Author: Donna

Dear Students:
During my college years & early afterwards I taught gymnastics to kids ranging from toddlers to teenagers. I taught children rolling, crawling, creeping, climbing, hopping, jumping & flipping in a very matter of fact type of way.  During these years I also taught adults of all ages as a Personal Fitness trainer.

Jumping & hopping seemed like a very simple concept to me by the time I became a full time Feldenkrais Practitioner. Up to that point the people I taught wanted to learn many different ways of moving, so I did not realize there were individuals who never attempted to learn how to skip or jump. That was until I witnessed a fellow colleague instantaneously grow “just” by learning how to hop during my Child’Space training. 

One day in class we broke into groups to teach each other how to kick a ball, hop, skip & jump.  In my group there was a woman in her 50’s that had no desire to participate.   When our teacher made it clear that it was important for everyone to try each activity, she began to meltdown. Just thinking about hopping over a line on the floor terrified her so much that she began to cry & shake all over her body. 

The other trainees and I recognized her trauma & gently encouraged her to face her fears with our support. In the end she learned how to hop for the first time in her life. It was amazing to watch her self-esteem & confidence grow more than twofold by doing a skill she had never imagined she could achieve.  As for me, this experience made me realize how the “simple” skills that I taught for most of my life could positively shape a person physically, mentally & emotionally.  I viscerally felt to a remarkable degree how self-image is created & how this influences the choices we make in life.   

I was astonished by how shocked I was by this woman’s fear & pleasantly surprised by her transformation.  I will never forget it and I am grateful that I was present for her and for the lesson she gave me that day in class.

With that said, my next workshop is called Standing & Hopping, on Sunday, October 20 from 1-4pm.  Click here for more information & details about the workshop.  I hope to see you there!  Peace!
~Donna

Dear Students:
One of my greatest passions along with the Feldenkrais Method, is my journey in learning how to rejuvenate the Earth and begin to bring it back to it’s pristine origins. With that said, I am excited to tell you about a documentary called, Common Ground & share the trailer with you.

Common Ground is about the regenerative farming movement happening all over the country. It’s aim is to teach everyone how to cultivate our land & soil for more nourishing food and to ultimately bring our ecosystem into balance.

I am happy to say the film, Common Ground will be playing in downtown Lancaster at the independent cinema stillhouse, Zoetropolis on Sept. 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8, 2024.  For show times & more information go to: zoetropolis.com.  To find a showing in your area visit: commongroundfilm.org.   

Here is Zoetropolis’s description of Common Ground:
Big Picture Ranch and Area 23a present Common Ground –  a hopeful and uplifting story of the pioneers of the “Regenerative Movement” who produce tremendous quantities of nutritionally dense food and are working to balance the climate – all while bringing our entire ecosystem back to life. The film explores how Americans from different walks of life, different political backgrounds, and different parts of the country share one thing in common –the very soil beneath their feet. The film investigates the power of “regenerative” farming systems –from large to small-scale farmers who are the champions of soil health as the key to unlocking more (and healthier) food to feed America and the world.
Cast includes: Laura Dern, Rosario Dawson, Jason Mamoa, Woody Harrelson, Ian Somerhalder and Donald Glover

I hope you get the chance to see this informative & inspiring movie very soon! Peace!
~Donna

Dear Students:
The weight bearing bone of the ankle is called the talus bone and it sits on top of the heel which is the calcaneus bone.  Ideal walking requires you to move your head, vertebral column, pelvis & leg bones directly over the talus bone for optimal balance. The ankles are designed to aid in this alignment process from the bottom up through swiveling motions of the lower leg bones, the tibia & fibula & feet. When you instinctively pivot your feet around this is a sign that your neurological system is stimulating your entire muscular & skeletal systems to find a balancing point.   

I have included a video for you to watch of a gymnast’s feet moving on a balance beam so you can see how her ankles help her quickly find center. Because she is very skilled at balancing you must look closely to see her feet in motion when she is merely walking. Stay tuned in to see her land a bit off balance when she does a “cat jump” or when she stands on one leg, so you won’t miss what her feet have to do to keep her on the beam.

You can invoke these innate lower leg movements within yourself simply by removing your shoes &/or strolling on surfaces such as sand or dirt and/or exploring the mini-lesson that I share with you today.  This short walking exploration can help you experience your amazing ankles!  Have fun with it & remember the more you explore in a gentle & non-judgmental way the better you can become at it.

