There are quite a few Yoga teachers, dance teachers, and other folks who have learned to integrate Feldenkrais into their teaching. And to do so in a way that is respectful to themselves and to their students. I will tell you the simple way that I learned to get comfortable teaching and to SEE myself as a Feldenkrais teacher. You can do this as well.

It was one of the most empowering experiences that I had ever created for myself. And I still do it. Every week.

The benefits of doing this are deep and multi-leveled. You become both the teacher and the student. As the teacher, when you first start recording, you may not feel confident. You may feel scared, you may even make a few mistakes. But later, when you listen to your recordings as the student, you will find that it does not matter. Why?

First off, as the student you want to have a positive experience. You are putting in your time and energy to do a session. You want a result. This is called "positive expectancy" and you will have it for two people - you the student and you the teacher. As you do the session, you may not - likely WILL not - hear the mistakes that you thought you made as a teacher. Or you may hear the mistakes but it does not matter because you know what the teacher - you - was trying to communicate. And in this way, you learn that the mistakes are not that important. That is, you realize that a small mistake does not change your positive experience - neither as the teacher nor as the student.

Does that make sense? If not, that's fine. Just do it and see how you evolve.

Question: Where do you get the transcripts and sessions? Check out my Easy Feldenkrais series. (But now there are also tons of complex and challengings sessions on there as well). You want Alexander Yanai? Ryan has Alexander Yanai.

The post Getting Comfortable Teaching Feldenkrais appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Oh my...the world of technology has changed dramatically since I first wrote this post five years ago. I have two words for you that are interested: Roam Research.

Have you struggled with information overload? Have you tried a multitude of software programs, smartphone apps and physical planners (Franklin Planner, anyone?) to keep lists, stay organized and be more productive?

Many people have tried various types of software programs to get organized. I sure as hell have. But maybe software is not the solution. Until recently none of my attempts to deal with information overload have worked.

None.

Having tried every type of planning system under that sun, I decided several years ago that my problem was not organization, but stress and too much computer time. So I tried laying down to do more Feldenkrais sessions. I spent more time with friends, more time in nature, more time walking my dogs. I did self-hypnosis sessions and several sessions with a well-known author and psychotherapist. I started reading more physical books and fewer ebooks and pdfs.

It helped a bit, I guess. But something was missing.

I was still distracted and brain-tired every god damn day. And even worse, my productivity was off....way off. It was getting so bad that I was considering quitting my various online businesses and getting a job in the real world. Maybe it was time to find a University teaching job and get back to the classroom?

In a fit of desperation, I decided to go back in time to my strategies of the early-1990's. That is, to a time before I had a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, and a kindle. To a time when I did nearly all of my organizing on paper.

For the last several weeks, I have been keeping my computer off or in the background and I now write down all my notes, quotes and anecdotes on notecards. Using a pen and paper to stay organized has been an absolute godsend. It has given me my time and attention back. It cuts down on my use of my laptop and other devices. That, in turn, helps me stay in the moment and limit distracting surfing of the web and other stimuli. And it helps me to review and organize my most important thoughts and ideas. Everything is literally "at hand." I do not have to power up a device to see what needs to be done. It has been the biggest change in my life in many, many years. I owe the change to a blog post from Ryan Holiday, a former student of the best-selling author Robert Greene. I read the blog post below, the heavens opened up and I got to work. If you are interested in such things, here is the link the blog post (and for the record, there is nothing to buy) Ryan Holiday's Note Card System.

Update: I wrote a draft of this blog post on October 24th, 2016 before editing and publishing it on November 8th. Using index cards is still a godsend and still helping me immensely. However, I have also expanded my use of paper and I have started printing out hard copies of articles, webpages and other written materials that I want to review off-screen.

If you look at the picture above, you will see a photo of the book, "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder - How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place. I highly recommend it.

Cheers!

Ryan

The post A Tip For Getting Offline (And Being More Productive) appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

To be considered a threat Feldenkrais needs to get better known and it needs to start growing exponentially. Then what? To be brutally honest, the work will need to start threatening the livelihoods of people. If thousands of people began cancelling their TMJ surgery or back pain surgery to do Feldenkrais, thereby costing medical practitioners millions of dollars - believe me - the attack dogs would come out in full force. And that is what we need; controversy, discussion and greater and greater cultural relevance for Feldenkrais ideas. It is great when books get written that mention "Feldenkrais" and when it gets mentioned in a national spelling bee (as it recently was). But we need more. Do you agree?

There is another idea that I am playing with, which is using Feldenkrais ideas to create new life scripts for people. The current ecological crises as well as the massive technology-driven changes in jobs (i.e. job loses and entire industries taken over by software) are slowly making many current life scripts irrelevant. It is a bit scary but it is a huge opportunity and need. What will happen when people spend their lives developing there awareness and ability to act and less on making money? More on that in a future post.

The third answer of what is needed to make Feldenkrais a threat is a little ephemeral, but just as real. It is something rarely spoken of. It centers on the fact there is a disconnect between the potential of the work and that of the people using the work. Feldenkrais fans spend a great deal of time talking about how great "the work is." That's fine. I agree that it certainly can be. But what is needed are the structures and processes to liberate the potential of people using the work. And that will require a massive restructuring of how people think of themselves in relation to work.

A Certified Person Is Not An Authority

As an example, consider this idea of "becoming your own authority". Well, talking about becoming your own authority and actually being your own authority are two very different things. Likewise, being "certified" and being an authority are also at odds. Think about it. Could anyone certify your sense of self? Could someone certify your personal agency and authority? If it has to be certified by an outside person or agency then it does not come from you and you do not have it. And if you do not have it, how can you teach it? Who certified Moshe Feldenkrais? Let him tell you:

Question To Moshe: "Who were your teachers?"

Feldenkrais: "Myself. I refused to go to the university to learn medicine. I refused to be wired in like everybody else. I said I don't mind making my own mistakes, but I don't want to learn by the authority of a known professor. He will convince me because he knows better and in half a year I will lose all my curiosity. I'll be learning like every body else and get a good diploma."

No one certified Moshe. And while I hope if you want to get a PhD or go to med school (or wherever) you go or not based on YOUR reasoning, not Moshe's, you still may want to consider the limitation of certification. No one can certify you as as an authority. No man, no woman, no organization. I will have much more to say about that in the upcoming webinar series on power literacy. It is a crucial piece needed for the growth of the work. And more importantly the growth of your work.

In the meantime, is not rather annoying that this potent and consequential work is seen by many powerful groups as peripheral, even inconsequential? Or...have we messed up and let the work become inconsequential? People see no need write editorials against Feldenkrais or protest it or pass laws banning its use. We could not even convince Obama to launch drone strikes against the Feldenkrais Guild nor any individual trainers. Hell, no one has threatened me at all the last few weeks. How lame is that?

But take heart. There is a solution. And yes, it involves awareness and action. But it will be scary to many people as it involves becoming aware of processes that are rarely written about. As I mentioned it, I am calling it "Power Literacy." It involves being literate in the processes that organize groups of people (and people within those groups). I am not talking solely about the Feldenkrais Guilds, but about any organization of humans whether a corporation, church or university.

I have never presented on this before, because I did not have the complete concepts to formulate it. And I mentioned, it is scary. But now I have the words and framework. Details on the upcoming webinars coming soon.

The post Will Feldenkrais Ever Be Considered A Threat? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

What do you think? What would an app designed to connect people to practitioners do? What functionality would it need? Or is there something that you as a practitioner (of whatever modality) would like to do with your cellphone that you have not been able to do?

The post What Would A Practitioner App Look Like? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Many of you here expect posts related to the work of Moshe Feldenkrais. And my habit has been to post about the man and his work. But my "other" lifelong interests -practical philosophy and epistemology, psychology, Ericksonian hypnosis and brief psychotherapy, travel, language learning - are all crying out for more attention. And, for the love of god - please help me- I may start blogging about Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and politics.

So...It may be time to start writing about whatever the hell I want here, just like a personal blog, but more incisive (and offensive, I hope). If I do that, and my future thoughts do not interest you, no problem. Feel free to unsubscribe, no hard feelings.

Content and Process

That being said, I have been doing a great deal of work online but I have not talked to you about it. Why?

Because the "content" of what I am doing - events for psychotherapists - is likely not interesting to you. I believe in creating specific products and solutions for specific groups of people - and then marketing directly to those people. So when I launch a product not geared towards Feldenkrais folks, I rarely mention it here. For example, in August of 2015 I launched Ericksonian Strategies in the Treatment of Depression. It was a very large and very successful online event. A month ago, I launched a similar online conference called "Solutions for Anxiety." and again, I did not promote it here on ryannagy.com for similar reasons: Most of you reading this blog are doing work related to that of Moshe Feldenkrais not Milton H. Erickson. And though I see many parallels to the two approaches, I have not had much luck convincing others. And I have come to see that convincing others is a massive waste of time.

However the process or the "what" of what I am doing - creating online events - may be relevant to you. Why? Because you could do what I do, but create Feldenkrais-themed online events or events for your particular niche. But the process of how to do those type of events is not something that I have the time to write about and teach.

Anyhow...I am a big believer in creating momentum for change by making small changes and doing something small - taking some small action - sometimes the smaller the better. And here I am writing you a blog post to make a change, create to build some momentum for future blog posts and conversations (I hope) and to say hello, to let you know a bit (just a bit) of what I have been up to and .

Feldenkrais

If I do write some Feldenkrais-themes posts, I may share with you my reasons for no longer writing about the FGNA and related matters such as what is happening with the "Feldenkrais Trainers" Short answer: The topics have little relevance to my professional life and even less relevance in the larger cultural dialogue. I can do everything that I want to do personally and professionally without involving any particular organization, so...why bother? I may share some ideas about when I think Feldenkrais is indicated as a modality. And when it is not. That is, what things can we say Feldenkrais is really good for, and for what things can we say it is not very effective. It is a conversation that is long overdue.

