Micro-movementsusing the Feldenkrais® Method of SomaticEducation
Felt sense through BodyS
Starting January 12th to February 23rd, 2026
1 – 2 pm – Balance
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. – Awareness through Movement
Feldenkrais® is a system for learning new actions through movement to increase function and quality of life. There is no dogma or self-image attached to this system of independent self-learning. This means it introduces a focus upon what you can do, not what you can’t. It reduces limiting beliefs by increasing focus of attention in the present moment. As an empath, I can trust the Feldenkrais® experience as it deepens my inner understanding, clarity and skeletal support through perception. It taps into the same dynamic of inner support I trusted as a baby to stand up and begin taking my first step.
I recommend it to everyone longing to be free of the past and to shift the fear of the unknown future. I especially recommend it for those who have been given labels and now identify with them. The only way to transformation is through a new action.
Dedicated Feldenkrais Focus, influenced by Somatic Dialogue & Awareness of Environment Stimulation to function
A focus I have, as a somatic empathic practitioner, is the power and control through function. The lens or viewpoint is through functional movement, functional processing of information internally of the environment that stimulates action, reactions and expression.
This lens includes the past, present and future potential. It is also not exclusive to one function or another as my view is on the effects and potential for whole functional integration learned through social conditioning. The conditioning of the functioning movement, language process and relationships to emotions that are responses to thinking patterns and the felt senses that are spontaneous to actual experiences happening in the moment. The patterns I use are to retrain the brain through functional guidance that easily expands the conditions holding someone in a belief system constraining their potential for increasing mobility and flexibility. This includes the thinking constraints in functional movement or relationship interactions, internal or external.
A core function that is the power and control system of human function is breathing. This morning I have a workshop introducing movement patterns through the skeleton to expand the individual consciousness of each participant. They will all be starting from their own unique social conditioned experience. This suggests there isn’t a set pattern that will integrate a full range of functional movement that will be the exact same. Often, I will run into comments like, ‘that’s not the way I was taught in …………. ‘ You can fill in the blanks from your own experience. It seems other modalities focus on telling students that there is only one way you can breathe, meaning I hear it from those who have gone into agreement with that limited clarity of facilitators who believe what they are sharing with their students, until they themselves advance their functional body awareness of full mobility. Our social conditioning is such a right and wrong culture. I had a Pilates instructor participate as a student in a class, sit up from the lesson and began to have a disagreement. Four years later, they advertised the same workshop from my perspective and patterns. They were not ready to take in the patterns to explore and expand their consciousness at the time of my workshop, yet 100 percent believed they were right and I was wrong. This is a pattern that I now recognize as social conditioning. Each modality is locked into a belief system of right or wrong ways of functioning until challenged. Unfortunately, it’s also the instructor’s ability to integrate what they are hearing and how they interpret it that shifts the original clarity of the method and conforms it into a lesser consciousness.
This is on my mind as I enter the workshop today. I recently did a series on rolling with the ribs, and I ran into someone whose fear skyrocketed with the shift in how they were breathing. It interfered with an activity they had been doing that was locked in. The fear was so great and behaviour so locked in, they couldn’t be spontaneous. Instead of self-reflection to question their limiting belief to free up their fear, they believed any other movement patterns had to be wrong. They wanted to tell me that twenty years of practical application of Feldenkrais was wrong, as they had a Yoga instructor teach them that this was the way to breathe, and from what I heard is they believed it to be the only way in every activity. Breathing is life. Literally. There is no one way. It depends upon the activity. It also depends upon available skeletal movement function. This person was hyper-focused on the diaphragm and lacked internal felt sense, or image of the skeleton, nor the relationship to the other bones in the body that counterbalance the rib movements. Afterall, the diaphragm could not possibly counterbalance the weight of the skull nor support the mild fluctuations through the vertebra. Let’s get real here for a moment. So here’s my answer. Back to the basics and begin with the skeleton. That’s a joke, as that’s the only thing I do.
