 Hi there. My name is Alyssa Mayer. I'm an equine-hannous somatic to educator, a somatic educator for riders, dancers, and athletes, and the creator of Somatics for Riders. I'm really excited to share with you today the first lesson in an eight lesson series that I've created specifically for riders, but it's also super applicable for anyone who wants to have more suppleness to feel better and function better in their body, in their sport, and in their everyday life. What we'll be doing today is a mat class. It's actually about 40 minutes where we'll be lying on the floor doing somatic movement. If you haven't done Hanna somatics before, this video lesson will give you a great introduction to how to do somatic movement as well as actually work you through a full session focused on your back muscles. I'm really, really excited to be in a position where I can share this information with you because I really believe that it's important that we all have some kind of regular self-care practice that we can do with ourselves, for ourselves, from our own home to enhance our function and our feel and just move us toward being our best, most comfortable, and most athletic selves. So when you do somatic movement, as we'll be doing shortly here, you will need to follow the guidelines to get the maximum benefits. It's very gentle. All the movements are based on the natural movements of the human musculoskeletal system. So, excuse me. So anyone of any age or fitness level should be able to do this class with us today. Your job, as you follow my instructions, as we work through these simple, gentle movements, is to take control or rather take charge of your own body and your comfort. So it's really important that you stay comfortable and move only within your comfortable range of motion, wherever that is today. If you move beyond your comfortable range of motion to do these simple moves that I'll be doing with you and demonstrating for you, you will be stretching something or pushing through resistance or feeling pain, perhaps. And when you do that, it actually interrupts the process of how we get the benefit of doing hanosomatics. The benefits come from shifting the level of brain control when we're doing this kind of movement away from the unconscious part of the brain that typically controls our muscles in our body, like our built-in autopilot system. And we'll be using more the frontal lobes, the voluntary motor cortex, to do these movements. And the reason that it's important that we at least have a little bit of awareness that that's what we're doing is that it helps us differentiate between hanosomatics and a lot of other methods and types of body work in the field of somatics or the field of, you know, other types of work or care that we can do with our body. This work is really about how your brain communicates and controls with and for the muscles in your body. You want to have the most efficient communication and therefore the most efficient movement. Happening in your body and hanosomatics can actually help you do that by recalibrating the resting level of muscle tone that you carry with you. I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about things like sensory motor amnesia, which is a condition that we all suffer from at some point or at lots of points in our lives where we become habituated to chronic tension that's caused by sometimes just daily life, repetitive motion, stress, or it can be caused by one time trauma. It can be caused by poorly fitting shoes or if you're a horse by a poorly fitting saddle. This condition of sensory motor amnesia where we become habituated to chronic tension really interferes with the range of motion and the comfort that we have or don't have in moving through either our daily activities or the activities in our sport. And without having a tool like hanosomatics to address that chronic tension that we are no longer consciously aware of or in control of, we are constantly either trying to correct it or layer strength or something over it to counteract the effect of that chronic tension. So when muscles are suffering from chronic tension, they are not available to do the work that they were designed to do. You don't have access to their full strength, nor do you have access to their full length, which would restrict range of motion and the ability for that muscle to allow your bones and joints to do the things that they need to do so that you can get through your day or get through your competition and not only be comfortable but actually perform at your top athletic potential. So when you're doing these movements, you'll move slowly and mindfully as you follow my instructions. That way you will feel the first glimmer of indication you're getting close to the end of your range of motion that might feel like resistance, pain, or perhaps stretch. We actually want to actively avoid the sensation of stretching when we're doing somatic movement. If you can feel stretch as you do these movements, you have gone beyond your comfortable range and now you're stretching something mechanically. There's nothing really wrong with that except that when you do stretch like that, you trigger a reflex that actually gets in the way of this recalibration process that we're after by doing the somatic movement. So you want to avoid stretch and the sensation of stretch. Move