Functional Integration Practice

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Functional Integration · Practice From the

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Compiled and Edited by Graziella Leone Feldenkrais Practitioner

Functional Integration Practice

Table of Contents

lntroduction ..... ...... ..... ............. ...... .... ................... .. .... ..... ... . 5 How to Use This Book ... ......... ................................... .. ... .... 11 CAVEAT.... ............. .... ... ...... ......................... ...... .. .. .. ... ..... .... 13 The Elusive Obvious ...... ................................... ..... .... .. ....... 17

Rolling of the Head ................. .. ......................... .. ............... 21 PRACTICE #1- Observing and Rolling the Head ............ 24 PRACTICE #2 - Head and Legs Relationship .. .. ..... ....... ... 29 PRACTICE #3 - Head and Shoulder Relationship ........... 34 PRACTICE #4 - Head and Eyes Relationship ...... ........ .. ... 37 PRACTICE #5 - Watching People Moving ...... ............. ... .39

Feeling the Skeleton and Lifting the Shoulder .......... ..... .. . .43 PRACTICE #6 - Feeling the Shoulder Blade .. .......... ...... .47 PRACTICE #7 - Lifting the Shoulder ... ......... ......... ...... ... 50 PRACTICE #8 - Feeling the Shoulders as the Person Moves (Triangle Arms) ...... ......................................... ... 53 PRACTICE #9 - Turning the Head and Lifting the Shoulders ..... ...... ... ......... .... ....... ......... ........ ....... .. .. ......... 57

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes .. ........................ ..... . 59 PRACTICE #10 - Head and Eyes Relationship - A Deeper Look ............ ........ ..... ........... ........... ......... ................ .. ... .. 61 PRACTICE #11- Head and Eyes Relationship ....... .. ....... 65 PRACTICE #12 - Head, Tongue and Eyes Relationship .. 67 1

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip ..... .......... ................. .. 73 Introduction .......................................... ........................ . 73 Lengthening the Arm ........ ..... ............. ............. ............. .75 PRACTICE #13 - Lengthening the Arm ............ .......... 82 Feeling the Pelvis ........................................................... 87 PRACTICE #14 - Rolling the Head, Lifting the Shoulder and Tilting the Pelvis ................................................. 95 PRACTICE #15 - Rolling the Head, Lifting the Shoulder and Tilting the Pelvis ............................. .................... 98 PRACTICE #16 - Chest as Japanese Lantern ............ 100 Visual and Tactile Observation ............................... 100 Bringing Together ........................................................ 103 PRACTICE #17 - Lengthening the Arm and Lifting the Hips ......................................................................... 103 PRACTICE #18 - Turning the Head, Lengthening the Arm, and Lifting the Pelvis ...................................... 106 PRACTICE #19 - Lengthening the Arm with Different "Prospective" .......................................................... 108

Lengthening and Pushing the Legs .................................. 109 PRACTICE #20 - Lengthening the Arms Pushing on the Foot - Observation ..................................................... 118 PRACTICE #21 - Lengthening the Legs ......................... 125

Observing People in Standing and Push the Ribs Together ............ .... ........................................................... 129

Lengthening the Arm Above the Head .... .......... .............. 143

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Functional Integration Practice

Lengthening both Arms Above the Head ......................... 153 PRACTICE #22 - Lengthening the Arms ...................... 158 PRACTICE #23 -Arms and Legs Relationship .............. 161

More Practice!. ................................................................ 163 PRACTICE #24 - Observation ...................................... 164 PRACTICE #25 - Feeling the Scapula and the Rib Cage ........................................................ ..................... 166 PRACTICE #26 - Feeling the Spine .............................. 167 PRACTICE #27 - Prayer Lesson .................................... 169 PRACTICE #28 - Lifting the Shoulder and Tracing the Sternum ....................................................................... 172 PRACTICE #29 - Feeling the Pelvis while They Roll Fists and Pelvis in Sitting ..................................................... 173 PRACTICE #30 - Feeling the Pelvis while They Roll Fists and Pelvis Lying on the Floor ................................ ....... 176 PRACTICE #31- Lengthening the Leg ......................... 178 PRACTICE #32 - Lengthening the Leg and Lengthening the Arm ......... ...... ............ ......... ... .......... ........... ........... 181 PRACTICE #33 - Observing Hand on Head Going for a Ride .............................................................................. 184

A bit of History about Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (Fl) .............................. 189

The Contradictory Thinking .............................................. 195

Healthier Habits ............................................................... 197

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4

Functional Integration Practice

Introduction

Things work better when we are choosing them, rather than being compelled Tonus represents our mood (Dr. Feldenkrais)

There are two aspects of the work of Dr. Feldenkrais:

(D Awareness Through Movements (ATM) = exercise lessons guided by a Feldenkrais teacher. These are done mostly on the floor, but can be done also standing or sitting. @

Functional Integration (Fl) = individual work. The basis of Fl is having a sensitivity about working with others and that sensitivity is an extension of what we learn working with ourselves in ATM. 5

Introduction

That is why the training starts with ATM and it will always be with us. Our consciousness, our awareness is inextricably tied to the awareness that we have of our body; our body kinesthetic sensory awareness. For all of us this kinesthetic awareness is not only extremely limited, but limited in ways that we don't understand. During ATM we will look at one particular thing, that is constant: how our brain changes /learns. •

How we create the conditions by which our brain can change (habits of a lifetime that can change.)

•

Then: how can we extend this understanding to helping others?

The Paradox of Change The desire to change creates resistance ⇒ It makes improvement more difficult

We succeed not trying to succeed. Instead of trying harder and pushing, be engaged and interested in your internal feelings and sensations.

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Functional Integration Practice

In fact Dr. Feldenkrais knew the Weber-Fechner law, the law of just noticeable differences regarding vision, smell, hearing or kinesthetic sense; that is how much of a difference is needed to notice a difference. Therefore Dr. Feldenkrais developed the idea of doing less, of reducing the effort

The more effort => the less is our ability to perceive a difference

That 1s how our nervous system works, by perceiving differences. Weber-Fechner difference states:

law

of

just

noticeable

The just-noticeable difference between two stimuli is proportional to the magnitude of the stimuli (and the subject1s sensitivity)

=> the smaller the stimulus the more subtle the differences we notice! Let 1s say that for light is 1:200. So if you have two hundreds of light bulbs on you need to switch off 7

Introduction

two of them to notice the difference. If one of them is turned off you will not notice that is darker. The interesting thing is that this ratio never changes. In general each person has the same ratio, although someone's sense can be sharper: blind people can have a sharper hearing, so a musician for example. By learning/training one can alter (improve) her/his ability, and that's exactly what we are doing here: we are developing our kinesthetic sense, that is our perception of muscular work. For the major part of us, the kinesthetic sense is not developed: it is required the basic key stones we have to accomplished (walk, run, jump) and then socialization becomes the most important thing, i.e. very soon in our life we make a distinction between our impulses and what the society expects from us (not necessary negative): to act and to move in a certain way. All the extra effort we unconsciously use all the time (and that is unnecessary) represents the way we contorted ourselves to fit the society (the way we adjusted to trauma/difficulties). The anxiety to fit the rules of the society emotionally creates a boundary to possible feeling I can have=> it directs me! Dr. Feldenkrais said that tonus (that is the level of muscular contraction) and mood are the same thing!

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Functional Integration Practice

The state of the muscular system represents my emotional state!

The ability to distinguish these sensory differences comes easily for some area and less easily for others. In the areas of ourselves that we are familiar with, to which we orient ourselves, we have a high sensory acuity. The other areas are almost as if they didn't exist: these "black holes" are related to our development both physical and philological and emotional. During the ATM one can perceive more effort making small movement than larger one, this is because one can sense the evenness making that movement. One can then improve and feel where can reduce the effort!

We want to create the condition in which our nervous system can learn: less effort means higher kinesthetic sensory acuity. Sensory acuity means the ability to sense and feel differences and to sense and feel ourselves.

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Introduction

FIRST PRINCIPLE Less muscular effort means a higher ability to sense differences.

SECOND PRINCIPLE The more the whole skeleton participates in an action the less the muscular effort.

The reverse is true too: the less muscular effort the more the skeleton is able to participate to the movement.

THIRD PRINCIPLE Easy actions mean the work is proportionally distributed.

That means that larger (thicker) muscles are doing more work than thinner muscles. Our body is organized in a way that larger muscles are near the center, and as you go away from the center the muscles are thinner and shorter. The smaller ones enable delicate actions, precise actions (fingers). Arms and legs in a martial art are there just to transmit the power of the pelvis. 10

Functional Integration Practice

How to Use This Book

A functional integration (Fl) lesson is not a step by step procedure, rather is a work in progress which evolves by the moment and with the specific person the practitioner is treating. The Feldenkrais practitioner will not have a plan a mind, but will observe the person making a guess on the basis of what s/he sees, ready however to change his/her mind. Dr. Feldenkrais had an idea, a strategy, and he gave it up when he saw it was not working. The following chapters will show the building blocks of your developing technique, but they are NOT intended as a strict sequence to use during an Fl lesson.

Be ready to have an idea and then to give up that Idea when you sense that it is not working, or there is something else

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How to Use This Book

Practice with as many people as you can, to learn, to sense and feel the differences and become more confident in that process which is an Fl lesson.

Later in your practice of Fl, you will start thinking about a function you want to improve in the person. Every now and then in the explanation of these "building blocks" it will be highlighted what kind of function they could be related to (although this could be just one possibility among many others!) There will moment in which you will feel confuse. Confusion and anxiety often lie really close together in our experience, and many of us have hard time to differentiate between the two, so we tend to get away even from confusion. Remember that feeling insecurity, confusion, and even frustration is a good thing: learning means having a relationship to something you do not know, and the best learner is the one who can tolerate the confusion, who can tolerate not knowing. Let's start and embrace confusion!

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Functional Integration Practice

CAVEAT

Observation : in this book, a part from s/he, the word

they (with its counterparts them, their, and themselves) will be used as a singular pronoun to refer to a person of unspecified gender (as this has been used since at least the 16th century.)

If a person had an injury, do not start touching and moving the injured part. The main point is: what can I do to make what the person already does easily even easier. Do not try to correct them!

Work with the reliable part of the person

Although you will move the left or right side of the person, your attention has to be generalized: do not concentrate the attention in one place.

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CAVEAT

Generalize your awareness

Attention means time; therefore do the movements very slowly in order to develop the kinesthetic awareness. As in an awareness thorough movement (ATM) lesson we are creating the conditions for learning, the conditions by which the nervous system can perceive what we are doing, this is valid in Functional Integration, too: make gentle movement so that the person can feel and perceive themselves.

Reduce the effort so that the nervous system is not perturbed and the sensory acuity can increase

NOTE

As in ATM, also in Fl the directions are always relative to the person as if they were standing. For example: if the person is lying down on the floor or on the table, bringing their arm forward means to bring the arm in front of them toward the ceiling (picture 0.1).

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Functional Integration Practice

) Picture 0.1

Observation: For most of the lessons the person is lying on the floor or on a Feldenkrais table: 90 percent of the activity of the brain is related to be upright. We want to take the nervous system out of that work, so the nervous system is free to pay attention to less than obvious muscular activity. This sensory distinction is difficult to make while standing in gravity.

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CAVEAT

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Functional Integration Practice

The Elusive Obvious

How do we interact with each other when we are sensing and feeling another person? One of the fundamental notions that underlies doctor Feldenkrais thinking is that:

We are looking at more global picture rather than local

The tendency in talking about the local is often to describe something is wrong: "My knee hurts, my back hurts." But here we're doing something very different:

We are attempting to form a way of perceiving that is looking at relationships

17

The Elusive Obvious

Not only the relationship within ourselves, but our relationship with the other person when we are working with them, touching them, feeling them. This is a very tricky thing, because almost all of us have a background in which we were pathologized or we have a background in which we are already ascribing cause to a person's effect: you know that a certain person has no energy there, their stomach meridian is blocked ... I think that this kind of ascribing to what we see is based on two things: The culture we live in and 2 . It comes from our own feeling of inadequacy: when we can ascribe problems to another person it makes us feel, for a moment, as if we have a little less of a problem. This creates a bit of a hierarchy between us and the other where we are the expert and the other person is the patient, the client.

1.

Here we're trying to do something very differently and that difference is not simply a matter of trying to use language differently, it's the most fundamental aspect of doing Feldenkrais.

Feldenkrais Method as an Interactive Form

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Functional Integration Practice

One thing is when one person is lying on the floor and I do Awareness Through Movement and the teacher is guiding me and their language is clean and I rarely have thoughts about my problem and my difficulty: they keep saying "Avoid the pain", "Slow down", "Do less". Then when you begin to interact with another person there is a social anxiety and you're doing something unfamiliar even though you think you're familiar with looking and touching another person; you only know how to do it and talk about it in the domain that you have experienced, which is not here. Therefore it is difficult to have a beginner's mind here if you have somewhere else where you are an expert or you think you are an expert. When we are an expert in one place (or we think we are), then the things we do to make ourselves feel good about ourselves is to take that way of looking and generalize it to wherever we are, to whatever situation we are grappling with or interacting with, because then I feel good about myself, I don't have to feel like a beginner.

