I have been heavily immersed in a weekly seminar with my former Kinesiology professor and now Mindful Movement (TM) coach, Pam Matt. The goal is to add Mindful Movement to my alignment offering. Mindful Movement is a branch of Ideokinesis which is defined as the use of images as a means to improve muscle patterns. All that being said, this week in my studies I came across another great image for our chin jutters! Remember those are the dancers that lead into their embrace with their chins, thus smushing their cervicle (neck) vertebrae.
The this “new” idea stems from the premise that our bodies are like a building, an architectural structure with similar principles. Weights can either sit upon structures or hang from them and in this case of the body, we are talking bony structures. In terms of chin jutting I am speaking about the Sternocleidomastoid muscle! Are you impressed? The greatest part of this name is that all the points of connection are in the name: sternum, clavicle, and mastoid process. So basically this muscle connects the sternum and the clavicle to the head, behind the ear.
I think it’s much nicer to imagine having a weight hanging from the bones then to imagine them sitting on top. So here’s an opportunity for a hanging weight image. Imagine that when you lift the back 1/2 of your head properly the sternum can hang from here. What this does for me is to create a lengthening in the cervical spine and a looseness or release of tension in my chest.
You don’t have to add or do anything extra just imagine your sternum dangling from the back of your head. Close your eyes and see what happens… If that doesn’t work for you just drop your chin and elongate the back of your neck!
More images to come and see how it changes your dancing!