Meaningful Movement and Neuroplasticity

Over the years I have come across situations where I taught my clients different movement patterns as a supposedly better alternative to their habitual movement patterns, somehow those new movement patterns never stuck to them.  One day out of blue they started adapting and using the new movement patterns automatically.  I always wondered why that might have occurred.  I wondered if they didn't do their "homework," so they didn't adapt.

One day I was playing with my 7 month old son.  He could roll over pretty well, but couldn't still pull himself forward on the floor, so I put a few toys on the floor, thinking he would try to reach for them and maybe would pull himself forward.  He didn't care enough to even attempt to reach.  Then, he started crying because he was getting hungry.  So I went to grab a bottle and he was staring at the bottle with such excitement.  As soon as I put the bottle on the floor, he quickly rolled over and started pulling himself forward so desperately.  He just learned army crawl!  Just like his father, he LOVES FOOD.  Food is very important for him, more than anything it seems.  Food draws 100% of his nervous system's attention.  His nervous system organizes movement patterns to allow him to accomplish his goal, that is to get to food and eat.  

That's made me think about my clients who adapt to new patterns fast and those who don't.  I think this has a lot to do with whether those movement patterns are perceived as meaningful and salient by the nervous system.  When I say nervous system, I'm talking about what's happening at subconscious level.  I think this is why changing habits is so difficult as it requires a shift at subconscious level, or very strong will power.  And, this is why it's so important to think about functional contexts and meaning around particular movements you're practicing, not just repeating the same movement mindlessly.  

Creativity and Movement Habits

What does creativity have to do with movement habits?

Before I start discussing this topic, let's look at definition of the words "creativity" and "habit"

Creativity: "The ability to make new things or think of new ideas."  (merriam-webster.com)

Habit:  "A usual way of behaving; something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way."  (merriam-webster.com)

Do you see any relationships between two words?  I define creativity as the ability to do something you already know in a different way.  When it comes to movement, there are infinite ways of moving and many ways to get to the same point.  Movement habits "hide" all other possibilities and make them invisible as if such movement options don't exist.  Therefore, we repeat the same movement patterns over and over, which could potentially create some problems.  Creativity in relation to movement habits is about finding all those "hidden" movement options.  The process of finding new ways of moving will require you to get out of your habitual way of moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking, or you will not find them.  

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons are precisely structured to help you discover new ways of moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking.  As a result of this process, you will become more creative and will be ably to act more freely.

Check out my Awareness Through Movement Class to enhance your creativity!

Balance

I truly believe in a holistic health/wellness approach.  Healthy eating habits, healthy sleeping habits, healthy exercise habits, and healthy social life.  I think it's all about balance.  Too much of good food or too much exercise can be a bad thing, just as too little of those things can be a bad thing as well.  You can't be healthy physically if your mind is not healthy.  

There is an old Japanese saying: "Yamaiwa kikara," meaning illness starts in the mind.  I've started to understand what this means from a physiological standpoint.  I often see people who eat just healthy food and avoid eating any "bad" food, and exercise regularly yet they often get sick.  One thing I've noticed that those people tend to have a lot of stress in their life (work, family, etc).  

There's autonomic nervous system which consists of parasympathetic nervous system and sympathetic nervous system.  When we're stressed, parasympathetic nervous system slows down and sympathetic nervous system becomes more active.  So they have a yin and yang relationship.  When that happens, our digestive system slows down, heart rate and breathing rate go up, immune system slows down.  The nervous system is now in "fight/flight" mode. This physiological response prepares us for emergency situations.  During those situations, digesting food isn't a priority.  Mobilizing muscles so we can fight or flight is a priority.  This is a very good thing.  However, when someone is chronically stressed, there's a serious problem. Now autonomic nervous system is out of balance.  Immune system and digestive system become suppressed.  When someone is in this state, no matter how well he/she eats, he/she can't get much nutrition out of food.  And, they're much more prone to illnesses due to suppressed immune system.  Changes in physical state often reflect changes in psychological state.  In Aikido, they say physical body is an extension of mental state.

When our body and mind are out of balance and start to act separately, then we start to develop all sorts of problems.  This is why I believe in a holistic health/wellness approach. Mindful movement practice such as Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, Aikido, Yoga, etc is a wonderful way to keep our body and mind in balance.

Movement, Kinesthetic Awareness, and Pain

This blog post is related to my previous posts: "Chronic pain: The Vicious Cycle" and "Kinesthetic Awareness: Road Map for Movement."  In this post, I will talk about relationships between movement, kinesthetic awareness, and pain.

I discussed how movement clarifies "body maps" and kinesthetic awareness, and lack of movement has the opposite effect.  Pain usually discourages people to move.  When people experience pain chronically, they start to avoid movement, called fear avoidance of movement. Decreased movement due to pain will then decrease kinesthetic awareness.  Research shows that decreased kinesthetic awareness is correlated with increased pain as decreased kinesthetic can be perceived as a threat by the nervous system.  My own understanding is that moving with poor kinesthetic awareness is like walking in a dark room (maybe a hotel room that I stay for the first time) without a flashlight.  I would feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and anxious.  All these feelings can be perceived as a threat.  As I discussed in the previous blog (Chronic pain), the brain produces pain when it perceives a thread to the system.  It does make sense why decreased kinesthetic awareness is corrected with increased pain.  Then, increased pain further discourages movement, and so forth.  

To break this cycle, here's what needs to happen:  

- Understand pain

- Move with attention (attention is a key to improving kinesthetic awareness)

- Gradually increase movement to desensitize the nervous system and increase tissue tolerance

Sounds simple enough?  Please keep in mind that  it takes time for the nervous system to rewire itself, but the nervous system DOES CHANGE!

Chronic Pain: The Vicious Cycle

If you or someone you know are dealing with chronic pain, please read this blog post and share it with other people.  

I've worked with and know many people with chronic pain and their quality of life is negatively affected by pain.  Most of them have tried many things (pain meds, injections, chiro, acupuncture, PT, massage, Yoga, you name it).  Each helped to a certain degree but only for a short period of time.  None resolved their pain.  They were given so many different diagnoses by different health care professionals.  Each time they saw a new healthcare provider, they were given a new diagnosis, and they became more confused about what's going on and they gradually became fearful of movement as they were afraid of causing more damage.  They were in a vicious pain cycle.

This scenario is actually very common in people with chronic pain.  Unfortunately, not all healthcare providers have a good understanding of current pain science.  Since there's a plenty of great resources available, I will not go into details about pain science.  A short video below helps you understand pain.

Why is it important to understand pain?  One of the most common misconception about pain is that pain = tissue damage, and pain is telling our brain that there's a damage.  However, this is not true.  The brain produces pain only when it perceives a threat to the system regardless of tissue damage.  This is why phantom pain, perceptions that an individual experiences related to a limb or organ that is not physically part of the body,  exists.  

In people with chronic pain, their nervous system has become so sensitive that it can perceive even normal stimuli as a threat, thus produce pain easily.  Their pain experience is due to sensitive nervous system, not tissue damage.  In order to get them out of pain cycle, they first need to understand the mechanism of pain.  As long as they still believe that pain = tissue damage, the nervous system continues to stay sensitive and react to movement easily by producing pain. Knowledge is a very powerful therapy that can rewire the brain.  When cognition and understanding about pain change, the nervous system starts to become less sensitized and will not perceive normal stimuli as a threat. Movement is absolutely necessary for recovery, but as long as the brain still perceives movement as a threat, you will continue to experience pain.  This is very important  for me as a movement educator/therapist.  Many clients are dealing with chronic pain, thus, I am very careful about how I use my words as words can influence their cognition/beliefs, which can have either positive or negative effects on the nervous system.  For example, if I frequently use negative words like "broken," "weak," "torn," "out of alignment," etc, then they become more anxious, worried, fearful, and confused, which is perceived as a threat by the nervous system.  The result:  PAIN!  The opposite is also true.  I certainly try to use words to help my clients get out of the vicious cycle of pain.  

