Understanding Can Move Mountains! - Feet Don't Fail Me Now!

Estes Park, CO. - For those of you new to the world of FELDENKRAIS, this is an example of the kinds of moments of profound insight that rolling around on the floor can lead to. In this case, there was not actually much rolling around. As there are literally over a thousand of these strange movement 'lessons:' the particular lesson that lead to my experience of intuitive clarity was actually a standing lesson that would appear to be about the heels ('Dropping Heels'). Yet, like any awareness lesson in this method, appearances can be deceiving and the lesson can often be far more significant than mere physical improvement.

I just left the annual FELDENKRAIS conference for practitioners in Boulder, Colorado. Another fascinating aspect of this method, is that often you don't know what to make of it at first, and then it seems to all fall into place hours or days later. Going to the conference was a rich, amazing learning experience made buoyant by meeting so many people, extremely talented in such a wide array of fields in addition to our shared calling as somatic educators.

This is about what I learned not during, but after the conference. This 'Dropping the Heels' lesson was the last one I did there. It produced an expanded awareness of the way the 26 bones of my feet could move, in actual fact, but perhaps beyond a range that I usually engage in. This is a common experience in FELDENKRAIS.

What makes it really sweet is to connect this new awareness to something I do every day, like walking up and down stairs. Most people don't think of climbing stairs as an important function, but just imagine if you could not do it! How frustrated you would be, verging on depression, perhaps changing your living situation, or forcing you to move to some place with no stairs at great expense. Please consider that there might be another possibility: a possibility of functional movement. That is what FELDENKRAIS teaches you to find for yourself.

Finding greater range of movement is interesting, but it's not life-altering until you connect it in your experience to something really important to you.

For me, in this instance, it's my knees. My spouse was visiting a close friend and colleague in Penrose while I was at the conference. Ironically, we decided to meet after in Loveland, Colorado after the conference. It was a joyful reunion. What was sad, however, was that he told me that his friend, Gene Ovnicek, is about to have a second knee surgery on his other knee. Gene is a brilliant horse shoer, and a specialist in the mechanics of horses' feet. He has been shoeing horses for almost 50 years. I was disturbed to hear this, knowing how demanding it is to work in that profession, (my spouse is also a 22 year veteran horse shoer). It requires sometimes fighting upwards of 1,000 pounds of live weight while bent over, using sharp implements and driving fine nails with a hammer into the bottom of a horse's hoof. This was all in the back of my mind as the journey unfolded.

We ended up in Estes Park, a great place to stay while visiting the great Never Summer Mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park. Our goal was to take the motorcyles on the highest highway in America. It runs through the park and goes as high as 12,183 feet into alpine tundra, vistas in all directions breathtaking in their wild, untouched beauty. When we got to the top, I could feel the pressure building in my head from the altitude. I noticed I kept yawning involuntarily, my brain activating the impulse spontaneously to increase the oxygen to my brain - always a welcome event! After lunch at the top, we decided to park the bikes and hike up to the outlook above.

The path amidst the wildflowers was a sandy steep slope reinforced by wooden poles every yard or so to keep it from washing away in the winter storms. There was a thin foot-wide path next to it for drainage, but it was very dry now and I noticed some people choosing to walk there rather that attempt the steps. Halfway up it was clearly hard to be that active at that altitude, but we rested, enjoyed the view and continued on up the mountain. It was on the way back down that I had my great insight into my own function that I hope to share with my clients when I get back to help them in their own discovery of how to stay healthy, active and alive for life.

I noticed that most people chose to descend along the drainage path, avoiding the wide path with it's small steps. Those that did take the steps often seemed to be jarring themselves in the way they moved down the slope. It was visible as a slight jolting when they landed after each step. Because of the lesson the other day, I found myself instinctively moving differently than I normally due. I had not been hiking down a steep slope in six months so it's not really something I do that much of. However I found myself reaching for the ground gently, tentatively touching first with my toes, then the ball of my foot, like a blind person testing the ground testing the footing before I put my full weight on it.

Suddenly I realised this was completely new for me. Usually I step down with a bit of a clunk I am not really aware of (often, you only notice the absence of something when you have a new alternative to compare it to!) sending waves of concussive pressure into my knee, prematurely wearing out the delicate structures there. The knee is said to be the most vulnerable joint in the human body.

I realized, out of this, that the toes, and the bones of the ball of the foot are designed to have a spring action, all 26 bones of the foot acting like shock absorbers to protect the knee from excessive concussion. This is why there are so many knee injuries out there, because people loose the functional mobility in their feet as they age, becoming slowly oblivious to the huge range of motion that is not just possible, but necessary for healthy limbs.

This is the action of the foot that should be 'normal,' rather than the limited flat-footed way that most people use their feet, completely ignorant of what is really possible. Why is in not normal? It's a long story of diminishing returns. In some cases, it's due to a less active lifestyle; the same factors that have produced a generation of kids that prefer video games to the adventure of real life. In other cases it's due to habit that eliminates certain possibilities or overwork that prevents living fully. Workaholism has it's price.

The the magic of FELDENKRAIS is that it reawakens us to the fullness of our own ability. It can help us buy back the time we have lost by being unconscious!

This is how awareness can inform us with vital information that has the potential to be life-altering, given that we act on what we know and actively seek solutions based on the experience we garner from our lessons. Stay tuned for a version of this lesson online. I plan to record one as soon as I get home!

p.s.

I don't mean to imply that people should always walk by landing toe first - I know what a big issue that is for you horse people out there! However, I do mean to state that there is a certain way the human foot is designed, in contrast to the equine digit, that when fully made use of, lessens the compressive forces on all the other joints. When walking on flat ground, this design - when fully activated - enables people to push off from the foot in a way that mimics the action of shock absorbers on a two or four wheeled vehicle (see Moshe Feldenkrais's book: Body & Mature Behavior, Chapter 8, Erect Posture & Action - but don't go there unless you have a solid sense of anatomy, because this is one of his more technical books, not easy for the layperson to digest.)

It's common sense, is it not? Pass the stress around and there is less stress locally on one specific joint. Mobilize all 26 bones in your feet, people!

What Is Integration?

Learning Without Trauma





The foundation of an integrated structure provides stability, and is an even, regular pattern that is solid and pleasing to the eye...


I have just come back from a long ride in the desert. As the miles fly by, the pieces of my life seem to fall into place of their own volition. But it has been a long time coming. That's one of the characteristics of integration. It happens in due course, when the time is right and not before. It happens as a result of work that has been done in advance, like the percolation of yeast that sometimes must be kneaded heavily and then left to rest before it can later rise in the oven of a willing consciousness.

The brain is like a topographical map with areas designated to provide sensory and motor function for specific skills, yet it's living, ever changing according to what we spend our time doing. If we do the same things over and over again, we tend to have less change in the way our brains function and some activities tend to fall away over time if not pursued. We all know that stimulus is what generates intelligence in babies. We have yet to realize the implications of the new research that proves the same is true for adults...FELDENKRAIS works with this principle of the extreme adaptability of the brain to experience.*

Any FELDENKRAIS lesson also works with the fact that it's often in silence, or in rest that the pieces fall into place. It's a concrete way of feeling the difference between not integrated and integrated. Not integrated feels vague, unsure, chaotic, sometimes frustrating. In movement, it looks disjointed to the outside viewer, like the uncoordinated walk of the toddler. Once integrated, it looks like a smooth, even pattern. It feels delicious, comforting, pleasurable.

There are many aspects of human experience, some seem at times to conflict. This is a lack of integration. Integration happens at a different pace for different kinds of intelligence (emotional, numerical, spatial, linguistic or survival skills just to name a few). Ideally, as we grow from child to adult, our ability to manage our emotions becomes more coordinated even as our ability to move in space or to survive in the world becomes more effective. Often, however, these different intelligences grow at different rates. Hence the experience we have all had of meeting people who seem old beyond their years, or others who seem incredibly immature, considering their age.

For myself, I have my own difficulties with being congruent: in Europe I feel very American, it oozes out of my pores. In America, sometimes people wonder if I am European, there's just something slightly different about me. It's not necessarily a problem, just a place where I am rough around the edges. A slight conflict that is more at odds with my well-being is that sometimes the workaholic in me takes over, sometimes the sloth, although I have not seen much of the sloth in recent years...

Yet, thankfully, being alive is more complex than how we behave, there's the little detail of what motivates us to behave that way. Having spent most of the beginning of my life as the sloth, there may be a part of me that is overcompensating. This is a problem for me, knowing what I do about how the brain works, and how all systems of the body require rhythms of rest and action in equal proportions. Yet, the drive to keep going is strong, it's motives unconscious.

These are the pieces that must fall into place. When I am not clear about what I am doing, the result is bound to be failure. When I am not clear about why I am doing it, I loose momentum like a car running out of gas. Often the deeper layers of why are hidden in subconscious decisions made long ago in moments of emotional upheaval. The stories I tell myself about what my life has been about are clues to these hidden motives. Often these stories, when laid out in the light of day are tinged with judgment.

In rolling on the floor, doing FELDENKRAIS lessons in AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT, I learn to practice the art of non-judgment. I learn to give myself a helping hand, to be the silent witness. This skill is transferable from observing movement of the physical, to observing behavior, thought processes and motivations. It's one of the most gentle, non-intrusive ways to allow integration to happen of it's own volition. It allows self-correction motivated by awareness of incongruity. It allows me to streamline my convoluted consciousness without force or trauma.

These lessons are a place to practice the skills that feed me inside and out. They are a place to practice integration in a very real setting: I can feel the changes almost immediately when things fall into place. I have time to notice it and I have created the opportunity to grow from it. This is worth taking the time for. In the rest of my life, it allows me to move along what I consider to be the culmination of a life well-lived: to move in the direction of integrating all the various intelligences I possess in varying degrees. As a practitioner, I am good at the movement part of the equation, but I still have plenty of areas to transfer these skills to. I am happy to make it a lifelong journey; it makes life entertaining, juicy, plenty interesting without tragedy, thank you.

I change as a result of being present rather than being pummeled by experiences that prove my lack of coordination. I gracefully lay down the baseball bat. I have learned from the drama. I have learned the greatest of all lessons: that the drama is not necessary. I can learn without it.


* See The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge, M.D. (Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science)

Are You Response-Able?

On the surface, FELDENKRAIS seems to be about mobility. Fundamentally, it's about stability. The misconception is that stability is static, like a rock. This may be so for buildings, yet the architecture of a living structure is completely different in it's requirements than an inanimate object. The foundation of stability in living beings is mobility that is free enough to allow for constant, immediate responsiveness to the surrounding environment.

To make this idea more concrete, imagine being a little grey sports car riding down a country road. If your driver does not constantly adjust the steering to the twists and turns as they arise, the car will run off the road. As we age, over time, we become numb to our experience, we tune out our own bodies, we let go of our ability to move by discounting it's importance. Gradually we loose the ability to respond readily to the road. We start responding by rote, without really perceiving the road. Our vehicle, that was once amazingly fine-tuned, gradually turns into this Stephen King version of the same sports car, a vehicle out of control, veering dangerously close to missing the curves and seemingly responding only to it's own agenda.

Like a car whose shocks are defunct, we move through space and time in a lurching manner, reacting ever more slowly to our own reflexes. The impulse is still there, but the ability to be present is dull and the body's ability to respond is slow and limited. Then we retire.

Note to myself: if I want to retire in a state of restriction, ignore the warning lights on the dashboard. If I want to retire in a state of mobility that is so responsive that my reflexes are as sharp, both physically and in terms of mental acuity as they ever were, then FELDENKRAIS is like the nectar of the Gods, a delicious elixir of longevity. Especially if I am interested in being more than I was when I was young and agile by default. FELDENKRAIS is a magic carpet ride towards being more able, more intelligent, more accomplished and - what? you say this sounds like an ego trip? - I am merely referring to being more than I was, not more than you are! Try it, and then you'll know what I'm talking about! These lessons are like a primer in how to expand who you are, not to mention becoming more readily maneuverable - often in the most unexpected ways. It's perfect for me. I get bored easily. Why limit myself to linear learning, when in fact, I am a dynamic, multidimensional being existing on several planes of experience at once? Hello, friends, I'm baaaaaaack!

Warm virtual hugs and thanks to all of you who have emailed and encouraged and cajoled and requested more of my nimble fingers (after all these years of working with my hands!) on the keyboard - as a means of providing the stability of concrete words to stimulate further expansive adventures in experience a la FELDENRKAIS.

A FELDENKRAIS Retreat At Schossrueti, Switzerland

To peek into the magic that awaits in mountains of Switzerland, click on the link below for a slide show! The FELDENKRAIS Retreat will be in March of 2009...

