I’m taking some time to do Ruthy Alon’s Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement series, called “Free Your Back.” (I don’t know where you can buy the series, I bought mine at the FGNA conference in Portland last year.) I’m doing the series for a number of reasons, not the least of which is research - I am readying a follow-up volume to my Feldenkrais Back Pain Relief mp3 download series, called “Eliminate Back Pain Now.” It’s always good to see what other practitioners have done already.

I discovered a fsacinating thing while doing the series. It was something that made me feel like a rank beginner. Somehow, over the last few years (or decades?) I had lost a great deal of movement in my ankles. Doing a particular lesson in the series, dropping down into the ground while standing, bending my knees, keeping a soft back and flexing my ankles so that I could drop down further…at some point…I realized that there was an additional amount…a HUGE amount…that I could easily and safely flex my ankles. The movement reverberated throgh my entire system, evoking ease and flexibility throughout.

I’ve done similar movements on my own, in trainings, in workshops, but somehow this time, it really “clicked” and I percieved the pattern.

A few minutes later, I went into my kitchen to get some soup. The soup is in the lowest cupboard, just a few inches off the ground. When I bent down to get it, I rode down into the crouching posture as if my joints had been oiled with warm butter. Hmmm. Love it.