Lael Katharine Keen – Ida Rolf’s Wisdom & Techniques for Moving Effortlessly With Gravity 2023

During this highly experiential course, you’ll:

• Explore how ground and space orientation shape movement
• Activate core stability throughout your body, including in the lower back through the feet and legs, in the upper back through the hands and arms, and in the neck and head through balanced use of the sense organs
• Learn why aligned posture that comes from within far surpasses any “good” posture that has been imposed upon you
• Explore the power of pre-movement — how acts of attention can prevent tension and create deeper ease and movement flow
• Learn how to balance, mobilize, and stabilize the sacroiliac joints and the base of the spine
• Activate the triangle of balance — the 3 functions that weave together to inform your balance system
• Experience the “youthing” effects of opening the sinuses and allowing the face to soften and relax
• Discover the double functions of the feet — stability and mobility, grounding and support/impulse — and how these forces work in your own body
• Integrate the joints of the legs from feet to hips with the upper body, with two-way lengthening, and space and ground orientation
• Find the optimal and effortless balancing of your head and neck to create lightness and flow all the way down through your body
• Discover what keeps the knee joint healthy throughout your life
• Discover how the way that you use your eyes has a direct impact on hip function and hip health

Breathing, which by far is our most repetitive movement pattern, supports all other movements and determines our overall wellbeing. As human beings, we breathe an astounding 17,000-25,000 breaths per day.

In this opening session, you’ll explore the deeper connections between breath and movement, some of the different perceptual patterns that determine our pre-movement…

… and how easeful movement is influenced by a balance of orientation to ground and space.

Before we move, our body prepares to move, and in doing so determines the quality of movement that will occur.

You’ll also discover the three steps to changing a movement pattern, and apply this new knowledge to one of your most basic daily movements — breathing.

During the first class, you’ll:

• Explore how ground and space orientation shape movement
• Learn the 3 steps for changing a movement pattern
• Discover the power of pre-movement — how acts of attention can prevent tension and create deeper ease and movement flow
• Explore your unique breathing pattern through the cycle of breath — and how the posture of the head directly affects the breath
• Experience how easeful breathing can be when you release the outbreath, rest into the pause at the end of the outbreath, and allow the inbreath
• Learn simple interventions of attention and orientation to facilitate each phase of the cycle of breath

The feet are structures of marvelous engineering, with 26 bones and 34 joints. The movement that happens (or doesn’t happen) in the feet sets up either freedom or restriction, stability or instability throughout the rest of the body.

You’ll explore how to optimize the functions of your feet, including understanding the relationship of the different arches…

… and learn how to use your feet to allow the double function of 1) stability and mobility, and 2) grounding and support/impulse up through the rest of the body.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover the double functions of the feet — stability and mobility, grounding and support/impulse — and how these forces work in your own body
• Explore your own movement patterns and habits in your feet — and how to work with them so that they become more alive and adaptable
• Learn a simple grounding and calming practice that you can do anywhere
• Optimize the balance between the heel and the ball/toes of the foot for a deeper support of the front and back of your body
• Experience how you can work with movement through the arches of your feet for a more comfortable and joyous experience in walking
• Learn how a stable foot sets the stage for a stable knee and back — and experience how to court stability in your own feet

For comfortable movement that revitalizes the joints in your legs instead of breaking them down, all the joints in the legs need to work together in harmony with each other, and with the pelvis, spine, and upper body.

You’ll take the next step in this harmonious coordination by deepening your understanding and experience of the knees and hips… and then integrating the balance that you find with your feet for a fluid, balanced lower body.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover what keeps the knee joint healthy throughout your life
• Feel the difference between full extension of the knee and hyperextension — and learn why one is essential to knee health while the other is to be avoided
• Meet the special muscle responsible for stabilizing the knee — and learn how to activate it
• Discover how the way that you use your eyes has a direct impact on hip function and hip health
• Learn movement practices for connecting your hips with your feet — and with the arms and shoulders
• Begin to activate contralateral movement through the hips and shoulders
• Integrate the joints of the legs from feet to hips with the upper body, with two-way lengthening, and space and ground orientation

Ida Rolf called the pelvis “the seat of the soul.” The pelvic bones and the sacrum, which sits between them and joins them at the sacroiliac joints, create a bridge between your upper and lower body — and between your spine and legs.

When movement flows harmoniously from and between your legs and pelvis, not only do the daily activities of walking and sitting become pleasurable, but they contribute to your long-term wellbeing.

You’ll learn how to allow movement to pass through your pelvis between the legs and the spine…

… automatically finding and activating the deep intrinsic muscles of core stability that keep your back healthy and stimulate the nerves to your abdominal-pelvic viscera.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn about the anatomy of the pelvic floor — and experience it in your own body
• Explore the movement of the 2 sides of the pelvic floor in walking — and how this contributes to a healthy lower back
• Learn how to balance, mobilize, and stabilize the sacroiliac joints and the base of the spine
• Meet your psoas muscle and learn how to activate it through movement for enhanced flexibility throughout your lower body
• Learn a practice to help you find effortless balance in sitting

Your arms connect to every vertebrae in your spine — from above to below. When used in daily movement, some of these connections bring tension and shortening of the muscles in the neck and shoulders, while others bring length and ease.

You’ll explore the balance of your upper weight center — the upper thorax and rib cage, and how your breathing supports your arm movement.

You’ll learn how to connect your arm and hand movement to your spine to help your chest stay open and your neck to stay long, relaxed, and comfortable while you use your arms.

Lael will also share how aligned posture that comes from within as a result of your balance and presence far surpasses the “good” posture that has been imposed upon you from the outside, e.g., “pull your shoulders back, push your chest out, and tuck your chin in.”

In this module, you’ll discover:

• The muscle that stabilizes the shoulder girdle — and how to wake it up and bring it into your daily movement for ease, balance, and comfort
• Movement practices to align the shoulder girdle and open the chest/heart area
• How the posture and use of the arms/shoulders can facilitate both your inbreath and outbreath
• A movement practice to release tension in the forearms and wrists — and support balanced breathing
• Why aligned posture that comes from within far surpasses any “good” posture that has been imposed upon you

You’ll work with what Ida Rolf called “The Upper Pole” — the organization of the head, on the neck and spine, differentiated and free from arm function, and supported by an open breathing function and adaptability in the chest.

You’ll explore the different functions that allow the most easeful balance of the head with the rest of the body and the vestibular system, the use of your sense organs, and the coordination of neck and jaw muscles.

Lael will also share practices that optimize the function of each of the above components, including new ways to release the jaw and even stop nighttime clenching and grinding.

Ultimately, you’ll experience the sense of lightness and effortless uprightness that occur when your head, neck, and spine are balanced.

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore the triangle of balance — the 3 functions that weave together to inform your balance system
• Learn how to find the optimal and effortless balancing of the head on the neck to create lightness and flow all the way down through the body
• Discover and practice the health benefits of nose breathing with ease instead of effort
• Experience the “youthing” effects of opening the sinuses and allowing the face to soften and relax
• Discover how to balance focal and peripheral vision — and the effects that this has on posture, movement, grounding, and alignment
• Learn about the superpower of your sense of smell to organize the posture of the head and the vestibular system

During your final class, you’ll bring together everything that you have learned into a sequence of explorations designed to activate two-way lengthening, stability, grace, and ease throughout your body from head to toe.

You’ll also explore the core stability system and its vital importance to the health of your spine and joint system.

At this point, you’ll have enough somatic understanding of ground and space orientation to be able to touch into a new level of the two-way lengthening and bring it into your daily movement.

In this module, you’ll:

• Gain a deeper understanding of how the core stability system works and how it keeps your body vital, stable, supple, and graceful throughout your life
• Discover the fine art of spinal succession
• Activate core stability in the lower back through the feet and legs, in the upper back through the hands and arms, and in the neck and head through balanced use of the sense organs
• Learn simple practices that help you find and feel the lengthening and releasing effects of bidirectional movement