Movement Intelligence

Gratitude-It Lives in Your Body

2011-12-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

"If the only prayer you would say in your life is “thank you” that would sufﬁce." - Meister Eckhart

At this time of the year, itʼs a good idea to focus on what we have to be thankful for and to let go of any resentments and bitterness. Take a moment and think about a time you felt touched by Life...a smile, an act of kindness, a moment of vulnerability. Recall all the sensory rich details of this moment, when you felt touched by Life. Where were you? Who else was there? What were you doing? Were there sounds? What were the sensations and feelings in your body?

Implicit in being touched by life, often lies the feeling of gratitude. Moreover when we feel connected to ourselves, we often feel connected to others around us. What would happen if we consciously practiced gratitude?

At a workshop I was in recently, we practiced this exercise. I recalled how it “felt” in my body when I remembered being greeted by a fellow participant. I hadnʼt met her yet or exchanged words, and she greeted me warmly, when I stepped inside the dorms we were staying in. She said “oh youʼre Ed” having heard my name mentioned before. And proceeded to engage me in lively conversation. I felt at once seen and comforted by her warmhearted attention. Later in recalling the scene, I felt once again the tingle in my body and good feeling spreading throughout myself. Another words recalling the event that touched me and the sensations and feelings in my body, brought on another dose of gratitude and a smile to my face.

The Best Kept Secret

2011-10-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

It’s Tuesday, and I just got back from Jaclyn’s Feldenkrais Awareness Thru Movement class, and I can’t help thinking why isn’t everybody doing this work? I feel in a totally different space than when I arrived for the class. I feel open, relaxed, and my perspective has been enlarged. Another words I feel at ease with myself physically, mentally and emotionally.

So simple, so elegant; learning to move in an easy integrated way, so there’s no strain anywhere in the body.

My mind relaxes in accord with my body.

My fellow classmate and I are talking on the way out. She says nobody knows about this work. How is that possible? Anyway I want to inform you about the best kept secret in the Universe. By learning to sense and feel what is going on in your body and paying attention as you move; tense muscles let go, aches and pains recede and movement enlarges. Like Magic!

I get up feeling lighter, smiling, liking myself more.

Try it-you’ll be hooked.

Reputation

2011-09-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

" Reputation"-

After a refreshing visit to the beach and ocean, I stopped off at a local Cafe in Ocean Grove, NJ. The owner mentioned it's his "reputation" that keeps customers coming back. And keeps him busy throughout the year.

It's "the fresh roasted coffee", he said. Just look at the date the coffee was roasted the next time you buy coffee, to see how fresh it is . That's the difference in taste. That's what brings out it's vim and vigor. Same for his baked goods-freshly baked.

I thought about that word "Reputation" a few minutes and what it means.

At FeldmanChiropractic we take pride in our long term results with patients. We bring ourselves to the session without any preconceived ideas, trying to see what is needed in this particular situation.

Exploring with them freshly each session, not repeating well worn techniques.

It's similar to the freshness of the cafe owner's coffee. We bring awareness and unbiased attention and that makes for powerful results with our clients.

Unconditional friendship with oneself

2011-09-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this quote from a workshop Pema Chodrin taught at Omega called "Smile at Fear". It has helped me enormously. I'm paraphrasing.

"The biggest obstacle to unconditional friendship with oneself.

In fact to living a sane life is fear of feeling; fear of feeling what you're feeling.

Fear of feeling unwanted, uncomfortable feelings.

Losing our fear of feeling what we're feeling.

Opening to, turning toward's one's feeling.

Not reacting against what you're feeling.

Not acting it out or repressing it.

Being fully with the experience.

In order to have friendship with oneself."

