An experiential guide to using your body as the focus of contemplative practice. Our physical structure, often known simply as “posture,” is shaped by the balance of tension between our bones and soft tissues—fasciae, tendons, muscles, and ligaments—as well as by the mental, emotional, and physical stresses we experience. This tensional integrity, or “tensegrity,” along with our sensory experiences, movements, and physical expressions all offer access points for developing fully embodied presence—that is, for engaging the body’s capacity for perception, expanded awareness, and even spiritual presence. Exploring the profound connections between tensegrity and inner perceptions and awareness, Mary Bond teaches you to unlock your body’s inner guidance—its somatic wisdom—through a journey of embodiment that will improve your posture in the process. Integrating movement theory, philosophy, neuroscience, fascia research, polyvagal theory, and personal story, Bond reveals how the human body organizes and expresses movement through perception. She looks in depth at the role of the fascial system in transmitting bodily perception, showing how fascia functions as the preeminent organ of embodiment and mind-body connection. She explains the process of internal perception, or “interoception,” the body-mind’s ability to identify, access, understand, and respond appropriately to its internal signals. Offering an experiential understanding of the structural foundation of the human body in motion and in stillness, Bond presents more than 50 self-explorations that allow you to transform your sensory experience, expand your awareness, and make embodiment—your own complex body—the focus of contemplative practice. The author also includes streaming audio and video links for each practice. Inviting you to awaken to the grace and wisdom of your body as a personal mandala that is always available for meditative focus, the author shows how conscious embodiment can help us become more perceptive and more humane beings.

In The New Rules of Posture, Mary Bond approaches postural changes from the inside out. She explains that healthy posture comes from a new sense we can learn to feel, not by training our muscles into an ideal shape. Drawing from 35 years of helping people improve their bodies, she shows how habitual movement patterns and emotional factors lead to unhealthy posture. She contends that posture is the physical action we take to orient ourselves in relation to situations, emotions, and people; in order to improve our posture, we need to examine both our physical postural traits and the self-expression that underlies the way we sit, stand, and move. The way we walk, she says, is our body's signature. Bond identifies the key anatomical features that impact alignment, particularly in light of our modern sedentary lives, and proposes six zones that help create postural changes: the pelvic floor, the breathing muscles, the abdomen, the hands, the feet, and the head. She offers self-help exercises that enable healthy function in each zone as well as information on basic ergonomics and case histories to inspire us to think about our own habitual movements. This book is a resource for Pilates, yoga, and dance instructors as well as healthcare professionals in educating people about postural self-care so they can relieve chronic pain and enjoy all life activities with greater ease.

This bibliography cites those Canadian and foreign reference sourcesthat describe Canadian people, institutions, organizations,publications, art, literature, languages, and history. It lists booksof a general nature as well as works in the disciplines of history andthe humanities. These large divisions are then broken down by subject,genre, type of document, and province or territory. Titles of national,provincial/territorial, or regional interest are included in everysubject area when available. The contents of the book are indexed fourways: by name, title, French subject, and English subject. And tofacilitate browsing, the major reference books (those dealing with morethan one subject or a large geographical region) are alsocross-referenced.