The Feldenkrais® Center of Houston

Last week, an exciting new study was published: "Feldenkrais Method® Balance Classes Improve Balance in Older Adults: A Controlled Trial": http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nep055v1

Although it’s not light reading, the introduction to the study provides a  clear  description  of the Feldenkrais Method, and how it helps people to improve their functioning in balance.  Your motor skills, usually the focus of traditional therapies, are improved by improved sensory awareness.  The Feldenkrais Method specifically improves the kinesthetic sense (awareness of HOW you move) and overall coordination, which are NOT usually included  in a comprehensive way in traditional therapies.

To quote briefly from the study:  “Twenty-six participants in the treatment group engaged in twice-weekly Feldenkrais classes that were specifically tailored to address balance issues. The combination of exercises was named “Getting Grounded Gracefully” and lasted a total of 10 weeks.  An “activities specific” questionnaire, a physical test known as the Four Square Step Test (FSST), and “self-selected gait speed” (walking speed) were assessed before and after the trial."

The results?  "All measures of balance and mobility were improved in the Feldenkrais treatment group.  In addition, most of the active participants noted benefits with regard to body image and a greater ability to engage in everyday activities, such as walking pets and climbing slopes." Healthy Fellow: http://www.healthyfellow.com/275/the-feldenkrais-method/

While the new study dealt with older adults experiencing difficulties with balance,  there’s another perspective on balance from the world of fashion.  Coming soon to a city near you:  "How to Walk in High Heels using the Feldenkrais Method".  You’ll learn how to walk in high heels with safety and comfort.  Here’s a story from Good Morning America about one such workshop in New York City. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7879452  Houston, Texas has a High Heels workshop coming to the NiaMoves Studio in the Heights on July 18.  Click here to register.

The sense of balance is perhaps our most essential sense.  Anyone, young or old, can improve balance with the Feldenkrais Method.

Starting and Stopping

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We all know it's true: with many things in life, starting and stopping are the hardest parts!

Hard to start: cleaning out the garage, relationships, waking up (or going to sleep!), new projects, a diet
Hard to stop: eating potato chips, sliding downhill, having a good time, quitting smoking

How much never gets accomplished because you just can't get started, or can't stop? You might even say that you are "Stuck in 'Neutral.'" Sir Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion states: "objects in motion stay in motion; objects at rest stay at rest." We find it easy to obey that law!

However, you are not an object. You are a human being. The key difference is that you are capable of having an intention.

The Feldenkrais Method offers a unique perspective on that pesky "Neutral gear" that just might help to get you un-stuck. Rather than seeing the neutral state as worthless, where nothing is happening, you can see it as a place of infinite possibility. Your neutral gear is your own potential, waiting to be fulfilled.

When muscles are "in neutral," they are neither flexed nor flaccid. They are poised, and ready for action. Muscle pain will occur when the muscle is pre-occupied with another task, and then is asked to take on additional load. If your muscles "idle in neutral," they are not slackers! They are ready and able to help you move with ease, grace, and power, rather than with pain, awkwardness, or ineffectiveness. Muscles awaiting their cue in neutral will engage with coordination and a feeling of balance throughout your whole body.

The false limitation of choices, Stop or Start, is clarified by the addition of this third option, which is Neutral, or perhaps Get Ready. You could also add "Just A Little Bit" to each category, and you see that even more choices emerge. Many possibilities will fall along a spectrum, increasing the chances that you'll find a choice you like, and will take action.

Moshe Feldenkrais demonstrated that many choices, with clear distinctions, are better than a few. He said that having only one choice, and acting on it repeatedly, is compulsion. Two choices are an ultimatum. In the presence of three or more options, we can be fully human. We exercise not just our bodies, but our intentions.

I think most people never fulfill their potential because they haven't FELT it. They've thought about it, have ideas about it, been told about it, have emotions about it. But they haven't used their SENSES, their bodies, the physical feeling of being poised with possibility. Habitual busy-ness drowns out the sensations that could be most informative, useful, and valuable.

To learn more about starting, stopping, and infinite options in between, find a Feldenkrais practitioner near you!

This  post also appears on SomaQuest, the blog  of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston

Thinking about getting back to an exercise program?

Perhaps you're mending your "couch potato" ways.  Perhaps you had to stop exercise because of an injury, or after surgery.  Before resuming or beginning regular exercise, be sure that your medical professional approves, and says you are healthy enough to exercise.

However, it's not as simple as enrolling in a class, signing up for a gym membership, or hiring a personal trainer.  We all know people who go "all out" early on in an exercise program, and end up so sore that they can't continue. The healthy habit of exercise never has a chance to establish itself. The last thing you want is to re-injure yourself, or stop before you start.  What to do?

If you haven't moved in awhile, it's possible that you've lost more than muscle tone.  You may have lost the ability to feel yourself and your sensations.  This ability is called the "kinesthetic sense,"  and it is developed through paying attention to yourself while you are moving.  If you've lost your kinesthetic sense, you're less likely to notice your body's signals that you are over-exerting, straining, or moving inefficiently.  The bad news is, most fitness professionals assume that you know how to take care of yourself.  The good news is, you can re-develop your kinesthetic sense and refine your sensitivity so that you can exercise safely and gain the maximum benefit from your exercise program.

The Feldenkrais Method works specifically to develop your kinesthetic sense.  Group classes in Awareness Through Movement will bring your attention to yourself with small, gentle movements.  You'll develop an understanding of how your body moves most easily, comfortably, and efficiently.  Your posture, balance, and breathing will improve.  As you learn what your habitual patterns are, you can also learn new patterns that can serve you in a variety of settings and situations.  You'll learn to sense yourself and enjoy the feeling of movement as you begin to develop your strength and flexibility.  Private lessons, called Functional Integration, will help you to work with specific issues.

Many people continue lessons in the Feldenkrais Method as they return to exercise.  Whether you choose yoga, Pilates, or a simple walking program, you'll feel more confident and competent in movement.  Your new ability to sense yourself  in movement and at rest will  help you to monitor yourself and your exertion levels more effectively.  Be willing to take  things slowly and gradually.  Be kind and patient with yourself as you are re-learning.  Resist the urge to rush, or to hold yourself to an unrealistic standard. Your capacity for movement and exercise will gradually increase to levels that you find to be enjoyable and effective for meeting your personal fitness goals.

If you would like to learn to move with confidence, comfort, and consciousness, contact a Feldenkrais practitioner near you.  Fitness, and wellness, are ongoing processes.  You can begin today.

MaryBeth D. Smith is the Director of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston.  With over 25 years experience teaching in university, business, and community settings, she now uses the Feldenkrais Method to help people improve their self-image,  function, and enjoyment in movement and in life.  Read more from MaryBeth on her other blog, SomaQuest.

The Feldenkrais Method® seeks to develop personal awareness of oneself and the environment.  Using gentle, slow, micro-movements, the emphasis is on your feelings and sensations, rather than on performing the movement to some standard of perfection.  In each movement, you seek to improve the quality of your experience, making successive repetitions easier, more flowing, and more comfortable.

There are two distinctive ways to learn the Feldenkrais Method.  In Awareness Through Movement® classes, usually taught to groups, you receive verbal instructions to guide your movement explorations.  Within each lesson, you decide how much movement is right for you, and what feels good and comfortable. Thus, there is no set number of repetitions, no speed, or power, or extreme range of motion is required. Old patterns of inefficiency and discomfort give way to patterns that are better organized and permit better functioning.  The movements are derived from everyday actions, such as walking, standing,   turning, or breathing.  Sometimes, the movements come from the human developmental sequence, similar to the movements that infants make.  Lessons are interesting, enjoyable, often humorous, and always enlightening!

In Awareness Through Movement® (ATM), the intention is to find the smoothest "path" of movement, rather than to assume a particular pose or position and hold or stretch there.  Since the work directly accesses the motor centers of your brain, allowing new neural pathways to form around patterns of ease and comfort, the work is deep and effective. ATM is safe for people of any age or physical condition.

The second mode of learning is through private Functional Integration® lessons. The communication takes place through verbal instruction and listening touch.  No oils or lotions are used, and you remain fully clothed throughout (although you may wish to remove your shoes or belt for comfort).  Frequently, you will lie on a special low padded table. However, some lessons involve sittting or standing. The teacher uses touch to draw your curiosity and awareness to the gentle movement of your body.  Functional Integration lessons are gentle and non-invasive.

Rather than seeking to inhibit undesirable patterns of action, we explore the current pattern in order to understand it better, and to become aware of the sensations and feelings that accompany it.  Frequently, we can't stop doing what we don't want to do, because we're not aware we're doing it until it's too late.  By exploring the "wrong way," it becomes one of a number of choices.  The job of the Feldenkrais teacher is to provide alternatives to the old habitual patterns.  Your nervous system will adopt the pattern that works best, and comfort and function improve as a result.

The Feldenkrais Method is used by people who wish to address chronic pain, fibromyalgia, recovery from injury or surgery; neurological disorders such as stroke, MS, Parkinson's disease, or CP;  as well as by athletes, dancers, and musicians for the improvement of skills and technical difficulties.  Others enjoy Feldenkrais lessons as a means of personal development.  To find a Feldenkrais teacher near you, visit www.feldenkrais.com.

MaryBeth Smith, MM, GCFP, is the Director of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston.  With over 25 years experience teaching in university, business, and community settings, she now uses the Feldenkrais Method® to help people improve self-image, function, and enjoyment in movement and in life.

It's midway through the weekly staff meeting, and -- aaaccck!  Not again! It's the return of your faithful companion, the tension headache.

If you have frequent headaches, have just started having them, or if they are unusually severe, or accompanied by fever, muscle stiffness, or vomiting, you should seek immediate medical attention, as a headache can be a symptom of a serious condition.  However, if you've ruled out all the scary stuff, and are still stuck with tension headaches, don't worry.  You're not doomed to a lifetime of Advil consumption.   Happily, there's an enjoyable, interesting, and drug-free alternative to help you zap those tension headaches for good.

The Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic Education can help you to beat those headaches, and even to "head them off" (sorry for the pun!) when you first realize that one is starting. Chances are, your tension headache is part of a larger, overall pattern of muscular tension  involving your whole self. Perhaps you've noticed that your neck, your shoulders, your low back -- even your eyes and jaw -- sometimes feel strained and tight also.  When you become aware of what else is happening in addition to your headache, you can begin to understand your habitual pattern.   Change some part of the pattern, and it's likely that your headache will improve, as well.

Join me in a short experiment. Ask your secretary to hold your calls for a few minutes, or close your office door. Be willing to stop and "unplug" for awhile.  After all, if you keep doing what you've been doing, how can you expect anything to change?

Sit quietly in your chair, and make yourself comfortable.  Allow the chair to support you completely.   Bring your attention to your breathing.  Chances are,  you will have the sensation of taking a big breath after holding it for awhile.  Breath-holding is largely unconscious, and it's one of the primary anxiety responses. It's a left-over from our evolutionary past when we hid in the jungle and held our breath to avoid being detected (and then eaten) by a wild animal.  Let your breath become slow, and light, and even.  No need for heavy, deep breathing, just keep it comfortable and regular.  Feel where in your back, or your neck, or shoulders, you are working hard, tensing muscles.   Tense them a little more,  if  you  like, and then allow yourself to soften in those places just a bit.  As you continue to breathe easily, notice:  is anything changing?

As you look at your computer screen,  really look hard at these letters.  Almost  squint, steely-eyed, and feel the response in your neck, in your jaw, and anyplace else that gets your attention.  Then, look  somewhere just above your computer screen.   Imagine that you are looking out a window at a beautiful  vista in the distance.  Let your focus become soft and dreamy. Can you feel the difference in your neck and your jaw, compared to before?  Switch back and forth, gently, between the hard-edged, squinty focus and the soft focus.  Can you now read the computer screen with a softer focus?  Feel your breathing, your neck, your  shoulders.  Is anything changing?  How's that headache?

Hard-focus squinting is a habitual pattern that is largely unconscious; meaning, you probably don't even realize when  you are  doing it!  The muscles of your eyes determine the muscle tone throughout your body, especially in your neck, and in the layers of muscle that enclose the bones of  your scull.  Learning to feel yourself as you go into a habitual  pattern can help you to reverse out of the pattern and keep yourself pain-free.

