"What I value the most from Mary's classes and private sessions is the joy of mindfully and gently rediscovering how my body can move with a genuine sense of ease." --Jane Dewey
We go through life barely noticing that nagging neck pain. Until we can no longer NOT notice it because it hurts so much. We search for a diagnosis and a treatment for the problem. Or we continue to ignore it and suffer. Many of us never have the opportunity to learn to look inside of our own actions and our own capacity to change toward a new trajectory.
The idea in a Feldenkrais session or class is to learn how to notice and pay attention to your own physical, mental, and emotional responses as you move through the lesson. With my support, you learn to pay attention to yourself in a new way, and to feel the changes that come from that learning.
The doorway to improvement through movement is found in developing a clear capacity for paying attention and sensing; that is, focusing on yourself, through a felt sense, noticing what is happening in a given moment of action. We find that paying attention to what we are doing, in nonjudgmental awareness, leads to many results that we might have thought could only be improved through some type of "fixing" from someone else.
For example, if I can learn to take away my feeling of knee pain by shifting my weight and opening my chest a little more, I have learned not to think of my knee as a "bad knee", a disempowering and possibly untrue, limiting belief. Rather, I have learned to be more attuned with myself, to make adjustments, and to proceed in action from a more coordinated use of myself.
When one feels something new, one learns that he has options and does not have to stay in the habitual way. Indeed, freedom from a pattern of movement, of thinking, of feeling, or of some combination of those arises organically in a person's awareness. I think of it as mindfulness felt in the body.
The outcomes of somatic work are often surprising. And highly rated among those surprises is usually a discovery one makes about oneself that contradicts a limiting belief of some kind. Examples include a student who was surprised to learn that what she thought of as her "weak" side is really the side that she depends more on for support in standing. Another example would be when a person believes she has "bad" posture, but within 45 minutes, feels her weight shift to a different place in her feet, which shifts how she stands. In both of these examples, a person becomes more informed, more clear about something that they do, and then they explore ways to apply that information.
The Feldenkrais Method is a process of inquiry, is often playful, and requires curiosity and attention. Perhaps something below will resonate with a desire that you have for yourself.
“What I love about this work is that it is so respectful.”
"I feel that I am aging in reverse!"
“I used what I have learned in my barre class today!”
“The work inspires incredible belief in the potential of the mind and body to function more cohesively and efficiently."
"The exploration of it is just like when I was five and just as much fun."
"I notice that I take longer, more comfortable walks, now."
“I have learned that my body is not my enemy, but rather an integral part of who I am.”
"Learning that I have options in this way feels like getting out of some sort of prison that I did not know I was in."
“It is an amazing, life-altering awareness.”
"I do not exactly know how, but I know that I feel a lot better."
“Mary has helped me enough that I am learning to help myself…I am glad that Feldenkrais is in my life."
Call or message me to discuss your needs, or to schedule an appointment or a class.
With gratitude,
Mary