Body Wise*

By Kim Cottrell

To learn more
about the
Feldenkrais Method®,
go to www.feldenkraisguild.com.

To learn more about
the way Kim Cottrell Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner incorporates the Feldenkrais work into her practice, go to www.kimcottrell.com.

*The information contained herein is not intended to diagnose or treat ANY medical condition.

Part One:
The Feldenkrais Method

You think aching and suffering are inevitable as you age. You can’t remember a day when you didn’t have persistent pain. You wonder why life isn’t sweeter but there’s nothing obviously wrong. You think you have no choices. Then, you find a Feldenkrais® practitioner.

You might have heard about the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education from a friend, been to a workshop, or read about it online. Those who seek this method are curious about their own well-being and take an active role in creating the shape of their future.

The Feldenkrais Method® is an educational work, you learn about your habits and compulsions. It is an awareness process that increases your ability to notice differences and make distinctions about what feels good and what doesn’t. You have the opportunity to learn to live with less effort and greater satisfaction.

Using The Feldenkrias Method® is an interactive process. Together, you and your Feldenkrais® practitioner explore your patterns of moving to find what is possible and what is under-utilized. This is not exercise, but you will see that the basic principles of increasing awareness of learning how to learn will affect all the activities you enjoy.

Every year, I teach a walking workshop in England based on the Feldenkrais® work. Every year, we begin by talking about and exploring the activity of walking using movement lessons called Awareness Through Movement®. Every year someone says, “Hey, this isn’t only about the way we’re moving, this is also about the way we’re thinking.”

Practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method® believe that the way you move influences the way you think and the way you think influences the way you move. You must have a flow of communication between thoughts, feelings, and actions. When these are in harmony and congruity, you experience a cohesive sense of self. If there is conflict between thoughts, feelings, or actions, you likely feel conflict with how you perceive yourself.

A few years ago, Dorothy admitted her trepidation about being at the workshop. There at the suggestion of a friend, she was wary of back spasms that came on without warning. But, she dutifully followed instructions and put her leg into the air with the sole of her foot facing the ceiling as the instruction called for. And she held her breath.

I could see her discomfort, so I gently took hold of her foot and waited. I asked her to sense the work of keeping her leg in the air and to notice that she wasn’t breathing. She was able to release some of the effort and we waited. I held her foot, she breathed, and we waited some more. More of the effort was released. She carried on in that way until her leg was in the air simply and with ease.

The next day, she reported that she had had a spasm in the middle of the night. But, rather than get up and take medication or go through her elaborate series of stretches, she stayed in bed and listened to her back and her neck. She realized she had a huge tension in her neck. As she noticed and waited, some of the tension began to slip away. She continued on in this way and at some point the spasm went away and she went back to sleep.

Like Dorothy, you bring your story and your questions, but not necessarily about your physical pain, sometimes it’s grief for a lost loved one, or dissatisfaction with relationships. But, you come willing to take a second and a third look and to get familiar with the anatomy of your emotional and physical habits.

At the end of the workshop, Dorothy wrote, “Thank you for opening up my limbs, my thoughts, and my everyday living to the idea of is there another way of doing this? And, even an easier way of getting there?”

Note: This is part one of a two- part series about the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education. Part two describes the different between Functional Integration® and Awareness Through Movement®, the major modalities of the Feldenkrais® work.