Introduction to Walking Feldenkrais lesson

One of the most classic "Introduction To Walking" ATM (Awareness Through Movement) Feldenkrais lessons. This very basic and powerful lesson focuses on shifting weight from side to side. Its series of constraints includes placing more weight on the heels through most of the lesson, keeping eyes on the horizon, and breathing in a structured pattern (inhale only while standing on one leg; the transition to the other leg starts exactly at the beginning of an exhalation). You learn to gradually minimize the movements of your head as you shift your weight from side to side, in other words, leaving the head where it is, "somewhere in the middle." Did it occur to you that this is something we naturally do in walking? Gradually, the pelvis and the spine start engaging more in the movement. Actually, your whole self is engaged, which is always a preferred way of using oneself. The lesson becomes much more challenging the moment we cross the legs. Shifting the weight to the right gets you on your left leg. How can you begin to gradually include the same constraints, the breathing pattern, leaving the head in the middle? The lesson continues to develop and becomes more complex as you begin to explore making circles with the pelvis, or, from the perspective of the feet, creating a circle with weight shifting. What's going on under the soles of our feet? And how complicated is it to take the circles into a cross-legged standing position? The final piece is yet again remarkable and fascinating: Can you lift the front your foot as you shift your weight onto it? A clue: when you do that, you're not standing on the same spot on your heel. You're standing behind it a little, depending on how much you lift the front of your foot.
This lesson is not simple. And it packs in a bunch of great stuff. Very highly recommended to do it very gently. May need to be repeated a couple of times until you make it yours.
More (fun) walking lessons to come...

Study with Doron! Find his Inwood Movement teaching schedule here:
https://www.inwoodmovement.com/felden...