the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter

In the Feldenkrais Method if awareness is King, the skeleton is the Queen. In every lesson, we keep part of our focus on the skeletal system. It does so much for us. Just some of them:

• It holds us up against gravity.
• Without gravity, we probably wouldn’t have a skeleton.
• The skeleton is our structure.
• It’s strong, though flexible and long lasting – bones can last for thousands of years.
• And despite many myths, they’re not dry bones in the living body, but full of life. Bones make bone cells, but also platelets, and red and white blood cells. Fundamental to many areas of our functioning.

I was excited to come across a recent article, that tells us of newer research on bones. It seems they’re even more than we thought they were. Scientists have found that the skeleton is also in constant communication with other parts of the body. Including the brain, muscle and fat tissue, the kidneys and gut microbiome. It seems these conversations allow the bone to respond in the moment to what’s happening in the rest of you. For example, this molecular communication can ask the skeleton to grow or stop growing. Some hormones affect bone growth, and other bone-y proteins help to regulate blood sugar! The same protein can aid male fertility, aid learning and memory, and even boost muscle function and growth! Given how hard they’re working, it’s perhaps not too much to ask for us to bring them into our self image a little more!

The skeletal system is one of the easiest for us to visualise. We can all learn to imagine and feel the bones inside us. And when we can, it allows us to move ourselves with greater efficiency. To sense ourselves more completely.

This month my weekly lessons are around freeing the back. We’re exploring developmental movements to reawaken your back’s ability to move with ease. In childhood these movements are to prepare you for walking. Coming back around to some of them as adults re-awakens your brain-back connection. So that it’s easier to move in all directions.