To give us a perceived sense of weightlessness...

Ummm..Alex...."What is a skeleton for?"

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correct....for $500!

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When we're well organized and the weight comes through our skeleton, there is no perceived sense of weight. With a high center of gravity and a low moment of inertia we can be quick in our movements using minimal effort.

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Watching the movements of world-class athletes, dancers, musicians, etc. gives us a glimpse of the beauty we can display in our own lives.

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After a few lessons many people report a feeling of 'lightness' (I've never seen anyone levitate though), feeling taller, or the sense of using less effort for the same tasks.

How does this happen? What's going on?

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The genius of Moshé was to create lessons that help us develop our ability to 'be' in space. From the moment we're born that is our job; to learn where we are, who we are, continually seeking refinement. This is how we become highly functioning healthy humans.

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We're all just tall, unstable cylinders either seeking stability (security) or refinement. The evolutionary aspect of our nervous system is one of refinement, given that we're not in a survival situation. Learning can only happen when our necessary needs are taken care of first (Maslow's heirarchy ;-).

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The good thing is that we can always, at any age, pick up this ability to learn...how to feel 'weightless.'

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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/

Happy birthday

Today I turned 47!

And what a beautiful day it was. Sunny, 75 and a slight breeze.

The boy and I ventured on down to the cookoff that was still going on at the beach to have some more of that beef brisket.

An added bonus after we chowed down was that a very nice girl brought Larry and I a pork rib from their grill...I was ever thankful to her. She was with a family group from Portland, Klamath Falls OR, and Reno.

Had a leasurely pedal into DT this afternoon and really appreciated the fact that I can pedal 20 miles a day without much stress. I'm up to 826 miles in the last 7.5 weeks.

To life to life, I made it another year!

And here's to an even better one.

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

Erik LaSeur

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

folks makin music

That's what folk music is...

I spent a wonderful weekend in Sisters, OR at the folk music festival. Saw many cool acts, none I've ever seen before.

The one act that left a very strong impression on me was Joe Craven. Joe spends his time at these festivals teaching ordinary folks how to create music. In his act he uses the simplicities of a recording device that can record loops of sounds, he also used pots and pans, etc. as instruments. I never saw Joe before or went to any of the music writing workshops, but what he said at the end of his act truly has inspired me.

I'm paraphrasing since I never wrote any of this down yesterday:

"We all have a story to tell, and we can only do it our way, not anyone elses. The more we suppress letting who we are to shine, the more we die. Whatever art you feel is inside you needs a way to come out, pick it up for 10 mins a day. The world will be a much better and happier place."

I played my saxophone today for the first time in a month or so...for at least 15 minutes!

8-)~~

And the memories of that beautiful sunset as I was cresting 4800' Santiam Pass on Friday night...pink and blue sky...white trunked burnt out forest...crescent moon on horizon.

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

http://www.feldenkrais.com/

Erik LaSeur
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

http://www.alkimoves.com/

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/