I will focus on the connection between the skull and pelvis, which is: the spine, rib cage, shoulder blades, breast bone and clavicles. I asked Ai for an image, and they can’t provide an accurate one. Even the earlier anatomy images are disappearing online and being replaced with terrible ones that aren’t necessarily correct. This is not a good sign for future learning.
Renee is a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner – since 2007
by Renee Lindstrom, Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner,’07
Cultivting awareness through felt sense movement guidance
Before an Awareness through Movement workshop yesterday that had a focus on the jaw joints, I wrote a short blog post to put myself into the mindset of the intention for the upcoming lesson being introduced. I write spontaneously as though through some elusive inner direction. This simply means I do not have an outcome in mind when in free writing mode.
Arriving at the workshop space and while setting up the room, I was approached by someone ahead of time who inquired if this workshop would benefit them. They mentioned their jaw experiences that I was able to confirm it would be, all the while thanking whatever inspiration it was to have me free write on it before coming. It seems the statement from that post about creating a safe environment was going to be the dominant theme of the workshop! It was the intention, only I didn’t know it at the time of writing that statement. I did my best to create a deeper opportunity for the experience of safety so that the participants could release their habitual holding behaviour in their jaws they have patterned to protect themselves and their jaws. By this point, it is their protection!
I slowed my roll down (flow of words) and began to guide participants with more words than usual to give functional reassurance. Needless to say, it was a powerful workshop for many. I wondered partway through if everyone was benefitting, or not, due to the wordiness in the verbal guidance. Remember that the guidance is not focused on cognitive strategy thinking patterns. Rather, it is all practical micro movements, yet the focus is on the somatic senses. Basically, it is helping people to tap into their felt sense awareness using some of the five somatic senses we all have, yet ignore.
While I was focusing on creating a safe environment and the patterns, the participants did experience something as beneficial takeaways. I heard about this after that reassured me that everyone benefited from my decision to use words to support a deeper inner reassurance for them to test out the patterns I was talking them through. It was a reminder that Awareness through Movement is just that, ‘awareness.’ It is not rule-oriented, which shuts the door on one’s expanding conscious awareness, no matter what way you look at it. It is open exploration with a curious mind. That is what I heard as feedback. Many responses of how much people took in that they had no connection with before the workshop. That is what brings me joy. To hear the feedback that the participants discovered something new within, increasing their potential. It’s called self-discovery. In a nutshell, that’s what I facilitate, a practice of self-discovery.
For information on the next class series or workshop, hit link below.
I wanted to share some updates with you that I may not have brought up outside of our focused integrations sessions, whether in movement, communication/relationships or spatial awareness and placements. For the past ten to 15 years years I have been integrating the interplay between these areas with a deeper focus on habitual or automatic behaviours and choices. For the past two year’s this has shifted to writing it out in an organized way. Beginning with the Learning Center Topics, starting with separating the nine life areas with an eye on behaviour and interactions. There are somatic programs in each of these nine life areas to support the topic they are categorized under. Many of you may have participated in.
In 2026, I will be launching a new system of interactive patterns in expressive communication where this separation of life areas will be a core focal point in the model. These practical and actional patterns support an authentic somatic and empathic perspective. As written by an actual somatic empath living within their interactive experiences 24/7. Trust me, somatic and empathic expression in behaviour is not based upon the outside strategies of someone trying to describe them. It is one of the influences towards developing a somatic learning system that goes beyond what is being described in current social conditioning trends.
A companion book titled ‘Somatic Archetypes’ will be available. This will be a foundation pattern to support a practical reference to core reactive responses. Practical in that they will focus on actionable somatic understanding and not have any focus on evaluative expressions or right or wrong thinking. The intention is to marry this understanding in active interactions in the moment. The shift includes somatic engagement, versus old thinking patterns of social conditioning that shifted focus away from it in organized institutionalized education.
A new understanding of social conditioning has emerged with a powerful influence to cut through a term I learned in meditation, spiritual materialism. This is a result of the practices of functional integration and mentoring in how to speak authentically and with integrity that began in 2002. Spiritual materialism is an evaluative expression for the ego self-image. In Feldenkrais, there is an understanding of an inner felt self-image that supports a new defining inner experience of it that isn’t built up through socially conditioned learned reactions that are focused on materialism through strategies. Rather, it has a focus on being present from within and sensing from the inside first before outward actions of functional movement or spoken words. This means leading through the felt senses consciously to replace leading through thinking.
Renee Lindstrom @somaticlifestyleinnovator Channel on YouTube
To support this upcoming launch, I have put my YouTube playlists in order. I have three channels. One has playlists to support the topics of the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning. (Pictured above). This includes the nine life areas broken into separate playlists. ie. Feldenkrais is in the Health Center. It is joined by Communication and Eating Plans. In these playlists, you will see early attempts to engage people to shift their focus of attention. For example, the #yyj Nature Walks, which is under the playlist of knowledge. There is also the Culture of Value program for early childhood development in that playlist that demonstrates the first stages of its development. The other channel is in my name, and it is for somatic innovation. The focus was to connect to the environmental triggers that stimulate types of behaviour to educate.
Podcast
Finally, the third just started this past summer and fall, is my podcast. Currently, it is voice audios of articles I have written to lay a foundation. It will evolve and expand to include lives and interviews.
As a dominant somatic empathic learner myself, I have first-hand experience in the alienation of children and adults with these learning styles. There is very little consideration given to the value of these learning styles and in fact, they are categorized, labelled and diagnosed as conditions, with an aim to drug and eradicate the differences they display to the expectation in the tightly defined patterns of Institutionalized education. Patterns that were designed for learning concepts with ease and little variance in the organized structure. This cognitive focus included debate-style communication development that lacked empathy training. In this context, empathy training is the skill development for good listening patterns where the core inner response is an interactive, flexible, and open-minded process, versus the closed-mindedness that results from judging the context of what is being heard as right and wrong based upon personal judgment and understanding.
The programs at the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning are focused on a mindfulness that balances both sets of needs of the cognitive style interpretation, and the somatic and empathic. It harnesses all components through functional integration of the physical body working in partnership with the emotional responses that generate the filter for thinking.
The intention for these YouTube platforms is to build an audience and to develop financial opportunities that will support this focus on somatic education.. Until now, I have funded it with my time and energy. I look forward to taking it to the next level. I am hoping you will consider viewing my channels, liking and subscribing to help build this lofty goal. If the content appeals to you, I hope you will share it to support getting a buzz going on these topics.
The following are the links to the YouTube channels. Please keep in mind, these are early developments that have been a learning process and for the process to grow a level of comfort and ease in being on stage. The last link is to a page on the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic learning explaining the nine life areas that are the core foundation in my perspective of functional integration, somatic dialogue and spatial awareness.
by Renee Lindstrom, GCFP, Author of Somatic Archetypes
On Podcast – @ReneeLindstromofficial
Since 2007, this author has had the opportunity to work with people who have had long-term chronic physical pain. In these cases, the body has been the environmental stimulus to inner messages and emotional responsive reactions. Usually, in Canada, people in these circumstances will seek out acute care to resolve the pain complaints. In some cases, the results of seeking solutions can backfire. The backfire comes from the interactive seeds of socially conditioned language. In this health wellness area, physical constraints from pain, the evaluative assessments by practitioners are conceptual and focused on fixing strategies. Sometimes this works, and other times it doesn’t. It only works with certain personalities. In some personalities, it increases anxiety. The current socially conditioned language is such that some people take it personally, which essentially means internalizing it. Others brush it off. Both responses have their peculiar consequences.
