Hidden Gems
You can’t teach anyone anything, you can only create the conditions in which they can learn.
It is necessary to divorce the aim to be achieved from the learning process itself. The process is the important thing and should be aimless.
- Moshe Feldenkrais
At The FP most of our lessons are great for standalone learning. To help listeners dive deeper we also gather lessons by topic, through our collections, Deep Dives, Little Dips, and Related Lessons info.
But choosing a topic isn't always the best way to learn and improve. Exploration without expectation often yields surprising and powerful insights. Getting quiet and curious without anticipating what we'll learn allows new ideas and connections to appear. We often discover that nagging difficulties improve or resolve after seemingly unrelated lessons.
This happens even though – and perhaps because – we didn't pick a specific lesson or series targeting our interests. Sometimes a random or "survey course" approach is the best way to pick lessons, because our learning isn't limited to preconceived ideas about our challenges.
For Patrons
The Patron lessons below are standalone "hidden gems," mostly Patron Treasures that are often overlooked because they're not yet part of any Deep Dive or Little Dip. Organized by newest first. We'll update this list as we add standalone lessons, or integrate them into new courses.
For all users
We have several ways to adventure into non-sequenced study:
- Today's Lesson features standalone free and Patron lessons
- Miscellaneous Free Lessons didn't fit into our free collections
- Bird's Eye View: See all our lessons and pick at random! The Context tab will tell you if there's recommended related study.
Even if you enjoy our courses, from time to time we recommend studying a wide variety of unrelated lessons. You'll keep things fresh, skip the choice fatigue, avoid unintentionally limiting your learning, and perhaps uncover precious, unforeseen rewards – your own hidden gems!
Hidden Gems
Spiraling into Circling the Arm Under (Patrons)
60m
First we review the lesson called A Spiral of Length and Power, then we explore a riddle in the realm of “making the impossible, possible”: from lying on your back, one knee bent, foot engaged to turn you onto your side, how can you become supple enough to learn to circle the arm you’re lying on under your body? Adaptations, kindness, and patience are in the foreground, leading to wonderful new freedoms in your shoulders, ribs, spine, neck, posture, and day-to-day function. At the end, an exploration of simpler actions reinforces your learning – even if you couldn't “do” the whole lesson yet.
Arms in a Hoop, with Continuous Ground Support (Patrons)
63m
Back-lying, feet standing. Explore turning and twisting movements of the shoulders, pelvis, head, and eyes with arms held in a loose hoop in front of you, and find a flowing sense of ground support through your feet and back. Framed by detailed experiments in standing which connect your mat learning to upright life.
Perfecting the Self-Image (Patrons)
64m
Seated, back-lying, and eventually transitioning between, all while holding one foot in two hands. This lesson clarifies how our attention and sensory motor imagination can be consciously harnessed to improve our self-image, options, and behavior, since – as Feldenkrais writes – "We act in accordance with our self-image."
Lifting and Pressing (Patrons)
38m
Relating to the support surface with simple, potent movements designed to promote whole-self awareness and distributed, lengthening efforts as we physically connect to our world.
Advanced Folding (Patrons)
64m
Back-lying, knees bent, drawing the head, elbows, and knees toward each other in different combinations, followed by more advanced variations. Improve the folding and unfolding of the body through refining coordination of the flexor muscles with the simultaneously lengthening extensors. Includes detailed work with the hips and eventually lengthening the hamstrings while flexing elsewhere.
Basic Arching and Folding (Patrons)
59m
Front-lying, improving the organization of the extensor muscles of the back and distributing their efforts. Learning to lift the head and one arm – and later, one leg – away from the ground together. Integrating the eyes with these arching movements. Alternates with back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, basic folding (flexion) movements, as the brain is always coordinating the major flexors and extensors of the body with each other.
The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature (Patrons)
59m
Lying on the belly, knees bent, soles of feet oriented toward the ceiling, learning to tilt the feet to the side in order to integrate the pelvis, the length of the spine, and the ribs and shoulders with various configurations of the head and neck. Also, late in the lesson, discovering the potency of imagined movements.
Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors (Patrons)
60m
Lying on the back, knees bent, one or both feet standing, variations on tilting crossed legs and "triangle" arms/shoulders in order to twist and untwist the torso, learning more awareness, control, and coordination of the major flexors (folding muscles) and extensors (arching muscles).
Where to next?
Our Legacy and Alternate Lessons collection includes a few more Patron lessons that are often overlooked. Or, as mentioned above, check out Today's Lesson or our free collection of Miscellaneous Lessons.
