How are you dealing with the current pandemic situation?

What extraordinary times we are experiencing internationally right now!

Peoples lives seemed to have changed from one day to another. My practice too has gone from being busy to almost nothing. I follow the progress of this crisis and become cautious and restricted in my daily activities that I’ve become so used to. This has made me frustrated but also forced to think and be creative. I imagine the hospital emergencies, the vulnerable and the already lonely people, and I wonder how are they coping?

Relationships and movement are essential for us and particularly in times of fear and uncertainty. For some, this situation might evoke a fight, flight or freeze response. It may show up in all different ways of unhelpful reactions, from mild to severe.

Did we learn to cope with unexpected, new and possibly life threatening situations? Did we have enough opportunities practicing to move through these kinds of situations? To return and regain a sense of safety, or even thrive, be wiser and stronger afterwards?

In the ideal world we would have matured into resilient adults that keep learning and growing. Adults that are able to reflect, move through, bounce back, be creative, responsible, to think and make decisions independently! I don’t know if anyone had an ideal upbringing, and of course there is also the question of nature and nurture.

Our life experiences have shaped us. Our bodies are like a storage, and a reflection of our past and present. We can keep learning and growing our resilience by using our bodies as a resource of knowledge. We can use the sensation of its mobile quality to move through and try new options.

I believe that our incredible ability to be aware of ourselves, learn and act is a key to resilience – mental and physical.

HAVE A GOOD NECK and shoulders!

If you have experienced pain in the neck, tension in the shoulders, headaches, jaw problems, then this workshop is for you! 

Most of us know what it’s like to wake up with pain, stiffness or tension in the neck, or when the only way to look behind was to turn the whole body.
And the majority of people know what tension headaches feel like.  

What do we tend to do when these discomforts arise?

Generally people will try to stretch or crack their neck or make forceful movements in all directions while making grimaces. I used to do this too, to be honest it never worked, or just very temporarily. Most of the satisfaction came from just doing whatever that addressed the discomfort. When I see people doing these “quick fixes” now, I flinch. I don’t believe they are doing any good, and they may in fact be harmful.

What is it that makes the neck unhappy? 

Apart from the classic forward head posture or the ‘text neck’, we put our necks into very strenuous situations and abuse its great range of movement. The problem is that often we isolate the neck from the rest of the body.

An expression I hear people say so often: “I’m so up in my head, I want to be in my body more!” and I’m thinking: “Do you mean you think too much, and you want to feel more?” I wonder if clarifying neck connection would help integrate the head and the rest of the body to make it into a whole self?

In addition, emotional stress, particularly feelings like anger or anxiety are expressed or suppressed a lot through tension in the jaw, eyes and neck. Repeated experiences of these emotions together with trauma and unreleased, held tension can all build up in the tissues. When this happens, the release has to be gradual and very gentle and accompanied with lots of awareness and knowledge of self. 

How to help the neck?

What I have learned from the approach of the Feldenkrais Method, is to give the poor neck a rest and look at the wider picture.
I believe we can address this issue in a more intelligent way. By recognising through a physical experience and awareness, the interconnectedness of the neck and the rest of the spine, shoulders, sternum and ribs, jaw, skull and even our eyes and tongue.

We will be exploring and learning about the area of the neck and shoulders from a focused to a more general view. The approach is through carefully structured gentle and slow Awareness Through Movement  lessons.

Arrive at 10.15am for a 10.30am start sharp. 
Bring a light lunch. 
Wear comfortable, warm clothes that you can move easily in. 
There are some mats and blankets in the studio. 
A few parking spaces in front of studio (more in town).

Cost: £55

BOOK NOW OR CONTACT IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS 

Pass this on if you think someone can benefit from this work or if you had a good experience with the Feldenkrais Method and/or me. 

Seasons Greetings! About stress and news for Feldenkrais classes in 2019

An end of a year and a beginning of another one is almost here. The busy pre Christmas month is in full motion. Sometimes we are pushing through when we know that this stress will pass too. Using up our resources and strengths so then we can drop everything, stop and hope to enjoy the feeling of making it through. 