Lesson: Walking on a Line
[During this lesson move with gentleness & awareness.  If you experience any discomfort during the exploration, stop immediately & rest.  Rest as soon as you become tired. Imagine doing the movements if you can not do it without pain or discomfort.]
1. Walk slowly on an imaginary line on the floor taking each step with your heels touching your toes.  This means each time, place your front foot on the line so you feel your heel lightly touching the big toe & 2nd toe of your back foot. Walk with your arms straight out to the sides. Rest when you become tired or are no longer interested in the process.
2. This time walk on the line 50% slower.  Notice when you speed up.  Does this happen while standing on one leg more than on the other? Which foot swivels more easily?  Rest in sitting. 
3. Walk backwards in the same manner. Go 50% slower each time you do it. Notice if you stop breathing or inhibit your breathing. Rest. 
4. If you want, challenge yourself by placing your arms down by your sides or cross your arms over your chest & rest your elbows on your torso.  Walk in this way once forwards & then backwards -75% slower each time. Is this more difficult? Where do you effort unnecessarily? Rest.

I hope this lesson helps to prepare your legs for enhanced movement during all your recreational activities this summer. Peace to all on Earth!
~Donna

Dear Students:
This past month I have become even more appreciative of Feldenkrais and it’s valuable lessons because I have been sowing & weeding my garden.  With every squat, bend, twist & turn I do it reminds me of all the ways I have benefited from the gifts of mobility & awareness.  It makes me wonder if ‘typical gardeners’ enjoy their labors of love as easily as those that are students of the Feldenkrais Method?

Another feeling I have been awakened to this spring, is a new level of connection between my plants & I.  As I spend time with them & tend the soil, I sense the energy exchange between us becoming stronger with each season.  The other day, I picked some lettuce & vegetables and ate them immediately & realized intuitively that my crops are growing just to help me thrive.  These experiences bring me great joy & essential insights into how to cultivate & spread harmony to all living beings around the world.

I include an interview with a lovely woman, Vandana Shiva explaining the importance of communing with the earth better than I can.  At 6:20 in the video she says,  “Because the soil health is your health.  Every time we impoverish and desertify the soil we cause human diseases.  There is no separation between the health of the planet and our health, and that’s why healing the Earth is healing ourselves, both individually as human beings but collectively as the human species. And I think we will not be able to do the work of healing as long as our minds are “mechanistic” and as long as we say ourselves are separate from the earth, separate from the soil, separate from the plants.  We are one with them.  We are one with them through the care we give to them, but we are one with them through the life they give to us. They give us care when we give them care.” ~Vandana Shiva

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to plant flowers, house plants and/or a garden so you can create a loving atmosphere all around you.  Peace to all on Earth!
~Donna

Dear Students:
Moshe Feldenkrais called the kinaesthetic sense a “sixth sense” and explained that, ” it is a sense by which muscular motion, weight, position in space, etc., are perceived.” ~The Body & Mature Behavior by Moshe Feldenkrais, page 108.

Learning how to develop the kinaesthetic sense is one of the many gifts Moshe Feldenkrais gave his students with his remarkable method. By including all the information he accumulated over his life-time as a cartographer (map maker), a professional soccer player, a black belt martial artist, an engineer, physicist & mathematician, he fine tuned his own sense of spatial awareness & body orientation.  This gave him an innate ability to effectively teach others how to proprioceptively improve through Functional Integration (FI) sessions and Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes.   

“A person may have good orientation and movement with a mostly unconscious feel for location. Feldenkrais brought these feelings into conscious awareness and investigated the processes by which we assemble the spatial awareness that our feel for location depends upon. He observed the common, spontaneous movements of children and had a keen appreciation for how their movements reflected an awareness of their situations in time and space.” ~Moshe Feldenkrais: A Life in Movement, by Mark Reese, page 69.

An example of how you use your ‘sixth sense’ is, when you realize where your head & pelvis are while standing, sitting, walking, dancing, flipping, etc. Another way is by sensing where you are located in a room, a building, a town, a state, a country and potentially on the earth & in the universe!

I include a video for you to observe seven amazing trampoline athletes demonstrating their spatial awareness. May it help you imagine some of the possibilities you have as a human being. I ask – how kinesthetically sensitive do you wish to become?

I hope to assist you in achieving your goals along the way during ATM classes, workshops and/or a FI sessions.  See you soon!
Peace to all on Earth!
~Donna

Dear Students:
Moshe Feldenkrais chose to use movement as a vehicle to help people learn how to transform their ways of thinking, feeling & behaving. I believe one of the reasons he based his method on teaching “awareness through movement” is because body language reveals volumes about the soul of a person.

