Tag

Movement Lessons

Oct 29
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw Bone

By Awareness Through Movement Lessons, Blog

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  The movement explorations are concerned primarily with providing your nervous system with CHOICE.  When you have choice, your nervous system responds with more pleasurable, and effortless movement and this translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility.  Improvements in jaw and facial pain problems are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Each class will be recorded and available to you as an .mp3 audio file.  Recordings are available for your personal use only and are not to be duplicated, reproduced, or posted on social media.

Week 1 – Foot and ankle, Head and Jaw.  Oscillations and differentiations.

Week 2 – Pushing through the foot – Skeletal connection from foot to jaw through the spine

Week 3 – Circles, Circles Circles – ankle, knee, and hip

Week 4 – Playing with Your Feet!

Week 5 – Mouth and Tongue Like a Drawer

Week 6 – Distancing the Toes

Week 7 –   Interlacing Your Toes

Week 8 – Rolling, Toes & Fingers interlaced

CLASS DETAILS:
Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027
9:30am-10:45am
Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  No drop-ins, no refunds. Pre-registration through credit card payment below:
Oct 29
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw Bone

By

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027

9:30am-10:45am

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  That better way translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility in uprightness. Improvements in jaw and facial pain conditions are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want true, lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  No drop-ins, no refunds. All payment formats must pre-register
Personal checks accepted.  Write check to Patricia Holman.  Mailing address: 767 Roca Street, Ashland Oregon 97520

REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE HERE:

Oct 29
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw bone

By

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027

9:30am-10:45am

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  That better way translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility in uprightness. Improvements in jaw and facial pain conditions are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want true, lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  No drop-ins, no refunds. All payment formats must pre-register
Personal checks accepted.  Write check to Patricia Holman.  Mailing address: 767 Roca Street, Ashland Oregon 97520

REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE HERE:

Oct 29
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw bone

By

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027

9:30am-10:45am

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  That better way translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility in uprightness. Improvements in jaw and facial pain conditions are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want true, lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  No drop-ins, no refunds. All payment formats must pre-register
Personal checks accepted.  Write check to Patricia Holman.  Mailing address: 767 Roca Street, Ashland Oregon 97520

REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE HERE:

Oct 29
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw Bone!

By

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027

9:30am-10:45am

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  That better way translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility in uprightness. Improvements in jaw and facial pain conditions are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want true, lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  All payment formats require pre-registration
No drop-ins, no refunds.
Personal checks accepted.  Write check to Patricia Holman.  Mailing address: 767 Roca Street, Ashland Oregon 97520

REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE HERE:

Sep 15
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw Bone

By

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027

9:30am-10:45am

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  That better way translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility in uprightness. Improvements in jaw and facial pain conditions are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want true, lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  No drop-ins, no refunds.
Personal checks accepted.  Write check to Patricia Holman.  Mailing address: 767 Roca Street, Ashland Oregon 97520

REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE HERE:

Sep 15
Love0

The Foot Bone’s Connected to the Jaw bone

By

The Foot Bone’s connected to the Jaw bone.  An 8 week, online class.

Monday  January 11th, 2027 – Monday, March 1, 2027

9:30am-10:45am

It may seem a stretch to claim that the foot and it’s toes have any direct relationship to the head, neck and jaw.  Structurally speaking, that’s true, but in this class, you will experience the direct relationship of these distant parts of yourself through functional movement explorations.  Each class will focus on a different functional trajectory: Mapping, and integrating these different functional relationships helps your brain to choose a better way.  That better way translates to reduced pain, improved balance and greater agility in uprightness. Improvements in jaw and facial pain conditions are also possible.

This is neuroplasticity work, where ‘exploration’ is more valuable than exercise.  If we want true, lasting change from chronic pain, we must speak the language of the brain.   Our brains respond and learn best when novelty, exploration, and variation are part of the movement experience.

If you have chronic pain or have pain or balance challenges in standing, or walking and jogging, then this is the class that will relieve, and improve that situation. And if you suffer with jaw or facial pain, linking the improved functions of the foot, ankle and toes further upstream often serves to relieve chronic pain in all these areas.

Pre-Registration for all 8 classes is required by December 30, 2026.  No drop-ins, no refunds. All payment formats must pre-register
Personal checks accepted.  Write check to Patricia Holman.  Mailing address: 767 Roca Street, Ashland Oregon 97520

REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE HERE:

Mar 03
Love0
Now do any damn thing you want

Now, Do Any Damn Thing You Want

By Awareness Through Movement Lessons, Feldenkrais Method, Healthy Adults, Moshe Feldenkrais

You’ve heard this phrase a hundred times before no doubt, and you understand what’s implied here. Anything goes.  It’s all good.  You’re free to choose anything. Be as crazy, or as sane or spontaneous as you want. Try anything. Trust your will to a goal.  There’s no wrong way, there are no mistakes.  One hears this famous Feldenkrais quote not infrequently, and usually in the environment of a movement lesson exploration.  I always chuckle when I hear it.

But what does Moshe really mean when he makes this request?

The effort involved in “doing any damn thing you want” is predictably excessive, habitual and ill-fitted to the stimulus that set it off.  Like a deep groove or well-travelled trail, there is no requirement for exploration or novelty or authentic and organic freedom of thought or action. Doing any damn thing you want produces ironically the opposite, a deeply grooved pattern of action, unoriginal and deeply conditioned. 

My professional life is devoted to helping others find greater comfort, vitality and reduced anxiety through the methodology of the somatic philosopher & martial artist, Moshe Feldenkrais.  One of the myriad ways I practice and embody the philosophy he developed is to study videotaped trainings he taught in the United States during the mid 1970’s to early 1980’s. 

Dr. Feldenkrais gives us 3 key inherent principles basic to any movement.  These are neuromuscular organization, timing and orientation.  When we attend to movement and offer novelty and variation within a structured movement exploration, then new learning occurs. 

Say, for example sitting in your chair as you read this, that you want to be more comfortable.  Do anything to accomplish greater comfort.

Go ahead! Be curious, what did you do to make yourself more comfortable?  Can you express it nonverbally or out loud doesn’t matter, how you make yourself more comfortable?  Listen to yourself…, that’s right. Give your self some time to experience how you did the thing to make yourself more comfortable.

Okay, now let that go for a moment.

Okay, now, let’s move with intention and awareness:

Return to your chair sitting away from the chair back, move back and return from the middle to the right side sitz bone.  Right, and return middle to right and back to middle.  Many times. Make it easy, make it comfortable. Keep going.  What is your head doing?  Where does it go?  Can you express what is happening in the movement of your head when you rock to the right sitz bone? How does your spine move when you rock to the right side?  How does it bend, flex, or arch?  What is happening there? Can you express in words or images what you sense and observe?

Now go to the left sitz bone, rock leftwards and return to middle, slowly, many times.  Make it easy, make it comfortable. Keep going.  What is your head doing?  Where does it go?  Can you express what is happening in the movement of your head when you rock to the left side sitz bone? How does your spine move when you rock to the left side?  How does it bend, flex, or arch?  What is happening there? Can you express in words or images what you sense and observe?

Let’s go in another direction.  Move and shift your weight to your pubic bone, so arrange yourself so that from where you’re sitting on yourselves, you shift your weight to your pubic bone.  Many times. Make it easy, make it comfortable. Keep going.  What is your head doing?  Where does it go?  Can you express what is happening in the movement of your head when you rock to your pubic bone? How does your spine move when you rock forwards like this?  How does it bend, flex, or arch?  What is happening there? Can you express in words or images what you sense and observe?

And now shift weight to your tailbone, many times.

Make it easy, make it comfortable. Keep going.  What is your head doing?  Where does it go?  Can you express what is happening in the movement of your head when you rock to your tailbone? How does your spine move when you rock here?  How does it bend, flex, or arch?  What is happening there? Can you express in words or images what you sense and observe?

Okay, that’s it. rest yourself.  Close your eyes if you want, and rest, breathe.    

For one last time, go ahead! Sense how you make yourself more comfortable in sitting. 

Go ahead, do any damn thing you want!

Can you more deeply sense and observe how the freedom to move is actually more informed and with a deeper integrity now that you’ve paid attention to yourself in this way? How do you sense this freedom in yourself?  What has changed? 

And this was Moshe’s exemplary & loving guidance

Disengaging from habitual patterns is necessary for learning.  When you know what you’re doing, and have a clearer knowledge of self and ability, you reduce the effort of the will & release habitual thought & action.  

Then,  you can do any damn thing you want! 

Jan 18
Love0

Dignify Yourself with Feldenkrais Method Lessons!

By Awareness Through Movement Lessons, Healthy Adults

There are predictable moments in Feldenkrais Method movement lessons when deeper truths about ourselves emerge.  

My personal experience while doing movement lessons, as well as my students receiving lessons or engaged in classes, is that at some point doing a movement lesson, our personal, self-sensing experience suddenly expands or deepens to reveal a deeper human truth, or reality about movement and embodiment.  It’s indescribable, ineffable, and closely resembling the experience and state of dignity.  

Questioning our intentions and historical conditioning is an important step in this journey of self awareness.   Sadly, we have lost the ability to recognize that our choices have been severely restricted and in some cases entirely eliminated. We absorb faulty cultural directives and movement doctrines based on the ‘right way to move” or prohibitions and directives long after an injury or trauma event has passed.  We have given away our freedom to choose the full range of human movement  in order to satisfy an ‘other’s’ recommendations as to what constitutes healthy movement or proper action.  Ironically, these prohibitions for ‘correct’ movement is what truly restricts our choice & freedom, limits our vitality and severely compromises our self-confidence.  We move further and further away from embodied dignity when we relinquish self-direction and allow decision-making of our bodies to others we believe have more intelligence or understanding than ourselves.

Critical thinking, creative, choice-based, long lasting and healing solutions can not survive in this environment.  Physical and emotional pain emerge and amplify in this state. If you’ve read to this point, I’m certain you have an inkling of this wasteland.

Are you ready to make a change?

I invite you to embrace a native orientation to yourself from an embodied perspective; to understand and immerse yourself in the discovery of somatic relationships that uncover innate and native truths about the ‘how’ of your movement.  These are native organization patterns that are waiting to be uncovered and strengthened in present moment experience.  When we experience the self in this way, pain, suffering, conditioning and excess effort move into the background, absorbed and integrated into a larger and more potent self experience.

Exploring choice and freedom in self-directed movement is inherently a human characteristic and is essential for learning and growth.  In this way, strengthening our capacity for inner responsibility and consequence.   Choice in this state is grounded in human dignity that flows through us, as we trust to confide and have confidence in our actions, as they are now rooted in a somatic ground, simultaneously both personal and collective.

I invite you to make space for this worthwhile endeavor of skillful movement & human dignity as a path to health.  

Call today for in-person or online Neuoro-Movement lessons with Patricia.