Power of Imagination on Rehabilitation and Performance Training

Now imagine yourself on a peaceful beach, relaxing and enjoying a drink.  Next imagine yourself being chased by a police car for whatever reasons.  

Have you noticed any changes in muscle tone and breathing?  Imagining actions involves the brain activities  which will produce physiological changes such as changes in heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, etc.  Try this:  Close your eyes and imagine moving your right big toe up and down without actually moving your big toe.  Notice whether you moved your eyes toward your right big toe.  Even though you didn't move your right big toe, your brain planned a motor action the same was it would to actually move it.  In a way, imagining to doing movements is not that much different from actually doing the movements as far as brain activities are concerned.  

The power of imagination has practical applications.  People with chronic pain typically have sensitized nervous system, which means it has a lower threshold for pain, and more easily produce pain.  In those people, pain is often associated with movement.  The brain can produce pain experience regardless of any actual tissue damage, which is commonly the case for people with chronic pain.  In fact, in more serious cases just imagining to do certain movements associated with pain can actually produce pain even without any movements. However, imagining to do those movements can be used therapeutically to desensitize the nervous system and start to dissociate pain with those particular movements.  Over time as the nervous system becomes less sensitized, a pain threshold will increase, allowing them to move more.  This is one strategy used to get people out of chronic pain cycle.  Very useful.  

The power of imagination is also helpful to improve physical skills.  In fact, many performance artists, martial artists, and athletes utilize this strategy.  I also use this strategy quite often to practice Aikido or sports.  It's also used in the Feldenkrais Method to enhance learning.  From my own experience, I must tell you that it really works.  It's sometimes more effective than actually doing movements.  Next time you practice some skills, try doing whatever movements you're practicing just in your imagination.  See if it helps you learn faster.

What does corrective exercise have to do with authentic movements?

Autenticity:  "The quality of being real or true" (www.dictionary.cambridge.org).

What do being authentic and acting authentically mean to you??  As I'm working with clients, they frequently ask me things like: "am I doing this movement correctly?  How am I doing?"  My response is usually this:  "what do you think?  Why don't you tell how you feel you are doing?" Then, many say "I don't know.  You tell me because you are an expert."  

Why do you care how you move?  How do you know you're moving or sitting incorrectly?  Is it because some experts told you so??  No one can feel your body except you.  No one can tell whether one movement is comfortable for you or not.  Just because one particular movement feels good for one person, that doesn't mean the same movement would feel great for everyone.  We are all different and unique.

"The general tendency toward social improvement in our day has led directly to a disregard, rising to neglect, for the human material of which society is built.  The fault lies not in the goal itself but in the fact that individuals, rightly or wrongly, tend to identify their self-images with their value to society.  Like a man trying to force a square peg into peculiarities by alienating himself from his inherent needs.  He strains to fit himself into the round hole that he now actively desires to fill, for if he fails in this, his value will be so diminished in his own eyes as to discourage further initiative." - Moshe Feldenkrais

We tend to act in accordance with our society and act to satisfy society's needs.  As we start to do that, we start to lose spontaneity and authenticity.  This is why we get so uncomfortable when someone doesn't us how we're doing, whether we're doing things correctly or not.  We become anxious because we tend to identify our self-images with our value to society.

This is one of the several reasons why I don't advocate a corrective exercise approach.  In my opinion, a corrective exercise approach only reinforces the same mindset and robs authenticity and spontaneity.  Next time you exercise or do any movement practice, pay attention to how you feel.  Play with movements.  Try to move a little differently each time and notice how a slight change in movement changes how your body feels.  You will know what feels good or bad.  If it feels good, then that's probably a correct movement for you.  When you start to move more authentically and naturally, you will start to express yourself more authentically as well.  It feels good to be authentic!

