Feldenkrais holistic learning through movement
Neuro-Somatic Movement Coaching integrating body, mind, and psyche
through Awareness through 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 meet your body through pleasurable sensations? That you feel relaxed, graceful, and energized in your body?
Discover new ways to be confidently present in your body and in the now. Discover what moves you in the moment and how that makes you move. And discover how to move through your day in the most enjoyable and free way possible and support yourself with ease and joy. Play with your body’s potential by tapping into your body’s natural wisdom.
By changing the way you move and hold yourself, 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:
When you witness without judgement, how you move, behave and imagine yourself to be in the world, you can initiate change. Change can happen by learning to become aware through enjoyable movements that may bring to light personal details about yourself you never knew.
That quote reawakened something in me, a deep inner knowing, a deep remembering, a deep yearning…. And exactly for that reason I enrolled in the 4-year Feldenkrais teacher training program in 2005. And what an inspiring journey this was. As a dancer, a world of possibilities opened up for me in expression and movement. And, most valuable: I changed from an overstressed girl with social anxiety, eating disorders, fragile self-worth, and poor self-image to a woman who 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.
“In order to change our mode of action, we must change the image of ourselves that we carry within us.” 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 choice, 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?
“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 as we move, listening to our body’s sensations, and focusing our attention on where we feel ease and pleasure in our 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 mindful, 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.”
¨If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want. For you to know what you are doing, you have to feel yourself¨. Moshe Feldenkrais
Our ability to recover is our greatest quality
What to expect?
A typical ‘ Awareness through Movement’ exploration is based on everyday actions and focuses on specific themes. I will guide you verbally through a series of carefully thought-out movement explorations that will help you gain insight into 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 – with your eyes closed, lying on the floor, sometimes standing or sitting – at a gentle pace, in a way that feels effortless, pleasant, and joyful to you, with your attention to your body and in the here-and-now, listening without judgment to the sensations brought about by the movement.
In a way, you could say that a Feldenkrais session is a combination of mindfulness and movement meditation.
These sessions 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