S3NSE: Freedom

“Free your mind and the rest will follow” ~En Vogue

What does it mean to be free?  Or maybe more importantly, how do you become free?  Mankind has thought, fought and died trying to find the answer.  Perhaps, freedom is simply the ability to create more choices for yourself.

Moshe Feldenkrais was much more interested in flexible minds than flexible bodies.  A flexible body just has more range of motion in what it can already do.  A flexible mind is free to discover and explore new interests and abilities. How does the Feldenkrais Method® develop freedom for our minds?     

Destructive habits take away our freedom.  We become locked into behaviors and actions that do more harm than good.  Freedom from bad habits comes from freeing the mind and body to create new and better ones.  Not long ago, I worked with an older man who had great difficulty getting out of a chair.  This old habit was no longer serving him well.  Luckily, he had a flexible mind and could learn a new trick or two.  

This gentleman had an extensive background in physics.  Instead of thinking of getting out of the chair as a physical difficulty, we turned it into a physics problem.  The key was learning how to get his center of gravity over his base of support before moving upward.  We worked with different starting positions and found sitting towards the front of the seat worked best (moving his center of gravity closer to his feet).   He also learned rolling his pelvis forward over his feet was much easier than trying to lift it straight upward.  He also found lowering his head towards the floor would help lift his pelvis upward (similar to a see-saw).  However, keeping his spine long (not bending forward or backwards) and hinging from the hip, created a longer lever which worked even better.   

By creating choices, this man found freedom from his chair.  He could now get up and down with no pain or discomfort.  While building strength and flexibility is helpful; it may not be the whole answer. Join us at www.s3nse.org and free your mind. The rest of life will follow quite nicely.