Parkinson's Disease and Sensory/Motor Awareness

I'm not going to discuss pathophysiology of Parkinson's Disease (PD) in details here, but I'd like to share my experience of working with people with PD.  

Bradykinesia (slow movement) and Akinesia (muscle rigidity) are common motor symptoms of the disease.  The disease slowly affects movement quality and posture over time.  As people start to move more slowly with smaller range of motion, the nervous system starts to adjust its sensory awareness/perception as the movement changes.  Because this change continues gradually, people may not notice such change, even though it may be apparent to other people's eyes. What will happen is that their sensory awareness becomes so distorted that they perceive their abnormally slow and small movements as being "normal."  When they see other people moving at their regular speed, they don't perceive them as moving faster with larger range of motion than they are.  It's like a thermostat that is off.

PD is often considered as a movement disorder, but to be more precise and accurate, it is a sensory-motor disorder.  Movement and sensation are constantly influencing each other and being updated in the brain.  Areas that you don't use much tend to have poor sensory awareness.  Areas that you use very frequently tend to have good sensory awareness.  How accurately can you sense specific parts of your low back without touching and seeing?  How accurately can you sense your individual fingers?  It's much more clear to sense your fingers, correct?  This is very important when working with people with PD because without changing their sensory-motor awareness/perception (calibrating their thermostat), they are much less likely to change their movement quality because their inaccurate perception tells them they are moving just "normal."

Breathing Quality and Movement Quality

Breathing has always been considered as an important aspect of movements in most martial arts as well as Yoga, Zen meditation, Feldenkrais Method, and more.  The importance of breathing has been emphasized in today's orthopedic physical therapy and fitness training as well.  As I started studying Feldenkrais Method, I've started paying much more attention to breathing while I'm moving as well as observing my clients moving.  I've realized that the state of breathing and the quality of breathing can tell you a lot about the quality of movement.  Breathing changes according to the state of the nervous system.  Stress changes breathing.  Just imagine that you are about to propose your girlfriend for marriage.  Or imagine that a spider (if you hate spiders) suddenly falling in front of your face from the ceiling.  Did that change your breathing??  When the nervous system perceives fear/anxiety, it affects breathing. Unfamiliar movements and movements related to past physical trauma can often induce fear/anxiety to the nervous system even though you may not be aware of that.  Thus, when you learn a new movement/skill (unfamiliar), your breathing is likely to change (mostly likely holding a breath) to a certain degree.  The more unfamiliar and complex a movement is, the more likely breathing will be affected.  For this reason as a movement educator, I always observe my clients' breathing quality as it is one of the most important movement qualities. Interestingly enough, you can influence movement quality by changing breathing quality.  Try filling up your lunges with air and hold your breath while rotating your body.  Note how far you can turn your body.  Next try exhaling slowly while turning your body.  Notice how far you can turn your body this time.  Any difference?  You'll be amazed how much you can improve your movement quality by improving your breathing quality.  Check out Awareness Through Movement classes and Movement Re-education sessions to improve your breathing and movement quality. 

Kinesthetic Awareness: Road Map for Movement

Our brain has "maps" that represent parts of our body for movement and sensation.  These brain maps are constantly updated when we move our bodies.  The parts that tend to be used more frequently have a larger representation on the brain maps.  Maps are also unique for each individual.  For example, pianists have much larger representation of fingers than most people. Likewise the parts that are not often used have smaller representation.

So what does that mean?  It means that movement clarifies brain maps.  Updated and accurate body maps mean good kinesthetic awareness.  The body parts that have smaller representation on the maps tend to have less clear sensation.  It's hard to feel/sense those parts.  How clearly can you sense your low back one vertebrae by one vertebrae vs individual fingers, with your eyes closed?  For most people, sensation on low back is not that clear.  

Our brain relies on these maps for movement.  If your brain maps are outdated and inaccurate, what you're actually doing may be very different from what you think you're doing.  Every time I have my clients notice such mismatch between actuality and their thought, they are so amazed.  Most people cannot feel/sense the shape of their spine accurately.  Sometimes they sense the opposite of what they are actually doing.  For example, when I ask people whether their lumbar spine is arched or rounded, they tell me that it's rounded when it's actually arched.  Try this:  "Close your eyes and raise your shoulders out to side to shoulder height so your arms are parallel to the floor.  Open your eyes to confirm whether your perception was accurate or not."  

This is why I focus on improving client's kinesthetic awareness so movement becomes more precise.  Don't you want to have an accurate road map or updated GPS when you go on a road trip??  In both Awareness Through Movement classes and one-on on movement re-education sessions, I draw your attention to various parts of your body while you're engaged in movements.  This process clarifies your body maps so actuality and what you're doing become much much closer.  As Moshe Feldenkrais said, "If you know what you're doing, you can do what you want."  

Learning takes time

As a  movement educator/therapist, I would like to learn new movement patterns quickly and would like my clients to achieve that quickly as well.  However, watching my 6 month old son grow and change everyday always reminds me that learning takes a lot of time.  Learning involves lots of trials and errors.  I never knew that newborn babies have to learn how to latch onto mother's breast.  I thought they are born with that skill wired in.  I was wrong.  My son struggled to do that for about a month.  We all got so frustrated because we were doing out best (although I wasn't much help).  We saw lactation specialists several times, read books, watched DVDs, asked friends, and tried everything people suggested.  Still no luck..  My wife almost gave up after a month of struggles.  However, one day a miracle happened.  My son successfully latched on and he had a full meal for the first time.  That was a big day for all of us.  Ever since he had no trouble.  I don't know exactly what happened to my son that one day, but everything must have come together at the right moment.  Maybe he just learned to organize the movements of mouth, jaw, and tongue.  Maybe he found a perfect position. Maybe it was just the right time for him.  Whatever it was, I learned that learning is unpredictable, non-linear, and needs a plenty of time and experimentation.  This was a really good lesson for me as a parent as well as a movement educator.  It's good to encourage my clients to explore lots of movements and make mistakes and learn.  And it's important to remind people that it's okay to make mistakes and sometimes take a step back because that's how learning takes place.  

Awareness Through Movement classes are designed to provide such learning opportunities.  

Parkinson's Disease and Early Intervention

I've started working with clients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) recently after I went to a LSVT BIG® certification course.  I was very surprised that only a few physicians refer their Parkinson's patients to exercise programs at early stage of disease.  Many physicians wait until patients' symptoms get much worse and their functions are apparently affected.  Although PD is progressive in nature, research has shown that early intervention can slow the progression of the disease or even reverse it.  Specific exercise program is beneficial at any stage, however, the outcomes are much more promising when it's initiated at very early stage.  

I've worked with people with PD of various stages, and I've seen huge improvements even in people with late stage PD.  One gentleman I worked with was initially wheelchair bound and was not able to stand from wheelchair without someone's assistance and not able to ambulate. After working with him for about 6 weeks, he was able to stand from wheelchair without any assistance, and able to walk with a walker.  This was a big deal for him who couldn't do these things for a long time and never imagined that he would be able to do these things again.  Not only the exercise program helped him to improve his functions, but improved his quality of life so much.  He was quite depressed and didn't have much motivation to do anything when I first saw him, but by the end, he was a completely different person.  

I'm hoping that more people with PD start hearing about benefits of early exercise program and initiate a program as soon as a diagnosis was made, and more physicians become aware of this.    

Awareness Through Movement®

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) consists of verbally directed movement sequences presented primarily to groups.  In ATM lessons, people engage in precisely structured movement exploration that involve, thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining.  Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities.  Some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships.  The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity.  (www.feldenkrais.com)

One of many things the Feldenkrais Method emphasizes is to improve awareness by helping people become aware of their habits as well as new ways of moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking while you're engaged in various movements, thus the name Awareness Through Movement.  I will share one of my favorite quotes from my Feldenkrais trainer:

"Habits are bricks. Repetition is the cement between the bricks. The more repetition of habit, the more solid the wall.  If you keep repeating the habit, it becomes solidified causing pain, rigidity, depression, etc.  Awareness creates doors and windows in which you can move over, under or thru that blockage."

