- Oh, I'm just casually rewiring my brain
through subtle movement.
That sounds bizarre.
- I've had bad posture for my whole life.
I feel like I'm pretty set in my ways.
Is it really possible to rewire my brain?
- A long time ago it was thought that you couldn't do that.
(soft music)
Just think about the brain firing down,
like Christmas lights.
If the path is going to be going this way
and you hit the on button, it just shoots
down that way, you don't have a choice,
because that's the way the brain
has learned how to fire.
What we do is back it up and say, okay,
if I move this way instead of that way,
do I still have that same easy quality
without that resistance?
Once you change the direction or the amount
of effort or the spatial orientation,
the brain has to fire differently.
(soft music)
- So, is it like a massage?
- The idea is to convey movement,
a learning process, not to knead out a knot or
not to make something move bigger.
- When will I feel different?
Will it be like immediately?
- You will probably feel a major difference
after one lesson.
- I told Rich that I wanted to be a better runner,
and he made me kind of aware of
the different ways parts of my body moved
and certain imbalances I had.
He's just kind of like pushing
against my back ribs, here, and it kind of
rotates my body really slightly,
and then on this side it kind of just
doesn't move at all. (laughs)
- Once we started talking about my athletic history,
I realized that the issues I have
really aren't necessarily physical.
Kind of a common theme is that I never feel
like I'm, like I'm good enough.
- You know something?
That's okay.
- I'm sorry.
It really struck me that just talking about it
led me to that conclusion, and so
he decided that the lesson would be
about overcoming the toxic mindset
that I have inside my head.
- You're in charge.
This is your lesson.
If I move you and it creates uncomfortability,
anxiety, pain, you let me know and I'll do it different.
- So, I laid down on the table
and he starts gently adjusting my body.
- Shift my ribcage in a little,
did some weird stuff with my feet.
- He's just sort of very gently
sliding my head around.
I'm curious to what you're feeling for.
- When we start helping you feel this way, that way,
forward, back, which way's easiest?
So that by the time we're through,
a lot of things have become easier.
More or less pressure?
- That you're applying?
- Yeah.
- I don't...
I feel like I'm moving a lot more.
- That's not my question.
- So it would have to be-
- No, don't think it.
Feel it. (laughs)
You remember we did this earlier?
Feel where the pressure goes to, now, down your spine.
- It feels like it goes kind of straight down my spine,
like not to this left hip.
- We reassessed, and now both sides
of my body were moving a lot easier
than they were before.
- Okay, but how did that happen?
- Your brain and nervous system's job
is to take that information, which I'm creating
through moving you, and make sense out of it.
- It was interesting because he wouldn't
allow me to stand up on my own.
He wanted to carry me to standing position,
and that was apparently so that
I didn't return to my old habits.
He put his entire body weight on me,
and I just stood there just fine
because I was so well aligned.
It's almost like being returned to your infancy.
- If you watch a child, it doesn't just
roll over from its back to its belly.
It does many different iterations,
many different approximations
until it finds that effortless way to do it.
It's only when we attach value to it
that we get in our own way.
- So then in the second lesson
I decided, well, we got through all
the mental stuff yesterday.
Let's just talk about the marathon race that I'm doing.
I talked about my hamstring injury,
and he said, "Walk backwards."
- [Rich] Be honest.
How about that idea?
- Why?
Why?
How?
- It's about you sensing internally, experientially.
Once you feel that and have a bodily sensation
of that, you can do that over and over and over again
because you have a reference point to it.
- You know, bringing my hips forward
or my shoulders back, my body does that
in a certain way.
My right shoulder's so much easier.
- Isn't that crazy, right?
- Which is weird because
I feel like it's the opposite in my lower body.
- You think about running.
When you take a stride-
- Oh.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Rich kind of adjusts me a little bit
and shows me an easier or more efficient way to do it.
- Feel the difference when you go this way.
- Yeah.
- And you have to use force then, right?
- Right.
- So, and when you do that way.
- Yeah, that's much easier.
- Much easier.
So when you're running,
if you find a trajectory where
a force goes through you easier,
means you don't have to work as hard to run.
- Right.
- Into the second day, I'm already thinking
about things that sort of Rich showed me
about moving my knees forward and how that
changes where even my head is positioned.
It's like different points of my back
are touching the table that have never
been touching a surface before.
- When he comes to stand, he can articulate that
in standing because we're standing right now.
We're just in a different configuration in gravity.
- I felt a lot lighter on my feet,
I felt like I was just kind of
moving through space a lot easier.
- Feldenkrais probably works best when done
over long periods of time with consistent practice.
- It only lasted like a couple hours,
and then I fell back into old habits.
- Thinking about making very small adjustments
was something I'd never thought about before.
I had never thought about sitting up
straighter from my chest before.
- Definitely less of a skeptic,
because there was tangible proof at the end of each lesson,
but I still don't fully understand it,
and that still confuses me. (laughs)
- I really think that anyone can benefit
from Feldenkrais with the right practitioner,
but especially people who have been
through a traumatic physical or mental experience.
This could help open your body and mind
up to the vulnerability that is required for healing.
(soft music)