Being able to have a neutral beginner's mind is essential to do this work

Whoever is able to maintain a certain naivete, certain innocence and to look at other people with that kind of innocence will have an advantage. 19

The Elusive Obvious

Another fundamental characteristic is that:

Dr. Feldenkrais was optimistic in looking at every single human being

He considered children with brain damages to have beautiful brains, brains fully able of learning. There was a four-year-old girl, that was in a bad shape, not able to crawl yet when she was first brought to Dr. Feldenkrais. She was rejected by her mother, had serious difficulty and behavioral problems and had yet to crawl. However she continue to receive Feldenkrais lessons and she was able to go to college and when she was in high school we had an MA and they found that she had only one half of the brain. These results are achieved in part because of a particular attitude about looking at people and not looking at what's wrong. There was a guy with a severe spinal cord injury, and Dr. Feldenkrais noticed that he could move his tongue, so he worked with this ability

Always look at what the person can do not what they cannot do. This makes a big difference

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Functional Integration Practice

Rolling of the Head

How to roll the head: To roll the head straighten your fingers, the four fingers together, but not rigid. The movement is the one we used when we were children at school and rolled a pencil (picture

1.1.1). The fingers remain straight during the rolling and the points of contact with the person's head change. Remember:

We roll the person's head to the right using the left hand and to the left using the right hand

21

Roll ing of the Head

Picture 1.1.1

Starting the Connection: Of course talking (and joking) with the person as soon as we know them already starts a connection. However do not start connecting to the person by touching their head, but make a contact with their shoulder (picture 1.1.2).

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Functional Integration Practice

Picture 1.1.2

Observe the pace of their breath and connect with it. Observe where you see the movement of their breath. During the lesson the breathing of the person will tell you if something is not ok, even if the person is not conscious of that.

Pace your rhythm with their breath

23

Rolling of the Head

PRACTICE #1 - Observing and Rolling the Head With a person lying on the floor or on a Feldenkrais table, stand at the feet of the person. Imagine a straight line that goes from the middle of their pubic bone upward, along the breastbone, the base of their throat, the top of their head; this helps to discern if their head is turned a little bit to the right or a little bit to the left; maybe: • The tip of their nose is more to one side of this imaginary middle line; • Or one side of the neck appears longer; • Or you notice that the distance between their ear and their shoulder of one side is shorter than the other side (picture 1.1.3.) Stand at the head of person and imagine that straight line again, and observe if the bending of their head appears the same or different than when you stood at their feet.

Picture 1.1.3 24

Functional Integration Practice

Now look at the shoulder and notice if one shoulder leans more forward (toward the ceiling) or back (closer to the floor). If one is more forward, what is the relationship of it with the turning of the head?

These are just guesses: we do not see things in an absolute term. There is no absolute!

In the years you will learn to be an observer, to notice things others do not notice, that is what Dr. Feldenkrais called "The elusive obvious"; but at the same time you will also be skeptical. Now sit down (at the head of the person). If you and the person are on the floor, sit in such a way that your legs are crossed and that you are square to the person. Observe which leg is in front of the other for you. If the person lies on a table, sit on a stool with the sole of your feet well in contact with the floor. Try to have your pubic bone in the middle of the imaginary line, so to be as much symmetrical as you can.

SUPPORT: if it appears to you that the person's chin is tilting back (away from their throat) probably a pad under their head will help them to be more comfortable. However the pad should not be too thick to tilts their chin down. 25

Rolling of the Head

Think of what you saw in standing and made a guess: if it appeared that the chin was tilted to the left put your right hand on their forehead, if the chin seemed tilted to the right, put the left hand on their forehead, so that you turn the head in the direction of where the fingers point. Do not press! If you did not perceive anything, just put either hand on their front head. Your hand is flat, the fingers are not curled on their head. Very very slowly roll the head around their middle, a little bit to the right and a little to the left. We are just concern about the movement around the center. If you have your right hand on their head, this facilitates the turning of the head to the left. Very slowly. Do this few times. Keep yourself tall, you are not supporting yourself with your hand. Breathe freely. And stop and rest. The movement was probably too much;-) We want to roll the head very lightly, not pressing, just kind of moving their skin. The moment you perceive you have to increase the amount of effort in your hand, you have already gone too far! Keep your hand soft and feel if there is a difference on what you did and what you are doing now. 26

Functional Integration Practice

Switch hand and feel the differences. You can feel the differences just at the beginning of the rolling. What do you feel: is the head of the person rolling more easily to the left or to the right? Just guess. Is this different from what you observed in standing? Do not roll too far, otherwise it is too noisy to feel. Rest.

SKELETON: the facets of the vertebrae of the neck are turning (picture 1.1.4 - video 1.1).

This movement can spread along the spine involving more and more vertebrae. Pay attention if you notice any change at the end of the lesson regarding the integration of the movement of the different parts of the body.

27

Rolling of the Head

Picture 1.1.4 28

Functional Integration Practice

PRACTICE #2 - Head and Legs Relationship

Person lying on the floor or on a table. Stand at the feet of the person and imagine a straight middle line that goes from the middle of their pubic bone upward to the top of their head; observe how their body is organized: is the head tilted more to the right or to the left? How are the shoulders? How is their pelvis: is one side closer to the floor than the other? Move to the head of person and imagine that straight line again, and observe if the bending of the head of them appears the same or different. Observe if one shoulder leans more forward (toward the ceiling) or back (closer to the floor). Sit at the head of the person and very very slowly roll their head to the left with your right hand few times. Do the same rolling their head to the right few times. Keep yourself tall, you are not supporting yourself with your hand. Breathe freely. Guess which direction is easier. Stop and rest. The person's legs are long. If they bend their knees, there is more slack on their spine (the spine is

29

Rolling of the Head

not pulled downward by the pelvis) and their head moves freer.

Tell the person to bend their knees and move their head in the direction you think easier, hand soft, very slowly. Relax your shoulder, your jaw, and feel the differences from when the legs were straight and now that they are bent. Do it few times, then stop and switch hand (rolling their head to the other direction) and notice if you feel any difference. Relax your abdomen and breathe normally. Which side move more easily? Is it different from your initial guess?

Observation Each variation in a lesson produces the possibility of feeling the difference, and gives the person something to compare to.

In order to know something, you have to know the thing in relation to something else

We do not want to tell what the right thing to do is: we want the person to feel the difference between two (or more) things, and to choose the best for themselves. 30

Functional Integration Practice

Example (Pictures 1.1.5 a-band 1.1.6 a-b - video 1.2) Legs straight => pelvis is tilted up and pulls the spine downward. So if I want to lift the head, I want the spine pulled up, and the pelvis tilted like that makes it more difficult. Keens bent => the head becomes lighter to lift. If I had the knees bent at all time, I would have had nothing to compare to. You do not need to verbalize this, when teaching Fl.

Verbalize is not necessary to learn

A baby learns to crawl and to sit and then to stand without instruction. Look for things that are really different, that a person can really feel, because this can be disturbing (they can say "What's wrong with me".)

The more a person uses themselves symmetrically the more confident s/he feels.

31

Rolling of the Head

When the person will straighten their legs again, no matter what variation you were doing at the beginning, their brain feel easy to move all together (more parts of their body are participating to the movement)

Pictures 1.1.5 a-b

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Functional Integration Practice

Pictures 1.1.5 a-b

Fundamental Principle:

If the brain is given two possibilities it will choose the easiest one.

On the contrary, doing over and over again the same movements like a machine will not change things spontaneously.

33

Rolling of the Head

PRACTICE #3 - Head and Shoulder Relationship Person lying on the floor or on a table. Stand at the feet of the person and imagine a straight middle line that goes from the middle of their pubic bone upward to the top of their head; observe how their body is organized: is the head tilted more to the right or to the left? Does one shoulder appear closer to the floor than the other? Move to the head of person and imagine that straight line again, and observe if the bending of the head of them appears the same or different. Observe if one shoulder leans more forward (toward the ceiling) or back (closer to the floor). If one is more forward, what is the relationship of it with the turning of the head? Sit at the head of the person and very very slowly roll their head to the left with your right hand few times. Do the same rolling their head to the right few times. Guess which direction is easier. Stop and rest. You also did a guess about which shoulder was more forward.

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Functional Integration Practice

Ask the person to lift one shoulder-blade a little bit away from the floor, and let it fall back. Just one shoulder, and just what's easy, few times. Now you roll their head in the opposite direction of the shoulder that they are lifting: if they are lifting the right shoulder you will put your right hand on their forehead and turn their head to the left. Synchronize your movement with theirs. You turn their head while they are lifting their shoulder. Does lifting the shoulder make it easier to turn their head, or less easy? Stop and rest.

We are feeling the participation of the more proximal muscles in the turning of the head.

SKELETON: the scapula (shoulder-blade) lifts, the clavicle (collar bone), the sternum (breastbone) turn, the rib cage is moving and the facets of the vertebrae of the spine are turning (picture 1.1.7 a-b video 1.3).

35

Rolling of the Head

Put your hand on their forehead, and roll their head a little bit, and then back to the middle. Pay attention to their breathing, their rhythm. Monitor the changes. Is it easier now rolling the head?

Picture 1.1.7 a-b

36

Functional Integration Practice

PRACTICE #4 - Head and Eyes Relationship Person lying on the floor or on a table. Stand at the feet of the person and imagine a straight middle line that goes from the middle of their pubic bone upward to the top of their head; observe how their body is organized: is the head tilted more to the right or to the left? Move to the head of person and imagine that straight line again, and observe if the bending of the head of them appears the same or different. Sit at the head of the person. Roll their head in the easiest direction and ask them to turn the eyes in the same direction. Does this make the rolling of the head lighter, or less easy? Always around the middle, do not move their head too much. Follow their rhythm. Then ask them to fix a point on the ceiling while you are rolling their head in the same direction. What happen? They can hardly turn their head. You have now a big hint on how the nervous system is organized! Then ask to move the eyes again in the same direction of the head, and feel the difference. Do this few times. Rest.

37

Rolling of the Head

Change over your hand and roll the head in the opposite direction, while the person is moving their eyes in the same direction. Then again ask them not to move the eyes. Check your breathing, relax your jaw, stay tall. Stop and rest. What differences do you observe on the person? When they are ready, ask the person to slowly come to sitting, then to standing and walk and look around.

Note on keeping the eyes closed or open . There is not a rule regarding keeping the eyes open or closed. If the person wants to keep the eyes open do not force her/him to close them. During the lesson you can ask the person to open them to fix a point on the ceiling or to follow your finger; but otherwise let them choose. Sometimes having the eyes closed helps to feel the sensation. Some other people associate to have the eyes open to safety feeling. In standing it is an advantage to keep the eyes open, because it is easier. We generally have the eyes open when we are moving, so we want to develop to pay attention to ourselves in every situation. 38

Functional Integration Practice

PRACTICE #5 - Watching People Moving

Aim of this practice is to: ►

Watch them moving and ► Try to notice the differences between them You can also place your hands on a variety of positions to better feel their actions while they are moving. Two people sitting on the floor, sole of the feet together or leg crossed, leaning on their hands behind (tell them to find the right distance for them.) Tell them to start rounding their back, bowing their head forward and then lifting the head and extending through the spine. Observe the timing of the action, the rate of the movement. How you see the movement distributed from the pelvis through the length of the spine and reflect to the movement of the head, so to study the relationship between the head moving, the pelvis moving and the shape of the spine in each direction (with the head coming forward and then backward.) Look at the pelvis: is the pelvis staying on the same place or there is a wide range?

39

Rolling of the Head

Let them rest (lying on their back if they want). You can study the arrangement of their body: the legs, the spine and how the head is sitting on top of the spine (is turned or tilted in one direction?) Ask the persons to come to sitting and do the same movement. Look at the shape of their spine and chest. Place your hands somewhere on one person: the back of their spine, their shoulders, ... Put the hands in such a way that you are not imposing a direction (very light touch: you are just listening, you do not want to change anything!) This is information gathering Information gathering is something that conveys from the quality of our touch: any shift you noticed when you make contact with someone is a response that you observe. Sometimes you notice a reaction for which you know that you touched too quickly, or in some way that interfered. Have an equal distribution between your dominant and nondominant hand. Has their movement changed after you put your hands on them? Shift your hands in two or three different places. Do you feel differences, different responses where you touch?

40

Functional Integration Practice

Let them rest (lying on their back if they want). Do you observe any differences than before? How is their breathing? Ask the persons to come to sitting and do the same movement. Now place your hands on the other person and feel how their movement is: is there any difference than the first person? What draws your attention? The movement of the head, the shoulders, the spine, the pelvis? More people you observe, more things you will notice. Now step back and watch the person moving: is there any difference in the quality of the action? Look at their breath during the motion. See if the whole person is present in the action. Let them rest.

The rest is as (or even more) important as the movement itself!

41

Rolling of the Head

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Functional Integration Practice

Feeling the Skeleton and Lifting the Shoulder

With a person lying on the floor or on a table, sit down at their head. Straighten your fingers, the four fingers together, but not rigid. Slide the right hand under the shoulder, palm down, then scoop it under their right shoulder (picture 1.2.1 a).

Picture 1.2.1 a

In this position (you can be more or less in the center of their shoulder-blade) you lift their (right/left) shoulder and then move it to the left/right.

43

Lifting the Shoulder

You have your hand flat, then when you are behind their shoulder you turn your hand and search with your fingertip the center of their shoulder blade, because if I want to lift something as a table or a board I want to be in the middle of it, not on the edge otherwise it would be more difficult (picture 1.2.1 b).

Picture 1.2.1 b

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Functional Integration Practice

In this position (you can be more or less in the center of their shoulder-blade) you lift their right/left shoulder and then move it to the left/right. When you lift their shoulder your hand has to be soft otherwise a person can be uncomfortable.

Note that it is not lifting in a straight line up toward the ceiling, but you are thinking of lifting and turning

Observation The majority of contact with the person in moving them is through the skeleton.

In Feldenkrais you think in term of skeleton and bones, not in term of muscles.

However it is not always easy to feel the bones in a person. You have somehow to bring together the notions of anatomy with your own experience.

Note You shouldn 1t think that it is the movement as an event that we are interesting in and that the movement is creating the change and there is nothing 45

Lifting the Shoulder

else. It is not the movement that is creating the change. It is about sensing and feeling as in the awareness through movement. That is the medium through which the reorganization and improvement are possible and take place.

The difference is not in what I'm doing, but how I am doing it

I go slowly and sense how is the movement of the person, if this is creating a difference: what happens to the shoulder, to the chest, to the breathing, etc.? I can lift the shoulder and take it to the right, or to the left. Then I can think of the turning of their head during these movements.

Nothing is correcting during this period, we don't want to change anything.

46

Functional Integration Practice

PRACTICE #6 - Feeling the Shoulder Blade The person will lie down (on the floor or on the table). You sit at their head. Ask the person to lift a little bit the right shoulder-blade forward and then left. Observe their clavicle (collar bone) hinging relative to their breastbone (sternum): the clavicle movement is generally available (not always it is so) - Picture 1.1.4 and video 1.3. You can put your left hand on the sternum to feel it. Ask the person to roll onto their left side (or the more comfortable side for them .)

Picture 1.2.2 47

Lifting the Shoulder

Find the junction where their clavicle comes in and connects to their shoulder-blades. Hold their arm from the elbow (picture 1.2.2). Breathe freely. Start to feel their scapula (picture 1.2.3): • • •

•

Trace the top of the shoulder-blade (superior border). Go now along the medial border of their shoulder-blade. Trace it slowly. Arrive at the tip of the shoulder-blade (inferior angle). Go slowly, giving the person the time to feel themselves. Then trace the lateral border. Most people make a lot of muscular effort there.

Even this simple mapping will be effective and can be incorporated in an Fl lesson. Even people with a good knowledge of anatomy do not generally feel themselves, and this is a good experience for them. This will change their self-image.

Ask the person to lie on their back and feel their clavicle and shoulder-blade again and feel the difference than before.

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Functional Integration Practice

Picture 1.2.3

Ask the person if they feel any differences. They probably thought the clavicle was shorter. Practice on the other side.

49

Lifting the Shoulder

PRACTICE #7 - Lifting the Shoulder Person lying down on the floor or on the table. Make contact with them and observe the pace of their breath. Roll their head few times to the right, then to the left and make a guess on which direction seems easier. Scoop your hand below their shoulder (the opposite one to the easier direction their head was turning to) and put the other hand on their sternum. You can first go along their sternum to feel how long it is and then try to put the tip of your fingers on the bottom of their sternum and the thumb on the top of it (picture 1.2.4).

Picture 1.2.4 Just touching their sternum with the hand in this position and moving their shoulder has an

so

Functional Integration Practice

influence on their perception and feeling of themselves. Observe how is the opposite hip (if you are lifting the right shoulder, look at the left hip joint): is it higher or lower than the other one (if you put a small ball below the bellybutton to which side would it roll?) Imagine a diagonal line that goes from their shoulder to the sternum to the hip. You help them to feel that their sternum is tilting with the lifting of the scapula (picture 1.2.Sa). This will also help you to feel the movement and how is propagating, flowing to the chest. You can then put a hand on the rib cage on the opposite side (picture 1.2.Sb) and help the lifting of their shoulder with the turning of the chest (rib cage).

Picture 1.2.5 a - b

51

Lifting the Shoulder

Put your hand in different places (such as the opposite clavicle) and feel if the movement arrives there (picture 1.2.6a).

Picture 1.2.6 a - b You can then roll their head again, and feel the difference with respect to when you started.

Thinking functionally: all these movements can be related to rolling to the side (for example).

Observation During the practice, when you lift their shoulder, you can watch where their eyes are going (even if their eyes are closed.) 52

Functional Integration Practice

PRACTICE #8 - Feeling the Shoulders as the Person Moves {Triangle Arms) Person lying on their back down on the floor, you standing at their head. Ask the person to bend their knees, stand their feet, bring their palms together, arm straight (but not stiff) in front of them (towards the ceiling) to form a triangle. Ask them to tilt the arms in such a way that that triangle will not deform. They will tilt their arm to the right, then back to the middle, and then to the left. Observe the differences between the tilting to the left compare to the tilting to the right. See how the person follows the movement in one direction and in the other direction. Track the movement along the middle line: how does their chest roll in one direction and in the other one. Try to absorb as much information as possible: look at their breathing, the two side of the rib cage. Let them rest. Sit in a comfortable way at the head of the person. Put your hands near the shoulder girdle, in same place you can touch. Ask the person to bend their knees, stand their feet and make the triangle. Ask them to tilt to the left and to the right.

53

Lifting the Shoulder

You watch the movement before, now what information do you get from your hands? Is the information congruent with what you observe before? How is the range of the tilting. (Let them rest whenever they need.) Project with both your hands and your eyes how the movement comes into the chest, the spine, the direction of the pelvis. Watch and feel, and eventually they start to combine. Rest. Watch how the person is lying down. Connect with the moving in their breathing. Ask the person to bend their knees, stand their feet and make the triangle. Ask them to tilt to the left and to the right. Put your hands near the shoulder girdle, without imposing a direction, you just follow the movement: when their triangle moves to the right, their left shoulder lift. Ask the person to let their head rolling. What does this element add to the movement, and how this is transmitted through their chest, the spine, the pelvis. Watch their breathing. Now ask them not to move their head, to look at a point on the ceiling. How is the movement now? And ask them to alternate the two: few movements with their head rolling, and few movements with their head still. (Let them rest if they need to.) 54

Functional Integration Practice

Tell them not to hold their breathing. Rest. Observe if their organization has changed. Ask the person to bend their knees, stand their feet and make the triangle. Ask them to tilt to the left and to the right. Make contact with their shoulder girdle. Ask the person to tilt their triangle, but when the arms go to the right their nose will go to the left, so the head is rolling in the opposite direction of the arms. See how they organize the movement now: the move the arms first, or is a smooth movement, which parts move first, which parts follow. Now let them move their head in the same direction of the arms. How does the movement change? How do they shift from one side to the other? How does the breathing change? Now ask them to alternate few movements with the head in the same direction of the arms, and few movements with the head rolling in the opposite direction. Feel the difference, how the movements spread along the breastbone, the spine, the pelvis. Rest. Observe their first breath, how their shoulders lie on the floor.

55

Lifting the Shoulder

Ask the person to bend their left knee, stand their left foot (the right leg is straight) and make the triangle. Put your hands near the shoulder girdle Ask them to left arms, shoulders and head quiet, and to push on the left foot. Their pelvis will roll to the right, and the movement climb up the torso, the chest, can you feel it? Rest. Ask the person to bend the other leg and push the right foot on the floor, while the triangle and their head stay still. Is the movement easier now or not? Maybe you do not know why it feels easier on one side, but ask yourself questions. Rest. Ask the person to bend one leg and push with that foot, the triangle and head stay quiet, and after few movements to change with the other leg, and then back again with the other leg few times. Your hands are on their shoulders. Feel the differences between the two sides, and how the quality of the movement changes while they are doing it.

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PRACTICE #9 - Turning the Head and Lifting the Shoulders Person lying down on the floor or on the table. Sitting at the head of the person roll their head slowly to one side then to the center and then to the other side, few times, and feel which side is easier to turn. The main point is not the movement of the head but your touch is information on you are gathering information from the person and you are conveying information to the person.

It is not about movements but in fact in this case about the relationship between the different part of the body

In this case it is about the relationship between the movement of the head and the lifting of t he shoulder. Now lift the opposite shoulder of the easier way for the head was turning (if the head is turning easier to the right, lift the left shoulder and vice versa). Always slowly and just what's easy. 57

Lifting the Shoulder

Now go back and roll the head few times in both directions. Now roll their head in the easy direction few times. Now lift the shoulder from behind just what's easy very slowly.

•

•

Observations Not every people that turn their head easier to the right lift their left shoulder easier. It is so for most of the people is so but not for all of us. If I have a twist in my spine in my neck could be the other way around. If I feel that the head is not exactly turning but also side-bending the first assumption is that it is me who I am doing something to produce that effect. Therefore I try to reorganize myself (my plane of action)

If I am creating muscular effort in me that is creating distortion in my interaction

If I am neutral and feeling that side bending again, that tells me something about the person's organization. However the primary thing for now is that we don't want to change anything in the person but just feel and gather information. 58

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Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

Remember:

You are not trying to correct or to fix them! => The main point is What can you do to make whats/he already does easily even easier?

You will not push their head in a direction it does not go easily. On the contrary you will move the head where it already goes, taking into consideration that:

The ability of our head to turn easily is influenced by the ability of our eyes to participate.

59

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

In order to understand this => Roll the person's head asking to look at our finger. I can do this in different ways, as in the sequence of the following practice.

The eyes play a big role in the restriction of the neck and the back!

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PRACTICE #10 - Head and Eyes Relationship A Deeper Look Feel to which way the head rolls more easily, and verify the relationship with the shoulders: which one lifts more easily? Does the right shoulder lift easier and the head roll easier to the left? How the movement transfers through the body: is there any impediment? When the shoulder lifts, are the sternum and the ribs turning (that means that the spine is turning - video 1.3)? You can think of a marble on their sternum, and imagine to which side it is rolling when you lift their shoulder. Also look at their pelvis: imagine a plane parallel to the table: is the right side lower? [Later when you will have studied it - you could also check which side of their pelvis is lifting more easily: go to side of the table and scoop your hand under the lower back at the iliac crest level. Use your whole body to move the person without making effort otherwise you will injure yourself!] And look at the left foot compare to the right foot, to where are they pointing? Let's suppose the head is turning more easily to the right and the left shoulder lifts more easily than the right shoulder. i .

Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger (picture 1.3.1). While you are turning their head to the right with your left hand, move the right hand to the left asking the person to follow your index with their eyes. 61

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

Your finger will move a little further with respect to their head. And go back to the middle. Do it few times, slowly, then rest a little while.

Picture 1.3.1 ii .

Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger. While turning their head to the right with your left hand, your right hand will remain still asking the person to look at it (therefore their head will turn to the right, while their eyes will remain still, looking at your finger.) Do it few times, and observe how the movement is now: is the turning smaller? 62

Functional Integration Practice

Then ask the person to close their eyes and check the turning of their head to the right. Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger. Just move your right hand asking the person to follow it with their eyes, while their head will remain still in the middle. Do it few times.

iii.

iv .

Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger. Lift their left shoulder (the easier shoulder) and ask them to follow your finger with their eyes while their head remains still in the middle. Do it few times, then ask the person to close their eyes and check the turning of their head to the left.

v.

Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger. While turning their head to the right with your left hand, move the right hand to the left asking the person to follow your index with their eyes. This will be a very small movement. And go back to the middle. Do it few times, slowly, and then rest a little while.

Now you can lift their left shoulder while turning their head to the right. Feel if the movement has improved. 63

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

After this you can check if it is easier to lift the right shoulder (that was the more difficult one) and how is the turning of their head to the left. It could even happen that the lifting of the more difficult shoulder becomes easier than the other one, while at the beginning was the other way around: whatever was inhibiting the movement is not there anymore! Now that it is easier the other side you can apply the above sequence to the right shoulder and the turning of the head to the left.

Notice that:

You can also move on another plane

Move the head on another plane, bending it to the left. You can also make other variation: you can also take the tongue in the opposite direction of the eyes (not simple). The eyes follow the tongue since we were born.

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PRACTICE #11 - Head and Eyes Relationship Feel to which way the head rolls more easily, and verify the relationship with the shoulders: which one lifts more easily? When the shoulder lifts, are the sternum and the ribs turning? You can think of a marble on their sternum, and imagine to which side it is rolling when you lift their shoulder. Look at their pelvis: imagine a plane parallel to the table: is the right side lower? And look at the left foot compare to the right foot, to where are they pointing? Let's suppose the head is turning more easily to the right . While you are turning their head to the right with your left hand, put your right index finger to their right cheek asking the person to bring their tongue towards your finger, just what's easy. Do it few times and feel if the turning of their head is easier now, or not. Feel if the head is turning more than before or less. Rest. Again turning their head to the right with your left hand, put your right index finger to their left cheek asking the person to bring their tongue towards your finger, just what's easy. Do a very gentle and tiny movement. 65

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

Look where their eyes are going. Do it few times and feel if the turning of their head is easier now, or not. Rest. Now turn their head to the right (the easiest side), and feel if the movement is easier than when you started. Try to roll their head to the other side and feel if anything has changed: is it easier or not than the beginning?

You can repeat the exercise to the less easier side.

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PRACTICE #12 - Head, Tongue and Eyes Relationship

Observe how the person is lying on the floor/table. Imagine a middle line from the top of their head, along their chin, the middle of their throat, to the middle of the pubic bones. Look at the left foot compare to the right foot, to where are they pointing? Think of putting a marble on their sternum: to which side would it roll? Look at their pelvis: imagine a plane parallel to the table: is the right side lower? What about the shoulders? Feel to which way the head rolls more easily, and verify the relationship with the shoulders: which one lifts more easily? Let's suppose the head is turning more easily to the right. While you are turning their head to the right with your left hand, put your right index finger to their right cheek asking the person to bring their tongue towards your finger, just what's easy. Do it few times and feel if the turning of their head is easier now, or not. Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger. While turning their head to the right with your left 67

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

hand, move the right hand to the left asking the person to follow your index with their eyes and to move also their tongue to the left. Feel if the head is turning more than before or less. Rest. With your left hand turn their head to the right. Bring your right hand well above their head, make a soft fist and stretch out your index finger. Your right hand will remain still and you will ask the person to look at it, while to bring their tongue to the left (therefore their head will turn to the right, while their eyes will remain still, looking at your finger, the tongue will go to the opposite direction of the head.) Rest. Again turning their head to the right with your left hand, and put your right index finger to their left cheek asking the person to bring their tongue towards your finger, just what's easy. Do a very gentle and tiny movement. Look where their eyes are going. Do it few times and feel if the turning of their head is easier now, or not. Feel if the head is turning more than before or less.

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Question: How is it that a person easily turns the head to the right, but the left is really inhibited? Normally things have an explanation that is pretty logical, so that we do not have to go so far to know it. The answer is going to be simpler rather than complicated. If I wanted to prevent my head to be able to turn, what would I do? •

•

I would pull my chin in, so behind my neck is tight => feel behind the person's neck how the muscles are. The second best guess is that: the head pulled to the left, so the left side of the neck has the muscles contracted {Contraction simply means the muscle is shorter.) Therefore they first need to lengthen and then to let go in order to turn the head. => Check how the person bends their head.

Follow their pattern: do the movement for them, take over their work!

Everything you are doing is an attempt to attract their attention (in the ATM everything people 69

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

accomplish attention.)

is

in

direct

relationship

with

their

The change is less about the particular movement you are doing, and more about the way the person is using their attention while moving (Awareness THROUGH Movement). If you have their attention that means s/he is curious, and curiosity is the driver: s/he is interested in their own self (if you produce a change in a couple of minutes and you come back to the first movement, s/he will react because s/he will be perturbed from the fact that the quality of their movement has changed (without using force or producing pain!)

Pain (and even discomfort) disturbs the attention

One of the most fundamental thing we are doing here is not simply learning how to sense and feel ourselves while moving, while in action, but how to listen in such a way that we actually change our actions, so the pain/discomfort is a signal from our nervous system to do something differently in order to alleviate that pain/discomfort.

Consider pain/discomfort as valuable information

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Consider that as in the ATM we notice and learn more from slow movements. The same happens to the person during the Functional Integration.

At the beginning you will convey the information through slow movements.

You get where you are going much faster without rushing to get there!

71

Rolling of the Head, Moving the Eyes

72

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Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

Introduction The important thing is not the practitioner, the important thing is the person lying on the table. I have to

Interact with the person in such a way thats/he will feel the difference

It is irrelevant that I feel the difference => I have to reduce the noise in myself, first because my organization is part of the interaction between me and the client, and my ability to sense differences is small. Of course you cannot feel another person's sensation: you can only feel yourself, so the primary thing at this point is to start to feel the differences in your sensation, in what you are doing and trust.

You feel yourself in relationship to the other person 73

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

The only thing you do at the beginning is taking a guess on which part is moving more easily. I start feeling the rolling their head. It could be that if I measure by degrees the turning of their head to the left and to the right is the same, but the feeling is different. I need to go slowly and with tiny movements in order to feel the differences: I have to disappear! I disappear finding a place that is easy for them to move. I am moving not with my hands, but with my hip. My organization is part of the interaction with the other person: I will not slouch or stiffen your back or arms etc., there must be a free flow in the movement of my body.

The difficulties (emotional, psychological, spiritual or physical difficulties) in my history are reflected in the unnecessary effort that I use, and in my particular organization.

Therefore the practitioner has to try to be as neutral as possible, so that the persons can feel themselves. This also means starting to relate with them in a gentle way.

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Lengthening the Arm

How to lengthen their arm Take their wrist from the bones at the beginning of radius and ulna as in pictures 2.1.1 and 2.1.2a-c. A Feldenkrais practitioner thinks in terms of the skeleton.

Picture 2.1.1 75

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

Pictures 2.1.2 a-c

11

Pay attention not to squeeze the inside" part of the wrist, because it is very sensitive (picture 2.1.3), instead take those two bones (pictures 2.1.4 a-b).

Very Sensitive Part

Picture 2.1.3 Remember, also in this case, to use your whole self: you will not pulling or moving your arm, but your hips have to go backward so that also your torso and 76

Functional Integration Practice

your shoulder is moving, therefore your arm is moving. Not just during ATM lessons, but also during Fl you have to take care of yourself. Maintaining a good posture helps you to avoid injuries.

DETAILS

Pictures 2.1.4 a - d 77

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

The person is lying on the table or on the floor. Gently start rolling their head to both side and make a guess on which way the head is turning more easily; then take the opposite arm, i.e. if their head is turning more easily to the right, you work on their left arm.

Of course do not start with their arm almost completely extended and pulling it: if I am pulling somebodies arm, their reaction will be pulling back, or stiffen the muscles. I do not want them to feel me. Therefore I have to start with something gentler, even moving their arm on their chest (picture 2.1.5).

Picture 2.1.5

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Then, when you feel they are relax (therefore you "convinced" them they do not need to do anything), you can lift a little bit their arm and lengthen it (picture 2.1.6 a-b). Try to gently pull their arm from different angles {pictures 2.1.7 a-f). Find the place where you can feel inside yourself that it is easier (using the same 1 gram force). Do not use much effort, otherwise you will not notice or feel any difference, a difference that "attract" your brain. You are making an assessment: you took a guess and now you are verifying your hypothesis feeling different directions.

Pictures 2.1.6 a-b 79

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

Try small different angles

Then come back to the initial position to feel if now it is easier

Pictures 2.1.7 a-f

After few movements rest their arm, because:

During rest new connection between neurons are consolidated

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NOTE Think of the movement of (your and their) whole body, not just focus on their arm: in picture 2.1.8 on the left side you can see how the practitioner's body is constricted and the movement will not flow easily from his whole body to theirs. This means that also the receiver's movements will become shorter (when the practitioner uses the same amount of effort) rather than when the posture is good and comfortable for the practitioners themselves.

Incorrect Posture!

Effective Posture

Incorrect Posture!

Picture 2.1.8 81

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

PRACTICE #13 - Lengthening the Arm The person lies on the floor. You stand up and observe: is one side of the person longer or shorter? You are not to measuring, it's not objective, it is your sense of it. How do you determine that: can you see the whole person in one glimpse or do you look at different part (chest, heels, ... ) Does one side of the chest seem longer or shorter? Is one shoulder higher than the other? Does one leg appear shorter or longer than the other? Does one side of their neck appear longer or shorter? What about the arms? Is one side of the pelvis tilted more to the floor, or one shoulder is closer to the floor? If one side appears to be closer to the floor, is it the longer or shorter side? Make a guess to which arm they would prefer to bring up. Ask the person to bring up the arm without lifting it from the floor: the arm will slide on the floor towards the head in a comfortable position. Observe which arm they decided to bring up (generally it is the easiest one): is it the same arm that you thought it was shorter or the one that appeared longer to you?

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Ask the person to slowly lengthen their arm, just what's easy, and then go back. Ask them to repeat this movement few times, pausing at each movement, and observe if anything changes: what follows the arm, what moves right or left, which part remains still? The arm lengthens and that side becomes longer: what happens to the chest? What does appear to you that happen? What happens to the pelvis? No matter what I do but my whole self is affected: whether you are inhaling or exhaling, your whole self is changing in relationship to the breathing. Whether you feel or not that lengthening the arm is easier while you exhale or inhale, the fact is that they cannot be identical objectively speaking. One can say that for you lengthening the arm inhaling or exhaling is the same, but that is not because objectively there is not a difference, but this is because their sensory discrimination is such that one don't feel the difference. Tell the person to rest. Ask the person to bring up their arm and lengthen it. Observe what happens to their lower back: look at their pelvis, how it is moving. Now kneel near the middle of the person where you can put one hand over one side of the pelvis and the other on the other side. But very 83

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

lightly, you don't want to influence anything or change anything, just observe. They rest between each lengthen their arm just what's easy.

movement

and

There are two directions, two planes in which you are interested: • The pelvis is tilting towards the floor or away from the floor (picture 2.1.9). • The pelvis is going higher or lower (towards the head or away from it - picture 2.1.10.)

Picture 2.1.9

Picture 2.1.10 84

Functional Integration Practice

These are two different planes. This second plane is very interesting. Tell the person to rest. Go down to the person's feet and sit there and put your hands on their heel.

One have more ability to make sensory distinction from the pads of her/his fingers than from anywhere else in the hand

Ask the person to lengthen their arm and feel if the leg of the same side of the arm becomes shorter or longer? Close your eyes: can you feel when the person is lengthening their arm from their feet? Tell the person to rest. Ask the person to bend the opposite knee with respect to the arm they lengthen. How does the lengthening change now? Feel if the leg that is long (on the floor) becomes shorter or longer now when they lengthen their arm?

85

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

Observation The beauty of this method is to improve their movements indirectly, we are not pushing, pulling or imposing ourselves on the person. Why isn't my arm a going further forward? I can say because that side of the chest is not moving in a certain way and that is one thing, no argument. But there is something else happening: the parasitic effort, that is there all the time, is pulling my arm back. That work doesn't stop because I want to move my arm forward or because someone else is pushing or pulling. But with the series of gentle movements we did we are more and more reducing the effort so at the end the arm can go forward easily. We do not say "Come on, lower your shoulder, don't you see it's wrong!", and force their shoulder down. Whatever it's happening is mediated by the interaction between one person to the other.

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Feeling the Pelvis

Pictures 2.2.la and 2.2.lb show the structure of the pelvis and where the iliac crest is. PELVIS Bones of the pelvis are: -hip bones - sacrum - coccyx (tailbone)

The hip bone is formed by: -ilium - pubis - ischium

Pictures 2.2.1 a 87

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

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POSTERIOR VIEW OF THE PELVIS

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The person is lying on the table or on the floor. Straight your arm and your hand without keeping them stiff (pictures 2.2.2 a-c).

88

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Functional Integration Practice

Pictures 2.2.2 a-c

Put your hands on their pelvis, your arms straight (but not stiff) and find the iliac crest (pictures 2.2.3 a-b) . Organize yourself in a good position (you must be comfortable in order to feel and sense) .

89

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

Pictures 2.2.3 a-b

Now follow the iliac crest and feel its shape (pictures 2.2.4 a-c).

Pictures 2.2.4 a-c Now that you have found and sensed the iliac crest, put both your hands on the person's pelvis (right hand on their right iliac crest, left hand on their left iliac crest) and try to make a skeleton-to-skeleton contact: you first feel their clothes, then their muscles, then their skeleton, so you are now skeleton 90

Functional Integration Practice

(your hands' bones) to skeleton (the iliac crests.) See picture 2.2 .5.

Picture 2.2.5

You want to find out if the pelvis tilts more to the right or to the left: turn their pelvis to the left and then to the right and feel what is easier. Look at their breathe. You can also ask the person to turn the pelvis and feel the differences between the sides. Note that you want to be as symmetrical as possible with the person in order to follow the direction in which you are moving the person . If you are down on both your knees (in case the person is lying on the floor) you cannot feel well (you are distorted even with the hands); instead stand one 91

Moving the Arm and Lifting the Hip

foot, although you have to put some effort in order to support yourself. However mind not to put your weight onto the person or, even worse, to fell over them! - Picture 2.2.6 Do not support yourself on the person!

