I lift my chin too much. The back of the neck shortens and the abdominal core loses tone. Walking over to teach yoga this morning, I found a way of aligning my body that seemed to address the issue. The first action was to let my chin drop until I felt the back of the neck lengthen. That brought my head level without any effort - I was actually relaxing from the habitual muscular effort of tightening neck muscles to lift the chin. Then I focused on keeping my front relaxed and lengthened up from the top of the spine in back. I noticed that as I walked, I felt my weight heavy in my heels with each step, and the lift at the base of my skull. Between those points my body felt suspended - hips, legs, arms. I focused on my heels moving down and occiput moving up and let my body move in a relaxed way - not trying to control my walking motion in any particular way - it knows what to do. I noticed as well, as I turned my head from side to side, that the usual tension and creakiness or sticking in the neck movement was gone. I think this can become a new and better pattern with just a little attention.
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