Witnessing the work with mothers and babies during the Child’space training in Palermo recently was such a pleasure. My knowledge of children’s songs came in useful, and I can now sing “If you’re happy and you know it” in Italian. Interestingly the tune is a little different to ours! Music plays a big part in Child’space, and we can use songs to calm and soothe babies, just as we can use music to self soothe ourselves as adults.
Watching a baby come up to stand alone for the first time without support, was one of the many beautiful moments, along with seeing the wisdom in our Feldenkrais learning touch. Not teaching by correction, but teaching by exploring options. Helping us feel ourselves better so we can move better. And why should it be any different for a baby. A baby who is helped to feel how s/he can side sit to both sides, not just one, is a child who’ll be able to use that movement to both side to come up to crawl, and stand. Our preferences start early in life after all!
Today I was working with a client, and at the end of the lesson, she had a completely different self-image of her pelvis and the connection to the spine. I know this because at the end of the lesson she sat down and got up completely differently to the start of the lesson. In the beginning she hinged from the low back, above the pelvis. By the end, she hinged her pelvis from the hip joints, rather than the lumbar spine. A different sensation of herself allowed her to move more anatomically, more skeletally. And as she said, much more easily!
It doesn’t take so long to make a change if we’re ready for it and can clearly feel it!
Children are generally faster at taking on new shifts of course. So whilst that new self-image might fade a little before our next session, the next time we work together it will be faster to find, and take longer to leave. Over time, we can incorporate more options and movements into our usual palette of movement. Along with that, we’ll expand the way we think of ourselves, and increase self- trust: we can learn something new in another realm.
the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter 