Gathering the Spine, Stepping Down

Back-lying, side-lying, and transitioning into side-lying, refining and harnessing your image of your spine's bias and action as it relates to (and powers) the stepping down of your feet. All toward reorganizing your gait.

More Challenging  back-lying  side-lying  transitioning or rolling 

62m
Save
Favorite
What's this?
Share
Join the FP

The Feldenkrais Project's 50+ free lessons, including the one below, are a crowd-funded labor of love. We are proud to be ad-free and 100% funded by our listeners.

We need your help to share Feldenkrais as widely as possible! In 2023 we had $34,000 of direct expenses, in addition to Nick’s 20 hours per week of Feldenkrais Project work. Donations pay Nick and fund our technology and part-time staff as we maintain the website, add new lessons and features, connect with our users, and spread the word.

Please donate to support our work. Become a Patron for $21/month or less and access 75+ more lessons, all for about what you'd pay for a single in-person Feldenkrais class! Or become a Member for as little as $3/month. Learn more

Before you begin read this for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below.

Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, this lesson is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only.

Tip – LESSS is more

LESSS is more: Light, Easy, Small, Slow, & Smooth movements will ease pains and improve your underlying neuromuscular habits faster than any other kind of movement, no matter who you are or what your training is!

Tip – Join!

Join the Project! Members and Patrons see streamlined lesson pages, and can access My Journey (the and above), and the Related Lessons tab below.

Tip – skip a lesson

Study tip: If you can’t find a comfortable way to do the initial movements or configuration of a lesson, it’s ok to skip it for now and go on to another lesson.

Tip – Technical Difficulties

Tech tip: If you have any trouble with the audio player, reboot your browser. That solves most issues. If not, please contact Nick.

Tip – What’s New

Community tip: See what Nick and other Felden-fans are interested in right now. Check out What’s New at the bottom of our homepage for recent blog posts and listener comments.

Tip 3 – Head Support

Study tip: It helps to have a large bath towel nearby when you start a lesson. You can fold it differently for comfortable head support in any configuration.

Browser/device size and audio player

Tech tip: On mobile or tablet? Once you start playing the audio, your device’s native playback controls should work well.

Tip – Pause the recording

Study tip: If you’re really enjoying a movement and want to explore longer, or you just need a break for a while, pause the recording!

Tip 1 – Interrupted?

Study tip: Interrupted or don’t have enough time? You can return to the lesson later today or tomorrow. Read how best to continue your learning on our FAQ page.

Tip – what to wear

Study tip: Wear loose, comfortable clothes that are warm enough for quiet movement. Remove or avoid anything restrictive like belts or glasses.

Tip – Rewinding

Study tip: Many instructions are repeated. If you get a little lost, rest and listen. You’ll often find your way. Or use the rewind button on the page or your mobile device.

Tip – Lesson names

What’s in a lesson title? Lessons are about an hour unless a shorter duration is shown in the title. Thanks to our donors they’re freely offered unless marked “Patrons” – those are how we thank our Patron-level donors.

Tip 2 – Social Sharing

Project tip: Try the social buttons below. Please help us to achieve our vision: spreading the life-changing benefits of Feldenkrais study as widely as possible!

Tip 5 – Discomfort

Study tip: If a configuration or movement causes any increase in discomfort, or you feel you just don’t want to do it, don’t! Make it smaller and slower, adapt it, or rest and imagine.

Tip – Comments

Project tip: Leave a lesson comment below! It’s a great way to give feedback or ask a question, and it helps google find us so we can achieve The Feldenkrais Project’s vision!

Tip – Directions are Relative

Study tip: Directions are always relative to your body. For example, if you’re lying on your back “up” is toward your head, and “forward” is toward the ceiling.

