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Feldenkrais Method® for Everyone
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From the Editors
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Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
Mindfulness has become mainstream. No longer confined to monasteries and esoteric retreats, mindfulness has found its way into board rooms and classrooms. We now have mindful eating, mindful driving, and probably mindful makeup application. One dictionary definition of mindfulness is "a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique." Yet for many people, mindfulness remains in the mind. The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education asks its students to be aware of what is happening in their own sensations, thoughts, emotions, and yes, movements. Perhaps Awareness Through Movement® lessons can help us find this expanded experience of mindfulness on a Feldenkrais mat.
In this issue we explore a major question: what drives us? How does that drive serve us, or not? From the mat, to your daily commute, to some of life's most difficult events, the Feldenkrais Method offers opportunities to notice habits, and then to enact them - or not. Our featured articles this month illustrate how the Feldenkrais Method and mindfulness inform and enrich each other. Read on for tips on mindful motoring, and more!
MaryBeth and Lavinia
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Mindfulness, Bodyfulness, Heartfulness
by Mike Morrell
"Try doing less, Mike."
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| Image by Serenity Mitchell on Unsplash |
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These four words are a frequent refrain I hear in Awareness Through Movement® class. I'm on the floor yet again. Usually followed by something like "What would it be like to be easier on yourself?" I then have the opportunity to move my arms, legs, head or torso more gently, lightly, or slowly than my previous, more amped-up pace. Next, I tend to notice something - about my body, thinking, or feeling - that I was previously powering through.
This marriage of ease and intention doesn't come easily to me; I tend to be an all-or-nothing kind of person. I'm either sleeping, or giving it my all: writing, prospecting or serving clients, building community, interviewing someone or being interviewed, for a course or podcast. But as a Buddhist priest in the ManKind Project reminded me, and a group of equally-driven men, a few years back: "Anything worth doing is worth doing 70%."
When did I become this way, so 0 to 95 MPH in 10 seconds or less? My memory goes back to. . .
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Getting Started: The "Body Scan"
Afterwards: what do you notice?
Find a Practitioner and classes near you at
feldenkrais.com, or click on the quick links at the bottom of this newsletter. We'll look forward to seeing you.
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A Conscious Commute
by Buffy Owens, GCFP
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Photo by Calvin Chou on Unsplash |
Are you one of the many that commute to work every day? I am. My office is nearly 25 minutes from my home. At first, I dreaded the commute. But now I LOVE it! My drive time has become a resource for refining my Awareness Through Movement® skills and building my mindfulness muscles.
Plus, all of this conscious commuting has blessed me with the time to develop several simple everyday awareness practices that can help you reduce your stress and find greater comfort. Now, doesn't that sound like a beautiful way to start and end your workday?
Obviously, when you're driving, it's not recommended that you close your eyes and focus on your breathing or bring all of your attention inward. Instead, I invite you to explore expanding and contracting your awareness as a sort of mindfulness practice. As you may know, mindfulness is a state of "active, open attention on the present moment." So to drive mindfully, you apply similar principles on the road. Just make sure that you drive with an expanded awareness of yourself, your vehicle, and your surroundings-including other drivers. . .
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Does the Feldenkrais Method® Help with Grief?
by Angela Alston, GCFP
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| Photo by Eugene on Unsplash |
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I was asked a few days ago, "Is Feldenkrais helping you grieve?"
It's not a trivial question.
My first answer was, "I don't know." Sometimes it's difficult for me to tease out what is Feldenkrais, what is meditation, and what is coming from other influences in my life. I've practiced both meditation and the Feldenkrais
Method® since 1996, and it's no accident, though I certainly didn't plan it. They complement/blend/inform each other. I guess it was synchronicity but, when I finally had time for self-care at the end of film school, I started going to a weekly Feldenkrais class. I was ready to get back into my body after years of ignoring it. And I began to practice meditation. Meditation interested me as a tool to wake myself up, and the style I stumbled on is practiced with open eyes. For years I simply practiced both disciplines without questioning their connection to each other.
After a few hours of reflecting on my student's question, my second answer emerged: yes.In the recent weeks since my husband died, I'm relying on both meditation and the Feldenkrais Method to find the ground repeatedly, wherever it is. To practice mindfulness, in other words. Opportunities present themselves multiple times each day. . .
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More Mindfulness Resources
from around the Web
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Holiday Office Hours
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Photo by Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash
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Please note the office will be closed in observance of U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend.
Office Closed: Friday, August 30, 12:00 pm EDT
Through Monday, September 2.
The office will reopen on Tuesday, September 3, 2019 at 9:00 am EDT
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©2019, FGNA. All rights reserved.
The following are service marks or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America: Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Functional Integration®, Awareness Through Movement®, ATM®, FI®, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®, and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner(CM).
The following are trademarks, service marks or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America:
L'intégration Fonctionnelle(SM), Prise De Conscience Par Le Mouvement(SM), Friends Of Feldenkrais(SM), Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner(CM), Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Teacher(CM), Feldenkrais™ and The Feldenkrais Journal™.
ATM® class image by Robert Golden.
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| Header Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay |
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