Mindfulness/Feldenkrais®

I presented a two-hour workshop last Tuesday evening at Feldenkrais NYC that was titled Mindfulness/Feldenkrais. Mindfulness-related workshops have been taught previously at Feldenkrais NYC (and also under our former identity, The Feldenkrais Institute) several times before, but this was my first time presenting on this topic.

I have begun various forms and practices of mindfulness meditation many times over the past 40 years but none of the practices ever “stuck” for me before I began this current practice a little over four months ago. Since I made the decision (again) to begin a daily meditation practice last September, I have missed only one day of sitting to meditate. I am proud of that. I am always proud of anything that I manage to do involving an ongoing regimen of self-discipline because I don’t have a lot of that. If there is some external motivator like, “I’m doing this for my job,” or a predetermined time frame like, “I’m going to do [whatever] every day for a month,” I can usually stick to most things I set out to do when those external motivators or time limits are present. It makes me a little sad to admit that, in the past at least, simply beginning and keeping up with an ongoing practice of anything solely for its own sake (or solely for my own sake) has been extremely difficult for me.

But every moment presents another opportunity to change. I do my best to live with as few regrets as possible, to keep in mind as often as I am able, that many times, something that might be viewed as a past mistake can also be seen as a current opportunity to make a different choice. So, I feel that in regard to this still quite young personal practice of daily meditation, I’ve made that different choice. I make it anew every day. And I’m happy to say that, so far, my enthusiasm remains high. Most days, I look forward to my meditation periods. I see no signs that my enthusiasm is abating. In fact, if anything, I become more interested each day in engaging in the process and being a witness to what unfolds.

I believe that the biggest aid to changing my own mind and will about this daily engagement with meditation has been the teacher I’m following. I subscribe to the online meditation course called, Waking Up, created and taught by Sam Harris. The course (that seemingly, like all meditation practices, continues without end) is not free. I find the subscription fee well worth its $100 annual price tag and if money is a hardship, the course is made available for nothing, simply by making a request. What is free, if you’re curious and would like to try it out, is one month’s access to all of the Waking Up course. If you’d like to take a look, click this link to start your 30-day free trial.

The course can be accessed either through the wakingup.com website or by downloading the Waking Up app from the usual places. In case there might be some question about my motivation for this blatant promotion, I get nothing in return if you take a look, sign up, or anything else. I’m doing this because I find it helpful and I believe the more of us who engage in mindfulness practice, the better our society will become.

Oh, and yes, I have not forgotten that this is ostensibly a blog related to the Feldenkrais Method^®, so more on my thoughts on the synergy between mindfulness meditation and the Feldenkrais Method in an upcoming post. Hope you are healthy and happy!

Dynamic Sitting

No matter what you're sitting on, dynamic sitting will help!

FULL DISCLOSURE: If this post seems familiar, it is essentially a "re-posting" of something I wrote about five years ago.

It really makes no difference whether you purchased your chair at a yard sale for ten bucks or spent a thousand dollars at a tony office furniture store. If you don't know how best to sit, the extra nine hundred ninety dollars isn't going to make you much more comfortable.

No matter what you're resting your behind on, once you learn to sit dynamically, you'll find yourself sitting more comfortably for longer periods of time. The comfort of your back, neck and shoulders will improve now and for the rest of your life.

That's what my workshop, Dynamic Sitting, is all about. Come join me on September 17 at Physical Therapy & Feldenkrais NYC for a three-hour workshop in which you'll learn how to sit more comfortably in any chair.

For those of you who are in for the big bucks (or who have employers nice enough to purchase a great chair for you), we'll go over some simple adjustments you can (and should) make to get the most help possible from the chair you have.

I'll identify the most "optimal" sitting dynamics and help you to experience them. You'll learn how to use simple sensory cues to find your own best sitting position. Further, you'll learn how to make small adjustments while you sit so you no longer feel "stuck" or "frozen" in your chair.

And we'll do a series of Feldenkrais exercises that will make it easier and more pleasurable to adopt and maintain your newly improved sitting position.

Don't get me wrong. There are times when slumping or sagging on a nice, soft sofa or easy chair is just fine. But if you are unable to find comfort when you choose to sit more efficiently, your poor sitting habits will catch up with you (if they haven't already) and cause you unnecessary pain and distraction.

Join me at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, September 17 at PTFNYC to learn how to make sitting more comfortable now and forever. To register click here.

I hope to see you!

Coming February 15, 2017

Between the Lines, a Feldenkrais^®-oriented reading and discussion group will meet from 6:30-9:30pm on Wednesday, February 15 at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York. Admission is “pay what you like,” with a suggested donation of $10.00. All are welcome. In addition to the discussion, we’ll do an Awareness Through Movement^® Lesson.

In our meetings of Between the Lines during 2016, the reading assignment was an entire book. The discussion was largely undirected by me, as I wanted to see what group participants were curious about after doing the reading.

During those 2016 meetings, we discussed books that were very much centered on what the Feldenkrais Method^® is, how it works and how various movement habits and patterns affect not only physical comfort but the comfort and contentment of our entire “self.”

One comment I got from several people is that they would appreciate an evening that focused more on a specific topic. That seemed like a good idea to explore so that’s what we’re going to do on February 15^th. Moreover, this time, the material will include some reading from Feldenkrais as well as some readings from other authors that I believe directly support Feldenkrais’ ideas about the human organism and its possibilities for improvement. This material is much more about why the Feldenkrais Method is structured as you know it and less about the how.

The reading assignment is in three parts: 1) the chapter titled “Subjective and Objective Reality” from Dr. Feldenkrais’ book, The Elusive Obvious; 2) Chapter 5 from Lynne McTaggart’s book, The Field; and 3) Chapter 9 from Tor Norretranders’ book, The User Illusion. The chapters from The Field and from The User Illusion are available (in direct violation of copyright laws) for download at this link. The files are stored on Google Drive. You should be able to read The Field excerpt directly from your browser window. You will likely have to either print or download the excerpt from The User Illusion as in Google drive, it appears sideways and there is no way to turn the image. If you download it and view it in Acrobat or another PDF reader, you should be able to rotate the image without difficulty.

