Tag Archives: Feldenkrais Method

Happy New Year. Now What?

Posted on January 4, 2013 | Leave a comment
party hats mosaic

party hats mosaic (Photo credit: Škrabalica)

The bottles of bubbly are in the recycling, confetti, streamers, and paper tiaras are crammed into over-stuffed trash bags along with the efforts of the end-of-the-year cleanup. You may have even bought a few more vegetables in your first trip to the market, stepped on the scale, or visited the gym. Happy New Year, indeed. Now what?

I invite you to depart from conventional thinking about New Year and the whole “New You” mentality. After trying it out for — oh, let’s say 40 years — (I think that is giving it more than a fair shot, by the way) my observations of self and others reveal that this approach doesn’t work. The whole mentality around “New You” strikes me now as being completely counter-productive. It does not value the wisdom, learning, and value that have accrued over one’s lifetime to this point. If the “Old You” is banished, the “New You” is left without experiences and reference points for future growth. The New You is doomed to repeat all the mistakes of the past. No wonder most people’s resolutions don’t last through the end of the month.

Another flaw is that the New Year’s conversation is almost exclusively focused on perceived personal failure. I’m not thin enough, fit enough, organized enough, financially secure enough, smart enough, you fill in your own blank. The message is, NOT ENOUGH! Is it any wonder that most resolutions fail because people want more of something they are not getting?

Don’t get me wrong. I make my living in the self-improvement biz. The Feldenkrais Method values and promotes continuous self-improvement. However, this self-improvement is not narcissistic, nor is it driven by feelings of shame or unworthiness. We start in the present moment, and we just notice and acknowledge what is here, now. Self-improvement in the Method is based on getting something in life to work a little bit better. Our jargon for it is “improvement of function.” Something that wasn’t working, now works better. Something that was working well enough, is now even better. My own take on self-improvement is that, if I want to make the world a better place (and I do), I should start with myself.

Suddenly, the Feldenkrais Method takes on increased usefulness. While improving the obvious things that people always want for themselves — posture, balance, skill, calm — one learns a process, a method, for improving oneself with increasing relevance and scope. Coordination, intelligence, teamwork, relationships, community, creative thinking, all can flourish in the environment of improved awareness. The Method teaches a way of taking actions that move us consistently toward something that is better. Even just a bit better can be a lot better, both in the moment and in the long run.

So, I encourage you to abandon your resolutions early this year! Rather than re-inventing the self improvement wheel to make yourself into something you wish you were, I encourage you to acknowledge something in yourself, or in your life, that is already going pretty well. Focus on THAT something that actually works. Figure out HOW it works, and do more of that. If you are doing more of what works, you will automatically be doing less of what doesn’t work so well. Voila! You are on a path of improvement.

For example: in the last few months, I have stumbled into better eating habits and exercise opportunities that seem to be working well. No resolution for me! I’m going to build on my recent successes and stick with the program, easing confidently into the New Year on a path that appears to be leading in a good direction. I will keep tweaking and adapting the plan so that it serves me better and better throughout the year, and throughout my life.

To me, this is the essence of the Feldenkrais Method: identify what works, stay engaged with it, enjoy yourself, play to discover the improvements that emerge. Movement is our laboratory in which abstract concepts become concrete. If this makes sense to you, then I invite you to join us for classes whenever you can. We are about the business of exploring how to get life to work just a little bit better.

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Returning with a Rant About Posture

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 4 Comments

Recently, I taught a workshop at the Houston NiaMoves Studio, called “Dynamic, Beautiful Posture.”  Lots of my clients express the desire for improved posture, so it’s a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about.

Every time I teach this workshop, I am still astonished by the level of psychological pain, self-loathing, perfectionism, and defeatism that students express.  My rant:  how did we, as a culture,create such a huge cohort of disempowered people?

At the beginning of the workshop, I asked the students (all women, this time, of all sizes, shapes, and ages) to simply walk around the room a few times.  You can try this for yourself:  as you walk, is there a voice inside your head, coaching and directing you in the “right way” to walk?  For most people, the answer is “YES.”

When asked what thoughts went through their minds as they walked, a flood of comments burst forth.  ”Stand up straight.”  (What does that even MEAN?) “Hold in your stomach.” “Suck it in!” “Keep that ass from flapping in the breeze!”  All agreed that they were following old directions from a past authority figure while walking — not in the present moment at all.  I asked them how that voice made them feel.

“Not good enough.”

“Unattractive.”

“Anxious.”

“Afraid I’ll do something wrong.”

You get the idea.  There’s a definite pattern here.  This group of women was not unique.  The same responses come up, time and again, and from men as well as women, whenever I work with people and their posture.

So with the stage set, here comes my rant about posture.  If you want to skip the rant (although I think it will be entertaining and enlightening), the take-away is:  Get off your own case.  Stop criticizing yourself, about posture or anything else.  For all the years of criticism, has anything REALLY changed?  No.  Oh yeah — stop criticizing other people, too — especially about their posture.

Take a few moments to sit with these statements:  ”I’m not good enough.  I’m unattractive.  I’m anxious.  I feel fearful.”  What do you notice?  Give it some time, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, you will begin to EMBODY these statements.  A feeling of sadness will begin to emerge.  Your gaze is downcast, your head bends forward, along with your shoulders curving forward. Your back slumps.  Your stomach, or your head, may begin to ache a little.  Your flexor muscles contract, pulling you along in a trajectory toward fetal position, the only safe place. Notice:  all your energy, vitality, and joy are drained out of you.  You may feel hopeless:  ”What’s the point?  I might as well go back to bed.”  The point is this:  every bodily position, every habitual pattern of muscular contraction, has an underlying emotional tone and thought process — even if unconscious.  If you feel this crummy about yourself, your posture is, in a way, a reflection of your emotional state and self-image.  In this condition, it is impossible to “stand up straight.”  And if you do get close, it will be with such effort and artificiality as to be uncomfortable and unsustainable.

Critiques of posture start young, and continue throughout our formative years.  They come from people who mean well and want the best for us.  However, the Law of Unintended Consequences can be clearly seen.  We fight against ourselves, even years later, to win the approval of that authority figure still in our heads.  A child internalizes the message:  ”There is something about you, about your fundamental essence, that is so displeasing and offensive to me, that I cannot accept it, or you.  Unless you can meet my standard of perfection, I will not love you.” And thus begins a life-long, unproductive battle, with the self and one’s environment.  Our only defense to make us feel better about ourselves is to find someone else to correct relentlessly.

Clearly, this is a fruitless and futile path.  And yet we’ve all trod it.  There is a better way.  (It’s coming soon, my solution.  But I’m kind of on a roll with this rant, so permit me. . .)

Our notion of “good posture” arises from a cultural aesthetic preference.  Great works of art, and artistic pursuits such as ballet and yoga reflect this aesthetic preference for the ideals of symmetry and elongation.   The real-world realization is that “Ideal” means “does not actually occur in real life.”  Ideals are meant to be beacons toward which we move.  Ideals are meant to inspire healthy striving and accomplishment (H/T to Dr. Brene Brown for expressing this wonderful distinction.) The closer we get to the ideal, we find the goal posts move.  Achieve the ideal, and you’ve become a butterfly specimen in a display case:  dead, wings pinned to a board, no longer capable of flight, growth, or continued inspiration. Rather straining to achieve an ideal, embrace a metaphor:  The Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is teeming with life, wonder, and beauty.

Face it:  nobody ever died from bad posture.  The problem is not in any particular position — the problem comes from getting stuck there.

Moshe Feldenkrais, iconoclastic thinker and movement educator from the last century, said that “posture” is a static state, like a post. (Post/posture, get it?)  That is fine for photographs and statues, but people’s lives are not static.  We’ve gotta move, and do, and be, and love, and work, and play.  We can’t do that in one, “correct,” static position.  So he coined a word, “acture,” to describe a dynamic state of curiosity about the world, poised for comfort and grace in movement without wasted energy.

You don’t teach that kind of fabulous, engaged “attitude” toward life by shaming, coercing, nagging, or making people walk with a book on their head.   Comfortable “acture,” along with the happy side-effect of looking aesthetically pleasing, has to be experienced and FELT.  Classes in the Feldenkrais Method seek to create the conditions where this dynamic internal spark can be re-ignited.  With deeper experiences of the felt sense of springiness, grace, ease, and length comes a changed emotional tone, changed thinking patterns and self-talk, and the ability to be one’s own authority in matters of comfort, effectiveness, and self.

The workshop participants made a beginning at trading in their perfectionism in favor of resilience, adaptability, and a sense of their own capacity for skill, grace, and comfort in efficient and beautiful movement.  They began to experience the old adage, “What you think of me is none of my business.”  When new possibilities open up, the potential for improvement is LIMITLESS.

Where is perfectionism blocking you?  How does perfectionism affect your relationships with others?

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Why is the Feldenkrais Method still a secret?

Posted on April 24, 2011 | 6 Comments

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Okay, okay.   It’s not a secret to everybody.  The Feldenkrais Method has many devotees and enthusiastic proponents, and by rough count, about 4,000 certified practitioner – teachers worldwide. However, it is still a surprising and pleasant rarity to encounter someone for the first time, and in the course of the “getting to know you” conversation hear them say, “Oh, Feldenkrais!  I’ve heard of that!”  Even more rare is to find someone who has experienced it directly.

Now that we live in the age of “the internets,” the way we get our information is vastly different from a generation ago.  We used to get information from approved authority figures, like doctors, teachers, lawyers, clergy, credentialed specialists, and from print journalists and broadcasters like Walter Cronkite, perhaps.  Now, our information comes increasingly by word of mouth — leveraged, of course, by email and websites — in the recommendations of friends, professional contacts, or others who can be counted upon to give us interesting, useful, and valuable information.  It’s more of a grassroots, groundswell, peer-to-peer model rather than from traditional authorities at the top of the “information food chain.” A doctor is now more likely to hear about the Feldenkrais Method from a patient, than vice-versa.

So, my first conjecture about why the Feldenkrais Method is not better known is that we haven’t yet adapted to the new ways that information flows. If you are expecting to hear about the Feldenkrais Method from traditional, “top-down” channels, you won’t hear much.  Like the subject of the old joke, looking for his keys under the streetlight because the light is better there than back in the alleyway, where he actually dropped them —  we’re not looking — or listening — in the right places.  We need to have our ear to the ground, so to speak — instead of waiting for a proclamation from “on high.”

One of the most profound ideas that Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais had to offer the intellectual conversation in the western world is that the subjective experience of an individual is valid, and important, information.  Granted, it is not the whole picture, but it is too important — foundational, one might say — to be discounted.  Word-of- mouth is about sharing one’s subjective experience, and social media tools help to leverage the extent, the reach, of that ability to share. It can shed light where the keys actually were dropped.

The Feldenkrais Method will become better known when people begin to share their own experiences of the work with their friends.  They can do this in the course of normal conversations, of course.  Even more excitingly and effectively, they can share videos, free audio lessons, articles from blogs and other websites — new and current content that is interesting and inviting.  The other refutation of the old “top down” model is that it is Feldenkrais students, not practitioners, who will best advance the Method.  Why?  They are unbound by professional jargon, free from the need to show their expertise via dissertation and argument.  They are just sharing information, with a friend, about something they enjoyed.  Simple as that.

There’s another related reason why the Feldenkrais Method is not better known.  When someone asks “What is the Feldenkrais Method?” people often mistakenly think that the inquirer is asking for an EXPLANATION.  Even seasoned practitioners find themselves at sea, or faced by a “deer in the headlights” expression, when attempting an explanation of the work.  The worst thing to say is, “It’s so hard to explain!”  Even though it is true.  The Feldenkrais Method is not just about movement, or emotions, or the body, or thinking processes, or rehabilitation, or elite skill development — although it encompasses all of these.  The Feldenkrais Method is about, and touches upon, virtually every aspect of what it means to be human.  This is not the stuff of which 30-second sound bites or Twitter status updates are made.  No — the reason why it’s a mistake to say “It’s so hard to explain!” is because the listener will jump to the conclusion that YOU think SHE is not smart enough to understand.  Why insult a new friend?    And yet, we take the bait every time, and feel we must begin to explain the Method. I would suggest that we abandon the unproductive strategy of offering explanations.

Here is what I have learned.  The questioner is not asking for an explanation. Their question contains an unconscious and unspoken subtext that is the true question:  ”What’s in it for me?”  The best way to help them to think what might be in it for them is simply to share what it has done for YOU.

“I never have back pain anymore,” “I’ve shaved several strokes off my golf score,” “I feel more calm at the end of the workday” are authentic expressions of one’s own experience, and speak volumes more than any high-falutin’ foray down a bunny trail of neuroscience, cross-motivation, and mature behavior. How have YOU benefittd from the Feldenkrais Method?  That’s the best place to hang your hat.  Until you can talk about that, the Feldenkrais Method will remain a secret where it really counts.  And, until we can encourage our students and our fans to talk about how the Feldenkrais Method has helped them, they will continue to believe that they are not capable of “explaining” it.  They don’t have to explain it, or understand it.  All they have to do is share how it — and you — made them feel.

