by Lavinia Plonka | Jun 1, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter, Movement as Medicine
Last night, one of the raccoons that have taken up residence under my shed discovered the cat door. What had previously been a lovable pack of rascals had now become a potentially harmful intruder. I try to live in harmony with nature’s insistence on introducing...
by Lavinia Plonka | Aug 9, 2022 | Kinesa Newsletter, Movement as Medicine |
I bent down to pick up a sock and felt my lower back totally seize up. “Oh no, oh no! Not when I’m in the middle of teaching a series on the lower back!” As if in some way, fate had decided to mock my conviction that movement is the solution to everything and I am...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jan 31, 2022 | Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body
What the world needs now Is love, sweet love. That’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. — Jackie De Shannon I remind myself daily of my incredible good fortune to live in a time when I don’t have to fear the Mongol hordes putting us to the sword, or...
by Lavinia Plonka | Oct 6, 2021 | Movement and The Spirit, Movement as Medicine
My Web of Habits (And My Arachnid Teacher) In the Academy Award winning film, My Octopus Teacher, naturalist Craig Foster develops a deep relationship with a talented octopus who teaches him life lessons in her brief year on earth. The film has had such an impact on...
by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 1, 2021 | Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body
Are You Happy Yet? I’ve often wondered whether the founding fathers of this country laid some esoteric curse on its citizens when they declared our right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What did they have in mind by making it a...
by Lavinia Plonka | Dec 26, 2019 | Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
I got in the car and reached for the key in the ignition. Except there was no key. This car, which I’ve had over three years, has a keyless remote. You simply push the bright blue button on the dash and voila! you are engaged. But my hand had decided to enact an...
by Lavinia Plonka | Nov 12, 2019 | Movement as Medicine, The Feldenkrais Method®
In the first dream, I find myself onstage in a jazz club. The other musicians are taking their places and I am frozen. I don’t belong here. I’m not a jazz musician. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be playing. I look at the only unoccupied instrument, which looks...
by Lavinia Plonka | Aug 11, 2019 | Body Language, Movement as Medicine, The Feldenkrais Method®
During my tween days, when it seemed like I didn’t have a friend in the world, my mother would say to me, “It doesn’t matter whether people like you. What’s important is that they respect you.” Webster’s defines respect as “a...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jul 4, 2019 | Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
I’m old enough to actually have had this kind of phone in my house. When it rang, the entire family would jump. We never knew if it was good news or bad news, but it was most certainly news. We didn’t know that that odd feeling we had when someone yelled...
by Lavinia Plonka | Apr 7, 2019 | Movement as Medicine, The Feldenkrais Method®
I should have been working on the book chapter that was coming due. Or finishing up that talk I have to give in a few days. Or at least doing some free writing to give voice to the thousands of ideas in my head. Instead, I was on my knees in the dirt, battling crown...
by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 14, 2018 | Movement as Medicine, The Feldenkrais Method®
So after years of teaching, practicing, writing, and researching, I finally have put together a page dedicated to one of my favorite subjects: Falling. And getting up. You’ll find statistics, stories, products, my Ted Talk and more. And just when I finally...
by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 2, 2018 | Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
If At First You Don’t Succeed… “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp Or what’s a heaven for?” Robert Browning How can I realize my dreams without trying? Feldenkrais often exhorted his students, “Try not to...
