Amazing toes
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This lesson always gets a few smiles, and even some giggles. You really will interlace the toes, which will enhance your ability to balance and walk. (It’s also excellent for golfing, believe it or not, because of the way the foot turns as you swing. It's also great for surfers who balance on a board.)
It’s worth learning this skill, not least because it will highlight the places where your feet could benefit from more movement. And don’t forget to smile.
(Amherst, June 11, 1981)
This lesson has amazing repercussions as you construct the image of the way the foot lands on the floor in your inner representation. For some people, the foot can start to feel huge! Bringing attention to anything creates brighter, more detailed responses in the brain. See how this affects you as you walk with such a clear foot.
The other benefit is a tremendous letting go of tension through the calf, ankle, and foot itself. Often the muscles of the foot are short, and this inhibits our ability to fully roll across it. This lesson will start to soften the foot.
Note this is done with the right leg. You can always do it with the left if you wish, but do it one-sided as taught to highlight the sensory differences. (If this bugs you, see lesson #2 in the series, below, as it switches side to side.)
Tip: If it is challenging to bring the leg to the height of the hip as described, get a large, rolled up blanket to put under your thigh. The leg needs to be at the height of the hip.
For more like this, see the whole nine-lesson series, Leg swing and footprint, under Longer series from trainings. Leg swing and footprint, under Longer series from trainings.
AY380
I give this lesson to everyone with tight calves, balance issues, and difficulty coming to stand without pain.
The neutral ankle is elusive for most of us. The nice thing about our nervous system is that when we move between the ends of the joint, there is a natural settling in the mid-range of comfort. This lesson helps walking, swinging the leg, and feeling more comfortable standing and resting the weight evenly through the joints.
This is a phenomenal lesson that addresses tension across the foot by bending and pressing the toes in different ways. The toes are remarkable in their ability to affect the tone throughout your whole self. This is also wonderful for anyone who's had foot surgery, or who has lingering neuropathy along one leg or foot.
Note that this lesson is done with the right foot. Feel free to do it with the left, but only one foot at a time to notice the difference.
Feel free to sit in a chair for the parts that are in sitting. Play with this lesson, and then continue to play with your toes, all the time. (My feet “grew” almost a whole shoe size in my four-year Feldenkrais training, only because they became less contracted!)
AY36
A thorough overview of every relationship of the knees, ankle, toes, and hips. This lesson tests many different angles, tilts, circles, with different kinds of timing and coordination. It’s a disciplined and delicate lesson, requiring both attention and intention.
I like these kinds of lessons as I appreciate how I can explore the demands of the lesson within the parameters of my own sensations. How can I keep this constraint and still honor where I’m at?
AY425
Even more cardinal directions of the ankles. It’s worth doing to feel how you walk afterwards!
This is one version of the first of the “book on the foot” lessons. You will bend the ankle, knee, and hip many ways and then test dropping the foot on the floor. You'll be surprised how much looser and freer the leg feels after exploring all the angles and trajectories of bending.
You might want a folded towel or an actual book to put on your foot for this. Or you can certainly do the whole lesson without anything on your foot.
Tip: I use hardcover children’s books as they’re broad and not too heavy when they fall—and they will fall! Do not use a paperback. It’s fine to start with a thick bath towel as it’s easier to maneuver at first. Experiment with the sensation of weight on the foot, and gradually add more. If whatever item you choose is too light, it won’t provide adequate feedback.
For the whole seven-lesson series, see Book on the foot under Longer series from trainings.
“In the course of our lives, we may be called upon to make enormous efforts-sometimes beyond what we believe we can produce. There are situations in which we must pay no heed to what the enormous effort entails. We often have to sacrifice our health, the wholeness of our limbs and body, to save our life. Obviously, then, we must be able to act swiftly and powerfully.
The question is, wouldn’t we be better equipped for such emergencies by making our efforts efficient in general, thus enabling us to exert ourselves less and achieve our purpose economically?”