a. Now stop and connect the knee and nose with a stick and move them together up and together down. They are stuck together.

Leave that alone. Rest on your belly for a moment and feel how you are lying on the belly.

10. Put both hands like for pushing up. One time, direct the forehead toward the right knee and the right knee toward the forehead, and then on the other side: the left forehead toward the left knee and the left knee toward the left forehead.

Can you feel the movement between the shoulder blades where you didn’t before?

If we look at things as they are in the world, then that’s what it looks like.

Go from one side to the other so you never stop, so it becomes like a dream. The head doesn’t go ahead of the pelvis and the pelvis doesn’t go ahead of the head.



10a. Put the hands where they are useful and they stay up so you look like a grasshopper in terms of your hands.

10b. Now do the movement without stopping and figure out how to do it so the head goes under the bridge and the opposite leg comes up. Slowly, slowly. The head goes in the opposite direction.

[TO STUDENT] Can you see how this is helping the shoulders? It organizes everything about the shoulders for the shoulders to do well. Look how vertical those elbows are. Organizing everything and having the hands be where they are useful.


Feel the length of your spine, the way you are breathing, the sense of width in your chest and sternum. The changes are due to what you’ve done and the way you’ve done it.

11. One more time on your belly. Lean on both hands like for pushing up. And now simply roll the pelvis from side to side and bring up a knee at a time and see if it’s easier.

11a. Do it faster and faster. Go somewhere real fast. Don’t push yourself forward. Draw the knee up. It’s not just the pelvis.

11b. Now take the pelvis and head in opposite directions. Draw up the right knee and look to the left.

11c. Good enough. Hop on your feet and stand up.

See how easy it is to hop on the feet. Feel yourself. What it means to be up and what it means to be you at this moment.

11d. Walk around.

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: MINI-LECTURE, EVEN DISTRIBUTION OF EFFORT

It is the element of distribution of the movement throughout the joints in the spine. When we turn, we turn. The more I can use what I have in an even distribution then two things happen simultaneously: the more precise I am not to go past the point of ease. First the person can turn more because more is participating, and the parts that habitually don’t move, move. How do I promote even distribution when someone is



stuck? Since thinking is an action and good thinking is done in a way that is reversible. You were saying something but you were talking to the "not" of something. It’s much harder to do the "not" of something. The more we speak to the affirmative, speak to the action. Very good for love relationships. I’m looking to create a generalization. When we move more of the spine and less of it we have to make it small enough to match the least amount of movement. I’m going to inhibit the areas that move more, so that in reality we get even distribution along the spine. I’m after even distribution of movement, not large movement or small movement. Any movement done well is done that way. It has to do with physics. That alone is greater than any exercise I know of. It is so for a small movement and for a big movement. It is easier to achieve with a small movement, and impossible to achieve if you do a big movement first.

So when I ask you to turn the head, and draw up the right knee, etc, no one can do it with even distribution yet. What is the habitual thing we do unless we stop ourselves? Try harder. That is why I stopped you: start with a small movement. Give yourself a chance to learn it. Why is it super important? You will have to do it with your hand or you will not be good enough with another person. If you keep pushing yourself, it will be a lot harder to change with a person. It is the greatest transformation, to do it from thinking rather than what happens. It’s kind of like going above the line. When you match the less, the side with the less can start learning to do more. The stress is gone. I can start feeling what I’m doing. You open the options for learning and change.

Even rate of contraction of muscles. Even distribution of effort. These translate that if you do one, you get the other. You don’t generate the same force in all the muscles; you contract at an even rate. The opposite is somebody who had a stroke. Enormous contraction in some places and much less in other places. It can be enormously helpful for these people. Everything does the work in proportion to size.

In the spine there is a certain amount of work for it to do. Say 30 degrees twist total, but might be 25 in one variation, 0 in next, 2 in next, etc. If you do it so each does 1-2 degrees, and the hip joints and the ankles. When people don’t do well, they do worse. To move poorly you have to be strong. So when we get weak and we try to move like we are strong it’s not good. When we get weak we have to be intelligent. In general terms, when you see older people, they try to turn their head and it is stiff and they try to turn it more, rather than bringing in other parts. And they got that stiff because that’s how they did it before. Cheetahs—the amazing ripple they have of movement. The thinking brain gives us many opportunities to interrupt harmonious movement. What can we do to reintroduce harmonious movement? We need to inhibit the monster that tells us that we need to do more. Because it’s connected to our feeling of safety. We can talk to ourselves about it, it is emotional.




Bonus TML: On Belly, Lizard Movements/Head to Knee, Knee to Head (2007)

(Transcription as Taught by Marcy Lindheimer from Seg 4 Sept. 2007 day 6)

NOTES 1. Lie on your belly. Notice in which direction you have your head. In this position have

your right arm up and your left arm down, don't change your head.

Feel what that's like for the organization of your neck, shoulders, and spine. Each side of the back, pelvis, legs

1a. And now slowly, leave your head where it is but slowly change over your arms so that the left arm is up and the right one is down.

And feel what that is like for your contact with the floor, your chest, the feeling of your length of the spine. The direction that your pelvis might be tilted or maybe it's more flat. How do you lie on the side of your face? Are you more towards the ear with your arms like this or more towards the nose?

1b. And now leave your head where it is and change over your arms again. But now as you change them over. Notice what happens with the contact of your face with the floor, your chest, your pelvis. The hands aren't for pushing up, it's just that the arm is next to your face, that's all

1c. And now change over once again. Do you notice if the pelvis moves as you change over?

1d. Now bring your head to face to the right, and put your right arm in front of your face and the left arm down. And slowly begin to roll your pelvis right and left, slowly.

And listen to how much of you participates in this movement. Follow the participation of the spine. Do your legs participate, your heels?

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Segment 4 Bonus TML


1e. And now, only roll to the right and back to the neutral.

And feel your chest on the floor. And do you feel a change of contact of your chest with the floor?

1f. And now, as you roll to the right, begin to draw up the left knee. So you have to do it slowly, and come back again. Start with what Anat always talks about, "I wonder, I wonder" If at some point you feel that you have to slide the knee up fast, and your back is not participating, you could dial back. Go slower so that you can really follow what is happening in the chain of the spine.

Can you follow the twisting? And at the point where the back no longer participates, then is that where you have to work your knee up? Could you stop there and slide back?

1g. Now, put your right hand for pushing up and continue the movement.

1h. Roll to the right and draw the left knee up.

A slow kind of dream-like movement where you can follow what is happening in your spine, the sensation you have on the right and the left side.

And leave this, and lie on your back and rest.

And listen to the length of your spine, the difference in sensation between the right and the left side.

2. And please roll to lie on your belly again. And now, have your head to the left. Your face to the left, your left hand for pushing up, your right arm down. And now, as if you have never done it before, begin to roll your pelvis to the left, and slowly just the beginning of drawing up your knee.

Feel how you initiate that movement. Feel the comfort level you have doing such a small movement.

And as you expand that movement to be greater, see if you have that same comfort and the moment that you feel that the quality changes then do less.

2a. And now roll your pelvis to the right and draw up the left knee.

And feel, is this more comfortable for you, or less comfortable?



2b. And now slowly roll your pelvis to the left and draw up your right knee, and then slide the knee down and roll it to the right. Roll your pelvis to the right and draw up your left knee. Back and forth.

And listen to the participation of the spine.

Can you reduce the effort in your shoulder? In the left shoulder, can you reduce the effort? You could reduce the effort if you have effort in your right shoulder too.

2c. And now, quickly. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.

Do you find that you go further on one side than the other? Listen to that and bring the side that you go further to less far so that it matches the side that you go a shorter distance.

2d. Now, stop for a moment, turn your head to the right. Change over your arms so that your right hand is for pushing up and your left arm down.

And slowly begin to roll your pelvis to the right and draw up your left knee.

See if that's easier from when you began. May or may not be.

2e. And then to the left and draw up your right knee and alternate, go back and forth.

What do you think about? What do you feel about as you do this movement? Is it mainly the pelvis? Is it the chest? Can your shoulder just literally hang out and you don't have to use any effort in your shoulders?

The right hand is for pushing up.

2f. And now go quickly. Like you're a toddler in diapers. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.

And leave this, lie on your back and rest.

And listen to your breathing. Do you feel flatter on the floor or less flat?

3. And again lie on your belly. Maybe roll through the opposite side than you usually roll through. And your face to the right, your right hand for pushing up.

And begin to move your head, to take your head as if you want to look under the gap, or the bridge, that you have made with your hand and arm.

Make it a small movement.



Think of this morning when you were lifting someone's head and bringing it towards the bridge, only in this case you can actually push with your hand which will lift your head slightly.

And as you do this movement are you folding? Are you folding in front?

And are you shortening or are you lengthening? Can you imagine your spine getting longer? Not being stretched, no traction as someone suggested this morning, but loosely, easily becoming longer, freer as you bring the head towards the bridge?

3a. And notice, as you do this movement, can you feel your pelvis wants to roll, so you can start to coordinate the movement of bringing your head towards the bridge or under the bridge, whatever is easy for you, and rolling the pelvis?

See if you can start the movements together so that the pelvis doesn't roll first and then the head but that you feel the coordination of those two events.

3b. And do you think of your nose going under the bridge? Or do you think of your forehead going under the bridge? Your eyes? Does it make a difference for you? Is it a different experience?

And please rest on your back.

And feel how you breathe. Do you breathe more fully on one side of the chest than the other? Do you feel more movement? Does one shoulder lie more completely on the floor than the other?

4. And now lie on your belly again. And have your head facing to the left. Put your left arm for pushing up, your right arm down. And now as if you have never done it before, begin to take your head towards the bridge.

And just do the initiation of the movement and feel what happens in the pelvis, the neck, the back, the spine, the legs.

4a. And slowly expand that movement.

And feel, how evenly are you folding forward? Do you have a sense of folding?

When is it that your knee starts bending?

Are you experiencing the even distribution of effort? So that it is effortless?



4b. And now, leave your left hand for pushing up, and put your right hand for pushing up also, both of them. And begin to bring the head under the left bridge or towards the left bridge whatever is easy. It could be one inch; it could be eight inches.

And then, turn and bring it under the right bridge. One, and then the other.

Go slowly at first so you can really keep track of what is happening with yourself. Listen to your back, pelvis, knee, chest.

Feel if you're folding. Are you getting the feeling of being that lizard?