slowly and mindfully so that you can do that and stay within your comfortable range of motion and you also want to pay attention to the internal sensations that you're feeling as you do the work. That information, that sensory input of what you're feeling as you do the moving is some of the really important information that your brain needs to actually go ahead and recalibrate the resting level of muscle tone that you'll be carrying when we finish doing these moves. Done properly, hanosomatics and this type of somatic movement we're about to do is completely harmless and very gentle. So following those guidelines, move slowly and gently, taking care to stay within your own comfortable range of motion wherever that is today, avoiding the sensation of stretch and being mindful about what it actually feels like to do this is really all you have to do to get the benefits of this type of movement and this self-care practice. All the really interesting stuff about the neuromechanics and how your brain actually recalibrates and why the frontal lobe needs to do it rather than your cerebellum and brainstem, which is where your autopilot system is housed, is super fascinating but I'm going to try not to get into that today because it's a lot of information and it's also not important for you to know the mechanics of why this stuff works to get rid of tension and pain because your body is already pre-programmed to do it with some natural reflexes, specifically the reflex of pendiculation. You can look that up later or go to my website if you want to learn more about pendiculation but for today we are going to do the first lesson of an eight lesson series that I've created just for you. The entire eight lesson program that I call my posture transformation program is available to you on my website. You can sign up for it at alissamayor.com on my posture transformation page and of course you can find me on social media. But do that later. For now let's just get into the lesson so you can get a taste of what somatic movement feels like and start to unwind any chronic tension that you might be carrying that could be causing you to not perform at your best, to not feel your best and to be suffering from that thing that we almost all of us adults in our modern society suffer from which is chronic low back pain. Are you ready? Let's do it. The movements in this first lesson deal with the muscles of the back. These are the muscles that are triggered by the green light reflex. And when that contraction that is triggered in your back muscles becomes chronic or becomes habituated which means the chronic tension you hold in your back becomes unconscious and out of your control. That causes the most common ailment in industrial societies, low back pain. So because many of us have some pre-existing tension or pain in this delicate area, do these movements with a lot of awareness so that you're keeping yourself as comfortable as possible. You definitely want to try to actually do some movement as we do this but if you find that it's painful or difficult for you, you can do the movement very, very small and still achieve some of these amazing results that we get from doing Hanosomatic movement. You're going to lie down on your back. I already have my hair tied up to the top of my head. You might want to change your hair position now in case it would be in the way. What you don't want to have is a clip or a ponytail on the back of your head as you're lying on your back on the floor that would feel uncomfortable or prevent you from lying kind of completely flat and comfortable on the floor. Likewise, if you have anything in your pockets or a big belt buckle, something like that, now would be a great time to remove that and remove your shoes so that you can be most comfortable doing the movements and able then to focus on the internal sensations of the movement as we go through this gentle series of moves. Let's begin. First, just take a moment to find a comfortable way for you to lie on your back on the floor. If you have some pre-existing tension or pain in your low back, you'll probably want to keep your knees bent like this, which relieves pressure on your lower back. If you feel comfortable lying with your legs straight out, go ahead and do that and we'll first just begin with some breathing and take a moment to just check in and make sure that you're feeling your body and that you're present in this moment as we begin this program of self-care. If your legs are straight, slowly one at a time, bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor about hips width apart because this is the position for the first movement we'll be doing in this series. And to learn the movement or find it in your body, we'll start by just pressing your pelvis down into the floor, which causes your lower back, this area here to lift up off of the floor, and then slowly release that press, which allows your back to come down to a neutral position. And we're going to repeat that several times, pressing your pelvis down into the floor, which causes your belly and your belt line to raise up toward the ceiling, slowly releasing that press into the floor, which allows your back to come down to neutral again. Pressing down into the floor, think of pressing your tailbone into the floor, and then slowly releasing that press, allowing