There is another communication perspective that is grounded in somatic awareness. In this form of communication, it starts where you are in the moment. It is not conceptual. This means the first focus is not on labelling and diagnosing, it is on the behaviour. Yes, physical function has a behaviour! It’s called one’s posture and postural transitions.
Here is an example I have created to demonstrate what a somatic response might be. It’s not based upon anyone in particular. In this example, someone is seeking understanding, support and reassurance after the disillusionment of conceptual assessments and labelling………
Here is my written response:
Nerve pain assessment:
With regards to the nerves in these circumstances, they were the last to be ignited from the environmental stimulus contributing to their flare-up. Stands to reason, if the environment calms down, they will as well.
Somatic perspective of integration between mental, emotional and physical:
I am going to respond from a meditative mindfulness perspective.
You’re triggered. Something has happened that has stimulated past reactions to old injuries and events in your life that have come forward into the present. Perhaps not with conscious awareness in a way to catch yourself, however, somatically. It’s a somatic response directing your focus of attention through reactive conditioning. A reaction that is familiar and shaped by past events (muscle, mental and emotional memory). Does it present in the way that has been suggested? Perhaps to someone who has learned to diagnose and label living experiences as conditions.
So, let’s look at the past. Yes, you have acute situations that have created a familiar pattern of response that has reared its ugly head due to the many factors all playing out at the same time. Unfortunately, this means your physical body constraints in your movement patterns are similar to ones that have given you grief in the past. Your responsive reaction is conditioned by those old experiences.
How to engage your focus of attention differently?
By shifting your focus of attention.
Easy for me to write as I am not feeling the pain you’re having. However, the hyper focus on it can increase the levels of discomfort more than 10-fold.
How to shift your focus of attention?
By changing the thought sentence structure in your inner mental pattern of thinking.
Shift what if, or ……(whatever you’re saying to yourself), to, I have been here before and moved forward out of it.
Your new mantra, “I have been here before and moved forward out of it. I have been……..”
Micro Movements to shift focus of attention for calming the nervous system
The hyper focus is an aspect of your brain that is an alarm. It is a warning system of the brain, and right now, yours is in a glitch as all sorts of events have hit all at once. In meditation, we would focus on our breath. This is the absolute hardest when experiencing this glitch.
2. So, move your body in the breathing patterns I have shown you. This is where the body’s micro movement abilities can come in differently and play a big part in calming this glitch down. Right now, the glitch is telling you an elusive story that your body is letting you down, and it’s not your safe haven in the moment. So let’s change it. The body can be fluid or it can be rigid through the constraints conditioning it. Your body has gone into constraint due to circumstances. That’s all.
What do we know from past interactions?
The physical function is not isolated from the emotional reactions and thought stories in our mental process. It’s all one process, all stimulated together and interplaying off one another. Your glitch is your emotions reacting to the stories you are telling yourself. What you’re telling yourself is stimulated by the real felt patterns you are somatically aware of. The mantra above is what you tell yourself immediately upon catching yourself having these thought patterns that are not based upon the felt senses in the moment.
Why?
You can take care of yourself. You’ve done it before and have a historical pattern of it. You are identifying the past and what didn’t work, now identify what did. Balance it out. See number 3.
3. In meditation, we learn to create gaps between our thoughts to calm our thoughts that run together and create havoc in our emotional responses. We learn that thoughts in our mind run through in patterns that are not logical.
So we focus on our breath in sitting and watch these damn thoughts while attempting to become present in the moment. Soon, we notice that the thoughts slow down. I mean they, ….slooooowwwwwww down to the point of having significant spaces between them. That’s when the magic happens. That’s when somatically, the connection to what is really happening can be experienced. This is when you learn, the thoughts are the illusion. They have you spinning in circles, trying to catch your tail. In these gaps you see, hear, touch, smell and taste batter. All of a sudden, you can begin observing and taking in so much more information that is restricted by the thinking patterns you have learned. That all thinking is – learned patterns of thought. They are not real! They are your perspective based on old information and learning.
