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Gentle movements to improve body-mind awareness
Not all exercise needs to be huff-and-puff or throw-and-go. Sometimes moving slowly while paying attention to the details of each movement is beneficial too. Especially for increasing our body-mind awareness. Which for those of us living with ALS, is extremely important.
Some days my body just feels disconnected; my arms and legs receiving garbled messages from my brain. So, I turn to the gentle movement sequences from the Feldenkrais Method®, to help improve my body-mind awareness.
To introduce you to this technique, here are two short (15-17 minutes) videos I enjoy doing that are led by Feldenkrais instructor Taro Iwamoto.
- “Rolling with ease and comfort” – – demonstrated on the floor, but can also be done while lying on your bed.
- “Sitting with ease and comfort” – – follow along while sitting in a chair of your choosing.
What did you think of the videos? Would you like to try more? Have you tried similar movement techniques?
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2 Replies
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Dagmar,
I was looking for something else and ran across this.
One of the things that I practiced at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was the Feldenkrais Method.
I am going to “flex” while I still can and boast. I was one of the best practitioners ever. The last treatment I gave was a couple of years ago, I had to quit when my hands couldn’t work the way they needed to. It is how I knew I was going down this path long before anyone could see.
When my kids get back to school, if I have the energy I’m going to make a website with writings and videos so I can try to help myself and others in a different way. I have been teaching over 25 years, and will continue as long as I can.
Mark
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I love Feldenkrais! It was part of the curriculum in my graduate work in dance education – – and I practice “mini-sessions” to help my ALS. How wonderful that you are a practitioner 🙂
And, yes, I agree that it increases our awareness of body mis-alignments/imbalance long before ALS is diagnosed. But I find the awareness is helpful even now, so I can adjust my gait or know when a body part needs a little more focus.
Do build that website! We need your unique viewpoint of teacher & patient. In the meantime, while we wait for yours, do you have recommendations of other Feldenkrais videos that would be easy for ALS folks to follow?
I also recommend the program by Original Strength https://originalstrength.net/videos/ it’s a nice compliment to the Feldenkrais method.
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