This text will enhance whatever personal or professional posture and movement applications to which you may wish to apply it. It can be read and studied as a whole or used in sections. Use this sourcebook as:

• a personal guide to change your posture and movement.
• a sourcebook if you are a massage therapist or teacher, bodyworker, somatic practitioner and educator, dance or yoga teacher, or healthcare practitioner.
• a textbook if you are a massage school teacher or somatic educator.
• an exercise guide for you and your clients and/or students.

Glossary terms are in bold; anatomical terms as well as words or points of emphasis are in italics. Although I have attempted to explain anatomical or medical terms as they arise, you may need to consult a medical dictionary or anatomy book on occasion.

There are a number of special features in the book to help you integrate the material. They are designed to provide you with experiential studies so that this material can be learned through personal experience. The words exercise and exploration are used interchangeably throughout the text because somatic patterning exercises are more than a mechanical body-building technique—they are a deliberate yet fluid exploration of body movement.

The special features used in the book can be identified by the icons shown in the following list. These features include:

Body Stories: Case studies and historical stories provided for their educational value. To maintain the confidentiality of clients, the names and settings of the case histories are fictitious.

Bridge to Practice: Practical application for practitioners such as massage therapists or somatic educators to apply the material to work with clients.

Critical Thinking Questions: Sprinkled throughout the text to spur problem-solving thought processes to develop creative ways of thinking on your feet and applying somatic patterning to therapeutic sessions.

Examining Myths: Short pieces that look at the logic (and missing logic) behind popular myths about posture and movement.

Key Terms: The general terms commonly used in somatic studies, some conventional and some not, provided to clarify the somatic vernacular. A list of key terms is provided at the end of each chapter as a review of the main points covered in that chapter.

Links to Application: Short tips and practical ways to apply somatic patterning to daily living activities.

Patterning Exercises: The patterning exercises are the meat of the somatic patterning practice. They are simple movement exercises and visualizations that correlate to the text. All the patterning exercises can be done alone or in a classroom setting. Some are designed to practice with a partner to integrate touch with movement. Although the patterning exercises in Part 2 relate to the text, they are not meant to represent the techniques of any one school unless specifically stated.

To make this book user friendly as an educational guide, you have my permission to copy up to 10 exercises for each client or student with whom you want to share the patterning exercises. It is my hope that you will enjoy this book, that it will inspire a new perspective, that it will provide you with a background to understand whatever intuitive patterning you may already be doing, and that it will help you feel better and move with more ease.

In fact, just reading this book will help you, whether you actually do the exercises or just start thinking about your posture. Many of the people who read it prior to publication commented that after reading it, they found themselves sitting straighter, practicing the exercises while at their jobs or in their cars, and becoming more aware of their posture and body-use habits in all aspects of their lives. Just the fact that you have read this far indicates you are interested in change, so it is highly likely that this information will seep into your awareness whether you actively apply it or not.

You may be thinking that this is beginning to sound like a pep talk. Well, it is—one specifically designed to motivate you to take charge of your body and free yourself from the clutches of faulty body-use habit and poor posture. I guarantee that if you begin reading this book your awareness of your posture and movement will change. Also, you may improve your body patterns, you may feel better and look better, your body may last longer, and you might even have a better quality of life. You only get one body, so let this book help you make it work well for you. Why wait? Begin now!