Anxiety & Stress Relief With Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement

This movement meditation is designed to reduce anxiety, manage stress, and align your body and mind by calming your nervous system and supporting your flexor muscles. Awareness Through Movement uses guided movements and exquisite use of attention to reduce pain and stress while increasing your flexibility, stability, and coordination. Any level of yoga, sport or exercise can be enhanced with these gentle movements of the world renown Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education.

Transcript

Please lay on your back and take a moment to spread on the floor,

Spread out and let your breath come in and out and become part of what you're paying attention to.

So pay attention to your breath.

And see from the place of the movement of the breath,

Where is it?

See if you can expand it radially into your limbs.

So go from wherever you feel the movement of the breath in the direction of maybe one of your legs and then the other.

Just follow the line from the breath to one of your feet and then the other.

And then from the breath to one of your hands.

Maybe your attention is doing some kind of a pathway,

Tracing some sort of a line or direction.

And the other hand.

And then see from your breath you can also go down into the earth and feel the ground underneath you.

So you see if something maybe is moving also in the direction of the ground around your lower back or the middle back.

And at this point you can just observe,

You don't need to change anything or make it any different than what it is.

Just observe it and play with it.

Whatever is easy,

Whatever is not so easy,

You notice.

And now see if you can allow that contact that you're feeling with the ground to be now the most interesting thing.

So you shift your attention again to sensing the contact.

And again go to where it's most interesting or most clear.

For some of us our buttocks,

Our legs,

Very clearly they're present on the ground.

And now if you are paying closer attention you might notice that there's a slight difference.

Meaning one side of your buttocks or one side of your shoulders has a slightly different contact than the other,

Doesn't it?

Maybe heavier or more pressure there.

So again expand that into the whole side of your body.

Feel the whole right side as it lies on the ground and then the whole left side.

And see if you can catch a little difference or two.

A sense of length or height,

Width,

Weight.

Something that is for you noticeable even if it's a tiny difference.

And now let that go and move your head a little as if you were to look to the left or look to the right and see if it's easier in one direction.

You're trying to find a little nuance of a difference that will tell you that there's something a little asymmetric,

A little uneven or more effortful in one direction and less effortful in the other direction.

Slow down.

And then leave it somewhere in the middle,

Not right and not left.

And interesting,

You know where the middle is.

You know that there's a place that is not the right and not the left.

So that's awareness.

That right then and there is awareness.

So now use your awareness to bring your feet to stand.

You know how to do that.

You bend one leg.

You bend the other.

You place your feet on the ground.

Yeah,

Somewhere where you can stand them like a tent.

Place your feet on the ground and then lift one leg.

So the foot is away from the floor and then put it down and lift the other.

And if you feel tempted to watch me or watch your neighbor,

Remember we were talking at the beginning is they don't know what they're doing either.

So just look inside and see what do you,

How do you want to lift one leg?

Your legs are bent.

Your feet are on the ground.

And you lift one foot and you place it down and you lift the other and you place it down.

It's almost as if you're taking steps.

Your knees are bent.

Your feet are on the ground.

Yes,

And you're lifting one and place it down.

Can you tell that there's a difference in one side,

Maybe it's easier or lighter?

One leg is a lot more familiar than the other in the way that it organizes itself to come away from the ground and take that step.

Is it possible?

And leave it.

Place the feet on the ground again.

Take a little rest.

Make your legs long if you want to take a little rest.

See where there's still a little bit of tension,

Maybe between your thighs or in your hands.

Give that tension the permission to surrender.

Just drop,

Let go.

Take a few breaths that allow you to do that.

And check again with the differences between left and right.

Just become interested in that again.

The line of the middle,

The left side,

The right side.

And now lift just the legs a little bit so they bend.

Bend your legs again.

Place your feet on the ground.

And continue,

You leave the left where it is,

Somewhere where they are stable.

So not too far away from your buttocks.

Not too close to the buttocks.

And then continue lifting the right leg in the direction of your face and catch your knee.

So you grab it with your hand.

You can use both hands and catch your knee,

Maybe from under the knee or from on top of the knee,

Whatever is easier for you.

So it takes a little time sometimes to find the ease.

Explore,

Is it easier to grab it from under the knee or from over,

Whatever is more effortful,

Is not so easy.

So look for the easiest way.

And then interlace your hands and let the leg hang.

So now you have it,

You're holding it.

