Sunday June 27:

Taking Off Your Mask

The world is starting to open again. Are you ready?

Read what people are saying about my classes...

Tapping into creative capacities...

- For me, as a person that moves a lot, takes a lot of dance classes, you can get this pattern into your body. And then while doing the Feldenkrais practice, you can have a sensation of letting go. It brings your body new information and it gives you a certain freshness that you can explore. We have this possibility, with our attention, with our awareness to try out new experiences.

- It felt like such a warm wash on the nervous system ...and then there was this self-honoring and creativity.

- I've done the pelvic clock a handful of times now and I would say that may have been my richest experience of it, just this kind of explosion into infinity with circles. 

- After I started imagining water in the torso and just moving it with my joints, it became more flexible. Something happened, because of the imagination and exploring the different kind of bendings. I took a fashion illustration course and we were drawing these little circles around the shoulders and the pelvis, and moving the figures - and I felt like that. I could feel the connection from the back and the front. It was challenging, but at the end, it was so rewarding.

- A very beautiful moment to experience how the thinking, how the visualization has a response at the muscular level, how it responds in our face and in our eyes.

Clarity of mind...

- A really wonderful way to get to that sort of mental state or psychic state of really feeling like I was in the moment, and it carries through. That's a really nice feeling and something good to remember throughout the rest of our day.

- At first, it was challenging. I didn't want to think about it, but later, I noticed: I'm in the flow. I got more curious. I felt more self-compassion because I wasn't forcing myself. This is the biggest takeaway for me, to be curious, but not forcing something.

- My biggest constraint is in my mind. That's what I learned today.

Emotional regulation...

- This is exactly what I needed today! With this virus stuff - it's like a gravity that's been pulling me away from me. So I'm really glad to say that, at least for a while, I have been free of that gravity and I can return to the gravity of the human body.

- There's a little more sense of dignity as I stand and I feel more support from my skeletal structure, more ease.

- It felt like an infinite world that just opened up. Instead of looking at my hip as the problem, the curiosity was more powerful. So I was very grateful for that.

- It's amazing to me. Things that don't serve anymore, things that get fiery in us - they just settle down a little bit more. Things that I think that are never going to go away, actually disappear.

-  When I'm stressed, I tend to not pay a lot of attention to my body. The classes have been wonderful for me with respect to reminding me that I can slow down, that I can breathe, that not every movement has to be rushed or large, that I can take time to explore rather than just to react in the moment.

Deeper connections...

- I feel that the body becomes a channel or a vehicle to connect with my past. While we are making some movements, memories come up. I noticed that when I feel more grounded, I feel my connection with my past experiences. 

- I have a better sense of the boundaries of my body. I was sensing the boundaries of the space of my inner body. It helps me to ground myself and really know the space I'm occupying. It makes me feel more alive. I can feel the needs of my body better.

- I had a sense that the space was really three dimensional and really wide. I felt freedom in my whole body and the breathing also changed. I feel very stable and very well connected to the space around me.

- When I feel most clearly in connection with my body, I'm most in presence - and that place of complete presence feels like a sacred space. It feels like a place where I'm most receptive to my own experience and the experience around me, which makes the ground feel really fertile for possibility. That, for me, is a way of connecting with spirit or something greater than myself.

- I feel like I've attempted what we were doing before, either through Feldenkrais or Qigong or other energy flow movements, but I've never had it work quite as effectively. So I was really there today and that was just beautiful. I actually felt a flow up and a flow down, as in a circle of lighter energy going up and down. That was just wonderful.

More ease and efficiency in movement...

- I went for a run right afterwards, and I often get this tenderness in my hamstring attachments, when I run, but after that class - none whatsoever. 

- I feel my chest is moving with so much ease.  It is so flexible and I feel like my upper body's just moving so freely.

- That was amazing. The first thing I noticed was that all of a sudden my eyes softened. I've been working in my art studio and really working a lot with color theory. I didn't realize how much tension I was carrying in my eyes.

- I feel my spine is more alive right now. I feel my spine is very strong. My body is alive and I feel longer, taller. It’s very interesting - I'm not worried about my muscles, I’m not worried about my posture, but I feel taller and stronger.

Self discovery...

- Wow. This feels like a whole new land! 

- So much more seemed possible to me as we went along. I think part of it was you gave us enough time to really explore. When I started out I couldn't feel the individual pieces, but with enough time, somehow something clicked. And that was really wonderful. Because there was enough time, there was time to let go of grasping.

- I feel so much joy! I can feel my body in a way that I have never felt before. I feel more confident and more powerful.

- My whole being right now is clear, very defined.

The online experience...

I'm sure for you it may be harder being online like this, but I find it really almost exactly the same as being in the room. I feel you are here, I feel your observation and I think it's remarkably effective. I would not have imagined that I would have that reaction.

- I am very grateful for this class, for your teaching style and the warmth you convey.

- I'm increasingly becoming a believer. What an incredible detail about the way you deliver the product and it's really effective even if we're looking at a screen.