"The job of the heart is to distribute oxygen throughout your body. When you use your diaphragm more, your heart doesn't have to go it alone and work so hard. So take a little pressure off your heart and give the diaphragm plenty of room to do its job."

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SOMATIC EXPLORATIONS CD # 1: SITTING

This 55 minute CD contains 5 unique somatic explorations, focusing on breath and alignment practices while sitting. Ideal for people wanting to begin a body-based daily meditation practice.

1 - Waterfall
2 - Belly Spring
3 - Three-Dimensional Belly
4 - Hiss
5 - Tensegrity Breath: The Three-Dimensional Torso

NEW! $10 for digital download or $15 for CD
(includes CA sales tax and S/H)

PAYMENT
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Or mail a check to Jamie McHugh, PO Box 249, Sea Ranch, CA 95497

Somatic Explorations # 1 - Sitting

Two useful ways to approach sitting are: 1) using the mechanisms of bodily self-support, and 2) maximizing support from the chair. This CD contains 5 lessons in bodily self-support.

Why sitting? Sitting is the primary position we use as modern peoples while awake these days. Whether sitting in a car or at a desk, in front of the computer or TV, or at the table eating, we spend many hours organizing our soma into this shape. Yet, few of us have ever received any useful instruction in how to sit! Much of chronic back pain comes from sloppy sitting – compressing the spine and squishing the organs rather than extending the spine and expanding the organs. In giving attention to your structure, and organizing the muscles around the central column of your spine, it is easier to feel centered, integrated, and complete. That's why Buddhists for 2500 years have spent so much time sitting upright! But you don't have to be a Buddhist to sit upright - you only have to be a human being with a vertebrate structure. When you are supported by your structure in an upright position, it is easy to stay present for longer periods of time without accruing stress and strain. You can actually build the strength of your centerline by using the core muscles of your body while sitting. This creates not only muscular efficiency, but also supports psychological equanimity as balanced body structure supports a balanced and centered psyche.

When you focus on balancing your skeletal structure in sitting, the belly becomes free, which allows the diaphragm to easily move. This diaphragmatic movement allows the lungs to swell and take in oxygen efficiently. The job of the heart is to distribute oxygen throughout your body. When you use your diaphragm more, your heart doesn't have to go it alone and work so hard. So take a little pressure off your heart by giving the diaphragm plenty of room to do its job. And then of course, the oxygen can warms your body up, fuel your cells so they can do their job, etc.

The three points of focus in sitting are: your pelvic bowl, your spine and your skull. The pelvic bowl holds the pulsation of the breath in the belly. Your spine rises out of the pelvic bowl all the way up to the atlas, the uppermost vertebrae between your ears. Your skull floats on top of the atlas, like a bobble doll. Internally, you sit with softness in the jaw, vibrancy in the tongue, and ease in the eyes.

FREE DOWNLOADS

These Somatic Meditations were recorded live in workshops in Europe, Spring 2006. The MP3 files can be downloaded.

The English/French versions come from Movement as Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland.

The English/German versions come from The Sounding Body, Dortmund, Germany.

German: Breathing Nature 13:22

French: Diaphragm Explorations 12:46

German: 360 Degree Belly 14:03

French: Soft Belly 6:55

Jamie McHugh