Part 2: Soften achy hands and forearms, 32 min
This lesson continues the movement of the fingers in relation to the arms and upper back. It's remarkable how small changes in the sequence and orientation of the fingers, palm, and wrist change how we use the bigger muscles of the back.
(From More light, easy arms in the FeldenkraisTREASURY.)
Thought for August 1: who needs connection anyway?
Some years ago, after a significant personal upheaval, I taught a series of workshops over the course of a year called Falling in Love with Your Life as a way of reclaiming what was important to me and finding the ground after everything was destabilized and upside-down (sound familiar?).
Here is the comment I wrote about these workshops, which is a propos of these times, and any time:
Where do you want movement to take you?
It's not the act of moving that we want to improve, it's what we get from it: More ease, more efficiency, more power, less pain, less anxiety, better relationships, fewer barriers, more acceptance, more smiles, less contraction, more openness, more responsiveness, more uprightness, more momentum, more breath.
Sometimes we start to doubt, wobble, contract, and hold back. Or maybe it's a lifetime of contracting and holding back.
Practicing openness through movement enables us to stay open, yield, be present, and safely move to the edge of our comfort zone where we can expand our sense of who we are.
We have the possibility for connection, but we have to feel it. If we don't feel it, we don't have it. You can tell when someone is not connected to themselves internally. We feel the absence of it.
Whether it's moving through an injury, a relationship, retirement, or other life change, these lessons facilitate the openness to:
fall in love
trust yourself
listen to yourself
open to yourself
act on your potential
overcome crippling beliefs
change the status quo
let go
find creativity in chaos
face conflict
work with resistance
reclaim your center
All of Feldenkrais is about comparing how, where, and when you feel connected and, conversely, where you feel resistance. If we don’t know how to feel this comparison in ourselves, our life dims down to a mere flicker of aliveness.
This is vital, life-saving self-awareness. It's your connection, your world, your environment you live in.
Falling in love with your life means noticing and melting away resistance. Then you can once again feel ease, spaciousness, and connection.
If only the world would turn right-side up!
* * *
And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with love like that.
It lights up the sky.
― Hafez
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