A Feldenkrais Blog

Dear Students:
Creating choice in life begins with awareness.  As a Feldenkrais Practitioner I love teaching people how to become aware through the vehicle of movement so they can enhance their options on many levels.

“Choice....when you distinguish, discern, from one movement to the other, ........then we are able to say, “now I know that I have two possibilities.” ~Moshe Feldenkrais at Alexander Yanai;

When I was practicing in San Francisco, a perplexed student came to me wondering how she ended up with debilitating back pain at the age of twenty-five.  Years earlier she was involved in sports and was still physically active when this happened.  I learned about her history and her story unfolded. She had a well paying job that she resented and in order to get through each work day she had to act in a counter-intuitive way.  She realized that she started clenching her teeth shortly after being hired and her jaw problems progressively got worse throughout the years.

“Habits are not choice, but rather habit.  By themselves, they are fixed.  You do not have a choice.” ......“And afterward, these habits demand their right to appear so we lose the free will of acting.  This means we lose our human image.”  ~Moshe Feldenkrais teaching at Alexander Yanai;

The day her back “went out” she had an argument with her boyfriend and because dinner guests were about to arrive she “held back her words”.  Her state of mind exasperated her stress and when she reached for plates to set the table, her muscles could not lengthen on demand, as they usually could.  She dropped some dishes and soon after discovered the Feldenkrais Method.  Today she is grateful for that moment and came to understand how she generated the perfect storm that resulted in painful muscles.

“And, in life, in the creativity of a person, with his intellect, with his heart, with the understanding in the heart and wisdom in the intellect, it is not what you do, but how you do it.” ~Moshe Feldenkrais teaching at Alexander Yanai;

While teaching this student, I asked her questions such as, “how do you hold back your words” so she could feel how it effected her physically, emotionally and behaviorally. As her awareness and movement improved I pointed out her differences so she could learn from them.  The last time she emailed me, she was proud to tell me that she found a job that suited her better and was learning how to speak her truth. She came to see that her back pain came from the contrary way she was living her life and it inspired her to slowly make internal & external changes.   

Stories of growth like this one make me grateful to be able to share this method with you through Awareness Through Movement classes, workshops and Functional Integration sessions.  May I see you soon exploring through movement!
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Whenever students inquire about the mind/body connection and how it relates to Feldenkrais, I try to explain it in the simplest way.  Every emotional response and behavior is expressed as a movement pattern within each of us. Each individual uniquely organizes themselves in a different way of being.

What I went through recently, is a good example of what I wish to convey.  I have been getting ready for three years, to stand up for my rights before an authority figure.  All of my life, I have cowered to people in such positions. This time, I decided to face each challenge thrown at me from a man or woman in power, and as a result, I have gone through a major self-image change.  First I had to be able to imagine embarking on this endeavor before I could actually carry it out.

I did not want to have to stand before a “man in a black robe”, so I went through every course of action I could think of, to prevent such an occasion from occurring.  Each time, I came to a dead end.  Through all the avenues I took, I gained confidence in myself until the actual time came to stand my ground.

This transformation from being a victim to being one in power, blossomed due to the Feldenkrais method and to a strong and steady support system of comrades and teachers.  Without these factors I would not have been able to change so quickly.

Right before I was to present my case before a mediator, I began to doubt my abilities.  I created havoc within myself as fear of the approaching moment overwhelmed me.  I woke up, less than a week before I was going to make my stance, with shooting pain running down my right leg so badly that I could not put weight upon it or straighten up.  The pain was so great that it literally took by breath away.

Immediately, I started doing Feldenkrais lessons multiple times a day to ease the tension in my muscles thus created from my emotional state of mind.  And because I understood that wavering got me into this condition, I began surrounding myself with people that believed in me.  My family & friends enveloped me with love and built my confidence up so as the day approached my pain lessened.

On the day of presenting, I stood on both legs without pain, for 25 minutes and fought for what was righteous and just.  In the end, the man before me did not uphold my rights and I believe it was because he could not change his self-image in such a short period of time without a needed support system.

I picture that during his career, he got into the habit of ruling, and got used to people bowing before him.  And then I came along and convened the lawful side of the court and asked him to change his hat to that of a public servant. Through my words and actions I required him to honor me as a lawful woman, and asked to let “we the people” make a decision instead of him.

I watched him try to take on this role that was probably never requested of him during his entire time behind the bench. Unfortunately his anger over took him and won out as he dismissed my case.  I gain solace in knowing that on some level he is processing and integrating the lesson I offered him.  Maybe he will use that information for the better of our society.

I feel my victory was not only an internal belief in myself but an external belief that I opened the door to the lawful side of the court for many to walk through in the days to come.  And I shone a light on a man and his legal staff, and revealed that their true responsibilities are to hold up moral laws and not allow harm to be done to any member of mankind. 

I, will continue to walk this path until “We the People’s” voices are heard! May each of our steps land with more and more confidence along the way.
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Hi Students:
On one of hottest days this summer, I decided to trek along a creek so I could cool off in the water along the way.  To my surprise when I got to one of my favorite water holes, no one was there.  Since it is usually occupied, I quickly entered the water to enjoy it all to myself.  With glee, I swam back and forth while soaking up the energy from the water fall.  I doggy paddled and floated on my back for some time before an Amish family interrupted my solitude and I courteously let them have their turn.

This was when I realized, this was my first encounter with people on this steamy day.  Except for winter, this particular trail attracts lots of folks, but this time I believe air conditioning kept them away. Because I keep my windows open in the summer time like the Amish, we were the few that took advantage of the cool stream that afternoon.

Living without modern conveniences not only give me rare opportunities like this one but it allows me to enhance my well being in variety of different ways on a daily basis.  For instance in the sultry weather, I move slower, sweat more, eat less and crave more liquids and fruits that help me thrive in the heat.  I sleep less as I retire and rise with the sun. I can predict more accurately when a new day will bring rain or shine, warmer or cooler temperatures, and/or more or less humidity. 

I find that nature is talking all the time and the more time I spend with her the better I understand what she is saying. Earth’s natural cycles help me tune into my own rhythms more accurately so I can sense better what it is I need each moment in life.

What lessons do you think will appear in your life by simply opening your windows for a day or two? You may discover that living in artificial environments can rob you of the abilities to internally sense what it is you need to enrich your health, if you let it. 

With that said, I end with a thought for you to contemplate upon:  when is modern technology a convenience and when does it become an inconvenience?
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Because of the excessive pollen in the air and the way I tend to habitually tilt my head, I have learned some valuable lessons this Spring. My right sinus has given me reason to learn to perceive more clearly, the relationship between my head and vertebral column.  When I am not aware of how I move my upper body, my volatile nostril can become clogged with the exorbitant particles in the atmosphere. As a result, I have been exploring Feldenkrais lessons that help my skull find it’s central axis.  When I can better sense where my head is in space my right sinus can drain naturally. 

Since it is such a wonderful feeling to relieve the sinuses when they are stopped up, I want to share a short Awareness Through Movement lesson with you. This may help you find a more true center so your sinuses can remain happy this summer.  Always remember to move with ease and not force yourself at any time while moving during this lesson:

1. 1) Lie down on a mat in prone position. Turn your head towards the more comfortable direction for the side of your face to rest on the floor.  Place the arm you can see, bent in front of you on the floor.  Place the other arm downwards towards your side. (Refer to the photo above)
   2) Gently slide your head a little bit forward so your face moves closer to your armpit, and then return.  Do this movement smoothly a few times.  Sense if you return to the same resting spot each time or to a slightly different place.
   3) Lightly slide the back of your head towards the shoulder behind you (the one you can’t see) and return.  Each time pause at rest, to discover where your head is in relation to your spine. 
   4) Rest on your back and roll your head to feel the quality of your head roll.  Do you roll with less effort in one direction than the other?
   5) Return to prone position and rest your head in the same manner as before.  Interlace your hands and place them on top of the side of your face that is closest to the ceiling. Let your elbows rest on the floor. 
   6) Bend your knees at a 90 degree angle so your feet are facing the ceiling.  Let your knees and feet be comfortably apart.
   7) Gently move your feet a little to the left and right of your midline.  Notice if you go further in one direction than the other.  See if you can move your feet the same distant to the left and right of the middle of your vertebrae. Notice how you roll your pelvis-does it remind you of a steering wheel?  Sense the turning of the pelvis going up through your vertebral column towards your skull.  How many vertebrae can you sense turning? 
   8) Rest on your back and roll your head.  What part of the back of your head do you roll on?  Has it changed?
   9) Simply explore the same movements on the other side. 
   10) After resting on your back, slowly come to standing and sense where your head and eyes are in relation to the horizon. Turn your head a small amount to the left and right as if to say “no”. Notice where your head is in relation to the central axis.

Click here to read a previous post and find out about other valuable ways to keep your sinuses flowing. Enjoy the summer and don’t let the pollen stop you from smelling the flowers!
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Through a desire to learn and a willingness to keep trying, I have found that it is mostly inevitable for dedicated Feldenkrais students to experience beneficial changes to their well being. This is because when students learn how to become aware of unattended parts of themselves, a more accurate self picture can emerge.

“We act, not as our body is, but what we feel of it.  If I feel I can do it, I say, “Yes, I can.” You judge, not what the body can do, - you can learn to do it, probably - you, in fact, judge yourself by what you feel you can do.  That means, by the image you make to yourself of your own body.  We react after the image of our own body.” ~Moshe Feldenkrais, 1974 London, England workshop

Because the process of becoming awake, can be uniquely subtle at times, it is common for improvements to go unrecognized.  Since a sign of health is to forget past struggles, I would like to help you see your growth.  A suggestion is to reflex upon where and what you were like at this time last year.  Questions such as the following can help you notice your progress physically, emotionally and/or mentally along your Feldenkrais journey:

• How did you feel about yourself and your life situation a year ago?
  Are you planning on doing anything that you would not have imagined doing last summer? 
  Do people around you react differently to you than in the past?  Are their comments different in some way?
  Did you forget about an ache or a pain?  Did it prevent you from doing what you wanted to do last year?

  For me, I see my growth in the form of a garden.  I always dreamed of creating a garden when I lived in San Francisco but never had the opportunity to do so.  It has taken years to bring this dream to fruition because I was not sure I could make it happen without being a home owner. 

  It all started with a thought and active small steps. My first concrete action was cultivating herbs in pots when I moved back to Lancaster.  This led to growing sun flowers in front of my previous apartment that turned into planting wild flowers around my brothers’ cedar tree.  And this weekend, I turned over this small and loved garden that you can see in the photos, due to my persistent desire to make it all happen!  May you get one step closer to turning your thoughts & dreams into reality this summer!
  ~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Clear evidence of the intelligence of mankind’s neurological system can be observed in the many faceted ways we use our hands.  I marvel at the fact that if the hands can function in their many capable ways, a person can create more easily, a healthy state of mind and body. This is due to the fact that a large part of the brain is dedicated to controlling the many intricate tasks we so often do with our fingers and thumbs.  If the brain is constantly growing and changing our being will reflect that.    

Think about the gymnast that can walk on her hands and then grasp a bar just enough, to swing and release from it at her command.  And of an artist painting with a brush or shaping a piece of clay into a masterpiece.  And finally visualize, a lady that can scrub a bathtub and moments later, thread a needle, and then pull weeds from her garden.

Now, ponder about how important it is for a man to be able to hammer a nail into a board and afterwards, gently hold a new born baby.  By quickly softening the tension in his palms while holding his little one, he can create a bonding moment.  If not, the baby’s reaction to a harsh touch may rob them both of a paramount experience.

Imagine fully opening and closing your hand and all of the in between shapes and intensities it can become.  I offer you to reflect upon the following questions to help you become aware of how you use your hands through out your day:

1. How lightly can you hold a fork and still have control of it? 
2. Do you hold your toothbrush with the same pressure as you hold a pencil? 
3. Is it possible to apply lotion to yourself as gently as you would to a child? 
4. Is it necessary to hold the steering wheel with the tension you habitually choose? 
5. What is the quality of your hands like at rest?  Are your fingers straight in the joints, or more bent towards a fist, or something in between?  Are you doing any unnecessary work in either direction? 

To explore Feldenkrais lessons with your hands sign up soon for my next workshop, Healthy Wrists & Arms on Saturday, May 18 @ 1:30 p.m.  May you discover your intelligence through your functional hands.
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Recently I experienced an example of how mother nature can help keep my mind sharp and body flexible while on a walk around my favorite lake.  On this particular day, I couldn’t tell what time of year it was during the hike. I encountered an ever changing terrain underneath my feet that felt like I was going through all four seasons in a few minutes.   

My stroll began routinely as the moist dirt ahead of me allowed my mind to wander. Quickly, I released my carefree attitude when the soil turned into wet mud and I had to attend to myself.  A few feet later, the sunshine produced unavoidable, swamp like clay that I sunk into so deeply, I nearly left the soles of my sneakers behind.  At this point my brain was focused so when conditions changed again, I laughed with delight at the new habitat the shade created.  I received wildlife’s brilliant way of requiring me to re-organize my walking, like a pleasant gift.  I then let half frozen earth that turned into a sheet of ice refine my awareness.  In that moment, I felt more clearly how my habitual stride had to be left behind so I could bring about a new way of moving.

This is an example of how important it is to be able to re-coordinate movement in an instance.  Interacting with the unpredictable natural world helps to promote this while living in the linear material world does the opposite. 

The most efficient way to move for any situation in life, depends on factors such as environment, state of mind, intention, structure of the body and health.  This is why I remind students that there isn’t one perfect way for everyone to move all of the time. Each moment in life requires a different self-organization so adaptability is the key to feeling good and staying healthy. This walk around the lake on a day when winter was trying to change into spring offered me enriching lessons that I am grateful I was able to accept with jubilation.  May nature’s ways bring you lessons of joy as well.
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Modern society’s mistaken ideas about what one needs to do to achieve “good” standing is usually the culprit, if abided by, that causes it to become faulty.  If you think about how a baby comes to standing without any instructions in the first year of life, it might inspire you to question some of the current notions floating around. 

No one in their right mind would ever tell a toddler to “pull the belly in and stand up straight with shoulders pinched together”.  Instead most people smile when they see a toddler’s round belly and encourage the child to be proud of it.  On an unconscious level one can see when something is beautiful and right!

When you witness a babe master standing and walking you are also witnessing his/her brilliant neurological system creating the posture we are all meant to have.  A vertebral column with all the natural curves allows for dynamic stability and mobility! I hope to see you at my next workshop so you can discover some of this for yourself.
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
Years ago, I pulled a groin muscle in my right leg during a dance class.  I have had many athletic injuries and by far, this injury’s recovery time was the most drawn out for me.  Whenever my leg felt healed, I would move too quickly and pull it again.  Running to catch the bus was my biggest nemesis and this went on for longer than I liked. 

I mention this because recently, I went for a walk in the snow and my right groin muscle talked to me for the first time in ages.  This muscle does not speak to me under other weather conditions. The weight of my boots and snow became a constraint that helped me become aware. Since I had no sensations in my left groin, I figured that I must have been stepping differently with my right leg compared to my left. 

So I started to explore in a Feldenkrais way.  Surely enough, when I slowed down I was able to notice a difference.  Next, I began to experiment.  I made my steps longer, then shorter, then closer to each other and farther apart.  Afterwards, when I walked a normal pace my groin felt fine.  Later, I forgot about it and the snowy constraint helped me realize when I returned to moving in a way that caused me to overwork.  Once again, I leisurely began to investigate by taking a larger stride on one side only and then on the other side only.

In the end, I understood better why I originally pulled this muscle and I am grateful for the winter weather that offered me this lesson.  May you use the environment around you to help you tune into yourself outside of Feldenkrais lessons.
~Donna

F.Y.I.: To get a smart meter removed from your home, to stop the 5G Deployment or to find out about products that can help electromagnetic sensitivity click here.

Dear Students:
A New Year’s wish for me is to continue teaching Feldenkrais and watching all of you grow into your own power. For this to be granted it is imperative that I get this message out about a dire situation that is planned for 2019.  It is called 5G internet and in actuality it means you could end up with a radiating cell antennae in front of your bedroom window this year. The woman in the following video, explains clearly what we are up against.

The installation of “small” cell towers placed in residential areas as close as every 600 feet has begun in Lancaster county.  The “small” cell towers will emit the same amount of radiation as a regular cell tower plus the potential for higher amounts and could be placed as close as 20 feet from a home.  Living with cell antennas up close & personal could cause more sickness and disease than anything we have ever encountered before in history.

Local public officials have been given deadlines from the F.C.C., to create ordinances charting out where “small” cell towers should be installed in their towns. If this is not completed the cell phone companies will be given free reign to place them where ever they want.  This is unlawful and yet is happening all over our country. (For more details listen to an interview I gave after attending my Township’s meeting about their 5G plans.)  

I believe we can defeat the 5G Deployment and this is where another wish comes into play. I imagine our community coming together, to make lasting change happen. Join me on February 2nd for an educational Town Hall meeting so we can Rise Up and save ourselves from this potential health disaster.  The information is on the flyer above. 

 Let’s Rise Up and create a world we want to live and thrive in.  Please pass this on to others to give them the chance to stand up for their health and well being.
~Donna