Image adapted from Jct Li
Lengths and volumes: Feldenkrais for Whole BODY CONNECTION
An 8 lesson Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement Series with Sarah Baumert
We often get caught up in feeling and thinking about movement in pieces, all the while missing the fundamental organization of the whole. What are the shoulders doing? How is my pelvis turning? . . .
In this series we will listen to ourselves globally, to gain a more clear understanding of how to sense functional linkages within ourselves. We start with the skeleton and set its relationships into motion with our thinking, sensing, and imagining. I believe these lessons will leave you feeling a new sense of wholeness, and you will make intriguing connections within yourself that may take you by surprise.
Moshe once made a statement:
“Someone who thinks in images thinks differently than someone who thinks in words.” Words convey sequential perception, and through words we build an understanding of a whole via an additive process. This plus this plus this. An image, on the other hand, presents a whole in one perceptual schema.”
With this in mind, one question we will ask is:
“Can images in movement help us feel the wholeness of ourselves?”
If the brain organizes movement according to intention and image, it needs to plan in images of a whole intended action. For example, if reaching for a glass, most functionally, the brain prepares the whole self to reach for the glass, not just your hand, or arm. But, how does your spine turn? Where do you look? Where do you lift? How do you expand the volumes of yourself? Where do you lengthen? The brain may recruit the components of the movement sequentially, but the full image of the movement must be preplanned. The healthy brain is also ready and available to make adjustments when it receives sensory feedback from the external environment once the action is taking place. Most of this all happens quickly and unconsciously, often by performing out our habitual ways of being. This is where the Awareness Through Movement context comes in. In ATM, we get to slow things down enough to listen to our habitual ways and learn new, more whole ways of moving.=
The capacity to gather our attention into functional movement relationships between all parts of the skeleton to form a whole image is fundamental to this method.
With this intention in mind, we will use a variety of positions for these lessons: supine, prone, all fours, side lying, standing, and sitting. Working in multiple positions puts you in a variety of relationships to gravity and gives you a larger repertoire of experience to sense yourself.
I look forward to exploring these questions with you all!
$180 for the 8 lesson course
For scholarship options, please inquire directly with Sarah at sarah@body-matter.com
Pay-as-able and payment plan options available at check out.
What You'll Discover In This Online Course:
Improved Function: Develop elegant and efficient posture that supports your spine and overall health. Learn how to evenly distribute your effort throughout the spine and limbs for efficiency and functionality of movement.
Creative Learning: Use constraints to foster creativity and move past mental blocks and challenges.
Easy-to-Follow Lessons: Each lesson is designed to be accessible to all levels of experience, from beginner to advanced.
Flexible Learning: Learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.
What Exactly Is Included In This Series?
Movement: This series will include eight lessons. Two variations of each lesson are taught.
Lessons included in this series:
Lesson 1: Inner Cylinder Rotation
Lesson 2: Twisting Pelvis and Shoulders - Leg Across, Rolling Head
Lesson 3: Uncage the Ribs for Easier Twisting
Lesson 4: Making the Sternum Flexible
Lesson 5: Sharing Planes of Action in the Torso: Hand to Heel with Oscillations
Lesson 6: Observing Yourself From Within
Lesson 7: Feet to Head Lengths and Volumes
Lesson 8: Sensing Your Volume From the Hip JointsEducational Talks:
• Pre lesson Anatomy Lessons
• The philosophical framework for ATM
Ways to keep practicing:
• Option to download recordings and stream recordings indefinitely
Supportive Community and Connection:
• Recorded Q & A sessions to discuss the method and tools we are learning about
• Online forum to connect and ask questions
• Optional 10 minute consultation with Sarah
• Email supportOnce you have purchased the course, you will have immediate access to the class recordings.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
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Starting in the 1930’s, Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais began to develop a somatic form of neuromuscular re-education. Feldenkrais developed two practical approaches for exploring early developmental movements, as well as more advanced complex actions.
1) Functional Integration - manually directed, hands on, private lessons. Learn more about the 1:1 Feldenkrais approach here.
2) Awareness Through Movement - verbally guided mindful movement classes done in a group setting.
Both approaches are described as “lessons”, as they involve beneficial learning processes for the brain and body. In guided Awareness Through Movement classes you study your potential to act, and how you refine your self organization to make any movement. Feldenkrais is not stretching or straining, it is learning. The method uses gentle mindful movement and directed attention to help people learn new and more effective ways to move and be in the world.
