6 Great Touch and Movement Ideas
“Cellular Connection”
This is easier to do with an infant, but you can use the same idea and modify it for an older child. As you hold your infant, let your attention turn inward so that you feel your hands touching her body and her body touching your hands. Feel how at this point of contact, your cells are meeting her cells. Be aware of the two of you together…. right now … in this moment. Notice movement, temperature, the rise and fall of breath. Feel her weight dropping into your arms. Is she yielding into your hold or pulling away? Notice whatever micro-movements you can feel. With an older child, try this kind of cellular connection while placing your hands on her back as you are sitting next to her or reading to her.
“Pelvis Rock”
With your child lying on her back, slide your fingers underneath her bottom and feel for her sit bones with your thumbs. Your hands should now be in a position to gently grasp her whole pelvis. Tilt it up and down in a rocking motion. Her legs will go up and down as you do this, but the initiation of the movement is from the hip joints. As a result, you’ll see her bending through her hips and lower back rather than just her legs.
“Foot Massage”
Apply pressure to the bottom of one of your baby’s feet with your thumbs. Keep pressing down steadily as you slide your thumbs up and down the length of her foot a few times. Then move your hands to her toes and stretch out each individual toe with even, gentle tension. Now, place one hand on one of her heals and the other on the upper part of that foot and imagine that you can glide the lower part of her foot underneath the upper part of it. You should be able to feel a kind of back and forth sliding motion between these two parts of her foot. Next, firmly grasp her whole foot with both of your hands, covering as much of the foot as possible, and massage the soft tissue with a sponging type touch – squeezing and releasing, squeezing and releasing – as though you are pumping the fluids that make up the soft tissue of her foot. Finally, use long sweeping motions that start at the ankle and move all the way to her toes and beyond to release any tension in her foot. You can do this with varying amounts of pressure – from firm to light.
“Twists and Turns”
With your child lying on her back, raise and bend one of her legs up towards her chest while lengthening out and keeping her other leg straight. Then slowly rotate the bent leg across her belly towards her opposite side, maintaining the straight position of her other leg. Repeat several times and then change sides. At first do this without rotating her upper body. Then try it with rotation: roll her whole body over to the side in a fluid motion initiated by the leg moving up and crossing over.
“Starfish”
Imagine that your child is a starfish with its six limbs composed of her 2 legs, 2 arms, her head and the base of her spine. With her lying on her back, place one of your hands on her belly and the other on one of her “limbs.” Help her to feel a sensory connection between these two parts of her body by moving the limb towards and away from her center. Repeat this with each of her “limbs.” Then connect one limb to another by placing your hands on two of her limbs and moving them towards and away from each other, feeling how they each have a common referencing point at the center of her body.
“Cradle, Rock, Jiggle, and Stretch”
Babies’ bodies are made up of between 78% and 65% water. Keeping this in mind, cradle, rock, jiggle, and stretch different parts of your baby’s body, using effortless, freeing, fluid motions…. as though you are swishing around the fluid that’s inside each of her cells.