Your nervous system might know a better way of doing things - are you listening to it?
Turns out there may be an easier, safer and more effective way of completing the simplest of movements, but first you must try it out, said guild-certified Feldenkrais practitioner Violet van Hees.
“So it’s working through his ways of learning and experiencing new options through the intelligence of your nervous system, so you can figure out what works for you,” she said. “Feldenkrais worked with the intelligence of our nervous systems to know what gives us power and strength and what keeps us safe.
“He wanted to know how we can offer new ideas into ourselves so that we can be stronger, be more fluid, and have more options other than having one way of doing things.”
This Saturday van Hees is conducting a workshop for people with tight hips based on the teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984), a physicist and second-degree black belt judo practitioner who equated good health with proper physical and mental functioning.
“It’s for people who are feeling like their hip joints or their hip flexes tend to be chronically tight or uncomfortable,” said van Hees. “So a lot of sports people have this.
“You offer non-habitual ways of doing things. So you may be holding your leg in a weird way or trying to do a movement that you wouldn’t do in normal life, so your nervous system doesn’t resort to something it knows; it tries something new. Then if something new comes through that works well, then if you’re smart, you start to use it.”
Turning to the upper body, Van Hees will be conducting another workshop November 28 on tight neck and shoulders.
“That one is really interesting because there’s a lot of people who are really tight in their neck and shoulders and that hampers what they can do comfortably,” said van Hees. “In sports this includes how much power and strength you have.
“In sports if you’re tight in your upper body, you can be pushed over and your balance is less good and your co-ordination is less precise.”
The workshops will take place at the White Swan Sanctuary at 403 Lowe Street, and will run for three hours with a maximum of six participants, so “come in comfortable clothes and ready to explore,” said van Hees.
For more information contact van Hees at 633-3154 or krv@northwestel.net, or visit www.flowingmotion.ca.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com