Shoulder problems are one of the common reasons people come to see me. The shoulder joint is a work of art. It’s fixed to the skeleton via the collar bones at the front. And has a large range of fascia and muscles attaching it at the back, sides and front. It’s massive range of movement … More Exploring the Shoulders
One of my colleagues was collecting ideas as to why people don’t like Feldenkrais. One cropped up quite a bit, which I found particularly interesting. “Feldenkrais is too slow”. I know what they mean. I started practising Feldenkrais long before becoming a teacher. There were days where I found it hard to concentrate, hard to … More Slow learning
A question I’m often asked, is why should I do Feldenkrais? Why is it useful? To start to answer that, let’s start with another question. What is health for you? Our modern dictionary definition labels it “the absence of disease”. Not very positive, or heart warming! Originally, the word healing itself comes from the old … More What is health for you?
This is the question, which when I heard Moshe Feldenkrais asking it, made me realise he was on another level. That his intellect was far above the vast majority of people. The answer is no, of course. But who stops to ask the question? When do we start to see light in the womb? It’s … More If there was no light, would we have eyes?
The other day, I saw some of my favourite Heifetz pictures. They’re photos taken with a light at the end of his bow. And you can see the sheer amount of different movements he makes to move the bow in different patterns. And I assume, different pieces. Sadly he had passed away, so I never … More Movement in every moment
This week I was playing a concert in Totnes, close to where I grew up as a child. I was fortunate to play in a wealth of different youth music groups and ensembles. It led me to decide to become a musician. When we start as children, we don’t know what a profession looks like, … More Seeing the Whole Picture
Over the Summer I was teaching on the Professional Feldenkrais Training, in London, (at the moment there are two in the UK). One of the students has a 6 month old. I offered to play him with for parts of the day, so the Mum could join in the lessons. It wasn’t completely altruistic. I practiced … More Early Starts
Flexible minds The idea of a lesson is not just to move ourselves, or be more flexible physically, but to have a different experience of yourself at the end of a lesson.Feldenkrais said “I don’t want flexible bodies, I want flexible minds”. The two go hand in hand. After all, our body and mind are … More Flexible Minds
Life long learning Last week, I was teaching on the Feldenkrais Training, London 5, which has just started. (There’s still time to sign up if you’d like to be a Feldenkrais Method teacher. Or if you would like to dive into the work in more detail!) It’s always great to be there. It’s like practising … More And rest
Today I went to a klezmer jam. A folk session of Jewish folk music. It’s by ear, so there’s no music. Which isn’t my usual way of doing things. But it had felt like a while since I’d enjoyed playing with others just for fun, so I put my violin on my back and pootled off. … More Strategies for Learning
the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter 