• less eye strain
• deeper breathing
• a more released muscle-tone
• quieter mental talk -- or no 'words' at all!
• an acceptance of what is
• easier movement
• that critic-Gremlin pipes down

Which of course, we all want!  On the ground standing still, it's easy to get.  Then we walk.  or run.  or get on a horse and ride.  or jump!  How to keep the head balanced then?  Here's some more tips.

Rotate rather than Hinge

The trick is to allow the head to rotate around it's axis like a wheel on an axle.  Or a Ferris wheel! The center of the Ferris wheel does not move.  The chairs rotate around the center, just as our nose would rotate around the balance point of our head.  Of course, on a  Ferris wheel, they go all the way around, which we can't do with our head.  

Oscillation around the Norm

One of the ways to find the balance point for the head is to tip the nose up a little and then down a little.  When you do this slowly, you can monitor whether or not the head is balanced.  Wherever you start, you can determine if up is better or if down is better, or maybe halfway between the up is better or halfway between the down is better.  When you go slowly, you can identify where the new 'better' is.  It probably will not be where you think it will be.  When you have a new 'better,' oscillate again and see if there is an even better place a smidge higher or a smidge lower.  

Usually, the balance point is between the ears.  You can put your fingers in your ears to form the axel which creates your stationary reference point, then slowly lift and lower your nose around your ears.  When you are successful at this, the bones in the neck will not change.  This is easiest to see from a side view:   

You'll notice that as the nose goes up, the pony tail goes down; as the nose goes down, the pony tail goes up.   Because the head isn't round, it looks a little bit like a hinge.  When you do this, though, you'll be able to tell if you're hinging or not because the pressure on your fingers will give you feedback.  Alternatively, you can eventually locate the 'joint' between your skull and the top of your spine and feel a smooth glide.

When you start out, what you are looking for is the place where there is no tension in your neck.  For most people, this looks a lot like the most pony-up, nose-down position below and the oscillations can not be very big before tension creeps back in.  As much as possible, you will want to keep tension out of your neck to keep tension out of your lower back.  So in the beginning, it is preferable to be looking at your belly button with a released neck, than to be looking up with a tight neck.  Over time, the range of released oscillations increases as does the relationship between the other curves in the back, and you will be able to have a released neck while looking up.

In Jumping

When you are jumping, the trick is to still feel the smooth glide even though you will be in a much more extreme position.  Instead of your neck being relatively upright, it may be at a greater slant.  You can still articulate mostly in the joint between the skull & neck when you get used to it.

Start out upright and then tilt your torso forward maybe 4 or 5 degrees without changing the relationship between your neck and body.  IE You'll now be looking at a point closer to the ground than you had been when you started.  Now oscillate a little while at that amount of 'tilt.'  

When you have the ability to lift your eyes back up to level without incurring tension in your neck, you can tilt a little further and repeat the oscillating.  Eventually you can get quite a bit of tilt and maintain a free neck.

 

Yep.	Nope.
1) start upright 2) tilt slightly keeping plumb line (look at ground)  3) rotate head to look up	1) start upright  2) bend neck ( or any part of plumb line)      to keep eyes up as you tilt.

Have you had a chance to play with this in your riding?  What is your experience with this?