Canvas by Alexandra Rodehorst

Week 1, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-01-27 18:42:53 UTC

Today we moved our bodies in specific ways, attempting to feel the movement. This intentional way of moving in ways that we do every day made me more observant of how my body works. The beginning where we lay on our sides and just felt our bodies without forcing anything to happen made me conscious of how weird my body feels. It was strange how I could feel my stomach move and how noisy it was. We also barely touched on breathing, but at practice every day we do 5 minutes of breathing and meditation. It was cool to see that many people believe it has positive benefits.

Week 1, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-01-29 18:54:12 UTC

I have a couple of observations today. At tennis practice, we breathe and meditate for five minutes daily. We do it lying down, which allows for easier and more full breaths. I found that meditating while sitting up made it harder to breathe, and my back and leg started to hurt. I also found it difficult to stay still for so long. Also, learning more about the skull was interesting. Learning all the different parts of the body and what their movements are called was relevant to the intentional movement. I also keep thinking about the structure of a skull when looking at my friends.

Week 1, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-01-31 16:34:26 UTC

Today is Friday. It is so warm outside, and it makes me so happy. I went for a walk outside without headphones. It was so nice out for the first time in a long time, and it made me so happy. I was conscious of my breath while walking and the cross-lateral movement my body was making. This was very peaceful.

Week 2, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-02-03 18:50:35 UTC

"There is an ongoing dialogue between the needs of the body and the world's demands. Observe your interactions throughout the day. How often do you respond to your inner impulses, and how often do you make choices based on the needs or demands of others? Can you imagine a dialogue between the two?"

Today I have not been feeling the best. With not feeling my best, I found myself being more quiet among my friends. I found most of my interactions today I haven’t been feeling my best lately. Because of this, I’ve found myself being quieter around my friends. Most of my interactions have been limited due to feeling tired. As a result, my instinct has been to keep my head down and avoid talking to others. However, some people insisted on stopping to have a conversation. Since it was Monday, I ran into many friends wanting to discuss the weekend. I can imagine the back-and-forth being similar to siblings arguing. Although my instinct tells me to go to bed and curl up in a ball, the demands of others encourage me to stay and chat.

Week 2, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-02-06 16:20:00 UTC

Today I observed my sitting and standing posture and movement throughout the day. I wanted to make sure that I was not focusing on it and sitting down in a different way than I would have. I observed that when my energy was high or I was excited to go somewhere, I had better posture when sitting. When I did not want to go to class and I was sitting, I had bad posture and was using my hands to get from sitting to standing. When I got to class and sat down, it was like I fell backwards. Fun fact, my L5 and sacrum are connected on my left side and normal on my right side. This causes restricted movement in my hips. I felt this a lot today when focusing on my spine and pelvis. I could tell that one side of my body was tighter and restricted than the other.

Week 2, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-02-07 18:00:34 UTC

Today I had 7 am practice. It was much harder to wake up my body physically than it normally is. I used a variety of the sensations we did in the first week to wake up my body. I found that by lightly slapping my legs, they woke up much faster. I also felt congested so I did some tapping around my face like we did in class. I was shocked to feel how much it affected me physically in such a short time. It was like an immediate wake up call for my body and I felt much better after. Now every time I feel my body slacking I will use the technique to wake it up.

Week 3, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-02-11 02:46:45 UTC

Today we had an asynchronous class. I used this time to review my paper about somatic learning. I have been thinking about it a lot in tennis because I constantly want to improve. Something I resonate with but have a hard time doing is letting my body feel and not think. I very quickly jump from feel to technical when something isn't working. A huge part about learning and getting better is being able to feel and understand what is not working. I can't immediately go from I missed that shot to dissecting every piece. I need to listen to the feedback and feel that maybe I did not get turned enough on that shot. Another thing I was thinking about is that in practice our coaches are always telling us to imagine the shot. They tell us to think of the shot you want to hit and then play the point. This is somatic learning, but I did not recognize it at the time. This was a great article to read and it has caused me to ponder a lot of things recently.

Week 3, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-02-13 15:33:14 UTC

In class, we did some pilates and deep core strength. It has been very helpful to see the bones and muscles of the body before moving. It helps connect the feeling of what's happening to how my body moves. Last week when we focused on the pelvis, it was about the structure. When we were doing the deep core movements, my pelvis had to be pressed against the floor. Then, when you were taking us through how to do the movements with the core, I saw the connection between pelvis and the abdomen. It was difficult to have a strong core, if my pelvis wasn't in the right position.

Week 3, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-02-13 16:41:33 UTC

Learning about the knee on Wednesday was very fascinating. Thinking that my knee opens up when I bend it freaks me out a little. But it is fascinating to pay attention to. I have had knee problems in the past due to my femur and tibia rubbing together. This created scar tissue in my knee that causes my patella to stick out more than it should. This makes me feel better because how the knee opens and is exposed. Also, when I was feeling around my legs, it makes sense how there are two bones. The tibia and fibula, and then the muscles in between the two. I can feel it and often I get sore in that area. I was exploring with my leg and its sensations and it was much different than expected.

Week 4, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-02-18 19:54:32 UTC

Today in class we focused on the ribs and lungs. After class, I spent the rest of the day very conscious of my breath and how it changes the shape of my ribs. When I was playing tennis and out of breath, I felt my breathing to be very high up. My chest was moving up and down very rapidly. Our coach yells at us every time our breathing is in our chest. He tells us to belly breath. Also, I have realized that whenever I think of my breathing, I think of the alligator ribs. After I consciously breathe, every breath seems to expand more widely than out.

Week 4, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-02-25 15:13:01 UTC

Today, we focused on the arms and hands. The most interesting thing in class was the funny bone and how it is just a nerve that runs near the ulna. After class, I also decided to draw the arms and fingers to dive into it more. I looked into how the bones move when the elbow ends, and it was interesting to feel on my own body. I never thought that my forearm had two bones. Also, I learned through my drawing that when my wrist flips over, the two bones kind of cross over. I had a lot of fun drawing the arm, but I did not know that our hands have so many bones and components. Also, the way we can touch our body and feel it move is something I never thought of, but it is so helpful in understanding how the body can move.

Week 4, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-02-25 15:21:17 UTC

Today I was focused on getting the rest of the front body of the project done. I drew my spine and ribs from the front view which was very difficult. Trying to match each of my front ribs from my body to the drawing was difficult. I was able to locate the bottom ribs, but a lot of it was guessing on the spacing. I also didn't know there was a sternum in the front. Also, through looking at pictures online, I was shocked to see that a lot of the front parts of the ribs were cartilage. The spine was relatively easy to draw and to make it seem correct in relative size. I realized that there is a lot of space dedicated to my cervical vertebrae. I think this project was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot from it.

Week 5, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-02-25 15:31:55 UTC

In class, we did some yoga poses and they were surprisingly difficult. I also enjoyed looking at other people's body mapping projects. It was nice to see the similarities and differences people had. I was able to connect with people when they had difficult times with the same things I had difficult times with. It was also beneficial to see how they think of their body and what they thought their proportions to be. Also, seeing how different people with different builds all had small differences in their drawings for proportions. The back of the ribs were not as hard as the front. During class, other people added a bump on the back of the spine, which didn't even cross my mind. I think this project was perfect for this class.

Week 5, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-02-26 15:51:27 UTC

I liked the way he guided the exercises. He would say do this but then ask "Where do your eyes go? Between your legs or the ceiling?" This would make me more conscious of where my eyes are looking. At the same time, I would try to look between my legs and the ceiling to see which was easier. The most interesting quote was "What I am trying to do is help people make peace with their nervous system and gravity." This didn't make sense at first, but then he guided us to do the same exercise, but with our hands differently. Changing the hand position to the uncomfortable position felt weird, and I felt different body parts touching the ground than before. Similar to breathing, when we would crunch the body I would exhale, because of gravity pushing me down. I would inhale when going back down.

Week 5, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-02-27 15:42:45 UTC

I was playing foosball today and I was overly aware of my hand and fingers. My hand moves a lot to make a fist or grip onto things. The finger bends at all of its joints, but it is difficult to try and bend just one joint. When playing foosball, I would grip the handles and try to spin the little man in the game. I was trying different "forms" like how to get the man to spin the most. I also had to move my arm and shoulder to move the little men back and forth. This is a game that I have played so many times, but I never have thought about how much movement goes into it.

Week 7, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-03-19 17:19:21 UTC

Today in class people did the first 4 presentations. I loved the Gyrokinesis somatic learning technique and so I dove in deeper. I watched some videos and tried some practices to experiment and feel what somatic learning is. It was so great doing the movements. I felt a lot looser in my body. When doing the exercise it was dedicated to like feeling the burn while increasing mobility. As a result, my body was on fire when doing the exercises, but there were no weights. It is very similar to Pilates and I love Pilates so I enjoyed deep diving into this somatic learning experience.

Week 7, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-03-19 17:28:40 UTC

Today I was one of the 4 presentations. I touched on this in class but the AT felt very close to home. My grandmother would always overcorrect my back and my sister's back when we were slouching. When they did the exercise of over-correcting and then finding the medium it felt very familiar. Additionally, it was so intriguing to hear and learn about all the different somatic practices and how they are similar and different. I loved the practices when it was about imagining what you are going to do before doing the practice. I also love the ones where you had to just experience what your body is feeling during a practice and not make it think or do anything.

