by Lavinia Plonka | Jan 15, 2014 | Body Language, Movement and The Spirit, Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
Power Walk – This is a longer article that explores the power in the pelvic/sacrum area With Open Arms – The symbolism of the cross and our gesture of opening the arms A New Year, A New You – Linking Awareness Through Movement to the myth of Isis and...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jan 15, 2014 | Body Language, The Creative Body
A man once came to see me for Feldenkrais lessons. He had severe pain in his feet and shoulders and had been to countless specialists to no avail. I asked him to walk across the room. He walked like a stick figure, arms and legs stiffly jerking ahead, his torso, head...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jan 5, 2014 | Movement and The Spirit, Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
The Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris is a reminder to me that for all of human history, the notions of being torn apart and coming back together, of destruction and renewal, of endings and new beginnings are always with us. Osiris is killed by his rival Set, his body...
by Lavinia Plonka | Dec 22, 2013 | Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body |
I have fallen in love with a term used in technology: disruptive innovation. According to Wikipedia, it is defined as, “an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few...
by Lavinia Plonka | Dec 19, 2013 | Body Language, Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
As fortune would have it, I’ve been to the beach a few times in the last couple of weeks, walking long distances on sand packed so tight you can ride a bicycle, although most people power walk or jog. Each step leaves a footprint in the sand, just enough to tell the...
by Lavinia Plonka | Dec 4, 2013 | Humor/CosmiComedy, The Creative Body
I look around my home office and realize that almost everything was given to me. Galen gave me the glow in the dark rosary blessed by the Pope. Yael gave me the “hamsa” that hangs over the door, a Middle Eastern guard against the evil eye. The framed photograph of...
by Lavinia Plonka | Nov 17, 2013 | Movement and The Spirit, Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body, The Feldenkrais Method®
Modern science has identified a “God” portion of the brain. This purportedly offers us our near death experience of the white light, angels, celestial music and other things we associate with the afterlife and mystical experience. So how does the body...
by Lavinia Plonka | Oct 21, 2013 | Body Language, The Creative Body
It seems so obvious, and yet so often…we forget to breathe.
by Lavinia Plonka | Oct 12, 2013 | Humor/CosmiComedy, The Creative Body |
In a recent TED talk, psychologist Kelly McGonigal proposed that we suffer from stress because we believe that stress is….stressful. Citing a number of studies, she told her audience that people who believed that stress is exciting or productive did not get...
by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 28, 2013 | Body Language, Movement as Medicine, The Creative Body |
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais said that we move according to our perceived self-image. And we are stopped by our perceived limitations. In one of my many careers, I was a mime, which meant I made money creating illusions: imaginary adversaries, objects and challenges...
by Lavinia Plonka | Aug 8, 2013 | Humor/CosmiComedy, The Creative Body |
I call him Joe. Every morning during my meditation, he begins his ritual. He flies to my living room window and stands on the clothesline hook, staring at his reflection; his arch enemy, his evil twin, looking out at him from the glass. Then he begins. Bang....
by Lavinia Plonka | Jul 29, 2013 | Body Language, Movement and The Spirit, The Creative Body
Someone recently shared her greatexcitement at a simple meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh. “I breathe in peace, I breathe out and smile.” She said she couldn’t believe how her emotional state changed simply by smiling as she exhaled. The other day, I was...
