I wrote a blog post with the following paragraph that I want to highlight and bring attention to. It is in an article on aging. Through the experience of working with an age range focused on the interconnectedness of mental, emotional and physical behaviours with the intent to increase functions this topic plays out in one’s abilities for tolerance and flexibility. When people age it is presented in one’s appearance to those who have a trained eye. Whether the victim or perpetrator, objectification in one’s history is identifiable in functional responses observable through touch, sight and sound. (felt-sense, visually, or words spoken)
Here it is:
This perspective is included in the focus on patterns guided through integrative studies in learning groups and sessions. it will be a topic featured more in-depth through the mentoring programs @ Inside Awareness and in conversations and articles. Subscribe to stay InTouch and connect to new material and opportunities, or follow Renee on social media. Hit like if you enjoy content.
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To read more on the article I reference go to Awareness through Aging: from the inside out
In a post called, “Lost connection with our feet,” I introduced the concept of people often referring to their body parts as a third party in our conversation. Our cultural conditioning leaves the majority of us disconnected from having a focused felt sense of the body parts that keep us upright to stand, walk, run, sit and get up from standing or out of bed. Pain will be felt immediately and that will be the focus of the conversation. People will point to an area where they feel pain usually without the ability to identify the body part, or they will give an incorrect label of the body part they want checked out.
The education that has been a part of our cultural conditioning has lacked focus on the integration of the connected experience through the body. I have found that the focus is on memorizing the names of the muscles, bones and organs rather than focusing attention on the experience of those part’s from a felt sense ability through the transitions of movement. Even suggesting the focus of attention on ones felt senses will be received with varying degrees of experiential understanding and thoughtfulness. The response is usually related to yoga, tai chi, kinesiology, physical therapy or some other exercise patterns versus the actual ability to either visualize the movement or feel the functional aspects of it. There is a blank in understanding and clarity. The mind goes to association with other outside possibilities. As an empathic responder to the environment inside and out this was the hardest gap to bring clarity to for myself and others.
As a Feldenkrais Practitioner this tells me that the person responding back with these comparisons is unable to quiet the mind of memories and analysis long enough to go into feeling the actual functional connected movement patterns inside their body. The mind is actively seeking answers and concepts versus sensing. This is an important concept to distinguish as the two abilities are used for different outcomes. In my experience the analytical comparisons will not support a new pattern of movement that integrates into the brain and body connection via neural pathways. Rather, it will became an artificial strategy creating rigidity and blocking an increase in a range of motion. The expectation created by the thinking and need to know will increase the level of pain, anxiety and pain which will increase the contraction in the muscles and soft tissue intensifying the pain. It will create a contrived pattern of movement that is memorized with the concept of being the right way to do it versus organic spontaneous movement. The rigidity will significantly increase the levels of pain even more and reduce all function due to the levels of fear associated with the pain.
People seek answers and will even ask, is this the right way to….. walk, balance breath, etc., forgetting that as a baby they couldn’t ask anyone. Their movement was free range and more efficient than any current day concept.
This lack of mindful clarity and understanding to the interconnectedness of the physical body creates a disconnect to the skeleton and it’s available core micro movements. In the post mentioned in the first sentence called, “Lost connection with our feet,” the focus was on the functional physical balance. In Chinese medicine the 6 meridians that are focused upon in acupuncture begin in the mouth and end in the feet. This training suggests that the energy is released from the body through the feet into the earth’s gravity. The feet connect the bodies energy to the earth’s gravity. In Feldenkrais the functional perspective of the skeleton is viewed as architectural engineering and the view is how the feet connect with the earth’s gravity by pushing off it. When pushing off the earth the force of the earth’s gravity translates from the feet through the core of the skeleton all the way to the skull. However to experience this efficiently the focus of core movement is through the skeleton, not concepts, muscles, or flow of energy in patterns. These add value to movement, however they cannot create the experience of pushing off from the earth’s gravity.
The dominant force of movement pushing off the earth using the skeleton with the micro movements through the bones and joints tones the muscles. (Not the same as yoga stretches or massage) Muscle development is of value, however not the central core of whole and spontaneous healthy movement. Dominant muscle focus lifts the feet away from the earth that translates into walking separately from, or against, the earth instead of with it. The bones create connection with the earth while the muscles create disconnection.
When someone is walking through the force of the earth’s gravity through the skeleton there is less effort, more flexibility and an increase in resilience. If there is pain in one’s feet there are higher levels of anxiety, irritability, anger and panic. As one limbers up through miro movements, the pain subsides along with irritability, anger and panic.
This Feldenkrais Practitioners perspective of balance begins in the micro movement availability of the skeleton as it responds to the environment. This includes pushing off the earth’s gravity through the bones. As an ex Shoe Store Manager there is some understanding of the cultural conditioning that has evolved through the generations of shoe development.
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As a Feldenkrais Practitioner the lost connection of mankind with their feet is observable in every student’s posture that attends my Awareness through Movement Lessons. One series is called, “Balance and a Fear of Falling.” In one-on-one Functional Integration sessions, it is felt through the movement patterns themselves. After the first lesson in the focused movement class series there will usually be such a huge shift in the individual participants abilities to balance that some students will report this back in the second class. They also seem happy in sharing that there is a drop in their fear levels. I will witness class participants leave their canes behind at the end of the second and third classes which I have to remind them to take with them. By the fourth class they are coming without them.
So, what is the secret? The simplest answer is that Feldenkrais doesn’t focus on the strategy to fix a perceived problem. Most Practitioners don’t get caught up in the ego of philosophies where it becomes about the label, appearance, or fame by being in competition with other modalities. It can be corrupted by those Practitioners that do though who are trying to capture it’s elusive nature and fit it into the preexisting knowledge base of human concepts. Organic learning is not containable in the precepts of the human mind. Moshe was a scientist with a mind that loved to explore learning like an adventure. This is a key element that has been passed down in a good practitioner.
In the Balance class mentioned above our first focus in on feet. The cultural conditioning in our society has caused a lost connection with one and their feet. Time and time again I hear this disconnection in the stories I am told and that I visually see in one’s response to their own feet. Usually, the speaker addresses their feet as a separate part of themselves. They have no whole connection to them as being a whole part of themselves. This is typical of an analytical process thinker in my experience. Their body parts and functions will be expressed with an outside view in the manner of it being a third party and no attachment. Imagine standing on one’s feet with no attachment to their felt sense.
These cultural conditioning habits of our society are points brought to the surface of attention in our movement lessons, however the emphasis as a Practitioner is on aligning one’s felt senses to the micromovements in the bones associated with the feet. The emphasis is on cultivating awareness, not memorizing one pattern, as one needs many patterns when it comes to balancing.
Currently live group classes happen at #yyj’s Monterey Recreation Centre in Oak Bay. I also work with people privately in person, online, over the phone and yes even by text and email depending upon the needs and travel of students.
Past career segways into understanding the social and cultural conditioning of feet
After a challenging year and a half that ended with the loss of my father, my mother, my lover and letting go of the strong hold of my career, I entered into a year of grace. I landed in #yyj’s Greater Victoria Communities and began living on a sailboat at Fisherman’s Wharf after finally taking a career break never explored previously. This began a journey to reintegrate into my empathic nature and to understand it, Re-emerging into society from a year of retreats and learning with a focus on a new career direction as a store manager ended up being with a shoe chain. Working for Naturalizer as store manager for stores at both Hillside and Mayfair Malls became quite an opportunity to explore the human conditioning with one’s feet. In a deep empathetic state while viewing the shape of people’s feet had a giant impact. This experience is a key foundational understanding I tap into when working on balance and cultural conditioning with my students. I am not a salesperson by nature and couldn’t consciously sell to people something through manipulation, so it was a short career. Even the carrot of taking on Regional Manager for B.C. wasn’t far enough removed from that behavioural conditioning.
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Posted in Awareness through Movement, Balance, Balance, Becoming Aware of Function, Body Awareness, Feldenkrais Method
Tagged #awarenessthroughmovement, #Balance, #fearoffalling, #feet, #Feldenkrais, #mentalhealthandwellbeing #movementandemtions, #movementandemotions, #posture, Movement, Renee Lindstrom
by Renee Lindstrom, GCFP
After a long chest ailment when my heart rate was increased my lungs would tighten up and scream with pain. If out walking I would have to put on a mask to regulate my breath and warm the air before passing through to my lungs. I was curious if rebounding would work. Out it came and each day began with jumping. My threshold was low to begin with and slowly it began increasing with the daily workouts. An unexpected bonus was the reduction in the number of times I needed to urinate during the day and the ability to hold my bladder muscles to wait for available washroom facilities. A valued outcome for this author who also starts the day with juicing. This has meant continuous trips to the facilities in the past.
The rebounder surface bounces like a trampoline and requires core balance. Core muscles from the torso down through the pelvis are tightened slightly while at the same time muscles that extend into the thighs are lengthening and contracting. These are the muscles that control the bladder.
As each benefit becomes apparent it’s getting easier to commit to this daily workout. Some of the benefits in my experience have been:
I have used the rebounder in the past to support lymph drainage and improve adrenal function. As I continue to improve my threshold and sense of wellbeing I wonder to myself why I ever stopped using it.
I have experienced movement students who have lost mobility due to their lack of active function by unconscious choice, pain or in some cases, illness. Students who begin focusing their attention on their micro-movements find that discomfort decreases, balance and flexibility improve and their quality of life increases. Others believe they don’t have time to take the daily effort that is needed to improve movement function and range of motion. These are the ones I refer to as making a choice for losing range of motion, although unconsciously.
If you don’t use it, you lose it
It isn’t like riding a bike. If days are spent without alternative choices in movement the brain actually does loose the movement patterning. Movement is dumbed down to reflect the dominant activity of the day. This is usually sitting in a chair or sofa looking at a screen. Sitting does not support any functional movement the body is capable of. There is a new analogy circulating that states, “sitting is the new smoking.”