We will be doing FELDENKRAIS AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT lessons every morning to ground, center and relax. Find yourself in a mental state far removed from the everyday hum drum of monkey mind. Join us for a journey of self-introspection in an environment that truly reflects the beauty to be found inside the human spirit!

After sampling local delicacies for lunch, we will venture forth to visit the numerous attractions, or to simply hike in solitude in the foothills of the Swiss Alps; your choice. There is a castle not far away, a lovely little village at the foot of the hill, a cheese maker will share the secrets of making a medley of Swiss cheeses... for more details - email me your interest! This beautifully renovated farmhouse is only a half hour from Bern, the historic capitol of Switzerland.

Our exact dates for 2009 will be in March and I will post them soon. The cost is $1920.- including room and board, less if we get more people so round up your friends and family! Check out this transformational location for a truly FELDENKRAIS shift in consciousness!

To view the slide show of the location, check out the following link and be sure to click on full size first to really appreciate it's splendor!

http://www.google.com/ig?source=gama&hl=en

Pain

"Learning to inhibit unwanted contractions of the muscles...is the main task in coordinated action."
- Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self




The Chinese word 'Song' means relaxation, but not in the sense of eliminating all tension. Rather, it means to cultivate a sense of greater aliveness born of the absence of unnecessary tension. Learning to sort out what is and what is not necessary is the how the process of AWARNESS THROUGH MOVEMENT does it's magic.

I am not my pain. I am not my ego, nor the roles I play. I am not my work, not how much money I make. These are places where we all loose our way from time to time. In teaching ATM to the public, I am constantly amazed and slightly horrified at how much people are willing to live with in terms of pain. These people accept as ordinary, as just the way it is, a level of physical pain that boggles the mind.

It has become who they are. It is their history, the focus of their daily regimen. As such, it becomes their identity. They get tired of talking about it or not. Some talk about nothing else, some just sublimate it, shoving awareness deep beneath the surface just to cope. I either have to gently keep reminding people not to continuously recite a litany of accidents or injuries that explain why they hurt all the time, or I have to get them to admit that they really do hurt, much more than they can say. In the first case, the constant repetition of the 'story' of pain is like a form of self-hypnosis that perpetuates it. In the second, the denial is as fierce as the pride of any serious drunk intent on defying the world to call them on their misery.

One of the most significant ways that FELDENKRAIS works is by helping us to have a more accurate self-image. Following the neural pathways that babies go through during early development, basic ATM lessons help us define how our bodies work. Babies learn to where their feet are by moving them, touching them to things, feeling how they make contact. In the same way adults can pursue FELDENKRAIS ATM as a practice that completes and defines more accurately who they are.

In rolling around on the floor in this slow, relaxed state, observing our experiences without judgment, I learn volumes about myself. I learn what my realistic limitations are as governed by the laws of gravity. I also learn surprising things about the ways I limit myself. I discover how I can move in places where I had no idea that movement was possible. In the most recent lesson I put up as an audio file on http://feed.awarenessthroughmovement.info called 'Low Back Pain,' I learned about the places my spine can move so that my low back does not do all the work.

For every place that hurts, there is a part of the spine or the self that is blocked, that is unfamiliar, unused and not a part of our self image. In the same way that children clarify what they are able to do with their bodies, the practice of ATM clarifies how we can enlarge our repertoire, expand the spaces between our joints and enter the expansive realm of life as a learning rather than life as an ever shrinking prison of pain.

In the FELDENKRAIS Method we do not cure, heal or fix. We change the focus and teach you to move in new places, and to trust your own ability to make improvements. Once you have an injury or a chronic pain, you can never go back to the way you were. But you can become greater than you were, bigger than your problem, if you will. You can LEARN what provokes it, what makes it better and how to move through it. You can trust that learn how to work with your own nervous system's ability to self-correct.

FELDENKRAIS is self-empowering. By working with ATM as a practice you become self-sufficient in learning how to improve how you feel, so that decline is not a fact of life, a belief that propels you into premature capitulation and aging. It gives you a tool so invaluable it is difficult to communicate to others. There is no price that can be put on it because it involves a perpetuation of your own ability to learn. It cannot be patented, and no one else stands to benefit from it but you. Teaching this is a challenge, because it is like leading people on an intimate journey. I can't go with you. I can merely show you the way. The sooner you commit, the sooner you will transform your pain into a new perception of possibilities.