Finding support

Arches National Park, Utah. This place is on my agenda for the fall road-trip.

The fragile looking setup is held together by a capstone on top, taking the forces of both sides to allow them to remain standing.

A talk Moshé gave once, he talked of how the majority of relationships (personal, business, religious, etc.) are formed based on mutual insecurities of both parties. He described an arch as representative of these relationships. A strong structure. In the above picture the two sides have a better chance of standing up if they can mutually lean on something, each other.

If they were standing in a more erect fashion they probably could rely on their own mass and the forces of gravity to stand up.

When two parties have this relationship and one decides to stand up, the other partner has a choice to make.

Oh crap! I have to change!

Some of the options could be to stand up on their own, to fall down, or to hold onto the other one for dear life. I'm sure there are many other variations on a theme here.

One of the bylines I thought of using when first thinking of going online a couple years ago was...'Finding support, nurturing growth'. It was a nifty Flash page that had two hands come together, then a tree would rise out of the hands.

I was heavy into the support aspect of the lessons. Reeling from the loss of my beloved Yvonne and trying to find my ground, my support. I had to choose to stand up (to be that tree on the webpage template). Fortunately the Awarness through Movement® lessons I periodically taught myself helped me in this process. Now I'm a fledgling redwood tree... 8-)~

A question I often ask myself when feeling out of sorts is "where is my support?", or "how am I standing (sitting, lying)?"

For more on the Feldenkrais Method® you can go to:

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur

Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/

Bouncing Back

I spent part of the 4th of July over on Alki Beach playing beach volleyball.

This was the first time I've played volleyball in at least 10 years, and the first time in sand.

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Needless to say, I trashed my body.

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But I'm happy.

I met some new friends, found my serve :-), and now have a new (fun) way to get/keep in shape.

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Physically, I know I'll be ready the next time we play as I've learned how (through my feldenkrais training) to reset myself.

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The lessons take on a much more personal flavor when I've compromised my own abilities to move easily....lol.

The notions of moving less, and slower are easier when it hurts to do otherwise.

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Mentally, I feel I've made another huge step in my own recovery.

During the six years that Yvonne battled breast cancer I slowly removed myself from most friendships and activities, as I focused more on being there for her.

I hadn't realized what I done until after she passed on and I all of a sudden felt very alone, fat, and old.

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I've had to basically start a new life (luckily I had a job, a house, and a handful of good friends left).

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Moshé once gave a talk on 'What is health?'

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Part of his definition of health was the ability to overcome adversity, to bounce back. To take a hit and find a way to come back and live life...kind of a 'fuck you' to whatever tried to knock you down.

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I may never make a living in the feldenkrais profession (very few do), but you can't take away the invaluable learnings I received and continue to hone for my own self-preservation. The ability to re-set myself (derail any habitual patterns that I become aware of that aren't good for me) by the simple act of laying on the floor and allowing gravity to teach me a better way of being.

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For those who've never experienced an Awareness Through Movement lesson the above paragraph probably seems non-sensical. But it is a simple process for anyone to learn how to teach themselves to be their own best advocate for health.

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See you on the beach!

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For more on the Feldenkrais Method® you can go to:

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/