In the reading from The Elusive Obvious, Dr. Feldenkrais asserts that much, much more of the capacity of the human brain is devoted to “subjective” reality processes (those that occur subconsciously) than is devoted to “objective” reality processes (those of which we are consciously aware). However, the average human spends nearly all of his/her time paying attention to objective reality. Feldenkrais felt that this leaves a gigantic part of human potential untapped. In creating the Feldenkrais Method, he attempted to give humanity a way to improve that vast part of our mind that most of us leave completely to its own devices.

It seems to me that most Feldenkrais teachers find themselves frequently trying to communicate to students why the way we work is so different from other physically-based healing or learning modalities. We are trying to explain that human movement is largely directed (or organized or assembled) in the subconscious and that by its very nature, the subconscious and all of its activity cannot be directly “known” by consciousness. We are trying to help our students improve something through a process of learning that is impossible to consciously monitor as it occurs. (We can consciously notice the effects of our work but not the actual process of improvement.) Further, physical organization is only a small part of what the subconscious controls and Dr. Feldenkrais knew that improving efficiency in the area of physical organization would bring about a concurrent improvement in the functioning of subconscious activity in general. Therefore, he truly believed that helping humanity improve subconscious efficiency was equivalent to helping the human race to evolve more quickly.

Norretranders’ book, The User Illusion, attempts to help us understand the nature of human consciousness. He, too, makes a clear distinction between the mind’s unconscious processes and consciousness. His ideas support those of Dr. Feldenkrais in intriguing ways that further encourage us to attend to and consciously “stay out of the way” (this is my interpretation) of our subconscious whenever it is reasonable to do so. The User Illusion can be a tough read. If you start the section and find it too dense, skip to the bottom of page 241 and read to the end of the chapter. That last section contains the information most relevant to our discussion. Then, if you want more detail on how Norretranders reaches the conclusions he comes to, you may want to go back and read the beginning of the chapter.

In The Field, Lynne McTaggart, goes even farther in bringing together research done by a number of scientists who are working on various projects related to quantum physics. The main thesis of her book comes from a thus-far unprovable hypothesis that there is a field of something (energy?) called the zero-point field that is, in fact, the “stuff” of which everything in what we would call “existence” is made. This includes matter in all forms, as well as thought, feeling, ideas—really anything of which one can conceive. Because the zero-point field is the basis of all that exists, there is no fundamental difference between what we perceive as material and what we believe is immaterial. Further, the zero-point field, because it is one thing, means there is a constant connection and communication between everything and anything that exists.

In terms of how this has affected my own practice of the Feldenkrais Method, it has turned one of our basic tenets: the possibility of “joining” another person’s nervous system, from a hypothetical notion to be sought after but never-to-be-attained (because of the seeming separateness of beings), into something that I can believe is not only a possibility but rather a certain occurrence whenever one has a clear “intention” to join another.

The chapter I have provided from The Field deals, in part, with some ideas of how certain parts of our brain function, of how information is processed in the brain and of how the outside world is “decoded” and interpreted by our brains. All of these things are ideas that directly support Dr. Feldenkrais’ idea that each one of our versions of “subjective” reality is a much richer and potentially more productive area on which to focus our desire to improve, rather than, as most learning modalities stress, maintaining a focus on what we can learn and “know” consciously.

I’ve highlighted some sections in the chapter from The Field. This was done for my own benefit and isn’t really meant to guide your thinking in any way. Generally (if I remember my intent correctly), I felt what I highlighted in blue had to do with the general topic of conscious and unconscious activity, and the yellow highlights were more directly relevant to the Feldenkrais Method.

If all this seems in any way daunting or too complex, please don’t let that dissuade you from coming. My only interest in creating these reading and discussion groups is to make what we attempt to do through the Feldenkrais Method more clear, simple and understandable. I hope to help you appreciate your own ability to make what may seem, at first encounter, to be highly complex ideas a part of your own, fundamental understanding of what it means to be a human being.

I very much look forward to being with you on February 15^th.

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.

Improving Your Sense of Self (even more...)

Who are we? When any of us speaks of "I" or "me," what do we mean? Most of us identify with our consciousness. We see ourselves as an synthesis of what we think and how we feel emotionally, coupled with the perception we have of the world through our five senses. It is our consciousness that gives us a sense of autonomy, of control over our own actions, our sense of free will.

Consequently, many of us limit what we identify as "me" or "I" to what we take in or produce through conscious action. What if you were "bigger" than that? More than just your consciousness? What if there was a creative, immensely capable part of yourself that you left unacknowledged, its power unused, simply because it resides outside your consciousness? Worse, what if leaving this power center's potential untapped caused it to atrophy and lose its ability to help you?

I'm writing of the potential power of your nervous system as a whole and, particularly, the part of your subconscious mind that organizes your movement. This power center resides within every human being but most of us never realize even a small portion of the ability that this aspect of ourselves has to contribute to our health and wellbeing.

Let's back up for a moment and think just about human movement. Even as adults, most of the time, we think of movement much as we did when we were babies. We think of movement not in terms of how it is done—what muscles are contracted in what sequence, timing and power level—but rather we think of movement in terms of what we want. Stand up. Sit down. Take a box off the shelf. Turn to see what made that noise. Walk to the car. Dial the correct combination to the padlock. Run to catch the bus. We rely on this untapped power center—our nervous system—to do the job of translating our desires into action, of directing the appropriate musculature to fire in just the right sequence at just the right time and with just the right level of contraction (and that is a gross simplification of what actually takes place) to move our body as our desires have requested. And most of us do only a small fraction of what we are capable of to improve the functioning of this part of our brain and nervous system.

Every Feldenkrais lesson provides food, in the form of information, for this aspect of our being, improving the functioning of our nervous system. But some lessons provide more direct input than others. These are the lessons through which we come to know our physical selves with greater and greater clarity and detail. In essence, these lessons provide pure and undiluted information to your nervous system that helps it (you) to do a more "informed" and efficient job of the movement assembly process outlined above. When your nervous system has better tools to work with, it will improve its (your) ability to assemble the details of how you move in a more efficient manner, resulting in greater comfort and pleasure in movement.

How does improving your movement improve your sense of self? Moshe Feldenkrais saw the human organism as an integrated system. If a change is made to one part of the system, a response is generated throughout the rest of the system. A positive change in one aspect results in a positive change to the whole. For more detail on this, see my blog post from last summer, here.