You don't have to keep working so hard on your leg.

And now use your arms to bring this leg a little closer to your chest and then further away again,

A couple of times.

Bring the leg close.

Take it away.

You keep your hands where they are,

Holding the leg.

The leg is hanging and the arms that now safely have your leg are doing the work of bringing it closer to your chest and then away from the chest.

And then you take a little rest.

And then you do it again,

Maybe three or four times.

And see if it's easier to you breathing in or breathing out,

If you thought about breathing at all.

And try both.

You breathe in as you bring your leg to the chest.

Inhale.

And then you make a little pause.

And the next time you exhale.

And whatever you find easiest,

Most comfortable,

You do that.

And of course,

Don't need to keep going forever with this.

When you feel done or happy with it,

You can stop.

Take another rest.

The Felling Christ movement is alternating movement and rest.

Movement and rest.

When you're resting,

You're sensing and feeling.

You can make the legs long again if you wish so,

To have another chance to see what is it like between the left and the right side.

The sense of movement in your breath.

Now pick up your other leg.

Let the left leg come up and interlace your hands.

Hold the knee under the knee or above,

Below the kneecap.

And let this leg again come towards your chest and away from your chest.

Towards the chest and away.

And breathe in the way that is most comfortable.

But breathe.

And see if you can,

When you bring the knee to the chest,

Look at the knee as if you were going to kiss it.

You look at it as if you wanted to kiss it,

But you don't.

You're not even close to kissing it.

But you're using your eyes and your attention as if you were bringing this leg in and you look at it and say,

Oh,

There I could kiss it.

Or I could touch it with my nose.

Directing the head to the knee.

And do it maybe three or four times.

Try looking at it,

Even if you keep your eyes closed.

Looking at it.

Yeah.

Don't overdo it.

See if as you do this,

There's something on the back,

On your back that is getting closer to the floor.

So you're not so focused on the knee,

But also paying attention to what's going on on the ground between you and the floor.

Please leave it.

Rest.

Make your legs long again.

Sense.

Go back to the things you were noticing at the beginning.

So when your legs are long and your arms are long,

How are your differences between left and right now?

Is there anything changing?

You can move your head a little as if you're smelling something nice to the left and to the right and going slow enough that you can pay attention to the sensation.

Is it any different than a few moments ago?

And the wonderful thing is these answers are always right.

So if you say,

Yes,

It's different,

Great.

No,

Not yet.

Nothing changed.

Perfect.

Your experience is always right and we're paying attention to it.

That's what we're doing right now.

Linking attention to experience.

So now leave the head again somewhere over the middle line of your spine and the place of your belly button right in the middle of your body and bring both legs now towards your chest and catch them with both hands.

And bring the legs to the chest using your hands.

You can put one hand on the right knee and one hand on the left knee,

Over the top,

Under the kneecap or under the knee,

Whatever is easiest for you.

And bring them to the chest and away from the chest.

And see if something along the back is getting closer to the floor.

When your knees come to the chest,

The lower back,

The middle of your back can come a little closer to the ground.

Getting flatter,

Getting longer.

And see if you can breathe out as you do this.

Breathe in with the legs away from the chest.

Breathe out as you bring them to the chest.

And see if you can keep your eyes to the knees.

So you bring the knees to the chest and the eyes to the knees.

Maybe you feel like looking down a little bit or between your legs.

And then of course,

At any time you can leave it and rest.

There's no need to do this more than five,

Six times,

Seven times.

You don't need to count,

But just not too many times that you get tired of the movement or bored.

You remain curious about the movement.

As long as you're still curious about it,

You're still learning about it,

It's great.

And then before you get bored or tired,

You stop,

Go back to resting.

Allow your curiosity now to be interested in the differences between this moment of rest and the previous moment of rest.

If something comes up,

If nothing feels different,

Then it's totally fine.

But you're looking.

It's almost as if when you ask a question and it's really not the answer that is so important,

But asking that question.

You're wondering.

Felle and Grace talked about it as if you're at Sherlock Holmes looking for clues.

So you take a few breaths,

Observe the breath.

See if something is getting calmer in your state,

The state of your body,

The state of your mind,

Your emotions.

What happens as a consequence of you bring your knees to your chest and going into this pattern of folding and flexing.

And now slowly find a way to roll into one of your sides,

Could be the right or the left,

Whatever you feel most comfortable.

Maybe the side you sleep on,

If you ever sleep on your side.

And you can put one arm under your head if you need to,

Bent or long.

And then bring both knees folded more or less the height of your hips as if you were sitting.

So if you're lying on your left side,

You can put your left arm under your head.

If you're lying on your right side,

You can put your right side under your head.

And then use your right hand to place it somewhere on your right knee.

If you're on the right side and your left hand on your left knee,

If you're on your left side.

So the hand that is on top,

On the leg that is on top.

And for a minute,

Just pay attention to the contact that you're making with the ground in this position.

How different it is than when you're on your back.

And you have one leg and one side of your ribs and one shoulder.

And where is the breath now going to?

And then allow your hand that is holding your knee to bring the knee a little closer to your chest.

So you're doing something very similar.

You get to pick up the leg from the over the kneecap or below the knee.

If you're using it under the fold of your knee,

Keep all your fingers together.

If you can't reach for your knee,

You can grab your pant and pull your pant.

It doesn't have to be a large movement,

By the way.

It could be just an inch.

But you're creating the same flexion,

The same idea of folding and coming into this pattern.

And at the same time that you bring your knee to your chest,

You can look at the knee,

Open your eyes,

Bring your head in the direction of the knee,

Almost as if you were going to kiss it.

So you come to the knee in both directions,

The knee to your eyes and your eyes to the knee,

Your mouth to the knee,

Your nose.

You can drag the leg.

You can lift it away from the other leg and move it in space.

A few times until.

.

.

So it's the same idea in a different orientation.

It feels very different,

Doesn't it?

Now the wall,

The floor is not behind your back,

Under your back.

You're not leaning into it.

And leave it and rest again.

Come onto your back.

Roll onto your back again,

Make your legs long,

Your arms long.

And see again what is different and where,

As if you were in the dark with a flashlight,

Looking for things,

Looking for discovery,

Something.

What can you find?

And include your breath,

Include the contact you're making with the ground,

Include the state of your musculature,

Maybe your sensations,

Feelings,

Thoughts.

Observe what happens to your attention when you're just wandering without direction,

Without clear direction,

Where do you go?

Now bring both legs again up to stand and lift one and the other,

Just like you did a moment ago,

Pick up as if you were going to take a step.

And just see if the legs somehow got a little lighter or there's something different about that movement.

You lift one and lift the other and see that if you notice that as you lift your leg,

There's something moving into the ground.

So your leg,

Your foot comes up and something goes down.

Maybe the lower back,

Maybe your ribs,

Maybe even one of your shoulders.

Make a little seesaw type movement.

Something goes up and something needs to come down.

You can do that without holding your breath,

Just breathing freely.

And now keep your legs where they are,

Bent,

Steady so your feet are not too close together,

Not too far apart,

And interlace your hands behind your head,

Cup your head,

And use your elbows to bring them together.

As you bring the elbows together,

You lift the weight of the head off the ground just a little,

Enough to place a thin book and then put the head down.

So if your imaginary book comes under the head,

Now the head is over the book again.

And do this a few times,

Again,

Breathing,

Maybe breathing out is easier.

You experiment.

And see if that part of your lower back wants to stay where it is,

Or that part of your lower back that sometimes is a little curved,

Can also go into the ground as you lift your head,

Like a seesaw.

Same idea,

You pick up your head,

You bring the lower back down and into the ground.

You look in between your legs.

You think of your knees,

Though they're a little far away,

But that's the direction of your movement.

You're folding now from the other end of your spine.

And as you allow your lower back to go into the ground and move in relation to your head,

You can engage your whole spine by the simple movement of lifting your head.

Again you do it a few times,

You can take pauses in between each movement.

And at some point before you get tired of this,

You stop.

So you also learn how to self-regulate and when is enough.

When you had enough of this,

There's no rule that says you have to all do it so many times or all together.

Each of you in your own space are having an individual experience and you are the master of it.

So you know when to stop,

When you want to stop,

You open up again,

Lengthen your legs and arms,

And again go into that ocean of just wandering around your body and into your breath and seeing what's new.

What is it that is changing?

If something is changing as a consequence of this movement.

Maybe it is and maybe not,

But you're asking the question to yourself if you had a significant something that you noticed before,

Maybe a difference between your two sides or some sort of a rambling mind or tension somewhere or pain somewhere.

What is happening to that?

You're kind of saying that of course it changes everything in your life that a person experiences and can say that.

Now slowly bring your legs up again.

Now this time bring them over to your chest and cross your ankles.

So one leg is crossed over the other.

And you see if you can hang your legs there,

Just for the most part.

And now bring your hands behind your head again.

Interlace your fingers but in the non-habitual way.

Meaning the index that is usually on top is now second.

And the index that is usually second is now the first finger that you can see if you look at these hands.

And place the hands behind your head again.

And do the two movements at the same time.

You bring your elbows together,

You lift the head in the direction of the knees and bring the knees towards the chest.

And don't do the 100% that you can do.

See if you can do about 50%.

Meaning you don't aim to touch your knees,

You just go in the direction of your knees.

So you make it very simple,

Very easy.

No effort.

Or as least effort as possible.

Which means that even if you lift your head off the ground,

Say an inch,

It's enough.

It's the fact that you're doing it now together that is making sense for your nervous system.

That oh,

This is the folding pattern.

She's taking over completely the work that I do all day as I hold my breath and bring my head down and contract my abdomen.

Now you're doing it intentionally and you're paying attention to it,

Which is making a difference.

And see if at the same time you can let something go down into the ground,

Just like the seesaw.

So your back is fully in contact.

And somewhere along the middle of your shoulders and your spine and everything that can go down goes down.

As you lift all of this weight that you're lifting.

And again,

Observe when do you want to leave it so you don't wait for my permission to say you can stop now,

But you find your own guidance.

It's a truly masterful skill to have.

And you can say I had enough food,

Sounds,

Relationships,

Work,

Exercise,

You name it to be able to say I had enough.

Now I want to rest.

And you rest again,

You open up your arms,

Your legs,

Everything comes down into the ground again.

So gravity can take over everything that is still engaged in your musculature.

And you just notice,

You can go back to feeling the contact,

Your breath,

Any difference that remains between left and right.

And if you wish to move your head,

You can move it a little just off the middle just to see what is it like now.

If maybe something is also getting more symmetric or easier about this movement of turning the head that we do so much.

And for a neck that is constantly looking down,

The movement left and right is not as easy as a neck that is fully upright and long.

If turning left and right is getting easier,

There's something there to learn.

Now take one or two breath cycles and see if you can move your breath in different directions.

In other words,

You can even with the breath just go down into the ground,

Sink,

Find the floor in your lower back,

Between your shoulder blades,

Your ribs,

Expanding the breath between your ribs.

The floor gives you feedback,

Either you can feel the floor or you don't.

Now what if you could also bring your breath into your pelvic floor and the area of your pelvis and into your throat and the upper part of your spine.

Can you imagine it?

And if you can't sense quite as much as you sense the floor for feedback,

You are directing your breath in all directions.

So from this center of your body where the breath starts,

You expand it all the way into your hands and all the way into your arms and feet and legs and even the top of your head.

And by the way,

You're bringing oxygen to your cells,

Your organs,

Every breath you take.

So the deeper the breath,

The more oxygen you are bringing in.

Lovely.

So now please stand just the right leg,

Keep the left leg long,

Bring your left foot to the ground,

Stand it,

Sorry,

Stand the right leg,

Bring the right foot to the ground.

That's right.

The right foot to the ground,

The left leg is long.

That's what I meant.

So the right foot is standing,

The right leg is bent.

And your right hand,

Which is now somewhere in the vicinity of your hip or somewhere along the area of your buttock,

You place the palm down and you now reach for this right foot.

So the palm is on the ground,

The foot is now planted on the ground.

It's a new movement,

It's something different.

And the palm is sliding in the direction of the foot.

It's almost like a movement riddle.

It's waking up your brain from the state you were just in,

Pure calm and peace,

And now into a little challenge.

How do you do that?

You keep your foot where it is,

So you don't necessarily bring the foot to the hand,

But you bring the hand to the foot and you're sliding the palm.

You have to fold somewhere in a different way.

It's a different type of bending,

A different type of flexion that we're looking for right now.

It's more of a flexion to the side.

So see if you can imagine it,

Maybe if it's challenging to do,

Imagine it first.

How would you make this hand reach all the way down there to your foot,

Keeping your head in place?

It's kind of hard.

So you can move the head and move the spine and move absolutely anything you want.

Maybe except the foot,

Except the right foot.

That's the constraint.