4c. Now how much do your eyes have to do with it? Where do you look when you bring your head under the bridge?

Do your eyes look to see your knee?

4d. What do you do with your jaw, your tongue? How about, every time you bring your head under the bridge, you uncurl your tongue so it comes out of your mouth and licks your knee. If you happen to have an extremely long tongue.

4e. Now, don't uncurl your tongue, but think that you're going to do that, and see if the jaw becomes freer, if the neck becomes freer.

4f. And then quickly. The lizard has a place to go. It's going to eat its' meal. It’s going there.

Lovely, lie on your back and rest.

And, feel the impact of the movements you've just done. How full your chest might feel, if that's your experience. If more of your ribs participate in the breathing now. Does the belly seem freer?

5. And roll onto your belly.

And now we're really going to have even more fun. The fun has just begun.

Your head facing to the right, your right hand for pushing up, your left arm down. And now, do this as if you've never done it before, and truly maybe you haven't.

So as you move your head, take your head to look under the bridge, roll your pelvis to the right and draw up your left knee. Very slowly so you can listen to your experience and really feel your experience. Listen to your back, your pelvis. What's happening in the chest? How far down your spine do you experience the movement that participates with your head? And then further below, the movement that participates with the pelvis?



This is a perfect movement for someone who has a scoliosis. It's a marvelous opportunity for differentiation, to really experience what is happening in the spine. Do it slowly, comfortably.

5a. And now roll your pelvis to the left and draw up the right knee. Did that become easier?

Is there a more even distribution of effort now?


6. And roll onto your belly, and have your head facing to the left. Your left arm for pushing up, your right arm down.

And begin taking your head towards the bridge, and rolling your pelvis to the left, and drawing up your right knee. Slowly.

Give yourself time to really feel through the movement, stay with the initiation of the movement a little bit longer. So you don't feel you have to go the full extent, you could really listen.

Can your right shoulder hang on the floor? Do you have to lift it, or can it lie on the floor, slide, or whatever? Just notice.

[TO STUDENT] So, Rebecca, it's rolling to the left and drawing up the right knee.

6a. And slowly expand the movement as long as it's comfortable for you.

6b. See if the speed or tempo of moving your head and moving your leg could be the same. Just challenge yourself for a moment, and see if it could be.

Just the same. If you move your knee really fast then move your head really fast, so you really feel what you're doing. See if your head and your knee can go in the same tempo. And then try both slowly.

And slowly leave this, and lie on your back and rest.

And, again, notice your breathing. Do your ribs move apart more on the inhalation? Together more on the exhalation? Is that true for you? Is it more in one area of the chest than the other? Do you feel the sternum moving? Do the shoulders hang back on the floor? Don't make that happen, just notice where they are in relation to the floor.

7. And again, lie on your belly. Your head to the right, your right hand for pushing up, your left arm down. Now begin to take your head towards the bridge and your knee towards the bridge. Or, you could say the knee and the nose towards each other, and away.



And are you more aware of the folding or are you more aware of the lengthening? Are you thinking more of the front of you or the back of you?

7a. Now, when you have folded to the point that you have absolute comfort, stay there. And we'll put a beautiful stick, a magic wand, between your knee and your head, could be your forehead. Could be your nose - let's say your nose. The stick is there in place, so that's the distance, whatever the distance is between the two. Begin to move the stick, the knee and the head a little bit up, back towards the neutral, and down. So that you slide them on the floor - your head and the knee. Leave the stick there, don't, keep the stick there so it doesn't fall out.

So it's exactly the same place, the same distance.

And listen to your back, your chest, your pelvis, and your legs. Not only the knee that's bent but the long leg.

And leave this for a moment and rest on your belly.

8. And now, have your head facing to the right, your right hand for pushing up and for a moment, just bring your head and knee together and apart, towards each other and apart - not together, but towards.

And feel what that's like now. Does that feel like more even distribution of effort, more even rate of contraction?

8a. And now, turn your head, put your left hand for pushing up, and your right arm down.

And begin to bring your head and knee towards the arc, away from the arc.

Towards the bridge.

And do you feel the arc of the movement of your head? Do you feel that rounded movement? The curves?

8b. And now bring them to a place where they're comfortable towards each other. Imagine that magic wand between them. And begin to slide them up and down. Slowly, do what is really easy.

How much do you use your left hand to help you?

8c. And now come back to the neutral lying on the floor the leg long for a moment.



And now again, bring them towards each other and apart. The left hand for pushing up, and feel what that's like.


Feel the length of your legs, the direction your feet point, how your pelvis lies on the floor, the length of your spine.

9. And once more, lie on your belly, put both hands for pushing up.

Feel what that's like by the way. Is it clearer where you put your hands? The elbows up in the air, that's it.

And now begin rolling your pelvis one way. You choose what you'd like, and bring the head and knee towards each other. The head may be under the bridge, use that hand, and then turn to look under the other bridge. And go back and forth, but do it really easy, very dream-like, very easy so you can listen to yourself folding, you can listen to the spine lengthening.

Where do you look with your eyes?

When is it that you breathe? Is it always breathing like, as if you were sleeping, which is the easy breathing, or is there a place where you always exhale or a place where you always inhale?

9a. Now without having to lose this lovely quality, and maybe without having to slow down, as you look under one bridge roll your pelvis to the same direction.

So as you look under the left bridge, roll your pelvis to the left, as you look under the right bridge, roll your pelvis to the right.

9b. And without losing this wonderful quality, roll your pelvis in the opposite direction of where your head looks.

So as you look under the right bridge, roll your pelvis to the left.

And can you imagine that you're a baby walking?

You see, how a baby walks, lying down. Maybe you can imagine creeping through the jungle actually.

9c. And come to your feet. And feel how you stand. See if you've been influenced by this lesson, the information of this lesson, the experience of it. And how free and easy your shoulders and arms can be. The length of your spine.



Imagine yourself as an ABM practitioner with free easy exquisite delicate arms and hands, because your pelvis and low back are doing their job, the whole back is doing its job.

[END OF LESSON]




Bonus TML: Bending the Elbows Past the Knee (2005) and The 3rd Kata taught in succession as one TML 2011

(Transcription as taught by Anat Baniel Seg 4, Day 9, Aug. 28, 2005)

NOTES 1. Lie on your back.

This lesson is to help you to integrate things you have learned in this segment. To bring the pieces you have learned together - central elements - together from what you have learned into a greater and/or new demand for yourself. I am telling you something important. I talk about this a lot in the children’s segments. The way to integrate and to do well is to move to the next level of demand. Integration happens when the requirements of the system is a little higher.

Straighten your legs, spread comfortably. Recreate for yourself. The 5 cardinal lines. Feel the length of the lines. See if for you they are in proportion, or if one or more lines feel longer than the others.

1a. With the 5 lines in your mind, roll to your side and sit up. See if you can keep the lines or if you can recreate them when you sit up.

Bend your right knee and put your right foot standing. The left leg is long. Let the leg turn out comfortably, with the legs spread. This will make it easier to do. Lean on your left hand.

Slowly begin lifting the left leg a little up and putting it back down.

What happens to the feeling of length in your spine? Has your spine shrunk? Can you intentionally make it feel longer?

What is happening to the feeling of length in your leg? What can you do with yourself to make it easy?

Every movement that our structure is built to do can be done easily. It can be organized so that it is easy to do. All movements can feel difficult. Some movements require greater degrees of refinement but it doesn’t mean they have to feel difficult. It can also be done so it is hard to do.

1b. Lift the left leg and make small circles.

Oh, this is hard to do! It will get a whole lot easier very soon.

1c. Stop for one second. Now lift the leg and do circles in the opposite direction.

Even if you can do one little circle do it.

ABMPT Transformational Movement Lessons sm Seg 4 Bonus TML


Don’t worry if it is difficult to do. Very soon it will be easier. This is how your clients feel when they come in.


Which leg feels longer, the one you used or the other one?

Demo of using a wire to show the length of a wire does not change when it is put into a curved shape. It is about maintaining the sense of length in the leg right now. And making it as easy as you can.

2. Roll through your side, the other side from before. Put the left foot standing. The right leg straight. Lean on the right hand behind you. Spread the legs comfortably. Lift and lower it a couple of times.

2a. Slowly lift the right leg and start making circles with the leg, looking to have the spine feel as long as possible, and the other leg to feel long, too. Breathe. Highly recommended.

When we don’t organize something well we have no choice but to go fast. When we cannot move in a well-organized way, it is impossible to do it slowly. When we organize something well we can have a choice to go fast or slow.

2b. Now do circles in the opposite direction.

Oh, it is so sad to watch you. It’s getting a little better actually.

Do not point your toes. For most of you, if you keep doing it how you are now, you will get thighs of an elephant.


3. Return to sitting. Put your left foot standing, right leg straight and lean on your right hand behind you. Lower your head. Round your back a little, with an even distribution of the head through the spine. Turn your head to the right. Put your left hand on your right ear, from behind the head.

You free the arm so the arm head dangles so the elbow is free from the head.

Now very gently, direct your left elbow in the direction of your right knee. No touching. Very slowly.

Most of you have never done a movement like this before. The nose is turned to the right all the time. You start with the nose turned. Make sure your legs are spread it will be easier to move the hip joint. If the foot is almost touching the thigh it is not spread.

Maybe you can help yourself with pressure through your [TN: left] foot, who knows?

Slowly or you can give yourself pain.



Lie on your back and rest. 1 ENDNOTE #1: STORY, HELPING CHILD AFTER SUCTION BIRTH

4. Roll to sit in the same way. Have your right leg long. Put your left foot standing. Lower your head, have your face turned to the right. Turn your face to the right. Put your left hand behind your head. Go to the right ear from behind. Let your left elbow hang down. And go down a little.

Direct your left elbow to the right knee, and at the same time, direct the knee to the elbow.

4a. Now for one time, try to keep your spine straight and do it. It’s not possible.

4b. So, do what works. Lengthen your spine from both ends, but let it round. That means, do even distribution of the movement.

Lift the leg. Keep your head to the side the whole time. Direct the elbow to the knee and the knee to the elbow.

Feel what is your pelvis doing now?

4c. Have the spine grow longer and longer so the leg gets lighter.

When the spine is longer you can take the middle of the back back. It balances off the weight of the leg.

It makes the leg lighter and allows the abdomen muscles to work. Lean on the right hand behind you. You lift the head towards the knee and the head to the knee. Elbow to knee and knee to elbow. There you go.


5. Roll to sit in exactly the same way. Lean on the right hand behind you. Put the left foot standing. Have your head turned to the right. Put your right hand on your left ear.

And first of all do a few movements of taking, this time, only the left elbow toward your right knee.

And see if it has become a little easier to do.

5a. Now go down to leaning on your right elbow and forearm.

Begin directing the right knee to the left elbow and the elbow to the knee.

See if it became easier to lift the leg actually. Back and forth.



Listen to the ribs on your left side.

Remember how when I demonstrated on the person yesterday when she was on her belly. I tapped on those ribs, because there is something with those ribs. When those ribs don’t move the rest of the movement becomes hard to do. Another way to think about it is lengthening the spine, having the leg feel long, the arm feel long.

5b. Stay with the leg up, and do circles in one direction.

Is your pelvis, back and chest doing something, or are you just pulling your belly in and holding for dear life?

5c. Let the leg down for a second and rest sitting like that for a second. Don’t lay down.

5d. The left leg is standing; it helps the movement. The left foot can be used like a steering wheel.

Now lift the leg and do circles in the opposite direction.

And each time you bring the leg up, imagine that the leg is moving toward the elbow so it does a circle. You don’t do circles with the elbow otherwise it always is the same distance. And at a certain point the knee moves towards the elbow and I just want you to recognize when that is. You do a circle with the leg and at a certain point it moves towards the elbow and then it moves down and around.

Nice. Lie on your back and rest.

Feel the difference between the right side and the left side. Are we getting a significant difference here? What is getting to feel longer? What’s getting to feel shorter, or the same?

6. Roll to your side and sit again the same way. That means put the left foot standing. The right leg long. Lower your head. Turn the head to the right. Put your left hand on your right ear and let the wrist and arm come down and hang on the head like that.

And now spread the legs clearly. And direct your left elbow to your right knee and see if it goes towards the knee, and if it does, take it past the kneecap towards the floor on the right.

You go to the knee and then past the knee to your right and then you go to the beginning position. Keep your head turned to the right the whole time.

Don’t swing. Because if you swing hard you activate the stretch reflexes of the short muscles of your back.

What you do, do slowly. Reduce the effort, and think long. Think the spine long.



Feel the ribs moving, feel how your left hip maybe starts lifting off the floor.

Make you’re your left foot flat on the floor. Slowly, slowly go down towards the right knee and past the knee to the right. Slow. And back and forth. Reduce the effort.

The only reason people are not doing it as much as is anatomically possible is that certain muscles are working against you. You can’t stop it by forcing it. The more you will work against yourself. It is hard, you are working against yourself, but you can’t force it. Just go slowly and gently and think long spine.

Leave it alone, lie on your back and rest for a moment.

And listen to the differences. Roll your head right and left and feel if the head is different from one direction to the other.

You’ll see there is a way to impact the neck without working directly with the neck.

7. And now roll to your side and sit up. This time put your right foot standing and the left leg long. Lean on your left hand behind you, spread your legs. Turn your head to the left. Place your right hand, from behind the head, on your left ear. And slowly gently. Do a tiny movement even if you can do a big movement but think long. Think spine long. Think legs long. Think arms long. Keep the head to the side when you come back to the middle or to the starting position.

7a. As you take the head and elbow down like that, slowly start taking the left knee in the direction of the elbow, and the elbow in the direction of the knee.

Does the spine start feeling shorter the moment you begin doing the leg too? That is important information to have.

7b. Next time look to do it so the spine feels long or longer definitely not shorter.

If it doesn’t work, look to find a way to do the movement so the spine feels longer.

If the spine feels longer it is easy to have the legs and the arms feel long.

Does your pelvis move? Does your spine round when you do that? Do your clavicles move in any fashion?

7c. Now keep the leg down and do a few simple movements of just taking the elbow in the direction of the knee.

See if you are moving toward the knee a little easier.

See if just this one variation has made this easier for you to do. See how each variation can really make a huge difference.




8. And roll again to sitting. Maybe through the other side. Have again the right foot standing, and the left leg long, lean on your left hand behind you.

Lower the head, turn it to the left. Put your right hand from behind the head bring it over to the left ear. And bring the arm close to lean it on the head so it is like a weight on the head, but don’t overdo it.

Don’t feel too much tension in the neck.

And now, this time, lift the left leg and start doing circles with the leg, and feel that at a certain point the leg goes closer to the elbow.

Are you feeling any corresponding movements in your pelvis, back chest sternum, clavicles? Is your spine getting rounder or are you holding it like a rigid stick?

If you do your experience is not to be envied.

8a. Put your leg down for a second to rest. Keep yourself as you are. But give yourself a chance to rest all the muscles that are working especially those that are working too much.

Recreate the sense of length in your spine, in your legs and in your arms. Give yourself the time to do that.

8b. When you have recreated the sense of length, lift your left leg up again, and do circles in the opposite direction.

Feeling, noticing when the leg comes closer to the elbow and past it.

Keep doing circles like this for a little while. Repeatedly keep going that direction.

Listen to which parts of your spine are frozen. Those parts feel pretty short right now. Which parts are calling to be felt and to be brought back to life.

Because rolling your leg in circles like this truly has no importance to your life or rarely will it matter. But having a brain that knows to organize the movement of your leg in relation to your back and maintain movement throughout the spine that is incredibly valuable for your life in every possible way.


9. Now come back to the same position. Put your right foot standing. Left foot long. Bend your head. Turn your head to the left. Put your right hand on your left ear.

Now slowly direct your elbow towards the knee, and see if that has become easier to do.



9a. Now go towards the knee and past it to the left.

See if it goes past and left. See if it helps the elbow go lower without stretching.

We do not want to stretch. This is going to be the next big evolution. Do not “stretch”. Stretching means that you are exerting force on short muscles. Muscles that your brain is already telling them to be short. Stretching is like going north and south at the same time and putting to sleep the captain. You want the captain informed that it is shortening the wrong muscles and then you don’t have to stretch them. They are not in the way anymore. Stretching is a non-existent function. Muscles do not stretch, muscles, muscles contract and de-contract. So stretching is working against yourself.

Marvelous. Feel the length of your spine. Feel whether the ribs are moving in new places that normally they don’t.

Some of you are pretending to be flexible.

Lie on your back and rest. 2 ENDNOTE #2: DISCOVERING THE POSSIBILITIES WITHIN YOURSELF

10. Roll through the side, sit up. Put the right foot standing. This time lean on the right hand behind you.

This is the same side. Before we did it not the same side.

Lower the head. Turn your head to the right. Put your left hand on your right ear.

Bring your left elbow toward the top of the right knee and back, not past the knee now.

Bend toward the knee and back, it is easy. You just have to organize. The elbow goes toward your kneecap.

Long line in the spine. Remember you have two hip joints. Remember you have a breath and you can breathe out to help soften the ribs a little bit. You can twist. You can do what you want. Very gently.

That is very nice.

10a. Now very gently, once you get toward the knee and you almost touch, slide the elbow past the right knee over to the right toward to the floor on the right side of the knee.

And feel, in order for that to occur, you have to allow the pelvis to move and the back twists more, the ribs, the spine, and the spine gets longer and longer.

Make the spine longer in the inner image of yourself.



This is wonderful for your back. This is wonderful for your knees. This is wonderful for you. Most important is to do it connected and loyal to yourself, to your sense of well-being, and making it ok to whatever you are doing right now. Which is the perfect thing to do because you are in the process of self-discovery.

Gently, gently. Marvelous. Some of you cannot do a big movement for whatever reasons. That is perfect. You can do right now is perfect. Move slowly.

10b. Now, go down to leaning on the right elbow and forearm behind you, not to the side.

Do not rest. We are just continuing.

Now go with the left elbow toward the right knee, and at the same time lift the leg and the knee toward the left elbow.

Not so hard. Not like an exercise. But like something you have never done before. And you have no clue how to do it you have to discover it. You can’t approach it as if you already know what you are doing.

10c. Again listen to the length of the spine. Make that spine long. Find a way of doing it so the spine can feel long.

If the spine feel’s short next time do it differently. Do whatever it takes. If you need to sing a lullaby, do it. I don’t know what will take you to get your spine long. But something will. Whatever.

10d. Put the foot down. Now, lean again on your right hand.

And direct your right elbow to the knee and see if it is a little easier. With just this one little variation is it a little easier?

Where do you want to put your feet? You spread your legs and take the elbow to the knee and past the knee. That means you have to move also a little forward.

And, maybe that will help organize the leg and the jaw, who knows. Marvelous.

10e. Again, go down to leaning on your elbow and forearm. And lift the left elbow to the knee and the knee to the elbow, and whether they touch or not, slide the knee toward your left armpit as if your arm is itching. You are moving the knee up and down. Move your left elbow and armpit toward your right knee, as if to scratch your left armpit with your right knee. If you can’t touch, just project a pencil or something from the right knee, and scratch your left armpit with it.

You see you’ll have to do some movement that you have never done in your life. That is called increased differentiation and refinement as a result. It is not just a way of doing it.




11. Roll to your side and sit up. Still put your right foot standing, lean on your right hand. Lower your head and turn it to the right. Hang your left hand on your right ear.

Simply do the movement that we did earlier, which is, take your left elbow toward the right knee and past it toward to the floor to the right.

And see if it is a bit easier. And see if you have more of a sense of how to take the elbow to the floor.

It doesn’t look like it is 20 miles away. It doesn’t mean an inch or half a foot, it means the possibility is opening up.

And feel the length of your spine.

That’s very nice.

11a. Now change over the legs, and the hands and the head, everything. Hang your right hand on your left ear. Put your Left foot standing. Listen to the length of your spine. Very delicately. Direct your right elbow to your left kneecap and back. Slowly and gently. There is no where you are supposed to get to.

11b. Feel the length of your spine.

Now that you are more familiar with the movement you have more room, more space to become aware and create a feeling of length in your spine and in your arm, the one you are leaning on and, maybe in the other arm and in the leg. All five lines long, long, long.

11c. And now next time, lift the knee to the elbow, and the elbow to the knee.

11d. Go down to lean on your left forearm and elbow, not the hand.

Lift the elbow to the knee and the knee to the elbow. You lift the leg off the floor.

I see your backs now are starting to round, but not to shorten. That’s right.

11e. Now come back to leaning on the hand, and keep the left foot standing. And take your elbow again toward the left knee and past the left knee to the floor on the left. See if that is a little easier.

You are gaining the ability to move at such a rate that pulling on short muscles, that “stretching” would never accomplish.

11f. Now lift the left knee to the elbow and the elbow toward the knee. And then scratch your upper arm. Move the knee from the elbow towards the armpit and back a few times. Whatever you can do. Slowly.

Leave that alone and rest.



Feel the sensation of length in your spine, in your legs from the hips to your heels. From your neck to your hands.

You can roll the head a little left and right. Feel how your head is rolling now.

12. Roll to your side and sit up. Place your left foot standing, and your right leg long. Lean on your right hand. Lower your head. Turn it to the right. Hang your left hand on your right ear.

And now take your left elbow toward your right knee. And see if it is any different than in the beginning the first time you did it. Yes? No?

A huge “yes” from where I am looking. Amazing.

Feel what you are doing now with your spine, your hips, yourself, your breathing.

And feel what happens when there is a more informed system and proportional distribution of the effort.

12a. Change over the legs, and hands, and do the same thing to the other side.

Feel if you also learned something to the other side.

The hip lifts a little bit. Everything knows to participate. How can you do such a big move and not have everything participate? It is also true for small movements.

12b. Leave the head alone. Just change over the legs. Put your right leg long and your left foot standing. Lean on your right hand behind you. Put the left forearm on your left knee. Leave the head alone.

And now simply lift the right leg and make circles, and see if lifting the leg is a different story. Feel your lower back.

This is vitality. You are coming to life. Other parts of yourself are showing up. You are bringing parts of yourself to life. It is not just being carried around like a dead part of yourself. People are so dead it is shocking. Once you start looking at yourself this way and then you look at other people you realize people are so dead. Even the lovely ones are dead.

12c. Change the direction of the circles.

Because people don’t have access to this knowledge they are doing the best that they can. That is my understanding of how top notch athletes get completely ruined.

12d. Change over the… Do the same thing with the other leg. Change over the hands, the left leg is long. Lean on your left hand. The right foot is standing. Lift the leg and do circles with your left leg.



Is it easier? Much easier now. Is there a moment you move your leg that you don’t do something with the rest of yourself?

If there is, that is the moment it is still difficult. If it is so you need a little more of something or other. It can be better and better. There you go. Marvelous.

12e. Change directions if you haven’t yet.

In writing this book I had to do a little research first. First of all, the category of vitality is pretty much nonexistent yet. Whatever you can find you call it vitality or anti-aging. What you find in terms of books is about food and to a degree a form of exercise. So one says you should eat onions and another person says you should eat carrots. And if you only eat this way, you are going to be young forever. Nowhere is the concept of the reality of who we are, to be actually alive, we have to continuously differentiate and use our brains and use it in new ways. Or however you want to talk about it. It doesn’t exist. We looked at exercise; I put yoga to the side. Yoga has a rich basis of possible poses or however they are called. I don’t think they are called exercises. But first of all I believe most people would do a small fraction of them. People tend to lower the level of everything, because today many of them, they can’t. And the process of teaching yoga is not there, except the process of visualization or moving the breath. Fundamentally exercises are all the same. If you go to a used magazine store and get a women’s magazine from the 50’s the 60’s and the 80’s and find out how to have a shapely body you will see that they are similar.

Lie on your back and rest. Feel how you are lying.

Feel if there is that inner feeling now of well-being. Don’t worry if you don’t, but just notice if that sense of being at home to yourself, that you are alive. That there is more of you to you, that there is more there, maybe a buzz of energy however it occurs for you.

Notice the length of your spine, and your legs, and your arms.

And when you go from there to your car or back to your life, you are going to be very busy you are not going to be thinking of your spine all the time. But from time to time whenever there is an opportunity, or you happen to remember, take anything you have learned from the last 9 days, or you learned before in previous segments, and see if you can apply it in a simple little way in your life. It can be in your movement or in your communication with a person in your life. It can be the way you go about doing something. Aside from doing the lesson by yourself, with peers, or teach other people, also look for moments to apply whatever the understandings and experiences here you have had in your life. It could be that you call somebody to get information on your property tax and the person is a big “no”. And you think “I wonder what a few variations will do in the way I talk to the person?” Anything, so that what you get here is going to grow, any way this is not going to stop between now and the next segment. So I invite you to do more.



13. Slowly get on your feet. Come up to standing on your feet, and feel however much your spine was twisted, feel what it feels like right now to be on your feet. Just stand for a moment.

Feel what it means to be you right now. How do you feel? How do you think? Who are you right now?

As I am looking around I can see different outcomes for different people. This is you right now. I see legs as tall as the ceiling, for others it is the breathing, for others it is the chest. This is yours. It is your life. It is your experience. It is who you are becoming.

13a. Walk around, move your arms. Breathe. Do what you want to integrate the changes. Once you feel it in your own body you know what to look for in others you work with.

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: STORY, HELPING CHILD AFTER SUCTION BIRTH

Daphne and I have a special connection. I helped her. She had suction, vacuum at birth, it pulls powerfully on the head. It is unbelievable that they still do it. Israel is usually advanced. She was sort of stuck laying on her side, she didn’t roll on her side or come on the belly. I gave her one lesson. I see her and I said something is not right. I gave her a couple of lessons and she didn’t respond and nothing happened and she was a healthy little girl. On the third lesson she nursed and it gave me access to touch her neck. Her neck was like a bad 65-year-old neck. I didn’t want to alarm her mother. And that is when her mother told me it was a suction birth. And I said “aha”, I got it. I went for the neck and upper spine, I found different ways and variations. My whole focus was that. She was crawling the next week, on her knees after that and standing within two weeks. I went for the neck not by touching the neck but through other ways and functions that included the neck. I talked to the system so it could rearrange the neck. In my mind I am going straight for the neck, but not by putting my hands on the neck. Then I understood what was happening with the back, and I understood that by freezing the neck she couldn’t develop properly the core relationship between the head and the pelvis. I started doing things like that gently to introduce the core relationship between the head and the pelvis, like our last segment. That was what she needed. I understood what happened to her. By pulling her head out, for her system, she felt like she was being decapitated. The muscles contracted powerfully, but asymmetrically. It completely froze the evolution of the movement. But I didn’t work on the neck for 45 min. I did things with the ribcage, head, pelvis, legs, and the arms with the neck in mind. Letting her system know that she does not have to freeze her neck to protect the head anymore. At the end of the lesson I did three or four minutes of helping the neck a little bit.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DISCOVERING THE POSSIBILITIES WITHIN YOURSELF

Imagine saying that we were created in the image of God. That means the process of differentiation and reinvention of ourselves is pretty risky. Not this book, but the next book I am going to declare that stretching is a non-existent function. That is when I will really take a big risk. I will need you to protect me.

Just rest.

Or in other words referring back to yesterday's lecture this work is about discovering the possibilities within yourself rather than trying to fit yourself into a frame into a way that is not your way so we are doing the



lesson for you to gradually discover what you can do and how to go about doing it. Otherwise all you know is that you can’t. All you know is that you are not flexible. Or that you are a man and men are not flexible. Or that you are older and older people are not flexible. Or you had an accident or whatever. Or you are pregnant. A 9-month pregnant woman can do that lesson. Not by pressing on the belly though, but by organizing herself in such a way that the joints move, otherwise how can women pick rice in the fields until the day they give birth. I am not recommending it as a way of life. But it is definitely a possibility.

It is excellent that you don’t do it [TN: the movement all the way] because it is difficult right now, but it is not difficult because you are pregnant. But because you are pregnant you have to be extra careful. That means you are exerting forces and stresses that are going not where they should go. Because you are pregnant, we don’t want them going where they shouldn’t go.

What we are really doing here is figuring out how to twist and bend and direct the body in such a way that the contradictory contractions let go and all of a sudden you just do it. And anything we'll learn through oppression or forcing, I don’t know what, it provides us with misery. It has to be pleasurable. So do it gently. Just do what is pleasurable.

Anat Baniel Method Professional Training () Segment

©Copyright 2013 Anat Baniel Method sm [273] ABM-(8)-Seg-4-tmls-ver-8.0.docx

Bonus TML: Fifth Kata part 3 (2007)

(Transcription as Taught by Anat Baniel; from Seg 4 Sept 2007 day 7)

Notes 1 ENDNOTE #1: INTRO, USING AND DEVELOPING YOUR IMAGINATION SKILL

1. So, spread your legs [TN: lying on back]. First of all, scan a bit the way you are lying. And by the way, when you scan, you feel yourself and you notice and you apply awareness, you are already… One way that people would call it is centering yourself, right? And another way of thinking of it is that you are calling upon your brain and upon yourself to apply yourself at a certain quality, right from the start. So you’re mindful. You're here. You're feeling yourself and you're paying attention.

1a. Come up on your elbows and forearms and lift your head.

You don’t sit up, you come up on your elbows and forearms, your legs long.

And now very slowly, see if you can gradually, just do it slowly, widen your elbows, arch your back, so that you put the top of your head on the floor.

You will have to widen, widen your elbows. Slowly.

Make sure that you are doing it safely.

Now if it’s too much for you to do, don't do it. But go ahead.

And you can do it also from the bottom [TN; from lying on the back]. That means you can lift your shoulders up enough and arch your back so that the top of your head, or as close to it, comes to the floor.

And stay there. This is the starting position.

But arch your back; make sure you arch your back.

Now in this position, begin pressing on your hands and lift yourself – you can bend the legs and use the legs a little bit – lift yourself up to sitting. There you go. And then go back down. Go back down.

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1b. Now the next time you do it, let's go through one side. Choose which side, because I want you to choose the side that’s easier for you. So rather than try to come through the middle, push yourself to the side a little bit so it makes it a little bit easier to do. And see if you can gradually come up like that. You have to have both arms on the floor or you cannot arch your back. Your brain won’t let you. Does that remind you of something we did yesterday? Yes, hands on the floor through one side.

But when you go down, anyway, however, you go down, arch your back and put the top of your head on the floor. And try to come up like that so the last thing that comes forward is the head.

There you go. But the back arched, some of you don’t arch your back. Through one side, which ever one you selected. It’s something, huh? Excellent.

[TO STUDENT] Steve, excellent. "It" hurts? And you are paying only one tuition? We are going to send you a bill for you and for "it". So don't go where it hurts; don't do it all the way, that’s the big deal.

All of you rest.