The types of Feldenkrais lessons that contribute most strongly to the nervous system's ability to sense itself and the body in which it resides require much more mental effort than they do physical exertion. These lessons can be mentally taxing, sometimes frustrating, but the effort expended in concentration and attention generates great rewards. As with all Feldenkrais work, the benefits can be immediate and profound. Moreover, the more of this type of work that is done, the more those benefits accrue over time. Whether or not a change or improvement is felt right away, these lessons provide very powerful input into the amazingly competent information processor that is our nervous system. And as one's physical self-image becomes more detailed and complete, one's self-image (in the larger sense that encompasses our thoughts and feelings as well) also expands and improves. The result is that we feel more confident, more powerful, more secure and more comfortable in the world.

I invite you to begin or continue, as the case may be, your journey toward finding a "bigger," more confident version of you, one that includes all of yourself and is no longer limited to just what your consciousness brings to your attention. This is what we'll do at my three-hour workshop (and in three related follow-up classes), Improving Your Sense of Self (click here for registration information), to be presented at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York, on Wednesday, March 5 at 6:30 pm.

More Thoughts on Improving Your Posture

It's never enough to simply understand what to do
if one feels unable to put that knowledge to use.

One of the mantras of more traditional postural techniques is, "Keep your chest up!" And yet, how one is supposed to hold one's chest "up," especially for any length of time, seems to be elusive for many people.

I have found one of the most exciting and practical applications of the Feldenkrais Method is to help people experience the sense of how to do something while providing the means to incorporate that ability into one's daily life. However, for some people, even Awareness Through Movement^® lessons that are designed to activate and balance the work of the back muscles and help them to lift the chest, leave those people feeling that the lower back is working too hard. We understand that this happens because, for those people, the lumbar area of their spine is most available for (or is, in fact, already doing too much of) the work of keeping them upright. So, for me, a long-time question has been, how can I help people achieve the sense that they can effortlessly lift through the chest without overworking the muscles in the lower back?

A couple of months ago, looking for something else, I stumbled across a trio of Awareness Through Movement^® lessons that were originally taught by Dr. Feldenkrais during his weekly classes in Israel. More than any set of lessons I have encountered, these lessons answered my question. Brilliantly constructed by Dr. Feldenkrais to help the student achieve greater flexibility throughout the thoracic area, these lessons also get the mid-back extensors firing in a way that seems almost magically to lift the chest with no sense of extra effort. It's a wonderful feeling.

On November 6, I'm going to teach a three-hour workshop, Improving Your Posture with the Feldenkrais Method at the Feldenkrais Institute of New York. For the most part, the workshop will consist of the incredibly potent Awareness Through Movement lessons I mentioned above. All the material taught on Nov. 6 will be entirely different than what you've previously experienced from me in a posture workshop. For more information and to register for the workshop, click here.

Don't misunderstand, I still firmly believe in the ideas on which I've based my previous posture workshops. If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on how the Feldenkrais Method can help you to improve your posture, take a look at my blog post from last year.  Click here to read it.

Hope to see you on the 6th!

Dynamic Sitting at the Feldenkrais Institute

No matter what you're sitting on, dynamic sitting will help!

It really makes no difference whether you purchased your chair at a yard sale for ten bucks or spent a thousand dollars at a tony office furniture store. If you don't know how best to sit, the extra nine hundred ninety dollars isn't going to make you much more comfortable.

No matter what you're resting your behind on, once you learn to sit dynamically, you'll find yourself sitting more comfortably for longer periods of time. The comfort of your back, neck and shoulders will improve now and for the rest of your life.

That's what my workshop, Dynamic Sitting, is all about. Come join me next week at the Feldenkrais Institute for a three-hour workshop in which you'll learn how to sit more comfortably in any chair.

For those of you who are in for the big bucks (or who have employers nice enough to purchase a great chair for you), we'll go over some simple adjustments you can (and should) make to get the most help possible from the chair you have.

I'll identify the most "optimal" sitting dynamics and help you to experience them. You'll learn how to use simple sensory cues to find your own best sitting position. Further, you'll learn how to make small adjustments while you sit so you no longer feel "stuck" or "frozen" in your chair.

And we'll do a series of Feldenkrais exercises that will make it easier and more pleasurable to adopt and maintain your newly improved sitting position.

Don't get me wrong. There are times when slumping or sagging on a nice, soft sofa or easy chair is just fine. But if you are unable to find comfort when you choose to sit more efficiently, your poor sitting habits will catch up with you (if they haven't already) and cause you unnecessary pain and distraction.

Join me at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, September 10 at the Feldenkriais Institute of New York to learn how to make sitting more comfortable now and forever. To register click here. (Always a 5% discount for online registration. An additional $10 discount is available until midnight, September 3--$50 instead of $60.)

I hope to see you on Tuesday!

Improving Your Sense of Self

Most people come to a Feldenkrais^® practitioner or to Awareness Through Movement^® classes attempting to improve some physical condition or injury—they might have neck or back pain, sore hips or knees, a frozen shoulder or difficulty recovering from an injury or surgery. Some have heard that the Feldenkrais Method^® can help with sleep disorders or digestive problems.

Feldenkrais work does help people overcome all of these issues and many others. Because of this, the Feldenkrais Method has a reputation as a healing modality, as a form of alternative medicine. At various times, clients have told me that I have, "healing hands," or that I am able to perform "magic." I've received other wonderful, ego-stroking comments of this nature that are all absolutely untrue. Anyone who improves with my help, improves because I have helped them find the means to help themselves.

Dr. Feldenkrais said:

"The natural tendency of all living creatures is to go in the direction that helps them, which makes them better….. The evidence is that each person, when you help him find himself, becomes more comfortable with himself and more comfortable with others….

From the ignorance of all of humanity, something is done that disturbs the person from really becoming a person."¹

Dr. Feldenkrais was known as a gifted healer. People traveled great distances so that he might put his hands on them and receive a Functional Integration^®. And yet, to call the Feldenkrais Method a healing modality is to minimize his aims in creating and disseminating his work and falls far short of the Feldenkrais Method's potential to facilitate self-improvement.

Think of it this way. Dr. Feldenkrais could have written some very successful books that might have had titles like, Effortlessly Heal Your Aching Back or Ten Simple Steps to a Relaxed Neck or Breathe Better—Feel Better. But instead he chose to write, The Potent Self, Body and Mature Behavior, Awareness Through Movement and The Elusive Obvious, among others. Just the titles alone make it apparent that Dr. Feldenkrais was after much more than helping people with aching knees and shoulders. He was after helping people become better, more expansive, more effective, happier human beings. And the key to this is improving one's sense of self or self-image.

Here are some excerpts that provide only a fragmented bare beginning of Dr. Feldenkrais's thoughts on self-image from his book, Awareness Through Movement:

Only the unusual person will continue to improve his self-image until it more nearly approaches the potential ability inherent in each individual.

… social conditions allow an organism to function as a useful member of society without in the least developing its capacities to the full.

It is important to understand that if a man wishes to improve his self-image, he must first of all learn to value himself as an individual, even if his faults as a member of society appear to him to outweigh his qualities

A man tends to regard his self-image as something bestowed upon him by nature, although it is, in fact, the result of his own experience.

The establishment of an initial more or less complete, although approximate, image will make it possible to improve the general dynamics instead of dealing with individual actions piecemeal. This improvement may be likened to correcting playing on an instrument that is not properly tuned. Improving the general dynamics of the image becomes the equivalent of tuning the piano itself, as it is much easier to play correctly on an instrument that is in tune than on one that is not.²

And here's the only secret, the only magic: self-improvement does not come from the Feldenkrais teacher, it comes from you. You have the power to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to learn more, to become more, and this power never leaves you. All you have to do is invest some time, let go of some old ideas and embrace the possibility of change.

The whole process begins and ends with improving your sense of self. And we'll make a concrete beginning (or add to the work you've already done) in my three-hour workshop at The Feldenkrais Institute on July 25, Improving Your Sense of Self. Click here for registration information. You won't learn everything you need to know to make yourself a new human. It's a step along the way. Remaking ourselves is a process and because we have unlimited potential, it's a process that never has to stop. The only thing that stops our self-improvement is our own lack of desire.

Hope to see you on the 25^th.

----------------------------
¹ Feldenkrais, Moshe: Awareness Through Movement Lessons from Alexander Yanai; International Feldenkrais Federation, Paris; 2000; pp. 2081, 2082

² Feldenkrais, Moshe: Awareness Through Movement, Harper Collins, New York; 1977; pp. 10-24

The Beauty of Constraint

"When you know what you're doing, then you can do what you want." --Moshe Feldenkrais

When you take Feldenkrais^® Awareness Through Movement^® lessons (ATM^®), you are encouraged to find your own way of moving, to keep the movement comfortable for you. You are often told that there is no "right" way of doing a particular movement, that however you can best follow the teacher's instructions is the "correct" way for you to do the movement at that moment. And while all of that is true....

Awareness Through Movement is designed to improve your ability to move.

It is easy to confuse what's comfortable with what is familiar. And if we only explore movement within the parameters of the familiar, our improvement will be much slower than it will be if we comfortably move ourselves into the realm of the unfamiliar, exploring the possibilities for movement in ways that we rarely or never do.

One of the most frequently used tools in the structure of ATM lessons is constraint. There are many types of constraints built into lessons; 1) verbal, including constraints on timing or speed or the quality of movement; 2) physical, including holding onto a particular part of the body while you do a movement, adopting and holding a physical shape, or changing orientation to make the floor a constraint; and 3) imaginary, including holding onto something that isn't there while moving, or imagining that someone helps you to do a particular movement.

In my experience as a teacher I frequently see students unknowingly thwart the intent of a constraint in order to move farther or faster or in a way that is more comfortable or familiar. People usually don't disregard these constraints intentionally. They do it because they don't understand the intent or structure of the constraint.

In my workshop, to be given at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York on June 25 (for details and registration information, click here), you'll learn how to recognize various types of constraints that come up in lessons and how to use them to direct yourself to move in places and ways that are unfamiliar. Once you know how to effectively use constraints you'll more quickly find different, more functional ways of moving. Through experience, you'll learn to intellectually understand the intent of a particular instruction so that your movement explorations can become better self-directed in a way that will lead to more movement options, faster improvement and greater movement health.

In other words, this workshop will help you discover, in a more concrete way than ever before, "...what you are doing [so] you can do what you want." 

The Position of Your Head (Where Is Your Head?)

Why’s it important? Let’s begin with the assumption that in evolutionary terms, the human body came to be what it is as a result of a set of environmental and cultural conditions that have not existed for a very long time. The vast majority of Americans no longer have to physically compete for food, nor do we have to actively avoid predators, two primary conditions that contributed to the “survival of the fittest” resulting in the human anatomy we currently share. Historically, for the purpose of survival of a human being, there are few things more important than the most efficient means of transporting the teleceptors (eyes, ears, nose) toward a source of potential danger or sustenance. Because of this, in terms of our evolution (this is not only true of humans, of course) the development of the freedom of the head and neck as we grow and mature is given high biological priority. In his book, Body and Mature Behavior, Dr. Feldenkrais writes extensively of the process of human development and, in that context, of the importance of the placement of the head. Here is an excerpt in which he writes that effective movement of the head is a precursor to the development of consciousness itself, the very thing, one might argue, that most makes us human:

The anatomy of the head determines the conditioning of response to sound, and the reflective response to gravity. Next, the motility of the eyes is integrated into the already existing basic movements of the head. The first manifestations of consciousness will appear with the control of the head which allows the child to follow and direct itself towards moving objects or sources of sound. (p. 113)

He goes on to describe, in the developing infant, the importance of the position of the head to achieve any effective change of physical orientation as well as the ability in a well-functioning child to maintain an efficient head position nearly indefinitely:

Soon afterwards, the head begins to right itself to a special position [a somewhat confusing description of that position is omitted]. At the beginning, the head tends reflexively to this position, in whatever position the body may be. A baby, put on its tummy, lifts its head to this reference position, and remains that way as long as necessary. The tonic muscular contraction is practically [incapable of being fatigued]. With this position of the head is associated the image of oneself in one’s relation to space. And for correct appreciation of spatial relation, all acts involve a brief fixing of the head in it. Standing up, or changing attitude are sensed to be accomplished when the head assumes the reference position. Only after this can a new act be initiated without the reflex impulses contradicting voluntary control. (p 113-114)

In other words, before we can do anything, we have to orient ourselves physically and that orientation is accomplished by a learned reference point of our head that contains the teleceptors and the receptors for our vestibular system. As an organism we are predisposed to finding a “resting” position for our head that least taxes our neck muscles so that we can most easily move the head in any direction. The contraction of the neck muscles is intrinsically related to the habitual contraction of the flexors and extensors in our entire body. A positive or negative change on either side of this equation (the muscles of the neck on one side and the muscles that control our ability to remain upright on the other) elicits the same positive or negative response in the other side. It’s a matter of infinite degrees but many (perhaps most) of us live a life of relatively poor self-use and lack of attention to our physicality. Our habitual physical organization, both in movement and at rest, is affected by this inattention, often resulting in the “poor posture” that so many of us lament. For most of us, the optimal positioning of the head that we knew in our early youth is slowly lost and forgotten. In Body and Mature Behavior, Dr. Feldenkrais goes on to illuminate the detrimental effect of having a poorly aligned head. Here, he speaks of only one of several possible poor head placements:

…once the sunken head posture is acquired, a person will revert to the most awkward and tiresome (to normal people) procedure in turning his head, but will obstinately avoid lifting it into that position from which turning is normally easy. A parallel procedure is observed on the emotional plane, where the immature person uses detour, roundabout ways instead of direct, simple methods. (p. 118)

He’s saying that the more familiar poor head placement becomes, the more difficult it becomes for us to do what would be easiest. As a forward leaning head (or any other misalignment) becomes more familiar than a position that would allow simpler, easier movement of the head and neck, the position of ease of movement becomes more difficult to attain and maintain than a position of inefficiency. This sets up a deteriorating pattern in which our poor self-use and lack comfort steadily increase. The entire system suffers as a result. Conversely, the freer the head and neck, the greater the possibility of freedom in our entire being, both physical and emotional.

And that’s why it’s important. The position of your head and its freedom is a gauge for the freedom and effective use of your entire self. Finding the best position for your head can alleviate neck pain almost instantly. With more effective head placement, back pain will lessen in short order. Breathing will ease and become fuller and deeper. Your entire sense of well-being and personal security will increase as you improve the position of your head.

If you’d like to start that process, come join me on Tuesday, September 4 at The Feldenkrais Institute for my Feldenkrais Method^® workshop, “Where is Your Head?” For more information and to register online with a 5% discount, click here.

Spontaneity and Summer Spine Essentials

At the Feldenkrais^® Institute of New York our theme for July is Spontaneity. If you've done Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) exercises, this may seem at least a bit incongruous. In ATM, everything seems planned. Each movement is carefully described. Often, movements are nearly identical except for a seemingly minor change in one component. Where is there any room for spontaneity in a structure like this? Even within a structure--any structure--spontaneity is there for you to find. In an ATM exercise, you are always encouraged to do only what is easy, only what feels pleasurable. If that means, to remain comfortable, you have to alter the instructions the teacher gives, well, that requires some spontaneity.

But more important is the realization that what we do in an ATM exercise is training. The human body, like all efficient systems, is nearly always capable of performing the same action in a variety of different ways. Your brain assembles or "organizes" movement—dictates which muscles will be activated and in what sequence and level of contraction, while also inhibiting other muscles from acting. Every Feldenkrais experience you encounter presents your brain with more options for how to organize movement. The specific way a movement is organized in the brain is dictated mostly by habit and, depending on how "well-organized" we are, by the circumstances under which the movement is performed. (I'm getting to the issue of spontaneity, I promise.) The training done during ATM exercises provides you with more organizational options for doing any number of different movements. And the more options you have available, the more spontaneous your movement becomes, changing and optimizing depending on what you're doing and why you're doing it. As you do more and more Feldenkrais work, your ability to be spontaneous increases.

So what does this have to do with my workshops, Summer Spine Essentials? The spine is the central core of support for over half your body mass. If you improve the movement of the spine, you improve the potential for nearly every movement you do. In addition, many common aches and pains, both the obvious ones like neck and back aches, and some less obvious like hip, knee and ankle problems, can often be helped by improving the ability of the spine to move effectively.

Summer Spine Essentials is made up of three related workshops, beginning on July 10th, when we'll explore turning and twisting. This workshop is great if you have neck problems, shoulder issues or back pain. Further, improving the ability of the spine to turn contributes directly to the ability to more easily bend forward and back, the theme we'll explore on Tuesday, July 17^th. In the third workshop on July 24^th, we'll look into how you can use your entire spine to move in all directions. As you improve your ability to sense all of your spine, you'll be able to better detect what parts of your spine are working too hard and what parts aren't doing the job they should be.

As you become better able to sense and utilize your spine, you can use that information to improve your posture, be more comfortable standing or walking, and sitting will become more effortless in nearly any situation. You'll also be able to better help yourself solve and prevent neck pain and backaches.

Spontaneity is usually something we believe we have or do not; something we're comfortable with or we're not. But as you do more Feldenkrais work, you may be surprised to find that you become more and more spontaneous. As your nervous system gains more tools to use in movement assembly, resulting in more spontaneous movement, you'll likely find an increase in the spontaneity of your thinking and feeling, as well. As a human organism, you're all one system. When you change and improve one part (like the way you move) the rest of the system responds in kind.

I invite you to join me for any or all three of the Summer Spine Essentials workshops. The cumulative experience of all three will be the best, but if you can only make one or two, each evening will stand on its own.

Why not try out a little spontaneity today? Use this link to find out more and register for any or all of the Summer Spine Essentials workshops. I hope to see you there.

Move. Moving... and Movement

This past Thursday, my wife and I moved out of our house in Brooklyn. We now live upstate in New Paltz, New York, where she's a college professor. We're going to keep an apartment in Brooklyn so I can commute in once a week and keep working at the Feldenkrais Institute.

We're beyond the place where we rent a truck and move ourselves or beg our friends to help us. Fortunately, we've used a Brooklyn moving company a couple of times in the past and they were phenomenal—on time, honest, economical (for movers), very quick but still careful.

Although we used the same company, last Thursday was different from those other times. The movers arrived at 8:00 am, as promised, and we were entirely packed and ready to go. All they needed to do was wrap some furniture pieces and get it all into the truck. They showed up with four guys and past experience told me they'd be in the truck and on their way around noon, maybe 1:00 pm at the latest.

At around 10:00 am, two of the movers were sent to another job. They were gone before I knew they were leaving and when I asked the guy who was supervising our move, he assured me that two other guys were on their way over. But with only him and one other man working, things slowed down considerably. I began wrapping furniture myself and carrying things out to the truck. By noon, when no replacements had arrived I the office and spoke to a woman who gave me a heartfelt apology and assurances that replacements were "in transit." At two o'clock when help had still not arrived, I called again and spoke to the owner. Perhaps you can imagine, I was just a little perturbed at that point. He really is a nice guy, although at the time, I had no appreciation for that. He told me again that help was on the way and that "it would be made right" for me on the final bill. I said that would be nice but what I really wanted was to be finished moving before Friday. I got more apologies and, amazingly, a half hour later two more men showed up.

We finally left our house in Brooklyn at 5:00 pm. We stopped at a storage facility to drop a few things off that are going to the new Brooklyn apartment and left the city to go upstate at 6:00 pm, ten hours after we began. We still had to make a two-hour drive and then unload at our new place. I've been in better moods.

The two-hour drive took three because it was Thursday before a holiday week and we'd managed to hit rush hour at its height. We arrived at our new place at about 9:00 pm and things actually got a little better from there on. The movers had us unloaded by 11:15 pm and I managed to get into bed a little before 1:00 am.

We got back in the car at 7:00 am the next day to drive back to Brooklyn to close on the sale of our house. This seemed like pretty good planning when we'd anticipated saying good-bye to our movers around 6:00 pm the evening before. But under the circumstances, my mood wasn't improving.

I need to digress just a bit here to say that nine months ago when we at the Feldenkrais^®  Institute were planning our slate of workshops for 2012, it seemed like a great idea to me to teach a five-hour Feldenkrais workshop on Saturday, June 30^th. As I was driving back to New York at 8:00 am on five hours' sleep, having lugged boxes the entire day before, the thought of teaching all the following day made me want to shoot someone, mostly myself. But what are you going to do? (I don't much care for guns.)

I had been intelligent enough to arrange to stay with a friend on Friday night so I didn't have to drive back and forth to New Paltz again but I woke up at 6:30 am on Saturday with a sore back, a headache and a six-hour workshop that began before noon.

So, what did I do? After contemplating pretending to be ill or deliberately ingesting something that I knew would give me food poisoning, I did what any Feldenkrais practitioner would do. I did Feldenkrais work. I went over all the lessons I was going to teach in my workshop and although I abbreviated most of the work, by the end of the three hours I spent doing Awareness Through Movement^®, I felt immensely better. My back was no longer sore; my headache was gone; I felt awake, yet calm. I felt ready to do what I needed to do. The particular ATMs^® I did were irrelevant. I could have picked anything. What I needed and received from the Feldenkrais work was to be reminded of how much wasted energy I'd been expending, of how to move (and live) in a more efficient and pleasurable way, of how to breathe easily and in concert with every activity I undertake.

Even after doing Feldenkrais work for more than twelve years, I need these reminders over and over again. We all do. A process that continues to evolve in my thinking is that I look forward more and more to doing ATM, to the curative power of being reminded of what it's like to feel more human. And to be able to sense myself and the changes that occur within me in a finer and more detailed way as experience accrues. It's a process that I believe will continue for the rest of my life. I look forward to that, too.

By the way, the folks who came to the workshop on Saturday seemed to have a great time. And our new house in New Paltz is lovely. We've moved and we'll keep moving. So far, so good….

The Easy Way to Better Posture (Did you know May is "Correct Posture Month"?)

As far as I can tell, May was declared Correct Posture Month by The American Chiropractic Association (“ACA”). Where I practice, at The Feldenkrais^® Institute, although we're not so fond of the term, "posture," we know everybody uses it, so for the month of May we’re offering our own version of Posture Month. (We're leaving off the "correct." For more on that, read on.) Regarding the ACA’s standpoint on posture, there’s a lot that makes sense, but some of what they advocate is, frankly, a little closer to nonsense. Even to begin the discussion with the idea that there is such a thing as “correct” posture implies that there’s a stance or a way of holding oneself that is universally right for every human being. We who practice the Feldenkrais Method believe that little can be applied universally to all people. We see each of you as an individual and, while there may be some aspects of posture that apply to several or even many people, to advocate one set of postural “rules” without taking into account the huge physical variance to be found throughout humanity cannot be truly "correct."

Here’s a link to what looks like the "official" ACA post on Correct Posture Month. In it, there are a lot of commonly accepted ideas about posture, both good and bad, and as such, it makes for a good starting place for some additional thoughts on posture. To fully understand what I’m talking about below, I urge you to follow the link and read the Correct Posture Month post first. Again, you can access the post by clicking here.

I agree with much of the information in the post. On the other hand, as one who looks at physicality through the lens of the Feldenkrais Method, I would deem some of what's recommended not particularly useful. For example, let's look at this brief excerpt that seems like commonly accepted postural advice, "...keep your head held up, shoulders back and stomach tucked in." Like so many instructions that involve "how to be" physically, this seemingly simple advice is much easier said than done. I can't argue with the advantages of keeping one's head up. But how much of your attention are you willing to devote to doing it? What happens when you stop thinking, “keep my head up”? In other words, good advice is only as good as the tools provided to put the advice into practice. That’s what the Feldenkrais Method is all about, providing you with tools.

The rest of those recommendations are questionable on several levels. Shoulders back? How far back? What else happens when you bring your shoulders back? Do you tense your neck or clench your jaw or overarch your lower back? And do those actions, or whatever you do unconsciously in concert with pulling your shoulders back, contribute to "better" posture or detract from it? There is no single answer that fits everyone.

Keep your stomach tucked in. Why? Does it help preserve the natural curves of your spine? That’s doubtful. On the contrary, tucking in your stomach makes it more difficult to maintain a healthy lumbar curve. So, why the advice? Is it simply to satisfy the desire to look better and does that imply that thinner is better? Does tucking one's stomach in make any functional sense when thinking of posture? Depending on where one begins her individual exploration in search of "better" posture, reducing the lower back curve a little, which would result in moving the stomach back (not tucking it in), might be beneficial. But for some of us, tucking the stomach might bring on increased strain and even contribute to back pain.

The point is that people are different and so is each individual's pathway to better posture. This is the crux of the approach we take through the Feldenkrais Method. Each of you can learn to better sense yourself to the point where you will become your own coach in search of your particular version of correct posture. Using Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement^® exercises, you can learn to not only sense what is great posture for you, but as your nervous system begins to experience more equilibrium with less effort, you won't have to think so much about keeping your shoulders back or your head up or anything else, because your system will seek, not those external consciously-driven ideals, but rather, the vertical organization that feels the most effortless and natural for you. And when you do think about those particular aspects of your physicality, you'll be able to ease your shoulders into a more comfortable place, allow your head to move back to find balance over your pelvis and, most importantly, you'll be able to sense just what your own version of "correct" posture feels like and find it quickly and simply.

If you’d like to begin this exploratory process of finding your own “correct” posture, you might try my upcoming workshop at the Feldenkrais Institute, The Easy Way to Better Posture. All the details can be found by clicking here.

Also, the Feldenkrais Institute offers fifteen weekly Awareness Through Movement classes on a drop-in basis and throughout the month of May all of us who teach there have been encouraged to put the focus of our class choices on improving posture. A roster of classes offered at the Feldenkrais Institute can be found on the right side of the page that opens when you click here. So, whether or not you can make my evening workshop next Thursday, come join us anytime during May (or any other time) and find out how you can make being upright simpler and more pleasurable while you help yourself to just plain feel better.

Dynamic Sitting (and everything else...)

"dy-nam-ics n. a branch of mechanics that deals with forces and their relation primarily to the motion but sometimes also to the equilibrium of bodies."

That's from an old Webster's dictionary and I found it illuminating, particularly the juxtaposition of "motion" and "equilibrium."

A couple of weeks ago I was seeing a client for the first time. I was sitting on a stool and we'd been talking for a few minutes when she said, "I notice you frequently move while you sit."

I'd known that was true, particularly when I sit on something without back support, but I hadn't realized I did it often enough to warrant notice. After that, I started paying closer attention and I realize when I'm sitting I move, not quite constantly, but a lot. Further reflection led me to understand that what I'm looking for in my moving exploration (because that's what I'm doing, exploring) is a finer sense of both comfort and equilibrium. Don't get me wrong, I'm not usually uncomfortable sitting (although there was a time when I was), I'm looking to improve what's already working and, through those little adjustments, head off discomfort before it begins. I can now sit comfortably, with or without back support, usually for hours at a time, if need be and the whole process of fine tuning my sitting position has become mostly unconscious.

But it didn't start out that way. It started from doing Awareness Through Movement^® lessons that helped me to become more self-aware and gave me a context within which I could more effectively build skill, both consciously and unconsciously. I find great benefit from doing this type of ATM and so will you. Regardless of age or experience, exploring your movement dynamics will pay you great dividends. If you haven't yet done it, give the Feldenkrais Method a try and see how much better you feel, not only while sitting but during all of your activities. If you're in New York City, you can visit me and my colleagues at The Feldenkrais Institute. You'll find lots more information if you click here. 

Improving Performance with the Feldenkrais Method (Skiing)

If you know “what” you are doing and even more important “how” you use yourself to act, you will be able to do things the way you want.
--Moshe Feldenkrais, The Elusive Obvious

In a previous post, entitled Feldenkrais^® Is Not Therapy, I introduced the idea that learning to use the Feldenkrais Method could open the door to the process of self-healing. Inextricably tied up with that idea is the concept of self-improvement and, today, I'd like to give a personal example of how I use the Feldenkrais Method to improve my physical performance, something that has nothing to do with healing.

A little over a week ago I returned from five days of skiing in Colorado. It was the first skiing I'd done in two years and I skied better than I ever have in my life. Since becoming a devoted and consistent practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, this phenomenon of improving my skiing, even when I don't ski, no longer strikes me as miraculous, but rather, as something that I now expect.

I was first introduced to Feldenkrais work when I was just over forty years old. I'm now fifty-six and my skiing has improved more over the past ten years than it had for the thirty-five years previous, despite the fact that I'm what most would consider far past my physical "prime," I'm not in the best "shape" of my life, and I ski fewer days per season than I did during my twenties and thirties.

What accounts for my improvement? My ever increasing ability to sense myself and to translate that sensation into concrete and immediately available physical knowledge of how I do what I'm doing. When I was younger and taking ski lessons, I recall being frustrated when instructors would give me directions like, "Keep your shoulders facing downhill and let your legs do the turning." Sure, that made sense to me, but I had no idea how to do it. Partly because the instructors' language wasn't particularly clear. "…let your legs and pelvis do the turning," would have been much more accurate although, at the time, I doubt I would have found those words any more useful.

(Here's a link to a VERY short video of me skiing. 5 secs in, a couple skis into view; I'm the one behind in the yellow jacket.)

I began to sense what was involved in twisting myself, differentiating the movement of my pelvis from that of my shoulders. My improving sensory ability told me which of my ribs and vertebrae participate more or less easily in the twist, how each of my hip joints responds differently, how the musculature of my lower back and abdomen work better in concert with one another on my right side than on my left. I began to build a useful kinesthetic "toolbox" to improve my technique. I can now consciously (even as my nervous system does the same unconsciously) use my musculature and skeleton to find better harmony with the forces of gravity, the changing terrain and my ski equipment. Instead of thinking about my place in the sport as a fight to be won, it has become more of a synergistic give and take between me, the mountain and the snow. For example, I became better aware of how to allow my weight to settle just forward of the center or my foot over the downhill ski as I eased my knees into the hill (utilizing the aforementioned twist, along with some side-bending), thereby directing the downward gravitational pull on my body mass to find a near perfect balance with the upward force of the camber of the skis to make the ski do exactly what it was designed to do: carve a perfect turn.

This sense of dancing with gravity and terrain, not conquering, but using my skill to find harmony with a well-designed piece of equipment, creates a feeling of euphoria that I have found unmatched in any other physical activity in which I've ever engaged. And the big bonus? I keep getting better. Each time I go, my skill improves and it's more fun.

