Do this first: Slide the legs
This lesson explains more about the method and what you’re doing. Plus, you’ll bring your feet to stand like this in every lesson to improve the hips and save the low back. It’s a good skill!
New here? Read “How to do a lesson.”
Why is this an audio file? Read “Why don’t you demonstrate?”
The ice-cream scoop move, as I call it, will save your legs and hips from endless and unnecessary strain. Plus, it helps you identify how to use your hips to maximum effect—as a true ball and socket instead of a hinge, as in the knee or elbow. These movements are slow and luxurious, calming the system and easing strain. Use the ice-cream scoop to bring the feet to stand in all Feldenkrais lessons.
If you like this lesson, check out free your hips in the Seven Best series.
To begin
Get a blanket. Lie down on the floor. The bed is too squishy.
Make yourself comfortable: a folded towel under the head? A rolled blanket under the knees?
Attend to yourself in a deep, almost meditative way.
Move gently. Do not struggle against yourself.
Do not do reps. Stop when your attention drifts. Bring it back or rest.
Only do what feels comfortable and easy. Your nervous system does not learn if you are mean to it.
Stop before anything is uncomfortable.
If something is uncomfortable, do less, imagine it, or rest.
If something is still uncomfortable, change the trajectory, change the initiation point, or change where you soften.
Give yourself permission to stop and rest. There is wisdom in resting.
Do not worry whether you're doing it correctly. Just go through the movements and let the lesson unfold. It is through the variations that you reclaim your intelligence. It will happen whether you want it to or not.
For more background, read the FAQs.
“When a person continues to use a stereotyped pattern of behavior instead of one suitable to the present reality, the learning process has come to a standstill.”