From the Winter 2007 Schedule

Adding a Layer of Awareness
by Maureen McHugh

It’s wintertime, so you need to put on another layer of clothes before you go outside.

It’s also the New Year, so ….. how about adding another layer to …. how you move – the layer of awareness.

If you take a tennis lesson and the coach says,

“Now, place your foot here and your arm there and your head like this and then…..,” can you really feel where all those body parts are?

Usually not.  Sadly.

But with practice at sensing yourself, which you can get by taking Feldenkrais classes, you can improve. Then your tennis game will get better. And, in addition, that wider sense of “where you are in space” will improve your life in many situations.

If you are like most people who investigate the Feldenkrais Method, it is not your tennis lesson that is uppermost in your mind, but, instead, the pain in…..that particular location. Does this sound familiar? That you are living with pain that is a debilitating, exasperating, energy-consuming, and option-limiting experience?

The way that Feldenkrais can help is by increasing your awareness of yourself, and in particular of how you move. We do this very physically. We guide you to learn more about how the body works in general, how you do things specifically, and what other options you have. You can choose individual sessions, which are customized to you, or group classes, which follow themes of general interest.

In both cases, the movements are interesting in themselves, and you receive the benefit of gentle actions that help you to unwind. But the greater benefit comes through the effort to pay attention to yourself. The movements are, actually, the vehicle for that. Under these conditions, awareness, having become sleepy through overdependence on habit, becomes re-invigorated. In this more robust condition, it brings new insights, and these lead you to more harmonious movement, and living.