Awareness Through Movement #310

Training to sit without leaning on the floor – THE WHOLE SELF

“Change its form, its position, however you want, without any intentional movement. This is difficult to do.
Many people do not distinguish that they are turning the head with the arms.
When you turn the arms, the head will not move.
Muscles are necessary for it to move, they have control.
It is a sign that the person does not distinguish what they are doing if the head goes with this movement.

This is what we need to learn,
how to leave the head hanging behind.”
Moshe Feldenkrais (at some point during this lesson).

Tonight he teaches us to be a bit like a cat.

In many of the lessons thus far we have explored what’s pressing in to the ground as other areas lift. True to Feldenkrais style, there are always cases where what we’ve learned is challenged, and this is one of those lessons.

Tonight instead of pressing in to the ground to lift we will be focussing on the front of the body lifting… from the front. We will be exploring all the ways to move, pressing and lifting simultaneously is one, tonight we add another way to our toolbox.

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Oh, and if anybody has a cat and would like to test this theory out, please let me know how you go!

Apologies for this lesson arriving so late tonight, life took over… well, a pressure cooker has taken over my kitchen. There’s a whole change in benchtops because of this one (big) pot, and it involves an electrician making me late!