Chores? Use your body more intelligently, efficiently and comfortably!

Here are some great Feldenkrais posture and movement tips to help you with any physical tasks you need to do this fall. The same principles work in the garden, the garage, wherever you have to work! 

WORKING IN THE GARDEN THIS FALL -- How to avoid hurting yourself by being more self-aware using the Feldenkrais Method. 

Carole Bucher, BA, GCFP, Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher/Practitioner
Reno Feldenkrais Integrative Movement
Adapted from my 2018 Healthy Beginnings Magazine Article on Gardening

Gardening in any season is a lot of repetitive work, and the pay off is big. Coming close to nature, the smells, sights, sounds -- the bugs, birds, reptiles and little animals that live in and around the garden, the weeds, the volunteers, the flowers and veggies, the fruit. Its an enormous amount of sensory stimuli. Add the work of gardening into the mix, and it isn't any wonder that we lose track of our bodies as they work to perform and complete tasks that support this wonderful world of nature and healthy food. 
 
Even with our short Northern Nevada growing season, the primal urge to get my hands in the garden is overwhelming. It kicks me out of Fall and Winter doldrums and catapults me into a vision of future garden bounty sufficiently to make me do the hard work in every season that is the backbone of the thriving garden.
And it IS hard work. Backbreaking, blister-making, muscle-straining work, which I do willingly, sometimes lovingly — the bending, lifting, pulling, digging, raking, hoeing hard work. However, I have a plan to work more intelligently and avoid garden-related injuries, large and small. Let us consider this in more detail.

Generally, gardening injuries happen for two reasons: (1) We don’t pay attention to what we’re doing with our body, and (2) we don’t pay attention to what we feel in our body. That is, until it hurts, right?

So before rushing outside with a rake or shovel, here’s a different approach to preparation.

--First, lie on the floor and do a brief body scan, noticing where your attention goes, what is comfortable, what is not; feeling gravity speaking through your skeleton.  

--Sense the weight and shape of your body and your bones; feel your head and shoulders; elbows, wrists and hands; find your spine and low back; your pelvis, legs, feet and ankles. 

--Can you feel differences right and left? (Remember, this updates your brain-map!) 

--Follow your breath, your sense of wellbeing, and check your alignment. 

--Then when you’re ready, get up mindfully and head out to the garden.  Plan our your activities and always do a little less than you can. Don't get over tired. 

Here are some specific movement strategies to help you work intelligently with your body, being more aligned and avoiding injury:

• Generally speaking, keep your spine straight and long. Your spine runs from your head to your tailbone. Keep it flat, long, comfortable. Don’t bend from it.
• When you need to bend, bend in the hinge of your hips, not in your low back. Fold forward at the crease of the hip joints. Push your butt out behind you while you bend. A key strategy, doing this protects your back admirably, and no one will notice but you. You can also bend across the diagonal, over one leg or hip, so that you aren't bending from your low spine. 
• When bending or lifting, bend and use your knees and ankles too. Slowly feel what kind of squat you can manage, and how your joints respond.
• Keep your feet flat, and feel the connection between your feet and hips. Foot and ankle mobility means good balance and support from below, critical to avoiding injury.
• When using your arms, keep your wrists straight. Feel the connection up to your shoulders, or down to your hip joints. This reduces carpal tunnel symptoms. Use the stronger central parts of your body to help, so the whole body supports the work you are doing.
• Lifting: hold the lifted object as close to the center of your body as possible. Keep your legs and feet under your pelvis, bending through the hips, knees and ankles, keeping your spine erect. Also, know when to get help. Herniated discs are a high price to pay for not asking. They are debilitating and take a long time to heal.
• Adjust yourself to keep your center of gravity low during most tasks; keep your spine long and your body aligned.
• Vary your tasks and have fun. Dig awhile, then sweep; pull some weeds; look at seed catalogs; come back to digging. And check in with your body periodically, from head to toes.
• Try different ways of doing the same task. Be playful. Take your time and make comfort your top priority. This will help you enjoy the process of gardening, not just the end result.

By being in your body actively and attentively, you protect yourself from injury as you develop better, more well aligned movement patterns. You experience a sensory connection with nature, absorbing sights, sounds, smells and textures of life all around you, which are

different in every season. Add in the bounty from your garden that will come from your work and care … and how much better can life get?  
Coming to Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement classes will teach you to use yourself more mindfully, efficiently, and comfortably. It all begins by developing more self and body awareness, the foundation of determining what and how we may wish to explore change. Contact me using the form above if you have questions, would like to talk about a specific condition or would like more information.

All the best! Carole