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This post from our Future Life Now monthly e-newsletter special edition for April Fools Day.  Enjoy!

- Susan Yurchuck -
 
NOTE:  Susan participants in a combination of private sessions and classes in the Feldenkrais Method and Bones for Life at Feldenkrais Within according to what she feels she needs.
 
Classes are a wonderful and cost effective way for many, many people to heal from injury or invest in their health. If you would like help deciding which class to take–either Bones for Life or Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement–please don’t hesitate to ask.

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Give this a try. Squat down as far as you can (safely) and feel how much effort is involved in getting back up. Do it a couple of times so you can feel the effort. Now, pucker up. That’s right. Show yourself some love and kiss your forearm with a series of smack-er-roos. 
 
After a pause, squat and come back up and feel the decrease in effort.

In the past few years, I have had an increase in clients who are seeking to keep their mind sharp. Some simply express the desire to improve their memory and cognition while others have been diagnosed with dementia.

In current literature the brain is often described as a muscle. There may be a tendency to think of our brain as something we are born with and that’s that. Nothing could be further from the truth. The brain is a complex, organic process which can be enhanced with intentional engagement - or diminished - just like a muscle.

There are two excellent videos on the web from The Mind and Its Potential Conference; I think we would all benefit from listening to them.

The first is: Changing the Brain: Mind Over Matter

This panel discussion amongst diverse scientists is very interesting and extremely accessible. There is excellent information for parents and/or teachers of small children, as well as for aging adults seeking to keep their relationships with others and their minds on a healthy plane.

The second, from the same conference, is: Neuroplasticity: The ‘Use it or Lose it’ Brain.

In this talk, neuroscientist, Michael Valenzuela explains neuroplasticity and how neural pathways work. He goes on to tell us how we can make the most of our brain. Valenzuela won the prestigious Eureka Prize for Medical Research for one of the great scientific breakthroughs of our time: proving that mental exercise reduces the risk of dementia and how that works.

Of particular interest to me - besides his great explanation - are the three most powerful keys for keeping the brain healthy for as long as possible:

Cognitive challenge:  something enjoyable but complex such as learning another language.

Social:  the challenges of engaging in human relations are vital but should also generally involve some physical activity.

Physical exercise:  a general “tonic” for the brain that also decelerates the rate of cognitive decline.

Valenzuela’s own person favorite activity that incorportates all three is Salsa dancing.

In my view, a somatic education approach - such as the Feldenkrais Method or Bones for Life - is an excellent way to engage with the issues (although certainly not the only way).

In any movement, we are feeding the physical self, but by engaging in unique, brain-challenging movements we are activating or building the ‘brain muscle.’  I regularly hear from accomplished athletes or dancers that they are quite challenged by our sessions.  This exact same sentiment can be expressed by someone age 70 who is struggling to maintain daily functions. What is perhaps unique about a somatic approach is that the content of sessions can be different for different people, but not always. In a class, participants fit into a wide continuum of functional capacity and yet sometimes the most challenged person in the room is the athlete. 

An analogy I often use is that participating in a Feldenkrais Method class is like learning another language and perhaps even another culture. In reality it is learning about yourself which can surprising feel like a foreign land. To what end? To the end of increasing your brain muscle which in turn can help you physically, spiritually and emotionally. 

The world of who you are is a vast uncharted territory, but as your awareness grows its impact is amazing. I will wrap up with a quote from Einstein which I have used before and that is also used by Valenzuela in his talk.  It is worth repeating:

”The most beautiful thing that we can experience is the mysterious.It is the source of all true art and all science.
 
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
 
Oh yes, consider taking some time to watch the videos.  I believe you will be pleased.

Cynthia Allen, January 8, 2010

One of my first break-throughs was when I finally understood how to move up and down without arching my back. I don’t remember the lesson or how we were moving up and down except that I think we were doing it on one foot and balancing against the wall. Cynthia stopped me for a moment during the lesson to show me with her hands on my back how not to arch. It only took a moment and she went on with the lesson but suddenly I was really able to recognize the difference between arching my back and not arching my back while moving up and down.  It was a powerful experience.
 
That was the beginning of becoming far more aware of my body and how I was moving. Bones for Life and Awareness through Movement classes keep enlarging that awareness and understanding.  Coupled with several private sessions with Cynthia, I have experienced several more break-throughs in understanding about how to walk, sit, and stand in a healthy way. 
 
It has not all been smooth sailing.  Many years of old and destructive habits are challenging to overcome. Stress puts me right back in the old habits and sometimes it’s difficult to reconnect with healthier movement. I get discouraged but I also know that what I am learning is important and if I keep working at it, it will get easier to return to my “sweet spot” and to stay with it for longer periods of time.”

Edith Starbuck

Watch the short video

Got to love this. A Good Morning America reporter showed up for High Heel Boot Camp at the Feldenkrais Institute in New York City and then by golly she got Feldenkrais on the show.

While high heels are not “high” on my list of healthy daily walking apparel, a somatic approach can do wonders for walking with balance and health even in stilettos.

Bones for Life^® is chalked full of movement processes such a Roman Sandals and the Water Carrier’s Walk series that gradually train the rebalancing of weight between the toes and the heels. This is good for anyone, but also for someone going out on the town at night in spiky, red shoes.

Using Feldenkrais^® Awareness Through Movement^® there are great possibilities in freeing the hip joints, low back and neck as well as learning to balance without extending or flexing in any of these areas inappropriately.

In our Integral Human Gait™ program, we use variations on tandem walking to train the counter rotation of the torso. We also have some easy-to-learn Functional Somatic Mobilization exercises that can be used daily to counter act the shortening of the calf muscle and hamstrings.  Remember that the reporter said the worst moment of the day for her was when she got out of bed in the morning and tried to put her feet on the floor?  Wearing high heels day-in and day-out actually changes muscle length.

If you are a young woman reading this, start looking at older women’s feet. You will find many life-long high heel wearers have foot deformation, and it isn’t pretty either in looks or how it feels. 

Ask and you will often find they have a lot of complaints about their feet hurting all the time. Some will have a diagnosis, others not. But how we walk and the footwear we use does make a difference. The best time to change a pattern is always going to be when one is younger. Consider learning to walk in high heels effectively. Vary your foot wear daily–including going barefoot at least around the house. Too much of anything has consequences. We did not come out of the garden in shoes and this was not because the creator forgot them.

If you are already at the point of regular pain (for some people their pain is more noticeable in the low back and neck), there is still hope!! 

• Start playing around with your footwear. 
• Stimulate your bare feet by standing on different textures and uneven surfaces: something squishy, something pebblely, or even rough. Your foot was made to adjust to uneven and even unfriendly terrain. Restoration of this adjustment capacity can reawaken not only the tissues and bones of the foot but the entire body.
• Schedule an appointment with a practitioner such as myself.  In a short amount of time, you can learn some items you can use at home.
• Attend Awareness Through Movement^® or Bones for Life^® classes.

If you start a home-based program without assistance from a somatic movement expert, the most important thing is to go very slowly. For example, if you always wear shoes, even around the house, don’t immediately start going without shoes an hour at a time. Work into it gradually to avoid setting off other problems

Another example would be if you get out of bed in the morning and your heels can’t reach the ground. Start moving in bed before you hop out.  Make small movements of toe pointing and then heel pointing–nothing strenuous, just a little hello. Then circle each foot a couple of times under the covers. When you rise from the bed, stand first with your heels on a towel folded a couple of times. Then gradually remove the padding.  All this will only take 5 minutes and give your muscles the time  needed to make a less injury prone change.

I hope you will enjoy exploring the option of wearing heels when you want but also to hike and bike and sit around without shoes and think how pretty your feet are even when you are 80.

 Famous dance and choreographer Martha Graham told a struggling Agnes De Mille.

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all Time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.

 ”The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine: how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions.

“It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.

“Keep the channel open … no artist is pleased…there is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

While Graham’s inspiration was directed towards DeMille as an artist, I posit that to live life is an art.

A life of meaning is not lived for the viewing pleasure of others but lived from within. Lived from this place, others are touched, challenged and encouraged by your exploration of purpose and instinctual composition.
For me,  today, I am taking away this particular pearl from the above.
“You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.”

Martha-the Life and Work of Martha Graham by Agness De Mille

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With the longest running ever presidential campaign, it is easy to lapse into a place of disinterest even amidst the historic nature. Some people are so very tired of it. Others indicate they don’t plan to vote at all. To that end, in these last few days before the presidential election, perhaps you can catch some passion from me.

I believe this is one of those rare transformational moments where a nation (or an individual) can choose to be passive or actively leap. Leap where? UP! Such leaps require going for it, despite fear or malaise.

To leap, first we choose to vote.
To leap, we choose to become real about what a President can and can’t do.
To leap, we choose to examine the contrasts between candidates
To leap, we choose to overcome our disbelief and ask “What if? What if….my choice can make a difference?”

To leap, first we choose to vote
Earlier in my life, I too didn’t vote. Like a friend recently shared, “What is the point? Neither candidate seems likely to make much change. The entire political process is corrupt. How could my vote make a difference?” Alas, I still think the political process is full of holes, perhaps corrupt and certainly extremely unwieldy. Yet, it is our American process. So what the heck!