What's happening at the Feldenkrais Movement Insititute?
This newsletter is for Feldenkrais® practitioners, trainees,
and interested members of the public around the world.

 Spring 2007

Frank Wildman, GCFT, PhD Educational Director

• Lesson: Chair Play
• How to do the lesson

What's new?

• Professional Training
  Programs & Workshops
• Workshops
• Newsletter Archive

Professional Training Programs:

• Public Workshop and Advanced training

Frank Wildman, PhD., GCFT presents
Your Brain as the Core of Strength and Stability.
June 16th - 18th, 2007 • Washington, D.C.
10am to 5pm each day.

• FGNA members: $225 early bird before May 15th;
  thereafter $275
• Non-members: $275 before May 15th;
  thereafter $325
• One day workshop for the public: $75

For a taste of this workshop/advanced training, please visit our web site. June 16th is open to the general public, June 17th and 18th are Advanced Training for practitioners only

• 4-Year Feldenkrais Training class beginning in Japan

Frank Wildman, PhD., GCFT trainer
Another four-year practitioner's training will begin on August 2nd in Milan, Italy. For details, please see the web site. Consider making this a working vacation, particularly if you need to do any makeup training. Please see the web site for more details.

• 4-Year Feldenkrais Training class beginning in Italy

Frank Wildman, PhD., GCFT trainer
Another four-year practitioner's training will begin on April 27th in Kyoto, Japan. For details, please see the web site. Consider making this a working vacation, particularly if you need to do any makeup training. Please see the web site for more details

• Reconstructing Dance Technique
  May 12-15th, 2007, Tokyo, Japan • TBA
  Visit our web site for a description of this workshop

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Chair Play

Many people have overly rigid ideas about how they should sit in a chair. Remember how a child relates to a chair and all the different ways children move their bodies in relationship to a chair. In this lesson, you will learn to develop more flexible ideas about how to relate to a chair, which will create a much more flexible body.

1. Sitting near the front of your chair, place the palm of your right hand on your lower back and the palm of your left hand on the top of your head. Make sure both of your feet are solidly on the floor with your feet and knees well apart.

2. Move your lower back into your right hand by rolling your pelvis on the chair and then roll your pelvis until you feel your back hollow into an arch. As you do this, observe the change in the height level of your head. Rest with your arms down. Are you sitting more on your right side?

*Awareness Advice: If it is too difficult to put the palm of your hand on your back, put the back of your hand there. Your only effort should be in sensing the movement. Use your right finger tips to feel the vertebrae as well as feeling the muscles with your hand.

3. Repeat the same action with the palm of your left hand on your lower back and the palm of your right hand on your head. Which side is easier? Rest. Observe your sitting posture.

4. Sit on the right side of your chair so that the right side of your pelvis is unsupported and only your left side remains on the chair. Put your right hand on your waistline as you would in a casual way with your fingers spread toward your stomach and your thumb in the back. Lower and raise the right side of your pelvis so that it goes below the level of the chair and up. Can you feel the right side of your waistline lengthening and shortening? If you put your left hand on top of your head at the same time, can you feel the connection between the movement of your pelvis and your entire spine and neck? Rest sitting back in your chair.

*Awareness Advice: Make sure your feet and legs are fairly wide apart and observe how your right leg assists the right side of your pelvis by pushing the heel into the floor. You might want to experiment by lifting the right heel from the floor as you lower the right side of your pelvis.

5. Repeat the same movement on the other side by having only your right buttock on the chair, with your left hand on your waist and your right hand on the top of your head. Make sure that your legs are wide apart. Is this side more or less fluid than the other side? Rest sitting back in your chair.

6. Sit facing the back of your chair. Lean your folded arms on the top of the back of the chair with your pelvis near the front of the chair. Roll your pelvis forward to hollow your back, and backwards to curve it. Try it with your head resting on your arms as well. Can you also rock your pelvis from side to side here, pushing through one foot while lifting one side of the pelvis and then the other? Can you do this with your head at rest on your arms as well?

7. Put your hands on your knees and put your chest against the back of the chair with your head looking down and your eyes closed. Can you roll your pelvis forwards pushing your belly out towards the back of the chair and then backwards, holding it in as your spine curves away from your chair. Let your belly push forwards and backwards in harmony with the movement of your spine and pelvis until it becomes easy to feel how your breathing can assist the motion. Rest leaning on the back of your chair.

*Awareness Advice: For many people with difficulties in their middle or lower back, it is much easier to sit facing the back of a chair because of the support it can provide and the requirement of opening the hips. This lesson or any of the movements in it could be useful to perform whenever stress accumulates from the seated position.

Enjoy the lesson!

Frank Wildman, Ph.D., GCFT

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• Go Slowly. Time is an extremely valuable tool in the Feldenkrais Method. The movements you are learning may seem unusual and unfamiliar to you. You will need time to assimilate them, to feel the way your body is moving and changing. Do not rush! Pause whenever you feel like it and repeat movements you find pleasurable or want to experience more fully.

• Insist on Comfort. There is no reward in doing any of the movements in an uncomfortable position. Gently alter the position in whatever way makes it comfortable for you. I want you to enjoy the process of the movement as much as the result. If it hurts, it’s not helping you (“No pain, no gain” does not apply in this method!) Never try to overcome pain, if you feel it. Pain is a signal that your body is asking you to find a new way to move. Answer it with gentleness and respect.

• Don’t test your limits. The Feldenkrais Method is not about seeing how far you can move , how high you can lift, how long you can stretch, Your goal should be to discover how your body achieves a movement so that you can learn to make that movement easier. Your movements should always be light, and as effortless as possible. Imagine how good it will feel to do simple mobile tasks without trying hard, without working.

• Use your imagination. Take the time to do different movements from these lessons inyour head only, before doing them in practice. Allow the movement to become very clear and lucid in your mind, like a scene from a movie. Imagine a movement before attempting it can make an enormous difference in your ease of motion. You may find that your body responds to your mind by moving as if it is replaying the imagined movement, with almost no effort at all.

• Rest frequently. The movements in these lessons, while gentle and pleasurable, may cause slight strain because you are using parts of muscles you may not have used in a long time, or in ways that are not familiar to you. Rest often during each lesson. You cannot rest too much. Relax and let the movement settle in, enjoy the feeling. Who knows – it could become a habit.

• Take the lessons with you. Throughout your day, pay close attention to how a lesson affected you. One way to do this is to keep a notebook and write down what you have felt from the lessons, and how it influenced the way you performed everyday activities. Be aware of changes in the way you reach, walk, sit, and think. Putting your sensations into words builds a new sensory vocabulary and expands your body awareness, increasing aliveness and changing fixed habits of thinking and feeling. A lesson doesn’t have to end with its last movement let the learning process linger and grow.

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Or please email info@feldenkraisinstitute.org