So — stop working on your elevator pitch to explain what the Feldenkrais Method IS.  Start having authentic conversations with people and find out what they are interested in.  Share how the Method has helped you. Invite them to experience a session or a class, and see for themselves.  Moshe Feldenkrais had tremendous confidence in people’s own ability to sense and think and choose for themselves.  The least we can do is make the opportunity available in a friendly, inviting, and interesting way.

[Feldenkrais Week is scheduled for May 6-15 in the USA and Canada, sponsored by the FGNA. To find classes and events near you, learn more about Feldenkrais Week here.]

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Noodling

Posted on March 9, 2011 | 2 Comments
16 noodles

Image by noodlepie via Flickr

This post is inspired by a prompt which asked “What is your favorite slang word?”

As a writer and as a person who stands up in front of groups on a regular basis to talk to them, I view myself as someone who has a fair command of the English language.  And yet, I became aware last summer, when talking to a new friend from Venezuela, that my spoken language is very colloquial.  I became aware that I use slang as cheap currency, and I needed to think and translate my everyday, colorful expressions into “standard English”  in order to communicate effectively and connect as friends.

Slang can serve as a shibboleth — those subtle markers in speech that identify you as a member of a tribe, a generation, a profession (that slang is commonly known as “jargon”), or an interest group or club.  Some slang is like a privae joke, identifying who is “IN” and who is “Out.”  Slang can include or exclude.

Despite being advised to use 6th-grade level vocabulary in my writing, I have refused to “dumb down” what I write or say.  I write for my own self-expression and enjoyment, and if somebody doesn’t understand the words I use, we’re probably going to have a pretty shallow level of engagement, anyway.  Not that big words are always good (or bad), or that short words are always good (or bad). Words are tools.  Use the right tool for the job, I say.

Sometimes, the right word for the job is an expletive.  If I drop something heavy on my foot, you won’t hear me say “Shoot!” or “Fudge!”  Nope, nothing but the real thing from me.  Yes, I do have other words in my vocabulary.  I get really tired and bored with writers, or comedians, who think a stream of four-letter words constitutes creativity or originality in expression.  Say what you have to say, say it clearly and with authenticity. Make me understand, make me care.  If you’ve done that, your vocabulary, tone, and diction were all just fine, thank you.

Tonight I spent a lot of time “noodling,” which I have chosen as my favorite slag expression for today.  Noodling is a step above “messing around,” or “wasting time.”  Noodling has  an flavor of improvisation, of being involved in an idea, and just playing with it over time to see where it leads.  Perhaps noodling with a pen turns into doodling.  Musicians noodle with variations.  I noodled with my email signature.

A friend has a really cool email signature, with cute little icons from her social media sites right there.  All of them are linked to her various profiles.  I thought, that is really cool, I’d like to do that, too.  So stage one of the noodling was finding a video on YouTube that would show me how to do what I wanted. [The YouTube search bar is the #2 search engine, and with good reason.  If you want to know how to do something, chances are, someone has made a video to show you step-by-step.] The end result was this:

MaryBeth D. Smith, MM, GCFP
The FELDENKRAIS Center of Houston
[my phone number]

Please connect with me on:
Home and Host of the Houston FELDENKRAIS Training
Enrollment Open Through April 2011
A fun little project, something to show for a few minutes of “noodling.”
I noodled last weekend and made a new video, experimenting with Windows Movie Maker for the first time.  Here it is.  It’s not perfect, and I’m OK with that.  However, I am very pleased with how it turned out!
I think one reason that I love the Feldenkrais Method so much is because it offers you some time to noodle, or “noodle around” with your own movements and sensations. Some of the noodling is structured, some is unstructured, and some is unstructured but guided and supervised.  It is a creative playground for your nervous system that can uncover lots of wonderful possibilities, like becoming pain-free, or finding enjoyment and skill in a daily activity.
Noodling is a sustained flow of successive approximations.  You keep at it until you run out of time, or until you are satisfied.  You discover what there is to discover, and use what you can.  Noodling is not only one of my favorite slang words — it is also a favorite modus operandi.
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My Techno Riff

Posted on January 30, 2011 | Leave a comment
Behold the iPad in All Its Glory.

