Posts Tagged ‘computer use’
June 22, 2010: Compute in comfort
Posted by Vita in Mindful Movement Tips on June 22nd, 2010
Does this picture resonate with you? Do your shoulders and neck hurt if you work at the computer for more than a few minutes?
We can get so focused on the screen and on what we are doing that we don’t realize that our head starts to assume a “turtle neck” position, evoking the image of a shortened turtle’s neck protruding from its shell. This position, especially if prolonged, can contribute to neck and shoulder tension.
The following can help you sit with more support and thus help to organize your head and neck more comfortably:
• Sit in the front of your chair with your feet firmly on the floor. Ideally your knees are slightly lower than your hip joints.
• Close your eyes. Gently roll forward and back on your pelvis until you can feel you are sitting right on top of your sitting bones.
• As you move forward and back how does the shape of your spine change? How do your head and neck respond?
• As you come firmly onto your sitting bones, the weight going into the sitting bones will help your spine lengthen upward and your head to find its optimum place on top of the spine, allowing the neck to attain its natural length. This is because as weight goes down into the pelvis and sitting bones, an equal and opposite weight moves up allowing the spine to lengthen and head to assume a more natural position.
• When you are sitting comfortably, notice where your face is oriented and whether your chin tilts downward slightly. This also helps the neck to lengthen.
• Turn your head a little to each side and notice the freedom of movement in the head and neck.
Do you want to learn more about safer, more comfortable computing? Join us at our next workshop, Safer Computing, this Sunday June 27, 10 am – 1pm.
We will explore the conditions for health and easy movement in the shoulders, neck, arms and hands while working at the computer. For details and to register click here.
March 23, 2010: Save your neck
Posted by Vita in Mindful Movement Tips on March 23rd, 2010
Many of us now exclusively use laptop computers. While they are great for their portability they can take a toll on our necks and backs.
If you have a laptop try the following:
• Sit at the front of your chair, your feet firmly on the floor.
• Type for a few minutes on your laptop. As you do so, let your attention move to the upper thoracic vertebrae and your neck. Notice the angle of your neck and your head. Can you feel any tension along one side, or perhaps both sides, of your neck? Pay attention to how you are breathing and feel the movements in your chest. What is the position of your lower back?
• Stop typing and pause for a few moments.
• Then sit in the same position on a chair but type at a desktop or connect your laptop to a flat screen monitor.
• Adjust the height of the monitor so that your eyes gaze to the middle of the screen.
• In this position notice the angle of your neck and its position in relation to your head and upper back. Feel the movement of air into and out of your chest and feel the arch in your lower back. Notice how you generally feel as you sit and type.
If you use a laptop, connect it to a larger monitor whenever you can. I have done so and it has made a great difference!
Join us this week for the last #Feldenkrais class of our winter session. 4 classes to choose from. Details: http://www.feldenkraisvancouver.com/index.html.
After a one week break, we begin our Spring sessions on April 6. Happy Passover and Easter!
March 2/10 – Ease that pain in the neck
Posted by Vita in Mindful Movement Tips on March 2nd, 2010
During our day we use our neck in odd ways, often not realizing it until we begin to feel pain and tension. Those of us that work at the computer for a good part of the day are particularly vulnerable. If you pay close attention, you might discover that one side of your neck feels tighter than the other. This could be from how you sit at the computer and from keeping the head, neck and shoulders immobile as your eyes scan across the computer screen.
Periodically take a break, move away from the computer, and try the following to relieve tension in your neck and in the area between your shoulder blades.
• Sit at the front of a chair, with your feet on the floor, hip width apart and your back unsupported. Or you may sit on the floor with your legs crossed or the soles of your feet touching each other.
• Gently move the right ear down towards the right shoulder. Then gently tilt the left ear toward the left shoulder. Alternate left and right.
• Pay attention to how the neck feels while you do that movement. Does the shoulder lift toward the ear? If so, can you let it go? Make the movement small and easy.
• As you gently tilt the ear toward the shoulder, pay attention to the vertebrae at the back of the neck. Can you picture them moving as you move the head from side to side?
• Can you feel any movement in the mid or lower spine? Are those vertebrae moving at all as you tilt your head from side to side? Is there any shift of weight from one sitting bone to the other?
• Finally attend to your breath. How easily and lightly are you breathing?
• Pause a moment and rest.
• If you would like to do more movements, repeat what you just did but now become aware of the top of your head. As you move your head from side to side think about describing an arc in the air and make it smooth and symmetrical.
• Stop all movement and rest.
• What has changed in how you are sitting? In your breathing? In the length of your neck? In the feeling of the head’s placement on the spine?
• Gently stand up, walk around, and resume your day.
#Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement classes resume today, March 2 after the Olympic break.