Give rest to "it" also. You have to look for a way to do it that does not hurt. "It" does not hurt; "you" hurt. So you need to look for a way to do it that is not painful. And if that means you're not doing it, that's okay. You are doing the process; you are just not accomplishing the full movement.

2. Ok, back into that position. That means, just lift your shoulders, arch your back and put the top of your head on the floor; or anything close to it. But arch the back, without arching your back, that's a bad thing. And now, do it through the other side and you'll feel right away why you selected the side that you selected. So you press on the hand. You press on the hand of the opposite side where you are coming up and then the other hand. You use your hands to do it, you arch your back.

You think arched - arch, arch that spine, arch that spine, you arch that spine. You arch and then you come back down and you arch the spine. That's nice, more and more people are starting to get a bit the hang of it.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO WITH PREGNANT STUDENT

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So all of you. Go back. Did you see? I didn't do too much with her but what were the two things that I helped her feel? The arch in the full length of the spine. The other part? Go way to the side.

[TO STUDENT] You're stingy. You have an idea that you're supposed to do it within. It's not the objective amount that you're supposed to go. You are supposed to go wherever it gets easy. That’s where you are supposed to go. It's very different. When you work with a client, you're not going to take them where they are supposed to be, you are going to take it where it works for them. I didn't know how far she needs to go. I didn’t have an idea but when I worked with her I felt it together with her, oh, she needs to go a little farther. I don’t know with this belly, with the weight, everything, I don’t’ know how far she needs to go, so we went as far as necessary. Go ahead.

[TO STUDENT] Belly out. John, belly out. Oh you fell, that part, you fell. Your head needs to go more to left, more to the left. Now you didn't fall. That's it! You see, go as far as you need to the side until you don't fall. And maybe "it" will stop hurting.

2a. Now do it through the other side.

Okay, rest, rest, rest, rest.

And by the way feel after doing these movements a few times, the sensation through the spine. Is the spine feeling clearer? Can you feel it clearer? That was a question. Yes, No, mm-hmm?

3. Okay, roll to your side and sit up. Marvelous. Lean on both hands behind you, straighten your legs. Very good.

Now, lift, let’s do it first one leg a time. Lift one leg in the air and shorten the foot at the same time.

Not the knee, the foot, the ankle and put it down. There you go.

And feel, do you feel a shift of weight on your pelvis? And let the weight shift. It's a little bit.

[TO PREGNANT STUDENT] By the way you need to watch out more. This is pulling the belly in and so just do it very gently, maybe do it with legs bent for you okay? The other movement is safer. You know that movement, the bending movement is harder because a lot of your abdomen muscles can't do that right now so just go very easy on that one, okay?

3a. Let’s do one second a movement that you did yesterday. Do this and bend the knee toward the head and head towards the knee.

Remember did you do that yesterday, on your belly? Yes.

Feel how easy that is, isn’t that nice? But shorten [TN; bend] the ankle, shorten the ankle.

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3b. Now do it with a straight leg. Lift it. Feel what happened in the pelvis, the lower back. There you go. Sternum, is the sternum doing something? Excellent.

3c. Now do it with the other leg, shorten the foot and lift the other leg. Shorten the ankle, bend the ankle. The toes go closer to the knee.

It goes by itself a little to the knee.

Do you feel it?

In a minute we'll do it on purpose, but if you let your spine participate in the distribution of effort, participate throughout the body, then your head is going to go down a bit towards the knee, right?

Shorten the ankle. Shorten the ankle.

3d. Now do once one leg and once the other leg. And begin bending the head down, like think forehead or nose or whatever towards the knee; slow.

And listen to the length of the spine. Are you squishing the spine or are you elongating the spine? Get the spine longer.

Remember the question earlier in the segment when the spine bends it feels like it gets shorter? Can you bend the spine and create the feeling that the spine is actually getting longer? It’s curved, but long.

3e. And now, do both legs at the same time. It will be easier than you think. Shorten the ankles, spread your legs, and lean on your hands, though. Lean on your hands.

You see, many of you have stopped curving the spine.

3f. So do one leg, do the other leg, do the one leg, bring the other leg to it. Then do the other leg, bring the second leg to it. Use your spine. Use your back. Lean on your hands. Perfect.

Lie on your back. Rest for a minute.

Do you like it when someone talks to you and they say "let me be honest with you"? Don't you immediately think, what have you been doing the rest of the time? What? "Trust me", yeah. That one I've learned that if anybody says "trust me", I just get so alert. What? When have I used it? Did I? What did I say? What I tell you to trust me about? No, I’m interested, because I must've been making you a promise of some sort, right? And was I trustworthy? Thank you. But I'll be more careful how I use the word trust in the future. But I don't say "let me be honest with you", that I don't say. At least one of them, I don't do.

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4. Please roll to your side and sit up. Lean on your hands. Lean on your hands, but lean on them in such a way, legs straight, in such a way that you could bend the elbows. What's the way to hold the hands so the elbows could bend backwards? The fingers have to point more or less to the front, towards the toes or towards the feet, otherwise you can't do that. And now, what you are going to do is you're going to begin lifting the legs, shortening the ankles, bringing the head down. But you do it at a rate that would allow you to go slowly down towards leaning on your elbows. So now we're doing it the other way, right? We are not arching the back.

You are going to look down, you are going to lift the legs and you are going to go slowly; go to lean backwards. And then you push on your hands, you bring the head forward, you bring down the legs, and you sit back up. You don't have to go all the way down at one time. Trust me. Go ahead, slow.

[TO STUDENT] Not at one time, J. Even if you can, slow, not at one time, slow. Because the idea is not to go down to leaning on your elbows, but to rounding the back. Let your elbows go down. You are keeping your shoulders up. Let the elbows go down and now when you're down see if you can bring the elbows where you can lean on them. That's where you want to direct your elbows. There you go. Can you spread your legs a little bit? Now, where are your elbows? When your elbows are down, can you organize your elbows so you can really lean on them? That's where you want to go, next time.

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO

[TO STUDENT] Round your back, round your back. You see, bend your knees a little. Aha, how about being a little more comfortable? Trust me. Go ahead and do that.

It’s such an ugly thing to say “trust me, trust me.” I'm going to be careful about that. I’m not going to use it. Thanks for letting me know. I mean sometimes, okay.

[TO OTHER STUDENT] Why is the head hanging behind? Elbows, darling, elbows, where are your elbows? You’re spaced out today. It’s okay, we all have our spaced out days and more focused days.

And push on your hands and make it easy.

Now, we're not throwing the head back. So when the back is round you want the head forward.

4a. And now do it more to one side, you understand, so go more on the right elbow for instance, go onto the right elbow, and back.

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Whatever works for you. But flex the ankles. You can bend them, and keep them straight, whatever is easy. Eventually when the back works…. but go to the right elbow only, the right elbow only.

[DEMO] Aha. Excellent. See what J. is doing? And now if I were you, I would cheat and put this hand here. You see. Now, that's it and come back up. Don’t do extra. Just keep it there. And go to the right elbow. And push on this hand and the other hand and bring yourself up. No, don't swing, don’t swing, go slow, go slow, I need you to go slow. The head. Go straight to the right elbow. And then come back. It's really 99% the head, the head, the head. It’s the head.

4b. All right, all of you now, go to the left elbow.

That’s it. You see. The sternum, you see, the clavicle; the spine can round. You need a spine that responds to what you are doing. There you go. And spread those legs. Thank you.


5. Okay, I am going to give you an instruction to do something, and only do it if you can. If you can’t, just don't do it. Do what you can, understand?

So let's not do something else. Because the lesson is going to continue working toward all of you being able to do it, so it's important you know the configuration. You attempt, you do what you can; you don’t do the whole movement, not a problem.

Put your legs together. Lift the shoulders just enough to arch your back and put the top of your head on the floor.

Just what you did earlier, top of the head on the floor. Off your elbows, top of the head on the floor. You have to spread your elbows. Spread them, spread them, you are not leaning on the elbows. You are putting your head on the floor and arching your back, pushing the belly out, legs together, straight, legs straight, arch your back.

Now lift the right hand off the floor towards the ceiling, exactly vertical; and put it down. Keep the back way arched or you won’t be able to do it. Put the other hand up. Make sure your back stays like a statue, arched. Put it back down.

Put the first one up, the right one up. And now add to it the left one. See if you can arch your back so that both arms are to the ceiling.

5a. And now, you are going to sit up, just like that.

[TO STUDENT] Why do you give up? Stay arched and think it. You are not going to succeed. So what? Think it. No, not through the side, in the middle. Let

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me tell you, you are not going to succeed. Stay arched, arched, arched, arms up to the ceiling, head up, belly out, top of the head on the floor, legs together, that’s the one time I'm asking you, legs together. And now in this position, think "I am going to somehow come up to sitting".

[TO STUDENT] Fine, fine. Go down any way you want and let’s see what you are doing. But don't point the toes, flex them; there you go. No, arch, arch, arch. You see, you pulled it in. You see, the reason you can’t go down is because actually you started by pulling the belly in. Try again. You see. Now take your time - belly out, out, out. Ah, ha, you see. So do it the way you can and then push the belly out. Then roll the pelvis out, out, out. Eventually you can do it from the start, with the back arched.

All of you, be in that position, please do not kill yourself. Trust me on that one. Be honest. It’s okay if your legs come up a little bit while you do it. Anything, if you really arch your back and have the arms towards the ceiling. Good enough.

5b. Sit up. Any way you can. Legs in front of you together. Arms shoulder height. Arch your back, way arch, if you need to bend your knees, so you can arch your back, bend your knees. Take your head back. Start going back towards lying. Don’t fall like that. And come back, don’t go all the way. Come back.

Feel where it stops.

If you pick them a little off the floor and do it, I’ll forgive you. Yes, you can.

5c. Now do it, arch your back and keep the chin to your chest, so you have a really arched back and you go down with the chin to your chest. That will be a little easier for a lot of you because there is less weight going back. There you go, some of you are starting to do it. Arched, arched, arched, arched, the back is arched.

Somebody is going down there but with the belly in.

Lie on your back.

There is one thing that I am sure that I am killing off - the notion that this work is only tiny, eensy, weensy, little movements that you just do really slow.

6. Ok, sit up again, legs together, left arm forward, just like you had before, right arm backwards, so you are like that. Arch your back. Take the chin close to the chest and in that position start going back with an arched back, until your right hand hits the floor. But don’t turn your head, the head is forward. Arched back. The hand so you can lean on it. But don’t start by leaning on it. Both

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arms more or less shoulder height, one back, and one forward. So there is a distance with an arched back that you go back until… with an arched back. Until, the right hand could touch. But don’t throw the head back.

