Sidebar: Feldenkrais Exercise

“She stood frozen like a deer in headlights.” “His eyes were wide open in a state of perpetual shock.” “He walks as if on eggshells.” “Her lips were tightly stretched, the muscles in her neck bulging like cords holding her head in place.”
Abraham Lincoln once said you’re not responsible for the face you’re born with, but your face at fifty is all your fault. Science is revealing that every experience—every joy, disappointment, trauma, everything—is recorded in your posture, your facial expressions and even how you walk. What is interesting is that these habitual attitudes then reinforce the very emotions they are communicating.
One of the most potent influences on the human organism is fear. Society today reinforces fear reactions and anxiety patterns almost constantly. From TV violence to downsizing, from fear of failure to the real threat of death from any number of random dangers—pollution, anthrax, serial killers—our systems are stuck on red alert.
Let’s take just one of the examples from the first paragraph: “His eyes were wide open in a state of perpetual shock.” Try widening your eyes. Notice what it does to the rest of your face. In order to widen your eyes, you must tense certain muscles in your face. Most of us have a reflexive action, when the eyes widen, the head pulls back a little, as if to retreat from whatever it is that surprised us. This creates a tightness in the back of the neck. It also compromises freedom of movement; try turning your head with your eyes open in shock. By widening the eyes and pulling back the head, balance is compromised. So then the shoulders have to hunch a bit forward so that the head doesn’t take the body backward into falling. When that happens, the lower back tenses. Notice your breathing. It is not as easy to breathe when the face is tense and the neck is frozen. Are your eyes tired yet? Many people keep their eyes wide open all the time. Perhaps there was a shock early in life. Perhaps this person has developed a hypervigilant way of approaching the world. This person may not even be aware that he has his eyes unnecessarily wide. But somewhere, he feels precariously balanced, tense, and uncomfortable. This physical discomfort sends millions of messages through the nervous system, triggering chemical responses—adrenaline perhaps, or seratonin. This person can’t get to sleep at night. This makes him more anxious, and eventually even the immune system is compromised.
Primitive humans lived a simple life. Gather food, eat, sleep, play, run away or run after enemies and beasts. No clocks. No deadlines. No bills. Fear reactions were only triggered when survival was necessary—to make the human run faster, hide, protect vital organs. Nowadays that “fight or flight” reflex is being triggered constantly. It doesn’t matter whether your posture is the result of a traumatic childhood, or the day-to-day stress of modern life. The fact is, you can’t make it go away with just your mind. The pattern is in every cell, every gesture.
A revolutionary way to unravel these holding patterns is by using the language of the body itself—movement. The way you learned to ride a bike, play the piano, chop an onion. Using gentle repetitive movements while paying attention to what is taking place in your body, you can reorganize yourself to approach life in a more integrated fashion, reduce the level of stress you experience, even come to terms with hidden fears. This can all happen elegantly, without drugs, drama, or pain.
The Feldenkrais Method is one of several body/mind educational systems available today. Moshe Feldenkrais was a noted scientist and athlete who developed the method in order to heal himself of debilitating injuries. Its applications have ranged from helping stroke victims regain mobility to improving athletic performance. Its proponents include Yehudi Menuhin, Margaret Mead, and many others. It is taught in universities around the world, and is featured in many pain clinics.
Using gentle, repetitive movements, The Feldenkrais Method teaches you awareness of habitual movements, postures, and attitudes that interfere with your comfort. It is taught in two ways: group classes are called Awareness Through Movement lessons; Functional Integration lessons are one-on-one sessions. No movement experience or ability is necessary: each person works for their own experience. Classes are taught by certified Feldenkrais teachers. The Feldenkrais training lasts three to four years with over 1000 classroom hours.
Many times, painful conditions are the result of trauma, unconscious tension, or habits developed over time to compensate for pain—both physical and emotional. Perhaps you developed shallow breathing patterns because of asthma as a child. Or maybe you were in a car accident years ago and hurt your leg, developing a reflex of protecting that leg. These habits were once necessary for protection, like the startle reflex. But when they begin to actually inhibit freedom of movement through life they are called parasitic habits. You cannot just will away such a strong habit. If you have tense shoulders or bad posture, you know very well that trying to force your shoulders down, or your back to straighten only works for a few minutes at best.
Fear is an insidious emotion, masking itself as anger, depression, workaholism, and more. All of these affect your posture, your attitude and your health. By teaching the nervous system new habits that will replace the painful ones, you can change the patterns that hold you back—whether they are the result of injury, trauma, fear, or illness.

Lavinia Plonka is a Guild Certfied Feldenkrais Practitioner with a private practice in Asheville, NC. She is the author of What Are You Afraid Of? A Body/Mind Guide To Courageous Living and can be reached at laviniaplonka.com.

SIDEBAR: Try this simple Feldenkrais Exercise:
If you find you are plagued by anxiety, try this simple movement: With either hand, gently bring all your fingertips together to touch your thumb, and release, several times, as if your hand was pulsing open and returning to join your fingers. The hand doesn’t open any more than creating the shape of a bell, then comes together again. This movement sends a kind of neural “all’s well” signal to the brain. It’s impossible to continue this movement if you tense up, and at the same time, as you do it, it quiets the mind and relaxes the body.

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