*this site will soon be deleted and redirected to ryannagy.com. hope to see you there.
Ryan relaxing in Mexico
I rarely post about the work of Moshe Feldenkrais on this blog anymore. But I do still blog actively and provocatively on RyanNagy.com. Stop by. Would love to see you there…
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Alright, enough of the political commentary! At least for now. Would you be willing to engage with me a little bit here and tell me:
“Have you thought about where you want to go with the work of Moshe Feldenkrais?
That is, what you want to create for yourself, for your friends or *insert your words here.* I would really like to know and so would your friends and colleagues. Take a moment and leave a response below or send me an email via the contact form at the bottom of the page?
cheers!
Those of you who are connected to me on Facebook or who get email notifications may be one of over 1100 people who have already read these…for the rest of you, here they are..
Some of the most detailed writing that I have done on the service marks and on some of the system-effects of the Guild system.
“Liberate your mind and your practice will follow.” – Ryan C. Nagy
From somewhere in Mexico.
This blog post went out a little late and many of you missed the free webinar. I am really sorry about that. The fault was mine. Next time, I will do a better job. And by the way – do not forget that there is still great new content on RyanNagy.com. Forgive me for doing so, but I have started a new series called, “Things Feldenkrais was Wrong About. I started rather tamely with something that matters to me as a student of Milton Erickson’s work: http://www.ryannagy.com/2014/things-feldenkrais-was-wrong-about-part-1/
As a Feldenkrais practitioner, student or fan you have heard – I hope – about Moshe’s desire to have his students learn to live in the unknown. As he wrote quite simply in The Elusive Obvious,
“…learning to us is learning to grasp the unknown”
Living in the unknown is very often about learning to take intelligent risks on our own behalf, and managing the anxiety of risk taking and it’s consequences. As those of you with children already know, their is a group of people KNOWN for their risk taking: Teenagers. Tonight, one of my friends and colleagues, Dr. Ruth Buczynski will be interviewing Dan Siegel, MD about risk-taking in general and teenagers in specific. I think you will find this to be quite an illuminating discussion for your life and practice.
The webinar is free if you enroll now. Or if you would like to have a 6-webinars from this series on “Brain Science” you can get all of the webinars in the series, including video downloads, audio downloads, and transcripts by signing up for a Gold Membership
cheers!
Ryan Nagy
writing from The Italian Coffee Company
Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico.
I have been in the process of reviewing some of the written transcripts from Dr. Feldenkrais’s various trainings and articles for a new project that I am pulling together. I have to admit, there are so many gems in Feldenkrais’ talks that it gets a little overwhelming at times.
One idea that he tries to convey in so many ways is the importance of variability of experience in learning new responses. For example,
“..another important feature of the group work is the continued novelty of situation that is maintained throughout the course. Once the novelty wears off, awareness is dulled and no learning takes place.” Mind and Body (1964) Moshe Feldenkrais.
As I wrote over on RyanNagy.com what Feldenkrais wrote is “obvious” to us now. But when he wrote it in 1964, is sure as hell was not.
“…when Moshe died in 1984, there was little, perhaps no, published research that showed that the brain of an adult could change. In fact, when I first returned to college in the mid 1990’s most scientists STILL believed the mature brain could not grow new brain cells nor regenerate connections and damaged functions. Incredible, isn’t it? They believed that the brain had to remain relatively fixed or stable in order to maintain long-term memories and skills. It is an vastly different world that we live in today. We can now have conversations about neurogenesis and brain change without seeming like lunatics.”
We, as practitioners already knew that the brain and nervous system can and do change through specific novel experiences. We knew as Feldenkrais practitioners and as people and now society and the scientific community is learning.
The larger question for me is how to keep up on what is known and has been published and how to use it to promote Feldenkrais for the betterment of society and ourselves. Tonight and perhaps tommorrow morning as well, I will be watching a free 60-minute webinar by Dr. Rick Hanson. Two parts of his talk have caught my eye:
The Importance of Novelty for Neuroplasticity: Why New Experiences Have Such a Transformative Effect on the Brain
The 5 Factors that Help Learning Take Hold and How They Promote Neuroplasticity
I think there will be some nuggets in this talk that will make me a better person and practitioner. If you are interested you can sign-up to get the webinar for free or pay to get downloadable copies as video, audio and written transcripts. Find and click the grey box that reads “Free Of Charge.” :Dr. Steve Hanson with NICABM.
cheers!
Ryan
Click to Download or View Larger Size
I thought this was kind of cool. A scan of one of the original flyers from the Feldenkrais training at Amherst. Originally posted by Elinor Silverstein on Facebook. You can click the image above to open in another window and then download. Full text of the flyer and a little commentary is available on my main website: The Amherst Training Flyer.
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Hi! Still reading this blog from time to time? I am not updating here very often, but I am blogging about the Feldenkrais Method and other topics over at http://www.ryannagy.com/feldenkrais/ Feel free to come to check it out if you want to be entertained, offended and perhaps read some breaking news about the Feldenkrais Method, some online conferences and new products. The world of internet and search marketing is continually changing and I will also be doing occasional updates on it from time-to-time.
What did you miss?
Feldenkrais Trainers Pick A New Guild Director. Recently updated.
Getting The Method (Your Method) Into The World. Some free and paid training for helping you to write a book about the Feldenkrais Method and related topics.
Constructivism and The Certainty of Uncertainty. Much as one must be aware of one’s unique movement habits to be an effective Feldenkrais practitioner, one must be aware of own’s idiosyncratic beliefs and values to be an effective agent of change.
Feldenkrais and The Female Brain. I was thinking about some of the amazing women pioneers we have in the Feldenkrais community.
Feldenkrais and Somatic Psychologies: Answer A Quick Question? I do not think this project will get off the ground, though it is, I believe, an important topic. The Feldenkrais community is so small, that doing a “sub-topic” of something only interested in by a few can make it financially unviable.
As you may already know, I am doing most of my Feldenkrais blogging on RyanNagy.com. The main reason is that I have been living in Mexico for three years and “Utah Feldenkrais” is no longer a label that fits me.
I though you might like to know that I may have a webinar series coming up regarding integrating the various “Body Psychotherapies” into a Feldenkrais practice. Many practitioners are already doing so and many are training with Peter Levine of “Somatic Experiencing” fame. For more information, see the blog post: Feldenkrais And Somatic Psychologies, or simply watch the YouTube video. Would like to have your questions on the topic.
You may have noticed that I do not write much on this blog anymore. You may even be relieved! Or as one anonymous Feldenkrais practitioner succinctly put it, “Hey asshole, did you finally get a life of your own?” The answer is of course, “Yes.” Though I do hope at some point David Bersin and Paul Rubin will consider writing me without the benefit of anonymity. Even my mother has stopped resorting to those tactics!
I am writing you today because my friend Amanda sent me an email asking me if I would help her promote something that is related to the Feldenkrais Method: mindfulness. In particular what to do when people say that a particular mindfulness strategy causes them anxiety or they simply refuse to engage in a particular meditation. Perhaps as a Feldenkrais practitioner or fan, you may have had a similar issue? That is, how do you get yourself “on the floor” to do Feldenkrais when you do not want to? Or how do you continue to do Feldenkrais if it brings you into areas of life that frighten you or that bring anxiety. And what about your clients? Put another way, when are the “signals” that scare us actually a starting point for deeper self-exploration, embodiedment and growth? I am wondering if the free video might spark a conversation on the topic. Would love the read any comments that you care to leave below after you have watched the video.
To get the link to video, you will have to enter your email. And later there will be a paid program of some sort. Though that is optional. Click to get the video.