“Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ‘neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.
~ Bob Dyan
Rest is often the missing ingredient for a good life. The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) devoted their Summer 2024 magazine to rest.
The UCSF article also explained four quick ways to rest: slow your breathing, please your senses, pay attention to nature (your environment) and look outside the box. Let’s explore how The Feldenkrais Method® can help you more fully realize these techniques:
While there are many Feldenkrais lessons that work specifically with breathing, every lesson provides an opportunity to utilize the breath for better learning. Students are told to move slowly and gently while breathing freely (instead of holding it). This helps to naturally slow down breathing and create a state of well-being and comfort. The breathing and movement combine to bring the attention into the present moment (much like mediation). After a lesson, it is common to feel rejuvenated and refreshed.
There are many ways to please your senses: listening to music, hiking in the woods or sunbathing on the beach. Movement can also delight and satisfy the senses. A common Feldenkrais suggestion is to look for a pleasant sensation in your movements. Instead of working hard to exercise, students learn how to move with ease and grace. By the end of the lesson, the result is more like a good massage than a workout.
Paying attention to nature is very restful. Any environment, however, will work, if you become aware of it. The Feldenkrais Method provides a deep dive into sensory exploration of your surroundings. Questions during the lesson guide your awareness to the relationship between the ground and yourself. You also pay attention to other parts of your environment. This grounds you into the present moment.
Habitual patterns can box us into acting like robots. Feldenkrais lessons break you out of the habitual box to find the freedom of your own unique human qualities. Instead of the same old, same old, you explore and compare new options. This gives you the ability to create and act on new and better choices in life. So look outside the box and into S3NSE at www.s3nse.org.
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