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.
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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3 Comments. Leave new
That was just what the Dr ordered Nick! thank you so much! been feeling somewhat dizzy all day, but your lesson has released a loaded of tension in my shoulders and hips which in turn released my neck and the dizziness is 99.9% gone! Feldenkrais magic strikes again (-:
Have a lovely Mid-Winter time
All best wishes, Muriel
Hi Nick, I find this lesson so challenging. I fell asleep the first three times I tried it, and I don’t think this is because of the side-lying position. It’s more like it makes me feel all the stuff that my body is carrying in the shoulder region. My shoulders feel very tense and especially to move them backwards is not easy. When I remember not to do an isolated shoulder movement but allow my chest and my head to move with the shoulder, I get a little further, but the whole shoulder chest area on each side feels like a tense lump, rusted together. Do you have any suggestions that might be helpful here. Thank you
Daniela
Thanks for writing about your experience, and doing it where others can benefit from discussion.
The best that Feldenkrais study can do for us will always come through pleasurable learning experiences, so it sounds like you should move on from this lesson for now. After many other lessons that are more immediately easeful and pleasurable to you (and after at least a few weeks), if you’re curious, you could come back later to check on how this one “lands” for you then. Sometimes lessons just aren’t “right” for this moment in time. It may take longer than a few weeks, too.
All that said, it sounds like you’re heading in a healthy direction: you’re making discoveries about yourself, developing working theories about your response, finding a little more ease with more integrated movement. All together my guess is still that not repeating this one right now may be the best choice, but follow your curiosity.
You’re a Feldenkrais Project Member, so you’ve got full access to the lesson notes. Have you checked out the many lessons in the Related Lessons tab above? Perhaps some of those will be more accessible in the short term.
Thanks for your support and, if you wish, let us know how this line of self-discovery goes!