This week saw Moshe Feldenkrais’ birthday. He had an extraordinary life. He was born in Slavuta, Russia (now Ukraine) in 1904, and grew up in part of White Russia, now Belarus. At 14, after members of his family narrowly survived a Russian pogrom, they sent Feldenkrais alone to make his way to Israel, then under … More Happy Birthday Moshe!
The last week since coming back from Holland has sped past. I wanted to write a little about my experiences. After my travel disaster, (my passport whilst valid, was over 10 years old. Since 2018, this is no longer valid for the EU. And I only found out the day before my flight. Which meant … More What are your limits?
Love. We all know the feelings. Different stages, different types of love. What kind of feeling of love do you prefer? I had one friend when I was younger, let’s call him James, who wanted to feel that first flush of love all the time. When the sensation changed, as James got to know the … More What’s love got to do with it?
How do you know you’re improving in Feldenkrais lessons? In the Feldenkrais Method we don’t have belts of learning, like you would in martial arts. Feldenkrais has such an individual effect, so it wouldn’t quite work. We explore movements on the floor, like a 3D puzzle. And when you get up, you often stand and … More Seeing progress
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
This week I’ve been at a live segment of Childspace, a child development course, closely related to Feldenkrais. I was quite quiet for a lot of it, as I lost my voice on the first day, but it was a fascinating experience. One of the important things we’ve been learning about is this transition from … More Finding Ease in the Shoulders
How do you think of posture? For many people, it’s a thing. Good posture or bad. People with good posture have their shoulders back, and head up. Bad posture is associated with slouching. Good is a perfect ratio between the head, neck and shoulders. Something to get, to have, to keep. Shoulders and head not … More On Posture
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
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
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