A series based on lessons developed by David Zemach-Berson, GCFT® with influences from David Kaetz, GCFT®, Deborah Bowes, GCFT®, Master Mantak Chia
Our cover girl, Eliza Bagg, has eliminated all the tension from her neck and jaw. Her voice reveals all.
“Liberating Your Neck and Jaw” is composed by Feldenkrais Trainer and practitioner David Zemach-Berson. He studied directly with Moshe Feldenkrais and graduated from the first US Feldenkrais Professional Training Program in 1977 and has been practicing and refining the work ever since.
This series offers systematic exploration of the connections of the neck and jaw with the whole body. Starting with the feet and moving up, its an opportunity to find the kinks, blind spots and unnecessary connections that prevent clear, elegant movement, and often lead to neck, jaw, back and other pain.
Lesson 1 - From Feet Up - Creating Connections
Michelle Yeoh, in Wing Chung, demonstrates the connection between toes, pelvis and head. Toes point down, and so does the nose.
This first lesson begins at the base of all things - the feet. In this spare lesson of a few basic moves, David guides us to the fundamental connections between the feet, the pelvis and the head. Here’s a hint: the nose, toes and the pubic bone move together.
This lesson begins with an optionally standing scan. The rest of the lesson is on your back, with legs long and bent.
For this lesson’s science nerd candy, we will review some of the videos from the pelvic floor series.
Why Do My Joints Crack? - (Vertias Health) - the source revealed!
Neck Strain (Vertias Health) - why we are doing this series
Text Neck Symptoms (veritas) - it’s a thing
How Your Abdominals Work - review from More Pelvic Floor. Focus on the spine.
Lesson 2 - Side Slide
How a slight tilt of the jaw can balance, or unbalance, the whole body
The jaw is a hinge joint that has some side-to-side movement, essential for chewing. The jaw has the most-used joints in the body, and requires both sides to move synchronously.
The jaw is the most-used joint in the body. The temporomandibular (jaw) joint is a gliding and hinge joint. The head of the jaw, the mandible, fits into a socket in the cranium (the temporal bone), with a layer of synovial fluid (lubrication) between the bones.
A tiny habitual preference for holding the jaw to one side can, as I am discovering, affect the tilt of the head, binocular vision, and tension in the ribs.
Lesson 2 in this series gets into the jaw’s side-sliding action necessary for chewing. There’s an optional standing scan, but the bulk of the lesson is done supine - on the back - with jaw, eyes, neck, and ribs building up the experience of the jaw ‘s affect on the entire body’s balance.
Videos shown in this lesson:
TMJ Explanation and Therapy (Dr. Brian Mills) - Watch “Sue” chew and grind her teeth and learn all about why she does it
How the Jaw Works (Dental Care of Stamford) – a one-minute informative but bizarre little video that seems to come out of early 1970s middle-of-the-night documentary programming
Read the full Post with additional descriptions and more video links
Lesson 3 - Arch and Open
Spine Like A Wave with Soft Jaw and Eyes
Tony Bennett & Lady GaGa )By marcen27 from Glasgow, UK Uploaded by C.Jonel via Wikipedia
Every vertebra in the spine has a unique, supportive relationship with the cranium and jaw. Use your inner eyes to connect each part of the spine to the head. This lesson guides you through the game of connecting the dots from the vertebrae to the easy, natural movement of the head and neck.
This is a side-lying lesson. Both sides, actually. You might want a little support for your head: just enough to let your neck be long and your bottom ear parallel to the floor. Sitting on a firm chair is a very good alternative.
The science candy video is Spine or Vertebral column | Spine bones joints | Human Spine Anatomy 3D animation | Elearnin – full explanation of spine anatomy (4:40). I ran it at 1.5x in the class. It’s worthwhile.
Lesson 4 - More Jaw Connections
Annika Sorenstam tees off on the seventh hole during the second round of the Ginn Open at Reunion Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports.png
Midway through the Liberating Your Neck and Jaw series, this lesson recaps the highlights of the previous lessons before taking it further.
This is a supine (lying on your back) and side-lying lesson. You might want a little support for your head: just enough to let your neck be long and your bottom ear parallel to the floor. Make sure you can easily nod your head up and down. Sitting on a firm chair is a very good alternative.
Our inspiration is golfer Annika Sorenstam. Do you maybe see her modeling a (very) slight jaw glide as part of her winning swing? Maybe wishful thinking on my part, maybe a secret about to be exposed!
The lesson begins with a review of the head’s up and downing, moves through some lateral slides, and adds shoulders: one by one, and then together, explore the jaw-shoulder connections.
Videos Shared:
Spinal Motion Segment: C5-C6 (Veritas Health - short video)
Spinal Motion Segment: C2-C5 Animation – (Veritas Health - short video) Skipped from anatomy to nerve connection
5 - Tongue Untied
Tongue “Posture” is a Thing, and a Bigger Thing Than You Might Have Guessed
Jimi Hendrix Hamburg 1967
The mechanics of this lesson will be familiar to regular students, but our focus shifts to the tongue as the furthest tip of the spine, and how it affects the balance of the head and jaw.
This is a supine - lie on your back - lesson. The super-sensitive tongue stretches and relaxes the facial muscles. The lesson ends connecting the tongue to the knees - the better to kick you with my dear! Or the better to make music, imagine the movement of stars, sleep perchance to dream…
Science Candy Interlude (Played at 1.5 I think…): How your tongue affects your strength & vision - your brain prefers your tongue in a specific place, and will thank you with performance increases. ZHealthPerformance (4:48)
Lesson 6 - Long Neck
Fingertips to Tip of Tongue Relaxation Techniques
Prepare for this one by washing hands and maybe having lip balm nearby
This lesson again employs the tongue to loosen - the neck.
Our lesson opens with a tender self facial massage. Let your fingertips be as soft as you would want them to be. This massage includes a gentle release of the round muscles of the lips - you might want to wash your hands just before class to enjoy this part.
From here, the tongue takes over quietly stretching over the lips as the nervous system (re)connects the tongue’s root to your eyes, neck, breath and eventually the whole body. There are half circles, whole circles, upward circles and down. We’ll also review proper “tongue posture.”
This one is “trancey.” Give yourself a few minutes to return to earth.
Liberating Your Jaw with Your Voice - 1 - Balance like the Queen
An Upright Lesson to Integrate the Neck, Spine, Jaw, Tongue
Upright. Into gravity. Sitting in a chair, connecting the head, jaw, and tongue with the entire body. This lesson may remind some students of some of the pelvic floor seated lessons, with a twist - of the tongue. All to balance your head beautifully. That’s where we’ve been heading - bringing this work into the practical.
This is a sitting lesson and standing lesson.
The moves will be familiar: open the jaw, layer on the eyes, release the neck down, down, down to the root of the spine. But so different once gravity joins the party.
No science nerd candy this week. But watch Aretha get a little RESPECT!
Read the Full Post
The Queen of Soul, Ms. Aretha Franklin, couldn’t make those notes with a restricted neck and jaw, and spine.
Liberating Your Jaw with Your Voice - 2 - Inhale Like Audrey, Exhale Like the Queen
Variations on Quadrant Breathing
We look to improve how we use breath. For more elegant posture. For more power, period. We return to role model guides Audrey Hepburn (Carry it Like Audrey) and the Queen of Soul (Balance it Like the Queen).
This is a supine or seated lesson; you choose. It’s a trancey one, so get comfortable, have socks and a blankie nearby. We will be breathing consciously into the front, back, out and inside edges, top and bottom of the lungs.
In the spirit of “Listening With Your Whole Body,” a series developed by David Kaetz, we one-nostril breathe to highlight left-right variations and direct the eyes to ‘see’ the in-breath’s volume. And, again invoking David Zemach-Berson, we align the tongue with intentional breath to see where that goes.
No science nerd candy, unless you consider listening to two versions of “Moon River” an exercise in discernment and breath awareness. Inhale gently like Audrey, exhale with the power of the Queen of Soul!
Aretha Franklin on the cover of “Rolling Stone” Magazine
Audrey Hepburn sings “Moon River’ in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Liberating Your Jaw with Your Voice - 3 - Voice-O-Meter (featuring Tula and the Buena Vista Social Club)
Toning to Acture
Based on David Kaetz’s “Listening With Your Whole Body,” this lesson is about DISCONNECTING. It offers a route to that ever-changing balance point where the head rests easily on the atlas in any position you like: acture.
We take inspiration from the master musicians of the Bueno Vista Social club, who, “El Cuarto De Tula,” give a perfect example of the glissando “Voice-O-Meter.” Start out testing the “Voice-O-Meter,” layer on eye movements coordinated with - and then contrary to - pitches high and low. Moving on, all ten fingertips support the head and guide it in circles to uninstall back-of-neck tension. The “Voice-O-Meter” spotlights the knots in any of the neck muscles connecting to the occiput.
For details and Science Nerd Candy recommendations, Read The Full Post
Bueno Vista Social Club
Liberating Your Jaw with Your Voice - 4 - Deep Diaphragm Breathing (Feat. Meghan Trainor and Lizzo)
Another look at quadrant breathing - don’t suck it in!
Lizzo By David Lee from Redmond, WA, USA - via Wikipedia
Continuing in the spirit of “Liberating Your Neck and Jaw” and David Kaetz’s “Listening With Your Whole Body,”” this lesson will be focusing on the natural expansion and contraction of the diaphragm, adding the happy, silly sounds of a baby mastering her new body and the healing sounds as taught by Master Mantak Chia. Consider it Voice-O-Meter on mother’s milk.
Sit or lie on your back for this lesson. It’s a trancey lesson, and you may cool down, so have a blankie and socks. You might want some head or low back support - being comfortable is critical to this work.
Liberating Your Jaw with Your Voice - 5 - From Floor to Core
The Voice-O-Meter Kidney and Lung Sound’s Guide to Relaxing the Abs and Finding Your Voice
Exploring the solid spine configuration is core to this lesson. Knees, as pulleys, catch and lift the pelvis - one side, the other, then both together - drive the spine into stability to support for both the legs and the upper body. Skillfully connecting the pelvis and spine through the feet and knees is the lesson intro. Step two: channeling the movement of the pelvis into the spine, the ribs, head and neck.
And that is where the Voice-O-Meter comes in. The voice is the ultimate and most intimate gauge of the tensions that constrain movement and may lead to injury.
This week’s Voice-O-Meter sounds will be:
Kidney: CHOOOOO, releasing damp cold and fear, making room for kindness,
Lung: SSSSSSS, releasing dry cold and grief, making room for courage.
Angelique Kidjo - Agolo - 1994 video
Liberating Your Jaw with Your Voice - 6 - Right Down the Line
Spine Like A Chain, with jaw, tongue and voice
Bonnie Raitt, NOLA 2004, By David Lee from Redmond, WA, USA
“Spine Like a Chain” is a deceptively simple lesson. Lie on your back and slowly, slowly, lift your spine vertebra by vertebra. Then release vertebra by vertebra by vertebra, sensing the balance of left and right, the connections for foot to crown, the transition from a mobile spine to locked in stability.
We will be adding a few elements using the tongue, the pelvic floor and toning to enrich your spinal self-knowledge. And, as promised in the series title, free the jaw.
Have any padding you might want for your low back or head, and a blankie and heavy socks if you tend to get cold.
The Voice-O-Meter sound this week: The heart sound - HAAAAAA - is a sigh of relief, a bit of a giggle, releasing hate and making room for love.