Summer cleanse

It's monsoon season!

Other than taking the dog on his usual mile and a half walk I haven't been outside today.

It's wet.

The yard looks happy though. A good shower for all the living beings that inhabit my environs.

The process of change can include the occasional drenching, sometimes near-drownings. It's not that it rains, but how we respond to it.

If the rain would let up a bit...I just might have to go for a bike ride.

I've got lights.

8-;

For more on the Feldenkrais Method® you can go to:
http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur

Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/

Roll on

I've taken up an olde friend. The bicycle.

In the past 3 weeks I've ridden the distance from my front door to the the Bend,OR city limits (325 miles). To add some context; in the prior 12 months I've pedaled almost 300 miles.

At a friend's house this past Saturday I sneaked a look on his scale...I've lost some lbs. too. That was 80 miles of pedaling ago.

Aside from losing some weight I've also noticed some increased range due to less soft tissue opposition! (less fat!)

And mostly, my energy level has risen to a much different place.

Tomorrow will be some beach volleyball...should be hot.

8-)~

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

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®
http://www.alkimoves.com/

Buh bye!

Today was my last as a Macy's corporate whore. Officially laid off...about time...they told us 6 months ago we were toast.

I can now enjoy the summer. Yeah!!

I'm standing in a room that I've mostly reclaimed (got rid of lots of stuff). I can do lessons in this room soon. I'm sure I'll learn a lot about restoring/replacing wood flooring in the meantime. It can't be too hard?

There...I just saved 60-100 grand by not trying to change my attic into a livable space :-)

This is a time for myself to be more present in my being. Having let go of stuff (guaranteed salary and a room full of clutter) a void has been created. Will my behaviours tend toward the known to quickly find an equilibrium?

In lessons it's important to allow the nervous system a chance to familiarize itself with new movement patterns, with rest. The kind of rest where you lie in the position you initially came back to, without any stretching, ruffling, straightening, or any other means to find an older, more familar resting position.

It's a way of teaching us to be comfortable with the unknown.

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

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/

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.

.

Needless to say, I trashed my body.

.

But I'm happy.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

.

See you on the beach!

.

.

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

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/

Early summers eve

To celebrate summer...

Larry had a bathe...

Look at that sexy bod!

The pampas is giving its salute to summer!

Some evening color from the yard, in celebration of summer!

The black bamboo is certainly excited about it being summer.

So is the crooked bamboo....woohoo!

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

.

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

.

Erik LaSeur

Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

.

http://www.alkimoves.com/

Slouching deserves its day

We all have habits, and slouching is probably on everyone's list. But unfortunately most people would put it in the 'bad habit' column.

How is slouching good for us?

When we slouch we engage muscles that are useful for many functions in our daily lives (tying our shoes, wiping our ass, picking up something from the floor, dancing, sex, etc....).

To limit our use of those muscles by trying to be 'straight' (which is nearly impossible per this post: http://alkisandbox.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-straight-do-you-want.html 'how straight do you want? April 11...) we then limit what actions we can take.

So if the poor kids in this picture really learn that it's bad to bend forward by rolling their pelvis back and rounding their backs, how will they learn to reach forward?

Usually when people talk about how bad slouching is they also add in that it's bad posture to do so.

So again I ask...what is good posture?

Most people would say it's when you are standing straight.
Okay, so can you have good posture while sitting? While laying down? How about rolling?

The definition of good posture or acture is when the forces of gravity are sustained by the skeletal system, leaving the muscles free for action. This is an active definition of posture as opposed to the static definition of standing still.
If you feel deep relief from a shoulder massage then you are using your muscles for stability and thus your posture is less than ideal.

By this definition you can slouch and have good posture.

If you want to find out how this is possible you can either read more at the guild website below or contact me.

Happy slouching!

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

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/