But see if you can glide or slide the back of your head on the floor to allow your head to also be part of your spine as you reach for touching the ankle or the heel of the right foot,

Even if you don't touch it.

Just the direction is enough.

And now you're folding your ribs in a different way.

Maybe this is not your pattern.

But if you had scoliosis and you were severely tilted to one side,

You live here all day.

So you do that and come back to being long again.

So just a few times to explore this folding,

Flexion,

Bending.

And leave it and rest whenever you want.

Breathe.

Check in with yourself.

And when you feel ready,

You bend the same leg again,

The right leg,

Stand the right foot,

Place your right palm on the ground.

And then again,

Allow the hand to reach for the foot.

And when you can't reach any further,

You stay there.

So you go in the direction.

You don't have to grab it.

And it would be better if you don't lift your body.

You just slide it or bend it on the floor.

And when you can't reach anymore,

You stay there.

And then push off the ground with this foot a little and lift your pelvis as if you're lifting it away and towards the left side.

You push with the right foot on the floor,

Lift your pelvis and see if you can reach a little further.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Great.

And then do that a couple of times from the beginning.

So you undo this sort of bent position.

You find the neutral again.

And you begin kind of like a child discovering a new toy,

Figuring this out.

You're sliding your palm on the ground,

Not lifting,

But just bending,

Sliding.

The whole right side gets closer to the foot.

When you can't get any closer,

You push on the floor.

Again,

You're using the floor to lift your right side up and away and you can reach some more and feel the expansion of your chest and how this comes with your belly pushing out and your sternum open and your shoulders wide.

This is the opposite of folding and flexing and bending forward.

This is the opposite.

So do it as many times as you want to explore it and maybe try a couple of different variations,

Meaning you keep your knee to the ceiling instead of letting it tilt.

Maybe you're breathing.

Hopefully you're breathing.

Start breathing in different ways in or out.

Maybe one of the times you can explore the sensation of your whole long side,

The left side that is very,

Very close to the floor as the right side is getting lifted and bent.

So in other words,

Paying attention to different things will give you a different experience.

The idea is always the same.

When reaching for your foot,

You're lifting the pelvis to create a little more room.

In felling crisis,

It's really never about the movement,

But it's about the awareness that you're going through the movement.

And the awareness on this case is both that the left side can help you in leaning into the ground and getting very long to assist the right side to bending and getting shorter and also the awareness of the expansion and opening of your chest and ribs as you fold in this funny kind of way,

Which is in some sort of way,

Way more interesting than just touching the foot.

Who cares about touching the foot?

What if you weren't so flexible and you couldn't touch it,

Then you would feel a failure.

But felling crisis is kind of smart.

He says,

Well,

It doesn't matter if you touch the foot.

Pay attention to this other thing.

How long the one side is getting,

How open your chest is getting.

So it's never just about the movement.

It's our sense of willingness and trying to achieve and trying to aim for the goal that needs to touch and reach.

That is even just the direction of the movement that is most powerful.

So leave it open up again to the floor,

Surrender your weight and then observe if something feels a little different anywhere.

And what is it?

And if you take a few of those expansive breaths that get everywhere in your systems,

Is it a little easier to imagine this happening,

That your breath is getting fuller and larger and filling your belly and your lungs,

But also your ribs,

Your back.

If you soften your throat and your jaw and your teeth,

Can you feel the warmth of the breath inside your throat and in your nostrils?

Now we will do the movement on the other side,

But I just made a strong case that it's not about the movement.

So don't even try to touch your foot,

But know that you may touch it.

It's a side effect,

It's a good icing on the cake.

Place your left foot on the ground and your palm in the direction of the foot,

So just the palm down and imagine yourself,

Maybe place the foot not touching the buttock so there's some sort of distance there and then imagine the movement before you even do it.

So visualize the shape of the spine changing and your hand reaching and in your mind's eye your left ribs are getting closer together and the right side of the ribs is separating and becoming very,

Very long and in your mind's eye the back of your head is sliding and the left ear is getting closer to the shoulder and the whole thing is shifting at the same time.

So you look for this harmony or grace or elegance in the movement,

In your imagination.

We know that the brain is lighting up when you imagine it's acting.

Doesn't know the difference between you imagining and doing if it's precise enough,

But it has to be precise.

