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Category Archives: Feldenkrais


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8 Weeks to Your Intelligent Body – A Feldenkrais(R) Series

Every day of our lives we do things; we move, walk, run, do house work doing the dishes or cleaning the house, carry groceries or the kids on our hips or arms, rake the leaves, sit at the computer – we do that a lot!!! – read, write and at the end of the day lie down to sleep.

Did you ever wonder how you actually did any of that? Did you have a visceral sensation in your body? A picture in your mind? Probably not … as most of us do things with the end result in mind, focused on the outcome versus the process.

We do not much live in our bodies, we tend to live in our head and only get out of the intellectual realm when our body starts protesting loudly against the discrimination and neglect. This includes over training and pushing through discomfort and pain just to get what we want. By the time we decide to take action, our physical self is usually so uncomfortable, we have a hard time suppressing this bothersome feedback. Something must be done and usually it starts with a pain pill, avoidance of specific movements, potentially followed by physical therapy and in extreme cases surgery.

All for what? Failing to pay attention to the process while getting wrapped up in the outcome … But is there a different way?

Fortunately the answer is a resounding yes: we can perform all of our tasks with awareness, fine tuning the body and the brain at the same time, moving lighter with optimum effort and maximum efficacy for better function.

The solution is the Awareness Through Movement(R) or ATM(R) for short, the guided floor work of the Feldenkrais(R) Method conducted in a group setting. The lessons will introduce you to different types of movement, from rolling to sitting to bending amongst others. They will guide you, the student, through innovative sequences where you will learn about your own self through movement: your preferences, limitations, capabilities and ways of “compromise” to become an expert mover. Moving with ease, lightness, optimum effort and intelligence.
While each lesson will stand on its own and will bring positive change into your life, committing to the whole series is greatly encouraged for maximum efficacy and initiating meaningful, long lasting change.

Venue

Open Space Yoga
19 Factory Street, Nashua NH

Fridays* 10:00 – 11:15 AM                                                                                                                              May 6 – July 1, 2016, no class on May 27

 

Please note price reflects entire 8 week series, not a single session.

With any questions or concerns please contact Zsuzsa                                                                          978-494-4075 or 603-548-5511 or email MoonDanceYoga@yahoo.com


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Community FI (R) Mondays at MoonDanceYoga

A Special Offer for Functional Integration(R) – Community Outreach

Very recently, I participated in a forum exploring models for integrative healthcare,looking at from the patient’s perspective.  We were compiling a list of requirements, necessities, that clients need to have in their care.


Among those necessities mentioned was to make it accessible, affordable and to give back to the community. It got me thinking about what I do, how I do it and whether most people would be able to afford my services on a regular basis. Continue reading →


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Complimentary Functional Integration This Wednesday

Fool the Pain – Make it Go Away on April Fool’s Day

This April Fool’s day we won’t fool around: instead inviting you to a complimentary half hour session of Functional Integration(R), or FI for short.  This is the individualized session of the Feldenkrais Method(R), the somatic movement modality, that allows you, the recepient, discover your most optimal way to move, function, perform. It allows you – through mindful movement – to release tension, useless old patterns and pain. Combined with Awareness Through Movement or ATM(R) classes, the group version of the Method, you will become the director of the change you desire in yourself.

The method, that is the toast of the town and the subject of chapters in Norman Doidge’s new book: “The Brain’s Way of Healing”, is the mind/body discipline utilized; created by Moshe Feldenkrais and finally getting the attention it deserves. Instead of using repetitive action to “fix” something not functioning optimally in your body, it uses delicate and differentiated movement to go directly to the source, the brain itself. Through movement, using the learning/changing ability/plasticity of the brain, it allows for change to happen organically instead.

Application of the Feldenkrais Method(R), not only results in less pain, better function and performance physically, but in a more fundamental shift stemming from the adaptability of the brain and the nervous system, that will allow you to grow and change continually and optimally. Working with the this somatic mindfulness method is like being provided with an owner’s manual to your whole self, where you the owner, are in charge of your progress in body and mind, actually possessing the tools necessary to initiate and follow through with such change.

So this April Fool’s fool the pain, the difficulty and the stress and give yourself a break instead: come and have a half an hour session with me and celebrate the potentiality of change, growth and life itself! And maybe, just maybe, even spring 🙂

Sessions are available this Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM,

to book:  call 603-548-5511 – leave message with your preferred time(s)
or email: MoonDanceYoga@yahoo.com.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Zsuzsa

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Zsuzsa Belhazy-Kovacs, MsME, GCFP(R), e-RYT


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Origins of the Feldenkrais Method(R)

So how did Moshe Feldenkrais, physicist and judo master come about developing his original method instead of moving on as a talented physicist with a promising future?

We do know about his debilitating injury to his knee and his stubborn, albeit well founded refusal to have conventional treatment with a risky surgery and instead going his own way, experimenting, learning, even meditating on it, using every bit of knowledge and tool at his disposal, including applying psychology and becoming one of the pioneers of mind/body approaches.

Continue reading →


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The Girl Missing Part of Her Brain and How She Healed with Feldenkrais(R) by Norman Doidge MD

“She will dance at her wedding”: Healing the girl born without part of her brain”

The following is annotated  excerpt from the full article published on Salon.com on Sunday, March 1, 2015

See how a parent’s nightmare turned into hope by Dr Moshe Feldenkrais’ intervention, continued support and the innovative approach he pioneered, the Feldenkrais Method®, when medical science had no hope or answers.

“A Girl Missing Part of Her Brain”

N Moshe Feldenkrais doing Functional Integration(R) or FI with a young child

“Feldenkrais’s approach can radically change the life even of people who were born missing huge parts of the brain, by facilitating differentiation in the remaining brain areas. Elizabeth, whom I (refers to N Doidge, MD, author)  interviewed, was born missing a third of her cerebellum, a part of the brain that helps to coordinate and control the timing of movement, thought, balance, and attention. Without the cerebellum, a person has difficulty controlling all these mental functions. The cerebellum, which means “little brain” in Latin, is about the size of a peach and is tucked under the cerebral hemispheres, toward the back of the brain. Although it occupies only about 10 percent of the brain’s volume, it contains almost 80 percent of the brain’s neurons. The technical name for Elizabeth’s condition is cerebellar hypoplasia, and there was no treatment known to change the course of the illness.”

The case of Elizabeth clearly points out that even a severely damaged brain is plastic, in other words, with proper stimulus, it can grow, learn and regain function, through a method of somatic education, as it was pioneered by dr Moshe Feldenkrais and is  known and practiced by Feldenkrais (R) practitioners and eloquently accounted for in Norman Doige’s new book, The Brain’s Way of Healing.

“When she was in the womb, her mother felt there might be a problem, because Elizabeth hardly moved. When Elizabeth was born, she didn’t move her eyes. They flickered and were not properly aligned, gazing in different directions. At one month, they rarely tracked objects. Her parents were terrified she might not see normally. As she developed, it was clear she had a problem with her muscle tonus. At times she was very floppy, meaning she had too little or no muscle tension, but at other times she had too much tension and was “spastic,” making no exploratory, voluntary movements. She received conventional physiotherapy and occupational therapy, but the treatments were painful for her.

Continue reading →


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Principles of Learning – Lessons and Practical Applications of the Feldenkrais Method, Episode #1

In the following video, recorded at TEDx Talks, professor Dorit Aharanov talks about the issues of learning, finding and implementing new ideas and the challenges of research. She draws a parallel of learning with the Feldenkrais Method(R) – a way somatic learning – reaching goals, extracting potential and quantum computation – her specific field of research -, that is universally applicable to learning, adapting, problem solving (neat math puzzle included) and better overall function in general. Continue reading →