How clearly can you feel your hands? If you close your eyes can you sense where your hands are in space? Where the skeleton of your fingers, palms and wrist are? Can you feel some of the bones of your hands inside your skin? (Sensing our skeleton, thinking of the skeleton, allows us to move it more ergonomically.)
What if I ask you to do the same of your back? How clear is that in comparison? How many vertebrae of your back can you sense?
We’ve got moveable 26 vertebrae in the spine -7 in the neck, 12 thoracic (rib) vertebrae, and 5 in the low back or lumbar area. Another 5, are fused together to make up the sacrum- the middle part of the pelvis. And finally, below the sacrum, 2-3 in the coccyx, or tailbone.
Most of us have nowhere near the same amount of clarity of the back – which is often why we get into problems. You simply don’t feel ourselves structurally in the back. Which is a problem, as the connectors of the vertebrae join our head (the command centre) with our pelvis (the motor centre). If we don’t feel it clearly, you can’t organise it very well, whether in sitting, standing, or more complex positions.
The spine connects you from the Pelvis to the head, yet the most common way of thinking of it is to divide it into pieces, rather than sensing the whole. When we can feel the skeleton of the back more clearly, where it can move, we can organise that more efficiently. Otherwise it’s like driving a car with your eyes closed.
In your weekly lessons this month, we’ll be putting your back back together again. To sense a more holistic self, in order to use your body more efficiently, and more intelligently.
So join us!
If you’d prefer to work with me individually, please get in touch. We’ll start with either a session (for those ready to jump in), or free consultation, online or by phone.
If you’re specifically interested in improving your anxiety with others, I’ll have a new Reducing Anxiety group course starting on the 2nd of October on Monday evenings online. Get in touch (hit reply) if you’re interested, I’ve already got lots of interest, so there are just 8 places available.
Your first lesson with me is on me. Then you can choose what works best for you: termly, monthly or drop-in.
What’s it like?
Lois coming to her first class recently wrote: “Thank you for the class. I loved it, and looking forward to exploring more as the weeks progress.”
Arlene: a recent Reducing Anxiety group participant:
“Many of the lessons were transformative. We worked with slow, easy movements that can be done even if one is incapacitated. Deep work that changes your body in ways that are surprising. I found I can turn down the volume on my anxiety with movement”
Thank you to those who have offered their feedback for me to share.
Would you like more information before you join? Contact me for a free short discovery consultation
Give me a ring (07939277189), or send me an email.
the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter 