Wednesday, February 08, 2017

How FELDENKRAIS Works

How can something so subtle really work? How can something that often looks like nothing is being done be effective? How can movements so small and slow create lasting, effective changes for people?

How does FELDENKRAIS work? It reduces the constant stimulus of the nervous system. We live in an unconscious state of hypermobilization, distraction and pain from old injuries to the body and the psyche. It offers learned self awareness that gives you immediate access to ease, possibility and a new alignment. Polyvagal Theory explains why what may appear to be doing nothing, or so little that it's almost imperceptible, can have such an impact on the sense of well being. Because we get stuck in one way of responding to life due to injury, or accident, or a lifetime of little, additional shocks to the system, only a sense of safety can allow us to move out of that place. 

The polyvagal part of the autonomic nervous system includes these 3 stages of development: Immobilization, mobilization, and social communication or social engagement. By working to reduce the excessive stimulus of the polyvagal system, the body is able to come out of living in a perpetual state of unconscious hyperarousal. New neuroception allows neural circuits to distinguish that one is finally safe, and can resume normal function. It feels like greater awareness, comfort, stability and mobility; it feels like the absence of restriction, the sense of spontaneous well being. It offers an improvement in function that addresses even restrictions you were previously unaware of, in addition to the ones you are actually acutely annoyed or hindered by!