your back to come down to neutral. Again, pressing your tailbone into the floor causes your back to arch up off of the floor, slowly releasing that tail and pelvic press allows your back to come down to neutral. Let's add the breath to our movement so that we're timing it with our breath. So as you inhale is when you'll press your tailbone down into the floor, inhaling and lifting your low back off of the floor. Your hips and your shoulders remain in contact with the floor, it's just the low back lifting. As you exhale, you slowly allow your back to come down by releasing the tailbone press. Let's do that again. Inhaling, press your tail into the floor, allowing your back to arch up toward the ceiling or the sky if you're outside. As you exhale, allow your back to come down to the floor. And in fact, this time as you're exhaling, go ahead and press your back down toward the floor as if you were going to flatten it to the floor as you finish your exhale. And then release that naturally. You'll be inhaling again, pressing your tail to the floor. Please do this in time with your breathing, not mine. As you exhale, slowly allow your back to come down to neutral. And then continue past neutral by gently pressing your back flat to the floor and slowly releasing to neutral. On your next inhale, again the tail press and arch your back off of the floor. As you exhale, allow your back to come down toward neutral and then pass through neutral to flatten your back to the floor. Let's continue in time with your breath. Inhale, arch off of the floor. As you exhale, slowly reducing the arch by releasing the tail press. Paying attention to what this feels like inside your back. Passing through neutral to flatten your back toward the floor, not too hard. Easy and gentle and kind to yourself. Again inhaling, arch off the floor. Allowing your head to move a little bit if it wants to. Exhaling, the arch slowly fades toward neutral until you can gently flatten your back to the floor behind you. Releasing that again. Feel inside your body as you do this, inhaling and arching. Exhaling, slowly releasing the arch until you can flatten your back to the floor. Notice what that does to your pelvis, how it rocks it the other way as you flatten. Inhaling, arching. Notice your pelvis rocking forward again as your tail presses into the floor. Exhaling, allowing your back to come down toward the floor. Your pelvis rocks back. Your tail lifts a little almost as you pass through neutral and press your back to the floor. Come back to neutral and through neutral, inhale, arch your back. This is gentle, loving, comfortable for your body. Exhaling, slowly allowing the arch to come down toward neutral and then rounding it, flattening it gently toward the floor. You might like to slide your hand under your low back as you inhale, arch. Feel the muscles of your back contracting as you arch up off the floor. As you exhale, come back toward a neutral back until you can press your back down into the floor. Your abdominal muscles are now contracting to do that movement and your back muscles are soft and relaxed. On your next inhale, repeat that tailbone press, arch off the floor. Your back muscles are working. See if you can feel that with your hands. As you're exhaling, you're reducing the work that the muscles in your back are doing that cause the arch until you can pass through neutral, flattening your back to the floor is work that your abdominal muscles do. You don't have to think too much about that just for your information. Let's do that a few more times. You can take your hand out from behind your back if you want to. We're inhaling and arching. We're exhaling and slowly releasing that arch until we can flatten the back into the floor gently. One more time, inhale and arch. Exhaling, slowly allowing the back to come down until we can pass through neutral. Press the back into the floor with the abdominal muscles gently working and then no muscles working as you just release. Allow yourself to be in neutral. Rest here for a moment. If your back is comfortable enough to allow you to straighten your legs, do so now one at a time very slowly. And just rest. However, it's comfortable for you to rest on your back on the floor like this. After a couple of breaths here, we're going to roll over now. So go ahead and adjust your position so you can roll over onto your stomach. You're going to have one hand up near your head. The other arm is down by your sides. Your legs are straight and about hips width apart. I like to have my hand under my forehead or under my cheek like a pillow, kind of whatever is most comfortable for your neck. So that you can be looking toward your bent elbow. You want to be able to see the arm that you're resting on the hand of. And we'll do a series of movements from this position. The first is to just lift your elbow. This bent elbow that's in front of your face, lift that one off the floor. Notice how the muscles of the shoulders contract and slowly lower your elbow back to the floor. Relaxing all the way into neutral at the bottom of each of these movements. Repeat that a few times, lifting your elbow just a couple inches off the floor. Feel how the muscles of your shoulder and all the way down the right side of your back contract. Or the left side, if you're doing the left elbow, I suppose I didn't specify. Lift your elbow, feel the muscles contracting around that shoulder, all the way down that same side of your back. You might even feel as you're slowly lowering that the muscles of your opposite buttock area are contracting. And now at the bottom, remember to release all the way into the floor until you're completely relaxed. And just rest on the floor for a moment. Next we're going to be lifting your head. So when you're ready, pick just your head up off of the floor in your hand like you're going to look over that shoulder and slowly allow your head to come back down until it rests on your hand and on the floor again. Remembering to melt the effort away so you're completely resting on the floor at the bottom. Let's do that again. Lift the head, being gentle with yourself, feeling the muscles in your neck and down your spine that are activating to do this movement. And then slowly rest back onto the floor. Again, lifting the head, not pushing off the floor, just lifting slowly, lowering back to the floor until you can relax. Giving your body back to gravity so you're not working anymore, you're not holding tension. Now we're going to put those two movements together and we're going to time it with the breath. So you'll do the lifting on an inhale and the slow lowering on the exhale. So this time we're going to do the elbow, the hand and the head and the shoulder all as a unit with an inhale and it looks like this. We inhale and lift, head, hand, shoulder, elbow, just a little bit. This should be easy and gentle. No need to hold the lift. You just slowly come back down until you can rest. Giving yourself back to gravity, letting all your muscles let go. We'll repeat that two more times. Inhale, lift your head, hand, elbow, shoulder. Exhale, slow release, coming back down to the floor. Relax all the way. Inhale, lifting, head, hand, elbow, shoulder, notice the muscles of your shoulder girdle, your same side spine crossing over your pelvis into your opposite leg that wants to be activated and participate, resting when you get back down to the floor. Now we will activate that opposite leg that was trying to jump in there. Leaving your head, hand and elbow resting on the floor, but still in time with an inhale you're going to lift your opposite leg. So for me that's my left leg because I was doing my right elbow and slowly float your leg back down to the floor until you can rest it in gravity. Rest in neutral. Take a breath. In your next inhale we'll do that again, lifting the opposite leg, keeping it straight without locking your joints. Only a couple of inches of lift and a slow coming back down. As a reminder, the slow coming down to neutral and then relaxing into the floor is the most important part of each of these movements. Now we're going to put all three of those movements together, the elbow, the head and hand and shoulder, and the opposite leg are all going to lift at the same time as you inhale your lifting, as you exhale you're slowly lowering everything back to the floor, and we're going to do that three times. So when you're ready on an inhale you're going to lift, head, hand, elbow, shoulder and opposite leg, not too much. Feeling the muscles doing the work as you slowly float back down to the floor and then rest, letting all the muscles relax as you melt into the floor. On your next inhale, same thing again, head, hand, elbow, shoulder and opposite leg, lift, and slowly begin lowering as you exhale. Back down to rest on the floor one more time, exhaling, lifting your head, hand, elbow, shoulder and opposite leg, exhaling, floating all your parts back down to the floor slowly, methodically, and then melting into the floor, letting go of all the tension and all the muscles that your brain recruited to do that movement. After a breath of rest here on the floor, pick up your head a little bit, slowly change hands so that your other hand is now going to be your pillow, you're now looking towards your other elbow, find a comfortable place to rest your head so that your neck is happy, your other arm is down by your side, your legs are still stretched out below you, and we'll begin again by lifting just the elbow a couple inches off the floor and slowly releasing and returning to neutral. Do that again, lift the elbow, feeling the muscles all around the shoulder and down that same side of your spine activating. The slow coming back to the floor is the most important part, melt all of your muscles into relaxation on the floor. One more time, elbow lifts, feel the muscles that do the work, slowly lowering your elbow back to the floor, still feeling for the muscles doing the work, and then relax on the floor. Next we're going to lift the head gently, not too far, keeping yourself comfortable, and slowly lower your head back down to rest on your hand and the floor, melting any residual tension out of your body you might be holding, repeating that a couple more times with just the head, and slowly lowering back to the floor. One more time with just your head like you're looking over your shoulder, I'm looking at my little man who's running by the wall, running toward the plant, slowly coming back down, feeling the muscles in my neck that are allowing my head to come down, feeling the muscles in my back that are contributing, melting all the way into the floor at the bottom. Now planning in advance before I do this next movement, that's going to be the head, the hand, the shoulder, and the elbow all lifting together in time with your inhale, and then slowly controlling a gentle movement back toward the floor until you can rest in neutral again during your exhale. So let's do that together. Inhale, lifting, head, hand, shoulder, elbow, not too high and slowly methodically coming back down until we can rest on the floor as we finish exhaling. Again, inhale, lifting the head, hand, shoulder, elbow, exhaling slowly coming back to the floor to rest in neutral, melting into the floor at the bottom, inhaling, lifting a third time, head, hand, shoulder, elbow, feel the muscles of your shoulder all the way down your spine, that opposite buttock area activate. And then when you get to the bottom of your slow release, relax all of those activations. And now we'll let that leg participate. The opposite leg of your bent elbow, so I'm doing my left elbow, which means I'm going to activate my right leg. Lifting again in time with an inhale. We'll lift the opposite leg. The leg stays straight without the joints being locked. It's a small lift of just a couple inches. As you exhale, you slowly lower your leg back down to the floor, keeping yourself comfortable. Melt into the floor, letting go of the muscles you recruited to do that pickup. And we'll repeat that again. Inhale, lifting the straight opposite leg. Exhale, slowly lowering it until you can release it into the floor. Inhale, lifting that leg. Exhale, slowly bringing it back down to rest on the floor. Breath in and out as you rest on the floor here. Now we're going to put all those pieces together, planning it in your mind before you begin. You'll be lifting your head, your hand, your shoulder, your elbow, and your opposite leg all at the same time, in time with an inhale. And you'll slowly, mind-towardly be lowering all of your parts back down in time with your exhale. And we're going to do this three times. So when you're ready with your inhale and your mental picture of what you'll be doing, breathe in, pick up your head, hand, elbow, shoulder, and opposite leg as you breathe out, slowly come back down until you can set yourself gently on the floor and melt out of the movement. Next, inhale, lifting head, hand, shoulder, elbow, opposite leg, slowly releasing down to the floor, relaxing into neutral at the bottom. One more time, inhale, lifting your head, hand, opposite leg, slowly lowering all of your lifted parts until you can relax on the floor. And rest here. Just take a breath. Check yourself and see that you can feel that you're actually releasing and relaxing your muscles. Now gently pick up your head, turning your face toward the floor, bring your free hand up toward your face and stack your hands flat on the floor in front of your forehead so that you can rest your forehead on your hands. You could also make a fist and rest your forehead on your fist if that's more comfortable for you. I like the flat of my hands. And let the weight of your head rest on your hands. There should be just enough space between your face and the floor for your nose so that you can have your face straight down. We're going to begin with the movement, again in time with the inhale, just of the head and the chest. So your hands are going to stay here on the floor. As you inhale, you're going to lift up your head, tip your head back and draw your eyes toward the ceiling. You probably won't be able to see the ceiling. That's fine. And then as you exhale, slowly bring your eyes and your face back toward the floor until you can place your forehead back on your hands and rest into neutral. Again, inhale, pick up your head. You're not pushing your hands on the floor. This is a lifting movement. Tip your head back and bring your eyes toward the ceiling as you lift. And then as you start exhaling, you'll reverse the movement, bringing your head and your eyes and your face back down toward the floor until you can rest on your hands and rest in neutral. One more time, inhaling. Lift your head, tip it back, raise your eyes. Exhaling, bring your head, your eyes, your face back down until you can rest on the floor. Now let's move to the lower body, keeping the lifting in time with your inhale breath. We're going to activate the right leg. As we inhale, lift the right leg off of the floor and slowly lower it back down until you can rest it on the exhale. Inhaling, lifting your right leg, not too far, keep this easy. Exhaling, slowly, mindfully, lowering your leg, feeling your way all the way down to the floor. Again, inhaling, lifting that right leg, joints are loose, leg is straight. Exhaling, methodically, feeling your way through that slow release until you can rest your leg on the floor. Now the left leg. Inhaling, lifting your left leg a couple inches off the floor. Exhaling, lowering it slowly back down. Inhaling, lift the left leg. Exhaling, slowly lower it back down. These back muscles are working. Inhaling, lifting your left leg. Feel what you feel inside your body doing your work. Your muscles slowly come back down during the exhale until your leg can rest on the floor. Let everything melt. Take a breath or two of rest here. This is easy, gentle work, but it is work. Legs are heavy. Now we're going to put those together. Again, the lifting is in time