Awareness Through Movement Lesson #41

Basic Bending - Differentiation - recording uploaded

There are six planes from which a human can move, up/down, left/right, front and back. Moshe said it was important to be able to move from any direction at any given time. There’s a story of him at a party where he sat on a table and the table top broke, he didn’t fall with it, instead as it collapsed he stood up and continued talking as if nothing had happened. The person who noticed what had happened realised Moshe was true to what he was teaching, it was the moment he decided to study to learn more about the Feldenkrais method. There are many other people who shared about Moshe being in a constant state of readiness, he was alert, aware, even to the degree he always had his passport in a pocket ready in anticipation for the next move.

feldenkrais, rest, bending over backwards for people

Since the training with Mind Body Studies, when I hear “rest” in a lesson I hear it as a state of being rested, like a cat ready to pounce if required.. rather than collapsed into the ground, ready… for sleep, which is how I used to think it.

What difference does it make in the lesson when you hear “rest”, or “notice any changes” between the vast range of variations of movement offered in these lessons? It’s one of the big differences between the two trainings, in the Australian training we were encouraged to rest often, to sleep if we wanted… whereas with the Mind Body Studies Academy, Leora was constantly monitoring our participation to be active in our awareness rather than passive.

With MBS, both during and after each lesson we were invited to be aware of the changes that had occurred so that we could own those differences, to know that it was our movements that made the change.. and now, years later… the counsellor I connect with every two weeks assures me that this awareness is available to us 24/7 - yes even in our sleep.

How do you hear “rest”?

Tonight’s lesson is a basic one.. for bending. How many times have you thought about the WAY you bend? And what does bending (over backwards) for people actually feel like? I have no idea, it’s a thought that arrived with the word “bend”

Below is the recording: