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The Feldenkrais Method Can Help You Feel Better
The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of movement re-education that can help you feel better. It is good for everyone, but most people who seek it out are in pain.
Through this method many people find relief from pain and, often, more than that. Many people are pleased to find themselves feeling younger, taller, more grounded, and more able to resume the meaningful activities that they have had to put on hold.
The method takes place in group classes and individual sessions.
The basic approach of the method is that you move, and while moving, you also observe yourself.
The architecture of the body is very complicated; 206 bones intersect in 350 joints. How do they coordinate? This is a complicated and interesting question. One place to start is that they coordinate sometimes well and sometimes badly. The overall goal through the Feldenkrais Method is to find a path of coordination that gives a feeling of effortlessness.
The feeling of effortlessness can develop as you optimize these factors:
Sensitivity to your own quality of movement
Awareness of connections within the body from top to bottom, front to back and side to side
Balancing the contribution of all parts of the body and the self in any action
Understanding of applied anatomy and the physics of movement
Generalizing lessons learned during the Feldenkrais Method class or private session into the actions of daily life as well as any specialized activities
It can feel good to develop your muscles and find strength through them. But there is even more strength, comfort, safety and joy to be found in self-awareness and good coordination.
Included in good coordination is ample use of the breath. In our sedentary culture, the breath is often short-changed. This leads to imbalances in movement and also in physiology. Restoring the breath to its natural vigor can bring about a lot of improvement.
A similar point can be made about the eyes. The visual system needs to enjoy a range of experiences regularly. Excessive focus on a near object can be very damaging.
The rate of improvement is generally gradual, but there are sometimes big breakthroughs in a short period of time.
