Posture Release Imagery

Within the Alexander Technique, the “monkey” is the name frequently used when talking about a general position that FM Alexander considered a particularly healthy position, a position of mechanical advantage.

Here FM is teaching a young student this skill… to bend forward primarily using the hip and knee joints while allowing the head, neck, and back to remain lightly poised, long, and released. She probably had the ability as a young child. 

I believe that learning to move into this sturdy yet light position of mechanical advantage is made possible in the image exercise that I am presenting here… without the guidance of a teacher.   

To the uninitiated (and even those familiar with my imagery) this image will be very peculiar. However, since I believe that with practice this image provides the “guidance” needed to execute a healthy unobstructed “monkey” (with practice) I will proceed. The first two illustrations are merely to explain the origin of the third illustation, which contains the actual image sequence.

Illustration 1 – One of my early depictions of the evolution of the “full” dorsal qualities on the body

 
Illustration 2 – Early article showing one useful/healthy imaginary conception of “neck free, head forward, and up.” 

Illustration 3 - The first figure on the left describes how many of us feel, I suspect… able to breathe but still feeling submerged in a worrisome environment. The second and third figures represent my impression of myself during and after my first Alexander Technique lesson. I felt like my head was coming to float above the “morass.” (As I described it then I think that I meant dirty water). Like a cork on the water. This suggested that I felt more like the first figure on the left before the lesson.  

The “director” segment is shown with a full dome-shaped dorsal surface and a flat, taut ventral surface. The front part of the arm and half of the shoulder is part of the director segment, as depicted in Figure 3 on human-like models. 

In the third figure, the front part of the arm and shoulder is shown bobbing up and floating with the head like a cork on water, bobbing about very very gently . Everything that is white is floating on the water surface. 

Imagine that you are in water and this is happening to you. 

If you experience success with this portion of the image (which is an increased sense of lightness and at least a fleeting sense of your director segment floating) then next imagine that your “motor” and “rudder” segments begin to float to the surface as well, one step at a time. If you are standing while doing this exercise, the imagining, with a little diligence, should induce going into a healthy squat or “monkey.” If you are sitting, it should promote your moving forward and coming out of the chair… but not to full standing but rather to the monkey position. If the parts 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 are thought to be progressively losing some of their buoyancy, you should eventually end up standing. (If you are fully standing and imagine losing all buoyancy in 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3, the image should take you to a deep vertical squat (or to a chair if it is behind you).  

This image, like all imagery, must be experimented with diligently for a period to gain more permanent benefit and knowledge from it… as well as to see it as something other than silly. 

Best of luck… and email for any assistance or with any comments, 

John Appleton

How well supported we are when we carry weight is precisely connected to how well we are supported when we have “only” our own weight to carry. I put “only” in quotation marks because for many of us carrying our own weight, even if we are not overweight, is not a simple task. Some tire rather quickly from it. 

Those of you familiar with my imagery will find some familiar ground in this imagery advice… yet this is new. The illustration directly below is one of my “bear rug” depictions (perhaps it looks more like a “reptile rug”). This is the depiction of our dorsal surface stretched out.  

The image to the left is a depiction of where we most benefit from sensing freedom through our bodies. It is an illustration of splits running through the body (but not to the edges). These splits show areas of freedom most important to graceful and fluid movement. Imagining freedom in the body in this way is counter-intuitive… and new. The locations suggested for promoting (imagining) maximal freedom in the body are unexpected… down through the spine, along limb bones, and other strange locales. But that, I suspect, is partly why these locations are valuable to see as free… even almost totally free or disconnected…as shown in the drawing. We allow ourselves to remain tied up in these areas (even when we physically stretch to limber up our head, limbs, or trunk). 

What is most interesting is the “fact” (test it and you will agree) that these same locations where I suggest that we benefit most from imagining splits, separation, or total freedom in the body are also where we most easily can carry weight (even our own) without doing damage to ourselves. It is also where we can benefit from imagining that our body weight, plus any additional weight, is carried from. 

You can see that at the bottom of this first illustration (above) are instructions for where, especially, not to allow a sense of being split, or being weighed down dorsally, to prevail. This is because these areas… at the mid and lower back, at the neck and lower part of the neck (often described as the upper back), and at the bridge of the nose… are structurally weaker spots for many people, places that often do not feel strong or sturdy. The image instructions below can help overcome those problems.  Before reading the imagery instructions, however, it can be useful to look at where the locations of splits or weights would appear on a human, which is evolutionarily more complex in shape than the simplified version first shown.

 
Illustration showing the dorsal and ventral side of the splits (the dotted lines)
(Splits on the ventral surface of the face are not shown).

Illustration showing weights attached to the dorsal side of the body. 

Perhaps imagining that weight is being placed upon you is easier than that splits are showing up between sections of your body. It is also the topic of this blog entry. So first, I will explain the image of weights being precisely placed on your body: 

This image is not for newcomers, though newcomers may begin to learn from reading this blog entry. The group of image exercises described here require the ability to experience a good level of success with the basic “lamb and egg” exercise found on the universal imagery page… and a large level of success with this sequence may also require having worked with the type-specific versions of the “lamb and egg.” An article I wrote, “Self, Other, Earth, & Cosmos - and the Dorsal/Ventral Relationship,” could also help in preparation for these images as well. It can be downloaded from the Article page. 

(Click on illustration for an enlarged, once or twice, separate page version)

Maturing gracefully is no easy feat. Right? Because of that fact, I think that this sequence of image exercises is an important tool. It provides experience in the healthy range of movement that should come with growing through the stages of maturity. To successfully go through the various images that are presented in this illustration (described below) will take work… but the rewards make it worth it. Not only will the body experience new freedom and organization, but it will go through unexpected emotional experiences. Both your range of movement and your emotional range is stretched by these images.

(Instructions on how to successfully imagine in general and how specifically to imagine the basic “lamb and egg” image are not provided here.
See http://posturereleaseimagery.org/archives/232 and  http://posturereleaseimagery.org/posture-exercises-universal-imagery , exercise two.) 

The original “lamb and egg” depiction, #2, is the familiar one that many will have seen and hopefully worked with. It is an image that brings about the lengthening and widening or general release of the entire dorsal surface and a total “embracing,” or gentle contraction, of the ventral surface. It is very effective for when imagining while sitting up in a chair. The size of the egg promotes the sense of the embracing of a child or loved one.

If tensions in any part of the dorsal surface are difficult to release with imagining #2, it can be helpful to work on imagining #1, either while sitting on the front edge of a chair or while on your elbows and knees on a mat, folded into a loose fetal position. While imagining the #1 image also in that horizontal position you can find yourself folding further into a fetal position without physical effort and with considerable release of the dorsal and condensing of the ventral surfaces. If working with #1 in a chair, you will end up folded over your knees with you legs drawing in. Be careful you don’t tip forward on the the floor!

Next, when both the #2 or #1 & #2 have become easier to accomplish (with benefits), you might try your mind on #3. Do not start imagining #3 “cold” but rather just after you have established success with #2. Start this image while seated on the front edge of a chair. Since the object that is being embraced in the image has grown considerably from #2 to #3, the challenge is to maintain the gentle contraction of the ventral and the nice expansion of the dorsal surface. In other words, beware as you imagine opening up that you dorsal surface does not “kink” in places (the result of “doing” the exercise rather than imagining. There should be a sense, perhaps strong sense, that the ventral surface is being stretched like rubber, maintaining its own ”desire” to collapse inward to where it was.

But you are not wishing to return to #2. Rather, you are attempting to open yourself up, to expose yourself to a bigger world, while maintaining the healthy dorsal-ventral relationship. As you progress through this image, you may have the urge to stand at some point. If not, allow yourself to tip forward a bit and you will eventually have that urge. Go ahead and stand. But do not straighten your legs or arms too much. If you are imagining well, you will have no desire to do so. With this image going well, you are in a position appropriate for practicing Tai Chi. However, do not move yourself into such a position. Allow the image to take you there… which it will when you have all body parts appropriately imagined. I know this is not easy! Rome and good use/posture were not built in a … you know. This image produces the mind/body capable of emotionally opening oneself up to a group and perhaps even a large group of people, with honesty and confidence.

The last image, #4, has with it a degree of openness that is sought and found by very few, I am sure. 

#1 is a self-nourishing image.

#2 is also self-nourishing but is one where our mind/body is prepared to care for and protect another as well, who may be a child, spouse, friend, or person in need.

#3 produces a mind/body state that includes caring for a group or protecting/defending oneself, another, and many others. This is a mind/body state that I suspect martial art disciplines seek to attain and work in. It is also the mind/body state appropriate for an honest and secure leader. 

But #4 is unique. In this mind/body state one is caring for a very big sphere, the world and beyond. Caring is there and the desire to protect is there, but the desire to protect or defend oneself as well is reduced. Feeling vulnerable is not a problem. It is an asset. The best of leaders should have some level of this sort of confidence and engagement.  

While developing a capacity to experience #4, awe is felt, as well as numerous other feelings that come while reaching this feeling. These might include sadness and regret, contrition, elation, peace, plus other feelings that come before releasing to a new level, like frustration and fatigue. And all the time there is the sense of being stretched, both physically and emotionally, to a new sense of self and other.

There is a danger in trying too hard to succeed with #3 or #4 especially. Trying too hard will cause you not to keep all of your dorsal surface released. Any sense of work and strain should be experienced along the dorsal-ventral seams and on the ventral side, never on the dorsal surface. Visit image #1 anytime to reestablish the basic dorsal-ventral relationship, which you want to extend as far as you can honestly through the succeeding stages of openness.

Let these images be an extended project. The tortoise wins this race, not the hare.

Good luck.

Each day requires some attention to how we are using ourselves, carrying ourselves, being ourselves. For me, a challenging time posturally, mentally, and spiritually is when I get up in the morning. After a cup of coffee and half a bagel with peanut butter, which my wife and I religiously have, we make our bed. But earlier, as soon as I am awake and begin to stir, I am quietly working on making my bed. I mean by this that I am sorting out my body surface sensations (primarily on the dorsal surface) employing archetypal and rehabilitative imagery to organize and bring to cheerful life my face, head, neck, and body structure/posture. Even when I have had a very nice night’s sleep, I have this task, waking up the senses and programing some spring into my step and day. Remember, I’m 64. Not very old, but not just off the factory assembly line either.

Interestingly, this bed-making metaphor can be expanded almost into a PRI imagery exercise… almost. If you are familiar with the location of your dorsal and ventral surfaces as I have defined them… you may be able to turn this metaphor into an image exercise.

Think of the top sheets and/or blankets as representing coverings (sensations) on your dorsal side. You can first stretch out the sheets and even the white blankets and then tuck them between the mattress and the board, box spring, or the floor below, if you wish. Think of whatever is below the mattress as your ventral surface. Therefore, where the sheet or whatever is tucked in is your dorsal-ventral seam.

With this information, you can start “making your bed,” all over your body. Perhaps you want to leave everything untucked but still nicely straightened. This can be nice if you want it looking/feeling orderly but not tightly military. But in this case, you have to be carefull to stretch out your dorsal surface/sheet or blanket gently. It is especially easy to create a diagonal ripple or two and stretches that destroy the job. Our own bodies have unnoticed diagonal pulls, so playing with your sheet or blanket of our dorsal surface (not just on your back) can be very educational. You may sense asymetrical pulls you were not aware of before.

It is maybe best on parts of your bed to not “make it” but to crumple it up a bit. A tightly made bed might look good, but it isn’t necessarily comfortable to “wear.” Some parts of your “bed” may be more comfortable rumpled and other parts stretched. You may find you want it made in a peculiarly personal way. Remember to make the head of the bed… and even with a blanket that you might want to tuck in in places! The ventral surface in this metaphor is best when it is fully supported by the ground, perpaps through its legs, if it has some. Every part of “your” bed’s ventral surface should feel as securely and certainly landbound as your real bed is. 

Finally, remember that since “your” bed is actually you, then whoever or whatever is making the bed is clearly NOT you. Let’s name the bed maker Grace.

Sweet dreams. 

Experiment.

This exercise requires familiarity the three major functional segments of the body, both in concept and in terms of their defined locations on your body.  

The image exercise here may relate somewhat in effect to the last blog posting, Can NON-awareness and LACK OF control be good for you ? . But it is also different in what posture release it provides.

Study the three “bear rug” style depictions of the dorsal surface common to all tetrapods (that includes us).

All versions of the “bear rug” (dorsal) view show the creature split into the three functional segments, “director,” “motor,” and “rudder.” All segments on the figure on the left are proportional. In the middle figure, the motor segment is larger and the director and rudder segments are smaller. The figure to the right has features opposite of those found in the middle figure. Now, your task is to mentally see if you can come to feel (kinesthetically about your body surface) like the middle figure. 

The split between the director and motor segments run precisely through the middle fingers, the shoulders, and the very base of the neck (C7). The split between the motor and rudder segments runs precisely through the third or middle toes, through the knee, around to the hip/leg socket, and back through the very base of the lower back at the start of the “tail.”

By imagining the qualities of the middle creature, I suggest that you will feel something akin to “collected.” Maybe you will feel like you are being a bit “proper” but also more balanced and sturdy. If you imagine the qualities of the figure on the right, I suggest that you will feel a bit strung out… not good. I don’t recommend this image except as a way to compare it with your experience from imagining the middle one. But if there is anyone out there who enjoys and finds the ”strung out” qualities of the creature on the right, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. It would mean I am wrong about the meaning of this image… and I don’t want attest to something that doesn’t hold true.

One interesting feature of the exercise is the sensations from experiencing the sensation of half of your hands and arms smaller or bigger than the other half and half of your legs and feet smaller or bigger than the other half. It will move you.

Later,

John

Is gaining awareness and control of ourselves a good thing? Sure… perhaps… depending on what is meant and implied by those words, control and awareness. Here is an image exercise that, in effect, calls into question the value of some of what we might mean by “awareness” and ”control.” 

I think that the image exercise I am introducing here is “universal,” meaning that it potentially has positive effects for all types (postural) of people… and no ill effects. (Let me know if I am wrong and it makes you feel worse or less released!) 

The odd part of the exercise below is that it is based on an image designed to make us seemingly UNaware of two large portions of our body and OUT OF control of those areas. From this image, I contend, we develop greater awareness of our over-absorption and over-control of self. See what you think. It may not be an easy one to succeed with, even partially. You will need to be familiar and successful with some of the other imagery on this website in order to successfully tackle this one, I suspect. And you will have to be familiar with what I mean by the “director,” “motor,” and “rudder” segments… and also their specific locations.

This image involves imagining significant parts of your body as vanishing, disappearing, gone. There are other exercises on this website that involve missing portions of the body, but they are “type-specific,” working best when you know what type you are (and are imagining its “opposite”). But this one seems “universal.”

Study the drawings below and I will give some instructions for doing the exercise. Finally, I’ll give some more thoughts on why I think that it is valuable and effective.

The upper illustration, with a horizontal archetypal creature to the left and and “evolved” upright creature (more human-like), shows the three functional segments of the body, the “director” (to the right of the horizontal creature and the top of the “evolved”) the “motor,” and the “rudder.” The lower illustration shows only the “motor” segement remaining… the “director” and “rudder” are gone.

This is all there is to the image… imagining those parts of you as gone. Any momentary or partial experience you can create of this image should “lighten your load,” taking weight off your shoulders, make your back feel both freer and sturdier, and/or eliminate some “drag” or tension you may be experiencing in your “rudder”. The exercise is a good way of being “less of ourselves,” which can be a good thing. The exercise also allows us to give up control, leaving it up to our innate natural abilities to control the body. The missing parts are the “director” and the “rudder,” which are the parts that control or direct us.

Successful imagining will bring about some shifting of the body as you become less aware of these parts of the body. The head has to be more balanced for its weight to be less noticed. Tensions in the face and neck will disappear as the thought of their presence fades. The tail section or “rudder” segment also is influencing us already, without us noticing. As soon as you can imagine it disappearing, even for a moment, you will be made aware of unnecesary tension you had in the area.

So, this image exercise is peculiar. Elsewhere on this website I recommend imagining that you have a healthy sized tail (which is part of the “rudder” segment). Here I am recommending the opposite. It could make all this imagery seem phoney. But it isn’t. If you feel doubt about the “goodness” of the image, try to imagine its opposite, which is that your “motor” segment is the part of you that is missing. Don’t do it for long though. It feels yucky and isn’t good for you, in my estimation. Go back to the “good” version and stick with it and learn it… and the clarity and reason behind its effectiveness will become clear or clearer.

You may need a review of the body’s functional segments’ locations… so here it is:

The drawings of the human figure above shows the “director”, “motor”, and “rudder” segments split apart. The locations where the “director” splits off from the “motor” segment I think are fairly clear (though need imagery practice to properly locate and sense on your own body). The location where the “rudder” segment splits from the “motor” is a little more complex. Study the leg turned out on the first figure to the left as well as the partial figure that has a red ring around it. You should be able to see that the split between between “rudder” and “motor” on humans is straight up the front of the legs (through the middle toe of the foot) and around the hips to the very lowest part of the lower back.

You may have to return to this image exercise a few times. Good luck. With it, you will lose some “control” and “awareness”… and in the process gain something new, an experience of more of the body’s postential for natural grace. 

P.S. This image does NOT involve any consideration of the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body, like most other images here do. 

I have pasted a bit of an interesting email a fellow sent to me recently. Read it and then look at the two illustrations below it placed side by side. If you are interested in Eastern thought and religions, it may interest you.

The microcosmic orbit and the dorsal and ventral surfaces?

Hi John

I love your site and found inspiration in it and help in my meditation.

Have you ever seen a picture of the Taoist Microcosmic Orbit, or more specifically the extended (including the legs) Macrocosmic Orbit? Its interesting that the flow of energy corresponds perfectly with your picture of the dorsal and ventral surfaces, yin energy is black and yang is white.

The term, core stability, is used by many exercise regimens these days. Does the concept have value? Well, to me, it does… a bit.

To me, core stability is a quality that the core attains and maintains NOT by being directly strengthened by any particular exercises but rather as a result of MOVING already existing tension within the body to new places and RELEASING it from its current location. No direct strengthening is required to develop what I would call “core stability.” Direct strengthening can cause freezing or fixing of breathing, of the shoulders, of anywhere in the core, which no self-respecting organism, which we should be, would want.

People who have been on this site, even for a short time, should know my simplest image, Calm Up and Tense Down. That image already states that you are not actually “getting rid” of any tension nor are you purchasing any calm from anywhere else. You are using your current unnecessary and inappropriate tension, moving it, and turning it into “intention.” Simultaneously, you are taking that which is at ease in your body, maybe even flaccid, moving it, and turning it into “calm.” Try the simple image exercise for a moment and you should sense what I mean by tension becoming intention as it moves downward. This intention is not specific, like “I am going to buy an apple at the store” but it is a “readiness” of sorts. If you have “calmed up” as well as “tensed down,” you are experiencing increased “core stability,” calmness and readiness. (And, more than before, you are grounded and up at the same time.)

Here are some other simple-to-explain images that will also increase core stability without involving any direct strengthening. Act out as well as imagine the instructions within each sentence separately. Wait for a moment for any effect you might experience. Then go on to the next sentence/exercise:

Sit while imagining that you are standing.
Stand while imagining that you are sitting.

Tip your head down while imagining that your head is tipped up.
Tip your head up while imagining that your head is tipped down.

Clasp your arms around your chest while imagining that they are spread wide open.
Spread your arms wide open while imagining that they are clasped around you chest.
If you do not rush through this exercise but wait and allow some shifts that “want” to take place in your body to do so, you will see that a certain RELEASED “core stability” develops in your body… that is not fixed or frozen. Rather, the gracefulness in your movements eminate from the edges of your body (what I call the dorsal-ventral seam) and move inward and around your body only as far as is necessary. What is not needed in a movement remains stable… and in the “stable,” at rest.

As always, I would love to get any feed back… except spam.

Are you finding some success with the type-specific imagery available on this site? Have you experienced a variety of responses from the different forms (1a -red, 1b-blue, 2a-green, & 2b-yellow)? If so, then this post is for you. You are becoming a more advanced posture release imaginer! 

I will explain each illustration/chart a little bit and leave you to figure out the rest based on your current experience of the type-specific imagery and what is available to look at again on that page. If you have comments or questions, you can always email me or write something on the blog, which virtually nobody does.

