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Tuesday, March 17, 2020

All Reno Feldenkrais classes move to Zoom

Hi dear friends,

Due to the highly unsettled Covid-19 situation, all of my Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement classes will given in zoom format, from this week forward. 

This means you will take class in your home, not at the Reno Buddhist Center or the Gerber Medical Clinic. We will also have a discussion/hang out session after class to talk about the lesson or anything else we feel is appropriate. We did this last Saturday and it was really nice.  Please note that the Tuesday Gerber 12:30 class will not start online till March 24, and the Thursday RBC class will not start online till March 26. This week's zoom class is on Saturday, March 21, at 10 am. 

So please contact me at renofeldenkrais@gmail.com with your email to join the zoom class. I will send you an invitation the night before each class, which will contain the link you click on to join.  For privacy and security, we do not reuse the same link. 

The link will also take you to the free software/app that you need to participate in zoom classes. It is very simple and easy and can be done from any device.

Regular class rates apply, including sliding scale. And if you wish to try a class for free during March/April, that's ok too. Otherwise please use or purchase a 10-class card. 

If you are out of work or income challenged, I will accommodate. Just let me know. You may contact me to leave a written message for me using the contact form above right, renofeldenkrais.blogspot.com.

The only class being given THIS WEEK is the Saturday 10 am class. Again, if you wish to participate, you need to contact me with your email address.  

Friday, March 13, 2020

Interactive Feldy Zoom class tomorrow 9:45 am

I just sent the invitation for our first regular, interactive Feldenkrais zoom class tomorrow at 10 am. The in-person classes are on break while we all sort out the CV19 situation. 

If you wanted to participate and didn't let me know, pls contact me asap and I'll send you the information and invite. It will be fun. We'll also meet after class to talk over anything we need to, and just chew the fat, so to speak. Looking forward to seeing you there! Hugs and love in this crazy world.

I'll be using my sliding scale, and if you need to you can attend one class for free. So do what is comfortable.  

Contact me for info. I'll also be zooming the Tues 12:30 class and Thurs 5 pm. Meanwhile, take care of yourself and stay safe and healthy. 

xoxo -- Carole  

Friday, January 24, 2020

Streaming free, live Feldenkrais class this Saturday 10 am PST

Reminder that I'm doing a FREE Zoom class, live from my regular Awareness Through Movement® class at Gerber medical Clinic this Saturday morning.

If you want to participate, you must have done Feldenkrais classes before, and you need to contact me for the link. You can use the contact form here. 

The lesson is a wonderful, balancing, hip, leg, foot lesson which relates to walking and to really good organization through the whole skeleton.

Please join us if you've done Feldenkrais before! There will be a later opportunity for beginners, when I offer a standard zoom class in which I'll be watching the screen and working with people more individually and one-on-one.

Hope to see you! Carole

Thursday, January 16, 2020

FELDENKRAIS AND SELF-INQUIRY - How it works.

Everything we do in Feldenkrais is oriented toward improving our attention and our ability to sense ourselves with more depth and refinement. This is the path that leads us not only toward fulfillment and to our potential, but also to more comfortable, efficient, satisfying and balanced movement. We reconnect with ourselves in amazing new ways.  

The foundation of this process begins with our learning to see and sense where we are NOW, in this moment, with non-judgmental curiosity and interest. Not as we want to be, but as we are. And in this process, we begin to get free -- we begin to let go of fear and the ghostly judgments of people from lives who we may still be trying to please-- whether they are living now or have been gone a long time. Not surprisingly, this changes how I live in my body, how I move, think, feel and act. 

This short article gives you context and support for such efforts, and some initial direction to plant the exciting seeds of change and possibility. Nothing here is intended to take the place of therapy or medical support. It is intended to open your heart and mind, via your body. 


Self-Inquiry as a Path to Personal Freedom
Self-inquiry means questioning our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and physical self-use. We cease assuming that our thoughts, feelings, perceptions and other sensations are necessarily on target or ‘right.’ Instead, we check in with ourselves to clarify, verify, and explore. In this way we can align with a reality that enables choice, improvement and, if desired, change.
People are often surprised to discover how little they know about themselves. We have to stop and think when asked even simple questions like ‘What colors do I like? What makes me happy, sad or angry?’ or in the physical realm, ‘How do I walk, stand, reach, or sleep?’ In other words, what drives or motivates my behavior, actions, and movement?
Our automatic programming is powerful and habitual; it operates without our awareness. Upon examination, it’s as though we live our lives in a dream. We lose our curiosity, joy, our sense of connection to others and to the world around us — and most damaging, we lose our ability to grow freely and learn at the most important levels.
If we sense this absence of freedom and joy, of meaning and authenticity, the age-old existential questions may come up: ‘Who am I? What am I? What am I doing here?’ Then, I may begin to sense that I can separate from the endlessly streaming, mostly random content coming from my monkey mind. I find I am more than my autopilot. I can experience myself differently. For some people, an even brief encounter of this kind will energize a lifelong study.
Self-inquiry can also result from the need to move away from something unpleasant — from physical, mental or emotional pain. It can cause us to explore previously unconsidered methodologies — like prayer, meditation, spiritual movement classes like Qi-Gong, T’ai Chi, certain kinds of yoga, or pragmatic, somatic classes like the Feldenkrais Method that specifically teach body- and self-awareness, using movement as a vehicle for study.
Self-inquiry can lead us to:
  • look beyond the narrow range of our habitual movements, thoughts, feelings and reactions; to learn more about myself.
  • find a happier, lighter approach to living.
  • realize how humans sense only a small percentage of the visible, audible, and vibrational spectra that exist and can be measured.
  • the diversity of nature and our almost limitless ability to learn.
  • distinguish truth from untruth.
To begin, focusing on the body can be the simplest starting point. Exploring movement habits helps us to see the connection between habitual thought, emotion, and our body, how they weave together to produce tension, pain, discomfort. When stress occurs in life, our chronic pain may increase, movement habits from long ago reappear, and we fall back into old patterns and ways of coping. Including pain.
We are helped by learning to sense our daily activities, observing which movements produce pain or instability, and developing an inner database of information that the brain stores and uses to help us move more efficiently. As our self-awareness increases, everything improves. New, learned movement patterns become embodied.
Here is a beginning exercise to get you started:
1.  Sit or lie quietly and feel the shape and weight of your body, the contact with the chair or floor, or bed you are resting on. Sense the movement of your breath and your heart.

2.  Begin to notice what is going through your mind and your emotions. Remember how wonderful it is to simply identify what you are thinking, feeling, or doing, how you move, without any judgment at all, just to know, sense, and feel; to be more neutrally yourself.

3.  Imagine an experience you enjoyed. You can go back in time to childhood, or envision doing something as an adult; in either case, let go of your self-judgment and expectations.

4.  Visualize and feel the movements associated with the experience.

5.  Notice how your body and breathing relax as you begin to let go of all the judgment and stress. Observe yourself without criticism, no matter what your experience is.


6.  Follow your thoughts, emotions and physical feelings in this neutral way. You can write them down to help you articulate your experiences, or not. You decide.
And please know that the fact that you are reading this article means your curiosity and connection to life are alive and well. Trust your intuition. Follow your heart.

For more information about the Feldenkrais Method, Functional Integration sessions or Feldenkrais weekly classes, please contact Carole Bucher, BA, GCFP, using the contact form above right, or go to  or you can call, text or email me at 775-240-7882 and Renofeldenkrais@gmail.com. And you will also find more info and lots of interesting things at https://www.meetup.com/Reno-Feldenkrais-Awareness-Through-Movement-classes/, or https://www.facebook.com/RenoFeldenkrais/.