The Feldenkrais Gym!

I'm teaching a three-hour workshop at the Feldenkrais Institute of New York on Wednesday, November 30 at 6:30 pm. The workshop is titled, The Feldenkrais Gym, and I've realized the title has the potential to cause some confusion.

The workshop is not about helping your typical gym routine, making yourself stronger or specifically improving anything you do at your "regular" gym.

I chose the title because of the diversity of activities available at nearly any gym. You can use aerobic exercise machines, lift weights, work with a personal trainer, take a variety of classes, swim (at some gyms), sit in the sauna or steam room, etc. I want the workshop title to evoke the variety of activities available at the gym.  However, unlike going to a gym, where you choose your activities, at the Feldenkrais Gym, the teacher will choose what we all explore.

During 2017 at the Feldenkrais Institute, both Josh Wolk and I will each teach two evening workshops in which we will "follow our own curiosity." I won't speak for Josh, but my evenings likely won't focus on improving the function of a particular joint or movement pattern (although that will likely be a frequent outcome), but rather, during each evening, we will seek to explore The Feldenkrais Method in the way I think Dr. Feldenkrais envisioned--engaging in a process where a series of Awareness Through Movement lessons, by stimulating your nervous system to find more synergistic patterns, results in an improvement to your entire organism--you end up feeling better because you have actually made yourself better. Whatever the topic we use as our backdrop to explore, this will always be my goal in these workshops.

This week, we'll explore three entirely different ways to do, essentially, the same thing. Improving options always results in a greater sense of freedom and freedom always feels great!

Come to the Feldenkrais Gym and give yourself the pleasant workout you deserve.

For more information or to register, contact The Feldenkrais Institute of New York at 212-727-1014.

The Elusive Obvious - October 12, 2016

This coming Wednesday, October 12, we'll convene at The Feldenkrais^® Institute of New York for 2016's last meeting of Between the Lines, our Feldenkrais reading and discussion group. The subject of our discussion on Wednesday will be, The Elusive Obvious, the last book Dr. Feldenkrais wrote and published very late in his life.

In my blog post from June, referring to lesson numbers two and three from Dr. Feldenkrais's book, Awareness Through Movement^®, I wrote, "It's all here, folks. Nearly all the keys to the Feldenkrais Method^® are contained in these two lessons." Substitute the words, "…this book," for "…these two lessons," and you'll have an accurate description of The Elusive Obvious.

Dr. Feldenkrais tells us as much in his Forward: "[The Elusive Obvious] was written…in response to my students' demand for a work condensing the four years' teaching…that led to their graduation and the formation of the Feldenkrais Guild…."

Like most good treatise authors, Dr. Feldenkrais spends much of the first portion of The Elusive Obvious laying the groundwork, or establishing the basis, on which to build a case for the effectiveness of what are his unusual ideas about the improvement of humanity.

He "explains" how his method works mostly in the last four chapters, Awareness Through Movement, Functional Integration^®, The Obvious is Elusive, and, In a Nutshell. You could almost read just these chapters first and then, if you question his ideas or are simply interested in how he came to his conclusions, go back and read the beginning of the book in which he writes of his own research and that of others in a way that forms the basis for his later explanation of the Feldenkrais Method.

There are so many possibilities for topics of discussion that might come from the book that I'm going to enter Wednesday's discussion with no specific plan (but well-prepared for anything) and wait for the group dynamic to form and see where we go from there. I'm very excited about the possibilities for the evening and am positive that it will be an interesting and enlightening few hours.

As part of the evening, I'll lead the group through the Awareness Through Movement lesson that Dr. Feldenkrais gives instructions for in the book's chapter with that title.

I look forward to seeing you at The Feldenkrais Institute on October 12 at 6:30 pm. If you have questions about Between the Lines or would like to reserve a spot at Wednesday's meeting, please call The Feldenkrais Institute at 212-727-1014.

Between the Lines, A Feldenkrais Method Reading and Discussion Group - June 29, 2016

For the next meeting of Between the Lines, the Feldenkrais^® reading and discussion group, we will stay with Dr. Feldenkrais's book, Awareness Through Movement, but move on to specifically address a portion of the second part of the book.

During our March meeting, most of our discussion revolved around the desire of Dr. Feldenkrais to use movement as a doorway or gateway to help his students enter into a process of improving not only their ability to move, but to change for the better each student's entire self. We discussed the idea that Feldenkrais's interest in creating his Method went far beyond any physical skill-building or therapy to encompass his belief that practicing the Feldenkrais Method^® would contribute to the betterment of humanity and the advancement of the human race.

The second part of Awareness Through Movement is comprised of twelve lessons, and along with the wide range of different movements presented in the lessons, there is a fascinating variety of explorations of physiological, neurological, kinesthetic, and even psychological aspects of being a human being.

The primary focus at our June 29 meeting will be discussing and experiencing lessons 2 What Action is Good, and 3 Some Fundamental Properties of Movement.

Lesson 2, is not really an Awareness Through Movement lesson at all, but more of a "lecture" in which Feldenkrais describes, in more detail than he does nearly anywhere else, what it is he's attempting to teach with Awareness Through Movement^® (in contrast to the one-on-one work with a Feldenkrais Practitioner known as Functional Integration^®).