Awareness Through Movement lessons are designed to create those doors and windows and guide you discover and open them.  When you those doors and windows, whole new possibilities start emerging.  You will discover a lot more than more efficient movements, more comfort, reduced pain.  Words are just words, and can't give you such kinesthetic experience. The only way to truly understand the effects of this work is to actually experience it.  I encourage you to check out local Awareness Through Movement classes.  Please also check out my classes in Everett, WA.   

Attachment and Pain

A few years back I went to a Russel Delman's workshop called "The Embodied Life."  He is a well known Feldenkrais teacher as well as a Zen medication teacher.  One thing I learned from the workshop has stuck to me even today is that attachment is the source of our sufferings. What this means is that when our mind gets stuck in the past or the future, we're not living in the moment and start thinking about all sorts of things that could hurt you.  For example, a man who was once a star football player sustained a career ending injury that caused him to live with wheelchair for the rest of his life.  He who still identifies him self as a star football player cannot acknowledge who he is now.  He's depressed because he's lost his identity.  His mind is attached to his past.  He's psychologically hurt and will continue to feel this pain until he accepts the fact that he's not a football player now and accepts who he is, which means his mind is no longer stuck in the past.

When it comes to physical pain, this attachment or association happens.  Let's say you hurt your back when you bend over to pick up something from the floor.  Your nervous system recorded such an event.  Your back has healed after a little while and you can bend over again without any pain but are conscious of the trauma.  Several months later you hurt your back again doing the same movement.  Your nervous system now made a note that bending over movement hurt your back and attached/associated these two things (bending over movement=pain).  Even after a while your back pain is easily triggered by simple bending over movement though your back has healed just fine.  This is actually fairly common.  I was working with one lady who had multiple shoulder surgeries, and she couldn't do hardly anything with one arm because of pain.  Everything hurt.  I was explaining about one shoulder movement and she suddenly screamed and said that as soon as she imagined doing that movement her pain level jumped.  Her nervous system attached/associated any arm movements with pain so well and became so sensitized that imagining doing arm movements was enough to trigger pain.  I had her imagine arm movement several times, and that consistently increased her pain.

 Pretty interesting stuff, isn't it?  The brain is so powerful.  To reverse this process, which unfortunately takes longer, you have to teach your nervous system to detach/disassociate these two.  One way of doing this is to create new options for movement.  In new movement options the nervous system hasn't made any attachment/association yet, so you'll have a pretty good chance to move into the position that you wouldn't be able to with the old pathway that the nervous system associated with pain. When the nervous system "sees" that you somehow got to the position without pain, it starts to question the validity of the statement it's made in the past.  This is a very simplistic way of explaining this phenomenon, but I think this is one of the reasons why people with chronic pain have a very good luck with Feldenkrais Method.  It's really helping their nervous system to rewire itself and change how they feel.  Let's learn to let go of your habitual ways of moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking with Awareness Through Movement class and have free choice in your actions.

Movement Matters

Let me share why i care so much about movement.  Just as a side note, the only thing I care just as much, if not more is food.  I can literally talk/think about food all day.  Oh, I didn't forget about my family, of course not.  They are the number 1!  

