7/1/23 Zoom Class: Daily Cat Routine Enchancements, with Guest Teacher Mary Poxon

My guest teacher, Mary Poxon, has a wonderful, elegant way of guiding us in both basic Cat Routine movements and enhancements. She starts
this class with a concise and clear description of Hanna Somatic Education movement. She often has us compare movement on each side of our body and notice our "direction of ease." In Hanna Somatic Education we work first with our direction of ease. This surprises many people. Our direction of ease represents our movement habit. Our movement habit is usually easier to do because our muscles are already more contracted then the muscles on the opposite side. Therefore we are releasing our more contracted muscles first. Mary also takes us through a number of wonderful variations of our basic Cat Routine movements which adds richness and variety. At the end of class many participants described how good they felt and excited about learning these variations.

[@catherinesnowden3477]

Thank you so much for this powerful class. I’m so grateful to be able to learn some thing that can be so helpful

[@somaticsforyou]

Thank you very much.

[@somaticsforyou]

You are very welcome.

[@markleakey1797]

Beautiful lovely practice… thank you 🙏🙏🙏

[@somaticsforyou]

Thank you so much on behalf of Mary. I'll pass this message along.

[@margaretskewes2553]

Great lesson. Thank you so much.

[@somaticsforyou]

You're very welcome!

[@cinmac3]

thank you , Susan and Mary.

[@somaticsforyou]

You're most welcome.

[@jannenehardie4980]

Thank you

[@somaticsforyou]

You're welcome!

[@UpthePottingShed]

I've discovered most of my pain and discomfort comes from over extension. Ive noticed despite fixing it over months, it creeps back in. I only realise when the pain kicks in.

[@somaticsforyou]

When you have pain doing extension movements, we recommend you do the opposite movement, so you are moving in flexion first. Go slowly, repeat a few times, and then try the extension move but don't use force or go into pain. See if this helps. When a painful pattern comes back you need to broaden your perspective and work with movements all around the painful area, and include your back. Any kind of pattern, including pain patterns, are a full body pattern. We often make the mistake of thinking that where we have the pain is where the problem is. This is usually not true. Keeping up a daily practice can make a great deal of difference. Thank you.

[@cinmac3]

Is Mary or Susan answering ?

[@somaticsforyou]

Cindy, susan was answering. I'll pass all messages on to Mary.

[@constancetaylor4380]

This is dumb if you do not know what to do.

[@somaticsforyou]

What is dumb? I don't understand your comment. Thank you.

[@constancetaylor4380]

I just started learning about Somatics and I find it difficult to listen and follow instead of watching someone do the movements. I will stick to the videos with demonstrations.

[@somaticsforyou]

@@constancetaylor4380 At first it can be hard to follow voice instructions, but with time it gets much easier. There are always pros and cons. The advantage of voice directions is that you are not "copying" someone else's patterns, which may be quite faulty. Then you keep doing this pattern and it can lead you into more problems. At the beginning, just skip the movements you don't understand and do the ones you do understand. You'll get used to a different kind of listening. Perhaps watching some of my videos with demonstrations will help you with basic patterns and get you used to the language we use. Don't give up! Hope this helps. susan