Push through the feet for better balance, 25 min
I love this lesson. If you have any concerns or issues with your ankles or knees, this lesson can help.
Often that happens is that at certain angles, the ankle stops receiving force from the ground and then the knee and hip compensate for the lack of connection. This can happen in any joint.
Feldenkrais is not concerned with “fixing” a joint, but remapping your sensory input so that the relationship between the joints is safe and accessible through every possible angle.
This lesson requires a little bit of wall space for your feet. You’ll start lying on your back with your legs long and the feet facing the wall. This lesson will change how you trust and bear weight through your legs. You will choose one leg to work with, then see how it feels to make this clear distinction between the two legs.
Don’t worry, it will even out!
Then, on another day, do the second leg.
Thought for March 7th: Do you need to go up and out, or down and in?
Our inner state is reflected in our movement.
Here are two states to consider as explicit frameworks for your practice:
Some people need help moving up and out in their lives. We can feel compressed and turned inward due to injury or stress or trauma. We all protect ourselves. Or we’re just comfortable on our own, or very introverted, or very sensitive. Sometimes, we stop reaching out and become self-referential to the point of forgetting others, isolating, or ruminating in various ways.
I find people in these states benefit from lengthening, extending, orienting the eyes, finding the top of the head, and softening the ribs to take longer, fuller breaths.
Others need help moving down and in. Perhaps they’ve been living up and out for too long, or they’ve never visited that state at all. These folks might feel the inside space has been forgotten or neglected. I’ve seen this in long-term caregivers, sometimes in parents, and often in people exhausted by a demanding, stressful job.
Anyone who is focused on the needs of others and who, of necessity, stops honoring their inner space, benefits from being held. Compression through the joints, finding the ground, and rolling are helpful. Feeling the weight shift across the spine, sinking into flexion, and jaw and tongue lessons are wonderful for making friends with your inner space.
* * *
In my own life I want to go up and out. I’m really good and going down and in, but going up and out is my edge. These days, I frame every lesson with the idea of reaching out and lifting up no matter what the actual movement is.
Here’s a question: Where do you want to be in six months, and how can you link your movement practice to your life’s greater mission?
Food for thought.