Friday, January 23, 2009

The miracle of Feldenkrais

We had to make tracking moves on our partner’s knees – picking them up and rotating them outwards, at their comfort, and the work on applying pressure into the pelvis. S made corrections on what I was doing with D, by showing what he wanted to happen on me. After D and I had done this and swapped, we were asked to stand up and walk around and consider how it all felt. For the first time ever, I had sensory perception in my calves and feet. It felt wonderful.

We had a brief break and then worked individually doing work on our pelvis and knee joints it seemed to go on for a long time and involved putting one leg in the bent supporting knee and the other leg wondering where it wanted, and eventually through the hole of the supporting leg. We swapped working legs and the repeated and included a raised arm (on the floor) position, and were asked to reach toward this, which involved a more dynamic pelvic position.

All this seemed to go on a very long time, despite a break in the middle were S made further demonstrations using J. Finally we were asked to stand up and work in our partners again and then stand up and wonder around the room. We were asked how it felt. I said I felt “amazing” and then when he asked the rest of the group I said I was OK. What felt extraordinary was that for the first time in my life ever, I was out of my hypermobility in my legs. I had full sensation in my lower limbs in a way I had never felt before. My pelvis was in neutral and I felt in a straight line. I was no longer going to be held back in life, as S said.

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After the session I felt superhumanly exhausted, and wanted to sleep, but had to eat, as was hungry, then had Seminar. I also wanted to dance and try out my new legs. When I tried a bit, my balance was different, and my whole legs felt different. I will have to go carefully to start with and see how I get on. I was dying to tell T and K about this. I will see what happens in Technique class first! I feel so happy and positive.



In Moshe Feldenkrais’s words, “You can’t do what you want ‘til you know what you are doing, and most of us don’t know what we are doing” (Feldenkrais, 1980) (Fitt, 1996, p.325).

P326 What it does, in movement, is to provide experiences whereby bodily information about movement patterns and habits gradually surfaces to allow examination and choice. It offers the sensorium a menu of beautiful little actions which allow the body to self-correct. (Fitt, 1996, p.326).

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