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PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP ... SCROLL DOWN TO THE YELLOW BOX FOR DETAILS!

Fluid, connected and strain-free movement is what we see in the gracefulness of a small child. The child's movement has an organic elegance which is not culturally generated nor externally "learned." This grace, which we often envy, emerges out of the healthy functioning of the child's nervous system: the brain guiding and organizing the muscles, bones, joints and desires of the whole biological being into purposeful and graceful action.

The Feldenkrais Method provides the means to restore this birthright . . . to move with freedom, ease, balance, good posture and power organized by the brain's movement intelligence. The Method is excellent for improving any human endeavor which requires movement and its corollary -- the ability to strategize movement solutions "on the spot" in life.

How does the Method work? Not through strengthening, stretching or correcting ourselves, but by learning how to access and use our brain's enormous capacity to reorganize stiffened, fused and even hurting parts into a coherent, fluid, moving whole. At any age and in any physical condition we can access and develop this capacity and thus improve movement and body intelligence dramatically.

The Feldenkrais Method is used world-wide to enhance performance in the arts and sports, to rehabilitate injuries and accidents, to enhance functioning for adults and children with neurological conditions, to ease the pain and stiffness of repetitive strain conditions, fibromyalgia, back problems, sitting and working at a computer, etc.

Want to know more? Click here for a list of classes, workshops and how to register for a private session.


This Season's News (Summer 2006)

PRE-CONFERENCE TRAINING WORKSHOP
Exclusively Awareness Through Movement -
Waking up the self organizing function

In AY#478 (Chin movements on a chair) Moshe gives the following advice, "Do it more easily at the points where it is difficult. Do not try to push more, but at the points where it is difficult, do it more easily, a gentler movement, more slowly. Then, slowly it will organize itself." He does not say, " Do it more easily, a gentler movement, more slowly. Then, slowly you will realize how to organize it." In the contrast between these two statements lies the difference between self organization and self correction: the difference between doing ATM to develop intelligence, or doing ATM to simply feel better for a while or to move properly. In this advanced training we will examine how taking a particular attitude in Awareness Through Movement wakes up and develops our self organizing function. We will examine different uses of conscious attention. How are attention, self awareness and action used differently in self correction and differently in self organization? This is particularly complex for us practitioners. We fall into the double trap of "knowing our patterns" and of thinking we know how "it should be." That self knowledge often leads us to self correct, rather than to scrupulously resist self correction, and engage in the process of self organization. The place we do this the most, is in" self organization" while giving FI. What we call self organization in FI, is usually just self correction. That's why we continue to suffer from bad self organization. Sadly, even good correction can lead to bad self organization! Why? Because, good self organization does not mean proper movement mechanics. Good self organization means using every single moment as a moment in which our system is not so much settling into a solution, as continually seeking improvement. It means staying alive in a process, not finding a result. In AY# 96 (Sinking the spine between the shoulder blades) Moshe says, "Where intelligence is involved, there isn't any limit to the extent to which it can improve. Then, literally, throughout life you will never find a 'best way,' that cannot be improved on. Then when you stop improving, it is a sign that it has become a routine. You are acting mechanically and that is why it is not improving; otherwise there is no limit to improvement." The often asked question in our work is of course, how do I keep the change? If self organization has to do with constant intelligent adjustments to ever changing conditions, then there is nothing to keep. There is a process to become more adept at. A process which must constantly navigate within the known, while being open to discover and incorporate the as yet unknown. These full five days will be devoted to ATM and the ongoing search of and for intelligence. There will be lots to explore and re discover on that subject. I have been wanting to teach an ATM only advanced training for quite a few years, and am thrilled to finally do so. We will "analyze" ATMs from many perspectives: the musculo-skeletal, the functional, the developmental relationship between the ATMs we do, the learning strategies, the development of the self organizing function and the surprise of whatever questions emerge from the group. You will have a chance to follow whatever personal themes you wish to explore at the moment, so that the advanced can serve you in your own growth. You will luxuriate in not having to learn any FI, but the principles we will explore through ATM will inevitably improve your abilities in FI. It will be splendid to really focus on understanding ATMs. If the occasional reference to FI appears, we may give ourselves the permission to follow it.

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Feldenkrais®, Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration® are registered service marks of The Feldenkrais Guild of North America®