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Recognizing and acknowledging people who have faced, chosen, survived, and ultimately embraced the changes of life. |
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02052007: February Newsletter
Say what you will about Valentine's Day. Our commercial culture apparently needs some kind of holiday or observance each month to stimulate the sale of greeting cards, gifts, candy, and dinners out, so it's easy to be cynical. Do we really need a dedicated day to express our love to someone? Shouldn't that expression happen every day?
Well, perhaps it should, but the reality is, it doesn't. I'm reminded of the old joke about the long-married couple. She says, "You never tell me you love me anymore." He says, "I told you in 1981. Nothing has changed." Some things become so much a part of our lives that we don't think about them or notice them at all anymore. Until something changes.
The Feldenkrais Method® teaches how to notice. It is the best way I know of to refine your ability to become aware and observant, beginning with yourself. Small things --for example, your breathing pattern, the trajectory of movement as you lift your hand, the preparatory stiffness in jaw or belly before beginning an action -- are gently magnified, capture our attention, and offer clues for maintenance of what's good and improvement of what's not optimal. It does take a dedicated time to observe, or else you'd never notice. Greater awareness of self leads to greater awareness of others, as well as better choices for the actions we take.
How do you do What you do? It all begins with the noticing. Happy February, Happy Valentine's Day!
01292007: Right and Wrong
We're all familiar with the economic indicator of ladies' hemlines. During good times, like the Roaring '20 and the 1960's, hemlines got shorter and shorter as an indicator of the thriving economy. As the economy slows, hemlines drop below the knee and beyond! There's another theory that says that in times when the world and our future seems less and less predictable, people hunger for a "sure thing." We are much more ready to classify ideas, behaviors, and people as Right and Wrong, and to organize our lives from those perspectives.
We're not talking Ten Commandments here. You'd be surprised how many people come to see me because they believe their posture is "wrong," that they walk or breathe or stand or dance or sing or BE "wrong," in some way. They want so much to find The Right Way, believing that their lives will be better if they do. Some are frustrated, because even though they are doing everything "Right," something is still "Wrong." It still doesn't work they way they wish it did, whatever the "It" is.
One of my favorite poems by the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi, begins:
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there."
Whether you want to experience less pain and more ease in movement, maintain your fitness goals, or move toward your personal best, the Feldenkrais Method® is the field where freedom can be found. Knowing when to leave Right and Wrong behind helps each of us to be truly at our Best.
10222007: Clearing the Clutter
It can really sneak up on you, the clutter. I haven't been very diligent lately, as the not-so-neat stack on my desk shows. I do know where everything is, but it will take a quiet period of extended awareness to go through everything to decide what is really useful now and what can be discarded. One pile has been there for so long, I'm used to having it, so closeby and convenient. Never mind that it's unstable, and one wrong move could send everything sliding. . .Sound familiar?
The problem of the desktop evolves over a period of hours, days---for some, weeks or even months! There's another kind of clutter that creeps into our lives with much more subtlety. Our daily habits of movement gradually lose the easy, graceful, and efficient qualities that we experienced in childhood. Unnecessary elements and tensions creep into nearly every movement, whether you are standing up from a sitting position, rolling over in bed, or walking. If we've had some specialized training (for example, in some form of exercise, performing in music or athletics, or in the aftermath of surgery or other injury), we don't realize that we've brought a lot of extra movement baggage into daily life. De-cluttering our movement patterns can bring more comfort and clarity to life, just like cleaning off a desk.
Of course, that's exactly what Moshe Feldenkrais had in mind as he devised this marvelously useful method. Change the way you move, and you'll change the way you sense, feel, and think. Life is great without the clutter. I'll get busy on this desk, and I hope to see you at a class or lesson this week!
01152007: Out of the Nest
Life is constantly changing. I have experienced several transitions in the past weeks. My daughter became engaged just before Christmas, so we are planning a December '07 wedding. My son has moved to Pennsylvania to begin college, where he will experience his first "real" winter out of Texas in the Snow Belt.
Life is made up of transitions, and the successful management of those transitions helps keep life on a somewhat even keel.
To achieve anything great in life, one must navigate the transitions. How many opportunites are missed because of a lack of awareness that the moment was ripe? Grace and ease are the hallmarks of the Feldenkrais Method®. If you are facing transitions and wondering how to come through "in one piece, " then we can help. Come to a class, shedeule a private session, and learn how to survive--and even thrive--in the midst of change. (Watch the Duck Video: and marvel how any of us survives!)
01082007: Pattern Recognition
A week into the New Year! How is it so far? Most of us are well underway at implementing our resolutions, while others of us have abandoned them already. At its most basic level, a New Year's Resolution represents the recognition of an existing pattern, along with an intention to change that pattern in favor of some other pattern that will yield an improved result in some area of life.
"Cognition" is "knowing." To change a pattern requires re-cognition---to know again, explore again, learn again---what we think we know so well. The Feldenkrais Method® re-ignites your curiosity so that you can take a fresh perspective, have a fresh experience, "re-cognize"---and gently, effortlessly to watch miraculous changes occur.
Classes and lessons are just getting underway for the new year. We're privileged to witness and assist in your personal process of self-transformation!
Entries: 1 - 5 of 82
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