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.
Posted in Emotions, Movement | Also tagged attention, behavior theater, body language, breath, emotion, learning, Movement, pain, posture, ribs, self image, senses |
By Lavinia | Published:
April 25, 2010
Moshe Feldenkrais defined health as the ability to recover from shock. Shock can come in many forms: injury, illness, war, physical trauma, losing a job. I recently got a phone call that my fifty year old brother had been found dead of a heart attack. Even now as I sit here writing this, waves of [...]
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 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 [...]
Posted in Emotions, Movement, Sensation, Thought, Uncategorized, laughter | Also tagged change, choice, happiness, happy, learning, mobility, Robert Pirsig |
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 | Also tagged grace |
By Lavinia | Published:
September 1, 2009
Marcie showed up for a workshop the other day. I was surprised, because she had come to see me the other day after being diagnosed with a herniated disc. Her doctor had recommended a cortisone shot and/or surgery. I’m always really careful when someone shows up in my office with a “diagnosis.” Moshe Feldenkrais often [...]
By Lavinia | Published:
April 2, 2009
I was an extremely clumsy child, the one that always missed the last step coming downstairs.I crashed into the kid in front of me as we marched from the gym to the classroom and executed unintentional pratfalls on sidewalks because invisible obstacles tripped me up. The whole family held its breath as I carried [...]
