From the Spring 2008 Schedule

Better integration, more flow

In this illustration, you can easily imagine that the pitcher has thrown a very fast and accurate ball. You can also see that the force that he puts on the ball doesn’t just come from his throwing arm, but from his whole body. It’s a integrated, flowing motion, and a beautiful one.

 This unity in action is the goal of many pursuits -- all the sports, the martial arts, the dances and music making. It is also what makes daily activities comfortable and efficient.

 All healthy children have this connectedness naturally. But, in the process of growing up, things happen! Accidents, our sedentary lifestyle, emotional stress and other factors combine so that adult movement gets stiffer and stiffer.  

In the Feldenkrais Method, we are specialists in helping you make reconnections that bring you again to that feeling of flow.

 The way Moshe Feldenkrais saw things the problem has to do with the person’s image of each movement. It can be more or less complete. The pitcher in the illustration seems to have a very complete image. Another pitcher might have a more restricted image, at the extreme only being aware of his arm; he would be a weaker pitcher and more likely to injure himself.

 Re-developing a complete self image is, as Feldenkrais saw it, a long process. At the end of a lesson that was tape recorded in the 1950’s, he said:

 "There is work for a whole lifetime until the whole back and chest truly
participate in a full image. In other words, the same amount of time is needed
to be an artist in the control of the body as an artist in physics, music, art,
or anything else."

 Would you like to become an “artist in the control of the body?” If so, please join me and others, whether in the group classes or in individual sessions. We make progress and have fun at the same time.