Let us celebrate our strengths and abilities to cope with stress. After all, it is an unavoidable part of life and without it we wouldn’t be such amazing human beings. What we can  learn and get better at is resiliency and the recovery process after a stressful situation. To be able to bounce back.

Stress and disease creates opportunity for us to learn and refine emotional and physical recovery. Some of these processes happen automatically in our system – ‘homeostasis – organic stability, the maintenance of steadiness in every respect’.
And, there is a lot that we can do ourselves. First by being aware of what is actually happening and getting to know it by listening and investigating deeply.
 Awareness Through Movement classes offer just that! The space and time to observe, listen and learn through movement. 


 ”Movement is life, life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.” – Moshe Feldenkrais

I will be closing this year with a donation based Christmas special Awareness Through Movement class on
 Wednesday 19 Dec 10.30am @ The Forge Yoga Centre, Totnes
Book your place now! 


I would like to thank you all who have come to classes, workshops and individual sessions or read my newsletters this year. 

Your interest, participation, enthusiasm and curiosity is inspiring and wonderful to see. It also means that I can do what I love.
You are wonderful ! 🙂 


Wishing you a peaceful festive season!
May it be full of love, rest and play and whatever you need.  


2019
Weekly classes continue in Totnes and Exeter 

Individual sessions in Totnes from 8 January 2019

Mobile Ribs and Spine – Saturday 24 Nov 10.30am – 1.30pm

Feldenkrais – Awareness Through Movement mini workshop

 is approaching quickly! 
I look forward to this theme as working with the ribs and the spine will have huge benefits for the comfort and ease of your posture, breathing, neck, lower back, hips and basically everywhere.
It works like magic, you will see, I mean feel 🙂 
There are already some bookings for this day, so book yours soon. 
 

Our Mobile Ribs and Spine 

In some languages the ribcage is called a rib basket and that is how I call it because just like the ribs, a basket is a more flexible image than a cage.
This amazing rib basket is made of 12 pairs of curvy shaped ribs offering protection to our most precious and vital organs: the heart, lungs, oesophagus, trachea, thymus, liver, gallbladder, stomach, pancreas. 
The movement of the ribs and their function to hold and support this cavity is essential for the optimal functioning of these organs. If the ribs are held fixed or are collapsed, it will affect not just the organs within the chest cavity but also create stress in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, chest, back, abdomen and the pelvic region.

Try this: sense into the whole of your rib basket and gently contract the muscles in between and around the ribs. The immediate thing is that your breathing will stop, you can still take some air in and let some out but it wont be a full and free action. Try to have a drink of water or eat a piece of something. Can you smile? 🙂  Can you bend down or turn to look behind? What is walking like? The quality and pleasure of movements will be dramatically reduced, right? Your smile won’t feel so genuine and the drink or food won’t want to go down easily.

We all hold some degree of constant contraction in these muscles, because we need to so we don’t just collapse.
The question is, are we holding more or less than is necessary? 

The Spine, our backbone, a beautiful set of 26 vertebrae (or 33 if we count the fused ones of the sacrum and tailbone) creating a wonderful S shape column, connecting the skull and the pelvis. Enclosed in the vertebral column is the spinal cord making up the central nervous system with the brain. The vertebrae fit and join together so amazingly that they  allow a wide range of movements: extension, flexion, side bending, twisting and rotations and various combinations of these. These movements of the spine intimately engage with the ribs. 

Through a couple of Awareness Through Movement lessons we will be exploring these relationships of ribs and spine, finding the wide range of possibilities they can move. Focusing to work on these areas will have huge overall benefits.
The chest is also a seat of held emotions or painful memories. With this kind of work some emotions can be released or evoked. It is particularly important to work slow and always do less, rest a lot and being kind to ourselves. 

Lessons of the Feldenkrais Method allow time to reflect on and observe the ways we unconsciously learned to move or hold ourselves, creating habits and larger asymmetries. Once you are aware of these habits you can begin to explore different possibilities for movement and a more even distribution of support. 

Cost: £25

Where? 

@ Station Yard Studios

4 Station Yard, Chuley Road, Newton Abbott, TQ13 7EF Ashburton

 

Arrive at least 5-10 min early to settle so we can begin on time at 10.30am.

If it is your first time doing ATM arrive 15 min early for a short introduction. 

What to bring and wear?

There are some mats and blankets in the studio, but bring your own if you like.  Wear warm and comfortable clothes that you can move easily in.

There will be a break in the middle for tea, chat and snack. We will finish at 1.30pm.

Book your place now.

Ps. Be in touch if you have any questions and feel free to spread the word if you think this might benefit someone.

Feldenkrais mini workshop in October – About Balance

 

Feldenkrais – Awareness Through Movement mini workshop
 
About Balance
Saturday 13 October 10.30am – 1pm
@Station Yard Studios, Ashburton

We often talk about balance when it comes to two opposing things: right-left, front-back, top-bottom, mind-heart, activity-rest, sound-silence, work-life …
I see balance as happening all the time, constant adjustments towards a sense of evenness/equilibrium. As if a constant conversation and movement between muscles, joints, brain, emotions and all that is in and around us.
I often hear from people and feel myself being out of balance in some way, weather its physical or mental, something doesn’t feel stable enough. And what I notice is that being out of balance can help us to move towards balance. Not feeling stable is uncomfortable and it calls our attention.
Also being out of balance can feel like falling, because thats what loss of balance results in. A degree of fear/anxiety is instant when the possibility of falling is detected in the system. Part of our nervous system is devoted to protecting us from a fall. This fear/anxiety could be a stiffening, holding of the breath or fast and shallow breathing, tension in the jaw, a kind of stress. Memories of a past fall may have left chronic tension in muscles with emotion attached to it. When these tensions are released some emotions might surface and transform.

In this mini workshop we will explore these ideas of balance and how it can be supported. We will do couple of Awareness Through Movement lessons. I look forward to chat to people about their experiences or ideas about this topic.

Lessons of the Feldenkrais Method allow time to reflect on and observe the ways we unconsciously learned to move or hold ourselves, creating habits and larger asymmetries. Once you are aware of these habits you can begin to explore different possibilities for movement and a more even distribution of support and work.

Cost: £22

What to bring and wear?

Bring your mat and/or blanket. There are mats and blankets available at the studio too. Wear warm and comfortable clothes that you can move easily in. There will be a short break in the middle for a quick tea, bring a snack if you need one.

Arrive at least 5-10 min early to settle so we can begin at 10.30am.
If it is your first time doing ATM arrive 15 min early for a short introduction. 

There is free parking in front of the studio

 4 Station Cottages, Ashburton, TQ13 7EF

Book your place now.

Feet coming alive – 8 April

It is your feet that are closest and most in touch with the ground.

In the cold months we put layers of socks and big boots on to keep them warm and dry and so reduce their intimacy with the ground. As spring approaches those little feet will be more exposed and as if awakening from a winter sleep.

It takes time to get used to walking with less padding under our feet or less support around the ankles.

If our feet and ankles aren’t clever enough (mobile, stable and functionally connected to the rest of ourselves) to be able to adjust to different surfaces of the ground it will affect the knees and hips. When there is pain in the knees and hips we begin to think that there is something wrong with them and we miss looking at a very important part of our legs, the feet!

There are 26 bones in a foot, and their articulation and alignment is crucial for the ability to effortlessly carry our weight.
One of the roles of our feet is to meet the ground forces and transfer them up through the whole body to move us forward, or backwards, or sideways and sometimes up  🙂

If the feet don’t function well (this could mean that they are fixed, too mobile or inactive due to improper use or an injury) there is a tendency to contract and hold or move other parts of ourselves more to make up for the lack of proper function in the feet. This can obviously happen anywhere in the body and mostly on an unconscious level.

There is a lot you can do towards well balanced and supportive feet and a whole body.

With The Feldenkrais Method you can begin to be aware and conscious of the habitual movements and fixations your feet and ankles and the rest of you have developed. Once you start to sense these habits, whether they are contractions, looseness, reduced or extra activity you can begin to find different possibilities for movement and areas of support. When your nervous system has choice it will pick the best option for its needs. When everything is integrated and works together it feels wonderful! When movement feels good we have a sense that we can do anything. Its freeing!

Come along to this workshop where slow and gentle movements with attention will help you find how your feet can support you with the sense of aliveness. It will help with aches, pains or stiffness and they will become more reliable to carry you on the spring adventures.

Cost: £22

What to bring and wear?

Bring your mat and/or blanket. There are mats and blankets available at the studio too. Wear warm and comfortable clothes that you can move easily in.

Where and When?

Station Yard Studios, 4 Station Yard, Chuley Road, TQ13 7EF, Ashburton

Sunday 8 April 11am -1.30 pm 

Book you place now by contacting Judit here.

STRONG LEGS and FREE BREATHING – 4 Nov

Workshop this Saturday 4 Nov! 11 AM – 1.30 PM in Station Yard Studio, Ashburton

This mini workshop will help not just your legs and breathing, but most importantly your  posture! You will explore how your legs from feet up connect to and engage with the pelvis. This relationship of your legs and pelvis will make you feel pretty confident on your feet. Freeing up your breathing creates an uplifting quality of you torso, head and shoulders. Your core will feel like there is Bruce Lee living in it 🙂

It will help release the build up tension in your lower back and engage your centre for support and control.  The gentle and slow movements with attention are relaxing with an energising quality to take with you.

There will be two Awareness Through Movement lessons with a short break in between. The lessons are done lying on the floor. Wear comfortable clothing that you enjoy moving in. Have a few layers and warm socks.

Get in touch to book or for more information. Only a few more places left!

 

Spring Taster and weekly ATM classes!

Taster class on 10 May, Wednesday 10.30am @ The Forge Yoga Centre, Totnes! £6

All welcome to this class, just get in touch to book your place.

The taster will be followed by a 6 week block where we will take a closer look at how we can make everyday activities easier and more comfortable. Elements of walking, standing, sitting and bending down will be our focus. We will explore some ways to make these actions more efficient and pleasant. Spending time to feel and pay close attention to how we initiate, begin and follow through movements will help us learn about ourselves and feel more confident in how we use ourselves.

Block of 6 classes 17May – 21 June, £48. Book your place now!

Get in touch with any questions you might have.

New block of 6 Awareness Through Movement classes!

Come and join us for a curious exploration of yourself in movement. Whether you are completely new to Feldenkrais or you are a well seasoned Feldenkrais mover this movement and awareness practice suits all to bring improvements to everyday life activities. By observing, listening and being open to new possibilities of moving we enhance our adaptability to the ever so changing situations that life brings.

Read more about what Awareness Through Movement is here.

We begin 8 March – this class is the most suitable for people who are new to Feldenkrais and would like to have a taste.

10.30 – 11.45 am on Wednesdays at The Forge.

There is no class on 12 April and the last one is 19 April.

This block will be shared between myself (Judit) and Klaas, who is helping to cover the days that I am not available.

The price for the whole block is £48. Drop ins £10 (when there is space). Please get in touch before you plan to come.

Booking is essential. Get in touch with any questions.

 

Happy Festive Season and 2017 News!

I would like to wish you all a very happy festive season! Hope you will enjoy yourself without any feelings of guilt!

In 2017 we begin the regular ATM classes on the 11 Jan with a Taster in a new venue. The lovely Forge will be our weekly container to explore and learn about ourselves through movement. I am looking forward to teach new lessons with the curious and attentive group that has built up over the past year and welcoming new ones. Many people already confirmed their attendance on the taster so if you are interested book your place as only a few left.

One more thing!

Two WORKSHOPS in January – TORQUAY

14 Jan Saturday 11am – 1.30pm –  Free Your Neck and Shoulders

28 Jan  Saturday 11am – 1.30pm –  Get to know your pelvis and hip joints

The South Devon Pilates Studio will be our host. I look forward to have a helper too – a full size skeleton!  In the workshops you will have a more in depth experience and develop greater awareness of yourself and your movements. Book your place soon!

Lie on the floor often and feel yourself.

With Warm Wishes for the New Year,

Judit