Keeping My Shoulders Down. Two Quilts For Ellen, All Done

“Don’t wear your shoulders on your ears.”  I can still hear my yoga instructor’s voice even though I haven’t taken a class in years.

“Watch the video of us dancing critically.”  Julz my bellydancing teacher messaged us.  “Look for what you did wrong and want to work on.”

My list had five things I needed to work on.  The first one was to remember to keep my shoulders down.

It’s a habit of a lifetime.  I never even knew I did it until that first yoga teacher told me.  It’s what brings on the pain in my neck and back when I tack my quilts.

So today, when I was tacking the first quilt I made for Ellen, every time I felt my shoulders creep up around my ears, I engaged my back muscles to pull them down.  Sometimes I only realized I was doing it when my neck started to hurt.

Practice, practice.

Here I am working on my quilt and practicing Bellydancing at the same time.  Practicing to change my posture, practicing how to relax.  Because that’s really what I’m trying to do, relax my shoulders.  Let them fall down the back of my body.  Which then lifts my chest and there’s the posture that allows me to dance better.

And it feels better even when I’m not dancing.  Not only for my body, but it somehow lifts my mood too.  Make me feel more confident.

I guess many people learned this early in life.  For me, it’s a new idea.  Another benefit of learning to Bellydance.

Tomorrow I’ll start working on the backing of the third quilt.  And I’ll be practicing keeping my shoulders down as I sit at my sewing machine too.