But that's just me—I love to ski. The real point is that the skills that are improved and refined through your work with the Feldenkrais Method will improve any and every physical activity in which you chose to participate. Or even those you might like to try but, heretofore, have not. Golf? Tennis? Volleyball? Squash? Handball? Swimming? Body Surfing? You'll find you have greater skill at anything and everything as you increase your facility to sense what you do, improve your ability to activate your musculature in very specific ways, find greater physical efficiency through a heightened awareness of how to sense and inhibit unnecessary actions and become more adept at detecting how force is most effectively transmitted through your skeleton.

Don't worry if that last sentence leaves you thinking, "How can I learn to do all that?" Nothing more is required than patience and a willingness to show up, be present, and allow yourself the luxury of engaging in the process that is inherent in the Feldenkrais Method.

As a society we have become over-reliant on our brains, to the detriment of our bodies. Some of us, consciously or unconsciously, look at our bodies as having no more use than a bag of bones that carries our brain from one place to another and processes fuel to keep that brain alive. Our body can provide us with so much more joy than that. It's never too late; you're never too old. Use your body and learn to use it better and better with the Feldenkrais Method. The rewards will be gigantic.

See you in class.

Feldenkrais® Is Not Therapy

Most people come to see a Feldenkrais Practitioner^® for the same reasons they might go to a doctor or a physical therapist or an acupuncturist or any number of other people who are expected to evaluate and administer or prescribe “treatment” for whatever problem or issue is causing trouble (i.e. back pain, neck pain, problems with a joint—whether caused by injury, surgery, mis-use or any other reason—difficulties with balance, help in recovering from a stroke or other neurological “damage,” etc.). Further, most of the people we see have already sought help through least a couple of other modalities. Perhaps they’ve been to a doctor who has prescribed physical therapy. Or they may have seen an acupuncturist or tried to have their problem massaged away. Some people have tried many other avenues looking for possible solutions to their problem before they come to see me at FeldenkraisWorks (www.feldenkraisworks.com).

And because so many of my clients come to me having been through the medical (both mainstream and alternative) mill, they are used to being told what to do to solve their problem. "Do these exercises three times a day." "Take one a day until the prescription is used up." "You need to strengthen your hamstrings and all will be well." "All you need to do is stretch your hamstrings—that'll do the trick." "Back surgery will solve the problem." "Knee surgery will solve the problem." "Hip surgery…." And on and on and on.

Our modern culture has led us to believe that where our bodies are concerned, doctors and therapists and practitioners all know (or are supposed to know) how to solve nearly any problem. And when folks come to see me, even though it's often because all of the things that those other professionals have prescribed have not worked, still they are looking for one more person to tell them what to do to solve their problem.

As a Feldenkrais Practitioner, I've seen a lot of people with a lot of different difficulties. Through experience, I've learned that for some people there are some things that I can tell them to do that will help alleviate their problem. And sometimes I do that.

And I always have second thoughts about doing it. Because what we who practice the Feldenkrais Method^® want to do is to help people to discover for themselves how best to solve their own problems. That sounds like a circuitous, even officious stance. After all, if I know what to do, why don't I just tell my clients and be done with it? In the simplest terms, it's like the old adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him today, but teach him how to use a fishing pole and you feed him for life." I'd much rather my clients engage in the process of healing themselves, rather than leaving it to me to do it for them. And for that, they don't need to learn "what to do." Instead, they need to learn the Feldenkrais Method so they can begin the process of self-improvement that heals all—a process that, once begun, never needs to end.

To be continued in future posts….

A Very Special ATM Class -- Thursday, 8/4/11 @ The Feldenkrais Institute

A few months back I was taking an ATM taught by a Feldenkrais^® practitioner I'd never met before. During the lesson, we were walking at one point and she mentioned sensing the "strong connection" between the heel and C-7 (the seventh cervical vertebrae). That sounded familiar to me but at that moment, I couldn't sense much more than a vague connection between either of my heels and the base of my neck. A few years ago I took a couple of advanced trainings with a terrific Feldenkrais trainer who asked us to sense (we were walking again) how the force in walking could move "up and through" the skeleton. During the five or six days I spent in these workshops I learned a lot about myself but my ability to manifest and sense a movement upward and through my skeleton while I walked remained somewhat murky.

I pulled out a lesson last week that I'd not looked at for several years. It's called "Walking Backward" and to my surprise, both of those concepts are directly addressed by Dr. Feldenkrais in the lesson (there are two very similar versions that he recorded). Here are a couple of quotes:

There are two movements in the hip joint, two unusual movements. The foot goes to press the floor, but the body and the head do not go down. They go higher up...It is built in the hip joint such that there is a point that moves so the leg goes down, pushes down, and the rest of the body goes up, forward a bit and higher in relation to the hip joint.¹

This is because the hip joint shifts so as to make a special line that joins the back of the neck, the base of the skull, with the heel.²

Preparing the lesson was the first time I put it all together--Dr. Feldenkrais is saying that the hip joint is actually structured so that it can transmit force in two directions, down through the leg while, at the same time (when properly organized), moving the pelvis such that force is directed upward through the spine. That concept, as I continued doing the lesson, brought the sensation of my spine--from its base to my neck--chest and head moving "up and through" during walking like never before and, at the same time, the connection between my heel, hip joint and the base of the skull was made crystal clear. Walking became lighter, freer, simpler, in a way I'd not experienced before.

I'd like to share that experience with you on Thursday night. The open class at 5:30 will be a lovely, simple lesson that is designed to systematically release muscular holding throughout the body to better enable lengthening along the entire spine. At 6:30, we'll do Walking Backward. I invite you to come join me and experience these fundamental but oftentimes elusive sensory experiences that will change, in remarkable ways, how you experience and think about walking.

This Advanced ATM class (like all of them) is for people who are relatively pain-free and physically able. While it's not physically challenging, it's a standing lesson and pain will get in the way of the delicate sensory work needed to experience the lesson fully. If you've been wondering about the advanced class, but are not sure if you're "up to it," this is one to try.

Please join me this Thursday, August 4th at 6:30pm at The Feldenkrais Institute of New York, 134 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, New York NY 10001; for more information, call 212-727-1014 or register for class online here.

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¹Alexander Yanai lessons, Volume 9, Part B, pg. 3013

²Alexander Yanai lessons, Volume 8, Part A, pg. 2434