As a Feldenkrais Movement Specialist what I am being mindful of in my personal story is how in the past when working out I would over build my muscles to the point of losing connection to my skeleton and sensing its micro-movements and direct force of gravity. I am motivated to find the balance as my capacity to sense and differentiate inner movement is expanding beyond the skeletal movements. This is a slight shift in lifestyle I wasn’t aware of was coming. It’s an exciting new chapter.
READ MORE:
Article – Falling over is sitting and standing
Article –
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Posted in Body Awareness
Tagged #awarenessthroughmovement, #body, #bodyawareness, #exercise, #Feldenkrais, #incontinence, #pelvicfloor, #sitting, Body, Fitness, Health, Movement
Yesterday I shared an exercise to introduce a connection to mindful intention and action in one’s personal environment. It is the first tip of 31 created to cultivate somatic and mindful awareness.
In 2013 I wrote a little booklet to support an introduction for practicing techniques to ground and expand mindful connection using focused attention on the integration of intention with action. The purpose of these tips is to cultivate conscious awareness. One way you can bring your goals into reality is to consider these daily awareness techniques and actions to define your intention. Bring them alive by making time to manifest physical change in your living/working space. It takes a few minutes a day. Designed for slowing down and consciously pausing to reflect, notice and take actions. It is for creating your dreams and taking actions to make them happen that combines mindfulness and physical action to create your space of ‘success’. Each day for 31 days there is a short pattern or exercise to integrate in one’s environment to support change and connection!
Here is the second tip on day two for you to investigate and experience. Each January I follow this program to remind myself and reconnect to my space and things with intention and mindfulness.
Here is a pdf of exercise 2 for your enjoyment!
Leave a comment and share back how this exercise was for you. For me I felt pleased after doing this task that I have done numerous times before with no sense of joy, rather felt effort previously. The difference was the connection to my intention and purpose. It change the inner vibration in the action that began with a different mindset. My mind was refocused and the thought stories were of a higher vibration.
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This post is the first in a while. The last one I posted focused upon the numerology meaning of 2024. As I reread it I recognize my own focus of attention aligns with this interpretation. The last half of 2023 had a focus upon defining the balance of material and spiritual wealth. The last few decades has had a focus on the evolution of ego that began to transition from an elusive somatic experience into an obvious mindful perspective.
A strong propensity that created an unintended boundary in earlier years was a strong-willed action for not pursuing comparable modalities. This meant choosing one main method for somatic integration and diving deep into the patterns. Rather than entering into somatic confusion by trying many similar methods the only consideration for pursuit was a compatible functionally focused method that was an identifiable missing link. For example it is well known among Feldenkrais Practitioners that Moshe Feldenkrais was a poor communicator. Hence, there was a gap in speaking and listening skills for me. Rather than pursuing comparable movement modalities my focus was on integrating speaking and listening skills to create a fuller holistic experience between movement and expressed mindfulness. Starting in 2004 the modalities I mentored and personally practiced were contained and isolated from each other. However in 2014 I began to relax and integrate them somatically. In the past 10 years, the progress in personal transformation in others and myself has been identifiable. Observing these transformations has been rewarding. With a focus of attention on integrating inner change with an intention to shift outer experiences requires an environment for retraining habitual learning. A person needs to enter into an adventurous space for unlearning old behaviours while in the action of exploring new ones in a mindfulness state of expanding their awareness. Rather than assimilating methods with an egocentric focus of attention the focus has been on functional mindfulness in day to day that defines humanness through somatic function. The change in 2024 will reflect this somatic integration process. The successful components of these years will be reflected in offerings.
Some of the topics that will be added in 2024:
Classes and workshops have been held in activity centers since the late 90’s. These have been seasonally with no breaks which has offered the opportunity to work with aging personalities, communication and physical abilities. Culturalization of aging has been a big proponent in the aged that has been intriguing. This has been a low key focus these years that moved into the forefront in the last five years. This topic will become a larger focus this coming year.
In the 90’s entrainment was a focus of attention when entering into homes, offices and organizations to consult on spacial awareness and influences. This awareness has expanded into its relationship in the minutia of all day to day functions. This topic will become a larger focus this coming year.
Requests for creating supportive development programs for training purposes, consulting and resolving conflict through empathy, to connect first before change versus compromise, has increased the depth energetically in the ethos this past year. Expect to learn more about these offerings as they expand outward into other potent life areas such as institutions, corporations, organizations, groups. Of course personal transformation materials will continue to grow in offerings for transformation to define humanness in somatic function. More growth this coming year.
A focus of attention for health and wellbeing that will dominate our 2024 expression will be upon the use of vibration in manifesting. The purpose is to transition goal setting into an active expression versus an outside strategy. The intention is integrating it into a mindful process versus demand. This topic will become a larger focus this coming year.
An example is the first step I wrote in a manifestation booklet in 2013 and still use personally now. Each January since I follow this program to reconnect to my space and things with intention and mindfulness. Here is an example:
Here is a pdf of exercise for your enjoyment!
Leave a comment and share back how this exercise was for you. For me I felt pleased after doing this task that I have done numerous times before with no sense of joy, rather felt effort previously. The difference was the connection to my intention and purpose. It change the inner vibration in the action that began with a different mindset. My mind was refocused and the thought stories were of a higher vibration.
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Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning 