Edinburgh Feldenkrais

Tre Feldenkrais workshop finished with a happy group! Hope to see you again soon!😁 The home grown Bristol grapes were spectacular too.

I love this article describing Feldenkrais as a wine tasting. I genuinely laughed!

What is Feldenkrais? The Wine Tasting of Movement A student doing a Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement lesson.© 2016 Riccardo Zen. Used with permission.Imagine attending a wine tasting where the pourer fills a large goblet and, instead of handing it you, splashes the contents in your face. Some of the liquid might reach your lips and tongue,...

A post I wrote for the Feldenkrais Guild Uk.

World Thinking Day was instigated by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 1926, and takes place on 22nd February every year.

On this day the participants are encouraged to take action and speak out on issues they most care about. The key is that action and speaking are distinct and separate. Moshe agreed that they are separate, speaking is for communication and thinking is for action.

It would appear that thinking and action are best conducted in balance and harmony with each other, extremes of either thinking or action are recognised to cause us issues.

Overthinking is defined in Psychology as thinking too much or for too long about one topic, often called analysis paralysis as it can prevent taking action.

Strategies for overcoming overthinking :
1) Reconnect with your body - do something physical
2) Attune to your senses
3) Mindfulness- bring yourself into the present rather than projecting into the future
4) Tune into your intuitive feelings

The other side of the coin.

Impulsivity is the opposite, acting without thinking, it can boost and enhance creativity, enable you to act swiftly and seize an opportunity. However, it can lead to erratic behaviour and allow your urges and desires to steer you down a path of destruction.

Balance your impulsivity.

1) Increase your self awareness. Identify the needs and desires you are trying to meet when you act this way. Knowing and understanding triggers can aid in identification of situations that could result in impulsive behaviour
2) Take a mental break
3) Put alternative strategies into place
4) Mindfulness, practice living in the moment, observe what is happening

These two lists are remarkably similar, when combined read as:
- Become aware of ourselves - needs, desires, sensations
- Mindfulness - be present in the moment, observe what is happening
- Take a mental break, tune into intuitive feelings.
- Reconnect to your physical self
- Put alternative strategies into place

What does this have to do with The Feldenkrais Method®?

Feldenkrais (1990, p 10) states that
‘Our self image consists of four components that are involved in every action: movement, sensation, feeling and thought…In order to think, for instance, a person must be awake, and know that he is not dreaming; that is, he must sense and discern his physical position relative to the field of gravity. It follows that movement, sensing, and feeling are also involved in thinking.’

The lessons of The Feldenkrais Method® involve observation of ourselves in the moment. We are asked to bring our attention to sensations and feelings associated with the movements of the lesson.

Often we are asked to let any intrusive thoughts that arise, to pass, there are frequent rests to allow for breaks in mental activity.

In Awareness Through Movement lessons we are asked with each movement to explore different ways it could be performed, in Functional Integration Lessons the practitioner explores the options with the student through gentle manipulation. Exploring alternative movement strategies helps reconnect to our physical selves.

References :
Feldenkrais, M. (1990) Awareness Through Movement. New York. HarperOne.

Why not on World Thinking Day, take action, visit our audio library and choose a lesson that speaks to you?

http://www.feldenkrais.co.uk/audio.php

Another way of explaining Feldenkrais. I always enjoy another’s interpretation of the method.

Explainer: the Feldenkrais Method The Feldenkrais Method is a way of exploring movement, posture and breathing through hands-on touch, used by dancers, musicians, athletes, actors and people living with and rehabilitating from a range…

Trying something new for the first time is often scary. We can be anxious about our abilities, it is an uncomfortable place. We are making ourselves vulnerable to failure, judgement, criticism, from ourselves as much as others. So we often avoid the new and stay with the known, where we are safe and protected. But do what you’ve always done and get what you’ve always got.
To grow there has to be change, change has risk attached. To accept risk of loss is to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is not weakness, it is the birthplace of courage, love, joy, all the good stuff. To be vulnerable with our own selves will truly open the door to accepting and loving our own selves. What has Feldenkrais got to do with this? In a Feldenkrais lesson there is exploration, a seeking for new and different patterns and movements. We will often find all the ways that don’t work for us before finding those that do. In Feldenkrais we celebrate the looking and the exploration and the openness to different. You can learn just as much (often more) from a pattern that doesn’t serve than from one that does. However, in that acceptance that you will explore different you become a tiny bit vulnerable and by being vulnerable you become courageous.
When you plant this seed of courage in a class, you can find ways to grow it and eventually plant courage in other places in your life.

Feldenkrais is all about curiosity. Every lesson is rooted in curiosity about ourselves. Curiosity in the way we do things, in the choices we make. We come face to face with ourselves in a Feldenkrais lesson. When we know what it is we do, then we can choose differently, if we want to.

At the close of the year. It is time to think about endings but also beginnings. For example: where does your arm end? Obvious right…. but move your arm overhead what parts of your body are involved? Is there subtle changes in your back, your neck, your pelvis, even your feet? Where does your arm end?
Next time think about where that movement starts. What is the first part of you that moves if you lift your arm overhead? Is it your fingers, your wrist, your elbow, your eyes, your feet? Try and feel the contraction of the first muscle that engages when you start to lift your arm. Where is your beginning…

This is true not just when looking externally but also when we look at ourselves.
We tell ourselves stories,some of those are excellent and give us courage or compassion or joy. Some of those stories limit us.
Feldenkrais method rewrites our perception of ourselves through movement. It takes us through back alleyways and circuitous routes, before we even realise we are somewhere we didn’t believe we could reach. Finding that possibility in mobility enables us to believe in other possibilities for ourselves.
“Make the impossible possible”
Moshe Feldenkrais

Our attitude to health is interesting, conventional medicine looks at what is wrong, what must be fixed. Often negatively labelling people.
Feldenkrais has always looked at what works, what CAN we do, what is ‘right’ with us as people. Positively labelling.