Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Lesson 10: Finesse vs. Force

Today I showed you the spine on the skeleton, and pointed out the structural parts of the skeleton we focus on a lot in class:
the sacrum, sit bones, ball joints of the hips and shoulders.
Especially notice that the body naturally reduces forces between the spinal vertebrae with the disks between the bones, what I like to call "jelly donuts". These flexible disks can squish in many ways to give us the ability to move gracefully and with finesse!

Here is a couple good sites to learn more:

Our practice today involved a focus on moving between poses with gentle ease and finesse, instead of plopping and forcing ourselves to go places that our body didn't want to go. We can use the breath to help our mind relax and let us put our bodies in new positions.

We did sun salute C, with three different sequences,boat, partner boat, flower, and daisy chain.

Journal entry #10: Finesse vs. Force
Write a description:
Think of a time when you weren’t getting something that you wanted, maybe you had a tantrum and tried to force things to go your way, maybe you were sad inside and felt like no one cared. Think of a way, or ways, that you could have done things differently, or looked at things differently so that you could have left the situation happier.

Here's an example:
You made a plans with a friend and while you are together she gets a text from someone else. She makes you stop what you are saying to text this person back. This happens several more times. You are not happy, you feel ignored, like whoever is texting her is more important than you. What would be the best way to handle this so that you feel OK? How could you react with finesse so that you both get what you need from the friendship?
  1. grab her phone out of her hands and yell at her
  2. stomp your feet and walk away in a huff
  3. wait a bit, get her attention and tell her how this makes you feel

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