So you think of the shape of your shoulders changing and your sternum and any detail that you can recall from the other side,

How much your right side is leaning into the ground and the position of your head,

Maybe even your breath and in your mind make it easier and easier,

Graceful,

Light,

Effortless.

Like a dancer when you see a good sportsman or a woman and you say,

Oh my God,

That looks so effortless,

How did they do that?

So do it to yourself now,

Give yourself that quality of an athlete.

You're reaching and boom.

And maybe in your mind you can include the moment where to create a little more ease,

You lift your pelvis off the ground a little pushing on the floor.

And when you feel interested,

Really curious about knowing more about this movement,

Go ahead and do it.

And you're not doing it to reach,

You're not doing it to bend or prove anything,

But just to explore the movement as if it was a brand new movement.

Curious,

Interested,

How far can you lean into the right side?

How long can you make the right leg?

Now a couple of times,

Let your right arm also come out and away from the foot and be long,

The right arm.

So now it's also the right arm getting longer above your head.

That's it.

So we make this even more interesting and different.

The right side is fully long and the left side is short and bent.

And there's some sort of expansion happening in your belly and your chest and your sternum and the back of your head sliding.

So your right arm is also traveling along the floor and coming over your head and getting very long.

That's it.

Lovely.

If you open your eyes,

You could maybe even see your right hand up there.

That's nice.

Yes.

A long arc of your spine.

And you feel the grace and the joy of this movement.

It's the opposite of folding.

This expansion is openness is looking up and away and you can push your belly forward and just really fully just the sense,

The sensations that putting your body into this position brings for as long as you want to and then go to take a rest,

Break a pause.

And again,

Check in what's changing and where.

Is there any more peace?

Peace of the body,

Peace of the mind,

Peace of the emotions,

Symmetry,

Quieter,

Something,

Discomfort,

Pain,

Noise.

See if you can remember both.

So again,

Exercise your visualization with as much detail as you can.

Can you remember what it felt like to fold,

To hug your knees and also bring your head to the knees and do that a couple of times in your mind,

As if folding,

The curving and flexing almost as if you were in a womb,

In a self-protected,

Quiet environment,

Completely internally safe,

But maybe not as able to go into the world with your gifts,

With your joy.

What is the breath in there and the sensations and temperature?

And then leave that and see if you can imagine what it felt like just a moment ago to expand to one side and then to the other side and open that way,

Making your body,

Somebody told me,

Like a rubber band,

Something very flexible and open.

And see if one of these two is most familiar to you,

Where you feel the safest,

Most comfortable.

And the other one is interesting,

But very,

Very new,

Something that I don't know.

Let me think about it.

And just notice that,

Your tendency,

Your familiarity with one body pattern and the other as an invitation to maybe explore it a little more and maybe learn something from it.

So now in your own time,

Finding your own rhythm,

You just go through both again,

Both patterns,

The one of the bending of the knees and picking up your head and bringing your elbows to your knees.

Do it a few times.

Of course you can do it in your mind first,

But at some point do it completely in reality.

So you also sense and feel in your body what it feels like.

Do it a couple of times with this curiosity.

Is this what I like the most,

Where I feel the most protected and home?

Is this me?

You can do it on your side,

You can do it on your back.

Whatever version of the folding pattern you can remember or you like the most,

You do that.

Could be one leg,

Two legs,

On your side,

On your back.

And stay with it for a moment.

Stay with the sensations of it,

The comfort of it.

See what is that taking care of for yourself when you do that,

When you take yourself there.

For example,

If you had a little back pain,

This would take care of your back pain.

Bringing the knees to the chest,

Lengthen the spine,

The lower back gets a little break.

If you carry phones and screens a lot and work a lot with your head down,

You lifting the weight of your own head like you're doing right now can take over some of the pain of your neck and upper shoulders.

And then leave that and go to the other pattern,

To the other movement that we explored today,

Which is that of expansion.

And you can do one side first,

The one that felt easier,

And then the other.

And see what is there to learn about this.

Is it something that you know of?

So remember how it started,

They put the foot on the ground and the same side,

That hand is reaching for the foot.

When you cannot reach anymore,

You push off the ground,

Lift your pelvis,

Lengthen the whole other side.

The whole opposite side is long,

From foot to hand.

That's it.

And you can look at that hand so you're not folding anywhere,

You're a complete extension from your tailbone to the top of your head.

So you're not looking away from the long side,

You're looking towards the long side.

That's right.

And do it on the other side and just see,

Again,

Maybe this is what you're most familiar with and you feel very comfortable here.

Or maybe this is something new to explore,

Pushing your belly instead of hiding it,

Pushing your breasts and opening your chest and truly leaning into the floor,

Finding support.

If you take it to the extreme expression,

You can open your mouth and take your tongue out and touch your nose if you want to,

Or look for the nose with your tongue.

That's the extreme version of this extension.

Open eyes,

Tongue out,

Reaching for the nose.

Every bit of you is flexing away from the middle.

It's going away from the middle,

It's extending towards the back of your head.

Beautiful.

And leave it completely and take a full final rest and just one last time,

Just check in,

See if there's something for you to harvest,

To collect.

Something that came up that is new or feels interesting.

The state of your mind,

Your body,

Your emotions,

That wholeness that you are,

Your breath moving through that,

Moving through you.

And one final time,

Just move your head a little off the center line,

Left to right,

And just see if you find something there,

Something interesting again,

Maybe the quality,

Maybe the range.

What is it?

And let your head show you which side to move towards so you maybe feel more interested in rolling to the right or rolling to the left.

Just roll to one of your two sides,

Come onto that side slowly,

Come to sit,

And slowly come to stand.

Take your time.

Yeah,

Roll to one side,

Come to sit.

Find very gradually,

As a part of the lesson,

The uprightness again.

So you go from sitting to standing and see where do you stand and how do you feel when you stand up.

You feel a little spacey,

Maybe a little sleepy,

Maybe a little taller.

See if by any chance you feel more grounded,

Rooted.

And something is wider somewhere.

What wants to drop down and what wants to come up and push the sky?

So in between those two extremes of folding completely and rolling back into the ground,

Coming to the primal shape of a fern that is not unfolded yet.

It's just the beginning fern,

Fern is completely curved and then unfolding into complete extension and expansion.

In the middle of the two extremes,

There you are.

So let your eyes open gently and look around the space in this new place where your head is and just take it in.

If you want to,

You can walk around,

Just see what it's like.

That state that you're in right now is who you are too.

It's one of the ways where you can be.

If you have any comments or questions,

This is a good time.

Dimension,

That's what I mean,

Like volume,

Like dimension,

Like three dimensional.

Beautiful.

Great.

Thank you.

Beautiful.

Open.

Comfortable.

Good?

Ya.

Good yeah good great wonderful flatter on the ground yes grounded lovely well thank you very much for being here thank you thank you thank you have a beautiful day

Reviews

Dayana, thank you for an excellent Feldenkrais somatic awareness session. I had done some of this work about 25 years ago and am just coming back to it as it really suits my easily activated nervous system. 🙏🙏🙏

Dit vind ik momenteel de krachtigste tool om gegrond en met mildheid en zachtheid door het leven te gaan en om me bewust te worden van spanning en ontspanning en de positie van mijn lichaam in de ruimte. Meditatie noch yoga brachten me eerder in zo'n, bijna, vzrlichte staat van aanwezigheid en bewustZijn. Dankjewel!

Such eloquent guidance to personal insight. Thank you🙏🏻

Amazing thank you love your soothing voice. Very intrigued by the feldenkreis method.

Thank you so much 🌺🌺🌺for this wonderful feldenkrais session🦋I enjoyed doing it and how my body and mind reacts 🌿 sometimes surprised 🎈sometimes with so much pleasure and to the end loosing a lot of restrictions 🗺stay safe 🙏 Namaste

Oh joy! To find myself, even and grounded. Bless 🙏🙏

Wet nice. Thank you🌷

I have learned many different modalities in my 78 years of life. Feldenkrais has not been one of them until right now. Although I sensed what movements were within me before they begin as if it was something very familiar.. I felt opening and expansion. At the end when I stood I felt Taller and solidly balanced ..thank you for this.

Excellent practice, especially for newcomers to the Feldenkrais method. I've been using parts of it for years after my physical therapist introduced me to Awareness Through Movement (at one point I swore I could accurately tell time just by the frequency I had to do the pelvic clock), but although I have the complete program on DVD, CD, and a number of his books, I have yet to do more than a few movements at a time. It is incredibly helpful though, and this has inspired me to take a fresh look at becoming more of a student of the Feldenkrais ATM method than I have been previously.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us here. Wonderful experience. I see you and the light within you. Be well. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