From Sheri Cohen:
Listen, let’s make an important distinction
Many kinds of movement training distinguish themselves by the kinds of exercises that constitute their programs. One might focus on strength, another on flexibility; yet another might claim to improve both. Teachers of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement have a different view altogether. We teach students how to learn about themselves, rather than to repeat exercises.
Here is an instruction for a movement you might encounter in any movement class. Go ahead and give it a try. . . .
Read moreFrom Rachel Hamstra: We all have habits in everything we do. They’re an essential part of being human. They allow our brains to not think through every single thing we do all day long. They’re a survival mechanism. However, it’s important to question them now and then to make sure they’re serving us well, and get curious about how we might change them if they aren’t.
Read moreFrom Sarah Huntting: I bit off more than I could chew…almost. A few years back I joined a bike club to satisfy a long held desire to go on longer rides. My first ride with the group started at 30 miles and worked up from there. A bit of a jump for me (that’s an understatement), but I stuck with it. There are advantages to biking in a pack. I felt safe biking on busy roads that felt more like highways and there was always a sense of camaraderie and good cheer for going the distance.
Read moreFrom Sheri Cohen: “Move toward pleasure,” a dance teacher once offered us young dancers. It was a novel instruction and the results were stunning. I felt a patience and kindness toward myself I had never felt before, and movement just poured out of me. The whole group seemed to wake up and slow down at the same time. We were cultivating a new kind of relationship with ourselves and our movement, one in which we trusted our ability to sense, perceive and respond as a source of movement, rather than straining against an idea of good performance.
Read moreFrom LeeAnn Starovasnik: Falling. That thing that no one ever wants to do. Yet I expect everyone has done more than once. While learning to walk, ride a bike, ice/roller skate, ski, etc. When we were first learning to walk and fell after the first step or two, what happened? Often times the big people cheer, try to film the attempts and are thrilled! Why is it then, when as adults, we attempt to do something for the first time that we're so hard on ourselves if we fall, fail, or don't "get it" the first few times?
Read moreFrom Rachel Hamstra: “I have never considered myself ambidextrous. I’ve learned some skills requiring ambidexterity (violin, piano, typing, using my phone, and my work), but my left hand has always felt stupider than my right. A month ago, left handedness was forced upon me when I got a cat bite on my right forearm. Being a body and movement nerd, I became my own experiment.”
Read moreFrom Janelle Keane Campoverde: How does a baby learn to move? How do adults continue to learn, through movement, with the joy and engagement of a child?
Read moreFrom Beth Cooper: “How do we take the discoveries we’ve made in our Awareness Through Movement® classes and Functional Integration® sessions and deeply weave them into the fabric of our daily lives?”
Read moreFrom Rachel Hamstra: “What are these small gentle movements doing? Why do I feel so much taller, more grounded, more mobile, when it seems like I barely did anything for an hour? The answer is in the name: awareness.”
Read moreBecci Parsons: “When we bring the timeless, open space quality of PLAY to our lives at any age, things unfold in new ways.”
Read moreBecci Parsons: "What primitive, transformation-seeking gardening reflex is evoked with a slight rise in temperature and more daylight?”
Read moreJanelle Keane Campoverde: "Daily experiences of wonder require the courage to cultivate a curious mind and interest in the present moment."
Read moreBeth Cooper: "So many times, after an Awareness Through Movement lesson, students will ask, “How do I keep this feeling?” I recently came upon a beautiful answer…"
Read moreRachel Hamstra: "I regularly get asked by prospective clients if the Feldenkrais Method is more like massage or chiropractic."
Read moreInternational Feldenkrais Week, May 5–14, 2017, is a worldwide celebration of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais' contributions. Take advantage of free classes, parties, special events and lots more offered by Feldenkrais Teachers in Seattle practitioners.
Read moreBecci Parsons: "Rounding this corner from March into April is such a satisfying lap for us hearty northwest folks. It marks the waning of winter and the return of the light. We’ve crossed a threshold."
Read moreJanelle Keane Campoverde: "There are some ideas that we that we manifest and some that sit on the burner. The important thing is to have the idea. We can’t always know the steps that bring it to fruition."
Read moreBecci Parsons: "If you’ve ever suffered through a bout of insomnia, you know the feeling of hitting the wall at some point the next day. One minute you are zooming through emails or pitching ideas with coworkers and the next you’re inert."
Read moreCarrie Lafferty: "Do you have a powerful walk? Pause for a moment while you ponder this question. Notice inside. Does a certain feeling or "image" arise inside of you as you imagine the inner sensation of your walk? Can you sense if you have to do something inside in order to feel yourself walking powerfully? Do you have a vision of how a powerful walk has to look?"
Read moreVicki Robinson: "The human will to excel has to be set aside for a desire to learn and be open to new possibilities. This state of curiosity and play lives in the parasympathetic nervous system, which is where we can best learn."
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