Tip 4 – Padding

Study tip: Comfort first! Carpeted floors usually work well, but it’s great to have an extra mat or blanket nearby in case you need a softer surface in some configurations.
  • Comfort & Configuration
  • Curiosities
  • Context
  • Related Lessons
  • Source
  • Download
  • For a variety of reasons this lesson is a bit more challenging than most other Feldenkrais Project lessons. It’s fine for all who have at least a little ATM experience, especially if you’ve explored your way through earlier lessons in this collection.
  • Early in the lesson you’re asked to extend your arm “overhead,” and “overhead on the floor.” As always in my ATMs, these directions are relative to YOU. Since you’re lying on your back at the time, overhead means on the floor, not extended into the air toward the ceiling (which is in front of you, not overhead). If this isn’t comfortable for your arm it can be on the floor out to the side as much as is necessary for it to be restful, rather than straight upwards on the floor.

Here at the end of our collection called Learning the Limbs, from the Center, we directly explore how our most proximal, central structure (the spine) powers our legs and gait.

Learning to sense and use your primary spinal bias to your advantage in day-to-day movements is profoundly important work that can lead to significant quality of life improvements.

This bias is introduced and explored in our collection called Lessons for Freeing the Spine, Chest, Shoulders, and Neck. You can also find a bias study opportunity earlier in this collection in the Arms Like a Skeleton, with a Bias lesson.

This lesson is found in the collection called Learning the Limbs, from the Center.

Like most of our lessons, this one can be studied out of context, but you may find additional learning value by approaching it in the order of the collection it’s in.

It can also be found in our Deep Dive called Supple Feet, Powerful Legs.

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

Members and Patrons. Learn more or login:

Tried It? Liked It?

If you like what you heard...

  1. Join the Project! You’ll support our free lessons while enjoying awesome donor benefits
  2. Sign up for our twice monthly newsletter featuring free lessons and new lessons
  3. Spread the word: Simply copy this page's web address to share this free lesson

Got a question for Nick, or a thought about this lesson?

Use the comments section below! Public comments build our community and help search engines find us.

horizontal-squiggle

6 Comments

  1. Joan Haan on June 26, 2016 at 8:57 pm

    Understood it better. Really noticed “long islands” as a result.
    Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Julia Pace on November 28, 2019 at 6:10 pm

    Hi Nick. This lesson must be important to me, bc it is not easy for me to make it easy. I have a very strong extension bias, and my whole lower back never rests on the floor as I lie on my back – the right side more active than the left (right foot surgery as an infant). As this lesson involves initiating action with both legs long, I am not able presently to find a way to allow my lower back to rest comfortably on the ground. Not having the floor to inform me I found I can feel very little regarding how I use my lower back, or even where it is in space. I can control it to a small extent, but it is not effortless. So, here’s my question: I have been placing a small, soft folded towel under my lower back, which touches my body gently, but does not push on it, so I can bring the floor up to my back (if Moses doesn’t go to the mountain…). I have found it very helpful, but I would like to hear your thoughts about it. And my apologies for the long long comment. JP

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on December 9, 2019 at 4:37 pm

      I appreciate the fine detail of this question, and I think your alteration sounds very wise. We do what we do in Feldenkrais to generate sensation, which requires lowering the effort, insisting on comfort, and plenty of safe and pleasant and interesting and varied stimulation, which I believe you’ve added to with the towel. As I imagine what I understand from your comment I also find myself thinking of you cultivating great length and breath through your lower back and waist as you look for these initiations. That’s a self-image challenge, since any trying for length and breath will actually reduce both. Finally, I agree with your conclusion: the lessons that are most difficult for us are often the most important. Of course that never means there’s a rush to achieve something with them. Quite the opposite, actually, even more so than usual!

      Reply
  3. Lorraine on January 22, 2021 at 4:17 pm

    This was my first Feldenkrais lesson after a week in hospital. It was so wonderful to lie on the floor and let myself focus on myself. Because I was not feeling well, I had a little more opportunity to try less. Such a wonderful way to speed recovery!

    Reply
  4. Deb on August 27, 2023 at 3:18 pm

    Haven’t done this lesson in quite a while. What a trip down memory lane remembering how hard I tried during those first times. What a lesson in attitude towards life.
    Thank you so much for doing this.

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on August 30, 2023 at 10:14 am

      Isn’t it amazing how lessons seem to change over time? Of course it’s us who are always changing…. I appreciate your commenting on the long view of experience with a lesson. Happy for you – and all of us – when we sense we’re discovering over time the value and learning of less effort!

      Reply

Leave a Comment