Feldenkrais holistic learning through movement
Self Awareness in sensing, feeling, thinking and action through the language of the brain: movement
How do you move? And how does that make you feel?
Wouldn’t it be great if your body is a fabulous place to live in? That you feel safe to sense and feel? That you feel relaxed, graceful, and energized whatever you do?
Discover new ways to be confidently present in your body and tap into your body’s wisdom. Play with your body’s potential to move through life and support yourself with ease and freedom. Discover what moves you now and how that makes you move. And discover how to be present and move through your life in the most enjoyable and comfortable way. By changing the way you move and strike a pose, you change the way you perceive and give meaning to what you feel, sense, think and do.
Years ago I read this inspiring quote below from the founding father of The Feldenkrais Method:
“If you know what you do, you can do what you want.” Moshe Feldenkrais
For me, this is the essence of feeling empowered, and free. And exactly for this reason, I signed up for the 4 year Feldenkrais teacher training in 2005. And what an inspiring journey this was. As a dancer, a world of possibilities in expressing and moving opened up for me. And most valuable, I switched from a girl with eating disorders, social anxiety, and a poor self-image to a woman that felt confident and at home in her body. I discovered what it means to move with grace and sensuality and to have a curious, open heart for life. And it has helped me stay out of the grip of injuries and chronic pain ever since.
“I believe that knowing oneself is the most important thing a human being can do for himself. How can one know oneself? By learning to act not as one should, but as one does.” Moshe Feldenkrais
There are so many invisible rules and messages we follow, often without being aware of them.
Whether it’s an instruction your mother gave you in childhood about sitting up straight, or father telling you to keep your knees together to be a good girl, or the ballet teacher “straightening” you and making you believe that can only be done if you tighten your buttocks and belly. Or the silent message that doing your best means it must hurt or be exhausting “No pain, no gain. And maybe even in the present you regularly let your yoga teacher ” mold” you into the “right” posture? All well-meaning rules and messages they thought were “right.”
So most of us walk around with a lot of conscious or unconscious assumptions, ‘musts’, beliefs, and thoughts about how we should be in our bodies, how we should behave, and as a consequence how we hold and move. But are they really true for you or are they limiting you from getting to know your own body, feeling your own truth, and living your own life? Do they move you through life in a way that often leaves you tired, anxious, or afraid of making a mistake? Our physical posture and movements largely determine our stance in life and how we think, feel, perceive, and make decisions.
“Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.” Moshe Feldenkrais
Discover how everyday movements such as standing, sitting, walking, running, twisting, bending, and lifting can lead you back to sovereignty over your life, choices, and decisions when following your own body’s wise ways.
Feel what awareness of movement does to your mind, body, and brain and how it gives you more vitality, calmness, and balance in your everyday activities. Discover how you can be more user-friendly for your body, and brain by tapping into your sensational and emotional wisdom.
Doing Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement regularly will help you find deeper self-knowledge and purpose in life. It will give you mental clarity through rooting you deeply in the wisdom of your body, and heart.
You will find that you function much better in your daily challenges because your whole system finally gets a chance to relax from stress and overwhelm. Because your nervous system can free itself from its survival patterns, and habitual holding so to re-open to its potential and further growth.
My Feldenkrais sessions will help you hugely if you:
- want to feel and express more of you
- want an accurate inner compass to guide you through life fully attuned to your Soul’s purpose
- want to get rid of chronic physical-emotional tension, pain and fatigue
- look for more vitality, resilience, and freedom of movement
- want to feel more flow and flexibility in your everyday life
- know that you have an inner world of possibilities but some thoughts and emotions keep getting in the way of accessing them
- want to empower yourself with a self-image that aligns with who you are in essence
“I have had a few individual lessons from Pingel.
She did for me what I have not been able to achieve on my own before. I could feel safe for an hour, and be comfortable, be interested. Be and breathe, without a pulled-up harness. It was an entirely new experience, and I didn’t have to instruct myself to “let go”. My analytical head did not have to participate and it was a relief. Finally, for once, not trying my best and still getting results.”
Are you ready to feel how you want to feel?
Pingel’s sessions are off the map good. It took me 4 days to integrate one of her body-work sessions on me. Bringing more than just a method to the way she works, her dexterity in awareness, intuition and skills let my body transform and come home to harmony where it was ready, willing and able. I left the session holding myself differently and feeling physically open, expanded and free. She seems to have an incredible sensitivity in body-listening, combined with an understanding of the body-Consciousness and its complexity. I felt very safe in her hands and knew she really understood what my body needed, seeing it as one with the whole of me.
“The only thing permanent about our behaviour patterns is our belief that they are so.” Moshe Feldenkrais
How does it work?
By slowing down, reducing effort in moving, and paying attention to ease and pleasure in movement, we get the full attention of our Brain. This is the driving force behind all movement, perception, thoughts, feelings, and actions. It organizes itself through the input of movement. Through playful and creative movement explorations, we re-train the brain’s capacity for creating new connections and new possibilities. This is called neuroplasticity. You will find that moving attuned to your body’s way will change physical, emotional, and mental habits that keep you from feeling free, flexible, and relaxed and perceiving the world as it is in the moment.
The Feldenkrais classes and private sessions that I offer online, and in my 1:1 and small group retreats empower you to become your own healer.
By practicing Feldenkrais regularly, you will heal long-lasting stress, tension, anxiety, and fatigue through deep insight into who you are, what you do, and how you can do differently to ‘un-hurt’ yourself.
“I had Feldenkrais lessons from Pingel for several years. She is a very competent and creative teacher and I always left her classes feeling balanced and more in tune with my body. I have a history of broken legs and after an accident, which left me with a head injury and a broken shoulder and hip, it was through Feldenkrais that I learnt how to walk better without pain. I highly recommend Pingel as a Feldenkrais practitioner.”
Do you want to move with more ease and freedom in all areas of your life?
Pingel’s individual guidance in Feldenkrais sessions touches me at my core, right where it matters.
Through her patience and calm subtle directions, her questions, comments, and insights about movements, I rediscover both my body and my mental, and emotional patterns.
It’s an adventure I love being taken on by Pingel.
What to expect?
A typical ‘ Awareness through Movement’ exploration is structured around everyday actions and focuses on specific themes. I will guide you with my voice through a series of carefully thought-out movement explorations that will help you gain insight how the body, mind and brain work together and how they can do so in the most efficient and enjoyable way.
I will use a combination of movement directions, visualizations, imagery, and sensory suggestions to help you become aware of your movement-, sensing-, and thinking patterns. Usually, you move – lying on the floor, sometimes standing or sitting – at a gentle pace, in a way that feels pleasant and joyful to you, with your attention in your body and in the sensations of the movement.
These classes are suitable for everyone, regardless of age, experience or condition.
The background of the Feldenkrais Method
This somatic movement method was originally invented by Moshe Feldenkrais; an engineer, physicist, teacher, and master of martial arts. Due to a knee injury, he became interested in the mechanics of movement and the role of the nervous system in this. With this knowledge, he taught himself to walk again. For the rest of his life he invested in further researching ways to optimize thinking, perceiving, feeling, and movement holistically. This is how the Feldenkrais method came into being: a practical and effective form of ‘experiential and exploratory’ learning.
The method is based on an intriguing combination of bio-mechanics, neuro-science, motor development, psychology and oriental martial arts. It consists of two fascinating and versatile teaching methods: Awareness through Movement and Functional Integration (1 on 1 sessions). Both forms call upon the nervous system’s ability to reorganize itself to create functioning movement patterns. The basis of both forms of teaching lies in awakening our awareness of how we think, feel, move and use our bodies.
If you change what you think, you will change how you move. And if you change how you move, you will change how you feel. – Moshe Feldenkrais
Moshe Feldenkrais wrote some very interesting books explaining his philosophy in depth:
- Awareness through Movement
- The Elusive Obvious
- The Master Moves
- The Mature Self
I have received Feldenkrais classes from Pingel for a long time and she made me fall in love with it.
She creates a safe space where I can calm down and listen to my body, without judgment. During the classes, I could experience a deep state of release which allowed me to be sensitive.
The lighting, the smell, the temperature of the room, the sound of her voice, the movements chosen, and the timing of the class, are all taken care of to allow this deep level of learning.
I highly suggest her classes!