à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Sensitivity
Feldenkrais Experiments in Self-Image: Joining a Health Club. Really!?
Are there things you’ve told yourself you don’t or won’t do, because if you did them you wouldn’t be yourself anymore? Then, who would you be and what would you do? Sometimes it’s confusing or terrifying to contemplate who we might be without our ideas about who we are. While such ideas might have served a purpose, if … Continue reading
What’s Crazy? Who’s Crazy? On Feldenkrais, Israel, Self-Image
How would you protect yourself if a crazy person attacked you with a knife? It’s a question many of us have never needed to consider. But it was a question Moshe Feldenkrais had to answer when, as an early settler in what was then Palestine, Arabs frequently attacked Jews, who were forbidden by the British Mandate from carrying weapons. … Continue reading
My Spiritual Nemesis? Glatt Kosher Restaurants
Nothing can dismantle my sense – or illusion? – of spiritual progress faster than eating at glatt kosher restaurants. In recent weeks I’ve been to three. Two in Montreal, where I visited an elderly Hassidic relative, and one in San Francisco, where I had dinner with my oldest, modern Orthodox nephew. Because strictly observant Jews cannot eat in non-kosher restaurants, … Continue reading
Every Day is Commencement
“Go out in the world and fuck it up beautifully” – John Waters’ commencement speech at RISD “We are not interested in the performance or the achievement, only to find out how we do what we do…so we can do what we want” – Moshe Feldenkrais ‘Tis the season for graduations. Consider me a graduation grinch: … Continue reading
Feldenkrais Off the Mat: Even Distribution
When I practiced yoga, my teachers emphasized that if our lives weren’t changing off the mat, then we were just exercising, not doing yoga at all. It didn’t matter if we could get into complicated poses if we still cursed in traffic, blamed others, were highly reactive or otherwise kept repeating unproductive habits. Ideally, the calm, peace and connectedness … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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