One of my one-to-one clients, a musician and martial artist, told me recently he thought Feldenkrais was the “key” to many different activities and that its real benefit was in teaching you adaptability. Feldenkrais himself said that health was the ability to move in any direction without preparation or hesitation. He meant this both physically and mentally. … More How balanced are you?
This week I’ve heard several people say the same thing: “I just woke up feeling stiff.” Maybe that’s true for you. Perhaps you’ve got a painful back. Maybe you’re feeling anxious about something? For the musicians amongst you, perhaps an upcoming performance. Maybe you’ve just got too many decisions to make. Whatever it is, our … More What’s bothering you this week?
When you’re looking to improve your movement, it’s really important not to miss out the Pelvis. It’s such an important part of us – attached to all the biggest muscles, and at the bottom of the spine. It’s really your motor centre. In many of the lessons I teach, I talk a lot about the … More The secret life of the pelvic floor
This week, someone said something in a lesson that stayed with me. “I felt movement where I’ve never felt it before… and it felt exciting.” I realised afterwards that this sentence could have come from almost any lesson I taught this weekend. The details were different, but the experience was remarkably similar: people discovering possibilities … More A Chance to Choose
This week I had a concert with my young violinists. One six-year-old spent the entire rehearsal in tears. Nothing her mother or I said could persuade her to play. Yet at the concert she walked on stage, played beautifully. Afterwards, her Mum said that ice-cream bribery had been used. (Clearly a useful strategy in the … More Why experience matters
Hidden in Plain Sight If you’re not moving your pelvis, everything becomes more difficult. And yet, it’s not something we talk about very much. Perhaps because it’s close to the genitalia, it tends to get shuffled quietly offstage. But the pelvis deserves centre stage. It just happens to be where sex and excretion take place, … More Giving the Pelvis its Due
Stability is useful, there’s no doubt. But we need mobility as well, unless you’re a rock! Stability is only part of the story. We need Core Mobility, and also Core connection. You needs to integrate it with rest of you. When you hold yourself contracted continuously, you separate your two halves, top and bottom. But … More Beyond the Core
As you know I’m a violist, and recently a colleague referred a teenage violinist to me. Some of my favourite work (I like it all) is combining music making with Feldenkrais. So I’ve been enjoying working with her. What’s in the self image? In her lesson I observed her playing a little. I noticed that … More If you feel it, you can change it
How many parts of you can you feel when you move your knee? When does your leg move in isolation (from the hip joint) and when does the pelvis join in to support? Often when we have pain or an injury we adopt an adaptive way of moving to stop the pain. And that’s useful, … More Thigh bone connections
This week, I was working with a client, who was thinking about how he stands. He realised he wasn’t using his legs as well as perhaps he might, as he was getting pain from them. In our lesson I asked him to kneel, (standing over his knees) and then I worked on rotation from the … More Intelligent Legs
