à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Slowing Down
Road Trip as Awareness Through Movement
“We do not say at the start what the final stage will be.” – Moshe Feldenkrais After my first month of Feldenkrais training in Santa Fe, I surprised myself by embarking on a road trip…at the last minute. Several weeks before I received an announcement for an evening of storytelling about Moshe Feldenkrais to honor the … Continue reading
Felden-questing (or, Adventures in Functional Integration)
“The aim is a person that is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but through increased consciousness of how movement works.” -Moshe Feldenkrais On the penultimate day of my Feldenkrais Training in Santa Fe, I had a Functional Integration lesson with Alan Questel, the program’s director. A few weeks … Continue reading
Feld-Zen-Krais: Doing and Not Doing
“Do it, and don’t do it.” Feldenkrais Trainer Aliza Stewart repeated this phrase, mantra like, as she directed us in a movement last week. Presiding at the front of the room, she reminded me of my compassionate and patient Zen teacher but with a compelling Israeli accent, a regal bearing and stylish red sandals. Perhaps I needed to hear “Do it, … Continue reading
Feldenkrais: Playing Footsie to Gain Footing
What does it really mean to stand on our own two feet? Until I sustained an injury walking El Camino de Santiago, I hadn’t given much attention to my feet, except to lament their rather large size. In our culture, we typically wrap our feet in shoes during autumn and winter and bare them, to various degrees, in … Continue reading
Feldenkrais: Roll Your Eyes, Change Your World
Imagine yourself as a complex switchboard of circuitry. Over time, as you’ve developed certain habits, particular wires have been connected to specific jacks in the board. Some connections might be looser than others, and we can easily replug those wires into new jacks. As I discovered ten days ago in my Feldenkrais training, it turns out I can … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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