Do not fell over them!

Picture 2.2.6

The practitioner has to organize themselves in a way that the person feels safe

Sometimes you can see that the person does not feel safe because they are holding, and sometimes this is pretty obvious (in picture 2.2.7 the person is clearly not relaxed!) Look at their breathe, at their face: • How are their eyes moving? • Is their forehead wrinkling? • Are their lips tight? 92

Functional Integration Practice

When you release your support, you can clearly see that,t~e person is .n ot feeling safef ~

Picture 2.2.7

Keep working on support the person, and pay attention to your posture (that is what you can work on), where your pelvis is (picture 2.2.8): people have to trust your touch.

Picture 2.2.8 93

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Ask the person to bend their knees (picture 2.2.9) and again turn their pelvis and feel what's different than before. Take a guess on what is easier. You can then ask the person to sense the differences in their body: what is easier? But remember: what they sense is not necessary what you are feeling or what it really is.

Picture 2.2.9

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PRACTICE #14 - Rolling the Head, Lifting the Shoulder and Tilting the Pelvis Person lying on the floor or on the table. Make contact with their shoulders. Lift one of their shoulder, then the other and find what they do well: which shoulder is easy? If you do not know, you can put your other hand on their sternum and feel the difference. You can put your hand in different places: starting from their clavicle, then the sternum, then their rib cage {picture 2.2.10). Roll their head and feel which the easier way for them is. Go slowly, feel their breathing.

Picture 2.2.10

Work on the easier side. 95

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Go with the person's pattern

Lift the shoulder, lift the shoulder helping with the clavicle, then helping with their sternum, then helping with their rib cage. Roll their head and then go back to the shoulder. All of a sudden, keeping lifting their shoulder and rolling their head, it could be that you see the connection with the pelvis, even if you did not move their pelvis yet (picture 2.2.11).

Picture 2.2.11 96

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Work on the other shoulder now and feel if there already is a difference with respect to when you started. Lift the shoulder putting the other hand on their clavicle, Go to the person's side to tilt the pelvis to the left and to the right. And feel what is easy for them. Sometimes you can find that the person prefers to move the pelvis in the opposite direction than the easier shoulder, but many times the movement will be congruent. Go back to the shoulders and feel how the movement is now: is there any change?

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PRACTICE #15 - Rolling the Head, Lifting the Shoulder and Tilting the Pelvis Person lying on the table or on the floor. Sit at the top of their head. Make contact with their shoulders; observe the pace of their breathing. Roll their head to one side few times, then rest, then to the other side and feel what is the easier side (make a guess). Lift their shoulder opposite to the side their head was rolling easier. Lift their shoulder with your other hand on their sternum. Always small and slowly movements! Feel how your body is organized. Lift their shoulder with the hands on the opposite side of their rib cage. Rest. Observe their breathing. Roll their head again and feel if something has changed. Move to the other side near their pelvis. Put your hands on their pelvis (iliac crest), your arms straight and slowly tilt their pelvis right and left (3 to 9 as in a clock.) Feel which side is easier.

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Not always the easiest side is the same as the rolling of their head: if the person rolls their head to the right easier than to the left side, and their left shoulder lifts easier than the right one, could happen that the pelvis tilts to the left easier, although you could expect the easiest side is the right one (in a congruent movement as when you are rolling to your right side). Rest. Go back to the head and feel how the rolling has changed than the beginning.

NOTE Starting and ending the lesson in the same way creates a sort of circularity, which is appealing for the brain (think of refrains in music for example.)

We have no interest in making things difficult

This

circularity

makes

easier.

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the

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PRACTICE #16 - Chest as Japanese Lantern Visual and Tactile Observation (One or more) person(s) lying on the floor. Observe how they organize their body (if there are more persons see the differences between them: how many ways to organize the body, no-one is the same!) Ask the person(s) to bend the knees, stand the feet. Observe them now: guess in which direction they would tilt the knees first. Ask them to tilt their knees and see if your guess was right: did they tilt their knees to the right or to the left? Tell them to go slowly, very slowly, so you can track their movement. They tilt their knees and go back to the center, few times. Since you want to have the complete picture, try not to focus your eyes in a place, do not hold your breath, do not frown. How is the breathing of the person: do they breathe in or out when they tilt their legs. See what they move first. Notice the chain of the event (if you have more persons, look if they are stopping at the same time.) Rest (legs and arm long). Ask the person(s) to bend the knees, stand the feet and to tilt their legs to the right. Sit comfortably on the left side of the person, and put your hand 100

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gently on their hips (on their right and left iliac crest.) Find a comfortable position . How much movement is in the pelvis. Observe their chest., their sternum, their neck. Rest (legs and arm long). Ask the person to bend their knees, stand their feet and start the tilting again. Put your hands on their chest. How is it chest moving? See the differences between the two side of their chest. Rest. Ask the person(s) to bend the knees, stand the feet and to tilt their legs to the right. Sit comfortably on the left side of the person, and put your hand nearer to their spine. Do not impose your hand, use a light touch, do not push. Use all your fingers to feel! You can spread your fingers if there is a lot of room on the people's back, or narrow them. Are the person(s) moving more than before? Rest. Do the same on the other side. Observe as many people as possible and the differences between them: how is their rib cage moving? How is the pelvis moving? 101

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Bringing Together

PRACTICE #17 - lengthening the Arm and lifting the Hips

Person lying on the table or on the floor. Gently roll the head to both side and make a guess on which way the head is turning more easily and take the opposite arm, i.e. if their head is turning more easily to the right, you work on their left arm.

Picture 2.3.1 103

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Try again different angles and feel where it is easy and pull it very slowly three or four times (picture 2.3.1) Ask the person to bend the knee, stand the foot (same leg as the arm you were lengthening). Now lift their hip (pictures 2.3.2 a-d). How to lift the hip Find the iliac crest on the front and follow it backward (pictures 2.3.2 a-d) The whole body is moving , not just the arm that is lifting the pelvis

t

Pictures 2.3.2 a-d 104

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The lifting of the hip helps the lengthening of the arm, when you go back to try her lengthening of the arm you should feel the difference in the movement: their arm should be lighter and you can length it more (giving the same amount of effort as before). In fact pushing from the foot is an auxiliary movement, something not necessary for lengthening the arm, but makes its lengthening easier. But if you do the auxiliary movement three or four times (if you want with the lengthening of the arm, too), then you can straighten the leg and you find the auxiliary movement is not necessary any more, and the lengthening of the arm is easier: the lower part of the torso is doing something different than before (the lower part of the spine is turning helping the lengthening of the arm). You can turn their pelvis, then, once you have showed the person what to do, ask them to push with the foot (so that the movement of the pelvis starts) and lengthening their arm at the same time. How is the movement of the arm now?

Feldenkrais practitioners have the ability to reduce the effort in themselves, so that they can become a highly skilled measuring instrument, so that they can transmit that environment to another person lying on the table. 105

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PRACTICE #18 - Turning the Head., Lengthening the Arm., and lifting the Pelvis

SCOPE: Begin to rely on your own sensation

i .

Just make a guess at the beginning: which way the head is moving more easily, which shoulder is lifting more easily.

ii . Choose

the opposite arm to the easiest side the head was turning more easily (for example: the head is turning more easily to the right, you move her/his left arm), and pull it so that her/his shoulder lift. But just a little bit.

To feel the difference in yourself in relationship to the other person => Try different angles.

Guess what's easier and ask for feedback from the person you are working with.

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Try even different posture: how is it when you simply use your arm strength to gently pull their arm compare to when you use your all body?

iii . Then

ask the person to bend the same knee of the arm your working with (stand the foot), and to lift their pelvis while the knee remains pointed to the ceiling; they will lift their hip just a small amount, while you are lengthening their arm. See if this make a difference in moving their arm (should be more easily.)

Picture 2.3.3 (Practice #19) 107

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PRACTICE #19 - Lengthening the Arm with Different "Prospective"

Try now to lengthen their arm while you are thinking not just of their arm. For example: •

Feel the movement of their arm, if you think that moving their left arm will involve moving their left hip.

•

Feel the movement of their arm, if you think that moving their left arm will involve moving their left foot (picture 2.3 .3)

Repetition reduces the ability of the brain to pay attention

Although we are repeating, we are trying to repeat without repetition.

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Lengthening and Pushing the Legs

Person lying on the floor or on the table. SUPPORT: Put the rollers under their knees and ankles to support them (especially if they have discomfort on their knees) and make them more comfortable (picture 3.1.1). Many has overextended knees, therefore it is important to use a roller or a blanket where to rest their knees.

Picture 3.1.1 Sit at the bottom of their feet.

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You can start feeling their calves (pictures 3.1.2.a-b): is the left one stronger than the right or vice-versa? They probably rely more on one leg.

Pictures 3.1.2 a-b Remember to move your whole self to join with the other person. Dr. Feldenkrais used the metaphor:

One nervous system doing something to another vs One nervous system joining with another.

Make contact with their foot and use your whole self to slightly turn their foot (right foot turns to the right, left foot turns to the left). Then do the same with the other foot and feel the difference, which one 110

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is easier. Look at the movement of their knee while you are doing this (pictures 3.1.3 a - d).

The practitioner's arm and body are moving

Pictures 3.1.3 a-d Now, slightly pull the leg. How to pull the leg: if you are pulling the left foot, wrap the top of their foot with your right hand (thumb on the sole of their foot), then take their ankle (over the heel - you do not pull by the leg by the heel) with the left hand lifting their foot and lift the left leg and foot (pictures 3.1.4 a-c). 111

Lengthening and Pushing the Legs

Pictures 3.1.4 a-c

.,,. ◄

Pictures 3.1.4 d-g Gently pull the leg towards you (slightly turning their foot to the external side - very tiny) using not only your arms, but your whole body: you will go back a little bit, you will length yourself a bit (picture 3.1.5 a-b). Be attentive, lift their leg and find a neutral 112

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position as you could move the leg through the knee to the hip joint. When you have practiced this movement sometimes, observe how the movement is transmitted through their spine, their clavicle, their head (picture 3.1.6).

The whole body is moving

Picture 3.1.5 a - b

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Picture 3.1.6

Probably you would see that the movement is "traveling" all the way up to their head on one side, while on the other side the movement stops somewhere. In fact those moments when the person's skeleton is supporting them, there is no reason for the muscular system to be working hard. The person knows how to push down to the ground, and so there is no impediment. It could be that the person relies more on the other leg, that stands Now, slightly push the leg. How to push the leg: take the foot from the heel and lift the leg, slightly turning the leg to the internal side (pictures 3.1.7 a-e). Now push through their heel.

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Pictures 3.1.7 a-d You can lift the leg more or less and try to push (moving your whole body, not just the arm) at different angles (pictures 3.1.8 a-b).

Pictures 3.1.8 a

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Pictures 3.1.8 b

Thinking functionally You can associate these movements with the action of lengthening the arm to reach something over your head (picture 3.1.9): you push on one foot and the movement will transfer along your leg to your hip, then through the spine and the shoulder, then the arm.

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The weight

is shifting to the right leg~

Picture 3.1.9

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PRACTICE #20 - Lengthening the Arms Pushing on the Foot - Observation

The person is standing and you observe and try to guess if the person stands more over one leg or over the other. Just for curiosity sake, ask the person to length one arm towards the ceiling and then the other (pictures 3.1.10 a-c), and observe which movement seems easier. You can also put your hands over their pelvis and feel if they move their pelvis a little to the left or to the right (if they shift their weight to the left or to the right), that is if they rely more on one leg than the other. Look if one arm is lengthening more easily and how is this related to which leg they were standing over more. In pictures 3.1.11 a-c he lengthens the left arm but shifts the weight over the right leg, and he does the same when they lengthen their right arm. So he probably feels that both lengthening are easy, because he adjusts himself. Even when he is walking he will be sure to be on that leg (he probably makes short steps with his right leg when he walks.) -> Ask him to walk and observe the shifting of the weight.

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Lengthening the left arm => he is shifting his weight to the right leg The weight is

shifting to the ri)t

)

Pictures 3.1.10 a-c

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Lengthening the right arm => he is still shifting his weight to the right leg He len thens the right arm more than shifting to the the left arm right)

The weight is still)

Pictures 3.1.11 a-c

If you touch his calves (picture 3.1.12), you will probably fell that there is a difference in the circumference of the left calf and the right calf (that is stronger, since he rely on the right leg to stand on.)

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Start to notice all these things: although you do not need to go into all these details right now, just try to observe them.

Picture 3.1.12

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Then ask the person to lie down and observe if one leg is shorter than the other. Put your hand on one of their foot and feel if the leg is more supple or more pliable, looser than the other (pictures 3.1.3 a-d). Ask the person to lengthen one leg and then the other and observe which one elongates more easily. Once you decided which leg appears to lengthen more easily, pull that leg few times (you are not going to lengthen the other leg!)

