Happy Tuesday Friends!

Did you know your head weighs between 8 and 10 lbs?  Imagine holding a 10 pound weight in one hand… for a LONG time. That is the weight that bears down on our spine whenever we are upright!

Our head is important in our daily activities and plays a vital role in our alignment and health. In Nia, we integrate our head in all our movements, keeping our spine healthy, flexible, and strong.

Through Head and Eye Movements (HEM), we organically move our head by using our eyes to follow our hands, or an imaginary butterfly through the room.  This allows us to learn and sense the design and function of our head and help us move with mindfulness and pleasure.

One of Nia’s 9 movement forms is the Alexander Technique, with the catch phase “Movement From the Top”.  The Alexander Technique teaches us to be in relationship with our beautiful head, and to connect with electromagnetic energy from above as we initiate our movements to keep the energy upward.  It is a gravitational force that lifts us up!

We can do this by imaging a feather is connected to the base of our neck, lengthening upwards toward the sky. Imagine that the feather is so tall you can tickle the belly of the clouds. This image draws attention upward, gently lengthening our neck and all seven cervical vertebrae.

We have 8 bones in our head, or cranium. EveryBody release your jaw, the only bone in the cranium that moves, and say ‘AHHHHH” and then SMILE!! Guess what? You have 14 facial bones that just moved!

Dem Bones… Da Noggin’! Bring em to class and let’s dance!

Love, Adelle

Tuesday 7:30am, Wednesday 9:15am,  Thursday 9:15am for *Nia FreeDance, and Friday 9:15am

A few pics from our FABulous weekend teaching in Dallas!

 

If you are an anatomy geek like me, check this out… Da Noggin’!

Bones of the head: There are 29 bones in the human head. They consist of 8 cranial bones, 14 facial bones, the hyoid bone, and 6 auditory (ear) bones.

  • The 8 cranial bones are the frontal, 2 parietal, occipital, 2 temporal, sphenoid, and ethmoid bones.
  • The 14 facial bones are the 2 maxilla, mandible, 2 zygoma, 2 lacrimal, 2 nasal, 2 turbinate, vomer and 2 palate bones.
  • The hyoid bone is horseshoe-shaped bone at the base of the tongue.
  • The 6 auditory ossicles (little bones) are the malleus, incus and stapes in each ear.