Let go of chest tension, 33 min (back)
This week we see another slow, gentle lesson rolling across the back, sensing the gentle weight shift of the ribs side to side.
Chest tension is what you can let go of, but what you gain is a sense of coordination through the torso that points to fundamental human locomotion: walking.
Like last week, this lesson has clear indicators for noticing when your skeleton is moving and when it’s not, and what might be inhibiting movement.
Awareness of where we’re holding is what I call “good data.” It helps us check in with ourselves during the day, and it creates a benchmark for ease and comfort when we let it go.
I love doing this lesson when I don’t feel like doing too much, perhaps before bed, or after a hike. The gentle wave at the end is a favorite of many clients.
(This is from the Calm and Destress section in the FeldenkraisTREASURY.)
Thought for June 27: Support Zoe’s mission
Dear Friends,
Usually I write a note about life, Feldenkrais, and learning. This week, I am writing to ask for support for the work I’m doing.
For the last 25 years, I have single-mindedly (some might say stubbornly) pursued my understanding of the Feldenkrais Method®—not because I thought it was cool to swivel my leg all the way back in the hip joint (although it is pretty cool), but because Feldenkrais helped me:
get out of lifelong chronic pain
grow into a better person
let go of some very damaging beliefs
Teaching compassionate self-awareness through movement is my heartfelt raison d’etre. (read my story here)
What I’m doing with my life
When I graduated, I quickly realized that there's an incredible amount of Dr. Feldenkrais's work out there, but it’s not all in one place. It’s scattered far and wide, and for the most part, inaccessible to the public. Even the institutions don’t know how many lessons he created. So, for the last twenty years, I have been gathering and organizing as many lessons as I could.
My mission is to collect and record as much of Dr. Feldenkrais’s work as I can, put it all in one place, and make it accessible to everyone.
My work paid off: the Feldenkrais Treasury is already the largest single repository of indexed and searchable lessons available to the public, with nearly 475 lessons. (For reference, a four-year professional Feldenkrais training offers around 250-350 lessons.)
But it’s only about thirty percent done.
Because I've been studying how these lessons fit together for so long, I'm uniquely qualified to build this repository. And, given that each lesson takes several hours to locate, record, edit, index, and produce, it will undoubtedly take several more years!
I love my work. I want to keep going. I've been building this Treasury for a long time, and I want to continue to build it.
Can you help?
Like so many others in the midst of the pandemic, my main source of income has dropped by more than seventy percent. I want to raise at least $6000 to help this mission over the bump for the next three critical months.
Your donation of any amount, even as little as $10, would mean a lot to me, and it will support my dream of sharing the depth of Dr. Feldenkrais's work.
Or, if you love these lessons, consider subscribing to the Treasury. Even a one-month subscription will help me continue my work.
Thanks for considering!
With gratitude,
Zoe
Your contribution can be made anonymously.