Feldenkrais, anyone?

The Feldenkrais Method is defined as "Awareness Through Movement", a practice developed by a man named Moshe Feldenkrais, somewhere around 1930. He used movement as a way of healing his damaged knee. His philosophy is that if you put your awareness into how your body is moving, you shift away from ingrained everyday habits. (just think of the times when you are driving your car, intending to visit a friend, but end up at work instead. Or brushing your teeth - do you really remember turning on the tap? putting toothpaste on your brush?)

Through Awareness of how we move, we force our brains to "pay attention", thereby changing those habitual pathways. Feldenkrais maintains that there is no division between mind and body, so when we have flexible bodies, we have flexible minds.

Does it sound like gobbledigook? Probably it's the way I'm explaining it.

I went to my Feldenkrais class the other day. Sitting on a cushioned chair,we closed our eyes and listened to the "teacher's" instructions.

In this lesson, we were instructed to move our necks to the left, using very small increments. No straining, no stretching. Just these tiny movements. Eyes closed, focusing on my neck and her voice, she next asked us to become aware of the right side of our bodies.
Did our ribcage expand as we were flexing our necks? What was our spine doing? Did our "sit bone" (don't you just love that word?) rise up to help in this movement? Are we remembering to breathe?

What you're not supposed to do is peek at the other people to see what they are doing. You are supposed to be concentrating on how your own body is moving.
So of course I looked over at the lady next to me. Could she bend her neck as far as I could? Hmmmm? The purpose is NOT to stretch. Tiny movements.
But I like stretching!
We went on to flexing our necks to the right, then lifting up the left "sit bone" to make our bodies look like the letter "C". Then the other side. Then opposite neck movement and "sit bone" movement.
Talk about Awareness. You can't possibly do those movements without being Aware.

Ha! I bet I can "move" (read: stretch) my neck more than LadyBesideMe can. Then the teacher will like me more, cause I'm better.
Did I really think that? Was that me thinking like a school kid? Naw, that was Ego peeking out of Pandora's Box.
Of course I ended up with a sore neck the next day.
Absolutely NOT what is supposed to happen after a Feldenkrais class. The object is to heal - not cause pain. Duhhhh.

Oh, and it gets worse - I decided to go swimming after class. More neck movements in the pool. Very smart! (not) Usually, after class I go home and relax. I need some "down time" to integrate the lesson.

Not that day. Let's just say in my war on body fat, I often go overboard on exercise and pay the price later on.
The indoor pool was warm (82 degrees) and on a weekday afternoon, almost empty.
I swam around for a bit, noticed my neck feeling sore, but in my usual fashion - ignored it.

Thinking to exercise my legs a bit more, I took a flutterboard, plopped it in the water, held on and kicked for dear life. I looked around. I wasn't moving. So I kicked harder. Still going nowhere. O.K. - I 'll do a few frog kicks to get some momentum going, then try kicking again.
Hmmm - guess I need more practice at this - another day. Forget the flutterboard. I'll just go back to a leisurely sidestroke.

The next morning I woke up with a throbbing neck.
I went to the fridge, took out a bag of frozen peas and held it against my neck.
Hubby looked up from his newspaper.
"How is your foot pain?" he asked.
Foot pain? I'd forgotten all about that.