Greetings to you, dear Feldies,
I’m just back from the fantastic Feldenkrais Method® Conference in Boulder, CO. I loved the energy of the in-person meeting, and getting to learn and roll around the floor with new and old friends, colleagues and littermates. The CU Boulder campus is gorgeous and huge – I averaged about 6 miles of walking per day just getting to workshops, dorm and meals! I feel exhausted, yet refreshed.
I’ll be leaving again next week to visit my mother in the Swiss Alps near Geneva, so no classes July 10-23.
Then, in August, back to Seattle for Segment 4 of the Feldenkrais Training Academy. No classes August 4-16.
Please check the on-line schedule of classes and register at Full Slate.
After that I am BAAAAACK for a while. I know, it’s a long time to go without a Feldenkrais® lesson, so please, make a commitment to use some of the many resources available to move the Feldy way every single day – 30-45 minutes will make dramatic changes in your mood, self-organization and energy.
By the way, do you know that there are important PRINCIPLES based on physics and engineering that are used in every Feldenkrais® lesson:
Good posture is the ability to move in any direction without hesitation or preparation.
Clear skeletal support: the bones below move to support the bones above.
Evenly distributed muscular effort/tone (proportional work: the big muscles do the big work; the small muscles do the smaller work). Every movement is generated through an equal and opposite force delivered to/received from the ground.
Force must travel up and through the skeleton, not across it, in order to avoid shearing forces into the joints.
The head and eyes are free in all activity.
Breathing is free in all activity.
Reversibility: the ability to organize action and its suspension or reversal at any moment.
Feldenkrais Bootcamp July 29-August 2:
A daily Awareness Through Movement® lesson from 8:45am- 9:45am. 5 consecutive days – register in advance for all 5 (recommended!!) for $95 or drop-in for $25 per class. This is a completely separate event from regular classes, which will continue to take place at the regular times. Click here to register! Look out for lots of cool new Workshops coming up in September, October and November. Walk well, stay cool and enjoy breathing!
Chrish
Feel Better with Feldenkrais®
“If you know what you do, you can do what you want.” – Moshe Feldenkrais
Would you like to learn how to increase your self-awareness, improve your health, feel more self-confident and experience more joy in your life? To discover a way to improve and transform the quality of your life through movement?
Through the Feldenkrais Method® you will learn to use movement as your tool to improve your self-image and experience yourself more fully. How we learn and form habits is of central importance in the practice of the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education. The Feldenkrais Method® utilizes functionally based variation, innovation, and differentiation in sensory-motor activity to break down habitual patterns and allow new ways of thinking, feeling and action to emerge.
Please read the recently written Washington Post article about Feldenkrais and Chrish’s practice
You can read the article here: A different way to relieve years of back pain
WOULD YOU LIKE TO FEEL, MOVE, AND LOOK BETTER?
The Feldenkrais Method® might be the answer for you! Feldenkrais is a mental and physical improvement system based on discovering natural, easy, efficient and pleasurable ways of moving your mind and body. It is an advanced educational approach to well-being using your brain’s amazing capacity to reorganize yourself.
It is based on the premise that all human beings have the potential to learn to do everything they do in easier, less effortful and more satisfying ways than is their habit. The particular way a person is “organized” to sit, stand, walk, run or speak in public, etc., reflects that person’s inner state, or their self-image. Human beings have a tendency to acquire subtle and sometimes damaging physical and mental habits of functioning which can become deeply ingrained. Some habits are useful – many are not. The Feldenkrais Method® can facilitate change by creating the awareness you need to alter those habits which don’t serve you well.
The Feldenkrais Method® was founded by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, (Bio) an Israeli engineer, nuclear physicist and black belt in judo, who spent over 40 years researching the field of mind/body/environment integration. Using movement as a tool, he developed a step-by-step process involving hundreds of different lessons designed to improve our awareness and self-image. His method has been taught to a wide variety of people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, including teachers, musicians, artists, scientists, athletes, and physical therapists.
Dr. Feldenkrais applied his extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, physics, and engineering as well as his mastery of martial arts to restore his own functioning and that of countless others.
On its basic level, the Feldenkrais Method®improves posture, coordination, flexibility, and suppleness. Moreover, it alleviates pain by minimizing physiological and psychological stress associated with restricted functions. Patterns of inefficiency, compromised self-expression, and forgotten ways of feeling can all be improved. Feldenkrais can be experienced through:
GROUP CLASSES (Awareness Through Movement®): You are verbally guided through gentle movement sequences called Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) lessons. In these group classes, gentle exploratory movement sequences are designed to give each person more understanding of themselves. You learn to move with less pain and effort, and in such a way that changes occur in the brain patterns which organize control of your body. You will learn how to translate intention into action with ease while getting rid of unnecessary interfering habits.
Lessons last approximately one hour. Most people take one class per week, though you will improve more rapidly if you take two classes. There are hundreds of ATMs to choose from in the Feldenkrais Method. The aim of these lessons is not necessarily relaxation, but rather healthy, powerful, easy, and pleasurable action.
INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS (Functional Integration®): This is “hands-on” Feldenkrais to meet your specific needs. The practitioner communicates, through gentle and non-invasive touch, the experience of comfort, pleasure, and ease of movement, while the client learns how to reorganize their body and behavior in new and more effective ways. The practitioner’s touch is instructive and informative, never corrective. Feldenkrais practitioners are trained to detect minute resistances in your movement patterns which often represent emotional, psychological as well as physical limitations. Using highly sensitive touch and gentle, exploratory movements, you will find freedom from compulsive, imprisoning patterns. It’s often a huge relief! Functional Integration (FI) lessons are particularly suitable for people with specific problems such as back, neck, shoulder or other chronic pain, movement limitations or a need to improve any type of function.