Our practices change
We start with what moves us
What we are moved towards
What we want to cultivate
or integrate
or be with
or choose
a practice
that calls to us
or speaks to us in someway
What happens when you change?
What happens when
your environment changes?
you and your environment change?
your priorities or interests change?
How does that change your practice?
(Share in the comments below)
My practice today:
I’m walking down to the river.
It’s been a dream of mine to be near a river. Something about being in the presence of that continuous movement is so striking to me right now. I hear the sound of the river in the distance. So exciting! My ankles enjoy bending in dynamic ways as I step on sticks and rocks and dirt.
My feet!
I’m so grateful for all the years of learning how to adapt and move in ways I never knew were possible, first with The Feldenkrais Method®, and now with the Jeremy Krauss Approach (JKA), which is adding new levels of clarity, creativity and enjoyment to many dimensions of my practice and life.
Before JKA, I didn’t know I had ankles! I had no awareness or image or clarity somehow. As I walk now, I sense so many connections and complex interactions from the ground up— through my bones, joints, muscles, feet and legs into my hip joints, pelvis, buttocks, belly, spine, ribs, shoulders, arms, hands—-from the ground up to my head and eyes.
Now I am at the river.
Two streams converge into one.
I have many threads to my practice.
Before I started my Feldenkrais training in 2002, my focus was visual art and writing. It feels so good to be tapping into my artist roots in sharing in these these 30 days of practice with you! I finally feel ready to be writing and sharing more about what’s lighting me up these days.
My daily movement practice has been moving back and forth between JKA Solvents and Glue (in standing) and Abilities movement lessons (on the floor). Being steeped in the The Jeremy Krauss Approach has rejuvenated my personal practice and re-ignited my teaching practice.
I stand next to the river and begin my practice.
I find myself creating a new lesson using different single elements and adding them up to a new whole. I feel so excited and amazed that my sense of uprightness and support from the ground up can change in such a short period of time.
Sometimes I think of it as a new technology of movement that has an influence on many layers of experience —-moving, sensing, thinking, feeling, and imagining.
The practice builds.
The more I practice, the more clarity, mobility, strength, well-being, vitality and creativity emerges.
I feel alive and good and strong.
Even my knees feel good. Before this practice my right knee bothered me for years. Now when things get out of whack elsewhere from too much time sitting on planes and cars and in front of computers, I have a toolbox with me that I can use anywhere to help me re-organize/ re-align / re-awaken supportive and varied connections—- and wala! My knee doesn’t get pulled in all the wonky directions. When I practiced some of the hands-on work with a friend yesterday she described it as “a gentle, kind and forgiving reminder of possible options” — I love that…
I’m walking up a hill now.
It feels so good! I love the feeling of strength with ease and appreciate how my ankles bend differently on walking uphill. It’s so interesting to sense the new directions of my knees, hips, pelvis and spine. To my right and left are trees. I appreciate their vertical trunks and also the ones that are leaning. Some lean on each other.
I see a little rocky stream below that flows and connects to the river— a convergence.
Right now my 2 streams of focus/ practice/ work are:
1) Movement and Creativity practices, teaching, creating, curating, collaborating
2) The Jeremy Krauss Approach learning and sharing. I’ll be traveling to Germany to continue my learning in Jeremy Krauss’ Functional Hands-on Abilities training and I am looking forward to hosting Jeremy to teach Boston in November. Details below!
Registration is now open for 2 workshops with Jeremy Krauss in Boston, MA
→ Clarity & Results / November 15-18
→ JKA Solvents and Glue PART 1 / November 21-24
This will be the first time Jeremy will present JKA Solvents and Glue live in the USA. Open to public, somatic practitioners & professionals in movement and therapeutic domains ~ No previous experience necessary. Learn more here
Part of my practice is opening books to random pages.
I just opened a book to this page. How fitting!
“What’s becoming clearer is that physical activity changes your brain in ways that are similar to having a child or falling in love. For example, new mothers and fathers show an increase in gray matter in the reward system during their first few months of caregiving. The more this part of the brain expands, the more the parents describe their babies as beautiful and perfect and themselves as blessed. This neurological change—-a boost to the reward system—-looks a lot like what happens when people develop an exercise habit. And the ultimate result is not so different from what humans experience when they formed close attachments. By harnessing the brains capacity to fall in love, regular exercise (and movement) helps us joyfully commit to a relationship that enriches our lives and augments are happiness.” - Kelly McGonigal, The Joy of Movement
You are saying it so well and speaking into my experience too. Even the little I have done since I joined the library and started JKA is like a wealth that is there to use. I went to the garden today and gardening has never been so fluid, aware, breathing freely, transitions smooth from bending over to standing, noticing when I’m straining and changing it up in a heartbeat, noticing how I can make things hard or easy depending on how I’m thinking. And now I have choice because there is a whole new range of movement that has come alive in my 75 year old body. That fact alone I find remarkable that so much change is available. I used to lose my balance after long bending over and coming up on uneven ground . Not now. Thank you for sharing your insights. You are speaking for a lot of us and we know exactly what you mean.
This really resonates with me. Thank you. My word for the month was differences so I have been noticing differences depending on how I feel, how I move, the context I am in and anything else. Noticing how my movement changes if I just slightly tuck my tail or stick it out a little, if my feet feel stiff or more flexible and how it affects my shoulders.. It is all fascinating and so nice to read how eloquently you express it. Maybe more a lifetime practice than just for August.