Our Little Dips explore a theme of Feldenkrais learning, then illustrate it with one or more lessons. They always include at least one free lesson. Little Dips are first published in our newsletter.
Happy summer!
I’m on a “semi-sabbatical” for the month of July, then on family vacation the first week of August. During this time I’ll take a break from one-to-one teaching, email, and my heavy computing responsibilities at The FP. I will teach The FP Weekly Class most weeks, develop future content for the site, and respond to public comments on lesson pages. Our wonderful Community Support Assistant, Eileen Schaubert, will respond to emails sent to me.
I’m excited about the learning ahead of me: I’ll be joining my wife, Jen, on her clergy sabbatical. We’ll explore the remarkable links between Feldenkrais learning principles and a 1,000 year old habit-changing Jewish contemplative tradition, Mussar.
Below I’ve included inspiration from Felden-fans who report on the effects of regular study, including a letter from a new Patron at the bottom of the post. You’ll also find many Feldenkrais lesson resources.
Perhaps you’ll pursue your own deep study! If you do, let us know what you discover in the comments below.
– Nick Strauss-Klein
Deep Study at The FP
Just finished the free lessons in order in about 6 months. I just wanted to thank you Nick for this great journey. I think I will revisit all of them at some point.
– Tomai Koch
We currently offer 55 free lessons, so Tomai averaged 2+ lessons per week! Some people study even more often:
The free lessons gave me a chance to try out doing 3 to 4 per week—something I could never do if I was paying for each lesson. The Patron level allows me to sustain that without running out of things to explore.
– PG (read more below)
PG is enjoying our 100 additional lessons for Patrons. Of course most people study less often than 3-4 times per week, but the benefits of regular study are still big.
A once-a-week Felden-fan in our Pay-What-You-Can Class recently shared:
I’m so pleased with how often I notice my sense of groundedness and lifting up and through in regular life. It makes difficult situations easier.
– JS
Whatever your current engagement with Feldenkrais, consider joining me in studying more often for a month. Feel for yourself the wide-ranging benefits!
There are many ways to study deeply at The FP:
- Commit to doing Today’s Lesson more often.
- Or work through one of our themed collections.
- You might complete one of our Deep Dives, or a explore few “Little Dips” of focused study.
- Or try the short sequences recommended below!
Tight on time? Try to do, in one week or less, two or more of our 30+ short lessons—then see how you feel!
And don’t forget, if you become a Member or Patron (for as little as $3) you can keep track of your played, saved, and “faved” lessons on My Journey.
Here are two powerful short sequences of lessons to get you started on studying more deeply.
Lifting Up and Through Sequence
ALWAYS FREE
Lifting Up and Through
MEMBERS AND PATRONS BONUS VIDEO
Lifting Up and Through 2: Organizing Your Feet
MEMBERS AND PATRONS BONUS VIDEO
Lifting Up and Through 3: Buttocks and Buoyancy
To dive even deeper into this material, check out Grounding for Liftoff
Two Patron Lessons:
Pelvis Lifting and Rotating on Its Axis
Part 1 and Part 2
Unlock profound ease for your chest, spine, and hips in this challenging and rewarding Moshe Feldenkrais original. To develop an image for the unusual movements of your pelvis you’ll first get to know the difference between rolling and rotating your head.
This got me to a place inside myself I feel like I’ve never been.
– Stephen Stern
The ‘doing’, becomes more fluid, more natural and freed of deep-seated anxiety after these lessons.
– Julie Turner [more reflections from Julie]
Feldenkrais professionals: Together these lessons are Nick’s rendering of Alexander Yanai lesson #43, “Lifting the pelvis on standing feet”.
Letter from a New Patron
One of the students quoted above sent much more detail in her email about her experience studying a lot of Feldenkrais. Some fascinating wisdom here, shared with her permission.
Hi Nick,
I’m just writing to say a HUGE thank you for the Feldenkrais Project. I’ve spent much of my adult life largely homebound/bedbound by chronic illness and have recovered enough in recent years that I’ve been facing the challenge of how to move and operate well. Fundamental retraining. I’ve done lots of things over lots of years and have gotten many benefits from other systems. But ATM/Feldenkrais is so well suited to where I am now. I haven’t found much that’s really helpful at that integration level.
I started with a local teacher and a live class (in addition to some one-on-one work). And then I realized I needed to do it much more often than a weekly lesson to get the benefits I was looking for.
So yay for the Feldenkrais Project! It allowed me to start with short basic lessons, skip things I knew would be too hard for me, start one and decide it wasn’t right then start another, do it when the time is right for me, etc. Plus I think I’m better at sticking to my limitations when it’s just me and the audio. And the free lessons gave me a chance to try out doing 3 to 4 per week—something I could never do if I was paying for each lesson. The Patron level allows me to sustain that without running out of things to explore.
The project really does make this work accessible in a powerful way. Thank you.
Best,
PG