In Lesson 3, that we'll all do as part of the evening on June 29, nearly all of the fundamental aspects of Awareness Through Movement are not only experienced but also explained, again in more explicit terms than Dr. Feldenkrais ever used when teaching the lessons to the public.

It's all here, folks. Nearly all the keys to the Feldenkrais Method are contained in these two lessons and I'll do my best to illuminate and help you to better understand anything that might remain unclear after we experience these lessons together on June 29.

In addition, if you have questions about the first half of the book that occurred to you after our March meeting or that you feel were not adequately addressed at the meeting, feel free to email me your questions in advance of our June meeting and, time allowing, I'll do my best to answer those questions as well. Email me at: mark@feldenkraisinstitute.com and please make "Between the Lines" the subject line of your email.

Finally, for the September meeting of Between the Lines, we'll move on to Dr. Feldenkrais's book, The Elusive Obvious (just in case you want to get a head start on your reading).

I look forward to seeing you at The Feldenkrais Institute on June 29 at 6:30 pm. If you have questions about Between the Lines or would like to reserve a spot at the June 29 meeting, please call The Feldenkrais Institute at 212-727-1014.

Between the Lines: A Feldenkrais-Related Reading and Discussion Group

Between the Lines is what we’re calling a new ongoing event that begins on Wednesday, March 30 at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York. It’s going to be structured like what I imagine many books clubs are (though I’ve never actually been a member of a book club), but all the reading will be related in some way to the Feldenkrais Method. Attendees will be asked to read something in advance that we’ll discuss at the meeting. I’ll also teach a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson at each meeting.

Why a Reading and Discussion Group?

This idea has been percolating with me for a couple of years now. At first, I was interested in having the group discuss books recently written that illuminated ideas or principles that Dr. Feldenkrais used in the creation of the Feldenkrais Method. What interested me most were books that documented studies that have been done that prove, or at least strongly support, ideas on which Feldenkrais based his method. Advances in science, particularly in devices that measure physical phenomena, have moved as quickly as all technology in our culture. Consequently, there is information available now that was not when Feldenkrais was working; information that directly supports ideas that he had come to believe to be true, through his own experience, or through the less sophisticated research that was then available.

Some of these books also put forth hypotheses that are as yet unproven about what this new information may mean. Some of these intriguing hypotheses, whether or not they are ever "proven," will have a direct impact on the work we do with the Feldenkrais Method. For example, Feldenkrais talks about the "joining of two nervous systems" during the course of a Functional Integration session. This always seemed like a metaphorical joining to me, one to be sought, not because it was actually achievable, but because the closer one comes to the "ideal" of true joining, the more meaningful the experience becomes between client and practitioner. In The Field, by Lynn McTaggart (and in other books by other authors), the idea of finally identifying what is at the bottom of the Unified Field Theory, may make "joining" of anything and everything in the physical universe a concrete reality instead of just a metaphorical goal. It's an intriguing idea.

In The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders, studies are cited that seem to indicate that the human brain begins working on a task before the conscious mind decides to do so. This calls into question the almost universally held belief that it is our conscious mind that is the sole agent of our actions (at least our physical actions, behaviors, wants and desires). Because the Feldenkrais Method uses both conscious awareness and attention, as well as affecting the subconscious process of "assembling" movement patterns, sequences, paths and timing, this idea of "who's on top"--consciousness, subconsciousness, or some combination of the two, becomes fascinatingly relevant to the practice of the Feldenkrais Method and how it works.

The above is a synopsis of thinking that was done a couple of years ago. In bringing Between the Lines to fruition, I spoke to many people and have come to realize that it makes sense to begin on a level that is more directly related to the Feldenkrais Method itself--by discussing at least some of the works that Dr. Feldenkrais wrote.

I encountered Dr. Feldenkrais's books on his method during my training program and found them all to contain complex ideas presented with what, at the time, I perceived as widely varying degrees of clarity. By far, his most accessible book, is Awareness Through Movement and so, in the end, that seemed like the most logical place to start.

Awareness Through Movement is divided into two parts. In the first part, Dr. Feldenkrais makes known his beliefs on learning, self-image, the role culture and society plays in discouraging people from reaching their full potential and how he proposes, though The Feldenkrais Method, to help people become more of what they’d like to be.

The second part of the book is divided into descriptions of twelve Awareness Through Movement lessons. Nowhere else that I’ve seen, does Dr Feldenkrais reveal so much of what he is attempting to do with his lessons.

For our first meeting, on March 30, I’ll teach one of the twelve Awareness Through Movement lessons from the book (I’ll let you know which one in a future post) and we’ll discuss anything from the book that interests you. I’ll be prepared to do as much “leading” as the group would like. At some point during the evening, we’ll also talk about what we’ll be reading and discussing at the next meeting of Between the Lines on June 29.

To prepare for the first meeting on March 30, please read at least Part One of Awareness Through Movement (less than seventy pages), and as much of the rest of the book as you like. If you need a copy of the book, it is available at a 20% discount through The Feldenkrais Institute from now through the end of March. You can pick one up at the front desk or call 212-727-1014 to order.

Between the Lines is sponsored by The Feldenkrais Foundation. Admission is free but donations to the foundation will be gladly accepted. For more information and to reserve a spot, contact The Feldenkrais Institute at 212-727-1014. Looking forward to seeing you on March 30.