TIP

If lengthening the leg does not appear simple, hold the foot (pictures 3.1.4 a-c ) and slightly lift the leg, then ask the person to lengthen the leg and you can pick up from there and go for the same direction, angle and line.

Observation If the person is able to easily lengthen the leg, that is due to the fact that their chest is able to participate, too (observe one side of their rib cage then the other when you lengthen their leg.) You can have a good indication you are in the "right path" looking at their breathing when you release: what does it happen in the lower abdomen? It swells up, that is an indication that there is something in what you are doing that is having a

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positive effect in the ability of their diaphragm to contract and to decontract, so their nervous system are in a parasympathetic state. Learning is enhanced by a parasympathetic state of the nervous system It is much more difficult to learn when one is a sympathetic, agitated state. Of course you can learn one-trial thing that take one trial learning, for example running from a danger or an enemy, then you will run from anybody that resemble that enemy for years afterward; this happens in a sympathetic state. But that kind of breathing is only possible in a parasympathetic state.

The parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body and inhibits or slows many high energy functions (effects summarized by the phrase 'rest and digest'.) The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for intense physical activity ('fight-or-flight' response.)

Nobody can tell you how to breathe (did you change your breath after you read the word "breathe"?) There is not a right way to breathe. It's interesting because breathing should be automatic and we shouldn 't think of it. And we want our breath to adjust and adapt to what we are doing. 123

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The breath changes on the base of the contest

Lying down we should be able to relax all our muscles and breathe freely, since we are supported against gravity. Actually, after an ATM/Fl, the person might see a difference in their vision, too. because as you change the movement of your breath, your neck, your face and your eyes, your vision may also change).

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PRACTICE #21 - Lengthening the Legs Person lying on the floor. See if they need a support, a roller/towel, behind their knees. Sit at their feet and just look: Is one foot oriented differently than the other one, meaning: is one big too pointing more toward the ceiling or to the left or to the right than the other? Or do they look completely and perfectly identical? If you were to put a little marble on their sternum which way would the marble fall: to the right or to the left? See if one leg is heavier than the other. To do that you have to sit symmetrically, otherwise you would not know if it a difference in your arm or in their legs. Lift one leg, just a little bit (few inches, 6 inches= 15 centimeter.) Lift it few times. Do the same with the other leg, doing the movement identically and sitting symmetrically, and not holding your breath . In this case you can sit symmetrically in two ways: •

You can either sit at the center of their legs

•

Or you must have your pubic bones lined up with the leg you are lifting, and then you have 125

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to move and lined up with the other leg you will lift.

Reduce the effort in yourself, in your neck, in your arm, in your shoulder.

The less work you do with your hands, the more you will sense the differences

Do not move yourself backward, otherwise you would pull and not lift their leg. Remember how to lift the leg: put the right hand under the left leg, above the heel and the other hand over the feet with the thumb toward the sole of their foot. Now lift few inches the leg you guess is lighter and move it a little to the left and a little to the right few times. Now do the same with the other leg. The effort in your arm and hands has to be the same.

Be guided by the quality of the movement, not the quantity

Your breathing is easy and comfortable. Your jaw and tongue are relaxed. 126

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Rest and ask yourself if one leg was moving right and left easier than the other leg. Was it the leg that you guessed was lighter or heavier? Take the leg you guessed is lighter (remember that it is a guess), and raise it 6 inches and move it a little to the right and to the left. Is there a point between being to the right and being to the left where the leg feels even lighter than before? Guess where this point is. Now, in this horizontal dimension (left-andright movement) stop at this point in which the leg is lighter and start to lift the leg up and down in the vertical dimension (imagine a graph paper with horizontal and vertical lines.) Slowly. Also in this vertical dimension there is a point in which the leg feels lighter. The relationship between the lightness you found in those two dimensions (left-and-right, up-anddown) is important.

That is the point where the leg will lengthen more easily with the least impediment.

Go back to the other leg, and make sure it really feels heavier than the other. Ask feedback to the person: do they feel that leg heavier?

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Go back to the lighter leg and find the point where the leg will lengthen easily, but do not lengthen it! Just think of doing it. Do not think to go backward.

Lengthening is elongating

So think of your head to go toward the ceiling. Now, slowly lengthen yourself and look how their leg follow and lengthen, too.

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Observing People in Standing and Push the Ribs Together

Observing the person in standing

You are just observing, NOT judging.

Our body is the result of using ourselves asymmetrically

That means there is a friction that is not necessary (for example there is twist in the spine.) That creates a feeling of work, a millisecond out of every second of insecurity that is a part of us forever (it is not something developed over night), so we do not recognize it as effort. This is how we are, until something happen. Even when we try to feel ourselves in movement, we can be confused; for example we can lengthen the arms, and we cannot decide which movement is easier. 129

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In the same way, you can look at a person and guess that lengthening their left arm should be easier for them because you perceive that their left shoulder is higher than the right and their chest is wider on the left side.

In lengthening the arms there are so many variables involved: you can look at how the ribs are, the shoulders, the shoulder-blades, you can see on which leg they are standing on, it can depends on how the arm is rotating, too; look how the head is organize over the legs, and how it is oriented => Just take a guess (no worries: it is just a guess): are they right or left-handed, and which arm would lengthen easier? You can change your prospective: go around the person and look the movement from the back or from the front (sometimes you see different things) - they are not moving: you are moving to them.

Ask the person (in standing) to lengthen one arm few times, and then the other one few times (pictures 3.2.1 a-f and 3.2.1 g-h).

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Pictures 3.2.1 a-f 131

Push the Ribs Together Change prospective: turn around the person

Pictures 3.2.1.g-h

Ask the person if they have any injuries

First of all observe which arm the person lengthen: you did not tell them which one to lengthen, so this could be a clue about which arm they prefer: we all generally use the easier one. Now notice how the person shifts their weight when lengthening the left arm and when lengthening the right arm.

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Now ask the person to lie down and notice if you see something different than when the person was standing (picture 3.2.2 a-b).

Things can change when the person lies down

Pictures 3.2.2 a-b

Look how the feet are oriented (imagine a line that goes from the heel through inside side of the feet going out from the thumb. Is there a difference from the right and the left foot? 133

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Look how the arms lies on the floor: is the left arm a little bit closer to their body or is the right arm closer? Look if the head tilt more to one side or the other. Ask those questions to yourself. You can also measure the distance between the ears and the shoulders, and feel the difference between the ribs on the right and on the left side (pictures 3.2.3 a-b.)

Pictures 3.2.3 a-b

Put your right hand on their right ribs and bring the ribs closer, pushing a little bit to the left, as if the person was shortening the rib cage on that side (pictures 3.2.4 a-d). As response the ribs on the left separate (this is what happens when the person is lengthening their arm).

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Take the side of the ribs in your hand

Pictures 3.2 .4 a-d

Go to the right side of the person and with both hands push the right ribs together.

How to push the ribs together Keep your fingers separate in order to put them between the ribs (pictures 3.2.5a). Find with your fingers the angle to the ribs and follow the direction of the ribs (pictures 3.2.5 b-d) . Then push the right hand towards the left one and vice-versa (pictures 3.2.5 e-f).

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Keep the fingers sligthly apart, so they can match the spaces between the ribs

Pictures 3.2.5 a

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Follow the direction of the ribs

Pictures 3.2.5 b-d

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The hands come together, the whole body is moving

Pictures 3.2.5 e-f

Stay there for few seconds, and follow their breath (pictures 3.2.6 a-d). What do you feel? Is it easy to move them?

Go to the other side of the person's rib cage and feel the difference pushing their left side ribs together. Use the same amount of effort you used on the other side. Which part move more easily? See also the reaction of the other side of the chest (pictures 3.2.7 a-b): your hands come together so do the ribs on that side, while on the other side of the rib cage the ribs widen a bit.

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Your whole body is moving, not just your hands and arms!

Pictures 3.2.6 a-d

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Hands come together and so do the ribs on that side. On the other side the ribs widen.

Pictures 3.2.7 a-b

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If one part of the rib cage lengthens more, it could be that the same-side arm lengthens more easily (when the person lengthens their arm, the ribs on that side lengthen too). But we still do not know that for sure, it is just a guess, it is not conclusive (at this point you are still in the "guessing-mode".)

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Lengthening the Arm Above the Head

Now bring their arms resting on their chest (especially if you work on the floor it is easier to reach them.) Make it a nice movement: lift their wrist and arm a little, then turn their hand a bit, so that radius and ulna turn too (pictures 3.3.1 a-e and pictures 3.3.2 a-d). Do the same to the other arm.

Pictures 3.3.1 a-e 143

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You can feel the two bones of the forearm (radius and ulna) rotating during the movement

Pictures 3.3.2 a-d

It is not a trivial thing: while you do the movement, feel the differences between the two arms: how is their weight, how do the bones turn? Sit at the head of the person. Suppose your guess is that the right arm lengthens more easily. So lengthen the right arm, but half way. How to move their arm: with your thumb and your ring finger (or what finger is easier for you) take their wrist at the level of the radius and ulna (pictures 3.3.3 a-g). Also in this case pay attention not to squeeze the "inside" and very sensitive part of the wrist (picture 2.1.1 d), instead take those two bones. You will use your right hand on their left arm, and then your left hand to support their elbow.

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Pictures 3.3.3 a-g

After lifting their arm a little bit your forearm and their forearm are in a kind of a line; put then your other hand on their elbow to support the joint (pictures 3.3.4 a-d). This makes easier to bring their arm overhead. Lengthen a little bit and listen what is their "way". Have the feeling of their wrist, of their elbow, of their shoulder. 145

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Your forearm and their forearm are almonst in line.

Pictures 3.3.4 a-d

Go slowly and listen to their reaction: the movement has to be smooth. Move your whole body, not just your arms: move your pelvis and go back with 146

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your torso (pictures 3.3.5 a-d). You have to give the person that sense that you are looking for the sweet direction for them to lengthen, they have to think "This is great!"

Move your pelvis and go back with your torso

Pictures 3.3.5 a-d 147

As you lengthen their arm, slightly rotate their forearm to follow the natural movement

Lengthening the Arm Above the Head

Go slowly and let the person follow you, so you wait and listen for her to listen to you: it is as if you were doing the movement together, going step by step together. Explore different direction of their arm and how far over the head you can go (their muscles should not do any resisting): it is a process you negotiate together. When you feel their arm is coming easily, you can lengthen it more: slightly rotate their arm, and go back with your torso while lengthening their arm (pictures 3.3.6 a-h). Now think: if their arm is lengthening in that direction what do you think it happens to their lower back? Is it arching or going back towards the floor? Do you think there is a twisting towards the arm which is lengthening? Note that when people are doing the movement on their own is different than when someone else is moving them:

Active and passive movements are different

While you lengthen their arm feel how the movement is spreading through their body: feel the ribs on the same side of the arm you are lengthening, then feel how their lower back goes towards the floor. Start to pay attention to everything. Bring the arm down to give it a rest. 148

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One arm is moving more than the other

You are moving your whole body

Pictures 3.3.6 a-h

You can go back to the ribs on the same side of the arm you have just lengthened and feel the difference than before. 149

Lengthening the Arm Above the Head

Now gently pull the arm: move your hand, the one which is supporting their elbow, to the inside part of their elbow (pictures 3.3.7 a-b) and gently pull their arm )picture 3. Try different direction: sit a little bit to left/right, so that you can follow the trajectory of the elbow.

Move your hand inside their elbow and gently pull their arm to lengthen it. Pictures 3.3.7 a-b

Pictures 3.3.8 150

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TIP Do not shift too much when you are lifting/lengthening their arm, since you convey a sort of insecurity as if you do not know what you are doing, and people will probably hold their muscles. Take a direction, go slowly, and feel if the movement is smooth and how far you can go. Then try another direction and feel the difference, and so on to find the easiest way for the person. In this way the person will learn how to give over and how to be passively moved in an Fl (Functional Integration).

You are supporting the person's learning

At the beginning (especially if you are not sure what the maximum length of a person is) you can ask the person if you can go further. However do not go to the maxi•mum range of people. For some people the arm above the head does not go towards the floor easily (in picture 3.3.8 the arm has a good range, but sometimes you want it to keep it higher while lengthening it.)

NOTE It takes many people a while to learn how to receive Fl. 151

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Many of us have certain activation in the muscles that goes 24/7, we do not realize it (otherwise we would probably stop it). Therefore when you have people in different position, especially when you lift or lengthen for support, this would show up, and say something like "do no help" or "relax" to someone is useless: people do not know what to do, and they can feel bad, and sometimes they want to make your work easier or they just do not know how to stop contracting their muscles. As a practitioner just go slowly, lift the arms up and down few times, or just do different things (there are different techniques as saw in picture 2.1.3} with the arm really close to their chest without even lifting it. Sometimes the arm seems heavier if their muscles are acting in the opposite direction you are going. Sometimes we all have our ways where we are constantly engaging, so this is the easy way to take them, while you are thinking of the other way. Lift a lot of arm in order to appreciate all these subtleties!

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Lengthening both Arms Above the Head

How to bring both arms up Take their wrists with your hands as you did before, paying attention to the sensitive part of the person's wrists (pictures 3.4.1 a-c): with your thumb and your ring finger (or what finger is easier for you) take their wrist at the level of the radius and ulna. This time you will use your right hand on their right wrist and your left hand to their left wrist, your fingers pointing toward their elbows.

Pictures 3.4.1 a-c 153

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Slowly rotate their arms and lift them (pictures 3.4.2 a-d.) Feel the differences between the two arms.

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Feel the different weight, and decide which one is easier to move for them, so afterward you can go back to that arm and lengthen it alone. Try slightly different direction, slowly and using your whole body to lengthen their arms (pictures 3.4.3 a-d and picture 3.4.4).

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Pictures 3.4.4

Rest their arms for a while. Then ask the person to bend both knees, and lengthen their easy arm.

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Compare the movement and what you feel with the one you did before (when the person has their legs long.) Feel the response in their chest. How far back you can go with their arm? Notice how the movement spreads along their body, look at their breath.

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PRACTICE #22 - Lengthening the Arms

Observe the person in standing and then on the floor: How is the weight distributed? What is the direction of their feet? How is the left and the right side of their chest Is their head tilted to the right or to the left? (... ) Take a guess on which arm will be easier to lengthen. Ask the person to lie on the floor or on the table and observe how their body is organize. Do you notice the same things you noticed when they were standing, or is there anything that looks different, or do you notice other details? Is your guessing still valid, or did you change your mind regarding which arm will be easier to lengthen? Lengthen the arm you guessed is easier. This is a very slow process, give people time to allow you to lengthen. Feel all the way down to the hip joint.

Rest. Then lengthen the other arm and feel the difference and if you think your initial guess is still valid. Try different direction and choose the easiest one. 158

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Rest. Then lengthen both arms. Rest. Ask the person to bend both knees, then lengthen both their arms. Feel the difference than before, and look how the movement is spreading through the chest to the hip. Rest. Ask the person to bend the opposite knee than the easiest arm, then lengthen their easiest arm (in picture 3.3.12 the practitioner is lengthening the left arm and the person bends their right knee) and feel the difference. You can also ask the person to slightly push with the foot on the floor and feel how this affects the lengthening of the arm. Is the "opposite" hip (right hip in picture 3.3.12) slightly rotating in the direction of the lengthening arm?

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Pictures 3.3.12

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PRACTICE #23 - Arms and Legs Relationship

As before, observe the person in standing, and take a guess about which arm they will lengthen more easily. Ask them to lengthen one arm and observe how they do it: oWhat is the trajectory of the arm? oHow do they shift their weight? oHow is the chest moving? Ask to lengthen the other arm and observe the differences than the first arm they move. Ask the person to lie down and lengthen the arm you guess is easier to move. Rest. Now go down at their feet and lengthen the same leg as the arm. Lift the leg and find the direction (you can slightly turn the foot outside.) Many has overextended knees, so if you feel that you are lifting the leg and nothing happens, use a roller or a blanket where to rest their knees. Be attentive to that, lift their leg and find a neutral position as you could move the leg through the knee to the hip joint (same kind of feeling as with the arm, but from below.) Link with the spine, the ribs and look at the lengthening movement to the head. Come back to the arm and find again the easiest angle, and feel the difference than before.

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More Practice!

Your job at the moment is to witness without an intent

The touch is very important so the person can have a feeling of themselves and where they are in space. This takes a slow education, even for those of you that do this every day (such as PT ... ) Do these practices with as many people as possible. Organize groups with your fellow students and rotate the person who is moving and the person who is touching.

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PRACTICE #24 - Observation One person lies on the floor or on the table. Pay attention to the contact of their legs from the heels to the hip joints. Do you have a sense that a leg is longer a little bit? Are the big toes toward the ceiling or left/right and what is the difference between the two feet? How are their legs related to an extended line of the spine? If you imagine a line along the spine that goes down between the legs, which leg would be closer to this middle line? Is one side of the hip joints closer to the floor? Look the front and the back of the pelvis: do you have the same impression? Look now at the rib cage: is there a little turning of their chest? If you were to put a little marble on their sternum which way would the marble fall: to the right or to the left? Is the right shoulder more to the ceiling or closer to the floor than the left shoulder? Is their right shoulder closer to their right ear than the left shoulder to the left ear?

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How are their palms oriented: to the ceiling, to the floor, to the side? Is there any difference of one hand compare to the other? What is the distance of the arms to their side, is there any difference: which arm is closer? How is the head? Does it rest exactly in the middle (the middle line of the spine)? Ask to the person to slowly come to standing, and observe what change with respect to when they were lying on the floor/table. Do you perceive one leg longer than the other? How is the pelvis: is one hip joint more forward than the other? Do you see one shoulder higher than the other as before, or more forward than the other? How does the head rest on the spine? Does it tilt to one side?

If you have a group of people Instead of just one person, you can observe the differences between them, both in lying on the floor and in standing.

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PRACTICE #25 - Feeling the Scapula and the Rib Cage Person lying comfortably on their side (the one they prefer) with their knees bent. Supposing they are lying on their right side, ask them to put their right arm underneath their right ear (palm toward the ceiling), and their left arm in front of them, palm toward the floor. Ask them to slowly slide the arm in the front forward, just what's easy, and then back to the same position few times. Sit down, behind them near their back and puts your hand on their shoulder blade (left shoulder blade if they are lying on their right side, otherwise the right scapula). Do not interfere with their movement, do not push, nor press, just sense. Move your hand on their shoulder blade and feel where the movement is clearer. Let them rest. Now close your eyes and feel how much movement you can feel. Let them rest . Ask them to slide again their arm and put your hand on their rib cage. Move your hand along their rib cage, feeling when the movement is clearer. Rest. 166

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PRACTICE #26 - Feeling the Spine Person lying comfortably on their side (the one they prefer) with their knees bent. Supposing they are lying on their right side, ask them to put their right arm underneath their right ear (palm toward the ceiling), and their left arm in front of them, palm toward the floor. Ask them to slowly slide the arm in the front forward, just what's easy, and then back to the same position few times. Sit down, behind them near their back and puts your hand on their spine, without interfering with their movement, but just sense. Do not push, nor press. Start in a place where the movement seems more evident: the middle of the thoracic spine. Now close your eyes and feel how much movement you can feel. Let them rest. Start the movement again and slides down along the spine with your hand to feel and sense another part of their body. Each person has more movement available in some parts of their spine rather than in others and the spine itself has more movement available in some directions rather than others.

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Move down along the spine. Let them rest. Ask the person to put their arm over their head, and slide their hand. The movement of the spine now is completely different. Go to the middle of their thoracic spine You will find that that part of the spine is lifting towards the ceiling (to the left if they are lying on their right side) as the person lengthen their arm. Ask them to lower their arm, and feel how the shape of their spine changes completely going towards the floor.

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PRACTICE #27 - Prayer Lesson Ask the person to sit, crossing their legs (if comfortable - ask if they need to sit on something: on a pad, or roll a towel.) Ask them to put their palms together as if they were praying and to start to move the arms up-anddown. When their arms come down the elbows bent when they come up the elbows straighten (ask them to do just what's easy, not to stretch.) You can look at so many relationships, even the hair: look where they are going! Where are their eyes going? Put your hand on their spine, in a comfortable position. Where does they begin to move in order to go up? Where does they begin to move in order to go down with their arms? Is there a difference than when they go up? What is the trajectory of the arms when they move up rather than when they go up? Rest (on their back if they want to.) Ask them to sit comfortably, put their palms together, and move the arms again up and down.

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Put your hand right under the shoulder-blade. To come up the shoulder blade has to come down-and-out and this is what many people are missing. Feel if this is what happening or not. Rest. Ask them to sit comfortably, put their palms together, and move the arms to the left or to the right (whatever side they prefer), and then come back to the middle few times. Put your hand on the back of the iliac crest now. Are they twisting? Ask them to shift a little bit their weight and feel if the pelvis is a coming up. Not for all people it is so . Rest. Ask them to sit comfortably, put their palms together, and ask them to go to the other side and see if there is any difference. Is the person shifting more when they go to the left or when they go to the right? Take a guess. Then ask the person what they feel and ask the person to exaggerate this difference, to shift their weight even more toward the side they feel they shift more. What do you feel now, has anything changed? 170

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Look how the movement is involving other parts of their body and the difference between the two sides. Rest. Ask the person to slowly roll to their side and slowly come to standing and then walk. Observe them walking: How is the weight shifting between the two legs?

Observation Neurons (specialized cells of our nervous system) devoted to our visual processing take up about 30 percent of the cortex (compared with 8 percent for touch). Since in this practice you were so close, your vision was not best detecting what was going on; being that close you could not help but privileged kinesthetic sense as opposed to the visual, but at the same time your brain was processing the information together (actually the peripheral vision is quick at distinguishing color, shape and details and at picking up movement than the central vision.) Sometimes you should close your eyes to follow how the person organizes their action, because informs your sense and add to the vision. Imagine the movement through the skin. See what your hands feel

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PRACTICE #28 - Lifting the Shoulder and Tracing the Sternum Person lying down on the floor or on the table. Watch their breathing: the rhythm, the tempo. Where do you see the movement of the chest? Is there any bias? Pace yourself to their breath. Put your hand under their scapula, near the spine. Observe if their breathing has changed. When their breathing is regular again start to lift their shoulder-blade. Rest. Now put your hand under their shoulder-blade and the other on their sternum (without pushing), and lift their shoulder. Is the sternum moving or not? Start to gently push on their sternum while lifting their shoulder. How has the movement changed? Pay attention to their breathing and stop if you see that they are holding it! Observe if the opposite side of the pelvis is moving. Rest. Observe their breathing now: has anything changed since the beginning of the lesson? 172

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PRACTICE #29 - Feeling the Pelvis while They Roll Fists and Pelvis in Sitting Person sit on the floor, knees bent (standing the feet). Ask them to stretch their arms out to the side, shoulder height and make a soft fist. Ask them to roll their right fist up and the left fist downward, and then change over. See where their weight is shifting. Put your hands on their pelvis and feel the shifting: do you still feel their weight shifting to the same direction you guessed looking at them or not? Let them rest (lying down if they want to.) Ask the person to sit, and to stretch their arms out to the side, shoulder height and make a soft fist, and start rolling their right fist up and the left fist downward, and then change over. This time ask them to put their feet far enough apart so that they can actually flop their legs once to right, once to left (picture 5.1.1). Tell them not to hold their breath. Now the shifting of the weight is more obvious. Is it still the same direction you saw and feel before? If they are flopping the legs to the right, their left knee touch the sole of their right foot and vice versa (if the legs goes down on the floor, otherwise do not force their movement, let them do just what is easy.)

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Picture 5.1.1 Rest lying down on the floor. Ask the person to sit, same position as before, arms stretched out, and to start to flop their legs to the right and back to the middle few times. Ask them to roll one fist up and one down while they flop the leg: is their right fist going up or down? If it is going down, ask them to try the other way around. Look if the movement is bigger or smaller now than before. Then ask them if in this way it is easier or more difficult. Look at the movement of their left shoulder: is it going forward? 174

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Look at the movement of the pelvis. Look at their right hip joint. How is the connection between their left shoulder and their right hip joint? Put one hand on their left shoulder blade and one on their right hip joint, and then along their spine to feel the connection between the two. How is the movement spreading? Is their right shoulder going backward? Let them rest on their back. Do the same, and feel their movement with your eyes closed. Do you feel differences? Let them rest on their back. Do the same on the other side. Feel the connection through this diagonal between the right shoulder and the left hip joint. What is the difference between the two side? Let them rest on their back.

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PRACTICE #30 - Feeling the Pelvis while They Roll Fists and Pelvis Lying on the Floor Try the previous lesson with the person lying on their back, instead of sitting; their knees bent, feet standing, their arms out to the side, shoulder height, hands making a soft fist. Ask them to roll their right fist up and the left fist downward, and then change over. See where their weight is shifting. Now put your hands on their shoulder-blade (without interfering with their movement.) Then put your hands on their pelvis and feel the shifting: do you still feel their weight shifting to the same direction you guessed looking at them or not? Is it easier to feel the diagonal rather than when they sat or not? Let them rest, stretching down their legs, arms along the side. Person in the same position: knees bent, feet standing, arms out to the side with a soft fist. Ask them to roll their right fist up and the left fist downward, and then change over. Look at their rib cage: how is it moving? Look at the two side of the rib cage and the differences between the two.

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Put your hands on the rib cage and feel if you sense any differences than just watching the movement. Which diagonal is easier, is it the same diagonal as when they were doing the lesson in sitting or not? Let them rest, stretching down their legs, arms along the side. Person in the same position: knees bent, feet standing, arms out to the side with a soft fist. Ask them to roll their right fist up and the left fist downward, and then change over, and to flop their legs at the same time. is their right fist going up or down when the legs flop to the right? Ask them to do the opposite and look at the difference. Attend at their breath, tell them to rest when they need and to do just what it is easy! Let them rest. Look if anything changes in their organization.

