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Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, the lesson below is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only. This and all our audio lessons are 100% donor-supported. Before you begin, read this first for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below. Click the other lesson note tabs if you’re curious.
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21 Comments. Leave new
What a wonderful folding lesson. To connect the folding of the upper torso with the lifting of the foot and the tilting of the pelvis, helped me to engage my lower back in the movement. Never before I felt it that clearly. Thank you! Stephanie
I love how this lesson clarifies the lower back too! As I wrote in the notes, I really am indebted to Mark Reese for his linking of classic folding the torso with the flexion of the feet and pelvis.
I have done a lot of Feldenkrais with many instructors and your lesson are no doubt the best I have experienced. Thank you for sharing these.
I’m so glad you are enjoying and valuing them. Please spread the word!
What a fantastic lesson, I’ve been struggling with various forms of somatic practice, feldenkrais, Alexander etc. believing that there is something there for me that would unlock a lot of tired long term tension, but simply haven’t been able to really tap into anything more then a vague feeling of relaxation, never real change. This lesson was completely different it’s as though I found a new sit-up, a new torso… a new center.
Thank you
Thanks for your comment! I’m so glad to hear you found new ideas and experiences, and I hope you explore many more lessons! Please spread the word.
Great lesson . At the end of a day of standing, this puts me back in a more functional posture and relieves back strain. I breathe more fully too!
This is a lesson that I repeat regularly to center my frame, balance and posture. Each time I repeat, my awareness grows deeper. So do the connections that carry so magically into my walking and increasingly bring lasting relief to chronic back, hip and shoulder pain. Thank you for teaching me how to walk again!
I did the lesson two days ago, because I have an issue in one of my knees. And it worked, my knee hurts less. But I also enjoyed very much the lesson because of the playfulness, originality and creativity. Thanks Nick
That was wonderful, thank you!
That was so . . . . Feldenkrais. . . At first, my upper shoulders/back were working to fold, and at the end no! My lower back area was doing the pressures. It was risky of me because my SCM does a lot of work in sit ups, but it seems to handle well. . . sure I’ll need to repeat this lesson many times.
I have to update. I work up with a sore tight neck from this and tight traps. Obviously I’m straining there even though I’m not aware. When this happens in Feldenkrais, where you lack the awareness and ability to relax those muscles that want to fire, does that mean this lesson is too advanced?? I would love to know about how to be able to get progression in feldenkrais. Because my awareness is very low and coordination in good movements as well. Thanks
Thanks for the update. Sometimes a lesson sends us in a direction before we’re ready to change a particular aspect of our long-held patterns. It’s hard to tell from a distance, but that’s my guess here. For now, I would avoid lessons where you have to lift your head while lying on your back (like this one), or just simulate (imagine) these steps in lessons where this movement comes up but it’s not the primary focus. Lessons with very neck-passive rolling of the head may be helpful, like when you use a palm or back of your hand on your forehead to do the rolling. Also lessons working with pelvis mobility with head awareness: Your Navigational Pelvis comes to mind.
wow you nailed it on the spot. I know they are engraved patterns in me. By sticking to the lessons that you have mentioned, will that with time help me get rid of those patterns, will it be enough to get rid of those long-held patterns?? And how do you know when to try more?? Thanks so much!
Hard to answer in detail from afar (and even in person I can’t predict the future) but these two related principles may help: Feldenkrais learning is powered by your authentic curiosity, and therefore there’s little learning value to rote movement. So if you feel safe, engaged, joyful, comfortable, and better after particular lessons, by all means you can stick with only a very few lessons. But as soon as you’re feeling not so sure about those things or a little bored, it may be time to venture out into other lessons. Done small and lightly enough (even in your imagination) any lesson can inspire curiosity, expand awareness, and be beneficial to anyone. I see you’re a Member, so you can use the Related Lessons tabs on lessons you love to help you follow lines of learning that are working well for you.
Thanks so much. That was very helpful info
Could you do more lessons on this? One of my ankles has a tough time with this. I twisted it years ago and it seems to be perpetually twisted in towards the arch. It has improved with this lesson but I’m wondering if other ankle or foot lessons would also be helpful.
Besides the foot-related lesson mentioned in the Related Lessons tab, there are several in this first collection (Lessons for Standing, Walking, and Running) which address the organization of the feet and ankles. Check out the lesson descriptions for mentions of feet, or simply work your way through the whole series. You may also be interested in the use of the feet in Lesson 3 of our introductory Getting Oriented series.
Hi Nick, although I’ve done this lesson a few times, it always amazes me how much more I discover each time! and how much taller I feel when I stand up after! thank you so much for this!
I found quite some benefit in spine awareness thinking of this as spine like a chain backwards. Some of the areas below the shoulder blades became freer in a way I couldn’t achieve in the chain lesson.
Wanderf teaching as always! Thank you again and again for being amaizing inspitation to my practice of lerning , intergrating lesson into my own body and making teaching comunity class easy and clear 🙏
Dorota