Feldenkrais teachers can help you to find ease in daily movements, like working at a computer, walking, sitting, standing, or breathing.  Relief from those tension headaches, and more comfort in everything you do, is just a phone call away.  To find a Feldenkrais teacher and classes near you, visit the website of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America, www.feldenkrais.com.


MaryBeth D. Smith, MM, GCFP, is the Director of the Feldenkrais® Center of Houston, TX. With over 25 years of experience teaching in university, community, and business settings, she now uses the Feldenkrais Method to help people improve their self image, function, and  enjoyment in movement and in life.

If you've been diagnosed with sciatica, you know well the painful sensation that runs from your back and hip all the way down to your foot, and anywhere in between.  Pain, aching, and tingling can flare up at any time, and can range between annoying and excruciating.  It's important to know that "sciatica" is not a disease.  Rather, it's any collection of symptoms that seem to involve the sciatic nerve.

Patients and practitioners alike may approach sciatica as if the problem is localized where the pain is.  The Feldenkrais Method®  has a different viewpoint.  A Feldenkrais teacher is curious about how you move, and what habitual patterns you move in, that might be causing or aggravating the sciatic nerve-related pain.  The Feldenkrais teacher then will help you to experience what you are doing unconsciously, and then present alternatives to your habitual patterns.  Since the Feldenkrais Method®  actually addresses the motor centers of your brain, you will learn new patterns that help you to move without pain.

Here are some do's and don't's for sciatic pain:

• DON'T sit with your legs crossed, or with the hard edge of a chair pressing on the back of your leg. 
• DO sit with both feet completely on the floor (heels, toes, sole of each foot), and slide forward on the seat a bit so that the area just above the back of your knee is free of pressure.
• DON'T stand with your knees locked (straight, hyperextended.)  The sciatic nerve is irritated in this position.
• DO allow your knees to be softly bent when standing.  You might find it comfortable to stand with one foot slightly in front of the other.
• DON'T tuck your butt underneath you, eliminating the curve of your low back (lumbar curve).
• DO allow the natural curves of your spine -- especially in your low back, and in your neck.  These curves provide your skeleton with "architectural support" for your body.   Good posture means a vertical spine, NOT a "straight spine."  Let there be curves!

Classes and lessons in the Feldenkrais Method can provide an enjoyable means of learning about your body, and about recovering from or preventing sciatic pain.  You can find a Feldenkrais practitioner near you at www.feldenkrais.com.  Your practitioner will teach you some gentle, easy, effortless movements that will help your sciatica, and improve your overall comfort in daily activities.  Soon, you'll be on your way out of pain, and on your way to a healthier and more enjoyable life!

MaryBeth D. Smith, MM, GCFP
Director, The Feldenkrais Center of Houston
http://www.houfeldenkrais.com
Read our other blog:  http://somaquest.blogspot.com

Copyright 2008 MaryBeth Davison Smith. All rights reserved.

Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the FELDENKRAIS GUILD® of North America.

• Experience greater ease and grace in everyday movements
• Experience more awareness of self and others
• Improve breath and overall coordination
• Reduce mental and physical stresses
• Enjoy life while "aging gracefully"
• Improve performance in music, dance, acting, athletics, creativity
• Experience alternatives in habitual actions
• Improve posture and outlook
• Improve self image

Want to know more?  Click here to find an index of articles about specific applications of the Feldenkrais Method®.

How will you benefit?   Fill in these blanks:

If I were free from pain (or, had less pain), I would _________________.

If I were more coordinated, I would ____________.

If I didn't feel so klutzy, I would ____________.

If I could breathe better, I would ______________.

If I could _______________ better, then I could ____________.

If I could just _________, then ____________.

Perhaps you want to improve your competitive edge in a sport, or in the arts.  Perhaps you just want to be able to pick up your grandbaby without having your back twinge.  The Feldenkrais Method can help you to do all the things that mean quality and enjoyment in your life.  When you change the way you move, everything  changes.  A Feldenkrais practitioner can assist  you as you "fill in the blanks" and begin to live the life you  want.