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PRACTICE #31 - Lengthening the Leg Observe the person lying on the floor or table. Get a sense of which part is heavier, of the distribution of the weight, just looking at them. Is the right side or the left side heavier? What about their shoulder? What about the right and left part of the rib cage? Look at their legs: how are the legs lying? Do you have a sense of their weight? Guess which leg is heavier. If the person would raise an arm above their head (on the floor) which one would it be? Take a guess. Is it the same side as the leg you guessed was lighter (that is: if you guessed the right leg was lighter, the person the right arm or the left)? What is the relationship between the legs and arms? Observe if the person needs any support under their knees and put a roller or a towel if needed, then sit at the 1 person s feet. Lift the leg you thought it was lighter, just few inches. Then ask the person to lift one arm and see what is the relationship with the lighter leg, and what is the relationship with the heavier leg (the standing leg as it is called the heavier leg): is it the same arm as the lighter leg or the opposite one? Lift the other leg if you wish to feel the difference.

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Stay with the heavier leg and find the place where it is easier to pull the leg: raise it six inches and move it a little to the right and to the left. Is there a point between being to the right and being to the left where the leg feels even lighter than before? Guess where this point is. Now, in this horizontal dimension (left-andright movement) stop at this point in which the leg is lighter and start to lift the leg up and down in the vertical dimension. Slowly. Also in this vertical dimension there is a point in which the leg feels lighter. That is the point where the leg will lengthen more easily with the least impediment.

Now that you found this spot begin to lengthen it a little bit in a speed that allow you to follow that path: you lengthen yourself up (your head toward the ceiling, so that the person lengthen, too), you pull their leg toward you and you follow the path through your hands: their legs, their pelvis, then their spine (take a moment to imagine their spine), then to their shoulders and their neck. Find a place where to sit so that you have a good trajectory along this path (your center is align with their leg.) Pull their legs two or three times. Let them rest. 179

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Lift the heavier leg and find that sweet spot to pull the leg. Now, when you pull the leg, ask the person to lift their arm on the same side above their head (if you are pulling the right leg, the person will raise their right arm above their head.) What does this to your feeling of your lengthening? Pull two or three times and feel the difference than before. Let them rest, arms down along the sides. Lift the heavier leg and find that sweet spot to pull the leg, and ask the person to lift their oppositeside-arm above their head (if you are pulling the right leg, the person will raise their left arm above their head .) When you pull their leg, can you feel any difference than before? Does the trajectory change? Does your sensation of weight change at all? How do you perceive the spread of the movement along the person's body: from your hands through their leg, their pelvis, their spine, their neck? Let them rest, arms down along the sides. Lift the heavier leg and pull it few times and feel if there is any difference now (the person has their arms along the side.) Let them rest, arms down along the sides. 180

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PRACTICE #32 - Lengthening the Leg and Lengthening the Arm

Observe the person lying on the floor or table. How is the person organized? How are the legs lying: is there a difference between where the two feet point, that is where are the two big toes oriented? More to the ceiling, or to the right or to the left? Get a sense of which part is heavier, of the distribution of the weight, just looking at them: the right side or the left? What about their shoulder, the right and left part of the rib cage, the legs, ... ? How are the legs lying? Do you have a sense of their weight? Take a guess. How does the breathing look like? What is its dimensionality: does the breathing affect more one side of their chest? Put a support behind the person's knees if needed . Lift the heavier leg and find that sweet spot to pull the leg (lengthen yourself to lengthen their leg.) Do it few times, then rest. Lift the heavier leg and find that spot from where to pull their leg, and ask the person to lift their same-side-arm above their head (if you are pulling the right leg, the person will raise their right arm above their head.)

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When you pull the leg, ask the person to lengthen the arm above their head. Has this an effect on your feeling? Has this any effect on how the movement spread along the person's body? Pull the leg two or three times, very slowly. Look at their breathing and look at the relationship between the moving parts of their body and their breathing. Let them rest, arms down along the sides. Lift the heavier leg and pull it few times and feel if there is any difference now (the person has their arms along the side.) Rest. Lift the heavier leg and find that spot from where to pull their leg, and ask the person to lift their opposite-sidearm above their head (if you are pulling the right leg, the person will raise their left arm above their head.) When you pull the leg, ask the person to lengthen the arm above their head. Has this an effect on your feeling? Has this any effect on how the movement spread along the person's body and what is the difference with respect to when they were lengthening the same-side-arm? Pull the leg two or three times, very slowly, and be focused. 182

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Look at their breathing. How is your feeling of the weight of their leg now? Has it changed compare to before? Rest. Lift the heavier leg and pull it few times: is it heavier or lighter than when you started? How is the movement flowing along the person's body, now? Are there more parts involved or not? How is their breathing, now? Rest. Lift the heavier leg few times, then lift the lighter leg few times (be symmetrical in order to have no bias in yourself.) Is the lighter leg still lighter or it seems heavier now? Rest. How is the organization of the person now, has anything changed?

You can now work with the lighter leg (pulling it together with the same-side-arm and then the oppositeside-arm.) You can alternate the two legs trying to make them as similar as possible.

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PRACTICE #33 - Observing Hand on Head Going for a Ride Two or three people sitting on the floor: side-sitting with their legs to the left, with their right leg bent in front of them and left leg bent behind them, leaning on their right hand. Ask them to bring their left hand on the top of their head and begin to move in a way that their bringing their right ear toward their right shoulder, and then their left ear toward their left shoulder. They will rest whenever they need to. Stand in front of them and watch them: explore their movement. Compare the range of their movement. Compare the pace of their movement. Observe the movement and change prospective, going to their back, too. You can kind of see their self-image in action: do they move in a way where the movement is distributed all the way through themselves. What is dominant in their self-image? Rest. Ask to one of them to repeat the movement, slowly, and put your hand in different place:

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• • •

their shoulders, different parts of their spine their pelvis

Your hand is light and do not influence with their movement. Is the information infer from your hands the same of the previous visual information? Let them rest whenever they need. Ask another person to do the movement and put your hand in different place and feel the differences with respect to the other person, too. Are there places that do not move or that move easily?

All our muscles are involved in every movement, it is only a matter of degree.

Be ready to be surprised!

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PRACTICE #34 - Lifting Arm Lengthening Same Side

Person lying on the floor or on the table Observe how their body is organized: is one hip joint closer to the floor than the other? How is the pelvis? Look how the chest is moving. Guess which arm would be easier to lengthen above their head. Ask the person to bend their knees, stand the feet. Ask them to lengthen one arm above their head, Was the same arm you guessed would be easier to lengthen? Take that arm and try to gently lengthen it in different directions. How is the response in their chest? Guess which direction is easiest and slow through the skeleton, bone by bone gathering: the elbow is lengthening, the movement goes to their shoulder, then the spine, the chest. Watch their breathing. Rest, the person stretches the legs, arms along the side. Ask them to turn a little bit the leg (the same leg of the arm you were lengthening) and to slide it downward (their legs are long) toward the lower edge of the mat/table few times. Now lengthen their arm while they are lengthening their leg and feel the difference than before.

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Rest, the person stretches the legs, arms along the side. Ask the person to bend their knees, stand their feet, and lengthen their arm. Feel the difference than before. How is the movement spreading through their skeleton? How is their breathing?

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A bit of History about Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (Fl)

Historically Fl comes after ATM, but neither of them have a define form until 1972 when Dr. Feldenkrais starts coming to the USA and someone told him he cannot simply call them "Individual technique" and "Group technique"; so in less than an hour someone suggested to call the group technique "Awareness through movement" from the title of the book Dr. Feldenkrais had recently published. Then someone recalled that Ida Rolf (a biochemist who created a manual technique aimed to improve human functioning), called her technique structural integration, and suggested to call the individual technique "Functional Integration", and so it was. ATM developed from the attempt of Dr. Feldenkrais to teach naive people (researchers and scientists) judo. During the world war II Dr. Feldenkrais and other scientists fled Europe to Britain; but the UK Government was not sure they were telling the truth, so they confine them in a compound, where the 189

A bit of History about Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (Fl)

scientists did research during the day, and had intellectual exchanges during the evening: some formed chamber music group and played for the others, some lectured, and Dr. Feldenkrais started talking about is obsession: that there was a profound relationship between habits of movement and psychological/emotional habit patterns. Therefore he formed a group of people who was interested in his speeches and in judo. Dr. Feldenkrais tried to teach not just the techniques of judo, but from a point of view of fundamental function: how to roll, how to fall, ... an approach to teaching and learning that in the years became ATM. After the war he also started to make one-toone lessons (also influenced by the Alexander ideas.) As two professional dancers are great for their ability to follow each other (it is not just the female following and the male leading), she listens to him and he is listens to her, so is the model for Fl: there is information being transmitted, not verbal information of course but sensory and kinesthetic and is being convey from one person to another.

If a man who cannot sing is joint by a man who can sing => the first man will soon be able to sing.

The practitioner who has more intuition is the one who has practiced Fl the most. 190

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The intuition in Feldenkrais is based on knowledge and experience

In Feldenkrais we are dealing for the most part with elements that are visible. We are working with function not in the abstract sense, but in the most basic sense: rolling, reaching, standing, stability, balance, walking, turning, ... but these things include the whole self, so: do we break it down and say let's look at the role of the eye and the feet, ... of course we do, but from a macro point of view: the things that our brain understand. We do not use language, we are dealing with fundamental aspects common to every human being: I do not need to speak the same language of the Fl's receiver; I can have problems to grab their history, otherwise it is not necessary to speak. Whatever happens is mediated by the interaction between a person and another. Every year that intuition will work more.

(David Zemach-Bersin said he had no intuition the first year! Each time he reads what Dr. Feldenkrais had said, he catch something.)

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In terms of understanding the mechanic of movement we put a lot of weight on the skeleton. A unique thing about the Feldenkrais method is the ability to nullify gravity, means that in an "ideal" posture or "ideal" standing posture, gravity moves down in a parallel way, and moving through the skeleton. From a fe/denkraisian prospective being able to optimize the relationship of the skeleton to the forces is essential. We do not work the muscles in order to make people stand up straighter.

People should utilize the skeleton and not the muscular work to stand up and to move

Look how each force that you apply is transferred through the skeleton, look where there is impediment. Why is the force going through a certain path, but for another path is absorbed? Is there some muscular effort that inhibited the skeleton to move? Many times I did something and then I waited to see what happen in the lower abdomen, or I did something and released and wait to see what happen in the lower abdomen. 192

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There is a difference in the breathing between a person that fall asleep in few minutes and another who has issues: in the first case their abdomen swell up. That is why this is an indication that what you did in Fl had a positive effect on the person.

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The Contradictory Thinking

Dr. Feldenkrais was a rousseauian, a word that derives from Rousseau, the French philosopher who thought that an educated person should be able to argue different and opposite points of view. Dr. Feldenkrais practiced it all the time, moreover this way of thinking was pretty congruent with the mentality of a scientist: you think there may be one way of explaining a results, but in truth:

There can be many different possible explanations

He was much against a world view that was "Cause and effect", attributing a certain effects to one unique cause. On the contrary there are different variables, and changing the weight of the variables changes the results, the effects.

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Healthier Habits

Question: How long will it take to learn a new healthier habit? When does the brain realize that a certain habit is better than the old one, and this new habit becomes something integrated in ourselves, and not something we are constantly trying to adapt to? It depends on how long the habit has been ingrained, what is linked to in the environment for each person, how tied those habits are to their well being and different variables like that. But all else being equal the things that have been the most characterological, i.e. the oldest, then the slowest the change will be. The things that are more recent they change more quickly.

No behavior is fixed

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This is because our nervous system is seeking to optimize the conditions in which we live: our nervous system is looking for things to be more comfortable, pleasurable, easier. And that is the advantage we have with ATM, that is:

What is better is recognizable at a biological level

You do not have to think: "I am standing better in this way", your nervous system will recognize it. In the Feldenkrais method you are trained to recognize differences, just as a musician is training their auditory acuity, you are training your sensory kinesthetic acuity.

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© 2018 Graziella Leone

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

First year of Feldenkrais Professional Training Program with more than 30 Functional Integration practices inspired by several . international Feldenkrais Trainers.

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The book will show the building blocks of your developing technique, although they are NOT intended as a strict sequence to use during an Fl lesson. Through these chapters you will be encouraged to observe, make guesses, develop your sensory acuity and think in functional term. (Digital edition available on Amazon)

After moving to New York city, in 2013 Graziella Leone . join ed t he Feldenkra is Method Tra ining Progra ms under the ed ucational director David Zemach-Bersin. · Since 2015 she has st arted teaching Awareness Through Movement classes in New York a nd in Ita ly. She is t he author of a brief introduction to the · Fe ldenkra is method ("Benessere in Movimento" ). She recent ly started her own private practice spl itting her time betwe_en t he U. S. and It aly.

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