Go back up with an arched back.

That’s it, now it’s an intermediary movement that is a bit more doable, at least for some of you. Arms shoulder height. Just like that until you hit the floor. See? Simple. Just having the arm behind you is a deal.

You see to have the arm behind you, look at me for a second. You see, to take the arm behind, just like taking the elbows behind that you did yesterday, to take the arm behind you have to arch the back. If you don’t arch the back, then you try to do the whole movement right in here. [TN: Anat points toward her shoulder on that side]. And that’s how people get repetitive stress injury and so on. Because they move the arm, whatever direction. This is it. So when you sit now and you take the arm back, you have to arch, especially the side of the arm that goes back a whole lot. You have the chin towards you and then you start going back. I mean here, I would go all the way to the floor.

By the way there is a lesson that teaches you to do it in standing, we are not doing it this segment. Okay, relax. She wants to. Probably high performers, it is a way into the future. There is a bunch of stuff we need to do on the way. This is plenty advanced.

6a. Sit, take your left arm back, and the right arm forward, legs together, arch the back, the whole deal is learning to arch the back. Do the best you can at this moment. Chin a little down, keep the head tucked in like that, so you don’t throw the weight, it is harder.

For some of you it has become simple; for others it is still a challenge. That’s okay. That’s how it is for everything.

[DEMO] But don’t take the right arm as far as you can behind you. Just go back and the hand will simply hit the floor. Arch the back and go back. But you are not letting the hand reach the floor. You don’t keep sliding; you just let it go down. Make it as if it is fixed, so the relationship is fixed. So when you arch and go back… go back again, I want to see. It would have hit the floor earlier if you really did it. Now you guys can watch. But the head arched. Now start simply going back. Going back, going back, you see I am not letting her do what she does. If you would just go back, that’s where your hand would hit. Exactly; it defeats the purpose. So arch. There you go, she’s done it. Uh-Uh, you are starting to slide the hand away. You just let it go until it hits whatever it hits. And then you come back, okay? All right. You are welcome.

Rest.

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7. Roll to sitting, please; again the legs together in front of you, arms both in front of you. Arch the back. Tuck the chin down a little. Keep the lower back arched, the head down. Can you do now both at the same time? Now, like that, begin going down towards the floor, as far as you can, and then come back.

Keep it arched when you are on the back. You can swing your legs to come back but keep the back arched.

Even though it is still a big challenge for most of you it is a little more doable. There is a little more of it there, right? Admit to it. Thank you very much.

7a. Take the left arm back, right arm forward. Same thing, go back, arched back. There you go. Do it twice; Change over the arms, then do it the other way. So you do it two times one way, two times the other way.

7b. And now, both arms in front, and then both arms behind, arch the back. Arched back. Start with the arms as high behind you as you can. It will make the movement shorter but it is safer. There you go. That’s nice.

7c. And now arms in front.


Feel what expanding the realm of demand on yourself does to your breathing and your feeling of self. Do you understand my question? So, you are doing movements, I am asking you to do movements that most of you have never tried to do before. And if you have it has been many years ago, if you were a gymnast, or things like that, or perhaps if you do some yoga, or some other regimes that have some of those postures in them. But feel what it does. Most of you don’t, and even those who do, you normally don’t do it this way. So, when you go back to just being you and you lie down like this, feel if and how this affects you. And remember the idea of the self-image, the body image. So even if you have not accomplished the movement itself, have not figured out yet how to do it, see if being in the process already makes a big difference.

8. As you are, put both arms above your head, on the floor, not to the ceiling, on the floor. Arch your back, as much as you can. And now, the head stays. You don’t put it on the top of the head, but you arch your back from the tailbone to the base of the neck. You do a lordosis, you create a big lordosis.

Keep the arch in your back, lift the legs up and swing yourself to sitting, even though many of you won’t sit.

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But don’t round. Don’t round, you see the idea is to keep yourself arched. Most of you won’t figure out how to sit yet. Don’t round. Don’t round the back, keep it arched.

Well, I think it is a very, very good experience for all you to also have that feeling of impossible, just impossible, can’t do it. Because you are going to work with people who feel that way about what you take for granted.

[TO STUDENT] You are rounding; you are using your abdomen muscles. I feel like calling you handsome, I hope I don’t offend you. No? Good. Handsome was using his abdomen muscles.

4 ENDNOTE #4: IF THEY COULD, THEY WOULD

8. Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit. Lean on your elbows and forearms. And now put your legs together.

You are going to lift both legs and bend the head towards the knees, like you are bringing the knees to the head and the head to the knees. You can bend the legs in the beginning to the extent you need and gradually, you are going to bend them less.

But don’t come up, it’s not a sitting up yet, sweetheart.

8a. And now, when the legs are up, with a swing of the legs, without pushing on the arms, see if you can sit yourself up.

[TO STUDENT] Excellent. "It" is behaving better. Take the legs a little higher up. Bend the knees a little bit. Make your life easy, bring the head forward. You tell a Jewish guy to make his life easier, you are going to get lots of resistance. He had a Jewish mother. It’s so good that I am Jewish because I can make all those Jewish jokes and nobody can tell me that I am anti-Semitic.

Keep doing that.

I know that these things are very much generalizations but there are cultural, racial characteristics, to groups of people who sort of inbred, for long enough periods of time.


I remember going to renew my Israeli passport and I walked into the Israeli Consulate, and first of all the security. That was quite a few years ago. Now, I can do it, I thought I could do it by mail but then there were so many things that finally I sent Bob to take care of it, my husband. He said he had the experience of his life. He walks in and there is this guard that says: Don’t move, anymore. He said, he like, he was like “OK”. Then there is this double see-through wall and another see-through wall. You have to come with a nuclear bomb to get through somehow or something. I did it when there was really severe security, but they let a lot of people sit around, you know, like in a waiting room and

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before I knew anything I was told how to run my life. What to eat, what to wear. I remember when I was little and I used to ride the bus, like to my ballet class or what not. Every time I would be on the bus people would tell me how to run my life. So, I stopped taking the bus. I started walking. I was too shy to tell them. It’s all done with a good heart. It’s not like mean or anything. It’s just, it’s invasive.

9. Ok, now come to the same position, come on your elbows and forearms. You are going to lift the legs and bend the head. Swing the legs and sit up without pushing the arms, right? Make sure the head comes forward.

When you go back on the elbows, slide them sideways a little bit. So you just roll a tiny bit more on your back, and then you swing yourself up to sitting. Don’t go all the way on the back right away. So you can sort of train yourself that way. There you go. Then you go and you swing a little more. So you become like this doll. How do you call this doll? Not roly-poly, they go like bang, bang, like that. Until you are completely sitting.

[DEMO] That’s nice, that’s nice. Handsome. Watch handsome. There you go. He is an actor, so he is used to that. Look at him. He is just pretending to use his elbows. You can still lean on the arms and widen them. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your arms.

Question! Ask? No, you stay rounded, this is a rounded version. Don’t worry, we come back to the other one.


But you have to admit, this has become easier. You need to encourage your teacher. It has become easier, right? And you’re being honest this time, right? I don’t know if you are having fun but I am.

10. Now as you are lying, lift your arms to the ceiling, arch your back galore, legs long.

Don’t swing, keep the chin close to the chest, and see if you can start coming up like that, or perhaps not yet.

Back arched. Arched, arched, arched, arched, a whole other world. No swinging.

[TO STUDENT] No, don’t try, the muscles in your legs are so tight, that they are going to make it impossible for you to sit up because your hip joints are too tight. You have to actually arch your back. Even if you detach a millimeter it is an accomplishment.

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10a. Now do it but go to the right first, that means the right arm a whole lot longer than the left. You keep the arch just like you did earlier in sitting, but you bring yourself more over to the right shoulder and see if that makes it easier.

[TO STUDENT] There you go. To the right, to the right. S., if you did it to the right with this kind of arch you would have come up. Go to the right and keep arching and you will come up. Almost, arch, now push the belly out. Oops, a little re-direct and it would work.

10b. And now do it to the left, but just make sure your back stays arched the whole time, arched, arched, arched, arched, arched.

No, you don’t roll the pelvis backwards. I saw somebody doing it very beautifully, by rolling the pelvis back. We are keeping the arch. Anybody feels they can do it? No, you are just bringing yourself over the shoulder because the arm is to the ceiling.

[TO STUDENT] There you go, arch, arch, arch, bring the head, you see it’s the head. You see, your head makes it so you can’t do it. The head, the chin, is all the time close, try it this way. There you go. Yes, you can; no keep, bring the head up, so you are here, ha, ha, ha, you see that is the differentiation. So arch your back, gently, gently, gently, keep it arched and lift the head already, lift it up and arch the back. There you go. You see. Keep the back arched and go down with the back arched, arched. [TN: applause] They are very happy to applaud for someone else.

10c. Come on, try it once to one side, once to the other, once through the middle. Doesn’t matter if you succeed or not.

You are doing it sweetheart. Look at it, she is doing it. [TO STUDENT] At that moment, push the belly out, push it even a little bit more. Push out the belly, OUT, you see, it will help you. There you go. [TN: applause] For her, it’s because she is wearing purple, it’s the power color, you know.

Rest, well deserved rest.

Feel when you stop, how you are getting spread out to the ground. Do you feel that? How come? How many of you feel smeared to the floor? How come? You worked your back like crazy and now you are lying like that. How is that? I want an answer. Because you used your muscles powerfully and intentionally, that gives your brain the opportunity to stop using them when you stop. One of the ways in which we are really reducing the quality of our action in the world is that we drag bits and pieces of the previous activity into the next one. So we use our back muscles involuntarily, which makes it weak, which makes it we can’t really use them, because they are contracted compulsively. This [TN: lesson] calls on you more and more to contract it intentionally and more fully. Then when you stop, your brain knows the difference, it can stop.

I always say that is the neurophysiological equivalent of the Zen teaching. How is that, do you know? You know the story of the two monks, the young monk and the old monk, that go along the river. For those of you who have heard that

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I apologize, I hope I don’t bore you and if I do, you’ll live. Two monks go along the river and they come to a beautiful, wonderful, young woman who is crying because she needs to go to the other side of the river and she doesn’t know how to swim. You know, and the monks are not supposed to touch women and all that stuff. So the young monk kind of says “What are we going to do?” The old monk says, “Just watch.” And he goes and picks the girl up and he goes across the river and puts her on the other side. Comes back, they keep walking. An hour and a half later the young monk says, “You are not supposed to touch a woman” and the old monk says, “I have already let go of her, you are still carrying her.” That’s what we do with our back muscles. We are supposed to use it and be over it, until the next time. That’s magnificent, I so love what I just said. To be honest with you.

