Expand Your Ability

Welcome to the Expand Your Ability podcast! This show is about how we can empower ourselves through movement, curiosity, play and awareness.

I've done a lot of continued study in the past year and so I thought I would (re)introduce myself.

If you're new here, welcome! We will get you caught up to speed on what this show is about. If you've been a long time listener, this episode will tie some threads together and introduce some new ones.

On this episode, you can expect to hear: - a brief version of my story. - the 3 somatic movements modalities that I am based in (Feldenkrais, Kinesa, Emotional Body). - the topic of attachment theory. - the upcoming Feldenkrais Documentary. - ways to work with me.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 30 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletter to be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

Welcome to 2024! 🎉

On this episode, we will be looking at what value you want to cultivate and embody this year through a somatic movement proces. By value, what do I mean? Could be courage, humility, honesty, whatever you choose.

By doing this through a somatic movement process, we access the rich world on sensation and non-verbal thinking with in us. From there we can find new creativity. It is in our body(the Soma in Somatic) that we can move in to wholeness.

(If you feel like you need to know which value right now, don't worry, I will guide you in the process.)

This is exploration that's meant to be explored, embodied, its learning through doing. All you needs is some floor space, a journal and a pen. So please take a listen to when you have some undistracted time.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletterto be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

This is the last episode of 2023 so let's reflect!

We will look back on the events of this past year, including our relationships, our challenges and what we've learned. We will do this in embodied way, with movement to help us ease into the process and open the doors to insight.

That means this episode includes audience participation! Thats right, you! So please take a listen to this episode when you have some quiet undistracted time.

Get a journal and pen, find some floor space, and let's get started.

Marlene came to class with a big celebration.

She reported that after our previous Feldenkrais class, she found a sense of embodied empowerment she hadn't felt since she was a vibrant cheerleader at the age of 19 - six decades ago! She described rediscovering this power as akin to finding the life restoration of Lazerous.

At 19, she had surgery for appendicitis that wasn't incorrectly completed. The surgeon incorrectly sowed parts of her abdomen to her diaphragm. Bad news. Even after a corrective surgery in her 30's to fix the problems from the first surgery, she still felts the effects of the compensations her body had made. She finds our Feldenkrais classes help her bring her mind and body back into sync.

Marlene's story is a great example that when we have the right process that guides us with curiosity into our own experience, we can become skilled at healing our compensations. When the compensations diminish and we feel more at home in our body, the vitality and power flow back in.

____

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletter to be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

We go back to the book, Awareness Through Movement, to continue this series on Why Movement? Why did Feldenkrais choose movement to focus his method around?

Awareness Through Movement was written in 1972 by Moshe Feldenkrais. The first half of the book is a great introduction his thinking on society, the human being, the nature of habits and compulsion and what we can do about it. We first explore the importance of awareness. Why are we so interested in awareness? Feldenkrais did name the group classes and his book Awareness Through Movement. Becoming aware of ourselves is necessary and good for us to grow, evolve and mature.

Then we explore how movement is the basis of awareness. We humans are funny. We can act and behave and not have a clear understanding of what we do. We are mystery to ourselves. Understanding what we do is essential if we want to make lasting change. The primary way we get information about ourselves is through movement, through change in our muscles and skin, through change in posture, attitude and expression. With greater refinement, we can catch our behavior as it is elicited by our environment (people, nature, situations). We have more choice available to us if we know how to find it.

You can find the previous episodes in this series Why Movement: 5, 9, 13, 18, 24, 30. They all have Why Movement? in the title.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletterto be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

If you have lived with insecurity, it can be challenge to imagine what a good relationship could be like. A good relationship can be so foreign, you might even reject it.

It's so important to understand what secure bonds look and feel because that can give us the perspective to turn around what's not working and to strengthen what is working.

That's the topic of my conversation with relationship expert Adam Lane Smith:

What does secure behavior look like? What behavior leads to mutually fulfilling relationships that are sustainable, and enjoyable?

Adam Lane Smith is The Attachment Specialist with over 450,000 followers across his social media platforms. He consults internationally with CEOs, investors, entrepreneurs, executives, military veterans, and engineers to solve their attachment issues and improve their relationships. He also has appeared on numerous podcasts discussing generational attachment issues, recovering from trauma, and raising global awareness of attachment.

