This lesson progresses from common Feldenkrais lesson movements to uncommon ones. Throughout, remember LESSS is more: light, easy, soft, slow, and smooth movements are the quickest way to learn and improve.
When you’re invited to lay one arm loosely overhead on the floor, feel free to let it be as wide as necessary for your comfort, even perpendicular to your body if needed. Palm up is helpful if available.
Be particularly gentle and curious in later variations as an unusual coordination is described: you’ll learn to move a shoulder backward while turning your head away from it, and eventually inclining your head to look a little upward too, if it’s comfortable. Don’t stretch or strain. Only do what’s truly pleasant.
Shifting our intention toward gathering the ground’s support and clarity up into ourselves as we act, instead of pushing against the ground, can be profoundly helpful for learning to feel and function better in all we do.
It’s a way of tuning in to a natural phenomenon. Biomechanics teaches that ground reaction forces push up through us, equal and opposite to our weight and acceleration (movement). Or, in the language of Tai Chi, we “borrow” from the earth when moving.
This is a more potent functional conception of grounding than thinking of moving down into our feet with each step, or pushing down into the earth as we act.
A “homework” project, for after you’ve done this lesson
In many Feldenkrais lessons with this one knee bent, lifting the hip movement, you are directed to push your foot into the ground.
Over the years I’ve come to believe that thinking of lifting up and through ourselves (instead of pushing down and into the earth) is a better cue for learning to organize effective action.
I recommend exploring how lessons with similar movements change when you emphasize lifting away from your foot, instead of pushing with it.
Try lifting up instead of pushing down in any of the hip cues of our “self-hug” lessons or our “arms like a skeleton” lessons. You can search for those phrases here.
Patrons can try lifting instead of pushing with The Power of One Foot (22 or 36 min, Patrons) and other lessons linked in that lesson’s Related Lessons tab.
This is #6 in our free collection called Lying Down Lessons for Better Posture, Walking, and Running.
“Last week” is lesson #1 (Free Your Torso) in that same collection. It’s not a prerequisite, but you might wish to review it before or after exploring this one.
Lessons 2-5 have been placed between them because they are great preparation for the essential learning of Lifting Up and Through.
Members and Patrons: Continue your learning with Lifting Up and Through 2, a companion video lesson with screen share illustrations, and Lifting Up and Through 3. The whole Lifting Up and Through sequence appears in our Deep Dive called Grounding for Liftoff.
This lesson was recorded on June 13, 2023 in a Zoom course called Walking with Your Whole Self.
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Especially loved the experience of using the shoulders to pinch the floor inwards and the set up of the ankles/knees. Feeling very uplifted. Find that I ‘refuse’ to experience the downward sense in standing/walking at the end – it just feels too good to head that way again!
I loved how I could lift my pelvis (‘bridge pose’) much more easily at the end of the lesson, vs the beginning – and that I could trace it to aligning my hips, shoulders, whole body, to support the movement – rather than just using my lower back!
Thank you. Just what I needed today !
Are there lessons that help develop the “pinching” of the helping shoulder blade?
Yes, that’s in some ways the most unfamiliar ingredient for most folks. You can explore any lesson designed to mobilize the scapulas, perhaps especially in the opposite direction if bringing them toward your spine is hard to find. Search for “self-hug,” or just browse our Jaw, Neck, and Shoulders Deep Dive.
I also really like Effortless Arms and Shoulders (Patrons) and many other lessons in this Deep Dive for finding new sensations and movements in the scapulas.
The piece I especially loved was the feeling of my rib cage opening incoming forward and up. Images of birds preparing for flight flitted through my mind.
Just did Spiraling into Circling the Arm Under (Patrons) which is linked back to this and loved the extreme freedom of the upper chest/neck that arises. I’ll come back to this one again to explore how it was affected. Thank you so much for the suggestions of related lessons. You give us such a rich, developing experience!
Thanks for calling out the Related Lessons tabs. They may be the offering of The FP I’m most proud of! The whole website is a love letter to ATM study, and the connections between lessons are a crucial part of my own personal development as I study Feldenkrais. I wanted to share that joy with others.
This is the third time I’ve done this lesson and it’s my favorite and magical. I have foot drop in both feet and neuropathy in my legs. This lesson truly lifts me up and through to feel a lightness in my frequently feeling “heavy” legs. By lifting my sternum, noticing my shoulder blades and spine, and receiving from the floor, I am lighter!! Thank you!
I’m glad it’s helpful! Thanks for sharing that with me and all our listeners! Very inspiring!