11. Please sit up. Catch your right elbow with the left hand, left elbow with the right hand, from behind, from behind.

From behind, life is not that easy.

And now, push your belly out, get tall like that. And slowly, slowly, go down to lie like this. If you can, if you bring your elbows a little away from your back, you will cheat, but it will help you. You see? If you can lean. Because the elbows find, I meant lie on your elbows.

Go part way, start by just coming down on the elbows and then come back. Then arch the back, keep the arch, keep the lordosis.

The head doesn’t have to be thrown back, it will make it harder, and then come back. There you go, more and more of you are doing it. But if you lift the legs and round your back it is a different movement. Arch your back and you can have the hands a little bit on the floor, get off the elbows. And you can push a little, if you need to. Go ahead and do it.

[TO STUDENT] Do not throw your head back, S. S. your head does weigh something. You can even push on the hands behind you a little bit, but keep the lordosis in your back.

11a. And now, one time, go down first towards one elbow and lean on both elbows and then come back up. And then another time, go lean on the other elbow, and then come back.

Uh-uh, you felt it and it was the abdomen muscles, it was a crunch. You want an arch.

When you fall, if you would just push the belly out it would actually reduce the fall.

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11b. And now do it in the middle, a few times again. Take your arms away from the back, but arch the back. There you go.

I sit here and I just arch my back like crazy trying to tell you what to do.

11c. And now see if you can get all the way on your back like this. And come back up.

You can use your arms on the floor if you like, behind, same thing just all the way. You can come back up to one side or the other to make it a little easier.


It is hard work. It is both physically hard and it’s harder than it needs to be. It’s the less you know how to do it, the more energy you are wasting and so on. You actually are not supposed to do so much with them in this lesson, it’s involuntary; just, you know regulate how much you do and so on. But it is also very hard mental work.

12. And now sit up. Legs in front of you, long. Interlace your fingers, put them behind your back. Arch your whole back, big time, put the hands behind your head like that.

Keep yourself like that and start going back down, just as much as you can, so you know you can come back.

Don’t go towards lying on the back, but arch, arch, arch, and come back. You might not go all the way down ever, meaning ever today, but just do what you can. And come back. That’s excellent.

You can let the legs lift a little bit to help you if you want, but don’t lift them too much so you just fall. You can balance your body kind of like that, with the legs up and the thing arched. Hands interlaced behind the head.

12a. And now, lie on your back, put your arms to the ceiling, arch your back and see if you can sit up a little bit more.

There you go. Some of you are doing it. Either way, I’ll take it; either way with the head. But don’t flex the abdomen muscles. Arch the back.

Leave it alone. Rest.

13. Okay, okay, sit up. Get hold with your right hand the left hand so the arms are behind the head. And now arch your back, of course, and start going down like that.

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You can lift the legs bent, if you like. Slowly bend them, to balance.

I am not going to go too far on the chair because I have a ways to fall.

[TO STUDENT] Make sure, no, you rounded the back, so come back. The back [stays] arched. Even if you do 2° it’s amazing. You see, but don’t let the back round. There you go. It’s amazingly demanding.

13a. Now come to sit on your knees with your heels on your tush. Yes, arms in front of you. Arch the back big time. Don’t throw the head back. Arch, and sit up, sit up. That’s it. Now, very slowly, start going down like that with an arched back toward the floor. Don’t go all the way. Arched, arched, arched.

Who here is a yogi? Anyone do yoga?

[TO STUDENT] Protect it, protect it. So put it with the chin closer to the chest.

Anyone is a yoga practicing person, in the room, who is willing to admit to it at this moment? We have a whole other series of lessons that gets everybody to do it coming from a completely different angle.

[DEMO] Push the belly out. Slow, slow. See, she can do it. [to R.] Push the belly out, every time. Arch more. Come back even if you could go further. There you go. And now, very slowly, out, out, out. There you go. More, arch, arch, arch, there you go, and now out, out, out. Very slowly. Arch, more, arch, arch, arch, there you go. She doesn’t need much help, arch, push the belly out, when you feel, push the belly out. That’s it. You see the usual intent the habitual, ooh, like that, that crunch. It’s what CP kids do. Every time they try to move. That’s the more primitive movement. That’s the initial movement a baby does, after birth. Let’s try that again. All I am doing is helping her feel it. That’s it. Slow, slow, slow, slow. Push more. Every time you think “oh my god” push more. That’s right. You’ll see, it’s a minimum amount you start pushing and actually arching more. Arching more, arching more, arching more. You see I don’t let her pull on me. She just thought she was going to.

All of you, do what you can but every time it feels hard don’t go this [TN: flex, crunch], go this [TN: arch, push belly out]. It’s not about going down, because many of you are not organized to go all the way down, but it’s this control over what you do with your belly and your back. Slow, slow, slow.

Excellent, you see that’s a whole lot better. It’s not about going all the way down. It’s about being able to have a say in what you do with your back. That’s it. Excellent. You can even breathe. There is room to breathe. Look at the power. Look at Iris right now. Look where she is. She doesn’t have to go all the way; she is not ready to go all the way down. But look, push a little forward, she can breathe. She can do what she wants. That’s real power. That’s where we have the most power in the body. So whatever you can [TN: do] of that.

Leave it alone, rest for a minute.

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14. Sit, we are almost done, I promise. Sit. Legs in front of you, arms in front of you, shoulder height. Arch your back big time. You can bend the knees along the way. Start going back like that with the back arched. And see if that is a little easier. See if you can do it some of the way and if you can do it better.

Against your own will, you have to admit that it is so. You have to be honest. You see, so it’s not about going all the way. Everyone in this room I believe feels a difference. This morning when you woke up, you didn’t know you were going to do this. Two mornings ago you didn’t, ok? You were hoping.

14a. Lie on your back, both arms above your head, interlace your fingers so the head is in front of the upper arms a little bit. Lift your legs, arch your back, swing and come to sitting like this. But keep your arms above your head.

[TO STUDENT] Not in front. Above your head, arched, swing with the legs. Arch, arch, that’s it, good girl. There we go. You see if you really arch your back, you are going to fall on your shoulders. You are, otherwise you are rounding your back, which is what we’ve been working on you learning to do and now you are sneaking it in. See, if you really arch your back you are going to fall on the shoulders. But you are safe, because your arms are above.

You are still rolling, A. put your arms behind your head, cross your fingers, look it, I go around like that [TN: intertwined], cross them like that, so behind your head. Arched, go back arched. No, now you rounded your back. All the way arched, you can do it girl, you can do it, push, push the belly out. Now go slow, you see, you pull the belly in because you get the fear of falling, which is the only reflex we have. So I am trying to get you to override the feeling of falling because you are going to land on this. [TN: Anat touches A's shoulders] Lift your legs, and fall. There you go. All right. Anybody else wants to try it?

14b. And now, without any restraints, hold your arms behind your head. Swing your legs and come to sitting and go back to lying and see if that has become like nothing. You do whatever you want with your back.

C, there is hope, I promise you. You see, so even though your arms are above your head. Just swing, swing, any way, just make it easy. Up and down, a doll, be a doll, like those, they have a name, a different name. There is another kind that falls down and comes back up. It has a name; I just don’t remember. Yes, they have a name.

And now, lie on your back, please and rest.

Okay, S says rest. Lie on your back and rest. I get you to be strong and independent and then I’ll suffer. Because you see, this work, I think leads people into true strength, not uptight, limited strength. Real freedom and then you have to live with free people. Then you

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have to upgrade everybody’s consciousness so that everybody is working for the good of the whole.

15. Bend your knees, put your feet standing. Get a hold of your legs from the outside behind the knees, thumbs together with the rest of the fingers. Begin pulling the knees away, lift the head the moment you feel it on the neck. And see what it is like now.

Look at that. Behind the knees not in front, behind, spread the legs. There you go.

And when you go down, let yourself sink.

But feel, many of you, if not most of you, some of you still have a little bit of a pull, but if you reduce the tension in your shoulders and chest, you will sit up like nothing. Most of you just sit up, you feel. You can go slow now; you can go fast.

15a. Swing a few times.

But J., why are you holding the head behind you when you come up? Bring the head up. You weren’t here in the first days when we did it. Bring the head up. That’s why you are doing it; you are uninformed. There you go. That’s it.

And anywhere you feel a little difficulty reduce the effort in the chest.

You feel, look at you, one after the other. I’m looking, nothing to it. Can you feel that? Some of you are doing it so that you feel like you are almost coming on your feet. Can you feel that? Well, it’s a difference from a few days ago.

[TO STUDENT] Here we go, show me what you did. I just saw her standing all of the sudden. Go on the back, no, don’t worry, do it slow. You see for her, lying and sitting is almost the same now. That’s it. But you see you are pushing, if you just kept bringing the head forward, you would not have to push on the thighs. Bring the head forward. There you go.

It’s all about softening the chest, bringing the head forward enough, then the tush comes up. That’s it. That’s how we work and teach children to stand up. Because that is the way we stand up, we stand up from down. Most people try to teach kids to stand up from up, nobody learns. You see the head has to come way forward, way forward, then we can stand up, then the lower back catches, and you stand up. Again, the head forward, all you have to think is the head forward. Every time you think the head forward, then you will be up. Some of you are not ready to do it, then don’t kill yourselves because there are more lessons that play with that, too. Ok, let you play with that. But now your challenge is to stand up, sitting is not even a consideration anymore whereas sitting earlier this week was a big deal.

15b. Stand up whichever way you want.

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Ok, stand up you guys and feel yourself in standing. Aha, feel the arms now, the chest.

No talking for a second. Feel what it’s like to stand up now. What it means. Feel.

It’s like somebody has gone in and organized your skeleton. Your brain is organizing you so much more accurately to bear weight, so you see, the arms are hanging, the shoulders are hanging, and when you walk you will probably feel your legs a bit like noodles.

15c. Walk around.

Not weakness, but you just don’t need as much force. Feel that? Wonderful.

Thank you.

[END OF LESSON]

1 ENDNOTE #1: INTRO, USING AND DEVELOPING IMAGINATION SKILL

Okay. We’re going to continue with the same theme that we've been working already twice, three, times, four times actually. Do as few movements as you need, take as many rests as you need. Use this amazing upgrading you’ve done on your brain this morning, unless you were asleep through it. And you'll find that with lessons like that where it employs a lot of the imagination, many people initially fall asleep because people are not used to doing it. People when they get into that very quiet, focused state tend to fall asleep, because that's what they're used to. That is how you are when you sleep, but it's a very different thing to do it and stay awake. It’s a muscle, so to speak, that you develop. It’s a capability that you develop, the ability to really imagine and think. I see it and I understand it.

My experience of it is that this ability to imagine/think is a skill. And it's a skill that we have a certain initial childish version of it. You know, early on that it's a sort of a given that children, healthy children in healthy conditions, have very vivid imaginations. But it's just like walking; the way a child walks does not generate a Cirque du Soleil tight rope walker, right? And little children make lots of sounds, but between that and being a singer, be it a rock singer or an opera singer, there is a big distance. That means there is the initial childish, less differentiated form of that capacity and then it's up to us to develop it more or not. And that capacity of thinking and imagination as far as I'm concerned, and awareness by the way, is in that same family; is the highest human and uniquely human capacity, certainly in terms of the extent to which we can do it. Most people do not develop this capacity much and certainly stopped doing it past their teenage years or college years and very often college and school stops it rather than develops it, depends how it’s done. So people fall asleep. It's as simple as that. That's okay, and then you wake up. In the beginning very often people can't do more than anywhere between 5 to 20 seconds at a time.

And there is a place where Moshe speaks about it and he talks, I don’t know if you heard it this morning, about Einstein. He says that Einstein did it for about an hour and a half to two hours

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nonstop, and that's when he developed the relativity theory. But most people don't do it at all, or can't do it more than a few seconds at a time. And you’re going to develop gradually more and more and more. And you will see that at that time, the upgrading to the system is such that you will find yourself thinking and inventing and doing things that simply are not available to you otherwise and it is unpredictable, because it is invention. The only thing that you can predict is that it’s going to happen.

So now, you're going to move into a lesson, we’re going to go into a lesson, that is primarily movement instruction, but I want you to bring into the lesson that same quality. Does that make sense? So, use that capacity that you continued playing with and employing, in the morning. Use it while you're moving because eventually when we are in this upgraded state, we are using the thinking and imagination as we are actually doing the things that we already know. You understand, you can combine the two things, it is not an either-or. You want to infuse your action with that quality.

2 ENDNOTE #2: DEMO WITH PREGNANT STUDENT

What about her? Is she doing it? Where is she? I don't see her. Is she doing it well? Well, we don't want the baby delivered right now so I’m going to go check. What month are you, by the way? Six. How does it feel for you to do it? Good. Okay, do it slowly, let’s watch, whichever way works for you. There you go. Excellent. There you go, just move yourself a little more to the side, arch your back, and take yourself a whole lot, as much as you need, just as much as you need, to the side. You feel, that's lovely, and now let’s do it again. Now when you go up, start moving yourself to the side, side, side, side, side, side. You see, it doesn’t have to be hard at all. Now don't do many of those, two to one side, two to the other side, that’s it. That is fantastic for four months from now, just fantastic.

I had a close girlfriend of mine when I just started doing this work. She was the first of us to get married, get pregnant, the whole thing. She did the classes, she did the work, and I did a lot of those. I fit the lessons of the class to her pregnancy. It was a 15 group class. It was men and women, but I fit it, so we all did the pelvic clock, and everywhere. I get a call, I was the first person called from her husband, when she delivered. It took her under an hour to do the delivery. Towards the very end when she was nine months, I remember I did one of those rock the pelvis something, I remember seeing this belly go towards me and away and I thought oops, she is just going to plop the baby out. I better stop. I said that’s it, you're not allowed in this class until after you give birth.

So just do a little, so we don't create the exhaustion. But you see, pregnant women are strong and in many, many cultures they pick the rice or whatever they do. They're not supposed to be weakened but don't just overdo it. Okay? But a few of those movements are just perfect and it feels good to her. You see. And when you do it, arch the back – arch; arch the back. Keep that big, open, long, long in the front. Long. You see it's a whole lot, before you go feel how long the line is here. So you are lifting here. Marvelous. The baby loves that. There you go. You see now it became really easy. Once the spine is really arched, you feel. So then when you go back arch, arch, arch, arch, arch. Now you can really do a big belly. There we go. And keep that arched. Keeping it arched makes it easy. That’s it. Now you stop and rest on the side. There you go. She said, "it" feels great.

3 ENDNOTE #3: DEMO

Now there are many ways to not lean on the elbows. So look here for a second, quickly. And you do it the way you did it before and C. you do it the way you did it before. And look at the three of them. So look what Cc. does. Where are her shoulders and where are her elbows? No, no, no,

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don’t correct yet. You see, the vertical line, which there is no choice there, that’s how the mechanics work, is going straight here. So really she has to use her abdomen muscles to keep up - to about a third of extra. Now look at that. Do this. Round your back, lift your legs a little bit more, why not? That you could hang out there and watch TV. Okay, so you see if just the chest gets a little bit freer in here. The head is vertical, and this is vertical, and this means that the ground is doing the work for you, to a great extent. So the trick is to develop a nervous system that knows to lead you to where it works. And that is the answer to your question yesterday, C. Now you do it your way. The legs are together, which is a huge amount of work on the adductors. Look where her arms are. Where she has the ability to put the elbows under, and how about just opening those poor legs a little bit? Round your back, round your back, bend your knees a touch, we are not doing stretching exercises. Has that just become easier? Just a little. Do it a few more times. And then your back and your upper back will get a little softer. Now guide your elbows to where it will work. Remember yesterday you took the elbows like Marcel Marceau? Behind you. But you see, you can round your back even sooner. Come back, come back.

So it’s not a question of doing it correctly or accurately, per se. But it’s a question of gradually developing the inner ability for self-guidance, that you feel when it's comfortable or not. Then even if you don’t succeed the first time, the next time you do it a little differently. That you don't just go back to this really uncomfortable place. It's like who is home? So we want a vibrant brain, we want a vibrant person that feels what is happening with them and has room to move about and get "it" to work better. The "it" is us, you see.

4 ENDNOTE #4: IF THEY COULD, THEY WOULD

What I said that Iris wants me to repeat, and for Iris, not only you, it has extra meaning. It is a good, I don’t know good or bad, but it is a useful experience for you to be asked to do something that initially feels like, “You must be kidding, not possible, is not happening, and will not happen.” How many of you have had that feeling at least once this afternoon with this lesson? Right, everybody, or almost everybody. So, you will be working with people, both adults and children, for whom doing what you take for granted because it is really easy for you, for them it is going to feel as untenable, at least, as what you do here. Now you are going to be able to do more and more of this and so will they, but you need to have a profound appreciation of what it feels like for another person to absolutely not have a clue how to do something that to you looks like it is easy. Because you do it, because other people do it. That it’s really that when somebody cannot do something, they really can’t do it. They are not faking it, they are not being psychological, they really don’t know how.

One of the things that always drove me crazy, when dealing, you know, I was overlapped between the world of clinical psychology and this world and the world of rehabilitation for quite a few years. I remember one of the things I would hear was they have secondary gain, that’s why they are not doing it. Every time I heard that, I wanted to punch the mouth that it came from. Because it means like they could do it but they are not doing it because they are getting better outcome from not doing it. If I really believed that about a person, I wouldn’t be able to work with them. If anybody is sitting paralyzed in a wheelchair and not walking because they think it is better than walking and working, then they really need help. Who of you would elect wheelchair and immobility to getting up in the morning and working? I want to see one hand coming up. Really, if you took it for a minute serious, it’s nonsense. It could be they are really close and they don’t know they can do it or they have a lot of fear around it or they have been out of the workplace or they have all kinds of cockamamie things around it.

The other term that I have never, ever, ever bought into, long before I learned this work, is called resistance; that comes from the Freudian analysis. It’s called oh, people will have a resistance to change. People don’t have resistance to change; people have a hard time changing. We are built

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to not change and to change at the same time. We have a nervous system that creates habits in no time, in no time. It’s like if I decided now that I wanted to have an American accent, whatever dialect of American accent. I could go to Los Angeles, and I could spend a number of months and if I had a really good coach probably shorter than most, and I could get - actually, I used to have an American accent and I lost it when I went back to Israel and I had English speaking teachers and then I had Moshe forever with his Russian, French, English, Hebrew, Yiddish accent. But right now, this is where my brain has settled. Works well enough, most people understand what I am saying. So if I wanted to change my accent I would have to spend hours and hours and hours, even though I really want to. Now there are ways to do it a lot faster, there is actually somebody… one of the researchers, did you send it to me or did I find it myself? This guy who figured a way for Japanese people to distinguish L and R in an hour. It’s Merzenich too? I’ll kill this guy. He really gets it. He’s wonderful. He really, really gets it. And he finds concrete ways to work with it, which is also very nice. There are ways to do it a lot faster if you know what you are doing. But then you really have to work with it, you really have to coochie coo your system. So people don’t have resistance, people are just idiots. I mean if they could, they would. That wasn’t politically correct, was it? I meant it in a very endearing way. I really did, I really did. I’m one of those people. I belong to the same race. I confront my own idiocy, trust me, on a moment by moment basis. I’m sure that even Merzenich does that too. Doesn’t matter that you understand, you still have to work within the system, the system that we are given, our brains, our bodies, our environment, our social environment and so on and so forth. People don’t change, not because they resist change. This is an interpretation by an inept coach that can’t help them change.

There are no resistant clients, there are ineffective teachers. The only thing you can say is I don’t know how to help you. I don’t know how to lead you from this point to the next point. I am out of ideas. Go find somebody who can do it better than me. That is the only thing I know to say to people. I can’t look at them and say they are resistant. I can say that I have run out of ideas. And usually when I feel that the next thing I get is a flood of new ideas. Not always, but usually, actually always. I can also say I don’t want to try any longer. I am entitled not to work with somebody if I wanted to. I am not obligated to do it. It’s not like I have to. But my clients are not resistant. If I have a resistant client it is because I am walking in a direction that is not working for them. Okay. After I told you this wonderful thing, let’s get you resistant again. No, no, no, no, I am just teasing you.

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Anat Baniel Method Professional Training Transformational Movement Lessons