This first chart above is divided into four sections. The individual and smaller creatures toward the outside of each section represent the specific type that section refers to. The depictions of overlapped creatures, which are larger, represent the tonal/shape variations of the left and right sides of each of the four types. In other words, the simpler dorsal-vental figures are not absolutely accurate. They have different tonal qualities on each side of the body. People are not exactly the same on the left and right sides. In fact, to some extent, we are opposite of each side. We all are, according to my thinking, one of the four types but those four types are actually more complex than the simple depictions represent.

See if you can imagine that, for instance, you are basically the 1a-red type but have a tendency to be more like a 1b-blue type on your left side and a 2a-green type on your right side. And try the other versions as well. This is not easy… but some success can give you a much greater experience of a nicely released and yet toned self. Along the way you may feel strange, crooked, and so forth, but with time you will see that these additions of lateral variation to the four types actually takes you to a deeper experience of them and their value. The experiencing of your own type, however, will typically and understandably be the least rewarding and will possibly be downright unenjoyable. Give that one up. You are already too good at living that form. 

The chart above is just another way of playing with the left side and right side variations that are actually part of the four basic types. The white version on the far right is the neutral model from which the various versions were formed.non-existent type, which is dorsally white, is merely the model from which the other forms were made. The upper row of types has influences on its sides of the types overlapped in the lower row.

This last chart I will let you just study. It may clarify something for you… and it may not.

Good luck.

The new illustration above and the image exercise I explain below started with my effort to depict a way to discuss developing a panoramic view of things. I drew circles or rings around the walking model and moved it around. I discovered that when the ring was raised above the head it felt oh so much better. It became my halo. It had a positive effect, like the large brimmed cowboy hats I sometimes wear. Tiping a halo/hat one way or another produces effects equivalent to images that play with the angle of the “director” segment in my imagery. The variations give me a “different slant” on things and increased fluidity in my head and neck (director segment).

This image has lots of possibilities. I suggest that you play with it while walking about and not just while sitting. Make the halo as big or as small as you like. I like it large, about the size shown above. The ring can be thick or thin. One you will prefer. Try it higher or lower. I like it about where shown and think you will too. The reason you have options here is because when you choose the most enjoyable characteristics of this image, you are choosing the most welcome changes in your postural habit structure. 

Basically, I would suggest experimenting with all of the following variations. When imagining one version, try to maintain that version for, say, 10 seconds or even longer. This allows accompanying body shifts that may “want” to take place to do so. It makes the experience richer. Short periods of experimentation can produce incomplete or distorted results. So here are the possible variations I recommend including:

Halo tipped forward, tipped backward, tipped to the right, tipped to the left.

Next, a halo that is tipped forward AND to the right, forward AND to the left, backward AND… and so on.

Later, give yourself two halos that are side by side. Imagine the left one tipped forward and the right one back… and visa-versa.

Later yet, with the two halos, imagine the left one tipped forward and to the left and the right one…

You now can figure out the various combinations. I suggest that each of these experiments will tend to change your countenance and your carriage, to use old useful terms. I also suggest that you might want to wear your halo or halos when you go out for brisk walks. It can make a gray day quite a bit brighter.

Good luck.

P.S.  I neglected to mention that you can certainly imagine the halo or ring to be level ! In experimenting with the other versions I believe that you will discover, however, that your sense of level may go through a bit of change. 

If you have played with exercises 1 and 2 on the type-specific imagery page , this chart below may give you assistance to kinesthetically experience the stages of the dorsal/ventral wave more clearly and completely. One of the “reduced” images below may help you overcome some difficulties you may be having. The colors are merely for identification of the types with other imagery. Where the creatures have full dorsal segments, imagine them as white (not colored) and fluffy.

In the imagery shown here, there is no need or usefulness to imagine yourself as horizontally four-legged. Merely imagine the shape, texture, and tonal qualities that these caricatures suggest being placed on you body where they coincide… eyes to eyes, forelimbs to arms, hind-limbs to legs, tail to “tail” section, and so forth. 

Row 1 shows the four stages of hopping. (When combined with lateral wave impulses, it also shows stages in galloping, which is a combination of the two waves). 

Row 2 shows just the “director” segment of the waves. You can concentrate on getting just the director segment imagery in place for the particular “stage” or posture type you want to experiment with. The effect of a well-imagined director segment should carry over automatically to the remainder of the body.

Row 3 suggests that you try concentrating only on the first part of the face and the hind end. This approach, as well, will tend to promote the appropriate tonal patterns in the unimagined or less imagined shaded areas.

Row 4 as an image is comparable to exercise 1 of the type-specific imagery. The missing parts are to be imagined as just that, totally missing. Full dorsal areas are to be felt as dorsally fluffy though firm and “totally present.” Areas that are imagined as “not present” or absent become less firm and seemingly more gentle.

See if this helps in experiencing a pattern that is in all of us… in one form and to some degree. There should be one postural pattern that feels the best to you… since you are definitely “getting outside of yourself” and becoming your “opposite” when in that character. 

Good luck.

I have the constant desire to find another image or metaphor to explain the dorsal/ventral relationship.

The “dorsal” surfaces of these buildings are the roofs and walls. The “ventral” portion is the foundation and ground. Be silly with me for a minute and imagine that the buildings have “feelings.” If well built, they generally would not “feel” much except sturdy and secure.  They would notice wind, rain, and snow… and some sense of weight (but not strain). The foundation would sense the most weight, the roof hardly any… especially on the curved roof.

