Happy New Year! Thank you for being part of my community this last year. I hope you had a good Festive Season, and are looking forwards to another journey around the Sun! January is of course the time for new resolutions. Some of us like to make a list of things we’d like to change … More Taking Easy Steps
Your internal monologue is part of your interoception: the sensations, emotions, and sounds make up the internal processes of your mind&body. Many people have an internal monologue, but interestingly some don’t. Russell Hurlburt discovered that we have inner speech for an average of 20% of the time. For some that’s up to 75% of the … More What’s your self talk like?
This week I managed to stub and sprain my toe on a pesky paving stone. So undramatic an event, and yet pretty painful. But what I know about pain these days meant the way I dealt with it was different. Previously, I would have told everyone about my mishap through the day. I would have … More Pain and thought
Life is sometimes stressful. Nobody, no matter how successful, lives in a vacuum of pure happiness, where nothing bad happens. That idea just doesn’t exist in reality. It’s a myth, of happiness, that we should sail through life without downs as well as ups. … More The happiness myth
Over the last years, you’ve all heard about core stability. But what if for some of you, that’s an idea that creates problems, rather than solves them?The design of our muscles means they work in pairs: as one contracts, the other side of it lengthens. (Other than the round sphincter muscles, which work a different … More Core mobility
What do you write when as war has started in Europe, Putin’s tanks roll into a neighbouring democracy, and missiles rain down on civillians?My heart goes out to the Ukrainians, under attack from Russia, now for 10 days. It’s wrong. There are no winners in war. Just human and material cost. I can’t see how … More Self care in times of turmoil
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it” Rumi Valentine’s Day is a day where we traditionally think of romantic love. But I wanted to think about love from a Feldenkrais perspective. When I read this Rumi quote … More Habits of Love
When we are anxious it affects our breathing. It becomes shallower, faster. We hold our chest still. Then the ribs can’t move with the breath. Often we’ll hold the low chest muscles, stopping the movements of the diaphragm. Again, stopping the lungs from expanding. Very useful if we want to pretend we’re dead whilst a … More Breathing and Anxiety
The New Year is often a time we think of restarting, of making better habits. And as those of you who come to classes regularly know, Feldenkrais is a practice, like tai chi, or yoga, where coming regularly over time is what makes a difference. It’s a time outside the cut and thrust of normal life, … More What are your dreams?
The 13th of October was World Sight Day. For those of us who have sight, a massive amount of brain power is taken up by the visual cortex: the part of the brain that interprets the light, shapes and colours that come in through our eyes. It’s not a part of our selves that we … More Seeing is believing
Transform how you move, feel and live 