In the last post, Learning Your Way to Wellness: It's Not What You Think, I wrote about the difference between a couple of types of learning (intellectual vs. Immersion/experiential). I shared how my transition from pain to wellness required deep immersion learning about myself as a mover. The distinction between studying a movement and studying myself in movement is HUGE. You see, I wasn’t steeping myself in the development of a skill, like a golf swing, a yoga pose, a t’ai chi set, … [Read more...]
Learning Your Way to Wellness: It’s Not What You Think
In the last blog post, I promised we’d take a deeper look at one of the two elements that contain all the details of how I made the transition from pain to wellness using the Feldenkrais MethodⓇ. Those two elements were: Deeply embracing the fact that life is a process Becoming an awesome learner I think that last blog post made it pretty clear that understanding that life is a process paves the way for becoming a better learner. So let’s take a look at this whole notion of … [Read more...]
Finding Wellness Through Holding Better Questions
After a post I wrote called, How the Feldenkrais MethodⓇ Changed One Woman’s Life, a reader, Angie, commented: “Thanks Gisele for sharing your story. It is very inspiring. I’d love to hear more about the transition from pain to wellness, details of how that happened.” [Emphasis mine] The request for the “…details of how that happened” has been in the back of mind ever since. It’s a great question. And one that I’ve been finding difficult to answer simply, to tell you the truth... In my … [Read more...]
Walking With Grace and Ease – It’s Like Floating
In the last post, I wrote about the health benefits of walking, not the least of which was consolidating learning from Awareness Through MovementⓇ and Functional IntegrationⓇ lessons. In it, I hinted at a couple of things that make walking more graceful and effortless. Today’s post is going to quickly make those things clearer. One thing was that walking better was connected to activating your anti-gravity mechanism better. I’ve written about the anti-gravity mechanism before in How To Find … [Read more...]
Walking: A Healthful Path to Simple Elegance
As a FeldenkraisⓇ practitioner, I’m often asked, “What’s the best type of exercise for me to start doing now that I’m feeling better?” I have many clients who’ve had to stop doing most of the activities they used to enjoy because of injury, pain, or illness. Once they start moving and feeling better, they want to start doing more. But…they aren’t sure where to begin. For some, the question comes up because they recognise what they used to do may not have been all that good for them, as … [Read more...]
Breathing: The Key to Moving Better Instantly
"Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?” ~Mary Oliver Breathing is essential. Every inspiration, a reaffirmation of living. Every expiration, a release. You can go a long, long time without eating (on the order of weeks). A surprisingly long time without drinking (I've been shocked to learn just how long through my husband, a palliative care nurse). But breathing? Within about 3 minutes, you'll start having brain damage. And without intervention, it won't take … [Read more...]