Anyway, back to the main topic.  I entered a healthcare/fitness profession because I wanted to help people just like most other people.  My goal/mission as a movement educator/therapist is just one simple thing:  To help people become happier.  If my clients are happier at the end of session than when they came, I know I've done something good.  I understand there are many ways to do that, but why movement??  I believe movement is essential to our life. Everything we do has something to do with movement.  When I say movement, I don't mean exercise. Without movement babies would not be able to recognize his own body and how he relates to the world.  Movement is directly related to our life.  We would not be able to eat without moving.  We would not be able to laugh without moving.  We would not be able to cry without moving.  We would not be able to breathe without moving, so we would be dead without movement.  Because it has such a direct influence on our life, it provides an entry point for possibilities for changes, for better or worse.  I definitely try to take an advantage of this entry point to make a positive shift for myself and my clients.  So let's move better, feel better, and live happier!

Self-image and Habits

What is Self-Image?  One of the main objectives in Feldenkrais Method is to improve one's self-image/awareness.  Moshe Feldenkrais said "we act in accordance with our self-image, which consists of sensing, feeling, thinking, and moving."  He thought these 4 aspects of self-image are interrelated, and a change in one aspect would influence the other 3.  He believed that it's necessary to improve self-image/awareness in order to improve human functioning, and the easiest way to do that is by working with movement.  Changes in movement can be easily observed unlike emotion, thought, or sensation.  You'll be asked to observe all 4 aspects of self-image while you're guided through a sequence of movements in Feldenkrais lessons. During this process, you will discover your habits and how movement habits and emotional/intellectual habits are closely related, and when you discover new movement patterns, you will also discover how that will influence your feeling, sensing, and thinking.  You will eventually experience how mind and body are really inseparable.  They are the two sides of the same coin.

 I grew up in Japan where a holistic approach is quite common.  Although western medicine is more common now there, eastern medicine is still practiced.  The idea of mind-body connection is very old.  Yoga, Tai Chi, Zen, Judo, Aikido, and many more share the same idea.  I always believed in this idea, but it was just the idea in my mind as it wasn't tangible.  In a way, mind and body were still separate because it was just the idea (mind) and missing physical experience (body) for me.  After my first experience with Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement class, this idea immediately became real as it provided me kinesthetic experience of such relationship.  Trying to understand and appreciate this relationship without kinesthetic experience is like trying to learn how to ride a bicycle just by reading instructions or listening to someone's instructions without actually riding it.

SLOW DOWN

I have noticed that many people including myself have hard time moving slowly when we exercise. I so often have to remind my clients to slow their movement down many times.  I must admit that I had very very hard time to do that.  It took me a long time to learn that.  

I used to hate walking because it was too slow and boring.  I used to prefer running to walking. In the last few years I've learned the benefits of moving more slowly.  When we move fast, we access movement patterns that have been used many times, called habitual movement patterns.  We use the sub-conscious part of our brain, which responds very fast.  This is useful when we have to move quickly during emergency situations. However, when we're learning new movement patterns, we have to rely on different parts of our brain, conscious part of the brain, which acts much more slowly.  In order to allow us to access this part of the brain, we need to move much much more slowly.  If we move slowly, we won't bypass our sub-conscious part of the brain and inhibit habitual patterns.  This is one of the key principles in my movement re-education.  When someone keeps hurting because of their habitual movement patterns, they need to learn how to move differently.  If they try to move fast when learning to move in a different way, their habitual movement patterns keep interfering.  This is why it's a common practice for Tai Chi and Feldenkrais Method to move very slowly so they can pay attention to how they are moving and they can adjust their movements continuously.  I must tell you that this practice has completely changed the way I move and the way I work with my clients.  I've learned so much about how I move and definitely improved my movement quality.  By the way, the same mechanism applies to thinking, feeling, and sensing.  How we emotionally or intellectually react works much like our movements.  To break your habits, you'll need to SLOW DOWN.

Is Slouching Bad?

I often get asked this question by my clients:  Is slouching bad?  What do you think?  Somehow straight posture is considered ideal, and slouching posture is perceived as bad in out culture.  If you also think straight posture is good and slouching posture is bad, let me ask you why? If we never be allowed to slouch when we sit, we all would be healthier and pain free??  If you think bad posture is related to more pain, literature doesn't seem to agree with you.  We talk about posture a lot, but interestingly enough there's no literature that shows posture is related to pain.  

Let's say straight posture is ideal, so you decide to sit with perfectly straight posture.  How long do you think you can sit still perfectly?  Probably not very long.  After sitting for a long time, what do we do instinctively?  We get up and move, right?  This happens regardless of what position we are in because we're putting pressure on the same places all the time and compromising blood flow to those areas.  Straight posture may provide some advantages from a mechanical standpoint, but if you stay in the same position, you're compromising movement. The same thing for slouching posture.  If you're in the same slouching position, then there's no movement and stress is constantly placed on the same areas, even more in some areas than in straight posture.  Then you have exactly the same problem.  What would be healthier for our body is to create a habit of changing our positions frequently or moving frequently so we're distributing stress more evenly.  For this reason, I really emphasize creating more movement options so we don't get stuck in only one movement pattern.  

 

What is Feldenkrais Method®?

Click HERE for the description of the method by Feldenkrais.com.

You probably still have no idea what Feldenkrais Method is about after reading the description.  Let me share my experience.   About 6 years ago I was getting a bit frustrated at work as patients kept returning to us for similar problems (e.g., shoulder impingement, low back pain, neck pain, patello-femoral knee syndrome, etc).  I thought we did a pretty good job of teaching our patients about how to strengthen/stretch some muscles to solve their problems, yet they returned to us after a year maybe 2 years. I thought I "fixed" the problems by strengthening weak muscles and stretching tight muscles to restore their imbalance, but they apparently didn't get "fixed."   This observation made me very curious as to what's really the root of their problems.   Upon my research I found Feldenkrais Method several times.  The first time I saw the name, I didn't pay much attention.  After having seen the name several times, I had to do more research about it.  I read his books and read some articles, but I still didn't know what it was.  The only thing I knew was it had something to do with changing habits.  I thought habitual way of moving/using ourselves was the root of many problems my patients had.  One day I saw a weekend Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement workshop, and I decided to attend to experience it for myself.  My first experience was "Wow!! I don't feel pain anywhere in my body!!"  I always had some pain but I was so used to having pain that I forgot I had pain until my pain was gone.  I felt much taller and my body felt so much lighter and felt as if the gravity decreased.  The effect after my very first Awareness Through Movement lesson was so profound.  During the lesson I discovered how one body part connected to another body part and how they could work together to decrease stress on one part and distribute it to the whole body.  As a result, it felt so much easier to move.  I also discovered my movement habits, which of course I wasn't aware of until then.  My movement habits just like the majority of other people were such that I wasn't distributing work very well throughout my whole body.  At this moment I knew I found what I have been searching for.  This really allows us to discover the root of many problems (physical as well as psychological) we may be having and also discover new options so we don't get stuck in our habits.  Habits are useful as long as you know they are.  However, habits can sometimes create problems when we are not aware of them.  As Moshe Feldenkrais (the creator of Feldenkrais Method) said, "if you know what you are doing, you can do what you want."  

What is "Good Posture?"

I often get comments from my clients that I have a "perfect posture."  I always ask them what the "perfect posture" means, and many say it's perfectly straight.  So, straight posture=good posture??  From a perspective of Feldenkrais Method it is a place from which you can initiate action in any direction with minimal preparation.  You're basically ready to move any direction from ideal posture.  You're not holding tension and staying rigid.  I think people tend to confuse posture with position.  Position is static.  Posture is dynamic.  Posture is action.  Ideal posture should allow you to move more responsively.  In contrast, if you're rigid and holding yourself as straight as you can, you may appear to have a good posture, but you won't be able to move as quickly.  Not only that, you are straining muscles as you're making a lot of effort to maintain such a state.  Masters of Tai Chi or Aikido all demonstrate great posture if you watch them.  They're ready for actions.  They are not tense.  As a general rule, a good posture should never feel uncomfortable or tiring.  Awareness Through Movement class will give you an experience of what it feels to have "good posture" that feels natural and authentic.