Human movement starter kit
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.
With this “scooping” movement, you will learn how to avoid straining your back every time you stand your feet. It is one of the first lessons taught in all Feldenkrais trainings, often called “frog legs.” I call it the “ice cream scoop lesson” because the legs move like scooping ice cream out of a carton.
These movements are slow and luxurious, calming the breath, relieving the hips, and softening any strain you might have in the low back.
For more soothing hip lessons, see Free your hips in the Seven Best series.
Flexion lessons are a go-to pattern for me when I’m feeling hunched over or contracted, especially in my low back. They help with breathing, digestion, balance, and weight shifting. Plus, when the musculature in front and back is more coordinated, you actually feel stronger and taller. You are now able to use the muscles that were over-contracted and busy!
As I tell my students, don’t listen to me, find out for yourself.
For more like this, see Basic flexion in Fundamentals.
Reorganizing the pattern of your back muscles distributes the work and reduces fatigue. Efficient human movement stems from a proportional distribution of work. If the signal is jammed at the source, so to speak, your power does not reach your limbs and you strain to compensate.
Extension helps you feel upright and balanced. I love these lessons because they wake up connections in my back I don’t always access, helping me to bring more of my whole self to every movement.
For more like this, see Extension lessons in Fundamentals.
Rotation lessons unwind and lengthen your spine in amazing ways. If you do this lesson with delicacy and monitor the constraints (like keeping your head and hand in the same plane), you will improve dramatically. Just let the lesson “do you” rather than try to impose what you think you “should” be doing onto the lesson.
Note: This lesson is on the side so have a folded towel nearby for your head.
For more like this, see Twisting lessons in Fundamentals.
This version of seesaw breathing invites you to see your breathing as dynamic and responsive. Feldenkrais lessons will never tell you the “correct” way to breathe because every situation in life is different, requiring immediate dynamic adjustments. The more responsive your breathing is, the more resilient you can be in any situation in life.
For more like this, see Responsive breathing under Breathe for life.
This lesson is one of the “jelly pudding” lessons. (Dr. Feldenkrais lived in England during WWII where dessert is called pudding and because jelly jiggles, he started calling these jelly pudding.)
It makes sense as it’s a kind of oscillating through the bones, which brilliantly sneaks around our often flawed conscious self-direction. It elicits the natural support mechanisms of the musculature along the spine to help with balance and upright resting on the bones. My students love “jelly pudding!” It’s especially good if you have any upper back or shoulder issues, or if you want to unravel tightness along the spine.
For more like this, see the oscillating lessons under A healthy spine and More healthy spine.
Keeping your spine supple in every plane—side bending, rotation, and flexion/extension—is vital for high-functioning movement. I love this lesson because it unravels places where I didn’t even know I was holding, and it has such an impact on breathing! Plus, side bending is a fundamental aspect of human movement.
For more like this, see Side bending under Fundamentals.
This lesson rolls you up to sit with a lovely sense of spiraling over the hip.
The principle of counter-balancing the head and pelvis can be applied to everything from getting out of bed to getting off the couch, and to every Feldenkrais lesson as you come to sit and stand. Once you sense the pivot point of the spiral, you can apply it throughout your life. In fact, it is a fundamental skill repeated over and over in Feldenkrais training.
(Spiraling is the most efficient trajectory for moving through space: Throwing a baseball has an elbow spiral, a football spiraling through the air is more precise, a bullet spins as it shoots, plus spirals are pervasive in the natural world.)
For more lessons like this, see 435, 436, 437 under Sit to stand, lying down to stand. Also Counterbalance 1 & 2.
“The present is the time in which we live, and what we do with our present selves is the most important thing. For the past is carried into the future through our present selves; what we do now is the most important factor for tomorrow. If we do nothing to change our emotional pattern of behavior, tomorrow will resemble yesterday in most details except the date.”