So you should endeavor to shed the weight you feel on your neck or shoulders. Move it down to the hips and toward the ventral side of the body. If you feel it at the hips, try to shed it toward the groin, then to the back of the legs, and finally completely to the bottom of the feet and ground. If and when you are working on some of the imagery exercises here and you experience lightness on the entire dorsal surface an weight on the ventral surface… don’t think of it as weird. Think of yourself as well built. Think of it as right to feel this way… and not something to be embarassed or shy or doubtful about feeling or showing. A building can remain graceful and stately even as it ages, develops some leaks… and other troubles.

I must be wanting to build again.

I have always liked the phrase, firm but gentle, and have often appreciated people who seem to have these combined qualities. It is something to which we should aspire, no? They are qualities better to have than “spineless and brittle” or “evasive and harsh,” right? They need not always be in 50-50 proportions, of course. 90% firm and 10% gentle might seem best in some cases and the opposite in others.

I seems that a person could change their postural habits and many of their ways over time just using this concept as an exercise for change… by going about their body and imagining changes, here and there, along this continuum. For instance, maybe your legs could use a little more gentle and a little less firm… and maybe the arms need the reverse. Or maybe the right hand needs more of one quality and the left hand the opposite… and the feet need the reverse. Maybe your eyes and eyelids could use some tonal changes using these words.

The possibilities are numerous and the process is not complex. Does your neck feel a little too firm or a little too gentle? Just imagine a shift there from one to the other. It will not be long before the whole body feels and is positively affected.

Remember, I am suggesting that you change the sensations you have. Do not wallow in what they seem presently to be. Sensations can easily be unreliable but habit is reliably affected, and usually positively, when sensations are imaginarily changed.

This exercise suggested here should perhaps be called “tactilizing” or “kinesthizing” instead of visualizing. No visual imagery is necessary.

I do, predictably, offer a couple of visual depictions of the dorsal and ventral surfaces below that suggest how to visualize firmer or gentler body qualities. For those familiar enough with Posture Release Imagery, the continuum from very firm to very gentle illustrated here should make sense.

Use whichever approach you want.

John

Success with Posture Release Imagery requires some curiosity and willingness to experience sometimes odd or seemingly “wrong” sensations. It also requires a little tenacity because, for various reasons, the imagery exercises may fail to “work.”

I have already written some directions for executing many of the various imagery exercises you will find or have found in the .pdf articles and on the universal and type-specific exercise webpage’s. However, here are some more suggestions and some probably repeated ones to help with increased success with the imagery.

People are different in their ability to imagine Posture Release Imagery. However, you can get more effective with it over time if you discover and remove blocks to success you may have in front of you. I do not know what all blocks might be, but I will start with the most obvious advice and add whatever else I can bring to mind.

The most obvious suggestion is to eliminate any “multi-tasking” you might be doing as you are trying out an image. Driving a car and text messaging, for instance, is not an appropriate activity to be involved in while doing these exercises. While driving a car without doing other things, it may be possible to lightly refresh or remind yourself of an image with which you earlier have had success. That can be valuable (and not dangerous) in that circumstance. Things like listening to music when you work on the exercises I do not consider helpful. I see them as a possible or probable hindrance, but others might think differently.

Imagery can be used while in many different postural positions and while moving. Being on hands and knees, for instance, could be useful while imagining the archetypal organism that demonstrates the ideal dorsal-ventral surface relationship. However, since imagining is not the same as imitating (which interferes with good imagery), it is not that important to position your body anything like the image you are imagining.

Sitting up in a chair is the most secure position to be in while still being basically upright. This is usually the position of preference. Sit toward the front of the chair so you are not resting on the chair back and where the seat is not slopping backwards.

Standing is less secure but can be the place where changes that are more exciting take place… for that very reason. Some imagery calls for standing and some is just easier to imagine in that position.

Moving is not a crime while doing the imagery. Moving that is either repetitive, like easily walking in an unobstructed environment or simple light movement, can sometimes be a useful way for an image to “jiggle” its way into our body structure. When not particularly moving, some of us can be physically “fixed” while doing an image exercise, therefore preventing the changes. Without being wild, “throwing caution to the wind” can be a useful thought to allow pass through your mind. We hate to give up our habits, even for a few seconds, and so the willingness to allow something new to visit your sensory world is important.

Lightly moving body parts and facial features can be occasionally helpful. However, if you tend to be fidgety, try not to move in that way so much. But when you are trying to imagine and you sense yourself motionless while nothing is happening, maybe a twitch in the face, a small wiggle of the fingers, toes, or “tail” may get you responding to the image.

Some exercises can be useful to imagine while you are easily standing and sitting. I heartily recommend playing with some of the imagery while jogging, hand-washing dishes, raking, and so forth.

Besides the body positions to imagine in, there is the question of where to “position” the image itself. This requires experimentation, since individuals’ abilities to imagine vary and vary over time. Generally, the basic image instruction is to imagine that you actually are the archetypal creature depicted (with some allowance to imagine three dimensionally though my drawings generally lack in that regard). Alternately, you can imagine that you essentially have the creature’s qualities on your body, without totally changing shape to do so. That can reduce the impact but may be necessary.