Let’s look at what’s real.
Your skeleton is real. It’s the strongest part in your body and lasts centuries after everything else is gone. Begin to adjust through the skeleton. However, if the pain and fear are too great, begin by focusing on your out breath.
As you breathe out, count, starting at one.
Each exhale will be different. Redirect your mental function by giving it this job. Count your breath.
Get a straw and exhale through the straw. Get your mental function to set a time for one minute and count the number of out breaths in that one minute.
Then continue to exhale through the straw without counting for another 2 minutes.
Come back and exhale while counting again, and notice if the number has changed from the first time. Notice if the breath out is slower, longer and if there are spaces in between.
Come back to it many, many times to train your brain with this pattern. Integrate it. Do it in times of non-fear to have it as a tool in your kit for when you are.
When you are in fear, focus on the exhalation, not the in breath.
Recap
We have a mantra, a perspective and a pattern of breathing. This will calm your nervous system and the glitch to create a new starting point. In this new starting point, your constraints, physically, mentally, and emotionally, can begin to limber up, increasing your windows of tolerance.
We have been through these cycles together before. You have this somatic experience, yet right now you are in a moment of old thinking that there is an acute care that will resolve this outside of you. It is an old pattern seeking relief and reassurance. That’s just one focus of attention that is decreasing the window of tolerance. Start by building the window of tolerance from inside. You’ve got this. I have witnessed it.
You’ve got a few people to sit in this with you to begin to build up your levels of tolerance. Recently, you’re strategies in bringing new people on board while in the acute stages didn’t support you rather added to deconstructing it.
Follow Renee’s podcast and stay up to date on somatic learning, from the inside out.
by Renee Lindstrom, Author of the Somatic Archetypes
Audio for listening, in Authors voice
Here are some examples of the Author’s personal intentional goal-setting boards going back to ’14. Greater Victoria presented the community with free magazines and newpapers at pick up stations, whereby viewers could pick up copies each month. They were a treasure trove of topics, pictures and words to cut out for all genres for creating collages.
When this author began creating collages, the creativity was simple and lacked the in depth connection to the seeds of inspiration and skillset. Without giving up due to these lacks, they became more elaborate, skilled and creative. Unbeknownst to the Author, an organic integration occurred during this dedicated process. It translated into living actions and character, including the development of a more playful personality. It was a transforming life pattern.
This Author has what she calls a Somatic Heart expression and receptor, and it was covered by years of experiences with others who have no skill sets in recognizing this quality or in interacting with those who have this organic attribute.
Somatic Heart
Each seasonal or yearly intentional goal-setting activity reintegrated this inner connection to the warmth and playfulness of her heartfelt expressions and receptivity. It was a quiet and creative time to be thoughtful and take affirmative action for what she wanted and not for what she didn’t want. It was a subtle shift and possibly the most meaningful. This is not something she would have learned in a Tony Robbins or Jack Canfield program, as the approaches are completely different. One focuses on strategies and the external ego focus, while this is an active practice that leads into the depth of meaning in the core responses before expressing it outwardly to the world.
This approach is unique and individual and taps into core values, while there can only be one Tony Robbins and one Jack Canfield, with others duplicating them over and over. This approach presents the possibility for being authentically oneself and presenting the world with a face that shines from this alignment of self on the inside and expressed outwardly for others to connect to. This is what Tony Robbins did to become the person he is today. He is presenting as his authentic self and tapping into the needs of thousands. The problem is, it can only be done once to the levels of success he has experienced as he is the model, while this approach is an integrative learning model that each individual can integrate as a learned behaviour pattern that focuses on direction, making choices and decisions connected to an inner value system.
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This pattern of goal setting begins with a target intention that is overall for a period of time. It expands into doable size chunks, breaking the goals down into logical personal steps for achieving success by taking actional value based movements forward. The difference in this approach is in the actions for checking inward to connect to one’s core values, before taking a socially conditioned assertive approach. This means the assertiveness in this approach connects to self-value and esteem that emanates a different type of assertiveness. It is assertiveness that is more naturally mindful, self-connected and trustworthy. The aggressiveness from a socially conditioned action has potential for disconnection of self and energetically presents with less trustworthiness. This seems to lead to a sales job that is followed by justification. The Somatic Heart expression of this Author then suggests that goal setting that begins with an inner self connection with a focus through trained mindfulness and focus of attention can tap into one’s inner strength and courage to have grounded ownership of their goals that are centered in core values. An individual system within one, and not the goals of someone else’s storyline.
In an earlier post titled Be the Master Creator of your 2026 experience the pattern for creating goals was introduced as is the Somatic Archetypes. These Archetypes are the perception filters that are individual for each person. Consideration of these Archetypes are missing in the earlier goals step patterns that was compared to this approach. This pattern of goal-setting begins with this consideration.
This Somatic Archetype Goal Setting program is an educational system of somatic learning:
sets an overall goal intention
breaks it down into logical and actionable steps over a period of time as an integratable pattern
taps into your Somatic Archetype for personal learning and integration of understanding of unique differences
The benefits of this Somatic Goalsetting program are:
integrative learning happens natural that creates new habits that are productive to personal lifestyle goals
action steps develop skills to increase personal courage and self-confidence naturally
introduces a core value system that is unique to the participant
creates new beneficial habits for taking self-connected and self-directed lifestyle actions
by Renee Lindstrom, Author of the Somatic Archetypes
Follow along with Audio, or listen
The responses of the Somatic Archetypes are triggered by the environment. The Fantastic Five, sight, sound, smell, touch and taste, motivate responses and actions influenced by the elusive and solid experiences in the environmental landscape. The focus of Feng Shui is to create a balance of yin and yang energies. (masculine and feminine) If there is too much yang, the somatic responses will be aggressive to match the energy. Too much yin will encourage depressed states to match the energies. Therefore, the purpose of Feng Shui is to create an environment that will support all the Archetype needs for balance, harmony and motivation.
It would be in the best interest to learn your dominant Archetype senses to provide articles, furniture, fabric, and sound to please your dominant senses. When you share a space, consider every person’s Archetype. This would improve relationships and benefit connections. The value in this suggestion is that each person will view the space through their own somatic lens and the needs that may accompany them. An artist’s dominant sense will be inspired by patterns, shapes, textures, pictures, colour schemes, etc. A Perfumeurs dominant sense of smell may be inspired by fragrance, flowering plants, herbs and spices in the home. Consideration of each person is as important as balancing the space to meet everyone’s needs.
Observing the environment from a Feng Shui perspective would also look at the alertness needed for each separate environment. The alertness levels would need to be higher at work, and lower at home, or in a meditation space. Each location would be viewed for the messages that are obvious in the landscape, and adjustments would be made to the overall environment that would support each Somatic Archetype. These Archetypes are:
Sight
Beauty
Smell
Fragrance
Touch
Textures
Sound
Sound
Taste
Flavours
The Somatic Archetypes are the senses of perception in the environment, where their stimulus will determine the tone of how the information is perceived. For example, if an environment is cold, empty and grey, and a person experiencing it has a dominant visual sense, these features would increase the chance that the tone would be a cool and disconnected state versus a warm connected one. This influence is elusive, and it shapes the emotional response that affects mental and physical responses. It is as potent as how someone communicates their responses in a dialogue with you. The environment, in essence, is communicating silently with your somatic senses.
I offer Feng Shui consultations that explore the environment. This focus of attention is woven into the personal and group somatic communication and movement sessions, classes and workshops. This topic pairs well for increasing the quality in relationships and functional movement.
Please investigate the classes and a personal session or consult:
Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning 