by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 21, 2020 | The Creative Body
I heard that some people don’t know what to do with all the time on their hands during this “stay home, stay safe” period. Others have begun amazing new hobbies or are running around with their hair on fire juggling work from home, homeschooling,...
by Lavinia Plonka | Mar 10, 2020 | Humor/CosmiComedy, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
I bought what I thought would be a cool, new circular hairbrush that I could use with a blowdryer to volumize my hair (just a few decades late to the party.) After a few curls, my hairbrush got stuck. I tugged. I tried to reverse my way out of the tangle, which merely...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jan 29, 2020 | The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
A brilliant Feldenkrais mentor once told me that we must learn to “follow the yes,” to sense where there is resistance and look for what is willing to yield. In his less than successful comedy, The Yes Man, Jim Carrey portrays a man who makes a covenant to...
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 | Oct 8, 2019 | Humor/CosmiComedy, Movement and The Spirit, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
Photo by Ron Morecraft of an installation by Tomas Saracéno from a work by an anonymous spider. For weeks my carport was Charlotte’s lair. The classic orb spider had spun a glorious, monumental web that sometimes verged on over-ambition, attaching silken threads...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jul 13, 2019 | Movement and The Spirit, The Creative Body |
Over the years, one of the things that consistently calls me to contemplation is the relationship of movement, energy, presence and well-being. As more and more “studies” trumpet the importance of movement ( it seems any movement is better than no movement) I find...
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 | Feb 5, 2019 | Humor/CosmiComedy, The Creative Body
I’m feeling ridiculous, standing here, holding a sock filled with cornstarch, tied at the top. A new miracle cure, you ask? Perhaps an esoteric facial treatment endorsed by Gwyneth Paltrow? A fun way to whack your husband? I know I should throw it away, yet I stand...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jan 2, 2019 | Movement and The Spirit, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
At the beginning of a year, most of us want to look ahead, resolutions, wishes and a bit of trepidation. Will I move into the unknown, or repeat myself, stuck in a loop? I have often found a good way to move forward is to actually go backward. Several spiritual...
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...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jul 28, 2018 | The Creative Body
Moshe Feldenkrais said, “I don’t teach movement, I teach learning.” His classes are called Awareness Through Movement. Not “of movement”, not “movement awareness.” I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Stephen...
by Lavinia Plonka | Feb 11, 2018 | Movement and The Spirit, Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
I’m not a fan of what I call “Hallmark holidays” where industry has either manufactured a sentimental responsibility like Mother’s Day or hijacked a tradition. I’m speaking of Valentine’s Day. You can’t get a restaurant reservation. Flowers quadruple in price....