Week 7, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-03-19 17:31:50 UTC

During practice, my mind was roaming, but I was focusing on the presentations in class about the different somatic practices. I think the AT is more applicable in my life than the others. In tennis, often when the form is incorrect and needs to be corrected, we try to over-correct. For example, if my ball is too flat, I try adding the most spin I can. Then once I feel that, I try to meet in the middle with spin. Often it is great at helping me problem-solve when things are amiss.

Week 6, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-03-20 16:35:20 UTC

Today we discussed the papers. The Eddy reading talks a lot about how Western ideology stems from other cultures. Eddy challenges the Western practices nature and supports the holistic and multicultural approach. Eddy talks about how dance and somatic practices are used to increase well-being. A part that Eddy talks about is the difference between men and women in the role of somatic practices. This made me think of my life. In tennis, I prefer a coach that is a woman just because there are slightly different tweaks in the way men and women play.

Week 6, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-03-20 16:49:14 UTC

Today we worked with our groups outside of class. I enjoyed looking at and gaining a deeper understanding of Body Mind Centering. Throughout our research, we looked at many videos and research articles about BMC. BMC is such a general look into breathing and foundational exercises. We tried following along with a couple of the exercises but they were surprisingly hard and required a lot of flexibility.

Week 6, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-03-20 16:52:49 UTC

Today we had early morning practice and my body was still so sleepy by the time I got to the tennis courts. I had a flashback to what we did in class a couple of weeks ago when we did some patting, hitting, and tapping on our bodies. I spent 5 minutes before practice switching from patting and tapping different parts of my body and surprisingly I felt very good after it. It helped my body wake up from being so tired early in the morning.

Week 8, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-03-24 21:05:45 UTC

Today, we did many different practices and movements. I felt the most embodied awareness through the 3D box exercise. I had an easier time picturing and feeling what I was doing. I imagined an axis through my body that acts as a center point, and when it moves, I move. Another exercise I liked was when we did our improv and then worked with our team to add extra movements as a group. I had fun working with the other people and experiencing improv with them.

Week 8, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-03-27 16:41:49 UTC

Today we practiced the five minutes of writing and then five minutes of movement. This pattern happened for 3 and 1 minute as well. I liked this practice because it was interesting to move after I wrote about practice. I found myself moving slowly and stretching after the 5 minutes. For the 3 minutes, I was spending less time in the stretches, but I was moving more often in different positions. Lastly, for the 1 minute, I felt like I needed to stand up and stretch my legs. While I was writing, for the first 5 minutes I focused on practice and what it meant to me but after, I started practicing writing in Spanish because I had an exam the following period. I was writing in Spanish what practice meant to me and that was cool.

Week 8, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-03-27 16:52:31 UTC

I went to yoga today and it was so much fun. I loved the deep stretches we did because they were hard and now I am sore. I don't feel like I have moved my body in the ways I did in the class in so long. I felt immediately humbled because I was not doing so great in class even though I worked out every day.

Week 9, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-03-31 18:03:24 UTC

I loved what we did in class. I felt like I went back to my childhood and was in a preschool drawing during recess. I loved that I got to just draw without judgment and it can be something completely different than what is normal. I was drawing jellyfish in the sky because I wanted to and I used the colors I wanted to even if it didn't make sense. Then when we went outside, I loved picking a flower just for fun. Then drawing was so relaxing for me. I felt reconnected with my body and my childhood memories. I loved how I felt and my bodily sensations because it felt so comforting.

Week 9, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-04-02 16:36:51 UTC

Today the Gaga instructors came today and it was an experience. It was very much out of my comfort zone and a lot different than what I like to do. At the same time, I couldn't stop smiling while doing it. It felt like so much tension was released even though I felt uncomfortable. Also, maybe smiling was because I was having fun or I thought what I was doing felt funny. I have no idea how I felt about this experience but during it, my heart rate was very high. It was a workout and I was sweating but I didn't feel fatigued like I normally do when I work out. I really love this and I'm so happy that these people came and taught our class.

Week 9, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-04-02 16:40:55 UTC

I decided what my somatic practice was today, and I practiced it for the first time I realized that I have to come up with a plan on how I can teach myself handstands. I spent the first 10 minutes today just trying to do handstands and different beginner techniques but it did not help. I spent 20 minutes looking at videos that claim they can teach you how to do a handstand. I have come up with a plan now on how I can progress based on how my body is feeling during the practice.