with your inhale breath. We're going to do your head and chest and your right leg at the same time. So when you're ready, with your next inhale, lift your head, tipping your head back, eyes rise for the ceiling, right leg also lifts off the floor and slowly lower all those lifted parts back down until you can rest on the floor. On your next inhale, same thing. Head, chest, and right leg lift. Then slowly lower back down until you can rest on the floor. One more time. Inhale, lifting your head, tipping back so your eyes can rise as your right leg also lifts. Exhale, feeling the muscles of your back. Allow you to come back down slowly until you can rest on the floor. Rest for a breath here in the center. We're going to do that same movement now with our left leg moving in time with our head. Always on the inhale. When you're ready, inhale, lifting your head and your left leg, tipping your head back so your eyes can look toward the ceiling, slowly lowering everything back to neutral as you exhale until you can rest your forehead on your hands and your leg on the floor and everything in gravity. Again, lifting your head and your left leg, tipping your eyes back, slowly lowering back down to the floor. Now, for this next movement it's important that you plan it and picture it in your mind before you actually do it. We're just going to do it one time. We're going to lift our head and chest just like we've been doing, but this time we'll lift both legs off the floor at the same time. We're going to cause the back muscles to do even more work so be very gentle with yourself as you do this. Lifting only as high as you can lift comfortably. And then, of course, slowly, mindfully you'll come back down to the floor and rest. So once you can picture that, lifting your head and chest and both legs at the same time and then slowly lowering, we're ready to do it in time with an inhale. Breathe in as you lift your head and both legs, tipping your head back to look toward the ceiling as your straight legs softly lift, slowly floating back down as your back muscles allow you to gradually undo that movement so you can come to the floor and rest, giving your body back to gravity, letting all the muscles soften and release the tension and activity that was recruited into them to do that movement. You can adjust your position to get more comfortable tuning your head to the side or moving your hands a little bit. In fact, we're now going to roll over onto our backs again. Do that slowly and gently for yourself. Taking the time, probably having your knees bent as you make these adjustments. You can lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor or you can slowly one at a time straighten out your legs until you're resting on the floor and just give yourself a few breaths here to rest and relax. This also gives time for all of that really valuable sensory feedback that we've been generating to work its way through your sensory system, through your nervous system all the way up into your brain where your brain can use that information to reset your resting muscle tone back toward neutral and let go of some of that chronic tension that we've all been carrying around with ourselves unconsciously. Done yet and it's important that you stick with this here and do these next few movements before you stand up. So bending your knees again, standing your feet up about a comfortable hips width apart. Take your hands and interlace your fingers. Put them behind your head. Wherever is most comfortable for you. Allow your elbows to relax out to the sides. Wherever is comfortable for your shoulders. For me, that's all the way on the floor. For you, that might be up in the air a little bit and that's totally fine. When you're ready, we're going to repeat the movement we began the session with. In time with your breath, inhale, press your tailbone into the floor which causes your back to arch up off of the floor leaving your hips and shoulders in contact with the floor as you exhale slowly, let that arch come down and your back move toward neutral. Do that with me a couple more times. Inhaling as you press your tailbone down, your back will arch. Exhaling, slowly fading away with that tailbone press which allows your back to come down out of the arch toward neutral. Same thing again. Inhale, press your tailbone arch, your back away from the floor. Exhale, allow your back to come down as your tailbone levels out. Continuing this pattern. Inhale, pressing the tail down, arching your back off the floor. Exhaling, allowing your back to come down toward neutral. This time continuing through neutral to press your back flat to the floor as you pick up your head. Bring your elbows forward as you do that and slowly unroll. Letting your back relax toward neutral. Letting your elbows release out to the sides again and then we'll repeat that. Inhaling, tailbone presses as your back arches off the floor. Belly expands. Exhaling, allowing your back to come down toward the floor. Once you move through neutral, press your back into the floor as you pick up your head. You're lifting your head with your core muscles. Your elbows come forward. You're not pulling your head with your hands. Your hands are there to support the weight of your head, not to do the work. As you come back down, elbows come out to the sides. If you run out of air, please