Awareness Through Movement #90

Lengthening Arms - Indian style - GOING SLOWLY - Recording Added

Number 90 is a continuation of last night’s lesson. There are a few of these scattered through the manuals, Moshe had a strong exploration with lessons softening the neck:

It is necessary to see that the person notices what he or she is doing, and not that the person notices a mistake and continues. You should stop the moment you feel [an interruption]. How can you learn anything if you continue the movement [after the interruption]? You should stop the moment you lose balance and see what you did that wasn't in order. Otherwise, you can do this a million times, and it still will be disordered. Whoever thinks they can succeed by decision, deceives themselves. The person, in order to learn something new, needs to know what he is doing.

Moshe Feldenkrais, lesson #90 Alexander Yanai series

Maybe he was unscrewing our heads to put them back on… a little more sensibly?

it's complicated

There’s a lot going on in this area we call a ‘neck’… these images are purely for the muscles, then think of.. speaking, swallowing, breathing, digesting, coughing, singing, gargling, bending, twisting, rotating, flexing, extending… and all that is involved to have these functions available to us daily. Veins arteries, tubes, nerves, glands, fascia, tendons, ligaments, the fine vertebral bones and all they offer.

Put your hands around the neck area to get a sense of the size, it’s a little bigger than the lumbar spine (about 10-15%), with a similar similar shape.. and yet it has all these functions. Perhaps bringing these images to mind during the lesson could change the experience.. to know what you’re ‘playing’ with.

The day after, more thoughts on this lesson.. this area at the base of the skull, where he continually reminds us to PLACE the thumb, there’s a groove that seems like it’s designed for our thumbs to fit.. this is where practitioners seek to connect with peoples’ bodies during an FI. This is what I’ve done in both of the training’s, sought those areas so that the action of feeling for patterns makes introducing more movement a comfortable and confident shift for the client. There is a stronger likelihood of the two parties involved acting as one.

Due to the complicated nature of this area it’s REALLY important to be delicate and soft with the movements.

Link below: