Coordination, Alignment and Balance
Your Two Best Friends
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Start by standing comfortably. This generally means - feet under your hips, feet parallel, feeling for a stable and adaptable base of support under you.
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Then (from T'ai Chi) feel for your own personal overhead star. Your Nadir star. The star directly overhead your crown.
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Feel for the silk thread coming from that star, down to your crown. The thread that is lifting you, and holding you upright. This is your first best friend.
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Then feel for the center of the Earth. Just like your overhead star, you know right where that is. This is your second best friend.
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At the bottom of each of your feet there is a place called the "Bubbling Well" in T'ai Chi. It is just behind the ball of your foot. It a hollow-ish area, that is the actual and experiential center-of-gravity for your body (aka Kidney 1 in Chinese Medicine). Feel for your alignment to travel through each Bubbling Well to the center of the Earth.
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These are your two best friends: the star overhead, and the center of the Earth. They are always there for you. Rest between them - open, supple, responsive, relaxed.
Turn Under the Ball
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Hold the ball up overhead, with either hand
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Feel for what is directly overhead
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Then turn about under the ball
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Re-coordinate, re-calibrate
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Make adjustments
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Use a light ball to listen. A heavier ball can give you more sensory input, like where you are leaning. A lighter ball can help you feel the fine-tuning better. Note the differences.
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Once or twice around can be enough, and you can try it again later
Activate Your Glutes
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Gluteus Maximus!
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Start by standing comfortably - feet hip width apart, feet parallel, feeling the alignment with your "two best friends" (see above).
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Now squeeze your butt cheeks together.
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Feel for how this torques your pelvis open, meaning your front opens out.
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Feel for how this brings your knees out.
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Feel for how this lifts the arches of your feet.
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Let the movement also lift your chest.
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Stay easy, open, relaxed - but with activated cheeks.
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Now, this part is subtle - but, keeping your pose, now torque your great toe into the ground. Easy. Screw it down for stability.
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This is not a stiff practice. This is an activation reminder for glute max - reminding them of a job they have. A little activation reminder and they will stay on the job.
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You can practice the stance for empowerment. And you can occasionally activate the pose to keep the glutes engaged.
Occipital Alignment
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sit or stand comfortably upright
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feel for the alignment where your head can balance most easily
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then feel even closer for where it has the feeling it could float, easily, like a small boat on a gentle lake
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check that spot by moving off of it and noticing how the floating stops
Balance a Club
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Place a club, or a broom stick, or any object (you can make it fun), on your finger, or palm, ... or even forehead, or nose.
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Balance it!
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Balance it standing still, or walking around, or with one or the other eye closed, or both eyes closed!
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Keep yourself limber and agile, letting your body lean and balance too.
Draw Opposite Circles
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Reach your arms out to the sides.
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Start by drawing circles with one arm in one direction.
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Then add the other arm - drawing circles in the opposite direction.
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Keep the rhythm.
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Play with symmetry and asymmetry.
Moving in Opposite Planes
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Reach your arms out to the sides.
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Move one hand back and forth, flat, parallel to the ground.
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Move your other hand up and down, perpendicular to the ground.
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Change sides.
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What happens?
Stop for the Flat
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Start with both "hands up".
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Then move both arms at the same time.
- one moves between up and down, pausing at each station.
- the other also moves between up and down, but has an additional station where the hand is flat.
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Pause at each station.
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Switch sides.
Drawing a "6" and Twirling your Ankle
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Start by lifting your heel
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Circle your ankle in a clockwise direction
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Once that pattern is set, draw a figure "6" with you finger.
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Try different sides, different combinations.
The Unpredictable Bounce
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Arrange an irregularly shaped object (in this case some juggling clubs) against the wall and throw a bouncy ball into it.
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The ball will bounce back unpredictably
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Your reflexes need to be twice as fast to catch it!
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You can arrange your clubs on a table against the wall, keeping the game more upright.
Teeny Jumps
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It can be surprising how we rarely, if ever - jump!
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This playful practice simply starts to retrain this reflex.
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And it can get a bit aerobic rather quickly.
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It is stimulating and fun.
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Tailor it to your liking. Small jumps are fine.
Standing on a Ball
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If you use a heavy ball, this is surprisingly not that hard. I use a 15 lb "medicine ball" - see suggestions on toys
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You can also put the ball against the leg of a desk to keep it from rolling, use the wall for your hands, use any props around to help.
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Naturally, go easy, slow, feel. This is not a heroic move. Stay in balance.
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This can feel really good on the feet too.
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Be safe of course, stay in your limits.
Finding "Blind Spots" and Seeing Into Them
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It is not uncommon for there to be areas of our visual fields where we are just a bit slower at noticing that something is there, or coming toward us.
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Or areas where we are reflexively slower at catching or responding to something in that visual field.
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Hold the ball and move it with your hand.
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Make a circle, make figure "8's", make lines, check the edges.
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Notice what is true for you, and look into it.
Tunnel or Broad Focus
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Start with as wide-an-angle gaze as you can.
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Keep your eyes steady, just notice how much you can see and "pick-up".
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Then focus specifically on one object - tunnel vision into it.
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Notice the changes in your body.
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Explore this during your day. How does your habits of seeing affect you?
Where is the Ball?
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Hold the ball up high and drop it by your feet.
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Close your eyes and cover your ears and "feel" for where it lands.
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Keeping your eyes closed, see if you can reach down and touch it with your finger. How close are you?
