Mia Segal, Differentiation and Integration

Defining Differentation of the Arms, Shoulders and Ribs

Another wonderful example of the magic of Feldenkrais from legendary Mia Segal, one of Dr. Feldenkrais' first students.  Principles of both Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration become clear.

Introduction to the Feldenkrais Method, from Alan Fraser, renowned Feldenkrais teacher, pianist, and practitioner

THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD: difficult to explain, wonderful to experience. 

A practical and scientific way of addressing aspects of movement we seldom even think about or worry about… until we have a problem.

Moshe Feldenkrais (1903-1984), a scientist with degrees in physics, mechanical and electrical engineering from the Sorbonne, and a student of Jigaro Kano (founder of Judo) who became European Judo champion. Also extremely widely read in physiology, anatomy and neuro-psychology, he was well-acquainted with the development of other movement modalities by pioneers such as Elsa Gindler, Jacques Dalcroze, Gerta Alexander and most important of all, Mathias Alexander with whom he studied in London in the late 40’s.

Feldenkrais was aware that movement is controlled by electrical signals from the brain, and that every movement exists as an image in the brain before it actually happens. His unique contribution to science is his discovery of a way to interact directly with these neuromotor processes, literally reprogramming the brain to improve its movement organization. The ramifications for this are immense and still unfolding.

Feldenkrais Method brings improvement to
--stroke victims and patients with cerebral palsy, MS, emphysema and other movement-impairing illnesses.
--athletes, dancers and actors – both those who have suffered injury and those who simply want to improve their skills, i.e., pianists, other instrumentalists, vocalists, conductors – all musicians who seek relief from injury or enhancement of their capacity for fine control of every element of their musical expression
--ordinary people with back pain or any movement limitation

The movements in a Feldenkrais session are exceptionally small and gentle, sometimes even imperceptible. The client often wonders what is going on because she is not used to perceiving the fine differences in sensation on which the learning process of Feldenkrais is based. But that’s the secret of Feldenkrais’s success: instead of using the grosser amounts of energy that make a muscle actually contract (think of the amount of electricity needed to light an incandescent light bulb), it works with the extremely low-energy signals coming from the brain to the muscle (like the signal a computer key sends the processor). An Awareness Through Movement® lesson is not a lesson in movement as we know it at all, but a fine-tuning of the neurological control mechanisms of movement.

Here’s the kicker: the practitioner accesses those neuromotor processes through the client’s skeleton.

When bones are out of alignment, muscles work hard to keep the skeleton in place, and they are not so free to generate movement. When bones are well-aligned, the muscles work less to hold and more to move: movements feel easier but are stronger. If the practitioner moves the client’s body paying attention to the skeletal mechanics within, he begins to be able to differentiate, by sensation, between the bones, muscles and nervous impulses. A physiotherapist will move an injured leg through various configurations to restore the leg’s sense of moveability and limberness. The Feldenkrais practitioner moves the same leg a miniscule amount, and senses how well the bones line up to transmit a force through. He feels with high sensitivity even the smallest resistance, the smallest possible interference from muscles that hold instead of help.

But the practitioner doesn’t then plough through that resistance. The more you resist, the more it persists! Instead the practitioner ‘nudges up’ against the resistance and then backs off again. He makes the brain more aware of what it’s doing. He brings the resistance into the brain’s sensory picture of that part of the body. We are talking of miniscule, virtually imperceptible movements here – movements so small that they are not perceived as intrusive but inquisitive. After some time the neuromotor system miraculously begins to ‘wake up’ and respond to these slight stimuli – the brain literally gets curious, and lowers muscle tone to better perceive the practitioner’s input. The quality of this relaxation is profoundly different from the relaxation of massage or Yoga – there’s a specific neurological component to it that is unique to Feldenkrais.

And the brain returns to the state all our brains possessed in infancy – it actually becomes neurologically more plastic in its efforts to respond intelligently to these tiny but precise and meaningful stimulations. The neurological controls of movement are created anew.

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

MINDFUL GARDENING yields great results

PAIN-FREE GARDENING?  You can do it!

Here are some important 'COMFORTABLE GARDENING' tips from Reno Feldenkrais:

(1)  Always keep some attention on your body so that you don't forget about yourself and hurt yourself unconsciously; 

(2)  CHANGE POSITIONS frequently if you feel uncomfortable or if you feel pain;  

(3) Use your whole body to support weed pulling and other tasks, working at an angle or from the side, not straight down in front of you; 

(4) Bend from the knees and hips, not from your lower spine; 

(5)  Being more mindful as you tend your beautiful garden will save you pain and give you pleasure.  AND you will reap the rewards in your well-being!

(6) If you want to learn more about how to move more comfortably, with greater stability, grace and with less pain, contact me at 775-240-7882 or renofeldenkrais@aol.com about classes or private lessons.

    

MORE Help for Scoliosis and Back Pain

2nd Scoliosis & Back Mobility Workshop - An introductory event to teach you just how much you can do to improve your condition. You don't have to put up with pain!

WHEN/WHERE:  Sunday May 20, 1-5 pm, at the Reno Buddhist Center, 820 Plumas, Reno.
COST: need-based sliding scale, $35-50.  Class is limited to 12 people; you must preregister & prepay.
BRING:  A mat, blanket or comforter and a small towel, water and a snack.
CONTACT:  Carole at renofeldenkrais@aol.com or 775-240-7882.