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Active sitting – February 2010

In a reversal of millennia of evolutionary development, human beings now spend most of their work (and leisure) time sitting. This “intensive passivity” is a kind of marathon in terms of the demands it places on us—but we don’t see it that way. Sitting seems obvious, the easiest and laziest thing to do. In this month of classes we’ll find the resources in our feet, pelvis, and spine to sit truly effortlessly, while maintaining our freedom to act from the core. This month’s series of Feldenkrais lessons will be especially helpful for anyone who spends work or leisure time at a desk or computer, for those who sit to meditate, and for musicians who play or sing in sitting.

This series may also be a good follow-up to the January Yoga Help series on working at your desk.

You can attend the full month of classes on the theme for the full experience, or drop in as your schedule permits. Contact the Yoga Loft at 429-3330 for info and registration.

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January 2010

Hello everyone, and happy new year! (It it’s a new year for you, that is.)

Ron’s taking on the theme of Discovering the Center and the Self this month, starting on Wednesday at the Yoga Loft.

Don’t miss the workshop Sunday, January 10 (1-3 pm) on Breath, Posture, and Voice–Call the Loft at 429-3330 to register. Description here: http://kinesophics.ca/feldenkrais_halifax/breath_posture_and_voice

December’s lessons around the theme “Distributing the work–Finding your healthy spine” are posted here: http://kinesophics.ca/feldenkrais_halifax/distributing_work_finding_your_healthy_spine_december_2009. The series became much more about differentiating and bringing alive the front of the body than our usual “back there” sense of the spine as behind us.

-Lynette

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Tilting the ear to the shoulder

The last two classes (On the side, the sternum becoming flexible and On the Side, Bending and twisting the chest and spine) had everyone in class talking about our lack of clarity in side-bending. First, what it is when simply standing or lying flat on the floor, to maintain the face in the same plane in sidebending. Then, second, what it means in the twisted configurations of those lessons. This lesson was a chance to explore a detail that was fascinating to the group.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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On the Side, Bending and twisting the chest and spine

Oddly enough, this lesson takes place largely lying on the back. So “on the side” doesn’t refer to the position of the lesson. This lesson follows on the lesson On the side, the sternum becoming flexible, which “really is” on the side. That lesson achieves some amazing differentiation of the abdominal muscles in light of deep reflexes; this one continues around the torso, rebalancing the work of the abdominals and the back extensors. Between working on these two lessons this month, I got more for myself around Moshe’s idea of the chest hanging off the spine than I ever have from ATM before (it’s usually a post-FI feeling from a great practitioner, one that is tantalizingly transformational, but that I can’t find again after a few weeks). We embarked on a month of the spine, and I ended the month feeling I knew the function and freedom of the abdominal muscles beyond anything I’ve done before.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Breath, posture, and voice

A Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement workshop, Sunday January 10, 2010, 1 – 3 pm.

Finding the support of your skeleton—the essence of “good posture”—transforms your breathing and changes your voice. Conversely, by exploring how we breathe, we explore and transform our habitual posture. In this pair of Feldenkrais lessons, we will use breath and voice to find skeletal support, and use movement to transform postural holding and hence open up our breathing and voice.

At the Yoga Loft, Suite 301, 5663 Cornwallis St. (off the Commons–see Google maps). Advance registration required. Call 429-3330 for more information about costs and to register.