When we’re babies, we spend a lot of time in the beginning on the floor. It looks like you’re not doing anything, but of course nothing could be further from the truth. On the floor is where you start to feel what’s yourself, and what’s the envirnoment around you. And we need to be able … More Developmental Movements
So often I hear people talking about muscle memory as if it’s a thing. Something where the muscles remember movements, and pathways, or levels of contraction. Muscle memory is a myth. It’s simply not true. There is no such thing as muscle memory. If it were people who had accidents and suffered injury to the … More The myth of muscle memory
This week I’m in very hot and humid Palermo on another segment of ChildSpace – a Feldenkrais based course on early child development. It’s great to have a change of scene, (and great coffee), and to be surrounded by some lovely colleagues. The work is really beautiful, and uses play as a base to observe … More Variation for Learning
This week I gave a workshop on stage presence for a lovely group of A-level students in Saffron Walden. I didn’t make it over in person, I did it online, but it was great to see the changes in how they sat and moved, even by the end of their short session! We talked about … More Plant the seed of your somatic change
Some people think that we can’t learn as we age – you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. But we humans are different, we can continue learning our whole life. Last week I played the viola d’amore for a St John Passion. For the uninitiated its a violin/viola with 6 or 7 strings, with as many … More Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Over the weekend, I’ll be teaching at Limmud, in Birmingham. It’s a Jewish learning festival, usually held over the Christmas period, where I started introducing Feldenkrais 7 years ago. It’s a festival that has it’s own flavour. There is a massive range of topics, and sessions run alongside each other. One of ideas is that … More Learning
Curiosity is innate Curiosity is something we’re born with. It’s one of the 7 emotional patterns we come wired with. It creates our desire to explore, know more, to understand the world around us. Curiosity pushes us to connect, find out more, or see what’s around the corner. It’s what propelled our ancestors to travel … More Curiosity and the Hands
Human’s opposable thumbs are thought to have developed c.2 million years ago during the Homo Habilis time of our evolution. They may have been used for food gathering, and most certainly contributed to the development and use of tools. Our Chimpanzee cousins have opposable toes as well as thumbs, which makes them much better at … More Musicians’ Fingers and Thumbs
Some clients I wish I had recorded as they speak. There’s something about being at the beginning of a learning process that makes our thoughts fresh, and our way of describing what’s happening easy to understand to other beginners to our learning process. ‘Mary’ has been coming for assistance with shoulder pain. She felt something … More Discovering easy shoulders
If we think about the spine, there are 3 main planes of movement: flexion and extension, (arching-rounding), side-bending, and twisting. I’d like to focus a little about twisting. Twisting is where our power comes from. As upright mammals without massive muscles in our jaws (think crocodiles) or paws- who’d want to be swiped by a … More How easily does your back move?
