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Embodiment Matters
We are Somatic Naturalists and Embodiment Mentors. We are honored to steward of a living body of work we call Integrative Embodiment. We live in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, with our amazing 11-year old son, a wild and wonderful kitty, a python, a gecko, and a bunch of hilarious hens. We are trained as Feldenkrais Practitioners, Embodied Life Instructors, Tai Chi teachers, Community Grief Tenders, a Work That Reconnects facilitator (Erin) yoga teacher and therapist (Erin) and a Structural Integrator (Carl.) We are also long-time meditators deeply grateful for our deep roots in the Lojong and Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. We host a podcast, write, work with private clients, teach courses, workshops, and retreats and we absolutely LOVE our work. We're so happy you're here!
Questions? Comments? Email me!
About this course
Your ribs are not a cage. Truly. They’re not.
Though many of us unknowingly function as though they are a cage. As it turns out, the words we use have surprising power.
They need not be experienced as a hard, immovable bony structure in the center of our torso.
The rib bones themselves can be flexible, and each rib itself has joints where they join the vertebrae in the spine. All but two of the ribs join the sternum in front via flexible cartilaginous joints. They can move!
We function according to our self-image.
When our ribs are experienced as a cage, the metaphor can restrict us in so many ways.
Our heart is in a cage. Our lungs and our breathing are behind bars.
What is locked out? What is caged in?
Our ribs are actually soft, strong, supple, and very much alive. They are 24 bones with over 6o movable and responsive articulations. They can function more like an accordion or a slinky - bending and changing shape to accommodate our actions, and offering buoyant support to our shoulders and head, integrated freedom through the spine and hips, and easier breathing.
Freeing the ribs from their cage has so many positive impacts on our experience of being embodied - both our movement and the felt-sense of our inner life.
When we learn to inhabit and allow dynamic responsiveness to return our ribs, things can change on so many levels!
From the quality and organization of our movement to the sense of intimacy with our heart’s knowing and a felt intimacy with the world around us.
Some of the benefits of freeing the ribs are:
- Opening our capacity for breathing with greater ease which also decreases tension on the heart.
- Easing the demand on the lower back and neck. (These places must work harder when the ribs don’t move.)
- Increasing the capacity to feel the wisdom of our feeling life more fully. Accessibility to your heart’s knowing.
- Connecting the strength of the pelvis and the core to the function of the head, neck and arms.
- Freeing the vitality of the spine. The saying goes “you are only as old as your spine” - and the freedom of your ribs has a huge impact on the health of your spine as a whole
- Greater ease in your hips. It’s truly surprising how impactful the way our habits of movement (or stiffness) around our ribs impacts our hips! This area of learning can make such a huge difference in your experience of your body as a well-coordinated whole rather than a collection of parts.
- Experiencing a softer, more touchable heart.
- Growing a greater sense of freedom and possibility in your movement repertoire.
