Expand Your Ability

When big emotions sweep through you, what do you do? How do you handle them?

Big emotions like rage can lead us to destroying the relationships that are important to us.

This episode explores the story of one of my students, Shahryar, who has a history of 'pent-up' aggression. This aggression led him to make choices he later regrets. He attempted to deal work out those feelings through forceful exercise. He 'smashed and mashed' the bad feelings out of himself. But that led to more problems. Through our Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement classes together, he has found a new resource for himself.

What you will hear in this episode:

• Shahryar's new resource for being with difficult emotions.
• Once again, how we do one thing is how do everything.
• the limitations for forcefully fixing ourselves.
• a difficult history of rage that can change.
• what's behind the rage...
• the importance of offering learning through direct experience.
• the importance of the metaphors we use in describing our emotional experience.

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Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast. If you find this show helpful, please leave a 5 star review in your podcast player.

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

Watch the Documentary Teaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

Discerning quality is essential to living life with choice and satisfaction.

You do this already when you turn off that Netflix show because it's just not good. Boring! Or maybe you're a mechanic and you're tuned into the sounds of the engine. That clunks not a good sound... You're attentive to quality when you type up that sensitive email to your client. You want to get the words just right. Am I sounding too aggressive?

What about discerning the quality in our own experience? Moshe Feldenkrais argues that we can more easily develop discernment through movement. That is what I explore on this this episode.

This series explores the 9 reasons for Why Movement? from Moshe Feldenkrais' book Awareness Through Movement. This episode is the second of nine.

Here is a sneak peek of what you will hear:

• Why quality is important
• The four aspects of our human experience: moving, sensing, feeling, thinking
• Some of the qualities of movement
• The importance of developing your discernment in all aspects
• The advantages of movement

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

It's springtime! Yay! Get those windows open and bring in the light. Oh boy, there's a lot of work to do. We really did let ourselves go during the wintery months.😅 The impulse to spring clean is so natural as the days get longer and warmer.

But do you think to spring clean your your house of habits?

House of habits, you ask, what is that?

In short, its your history, your behavior, the sum total of you in everything you do.

Do you move with clarity or ease? Or are you beset by troubling thoughts and tension? Do you have habits like feeling small with that irritating co-worker? Does that place between your shoulder blades ache when you feel behind at work? Does your head hang low with a dreadful sense of not feeling good enough?

These all places in your house of habits! How can you clean up the old tensions and refurnish some clarity back into your action?

A sneak peek at what you will hear in this episode:

• what are cross-motivations and how do they interfere with what you want to do?
• how the Feldenkrais Method helps us declutter and refurnish your activity
• what you need most when decluttering your habits
• revisiting the self-image, that which governs your every act (call back to previous episode)

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

Well, that was a waste of time.That was Alice's first experience of the Feldenkrais Method 25 years ago. Little did she know she would come to love it and produce a movie about the method years later. "I felt like I was taken apart and put back together in the way I should be put back together." That's how Alice Boyd's described her first experience in a 1:1 hands-on Feldenkrais lesson.

Alice Boyd's Bio

A Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner since 2014, Alice Boyd teaches group and individual lessons online and in-person in Portland, Oregon. She completed Russell Delman's Embodied Life program, and with her husband, poet John Brehm, she leads transformational residential retreats incorporating Feldenkrais movement lessons, meditation, and mindful poetry discussion.

Alice is excited to be producing a feature-length documentary film about the Feldenkrais.

AliceBoyd.com

In this episode, you will hear...

• about Alice's lackluster first impression of Feldenkrais
• the lesson that changed the direction of her life
• her background as a yoga teacher
• her journey away from force and willpower to openness and curiosity
• the inspirations for the documentary

+++++ Hi, I'm Jeffrey. I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

There is the common list of benefits about the Feldenkrais Method: people get from lessons saying they feel taller, more grounded, lighter, more graceful, easier movement, less pain etc.

That's a good and with this episode I wanted to focus on the surprising benefits of this work. The benefits that emerge as new thoughts for yourself.

Like the following:

• I didn't know I was doing that!
• I never expected I could do that!
• I improved my game without practicing!

As one continues on their Feldenkrais journey, more and more benefits reveal themselves. To learn more about these, I've created a short ebook on the 9 Surprising Benefits of the Feldenkrais Method.Download it here

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

Put aside your self-help books. Step away for a moment from the your therapy session. Consider movement as a key ingredient you've been missing.

In a world that's so focused on thinking and feeling, why would movement be necessary for self-improvement? Let's find out.

Moshe Feldenkrais in his book Awareness Through Movement gives 9 reasons for Why Movement? We tackle the first one: Your nervous system is preoccupied mainly with movement.

Expect to learn: - why nervous system is primarily concerned with movement - you're the descendent of a great line of movers - put your feet up like Freud

This is episode one in a nine episode series.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast! Support the podcast with a tip.

When your friend says they are going to go do an ATM, do you look at them perplexed? I guarantee you they are not grabbing money from a machine. 💸💸

ATM is the short hand for Awareness Through Movement®, the group class of the Feldenkrais Method®.

If you find yourself curious about Awareness Through Movement, but you want to know what you're getting yourself into, listen to this episode. You'll learn everything you need to step into a class whether in person or online.

In this episode, you will learn

• the basics of the ATM structure
• what makes ATM unique
• what students report after a lesson
• your responsibilities as a student
• what clothes and gear to bring
• tips on giving this work a fair trial.

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

"We act in accordance with our self-image."

Moshe Feldenkrais opens his book Awareness Through Movement with this line. He then says the self-image "governs our every act." Feldenkrais is taking the broadest view of human behavior.

This episode dives into what is the Self-Image and its three factors: Heritage, Education and Self-Education. Understanding this fundamental idea will help you pursue your life goals.

In this episode, learn

• the 3 factors of the self-image
• the forces that shape us
• how we can learn about ourselves from our choices
• what is most in our control
• some goofy metaphors :)

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

Do you find yourself getting after it at work, focusing hard to make this Friday's deadline but you don't really know how to turn it off this urgency when you get home?

That high-pressure way of doing then sneaks into your relationships, which isn't so appreciated. 😅

There is the old phrase, How you do one thing is how you do everything.

We need to ask the question: What if we don't like how we do that one thing/everything?

The big challenge is that how we do things is governed by our habits. Which isn't bad except most of our habits are invisible to us. So how can we get inside and tinker with them?

In this episode you'll learn

• how habits are like camouflaged snipers 😬😱
• the importance of observation (think Sherlock Holmes)
• a framework to dismantling old habits
• about the superpower Awareness
• how Awareness Through Movement® can help build new habits

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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

Welcome! In this first episode I will talk about:

• who I am and my background
• What is the Feldenkrais Method
• the goals of this podcast.

+++++

Hi, I'm Jeffrey.

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

Stay connected and subscribe to the podcast.

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

Watch the DocumentaryTeaser Trailer: teaser.feldenkraismovie.com

Follow Me on Instagram: @expandyourability

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