In this workshop, we learn how to effectively develop our core strength. No, I am not talking about sit ups. Sit ups are not a very efficient way of developing your core. Too often sit ups result in pushing the belly out. Don't get me started on harm it can cause to our pelvic floors!
Dr. Feldenkrais developed many "clock" lessons. The Body Clocks Workshop focuses on three areas of your core: upper, middle and lower torso. If you would like to join me in this process of expending less effort to make maximum changes, please come to the workshop this month.
The Body Clocks Workshop is divided into three parts with two 5-10 minute breaks in between them. Each part will include some walking and discussion. We will be lying on our backs with knees bent for most of the lessons. Some lifting of the pelvis from the floor is required.
Organize and use your head, spine and the muscles of the upper abdominals in a whole new way. Find out how your spine benefits from paying attention to movements from strong to delicate.
Learn to use the middle of your torso, often known to other exercise modalities classically as "the core." Learn what areas of the body to soften and which to engage to whittle your middle! Notice the improvement in your posture.
This is a different take on the classic Feldenkrais lesson called the Pelvic Clock. We will use two unlikely areas of the body to direct the movements of our hips. The answer is two of the following: eyes, ears, noses, arms, legs, feet. Can you guess? Come find out the answer!
Our most basic self-image is a stick figure with five lines: one spine, two arms and two legs--light and simple. Children learn to draw this at an early age. Historically, cave petroglyphs are stick figures. What is the effect of somatically sensing yourself in this way? Is it a vacation from defining ourselves by our physical deficiencies or imperfections? You bet!
This workshop is about discovering a lightness in yourself: in your posture and in your movements. We will draw from the primary image lessons Dr. Feldenkrais developed. They emphasize two aspects of the Feldenkrais Method: 1) moving with skeletal integrity and 2) developing a more finely tuned self image--beyond your body.
Think: Moving Meditation. We will be in various positions (mostly on our backs) making connections through arms, shoulders, legs, hips, spine and head through the five lines of the body.
Come explore applying your mind and imagination to your movement. You won't be the same.
Props: A blanket or mat to lie on.
This workshop is divided into three parts with two 5-10 minute breaks in between them.
Susan gave a free, introductory, hour-long talk to 30 people about the Feldenkrais method at the Sauvie Island Grange Hall, Portland, Oregon. The participants learned how to rise from sitting gracefully & effortlessly!
The Feldenkrais Training Academy begins October 2018 in Seattle—attend this workshop to see what it's like to be in the training!
Hands-on sessions with Educational Director Jeff Haller. Observers welcome!
A free introductory talk about the Feldenkrais Method and this new innovative training. Refreshments provided!
You’ll experience Awareness Through Movement® group classes, watch demonstrations of Functional Integration lessons and practice your own hands-on work, learn some of the principles of the Feldenkrais Method, meet our staff, and more.
Being a Feldenkrais practitioner can be the most rewarding work you’ll ever do—fascinating, challenging, and fulfilling. Imagine helping people live their lives more fully, comfortably, and with renewed vigor. This weekend is ideal for you if:
We’ll focus on:
Limited Functional Integration sessions with Jeff are offered on Friday, June 22 for $150 USD. Contact us to schedule an appointment; priority goes to those seriously considering attending the Feldenkrais Training Academy.
Coming from out of town? Lodging available at The Movement Center!
Feldenkrais practitioners: Have students who are interested in the Feldenkrais Training Academy? Please contact us! We'd love to discuss your students, and will offer you a discount to this pre-training workshop if you both attend.
Learn more about the Feldenkrais Training Academy, where you'll train to become a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner with the confidence and competence to build a successful practice in the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education.
Cost includes 10% nonrefundable deposit.
Notes:
| Date | June 22, 2018 - June 24, 2018 |
| Time | Friday 9:30am-5pm: Functional Integration One-on-One Sessions Friday 6:30-8:30pm: Free Gathering & Talk Saturday 10am-5pm: Pre-Training Workshop Sunday 10am-3pm: Pre-Training Workshop |
| Location | The Movement Center 1021 NE 33rd Ave Portland, OR Map |
| Instructor(s) | Jeff Haller & Dwight Pargee |
| On-site Coordinator | Susan Marshall |
So there you are doing your best to have good standing and walking posture, and out of nowhere, this uneven piece of concrete simply attacked you! (Of course, that is how it appeared, or with wishful thinking, how it really was.) You end up facedown with a twisted ankle or bruised ego, withstanding friend’s ironic comments of “Walk much?” or unwanted solicitations of strangers “Are you okay?!!”
Most of the time we are just not in touch with our environment. We don’t even need cell phones as a prop, really. The growing amount of data thrown at us in our daily lives is just overwhelming. Our minds are pre-occupied with things other than where we are in the moment. We don’t have a sense of where we are in space.
Most of us are on auto-pilot. Unless we walk or drive home in the same way every day, we may remember a smidgen of that journey. Our brains luckily fill in most of the gaps in our momentary awareness and concentration so that we don’t die even younger than we do!
There is a great story about Dr. Feldenkrais at a cocktail party in post-war London. He cultivated a keen awareness of his body and balance. In one hand he had a wine glass, in another the plate of hor d’oerves. In the middle of an engaged conversation, he proceeded to sit on a chair that had, unbeknownst to him, a broken leg. As soon as he sat down on the chair seat, the chair gave way.
Without missing a breath or spilling any wine or food, or dropping to the floor, Moshe simply stood back up, and continued making his point. This was despite a disability in one of his knees from an old soccer injury. His fluid movements were a testimony to his awareness of where he was in space at all times. Others around him were duly impressed to say the least. He understood on a somatic level how to bend and straighten his back and how to achieve an “unstable” balance using all the joints of his human skeleton (including his ankles and feet!).
We will use those same principles to learn a way of coming up off of the ground or floor after you have fallen. In addition, we will cultivate a familiarity with balancing on many surfaces of the body. Understanding and experiencing the mechanics of the human body will put you in a position to fall less often and to recover from falling easier. Simply put—you will learn to be aware of where you are in space.
Did you know that human beings have one of the smallest base-to-height ratios in the animal kingdom? To balance on a base that is often smaller than one square foot, is a great engineering feat! It’s a good thing our bodies are built this way. Most animals stand and walk on four feet, which provides solid balance. Once children learn to stand and walk, they almost never go back to crawling on hands and knees as a mode of operation.
One thought in human evolution is that when we lived in trees, we were at risk for falling all the time, from babyhood on up. Think of the old lullaby:
Rock a bye baby in the treetops.
When the wind blows the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and
Down will come baby, cradle and all!
Today it’s a different story. Being ready to or knowing how to fall is not something that we do instinctively. We assume cuts and scrapes and bumps and bruises are part of the deal as we grow up. But do we ever really learn how to live without fear of falling? Our posture often reflects how well we have learned, retained or recovered the ability to balance on two feet without fear.
As adults our posture reflects the sum of our experiences. We end up in some sort of half-ready, half-unsteady posture that we see today in many adults: head forward and down, shoulders hunched, lower back stiffly over or under arched. Most people use their arms and hands to steady themselves instead of relying on the more mechanically sound legs and feet.
Our brains generalize the inefficient learning to our mental outlook and emotional attitude. We guard even more against other kinds of falling or “failing.” From our head being oriented down, we no longer engage our present circumstance accurately. Instead we rely on our past experience and don’t trust ourselves to try new approaches. Even our ability to “fall in love” suffers!
Knowing where we are in space is key to overcoming the fear of falling. Once we somatically understand how to fall, we no longer need to be constantly in a half falling posture. We can stand erect, ready to engage our life as it exists today.
Come to this workshop to begin to change your every day posture. It may even change your life!
Dr. Feldenkrais was known for saying repeatedly: “It’s all about the pelvis!”
In addition to being the seat that life springs from, the pelvis is shaped to allow our spine and legs to balance us as we move. When our pelvis does not move freely, our movements culminate in pain from our “efforting” unnecessarily. That pain can be expressed anywhere in our body! Simply put, we exhaust ourselves for no good reason. But when our pelvis moves well, our spine expresses fluidity, we roll the top of our femur leg bones all around the inside of the hip sockets of the pelvis which sends a message to our knees and ankles to roll a little as well. The result is a feeling of freedom and ease.
Can you restore healthy hip movements? Absolutely! In this workshop, we will review the physical mechanics of the pelvis, explore simple, mindful movements, then use our nervous system the Feldenkrais way to establish those new movements as the new “normal.”
of The Brain's Way of Healing
After being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease over 30 years ago, John Pepper, now 81 years old, has successfully managed his PD symptoms without medication for over 9 years!
NY Times best selling author, Norman Doidge, MD, of The Brain’s Way of Healing (2015), devoted Chapter 2 of his book to John Pepper’s story: “A Man Walks Off His Parkinsonian Symptoms. How Exercise Helps Fend Off Degenerative Disorders and Can Defer Dementia.”
John met with over 70 people at two events sponsored by the Feldenkrais Center of Portland in Portland, OR on September 23, 2016 to share and teach his Conscious Walking Technique. Thank you John!
- See more about John in this YouTube video.
- Learn how the Feldenkrais Method and Conscious Walking work together in this article.
- Read how the Feldenkrais Method helps with Parkinson's symptoms in this article.
Feldenkrais Guild of North America (FGNA) Booth
Thank you Rae Mullin!
Feldenkrais Center of Portland Booth
Thank you Kerns Neighborhood Association!