Respect

2011-07-25T07:50:00.001-07:00

After my tutorial in Biodyamic CraniSacral Therapy, Saturday July 23rd, 2011 :

I am reminded once again, why this work is so powerful; why it holds such a special place in my heart.
It reminds me of all the things we spoke about in today's session with Shannon, but at a" felt "sense.
Another words; "allowing the person to be as they are." seems to me so respectful. So humble.
"Being in my midline" really means being in my center-where I am truly respectful of the other person and myself..
Being in my core gives the client space.
"Finding the quality of the holistic shift"-allows me to perceive the client's wholeness, but I , in turn enter into that state of wholeness, as well.

2011-07-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Moving with Ease

The Feldenkrais Method is based on the principles of Judo, which is to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength but through increased consciousness of how you are moving.

This was born out during my week at Hampshire College in Amherst , Ma., July 8-13th ; where I participated in the 2011 Annual meeting of the Feldenkrais Guild.

Through Workshops in Awareness Through Movement (Hooking the Big Toe was one 2 day workshop) and learning about the roots of the Feldenkrais Method in Judo-Art of Falling and Dynamic Stability, I came away invigorated, stimulated, ( only slept about 4 hours a night!) and revivified!

2011-03-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

Learning to deeply connect with our clients:

A successful outcome for clients means that they have felt acknowledged, received seen and heard by you, the therapist. How does the practitioner achieve this and feel enlivened by the session?

First and foremost is Presence. In the body, the mind is settled; all personal concerns, as well as technical skills are “put behind the curtain”, (a phrase Rollin Becker, D.O coined) resting firmly in the moment with you. You as a client can sense that, and so you begin to settle.There is a sense of safety, as one begins to let go.

As the practitioner, are you attentive to your breathing? Are you allowing yourself to experience your breath just the way it is, without trying to change it? What is the quality of your mind? Are you anxious or calm? What are you feeling in your body? Hurried or rushed? Tense or constricted in some part of you? Are you aware of anything in yourself that is preventing you from being fully present in the moment with your client?

“Contact” is everything that happens from the first telephone call to the time the client enters the office up until you apply your healing hands or therapeutic problem solving skills to the person. So much of our work as healers is to listen. But before we can listen to what this Being is presenting, we need to be aware of what’s happening within us. This listening to ourselves is happening through our breathing, and through the sensations and feeling tones in our body. We are attentive to and aware of our thoughts, but it’s through the body that we settle. Then we come into a place of Being-ness. Then we can begin to resonate with the person across from us (and sense what’s going within their minds and bodies). It is from that place of Beingness that we relate as Human Beings. We relate on an inter-being level. And in order for that to be successful, we must negotiate the connection, the physical and attentional boundaries with our client. We need to check out with our client; are you ok? Am I too close on a physical or energetic level? This is perceived by the client both through our physical hands-on contact and through our intention. Our client may feel crowded in by our intention to fix, to be helpful, even though physically we are giving lots of space. Once our client feels met, safe and seen, she can begin to drop down and make contact with herself,and the sensations and feeling tones in her body. And that’s when the clients own Healing Intentions can emerge.

What is the client’s role? She is a willing and able co-creator in the session, whose input and participation is necessary if we are to fully “engage” her system. She needs to feel into and make contact with herself, on a gut level ( the seat of the second brain). Learning how to create this “holding field” and nurture this connection is fundamental to being in the moment. It affects our work with clients, and enlivens every connection in our lives- our spouse, child, employee or boss.

Edward Feldman, D.C.,R.C.S.T. offers transformational individual sessions and mentors other practitioners in the art of making contact. He can be reached at feldmanchiropractic.com or 609-252-1766.

2011-02-08T06:09:00.000-08:00

At my last Biodynamic CranioSacral therapy module, we worked with the process of Ignition.

There are three Ignition processes that take place for the newborn as we enter the world.

Conception (Ignition) is about Coming into Being; the Ground of Being-feeling received.

To be. Heart Ignition is about the Embodiment of Being-there is a direct relationship to Mom in the womb, the womb is our world. This about being received in my Being by the other.

Finally Birth Ignition is about our orientation to the outer world, ignition of our Life Force as a separate physiological being. The empowerment of being.