However, images can also be imagined, with some success, to exist outside and away from your body, in the upper right, lower left, or elsewhere in your imagined visual field. In this case, you can then secondarily allow the tactile-kinesthetic qualities to land on your body surface. For instance, a white fuzzy dorsal surface can be imagined visually outside yourself and imagined (“felt”) on your body surface as well.

Finally, at some point it may be very fruitful to imagine that “ideal” creature is inside of you! If the creature is imagined to be small enough to comfortably fit inside yourself, the image can become a pleasant influence upon your structure and movements, without requiring you to give up your actual (and habitual) attributes all at once. You can be your old self, but a source of structural strength and ease will be inside, working away on a less than comfortable shell. The more you pay attention to a new “inner self,” the more it changes your outer self.

These are just ideas that may help with imagery you have already worked with. Some of these suggestions may allow images to take on new life. Undoubtedly, other approaches or hints that I cannot think of right now exist to help people to greater success with PRI.

I may be able to clarify more if you have questions of me or you have suggestions for others and me. Feel free to write.

“Suck it up” may seem like an unsympathetic order if someone is barking it at you when you are complaining or crying. But if you use it as a form of self-discipline imagery, imagining your entire ventral surface gently being sucked up into the body (with your dorsal surface expanding to accomodate), it is quite a healthy exercise. Give it a try and see what you learn and how it makes you feel.

All of the imagery on this site may seem to be only for when you are not moving or not moving much. But once you get the hang of an image, there is no reason not to use it when active… and many good reasons to use it then.

Let’s get out on the dance floor. We’ll make it a couple dance… and we’ll make the image: two “lamb and eggs.” (The basic “lamb and egg” image exercise can be studied on the universal imagery page, exercise #2.) Notice that in this version the dorsal surfaces “keep their cool” as in the one person image but the ventral eggs become elastic and quite attracted to each other when in the right proximity. Remember that virtually all of the ventral surface is in contact with the egg and the parts that are not in contact (the undersides of facial features) are still to be imagined as drawn towards the egg.

Might make for a nice tango or swing dance, no?

Always remember, hold the “bag” at the bottom if you would rather be a bouquet of flowers than a bag of bones. This relates to the healthy relationship between the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body… and to my most basic advice, which is to calm up and tense down. (See the universal imagery page for an illustrated description of our dorsal and ventral surfaces.)

“Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, tend to occur subconsciously, without directly thinking consciously about them.” Merriam Webster dictionary. . … en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habit (psychology)

The word has some other definitions such as: clothing worn by a member of a religious order or a substance abuse, such as drug abuse. All definititions, including words like “habitat,” suggest something outside of us. A nun is inside the habit that she wears and we all live in one habitat or another. It struck me that this is true of our habits as well. “We” live within an organism that exhibits our habits. At least that seems like the healthiest perspective to have. I certainly do not want to think of myself as my habits. How defeating a feeling that would be.

The more I thought of (and experimented with) the word, the more I came to see habit as something cauterized on my flesh and my surface… and my interior as empty… except for “spirit.” The “I” or “me” is that spirit within. It floats about, propagates, expands, and is extremely valuable as long as I can successfully see myself as distinct from the habits on the outside, which are presented to the world. The purpose is not to avoid responsibility for habits that may be have bad effects on you or others, but rather to visually and sensually experience them as distinct from yourself… long enough for them to melt and disappear for at least a moment that you might experience a new you.

For someone with the ability to imagine, this is not a difficult image to conceptualize… briefly. The problem comes when trying to maintain and increase the image for longer periods. To do so appears to improve body conditions by melting some habits away and increasing a sense of completeness, peace, and worth. This sort of thought, however, like other useful thoughts, does not easily become a habit itself.Increasingly, I see that spiritual and religious thoughts and images have great potential as body habit and posture altering tools, if only they were recognized as such.

Here is a different sort of image to play with… and contemplate. See if you can imagine that you are the figure on the far right of the illustration below. It is nothing other than a slightly complex kite with a few more joints and strings. If you can catch the thought/image for a moment it should give you a sense of an enhanced structure (better posture) without having to do anything (other than entertain a thought). In the image you are to think of yourself as nothing more than this kite man… with the strings (tension elements) running along both your outer edges (the dorsal-ventral seam) and on the belly (ventral) side of your body with a few sticks, like shown, to keep the strings under tension. As shown, imagine the head section and the tail section as both long and horizontal. Similar strings under a little tension along the dorsal-ventral seam of the limbs (not shown here) will add even more structure as well as lightness to your momentary habit-breaking experience. 

Not only do we tend to have “bad” posture, but we tend to make bad use of the word, posture. The two problems are undoubtedly related. The word posture, in its fullest sense, refers to many of our characteristics. It implies our attitudes, our inclinations, and even our perspectives. In a similar manner, even governments have “postures.” Posture is an actual, if not always visible, representation of our entire personality. It is descriptive. But the word posture is too often used in a prescriptive sense, as in good posture or bad posture. Somehow it has become fashionable to think that we can, rather mechanically, turn what we have decided is bad posture into good posture. No need to confront our attitudes, our inclinations, our perspectives, and our self-images… just change bad to good.

As a result of this short-sighted approach, the word, posture, is frequently considered “bad” to teachers and students in the Alexander Technique and other forms of mind/body intervention. I merely suggest here that we attempt to return the word to its appropriate stature, as a physical if not always easily visible representation of ourselves, reflecting all the richness and color, not just good and bad, which can be found in any personality.