Or who knows, I may start blogging about my expat life here in Mexico and my journey into becoming reasonably fluent in Spanish. You want to change your self-image? Immerse yourself in a second and third language. It may not give you a complete self-image make over (nothing does, not even Feldenkrais), but it will help you evolve and find the limits of what is changeable and what is not. Perhaps we might talk about lifestyle design and running experiments as practitioners that help us create the ideal lives for our unique personalities, situations and bodies.

Anyhow, I hope you are doing great out there! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you are up to.

And here is a bonus photo for reading the entire post. The tattoo - alas -was temporary. It was for a "modern tribal" birthday party for a friend that lives in southern mexico where I was traveling at the time.

What are you up to these days?

The post I am rarely posting here. Do you care? appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

The Relational Self-Images

I am speaking to how people unconsciously represent their "self" to themselves and to others. In contrast to what some students of Feldenkrais believe, the key factor in creating lasting change is not always the self-image. At least not the one described by Moshe Feldenkrais. People can and do spend decades of their life using Feldenkrais sessions to expand and change their motor image, sometimes called the homunculus, and what Feldenkrais considered the major part of the self-image. That is very valuable work. I have done it and continue to do so.

But it is rarely - if ever - enough. One can dramatically change and expand the motor image and still not get what one wants from life. Or even make the attempt to get what one wants. Look around the Feldenkrais community. Do you find many that have achieved the success that they themselves want for themselves? Have you? Do you see people stuck in a certain place in the Feldenkrais community - some for decades? Have you been stuck? Well, if the Feldenkrais Method is so powerful why are so many people stuck?

The Self-Images

I do not expect most people to believe me right now, if ever. But hey, that is how it goes. I have had the experiences to prove it to myself and to a few others and more is on the way. What I have found is that most people in the various Feldenkrais communities have fixed their position in relation to others. This means that they continue to be "who they are" even if they want it to be different.

Why? It is actually very simple: People not only internally represent themselves, but they also internally represent themselves in relation to other people. Everyone carries around an image of his or herself, yes (more than one actually). These images contain but are not defined by the motor image. That is a critical point. But even more critical, people also carry around images of other key people within themselves. And how one represents one's self-image in relation to those others has a massive correlation with how one acts in the world.

Of the factors that people have under their personal control, the largest and most important factors for developing the self and life are these relational self-images. Again, without being aware of it, many practitioners have fixed their social position in society and in the Feldenkrais community. This means that continue to be "who they are" even in the midst of great changes that they have created with the work and even though they "want" it to be different.

You do not "act in accordance with your self-image" as Moshe stated. You act in accordance with your self-image(s) and relational images - those of yourself and those of others. All of which you have created internally and almost completely unconsciously. And all of which can be changed and re-arranged with the right strategy.

I realize I am writing in a largely abstract manner. More specifics will come in future posts and videos. For now, just be aware that if you have spent years trying to get a specific result with the Feldenkrais method and you have not been able to do so, it is not you that is the problem. The problem has been the strategies that you have been using. Feldenkrais can do some cool things. Some amazing things. Feldenkrais can change lives in ways that no other methods can. Yes, we can get biblical and say that sometimes Feldenkrais can "make the lame walk." But Feldenkrais cannot do everything. And some of the boldest claims put forth by some practitioners and trainers are unsupported. Emotional maturity? Economic independence? The ability to move without hesitation and preparation in any direction? There is much more to it than many people know.

More to come....

Ryan

The post Changing The Self-Image(s) appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

Nature prepares the baby for a life of defense and attack, for everything that is necessary so it would be able to survive without the police defending him, or the army defending him, because it is not always possible to depend on those brave people who are defending him. Each person needs to know how to defend himself. The world is built like this.

I personally do not look at a baby or child and think how "nature prepares the baby for a life of defense and attack." Nature prepares a baby for survival and that includes the connection, emotion, cognition, learning and in the main: adaptation.

The post Feldenkrais, Survivability and Aggression. appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

The Non-Habitual, Non-Habitual

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"Organisms that don't move, don't have brains. Trees don't have brains, bushes don't have brains, flowers don't have brains. In fact, there are some animals that don't move during certain stages of their lives. And during those stages, they don't have brains."

For example....

"The sea squirt is an aquatic animal that inhabits oceans. During the early stage of its life cycle, the sea squirt swims around looking for a good place to attach itself permanently. Once it finds the right rock, and attaches itself to it, it doesn't need its brain anymore because it will never need to move again. So it eats (resorbs) most of its brain. After all, why waste energy on a now useless organ? Better to get a good meal out of it."

I thought you might enjoy those quotes above. They are not from Moshe Feldenkrais, though I bet that was the first person that popped into your mind. The quotes are from a webpage that I am reading and enjoying the heck out of: A primer on evolutionary psychology from Leda Cosmides & John Tooby at the University of Calfornia at Santa Barbara.

Enjoy!

Ryan

The post Organisms That Do Not Move Do Not Have Brains appeared first on Emergent Somatics.

I referred the Gaby and Mia's San Francisco Evening class as being in the early 70's but it was actually the late 70's...1977, I believe. cheers!

The post The Feldenkrais Habit (A Quick Question) appeared first on Emergent Somatics.