Guidelines for Best Results

Each flowingbody lesson is a carefully constructed sequence of exploratory movements designed to improve the ease, efficiency, comfort, and grace with which you translate movement intention into movement action.

We make the impossible possible, the difficult easy, and the easy elegant. — Moshe Feldenkrais

They are better viewed as mental explorations for the body than as “physical exercises” in the usual sense. Improving the quality, economy, and comfort of your movements is the paramount goal. Pain, effort, and hurrying are counter-productive and likely to reduce the benefits of the lesson. For best results explore each movement sequence slowly and mindfully, as in tasting something delicious for the first time!

The following guidelines will improve your enjoyment, safety, and learning. Please read and follow them; learning is the key to change and important differences are often subtle.

1. Prepare a comfortable space.

Most of the lessons are done lying on the floor on a firm, padded carpet or folded blanket that somewhat softens the feeling of your bones against the floor. It should be firm enough to feel your contact with the floor with enough room to slide your arms and legs in any direction without hitting anything.

2. Repeat each movement many times slowly and mindfully.

The movements in these lessons are not physical exercises to be repeated rapidly or unconsciously. Repeat each movement slowly enough to monitor how smoothly your changing intention becomes action. How might you make each part of the movement easier, lighter, and more enjoyable?

3. Don’t strain.

When a movement causes pain or discomfort, resist any temptation to work harder or to endure it, however slight. Rather, use the opportunity to ease up, slow down, and mindfully explore ways to make the movement gentler, lighter, and more enjoyable with less effort– more of a dance improv than an “exercise,” looking for ease, grace, and comfort in slower, gentler movements.

4. Savor pleasant sensations.

During and after each lesson, you will notice various pleasant changes as your body reorganizes. These may include feelings of relaxation, letting go, lightness, spaciousness, or connectedness; of feeling warmer, or taller, or more whole in some sense; or any other pleasing physical or emotional sensations. Every new and enjoyable experience becomes an arrow pointing toward a more satisfying future.

5. Observe Differences

After each lesson, slowly stand up and take a few moments to observe any changes. Mindfully shift your weight a little in various directions over the soft pads of your soles, heels, and toes…then slowly walk around the room, allowing unfamiliar sensations to be present. These moments of observation after each lesson are an important part of helping your nervous system integrate this experience.