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Yes! It’s not uncommon for students to feel taller and to stand more upright (with less effort) after a Feldenkrais session. Most all humans “hold” the body with a specific tone in the muscles. Over time this muscular tone habituates and becomes our “posture”, for better or worse. Using guided awareness and small movements in Feldenkrais lessons, the body can shed its unnecessary muscular tone, so that the skeleton can then find its more optimal place to be.
“Although we each have a fantastic skeleton and musculature designed to give us flexible support and hold us upright against the pull of gravity, we frequently develop postural habits that challenge our skeletal structure's effectiveness and cause muscular tension inflammation, and a gradual deterioration of our joints.” - Feldenkrais Trainer David Zemach- Bersin
With awareness, specificity, and practice, Feldenkrais lessons can give you the ability to free the muscles of the neck, shoulders, spine, and pelvis. As one moves towards more freedom of the muscles, one also moves towards a more easy, elegant, and upright posture supported by the strength of the skeleton.
Our aim in Feldenkrais is not a perfect posture, but a place of less tension and conflict in the body where our posture is fluid, not rigid. Everyone’s posture, or how they “use” themselves, isn’t always optimal. With the help of the Feldenkrais method, your postural habits can improve to make everyday movements more enjoyable and easy.
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Both practices emphasize listening to your body, respecting its limits, and unlocking its potential. However, their approaches differ, offering unique pathways to self-discovery. A seasoned yogi might find Feldenkrais deepens their internal awareness, while a Feldenkrais practitioner might discover greater strength and power through yoga.
While most yoga practices tend to focus on alignment and the shape of a pose, the Feldenkrais method differs, in that the emphasis is on the coordination and quality of movement, not in holding a pose for a set amount of time or reaching the limits of a stretch. Feldenkrais emphasizes ease and efficiency in movement and to never reach a point of strain or even stretch. The movements are always done within a range of comfort, creating an environment where the nervous system feels safe enough to learn and change. There are no shapes or poses in the Feldenkrais method, but instead we work with developmental movement patterns and mindful movement explorations.
Explore your length and volume! Join this course and . . .
Receive access to 15 recorded sessions for an asynchronous learning option.
Learn from a gentle guide and experienced Feldenkrais practitioner.
Register today and take the first step towards a more empowered and pain-free you!
About Sarah: Sarah Baumert is known for her thorough and diverse instruction and her dedication to holding space for individual personal discovery. She facilitates whole body alignment in her students as a way for them to access balance, strength, mobility and physical clarity. Through sensory rich movement experiments, she guides students in cultivating mindfulness and deepening their learning process. She works with a variety of populations including athletes, seniors, artists, dancers, musicians, and those experiencing injury or surgery recovery. Sarah is a certified Yoga Therapist, an Authorized Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® Teacher and Feldenkrais Functional Integration® Practitioner. Her objective is to acquire the most effective skills for helping her students live with less pain and more pleasure in their bodies.
What people are saying about Sarah's teaching:
“I have never, ever felt my hands and lower arms as I did at the end of class tonight. They were glowing in a fuzzy, pleasant way. I can’t describe it otherwise. - Linda
I am so grateful that you continue to provide these life giving, body strengthening and soul nurturing classes. They are like an inner meditation for every cell in my body! - Rosie
After I switched to the ‘regular’ yoga class, I realized I missed how I felt during and after Feldenkrais. I experience an ease of being, a soft wholesomeness, in Feldenkrais. I meditate most mornings, and I sometimes find that same stillness after Feldenkrais. Also, ease of movement: I am always struck at how gracefully I can move a limb compared to how the limb starts out. -Elizabeth
What I love so much about your classes: when the unexpected happens, like a jigsaw puzzle falling into place. Keep surprising me! - Jane
I find your classes to be exceptionally supportive and illuminating, and I’ve so benefitted from the learning and the unlearning I’ve experienced. Drop by drop, this practice and what I’ve received from your teaching have radically changed how I am in my body and in my life. These online Feldenkrais courses have become some of my favorite practices ever, and I’m excited every time you propose a new series. - Betsy
After these lessons, I often feel like I am “floating”. I continue to realize, in real time and activities like walking, the connection between all parts of my body….the supple power that moves up and down my spine, from my head to my pelvis. - Helen”