How can we be ourselves and not take things so personally? If we have boundary problems, have a sense of being invaded by our partner, it is because as a little one, we needed to be held. There was as Winnicott states: a good enough holding environment. We needed to feel and sense that someone was present. Not too distant. Not too far. This is very early stuff. If Mom was unable to "hold" the infant in the womb, we might as a survival mechanism become the "good" child, helping Mom. We become the caregiver of Mom. In the process, we become someone who can't take care of ourselves, protect ourselves later on. We need to re-own our own goodness and strength without feeling guilty.

The goal of therapy is to recreate a holding environment that's more trustworthy. That is safe. Allowing us to feel seen and received. Allowing us to heal the terror of the feeling "I don't exist." During the the processes of ignition, the re-creation of these incompleted processes allow healing to take place.

post Feldenkrais lesson

2009-12-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

What are the after effects of a Feldenkrais lesson?
Take the case of Louise , a 73 year old retired school teacher with chronic right hip pain and sciatica, a head tilt to the right and and shortened rib cage on the right.

After the lesson, her pain was gone. She stood tall. Her head was planted firmly on her shoulders, her chest was wide and open. Her back was straight and long.There was a sense of symmetry to her that wasn't there before. She was organized more clearly around her midline, the center of herself.She felt calm, and open and centered. her feet felt more solidly planted into the ground. Normally chatty, she wanted to go home and be with the changes she was experiencing in her self.

Accessing Resources-Liquid light

2009-12-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

We're at our quarterly Biodynamic CranioSacral therapy training segment, and the exercise is to access our resources to help titrate a pain in the body. To connect to the pain and stay in the Present at the same time, so as to titrate or lessen the suffering there. The key is resonance, feeling safe between you, as the client and your practitoner. So you can tell them what you need-i.e. her touch is too strong, she's crowding you with her intention. All in the name of client comfort and ease.

So after we've established a good relational field, I drop down and access a resource. What is a resource? A person, place or thing that gives you a sense of ok-ness-that you're allright just the way you are. So I access my resource-the beach, the ocean and immediately feel supported. A sense of spaciousness and freedom engulfs me and I feel totally free. Good start. So I bring my resource to a place in my body (my diaphragm) and again feel the sense of spaciousness there.

Now I direct my resource to my knee which has been bothering me for several months and still occassionally locks up on me, despite physical therapy and manipulation. I bring this quality of spaciousness to heal my knee. I don't go in too much or too fast. I don't want to overwhelm my painful knee. I just bring my expanded sense of spaciousness to touch on this painful knee. And then back off and go back to my diaphragm where the resource resides.

And you know what? It starts to let go, my knee starts to do what it needs to do to resolve the forces that had been placed on it whilst digging holes to put in lots of new shrubs and perennials. I had irritated the medial joint line of the meniscus and it had not integrated into the rest of my body.

I do this repeatedly. Coming up to the edge of my painful knee and then going back to my diaphragm where the spaciousness of the ocean resides. I go back and forth several times and finally I begin to feel a luminosity engulfing my knee. Liquid light ( the cerebrospinal fluid?) penetrating my knee and resolving whatever has ensnared my knee. It's gone, The painful dark strain of the medial meniscus has been replaced by luminosity. It feels clear of debis.

Finally I visualize/direct my resource to my knee, only my attention goes way down to my left foot. My left foot feels like it is getting longer and longer and is receding further and further away from me.A great sense of lengthening has occurred. I get up to walk around and check it out, and my left leg feels substantially more substantial. I can rely on it and the fear of it locking up and getting further damaged is gone! In fact it feels great.