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I laughed when I read the prompt:  What is one piece of technology that I can’t live without?  My first thought was:  the wheel!

Pretty basic, isn’t it.  And then I thought — electricity.  The micro chip.  Indoor plumbing.  I love learning about new technology, although I am not an early adopter of anything.  I embrace my contemporary age and many of the advantages that go with it. I have a new Cuisinart, however I must confess  that I am a little scared of it.  I’m falling in love with the iPad that Santa brought me via his eight tiny reindeer — now Santa is who must have the badass technology!  But then I realized that I was thinking of technology in terms of mere “gadgetry.”  Technology is much more than that.

The article on technology in Wikipedia defines it thusly:

Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or create an artistic perspective. The word technology comes from the Greek technología (τεχνολογία) — téchnē (τέχνη), an “art”, “skill” or “craft” and -logía (-λογία), the study of something, or the branch of knowledge of a discipline.

I can hardly remember what life was like when you couldn’t go online to look up an article or term, search for area restaurants, find out that actor’s name you can never remember who was in Breaking Away, or figure out what to cook with the five ingredients in your fridge.  The internet has made all of this data accessible and useful. As mobile devices continue their ascendancy, it will become even more convenient to bring this information to our fingertips.

So I can’t accept the constraint to name just one piece of technology that I can’t do without.  Each individual technological innovation opens a flood of continued innovation based upon it.  As I imagine doing a load of laundry in the morning, it is daunting to imagine the use of a washboard and wringer, or to walk down to the riverbank to pound out my lacy unmentionables with large stones by the bayou.  Having gone through Hurricane Ike with a minimum of damage and inconvenience, I still had a taste of life in a pre-electrical age as we waited for four days for our power to be restored.  (Many waited for over a month.)  During that time of technological deprivation, I most appreciated a simple battery-operated radio, the ability to send text messages on my mobile phone; and ice.

The Feldenkrais Method is also a technology: a system of organization for better problem solving.  Moshe Feldenkrais even added an artistic perspective when he described the Method as able to “make the impossible, possible; the possible, easy; and the easy, elegant.”  It is a technology (system, method) that has improved my life immeasurably.  Using Feldenkrais technology doesn’t require the acquisition of any trendy or time-saving gadgets.  All you need is your own brain, and the willingness to learn, and the Feldenkrais Method will provide a process for improving whatever you place your attention upon.  It is a method for expanding human capacity and potential.  Now that I know about this technology, I certainly don’t want to be without it.

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Reduce Stress with FELDENRKAIS

Posted on January 29, 2011 | Leave a comment
A diagram of the General Adaptation Syndrome m...
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WE DVR’d the PBS/National Geographic program about stress. It’s a good thing these programs never really go away. We’re usually too enmeshed in our hectic schedules to stop and watch a program that will give us valuable information we need. We’re even LESS likely to make simple changes in our lives that will improve our situation.

The bottom line is that stress is a killer. You can’t control the behavior of other people, or the flow of current events. But what you CAN control is your response to stress, and you can create conditions through lifestyle choices that will help you to manage the emotional and physiological effects of stress.

In our go-go-go culture, our solution to everything is “Try harder. Work more. Never quit.” As a result of these *usually* noble motivations, our nervous systems are constantly activated and primed for “fight or flight:” survival mode. We meet each event in our lives, from congested traffic to an extra ten seconds for the microwave, to a changed project deadline, as if we are in a fight for our lives. Our sympathetic nervous system — the system that prepares us for action — is on high alert. Our adrenal glands pump out a hormonal stream that is meant to help us in short bursts for emergencies, not as a long-term strategy. Muscles contract, cortisol levels rise, and we are on a slippery slope toward illness and injury. The solution is to embrace what we seem to fear most: to take time to slow down, reduce stimulation, be quiet, pay attention, STOP. The parasympathetic nervous system — which governs our ability to rest, relax, and restore — is able to do its healing and “recharging” work only when we take time to slow down.

The Feldenkrais Method uses gentle, minimal body movement as the “programming language” for your nervous system. Our classes and lessons will leave you refreshed, energized, and with a “clean slate” so that you can better deal with the demands of your life. The parasympathetic and sympathetic systems MUST work in partnership. Visit us soon to restore your natural balance.

