"When the world is in turmoil, or even when it’s not - is it worth taking the time to slow down and learn from what the poet Hafiz called “the most insignificant movements of your own holy body?” I believe it is.
Loving-kindness is a lovely ideal and one the world needs more of. It’s even more potent when it’s embodied. In the Why Feldenkrais series, we are not aiming to tune out the wider world but resourcing ourselves to meet it in sustainable, creative, and life-giving ways.
We are practicing to bring something radical to our lives and to the world. Embodied presence. Less aggression. More compassion. Less domination. More listening. Greater presence.
As we reduce unnecessary and often unconscious aggression in our own movement and postural habits, we’re reducing the amount of aggression in the world. As we embody more lovingkindness in both how we move and how we pay attention, we’re creating a more warm-hearted, accepting presence in the world - both inner and outer. We can explore the gifts inside pain, and discover for ourselves the truth in the statement that boldly says “Genius hides behind the wound.”
I think of one client who, after we worked together for a year, said to me, “I am SO grateful for my back pain! It led me to you, and then to changing my life in such amazing ways.” She has not only greatly reduced her pain, she has blossomed in such an inspiring way and her life is so much bigger and more creative than when I met her.
I’m thinking of another client whose chronic neck troubles evaporated when he accepted his body’s message that he needed to break up with a partner who wasn’t a fit for him. It’s not always easy to delve into our pain as a creative learning process. Healing doesn’t always look healthy. But through the kind of curious, slowed-down, and infinitely kind investigation of ourselves that we learn to do through Awareness Through Movement explorations, we can uncover treasure hiding in physical pain.
As Michael Meade wrote, “Healing is a revolutionary act and we are here to awaken to the true nature of our own souls and the gifts we have to give to the world.” How amazing that we can step onto this path again and again when we come to the floor with reverent curiosity to engage in a Feldenkrais Lesson. I hope you’ll join us.
20 LESSON SERIES
In 2018, Erin Geesaman Rabke wrote a widely read and translated article, Why Do Feldenkrais? exploring many fresh ideas about why the Feldenkrais Method® is important personally and even culturally. This fall Erin will explore these 20 potent themes in a series of enlivening 30 minute Feldenkrais lessons. The first 4 lessons are free. Sign up here:
SERIES BEGINS NOVEMBER 13
About Erin:
Erin Geesaman Rabke is a Somatic Naturalist & Embodiment Mentor, professionally trained as a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, an Embodied Life® Teacher, a Work That Reconnects Facilitator, and a Community Grief Tender. Over the past 25+ years, she’s been trained in many somatics lineages as well as in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Dzogchen and Lojong. Along with her husband, Carl, she hosts the Embodiment Matters Podcast as well as offers many courses, workshops, and retreats.
Erin and Carl live in Salt Lake City, Utah, with their 13-year-old son and many wily animals. She is a lover of poetry, a beekeeper, a permaculture gardener, a coffee devotee, and a home herbalist. She is currently working on her first of several books. Learn more about Erin’s work/ play at: www.embodimentmatters.com