STUDYING THE FUNCTION OF THE PELVIC FLOOR, 2

Hi everyone,

Just a little interesting feedback about what we are discovering together in the new pelvic floor class, currently being given at ACHIEVE FITNESS.  (Please contact me if you want details about the class.)

After only 1 class, 2 people found clear improvement related to incontinence and urinary issues, and everyone had a better capacity to find, sense/feel and contract/relax their pelvic floors. This also helps bring awareness to the whole pelvis, our center of movement power, meaning moving in the direction of stability and strength.

During and after the 2nd class, extreme improvement in balance was noted by one long-time student, and numerous people, especially riders, felt more stability and groundedness in the pelvis in a new way.  Everyone experienced continued improvement in ability to contract/relax PF in a more complete way, meaning they will be better able to do it at home and begin to assess the impact more directly on their uro-genitory issues, and upon balance.

Breathing was also generally better, as a widening of the chest and hips is again directly connected with PF work.

To me, the influence of PF work on balance is especially intriguing.  I am going to go back into my notes and videos to search for the physiological link up between them and will share what I learn.  

But please don't hold your breath...summer in Reno means busy in the garden in addition to Feldenkrais classes and individual sessions. Instead, sense your breathing and breathe into your entire abdominal cavity, PF included!

Take good care!

Carole

STUDYING THE PELVIC FLOOR FUNCTION

My new Feldenkrais pelvic floor class, followed by the regular, ongoing 3 pm Awareness Through Movement class (given at ACHIEVE Fitness today) was a hit! The class was full; and the 11 people who stayed for the second class got even more from the immersion into sensing and movement--meaning more pain relief, greater feeling of flexibility, stability and balance.  Everyone felt improvement, and we had fun.  As the teacher, it is really meaningful to be learning about using our bodies more efficiently and intelligently, right along with my students.

Studying the application of sensing, contracting and relaxing this important part of our anatomy from a Feldenkrais perspective means that we can rather rapidly reap the benefits of greater internal control of our pelvic floor functions.  If you want to learn more about this by attending a class, please contact me directly.

Re-post Moving out of pain - functional integration®

For anyone who wants to see what Functional Integration looks like, Mia Segal's work gives you a clear feeling of method and path.  You can find much more of her work (and other Feldenkrais people) on youtube.  It is individualized Feldenkrais learning at the level of mind and body.

The legendary Mia Segal, original pupil of Dr. Feldenkrais, demonstrates a simple and stunningly elegant example of a Functional Integration lesson.

SELF-EMPOWERED HEALTH

WHY CARE ABOUT YOUR PELVIC FLOOR SYSTEM?

Because it directly affects the functioning of your entire body, including spinal function, elimination processes, urogenital function, your balance and your breathing. So you can have more control over all these functions yourself...A few reasons that you MIGHT CARE.

PELVIC FLOOR HEALTH FACT:

If we think about the pelvic floor as the bottom of the abdominal container (situated between the sitting bones, the sacrum and the pubic bone), the top of which is your diaphragm), its easier to grasp why condition of your pelvic floor affects so many of your important physiological functions.

This container is attached to the lumbar spine, thus people with SCOLIOSIS always have some degree of pelvic floor imbalance. Yet another way Feldenkrais helps us work directly and effectively with SCOLIOSIS.

NEW FELDENKRAIS CLASS:

Learning to Work With Your Pelvic Floor

Next Saturday July 21 at 1:45 pm I am beginning a new series of 6 classes to help people improve the health and well being of this important and poorly understood system.  To reiterate, a healthy PF supports improved functioning of everything inside the pelvis, as well as critical components of breathing, balance and spinal function. You must contact me to participate.

EQUINE SKELETAL DEVIATION

Conscious Deviation?
Look at the sensitive, emotional, intelligent, lovable face of my horse friend below! Could this be the face of a CONSCIOUS DEVIATOR?  


The real story (and question!), How my skeletal alignment affects my horse's alignment... and What can I consciously do to improve this situation, using the Feldenkrais approach?

HORSE FACT!

Did you know that when you, the rider, are not aligned vertically with your ears over your hips (the 2 places where the greatest number of our proprioceptors exist), your horse CONSCIOUSLY DEVIATES from its own alignment to try to match yours? Does that sound safe to anyone? This is one of many reasons equestrians do Feldenkrais...so they know that they and their horses are aligned in a safe, stable (:-)) way! Smart they are...

How Feldenkrais Helps Scoliosis

NEW IDEAS ABOUT RELIEVING SCOLIOSIS

SCARY TO KNOW, but the cause of more than 80% of scoliosis is basically unknown, not understood! (Medical term: idiopathic.)
      Intriguingly, at a recent advanced training on the pelvic floor in San Francisco with renowned Feldenkrais Practitioner Deborah Bowes, DPT, CFP I learned that there is growing evidence that function of the pelvic floor system plays a significant role in scoliosis.
     As many of you know from my earlier workshops, Dr. Feldenkrais approached scoliosis in a unique and effective way, and you can learn this.  As Feldenkrais practitioners, we use variation of movement as a primary intervention to the progression of scoliosis. Thus to introduce work with the pelvic floor as a component of this variety makes sense and adds a new dimension to our study and learning about relieving scoliosis.
     The notes below are excerpts of an article about improving scoliosis using the Feldenkrais Method, written by practitioner Maureen McHugh. The important thing is to begin look at scoliosis in a new way -- to open your mind to improvement from a different place in yourself, literally and figuratively.
///// Carole Bucher, BA, GCFP/T

Relieving Scoliosis by Cultivating Deeper Sensory Awareness and a Greater Variety of Movement Patterns... 
Despite so many unknowns, improvement (in scoliosis) is possible.
The first step is a mental one, and that is to see scoliosis as a pattern of movement. This is Moshe Feldenkrais's big insight.
     "Scoliosis" is a noun, and in hearing it you get the sense that one is discussing something fixed. When the young teen first hears, "You have a scoliosis", it sounds as fixed as the statement "You have a right arm." But what if scoliosis is better understood as a pattern of movement?
"You have moved so that your ribs are turned like this and your hip is hiked up like that." And then the statement is added: "And you can learn to move in another way."
The fixity of scoliosis is best seen as a habit, a strong and unconscious habit. Seen like this, the problem comes into the realm of how to modify habits.
     The main Feldenkrais approach to modifying habit is to create more variety. Not to contradict the pattern because that works as badly with movement patterns as it does with people. Instead, the process is to cultivate more variety. Scoliosis is a movement pattern favoring one direction and neglecting the other. Through Feldenkrais we cultivate the ability to move with ease in all directions.

/////Please contact me at renofeldenkrais@aol.com if you live in the Reno/Tahoe area and would like to explore how to use the Feldenkrais Method to help your scoliosis.  Best wishes! Carole