Lengthen the side with breath
This morning I read an article in the NYT: Stress can make you sick. Well, we know this already.
The recommendations of Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, a UK doctor who’s written many books, include lifestyle changes like controlled breathing exercises and a calming 15-minute morning routine. These are all good. I would add incorporating at least 15 minutes of Feldenkrais into your morning.
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I was talking to my students today and found myself repeating my favorite saying, “When we feel supported, then we can let go.” This is true in our emotions, relationships, finances, friendships, everywhere.
Feldenkrais helps us distinguish between true support and pretend support where we are still holding and bracing. Through sensing, we learn, over and over again what it’s like to trust a little more each time.
Along similar lines, this week I found myself talking to a friend who recently went through a post-divorce seminar. He told me how surprised he was that many women in the group wanted only to be in a relationship that was not abusive.
This reminded me how Feldenkrais helps us listen to ourselves so we can make clearer, more refined distinctions about what nourishes us and what brings us stress. This can be a life-saving, life-enriching skill.
As we get better at it, we can distinguish on ever deeper levels between nourishing and stressful relationships, jobs, and lifestyles.
Toward that end, try this lesson on the breath, mainly because I have been through the roof with stress myself this week and I’m still feeling sluggish, lumbering, and a little absorbed by this beastly thing.
I’m enjoying the calming effects of doing almost nothing but sensing the breath and trusting that the next one will come.
This lesson oddly relieves a lot of tension in the ribs and upper chest, helping me stand more upright and live more securely on my bones, no matter what my state.
More lessons:
This lesson is from the Breathing and calming section of the Feldenkrais Treasury.
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Quote of the week:
“It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.”