Expect to hear in this episode:

• The importance of bodywork to do mental health work.
• We attract what we expect.
• How insecurity pushes away healthy people
• Our perception doesn't make things real
• The straightforward clarity of secure communication: "How would a 5year phrase this?"
• The Exchanging of Needs to fulfill each needs.
• Why secure people work toward mutually fulfilling relationships.
• Clarify and Collaborate. You need to clarify in order to work with others.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletter to be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais.Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

Do you use read blogs, stay up with the news , youtube podcasts ? (I know you listen to at least one podcast and thank you for being here 😄) I know you're learning something valuable, right? Yes, you're 'learning' and is there a little compulsion in there too? I

In the previous episode, I discussed the importance of sharing what you learn with others. Doing so is a creative act and helps deepen our learning.

In this episode, we look at the another angle, learning as intellectual stimulation to deal with insecurity. I tell a bit of my story. I wonder if it's true for you too... do you seek out knowledge as a way of self-soothing?

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletterto be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

If you've been listening to this show for a while you will notice that at the end of each episode I encourage you to share the ideas you hear here with a friend. I say that doing so helps us deepen our learning. In this episode I will give more of an explanation of why.

I draw on Moshe Feldenkrais' teachings from his training program in Amherst Massachusetts. He encouraged his students to not focus on writing down movement directions about to be curious and invested in their own experience. Taking notes would distract them from the richness of their experience. Then, after class, go and share your experience with another person. Doing so helps you make new connections. Conversations are a creative act.

Don't be a passive learner. Share your learning so you can learn more.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 30 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletter to be the first to hear about future opportunities to work with me.

Download my free lesson: Effortless Freedom in Moving

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

You can hear the gym teacher yelling:

Feel the stretch! Feel the burn! Work it! work it!

Strain, working hard, efforting, stretching... that's all necessary to make gains, right? Right?

Ok, really, how much strain is necessary for improvement?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to tell you to not use your muscles and your power and develop strength (you're free to do as you choose, of course!)

What I would like to do is guide you to freer movement without using these old ways of exercising.

We will make gains not by working harder, but by working smarter.

It's possible for you in your body, right here, right now. This episode features a simple Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement lessons that you can experience a new world of less effort and more freedom.

You can access the longer lesson here.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As an Embodiment teacher I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletter to be the first to hear about future opportunities.

Download my free lesson: Freedom in Turning Without Effort

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

Your Insecurity is predictable. Insecure thinking isn't unique to you and so I think you should question it.

On this episode, we explore how insecurity plays out in our thinking. Have you had these thoughts?

They are so amazing. Why would they want to be with me anyway? I'll be better off on my own. Ugh, they are so needy! It's pathetic. I've ruined everything.

If you said yes to any of the above, listen to this episode it's got some important ideas here for you.

On this episode I introduce ideas from Attachment Theory. Attachment theory refers to how people give and receive love and support, how they act when they are emotionally close, or not, with others. I describe the 3 primary styles or strategies in attachment and give examples of how insecure people think based on the book Attached. by Amir Levine.

When I read the common thoughts offered by the book, I knew I could question every single one of them. I didn't need to believe them anymore.

These insecure thoughts are not true to who you really are. I believe it's your responsibility to become aware of insecure thinking and behavior, and to question them.

The Feldenkrais Method®'s Awareness through Movement lessons help you become a highly tuned insecurity detector by reducing tension and cultivating efficient movement.

Attachment Theory ResourcesAttached. by Amir Levine Wired for Love by Stan Tatkin Adam Lane Smith's extensive YouTube library

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Hi, I'm Jeffrey. As a Feldenkrais and somatic movement practitioner I help you get in touch with your body so you can unravel old sticky patterns and make way for greater creativity, power and joyful play.

Want to put the ideas in this podcast to work?

You can book a free 20 minute consult call to find out if we're a good fit for 1:1 coaching. Learn more here.

Join the newsletter to be the first to hear about future opportunities.

Download my free guide: 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method

Get Your Questions Answered!

Submit your questions! I will answer them on a future episode of the podcast.

I'm directing a documentary film about Feldenkrais. Check out the Teaser Trailer.

Follow me on Instagram: @expandyourability

Had an Aha? Let me know: [email protected]

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.