This is why I share with you the silent movie, Metropolis, so you can become familiar with what (non-verbal), expressive human beings look like. One of my students, Greg Sipe enthusiastically told me about this 1927 classic picture, and motivated me to check it out.  Greg is a ballroom dance instructor so I had lots of fun sharing my thoughts about it with him the past few weeks. 

The film instantly caught my attention with the first act, Shift Change because of the pure physicality of the actors, (view at 0:4:11). I can honestly say it is one of the most intriguing performances I’ve ever seen and the actors were only walking as a group on & off the set.  They were able to portray the slight & profound difference in the way factory workers carried themselves when entering the “depths of earth” compared to the ones exiting it.  Look closely to see if you can tell what the men were feeling & thinking by how they moved at the beginning versus the end of their shifts.

I wish to point out some other scenes that left me marveling at the main actress’s ability to fully express her state of mind & emotions. Words like actor, artist, dancer & pantomime only touch lightly upon how to describe her.  She played herself as a saint-like leader at the beginning of the story (view at 0:52:19 & 0:56:43), and later as an evil imposter of herself, (view at 1:46:36).  She contrasted the good & wicked behaviors of the characters she played by softening her gestures & motions and then by turning them into sharp, chaotic movements.  Her facial expressions were so precious that I can find no words to help you imagine how capable she was in creating them.

I was also delighted to see this actress precisely embody terror, (view at 1:04:15).  You might mistakenly think she physically over exaggerated her reaction in this scenario, but I assure you she did not.  She masterly demonstrated how terrifying feelings shake up the entire nervous system.

Metropolis was considered to be controversial when it opened & I believe it’s message has just as much relevance today as it did back then.   I hope this post inspires you to watch the entire movie.  I viewed it in 15-30 minute intervals and was surprised by the unfolding story-line & the exquisite movement of the dramatic actors, each time! Peace!
~Donna

Dear Students:
I am excited for you to view a video about a simple way to energize your garden called, Electro-culture!
In 15 minutes, Matt Roeske talks about how to increase the magnetism of your soil for farming & gardening.  This is done by using a stick with copper wire wrapped in a clockwise direction around it, called an atmospheric antenna. He explains how cooper wire can easily attract nature’s life force towards you & your plants and it’s many benefits.

I love the fact that by placing an electro-culture antenna about six inches into the ground near trees & plants, eliminates the need to use any pesticides, fertilizers or manure!  Just think about how the Earth would benefit if everyone started utilizing this miraculous tool! Harmful products would become null & void and nature’s energy would help human beings, vegetation, animals & insects to prosper.

Last summer I made some copper antennas and noticed they attracted more birds, bees & butterflies to my flora than the previous year.  My herbs & vegetables thrived & I am sure they were filled with more nutrients because of it!

2024 Feldenkrais Workshop Schedule: 
1.Head, Neck & Shoulders: Sunday, March 17 @ 1-4 pm 
2.Organizing from your Head to Tail: Sat.May 18 @ 1-4 pm
3.Organizing from Ankles,Knees & Hips: Sat.July 20 @ 1-4pm            4.Standing & Hopping: Sunday, Oct. 20 @ 1-4 pm                           For more details click here.

Visit Matt Roeske’s website, Cultivate Elevate to discover more ways to enhance your health & well being. May electro-culture help you create a vivacious yard & a rejuvenated body! Peace!
~Donna

Dear Students:
Moshe Feldenkrais wisely said, “Health is the ability to realize our avowed and unavowed dreams.” [Avow = to acknowledge, to openly declare].  Throughout the years, I have found this to be an accurate way to measure my physical, mental & emotional progress.

An example of one of my avowed dreams is that I wish to help build an off-grid, self sustaining community where I can create a garden paradise homestead with liked minded neighbors. Recently, friends who knew about my desire, sent me a video (to the left) that shows how a man with a similar idea turned his avowed dream into a living reality.  Watch Jim Gale walk through his property called, Galt’s Landing and marvel at what he created.  I love how he used his concept of eliminating lawns to help him grow prosperous & abundant food forests throughout his land. 

An un-avowed dream that was awakened inside of me over the past few years, arose due to the censoring on mainstream media. My passion to stand up for freedom of speech & use my website as a way to get information out to people, is something I never imagined would become necessary.

Today in order to help save peoples’ lives, I share Barry Young’s story with you. Barry is a New Zealand, senior data base administrator who decided to go public with high level health information, when he became alarmed by the vaccine information he was observing in his country.  To hear about what motivated him to speak out despite knowing he would be harshly treated, click on: Reality Check Radio, Barry Young: Covid-19 Data Whistleblower: Dec. 11, 2023.

May you get closer to discovering & living your avowed & un-avowed dreams!  Peace to all on Earth!
~Donna

Dear Students:
The Introduction to Moshe Feldenkrais’s book, The Potent Self, is entitled “Love Thyself as Thy Neighbor”.  If you read closely you will notice that Dr. Feldenkrais reversed the order of the words “thyself” and “neighbor” in this commandment.   I share this with you, hoping it will help you to maintain your health & peace of mind during this holiday season.

I have observed that most people become too exhausted to enjoy the holidays because they push themselves harder than they would push their worst enemy.  If this behavior sounds familiar to you, listen to what Moshe Feldenkrais further says in his introduction: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” should not always mean that they themselves are worse than any neighbor…” 

Have a wonderful holiday season.  I hope Moshe’s words will stay with you and remind you to slow down, take lots of breaks and treat yourself kindly.

Feldenkrais Class Schedule & Day Change in 2024:
4 week winter break: no classes Dec. 19 & 26, 2023 and Jan. 2 & 9, 2024;
Beginning on Wed. Jan. 17, 2024: Feldenkrais classes will meet on Wednesdays @ 11 am (instead of Tuesdays) – for more details click here.

May you actively discover the positive energy behind, “Loving Thy Neighbor As Thyself” & “Loving Thyself as Thy Neighbor”.  Peace to All on Earth!
~Donna

Dear Students:
I appreciate Marshall Rosenberg the creator of Nonviolent Communication, A Language of Life, much like I appreciate Moshe Feldenkrais. Both men gave us life changing methods that when practiced can lead to inner & outer peace.

Dr. Rosenberg taught people how to empathically listen because he knew that without heartfelt connections, conflicts could not be resolved. He said, “You see if we are using nonviolent communication and we learn how to empathically connect with what is going on in other people at any given moment, the other person cannot not communicate with us.  Because even silence is a very loud powerful message.”

Marshall explains more in the video above, about how he empathically connected with a young woman who was too afraid to speak to him.  He kept feeling “what was alive in her” during her silence and in a fifth session she was able to awkwardly give him a written message.  Because his patience & loving manner reached her heart a healing relationship began. 

Dr. Rosenberg’s Definition of Violent Communication: judging others, bullying, having racial bias, blaming, finger pointing, discriminating, speaking without listening, criticizing others or ourselves, name-calling, reacting when angry, using political rhetoric, being defensive or judging who’s “good/bad” or what’s “right/wrong” with people; ~Nonviolent Communication, a Language of Life, back cover.

In the other video (below), Rosenberg is interviewed and shares on topics ranging from how he created A Language of Life, to his vision for creating peaceful societies.  Enjoy reading some intriguing quotes that came directly from the interview.

Dr. Rosenberg’s Inspiration: “I wanted to look for people who were educated in a way that helped them to enjoy giving to other people no matter what the people around them were doing. And it was from studying such people that I saw that they used a different language than the one I had been educated to use.   They used a language of life, a language that helped them connect the life that was going on in themselves & other people.” . .

Marshall Rosenberg’s View on Domination Structures: “So for example if you want to have domination you need to teach people to think in moralistic concepts such as: right/wrong, good/bad, normal/abnormal and teach them that the authorities know which of those words is which – so who’s good, who’s evil, who’s right, who’s wrong.  So you shape peoples’ mentality that way and then they make good little boys & girls and good little citizens in domination structures.” 

Dr. Rosenberg’s Vision: “So what we really need are to create structures that support life rather than create this division to begin with.  So yes, until we get those structures in place we do need to do a lot of reconciliation work.  But we’re interested in primary prevention which means radically transforming the domination structures on our planet.  A domination structure being defined as a government where a few people dominate many for their own advantages.” 

Marshall Rosenberg on Restorative Justice: “Restorative Justice is a very radical concept because it means instead of punishing people we need to look at crime in a total context, a total community context, and we need to get the victim & the perpetrator & the community all involved in a healing and restoration of things to a place that is good for everybody.  And to be conscious that punishing a person is just going to make a society worse.”  

May this post & last month’s post help you learn better ways to relate to yourself & others throughout the holiday season.  Peace to all on Earth!
~Donna