Move Yourself Well: A Fun Way to Care for Your Well-Being

“You need your own definition of happiness/One that reconnects you with the beauty of where you are now

And does not postpone your joy/Until you accomplish something in the future

One that is centered on embracing and not striving

--Yung Pueblo, The Way Forward

Lying on an old gym floor in Baltimore, I listened intently to the instructions and carried them out with all the focus that I could muster. Again and again, I moved according to what the new instructor said to do, barely paying attention to the mild discomfort in my neck and lower back. It was the fourth day of my very first Feldenkrais Method training segment, and the first day with this instructor.

As she moved slowly towards me, I felt a heightened state of anticipation, not used to being singled out amongst the 40 or so peers in the room. I froze as she turned off her microphone and leaned over me, checked my nametag and said, “So, Mary, you work very hard, don’t you?”

This moment was one of several “boom” moments of my four-year training to become a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method®, a somatic learning approach using mindful movement as a means to self-discovery, reduced discomfort and pain, and authentic personal insight.

Movement and Nuance

What I realized in that moment was that I was striving to complete the movement lessons to the point that I was causing discomfort and eventual harm to myself. Not unlike myself in my athletic years, I had reverted to an old idea in myself that I had to perform for the new teacher. When she gently asked the question to me, I realized that I was using a default behavior that was completely irrelevant to what I was doing at the moment. I was there to learn how to move with more ease, more efficiency and more self-kindness. I was doing the opposite.

A rigid adherence to a previously learned way of doing things can result in unnecessary acceptance of limitations in one's life. Most of us are unaware of the predictability of some of our deepest patterns of responding in action. I would later learn that this kind of insight is exactly what Moshe Feldenkrais proposed as a reason to develop a practice which combines sensory attention with enjoyable movement.

That default mode applies to the simplest habits of movement. For example, in a twenty minute lesson I can help students discover a better way to use their feet in walking. It involves noticing what they do by habit, trying slightly different variations while standing and stepping, and noticing how there has been a change in the direction of more distributed work through the entire foot.

Learning to pay attention to the little details helps you begin to notice the larger picture in your own way and in your own time. Better still, the changes that give you a sense of relief and fluidity in movement happen just by participating. You do not have to pressure yourself to remember what you did to cause the change. You simply have to notice the improvement and gradually you will learn how to help yourself in your own way.

Like many achievers and aging athletes, I lived according to a specific set of deeply ingrained behaviors. I was not fully aware of how limited I was in my adult and work life due to these old patterns. Learning to push and strive for better performances, measured by statistics, wins and losses, and lots of praise for overcoming pain to do so were among them. That combination served some really significant needs that I had in my high school, college, and early adulthood, but they were unsustainable as the “only way” to be myself for the rest of my life.

You don't have to stop pushing yourself. You just might learn to shift your speed, energy output, and pace depending on what you sense, feel, and desire in a given moment. Flexibility in the brain is more potent than physical flexibility when it comes to sustained quality function.

That skill of listening to my body and adeptly shifting my organization when it would keep me safe and strong is the skill I finally learned when I found the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education.

Thankfully, I chose a path of change in how I think and feel about my body, in how I approach my very care of myself even as I still work to be fit and healthy.

The remaining four years of my deep immersion in learning resulted in many moments of an inner “family reunion” of feelings and expressions, of mobility regained and improved, and a sense of myself having caught up with my age in the very best way: a mature, self-assured, and kind relationship with myself, the wisdom of my past integrated with a deep, creative assurance in the present moment. This ability to choose an old path or a new one is how I think of quality of life.

The results are well documented through my blogs on this website.

What matters most to me now, however, is sharing the same mindful movement experiences with others in my community. In the last eight years, I have taught classes and workshops to many locals who have discovered their own freedom and meaning from these fun and interesting lessons.

Creative Ways to Experience Feldenkrais Movement and Awareness lessons

Ease and Community

• Saturday Extended Classes: Once a month, I offer a 2.5 hour class that is nicely paced for learning, asking questions, personal attention, breaks, food, and community. Watch this page for information.

• Group Specific Classes. I have gathered with artist groups, business staffs, a choir, and participants in a uniqe "Taste of Ease" workshop combining Feldenkrais movement and bourbon tasting. If you want your group to have a fun learning experience, reach out and let's talk!

• Weekly classes, evening and morning. These are offered in 4, 6, and 8 week series. Check this page for information.

Individual Support

• New and prospective students receive a free consultation call.

• Functional Integration is a hands-on approach to the same sensory-motor learning as the groups lessons, except it is more quiet. Functional Integration and Awareness Through Movement lessons are complementary and are a useful pairing to maximize learning. Functional Integration lessons are scheduled by appointment through email and phone calls.