The good part of relax is in the release it promotes. The bad part is the collapse it brings. With collapse, structure is lost as well as some tension. If it is an occasion when you are willing to collapse, then relax. Otherwise, just release. 

No relaxing for me today until evening. But that’s o.k. … release keeps me happy and engaged.

Function follows form in anything living. How an animal, for instance, is shaped determines how it functions. That is obvious. I also think that how it is shaped helps determine how it “feels.”

Animals that are generally more aggressive have different basic tonal patterns, whether they are large or small, than animals that are more oriented toward flight… running away from aggression. My purpose in this post is not to argue the point but to suggest that you try to imagine that you actually are different animals. If you use the general rules for imagining that I have described on my imagery pages you will find that animals do, in fact, have very different tonal patterns… and imagining being one sort may be very enjoyable and being another may not.

Imagining (remember, not imitating) being a giraffe will give you a very different experience of your body than being a buffalo, for instance. Time should be spent trying to imagine some of the smaller features on these animals, not just the general shape. By looking at pictures (which I should provide here soon, I guess), you can imagine the specific shape of a giraffe’s head, lips, nostrils, etc. or a buffalo’s head and shoulders and hind quarters.

A variety of animals I suggest to explore would include: fox, squirrel, buffalo, giraffe, lion, horse, cat, dog (of different varieties), sheep, goat, pig, and more. Birds can also be interesting to “be.” You may very well discover your enjoyable and posturally liberating “opposite” in the animal world.

I’m writing here to say that the latest material I have added to this website is on the “my-articles” page. At the end of the list of papers is one on the value of our “tails” to our posture/use. Another is about the use of our eyes to release and improve posture/use. All are free .pdf files for downloading.

They’re short. Give them a try.

John

“Calm up and tense down” is a short sentence that many have found useful. How about trying out this post’s suggestion, to sit while standing and stand while sitting, as another short postural words-to-live-by.

Imagine, and only imagine… as best you can… that you are sitting while you are in fact standing and, vice versa, that you are standing while you are sitting. This peculiar but straightforward image can help you to carry out both activities in a posturally healthier manner. 

Yet, there is more that can be learned from the advice. When you stand up from sitting on some occasions, do not completely stand… almost but not completely. Then give your body/self time to ease into more full standing on its own. Also, when sitting sometimes, prevent yourself from entirely sitting. This can happen muscularly even after you have touched down on the seat and are technically “sitting.” Then slowly allow your body a little more “sitting pleasure” if necessary. That should not mean that you have to slump, however.

The lesson here is that movement should be a loop… it should contain a bit of its opposite. Boomerangs loop and so should humans… when we stand and sit, throw baseballs, drive cars, anything. (Incidentally, overcorrecting to avoid an accident while driving is a major source of accidents. The loop movement, back and forth, has been lost.)

This advice does not mean that we should not extend ourselves  and “jump for joy” or endeavor to fold ourselves snugly up while squating flat-footed to the ground. I think, oddly and wonderfully, that the “thought reversal” suggested here can help, over time, in achieving both of those extremes in movement.

I hope you give this a good try.  

John

Many of us are aware (or vaguely suspect) that habit causes us neck, shoulder, back, or lower back pain, for instance. We have moved beyond blaming all of our pain on slipped disks, previous injuries, or “bad” knees, ankles, hips, or whatever. I am sure that sometimes these explanations are accurate, but not very often.

So we are now willing to “take some responsibility” for our pain… and our habits. But what exactly is the habit? Is it the way I move when standing up, sit down, pick up something, or whatever that causes the problem? Is it the way I do something? Well, yes, but no. 

Our habits are not in how we move, but rather in our “pre-movement” dispositions, inclinations, tensions, and flacidity. That is why most all of the imagery presented here is static in nature. It is not what is called motor imagery. (I can think of only one image that I have developed where movement is necessarily imagined in the imagery exercise. However, if you wish, you can be moving while imaging this generally static imagery.) Habit exists before it is noticeably expressed. Therefore, the imagery is designed to work on our structure…our posture…, which is in place whether we are moving significantly or not.  

So in any of the images you experiment with, when you sense the image changing your pre-movement/predisposition/posture, then feel free to experiment with moving, while still keeping the image in mind.

This website could just as easily be called pre-movementreleaseimagery.org or predispositionreleaseimagery.org. However, I’m sure that those names would reduce the number of visitors to my site. 

John

We use imagery whether we try to or not. Our unconscious images, which you might call our ”self-images,” make up our attitude, our holding patterns, our postural habits. Every movement we make is colored by those attititudes,holding patterns, or self-images… and it appears that the only way to change those habitual patterns is by changing the images, by one means or another. 

The most basic principle of Posture Release Imagery concerns the ideal relationship between the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body. Below I have an illustration of the yin/yang symbol (the Chinese symbol of the forces of the universe). Above it, I have my depiction of the most appropriate general response to these yin/yang forces of the universe. If you have played with the imagery on this site, the symbol might make sense.  It has to do with the ideal relationship between the dorsal and ventral surfaces of our body. In addition, I think that it essentially depicts the ideal Christian or, perhaps, Judeo/Christian response to life’s forces. So, if you haven’t already done so, search around this site, attempt a couple of image exercises, and get right with the universe!

John