"Listen so there will not be an abrupt movement...There will be smooth, very light movements."
---Moshe Feldenkrais, teaching an Awareness through Movement® lesson
How do you move through the uncertainty of change?
We are coming upon a significant transition month. In December, fall gives way to winter as the earth's tilt creates the shortest day of sunlight for those living in the Northern Hemisphere. For some, the shift to a shorter light span in the twenty four hour day can feel like a time to get cozy, to heat mugs of cider, and snuggle up with a good series to watch or book to read. Others lament the change, unsure of what to do with themselves when, from a sensory perspective, 6pm feels more like 9pm due to the absence of light outside.
The holiday season is a time when most of us bring additional light into our homes through decorating. I can't help considering how this ritual mirrors a very human need to bring light into our interior personal lives as well. As we prepare for these next several weeks, our minds and bodies are organizing in subtle ways. My question as a Feldenkrais Method teacher is how I can frame my teaching to assist students in feeling more responsive to their own particular needs during this time, which can only help them respond to their friends and family more in the way that they wish.
"There will not be forceful movements but, rather soft and light movements. It will be possible to do it fast and simply by using a simple movement."
---Moshe Feldenkrais teaching "The Shoulders and Head in Opposing Movements"
A three week Awareness Through Movement® series at Wise Move Studio invites you to take a little time to tend to your inner needs by engaging in movement that is more playful than exercise and more about learning than achieving. The irony of taking this class is that you could potentially emerge from it feeling more confident about achieving what is important to you this winter. Feldenkrais lessons provide students a sense of clarity because they experience alignment of intention and action during the lessons.
The intention of this short series will be to engage you in three lessons known for their potency for calm, balance, and harmonious movement. Students will experience the difference that it makes to pay attention to yourself as you move with a priority of lightness, smoothness, and efficiency rather than forcefulness.
"It is the simplicity that will make the difference. If [you] truly make light and soft movements, it will soften the whole body."
I once counted the number of times that Moshe Feldenkrais directed students to pay attention to light and smooth movements in a single lesson. In that particular lesson about head and shoulder movement patterns, I counted 23 references to moving lightly. I am sure that I missed some of them!
As a student said one time, "How often do we hear the permission to go lightly rather than faster or harder?" Another one said in response, "Or how often do we allow ourselves to be lighter?"
In this season of light, faith, family, friends, love, and uncertainty, I hope you will join me for three hours of self-kindness through movement.
Click here for class details and also for monthly mini-retreats schedule.
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