Week 10, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-04-07 16:52:58 UTC

Today we did the movement by stopping and starting and moving in a way connected with others. I loved this prompt where it was telling us how to move, but also made it more collaborative. I feel more comfortable when I am doing something with someone else, and this makes it more fun. I would try to switch up my movements or move in unexpected ways to make the other person and myself laugh. I loved the moving in class today, I enjoyed myself.

Week 10, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-04-10 18:25:48 UTC

I can't stop thinking about our score when walking around campus. I have never looked in detail at my surroundings in Davidson. The trees were beautiful and the flowers were so pretty. It made me upset that I have not paid closer attention to what surrounds me. I also found that it was difficult for me to stay silent in the beginning, but at time passed, I was more at peace with being quiet. I decided to go on another walk today by myself on the trails at Davidson. It was so relaxing and cool to open my eyes wider to what is all around me.

Week 10, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-04-10 19:08:46 UTC

After class, based on my experience today I decided to do another score similar to the one we did in class. I wanted to see if I could incorporate the things I felt while moving. I would picture the falling bricks I saw and then use gravity to pull my body up and move it where it went after collapsing. Or I would stretch tall when picturing the tall trees I saw. This increased my gratitude for Davidson and everything around me. It also felt very fun trying to make pictures of what I imagined it would look like in movement.

Week 11, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-04-15 13:49:08 UTC

In class, we did a lot of movements with our eyes closed. We worked on moving in a way that we felt we need without judgment. It created a similar experience to the silent walk outside for me. It was relaxing and refreshing. There was no pressure to move in a certain way and a very supportive environment with everyone doing the same thing having different experiences. I was also given the freedom to move in a way my body needed. My today really needed a good stretch and to be regrounded. As a result, I took the time to make my body feel good and reconnect with how it is feeling and where it needs attention.

Week 11, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-04-23 20:36:21 UTC

Thank you for allowing our recruit to join today! It was surely a memorable day for her to join! I was very skeptical at first about what we would do, but it ended up being one of my favorite classes yet. The video was quite concerning to watch at first, as I am not a physical touch person, or able to move in the way the people were moving in the video. The whole class period was so interesting and intriguing to see what I could do and lift with the help of my body. I am not a big hugger, so when we went around the room to hug people, I stood off to the side. When we started rolling over each other and lifting each other, that was ok with me. I had so much fun experimenting with movement and doing it with another person.

Week 11, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-04-23 20:44:07 UTC

Today, Kailey asked me to help with her movement lab project. I decided to also hit left-handed with her. I love lefty tennis, so I took her up on this opportunity to move. Since she is still injured, we did it short court, and it was so much fun. It always feels so weird when I do it left-handed cause it feels so weak and different. Overall, I am really excited to hit with her left-handed when she presents.

week 12, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-04-23 20:48:49 UTC

I am at a conference this week. My body has been hurting, so I decided to go on a recovery walk on the treadmill. I decided to go on a slow walk and pay attention to what my body needs. I decided to move my arms and stretch during this time to help my body recover.

week 12, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-04-23 20:50:59 UTC

Today was the second day of practice in the hot weather in Florida. I decided to take extra time to stretch to help my body recover. I felt a lot better after, as my body was very tight to begin with. Recovery is so important, especially this late into the season, because everyone's body breaks down due to the amount of stress we put on it.

Week 12, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-04-23 20:52:37 UTC

I decided to stretch extra today, as we are so close to being done with tennis. The stretching helps so much that I started to make sure to stretch before bed every night this week. I am counting down the days to when I get to choose how to move, and it is not just tennis.

Week 13, entry 1

alrodehorst — 2025-05-05 14:31:39 UTC

Today was the first day of presentations. I enjoyed seeing all the other people practicing. It also provided great insight into how they felt and how it could guide my experience. I am glad that another person was doing handstands, and it was interesting to see how he structured and did his practice. It was cool to see two similar concepts being experienced and learned in two different ways.

Week 13, entry 2

alrodehorst — 2025-05-05 14:34:19 UTC

Today was the second day of presentations. I really wanted to reflect on the slow moving since it was something that I never do. It was surprisingly hard and very boring to do. I was doing the slow walking and looking around, and really wanted to talk to the people around me. After doing this practice, I was very antsy and had to go on a run after to stop feeling so crazy. I think doing this practice would be a very good experience, but I think I would be miserable doing it.

Week 13, entry 3

alrodehorst — 2025-05-05 14:36:37 UTC

I have started to do workout classes in the morning due to this class. I loved having movement in the morning, it was a great way to get up and going in the mornings. I found myself more awake on the days I took this class. As a result, I have been going to early morning workout classes to start my day. I feel so much better afterwards and have a better day the majority of the time.