begin breathing again at any point so we don't want any holding of the breath. Then when you're ready and you have your timing again, you can pick up the next move. Inhaling, arching the back off the floor. Exhaling, releasing the arch. Continuing through neutral, pressing your back into the floor as you pick up your head and bring your elbows forward. Slowly unrolling back toward the floor. Breathing whenever you need to. Continuing to control. The whole slow release back to the floor. You can release your hands from behind your head now and bring your arms down by your sides. If your back is feeling comfortable enough to allow it, you can slowly straighten your legs out one at a time until you find a comfortable way to relax on the floor. If you straighten out your legs and find that that makes your low back feel tight, you can go ahead and just bend them again. And we'll take a couple moments here to just breathe, feel what it feels like to be inside your body, to have been using your muscles so mindfully to move your body around. Noticing what there is to notice. Noticing where your body is in contact with the floor. You can stay here lying at rest for as long as you need to. When you're ready to get up, the best way I know how to get up from this position is to bend my knees again. Roll onto my side. Use my hands to walk myself up to a sitting position allowing my spine to be soft and my head to be the last part of my body to become vertical. Slowly begin to wake up from this somatic movement zone that we slide into when we do this kind of work with our bodies. Now, depending on your body and the amount of chronic tension that you were experiencing when you began this session, you may feel a lot of changes and things happening in your body, especially in your back muscles, or just doing this one short session. You may also not feel a whole lot has happened, but because we're working with natural movements and activating natural reflexes that we all have in common as vertebrates, as mammals, you can rest assured that you have jump-started this system of self-correction and self-care that lives inside your brain already. So that means as you then stand up, it's a good idea to move slowly and mindfully, not just popping up off of the floor and jumping back into your routine. You want to give your body and your brain and your whole nervous system the opportunity to really feel this experience and feel the results of your brain recalibrating the resting level of muscle tone that you carry and now have in your muscles that we use to do these movements. So it will take a little bit of time for your brain to adjust to the now different, the changed level of resting tonus that you will be carrying in some of your muscles after doing this work. And we want to allow your brain to have the time that it needs to notice those changes so that it can record them and that it can begin to use them and that they can be reintegrated into your internal body image and your internal awareness of where your range of motion is and where your body is in space. What does that mean? Well, the practical aspect of that for you is to just for the next 10 or 20 minutes move maybe a little more slowly and gently than you would otherwise. Perhaps go drink a nice big glass of water and don't jump right into a super active or heavy physical activity right now. If you are planning to go ride your horse or go dancing or go move a bunch of heavy groceries or go to the gym, just give yourself a little bit of time before you do that. If we were doing a session with a horse, I'd say you can ride the horse or work the horse before we do anesthmatics but then give the horse the rest of the day off after we do the session. However, make sure that that horse or that person is doing some movement. So we wouldn't put the horse back into the stall. I don't want you to go immediately back to sitting at your computer and doing hours worth of work. Now is a great time to go for a short walk or do a little bit of light housework, very light housework if you're at home and do a little bit of movement before you either put yourself into hard work or before you sit still. I actually would recommend that you repeat this lesson a few times over the next week, whether or not you're enrolled in the entire eight-week posture transformation program. That would be a way for you to get the most benefit out of doing this particular lesson. This was the first lesson in an eight-lesson series that I have prepared for you to take control of your self-care in this time when it is so important to be doing that both for ourselves and for our ability to care for others, for our immediate loved ones and for the greater community that we all share on this planet as we move forward into a perhaps uncertain future. Thank you so much for joining me today. It was really my pleasure to share this information with you. I really feel that hanosematics, both as a personal practice and something that we can share with one another, has the power to both change the course of one's own life and also to change the course of the world with the implications for greater health and mobility, fitness, function and feel that we can get from doing hanosematics with our own bodies, with our animals and with anyone that we can share this pretty incredible information with.