A Feldenkrais Blog

Can the Feldenkais Method  help Attention Deficit Disorder, Compulsive Behaviors, Anxiety, Emotional and Mental States of Mind?

The answer is yes when one explores Feldenkrais, over time.  What most people don’t realize is that the Feldenkrais Method is largely about growing the plasticity of the brain. Moshe Feldenkrais was most interested in helping people become flexible in mind.  He is famous for saying, “What I’m after isn’t flexible bodies, but flexible brains. What I’m after is to restore each person to their human dignity. ”

Dr. Feldenkrais understood that an effective way to change the message patterns in the brain is through movement. Knowing that in order to move, the brain has to send nerve impulses to the muscles, he used movement as a vehicle to change peoples’ thought processes for the better.  By increasing one’s movement repertoire, one can experience broader behavioral responses; opened emotional avenues; increased mental clarity; lengthened attention spans; lower anxiety levels; etc.

Moshe Feldenkais used movement as a way for people to become aware of themselves physically, behaviorally, environmentally, emotionally and mentally.  He said, “I believe that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality. They are not just parts somehow related to each other, but an inseparable whole while functioning. A brain without a body could not think.”

This is why I love the Feldenkrais Method so much. When I work with people I love seeing them change not only physically, but in so many other ways.  Most of my students come to me because they want to free themselves of physical pain, the ones that stay, stay because they grow as a person in all areas of their lives.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  I will be teaching my classes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Saturday after!  I hope to see you there!

Donna

Hi Students!
People ask me all the time if Feldenkrais can help them with… (fill in the blank).  Today I would like to begin answering some frequent questions that I am asked.  If there are any learning experiences that any of you would like to share with others on this blog, please let me know and I will include it next time.

Can Feldenkrais help reduce the occurrences of Migraine Headaches?
I will answer this from my own personal experience.  In my twenties, I used to get migraines whenever I became stressed out.   Luckily, I started to get trained to become a Feldenkrais Practitioner when I was 28 years old, and this was the beginning of helping myself.  Through the Feldenkrais Method, I discovered that the way I held my head to the right side was a major contributing factor to my migraines.  I also learned that my right eye was my dominant eye as well as the eye that I could see more clearly out of.  Because I used this eye more it made me side bend my head to the side most of time.  When I became tired; tried too hard; or was over stressed; this pattern would intensify.  And this is when I would get a migraine.

Continue reading Feldenkrais Experiences

“When we have relieved all the unnecessary tensions (that have been built up in the course of develpment as the only means of reacting to the environment available at that time, that have become useless at present), we can obtain a better and easier comportment.  Thus, if we eliminate from standing all that is extraneous to it such as standing manly, femininely, authoritatively, nicely, efficiently, arrogantly, proudly, or meekly and all the other cross motivations that we cultivate in childhood and adolescence with such wholehearted conviction of doing right, there remains standing as dictated by the structure of the body and its nervous mechanisms.  A stance that is rare, but which we are all capable.”  ~ Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

I chose to share this quote from The Potent Self,  because I thought the timing was appropriate since we all put away our masks and costumes from Halloween.  I think it is easier to feel how our stance and posture changes when we put on a costume and assume a character than it is to feel the stances we live with everyday.  As Moshe Feldenkrais states above, once we can recognise how we stand and the cross motivations that fuel it we can than give it up.  Coming to this place of self awareness can lead to letting go of alot of physical and emotional pain which will allow for greater ease of functioning.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Thank you for choosing me to share this wonderful method with you.

Donna