[Find a Feldenkrais teacher near you at www.feldenkrais.com]

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I Threw Something Away

Posted on January 28, 2011 | 2 Comments
The Fronts of the new Tags, Oldest to newest, ...
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Yes, alert the media.  This is big.

I get rid of stuff all the time.  I do the semi-annual give-away-old-clothes-books-gadgets clean out, and have done for years.  But something is different now.  In part inspired by #reverb10, during December I reflected on the past year and envisioned what I wanted for 2011.  One of the reflections was about letting go, actually and metaphorically, and I wrote about that here.  I hired an assistant to come in and teach me how to deal with . . .

Dun dun DUNNNNNN. . .

Paper.

I’ve read dozens of self-help, get-organized books, and have learned to be very well organized in most aspects of my life.  Furthermore, I have several friends who are professional organizers of the highest caliber.  I could sense when one of them would begin to salivate at the prospect of straightening me out, as they sniffed around for their opportunity to ensnare me.  I valued their friendship more than I wanted to risk their wrath and judgment, so I never hired them to help me with what I really needed.  For me, the breakdown was that most of what I read was about how to keep everything organized.  I really wanted to have less to have to organize in the first place.  My previous strategies had reached their expiration date. My prior level of organization was no longer adequate for today’s demands and challenges.  I knew what result I wanted, but I didn’t know how to get there.

My new assistant, who comes for another five hours this Friday,  provided a hub for what I realized were just random informational “spokes” whirling around in my life, poking me, lacerating the surroundings, and good for nothing.  With her “hub,” the spokes have something to attach to — the crucial missing piece.  I am now capable of self-propulsion.

I have become a dedicated and enthusiastic shredder.  I have shredded so much accumulated and outdated paper, that my partner jokes, “Are we closing the Embassy?” I have embraced the ideal of a paperless office, even if I never completely get there.   All information about each of my accounts is available online anyway, so I have stopped most incoming mail from those accounts and vendors.  I’ll be scanning the documents I really do need, so digital versions will replace the paper clogging my file cabinets and my brain. I have external hard drives and cloud storage available to back up my back ups, so I feel fantastic.  I have become pitch-happy, ready to part with almost anything.  If it can be shredded, so much the better.

The title of this post is the spoiler for a tiny event tonight that has changed everything.   It’s not just that I can throw something away:  it’s that I realize I have learned something, and have applied my capacity to think critically and use that new learning instead of using my old habitual “Default” setting of “I must keep this.”  Here’s how it went:

I received my new EZ Tag in the mail yesterday, and went online to activate it. (An EZ Tag lets me go through the “fast lane” on Texas toll roads in major metro areas.) I put the EZ Tag on my windshield, according to the directions.  A print-out showed me my tag number, order number for activation, and my account balance.  I thought:  where do I keep this brochure and the enclosed information?  In the glove box?  No.  In a file?  So as I looked at this packet, I thought:  I don’t need the brochure cover, so that can be recycled.  I don’t need the instructions for how to apply my tag to the windshield, because that is done.    There’s this document that has my activation code — shall I scan it?  Wait a minute.  I have already activated it online.  The only other information on the page is my account balance, which is also available online.

SHREDDER!!!! <zzzzzzzzzzhhhhhhzzzzzzhhhhhhzzzzzzhhhhhh> and DONE.

Moshe Feldenkrais said, “Any adjustment is evidence that learning has occurred.”  Each milestone, no matter how seemingly small, is a marker on a larger journey of progress.  The Feldenkrais Method is based on this kind of gentle, incremental, transformational learning.  When you look back at the baby steps, you can see how far you have come.

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A Better Brain with FELDENKRAIS

Posted on January 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

In the days since the terrible violence in Tuscon, AZ, when a gunman took the lives of thirteen innocent people, including that of Federal Judge John Roll, and gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others; the general public has received a steady media diet of stories about traumatic brain injuries and prospects for rehabilitation.  Thankfully, Rep. Giffords is doing remarkably well. We send our very best wishes to her, and to her family, during her convalescence and recovery.

As a result of this high-profile story, at both the national and local level, people are increasingly curious about the amazing capacity of the brain to regenerate itself, to find redundancies and “alternate routes” for parts that have  ”gone off-line” due to stroke, or neurological process, or injury; and above all, that improvement is possible.  (For an excellent summary, see this recent PBS Report.)  At the core of the Feldenkrais Method is this very issue: how to create optimal conditions for any individual so that these changes in the brain — broadly called “learning,” can occur.

No doubt, Rep. Giffords will be getting state-of-the-art care at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospitals TIRR Center.  Their protocols are effective and tested, and I’ve heard that they are similar to those used in  our military hospitals to rehabilitate the traumatic brain injuries as have been suffered by our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They know what they are doing.

I always wonder how an already good experience can be made even better.  And so, it makes me wish that Rep. Giffords, and all of our wounded veterans, were able to have access to the learning and improvement that occurs with the Feldenkrais Method, in addition to the care they already receive.  The qualitative difference that our approach makes in easing pain, developing sensitivity and function, and improving balance and coordination, could be astonishing.

Our Method is already widely used in major hospitals in the US, most notably in the Kaiser Permanente system in California, and in the most progressive physical therapy settings.  Until a few years ago, the Memorial Hermann Wellness Center offered a weekly class in Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, and a practitioner worked with their pain patients on a regular basis until her retirement.  This prior positive history with the method may justify re-opening the door.  I would love to see a group of patients receive the present TIRR approach in treatment, and another group receive the TIRR approach with the addition of regular Feldenkrais sessions.  My sense is that there would be a big difference in the group that also had Feldenkrais.  In addition to the patient benefits,  there is some preliminary evidence that people recover more quickly, which translates to lower costs.  Improved patient outcomes and a healthier bottom line are in the interest of any institution.

It’s all very interesting to ponder.  It also makes it important that people who have experienced the benefits of the Method — even if just for baby-boomer weekend-warrior pain — share their positive experiences instead of keeping them and us a secret.  We may not get to work with Rep. Giffords, but future cases — no, PEOPLE — will benefit down the line. We wish her the very best. And, Rep. Giffords:  I am at your service.

[Research studies about the Feldenkrais Method, including peer-reviewed articles, can be found at FeldSciNet.org.]

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The Sweetest Sound

Posted on January 23, 2011 | 1 Comment
Luisenpark in Mannheim, Germany

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What is your favorite sound?  I have several.

I love the sound of a real voice or instrument just coming through the air, without electronic enhancement of any kind — “acoustic” music.  I feel sad that many people never hear music that doesn’t come through a speaker on the way to their ear.  There’s a special magic in the quality of real sound.

I love the sound of onions and garlic sizzling in the sauté pan.   I love the sound of crickets and locusts chirping and whirring on a summer night.  I love the sound of children giggling as they play delightedly; or the sound of many people gathered for the sole purpose of having a good time.  I love the sound of happiness.

I love the sound of the voices of those I love — my son and daughter, my partner, our cats’ diverse and moody whirrings, purrings, and meowings.  These voices, in person or on the phone, always cheer me.

The sound I have come to really appreciate and enjoy is the sound of discovery.  For example, the sound someone makes in the middle of a Feldenkrais class, when they stop to sense a familiar movement and notice how it has changed as a result of the lesson.  Or the sound they make as they walk and sense themselves and feel something out of the ordinary.  ”Huh.”  ”Hmm.” The slight expulsion of air, a tiny bit of vocalization, that sound of recognition that something unexpected has just happened.  It is the sound of blossoming curiosity, of the beginning of improvement, the sound of a more complete and capable self-image being born.  I think that is my favorite sound.

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FELDENKRAIS For Better Living

Posted on January 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

The personal testimonial always catches our attention. Often, our decisions are influenced based on our friends experiences and recommendations, whether for an author, a restaurant, a hairdresser, or iPhone app.

Thankfully, it’s not SO unusual anymore to hear people talking about their experiences in Feldenkrais classes. I’d love to hear a testimonial like this (credit/apologies to the Ketchup Advisory Board):

“Well, of course I expected Feldenkrais lessons to work wonders for my persistent back pain. Sure, that improved right away — it’s kind of what they’re known for, ya know? But then, as I continued with my regular sessions, I noticed lots of other improvements. My stock portfolio increased in value. I was able to lose those last seven pounds. My skin is flawless. My husband got a raise. My kid was named a National Merit Scholar. My grass is greener. My website started getting more traffic. My brother has kicked his habit. I got a MacArthur grant. . . so yeah — I can really recommend that Feldenkrais class!”

I hope you enjoyed that little bit of humor. And, I hope you’ll try some classes or lessons to see how YOUR life improves. We only make one guarantee — you will feel different.

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