Reflecting on Sitting Workshop

2009-07-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

People often ask me what is the difference between Feldenkrais and chiropractic. Or even how is it different from yoga? In a nutshell, in the Feldenkrais Method, we are not trying to improve a function, i.e. sitting or reaching or looking up or bending forward. Rather we are interested in the process. How did you get to the function, to the final result, to the end point you are seeking? It is the elements in the process that constitute the function that is important. For instance, learning to sit in a dynamic way means that the ribs and chest are accessible. One initiates movement from the pelvis and hip and large muscles attached to the pelvis. There is a dynamic interplay between the parts of the Self that go into dynamic sitting. Such that the head is free to float, as one person commented upon standing up after we finished the sitting lesson.

By the way the head is not an appendage stuck onto the shoulders but is part of the spine. It sounds funny but to watch people move, it’s as if the head is separate and stuck on the shoulders as if by a finishing touch made by God. Another words when the spine and hip joints bend to one side, the head follows. It's intimately connected to the rest of the spine. When you shift your weight from sit bone to sit bone, the force travels through the spine, through the rib cage, through the chest and shoulders and into the head. The body is an interconnected whole, that moves dynamically as one unit when you move or sit or stand or walk or reach for something. When you bend down to look at something or look up, the whole spine bends, which includes the bending of the hip joints and lumbosacral spine (the lower back), the middle of your back, the breastbone or sternum, and the head and neck. Another words the whole body is moving together-doing one thing in a unified way that makes for efficient, easy to do, pleasurable movement.

Getting back to the question how is the feldenkrais method different from yoga or practically anything else? We purposely make it easy for the Nervous System to make connections. Your Nervous System connects the external environment to the Internal environment. You can't move without sensing, feeling, and thinking (perceiving). What are the conditions necessary to create learning with the environment?

How do you create the optimal conditions for learning?

By paying attention, moving slowly, pausing between movements in order for the nervous system to refresh, making small movements, reducing your effort. All of the above quiets the nervous system and makes it easy for your brain to pay attention and so bring about change. This allows for new possibilities of movement to emerge. As if by a discovery process and you are the scientist, observing your own body. This is what makes the Feldenkrais Method distinct and improves your ability to do whatever you choose to do.

Our minds and our bodies

2009-06-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Recently I came across some sound tapes that promised instant enlightenment-the depth of meditation that it would take a serious zen meditator 10 years to achieve..... in a single setting.
The problem for me is Embodiment. Is my mind caught up with my body or vice versa?
I may feel all floaty and good afterwards, but am I, can I function in the world and relate to others?
Can I give myself over to my work life?
Another words can the depth of my experience integrate into all facets of my being? We are just beginning to realize how plastic the brain is. That the brain can form new connections. But it needs the right conditions to learn. We need to effectively communicate with the brain .I believe the person needs to" feel " how to put the pieces together from the input it is getting. It is not a passive process. In fact it goes under the heading that the mind and body are One. Indivisible.
Just as the brain needs new information to stay vital and alive. It needs movement to form a connection between our Nervous System, our muscles , our skeleton and the environment around us. More than we may realize, we need to ground our expanded minds into our body.

2009-06-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Function is key-excitement vs satisfaction

How many times do we get seduced by the excitement of something new-whether it be a relationship, a new thing to buy, a new job, the Internet?

I believe that what drives most addictive behavior is excitation without emotional contact. Another words, we're seduced by the excitement of something outside ourselves that pulls us into what Buddhists call attatchment or clinging or desire.

Rather than being in contact with ourselves , we're pulled outside of ourselves by the promise of some reward-we'll feel better, safe, have momentary pleasure, or we want to get rid of our pain, escape ourselves.

I think it's important to watch our excitement, as it arises .Observe the sensations in our body. Are they pleasant or do you feel gripping, fearful, tense, anxious, uneasy? What passes for excitement may be some other emotion or sensation; that if you pause long enough to get in touch with yourself may stop yourself from entering/fostering some unforseen/unproductive consequence.

Remember function-the ability to healthily experience life and pleasure and be productive and satisfied at the same time is the key.

Welcome.

2009-04-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hello. Welcome to my Blog, thank you for visiting.