By Lavinia | Published:
May 20, 2010
A frozen rib cage interferes with freedom of expression. After all, even an exhale is an “expression” of air! In theater there is a saying, “The chest does not lie.” This statement infers that your true emotional state is reflected in the carriage of your chest. Unconsciously, we are both communicating as well as reading others’ emotions in sometimes subtle, but sometimes large shifts in the chest. For the last 200 years, science and medicine insisted that the organs in the torso are merely mechanical devices; pumps and bellows that keep the human machine running. The idea that emotional life is somehow connected to these physiological functions was ridiculed. And yet, we would talk about someone walking around with his chest “puffed up.” Or having a “gut feeling.” Neurotransmitters have been found in the stomach indicating that a “gut feeling” may be a kind of intelligence that informs the thinking brain.
Also posted in Emotions | Tagged attention, behavior theater, body language, breath, emotion, feldenkrais, learning, Movement, pain, posture, ribs, self image, senses |
By Lavinia | Published:
February 28, 2010
This past December after one of the many North Carolina snowstorms, we had no power for four days. No phone, no water, no light. No computer, no TV. It was hard to read by candlelight. So I decided to do something I’d been avoiding since the New Age Movement began. I was going to make [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
January 10, 2010
We’re a culture in love with super powers, or rather the idea of super powers. Whether it’s superheroes battling evil forces, aliens from a superior civilization or our own fantastic imaginations, there is a longing to go beyond our perceived limitations. I remember a particular episode of NPR’s program, This American Life where people [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
December 16, 2009
We’re told that one of the reasons for all of our holiday rituals stems from early humanity’s anxiety that the sun would never return. The Solstice celebrated the relief at the return of the light. While we no longer worry about whether spring will indeed follow winter, human existence is still a dance with [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
November 25, 2009
Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you still have a computer, you’re not sitting out on the street, and more than likely, you will eat at least one meal today. Somehow, in spite of Bernard Madoff, Goldman Sachs, Washington Mutual, AIG, all the doom and gloom, all the betrayals and disappointments, we’re still standing (and sitting, [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
October 28, 2009
A few years ago, I got one of those amazing viruses that totally incapacitate you for twenty four hours. At a certain point, my fever must have gone through the roof. I began to babble (unfortunately I was alone, so no one took notes of what channeled wisdom from the astral plane I [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
October 26, 2009
Here is an interesting post by Bruce Zeines from the Brooklyn Free School on body language.
Posted in Brooklyn Free School by bzeines on October 23, 2009
We do not have a legitimate television in our home. That is not to say that media does not get to us here—it does. But it reaches us through Netflix or [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
October 7, 2009
For a month, I kept banging my head. Unintentionally, or so it seemed. Suddenly everywhere I turned, I encountered a barrier. Obstacles leapt in to connect with my forehead, my temple, the top of my skull.
Cursing, but pushing on, I walked into more doors. I hit my head on the car door frame more [...]
Also posted in Emotions, Sensation, Thought, Uncategorized, laughter | Tagged change, choice, feldenkrais, happiness, happy, learning, mobility, Robert Pirsig |
By Lavinia | Published:
September 20, 2009
The other day, I was in my garden picking tomatoes when something arrested my foot, a glimmer of unaccustomed yellow in the mulch. Just beneath the sole of my foot sat a turtle, frozen, trying to appear invisible next to a fallen tomato with a tell tale bite. “Hmmm. How long have you been sitting [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
September 7, 2009
Josie is poised, unmoving, as she focuses her gaze. Her intention is clear. She moves through the grass like a slow motion film, periodically freezing, one paw in the air. Then in a blur of fur, she runs, leaps and the unfortunate vole that I couldn’t even see is history. Cats don’t struggle with self- [...]
Posted in Movement | Tagged feldenkrais, grace |
