This past week I taught a class called “arms to your hips” but, as with many of the names of the Feldenkrais lessons the titles are not always a true reflection of the functional outcome of the lesson. It was, in my mind, about reaching, turning and transitioning from lying to side sitting.
While teaching the lesson, I was reminded of a remark I heard from a woman in my Feldenkrais training, which was more than a hundred years ago, where she said that after her first experience with Feldenkrais she was in her car and she reached for the round volume knob on the radio and she felt herself adjusting the volume using more of her body. Imagine, the simple act of adjusting the volume of your car radio can be done differently, and with greater ease and with more integration.
The lesson I taught was about how we can use our arm, feeling the movement starting in the shoulder joint and connecting to the ribs and chest while also including the head and eyes, pelvis and legs. A bonus outcome is that, with no effort and a lot of grace, we learned to transition to side sitting and then back to lying supine.
With the arrival of Spring, many of us are starting to work in our gardens. How we reach to prune, to plant or to weed can make a big difference to preventing fatigue or injury.
This is what differentiates Feldenkrais from other modalities; the clear connection to everyday activities we need to do to live in the world. And doing them with more ease and greater connection to our whole body certainly helps make our lives easier.
Come to a class or schedule a private session with me to learn more about taking care of yourself as you learn to do important everyday functions in a different and more pleasant way.
