February 3, 2010
“The negative aspect of learning to achieve aims is that we tend to stop learning when we have mastered sufficient skills to attain our immediate objective.” ~ Moshe Feldenkais, Awareness Through Movement
Teaching the Feldenkrais Method has been a joy for me because it has taught me to explore life. Having competed in gymnastics growing up, I learned to be very goal orientated. After my gymnastics career, I thought I would never find the same inspiration I had for gymnastics, in anything else in life. At the time, I thought this was because I had no competition to reach towards.
When I discovered the Feldenkrais Method I fell in love with the exploration of movement and the inner wisdom I gained from the lessons. This taught me to love learning for the sake of learning. I discovered that I am most happy when I am learning, and the aspect of training in gymnastics that I thrived upon, was the endless self-education and not the end result. Realizing this today, allows me to turn most everything I do into an interesting and worthy experience. This is all due to this wonderful method!
I would love to hear from all of you about how Feldenkrais has changed your outlook on your life. Following is information about my next workshop. I hope to hear from you.
Donna
Connected Arms; Changed Self-Image
Sunday, March 28, 2010
$60.00 (early registration)
“The parts of the body that are easily defined in the awareness are those that serve man daily, while the parts that are dull or mute in his awareness play only an indirect role in his life and are almost missing from his self-image when he is in action.” ~ Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
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January 4, 2010
Happy New Year Feldenkrais Students!
The deadline for early registration for the Quiet Hands, Quiet Mind Workshop, is this Sunday, January 10! This workshop is a great way to start off 2010. I hope to see you there.
Donna
Quiet Hands, Quiet Mind
Sunday, January 31, 2010
12 noon - 3:00 p.m.
$60.00 (early registration)
$75.00 (registration after Jan. 10)
If the hands lead, will the mind follow? Read more »
November 2, 2009
Can the Feldenkais Method help Attention Deficit Disorder, Compulsive Behaviors, Anxiety, Emotional and Mental States of Mind?
The answer is yes when one explores Feldenkrais, over time. What most people don’t realize is that the Feldenkrais Method is largely about growing the plasticity of the brain. Moshe Feldenkrais was most interested in helping people become flexible in mind. He is famous for saying, “What I’m after isn’t flexible bodies, but flexible brains. What I’m after is to restore each person to their human dignity. ”
Dr. Feldenkrais understood that an effective way to change the message patterns in the brain is through movement. Knowing that in order to move, the brain has to send nerve impulses to the muscles, he used movement as a vehicle to change peoples’ thought processes for the better. By increasing one’s movement repertoire, one can experience broader behavioral responses; opened emotional avenues; increased mental clarity; lengthened attention spans; lower anxiety levels; etc.
Moshe Feldenkais used movement as a way for people to become aware of themselves physically, behaviorally, environmentally, emotionally and mentally. He said, “I believe that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality. They are not just parts somehow related to each other, but an inseparable whole while functioning. A brain without a body could not think.”
This is why I love the Feldenkrais Method so much. When I work with people I love seeing them change not only physically, but in so many other ways. Most of my students come to me because they want to free themselves of physical pain, the ones that stay, stay because they grow as a person in all areas of their lives.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I will be teaching my classes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Saturday after! I hope to see you there!
Donna
September 17, 2009
Comfortable Zen Sitting
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009
12 noon - 3:00 p.m
$60.00 (before Sept. 26)
$70.00 (after Sept. 26)
Is your meditation practice interrupted because sitting is painful? If so, this workshop will help you to find a peaceful and active way to sit in meditation poses.
The Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement lessons explored will be done sitting on the floor and some while lying on the floor. You will learn how to move your entire body to help make sitting easier by finding skeletal support. This will also help to improve the flexibility in your hips, legs and pelvis.
Donna Bervinchak, Feldenkrais Practitioner will teach this workshop at the Alonzo King Lines Dance Center (formerly name the S.F. Dance Center), at 26 Seventh Street / Market St. To sign up for this workshop call the dance center at 415-863-3040 x221.
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August 12, 2009
Hi Students!
People ask me all the time if Feldenkrais can help them with… (fill in the blank). Today I would like to begin answering some frequent questions that I am asked. If there are any learning experiences that any of you would like to share with others on this blog, please let me know and I will include it next time.
Can Feldenkrais help reduce the occurrences of Migraine Headaches?
I will answer this from my own personal experience. In my twenties, I used to get migraines whenever I became stressed out. Luckily, I started to get trained to become a Feldenkrais Practitioner when I was 28 years old, and this was the beginning of helping myself. Through the Feldenkrais Method, I discovered that the way I held my head to the right side was a major contributing factor to my migraines. I also learned that my right eye was my dominant eye as well as the eye that I could see more clearly out of. Because I used this eye more it made me side bend my head to the side most of time. When I became tired; tried too hard; or was over stressed; this pattern would intensify. And this is when I would get a migraine.
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July 9, 2009
Hi Students,
Following are the next two workshops I will teach this year. Save the dates and sign up early to reserve a space.
I have included a new section on my website called, “other resources and links”. I hope you find the page interesting and helpful.
Donna
July 9, 2009
Dynamic Chair Sitting
Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009
12:00 noon - 3:00 P.M.
$60.00 (when you pay by July 25)
$75.00 (when you pay after July 25)
During this workshop we will explore Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement lessons while sitting in chairs. The lessons will teach you how to make sitting an active and engaged endeavor to help you prevent pain from occurring while sitting for long periods of time. These movement explorations will also help you improve your sitting posture, by finding skeletal support. This will help you prevent muscular stiffness and over use injuries from developing.
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Comfortable Zen Sitting
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009
$60.00 (when you pay by Sept. 26)
$70.00 (when you pay after Sept. 26)
Is your meditation practice interrupted because sitting is painful? If so this workshop will help you to find a peaceful and active way to sit in meditation poses.
Read more »
June 10, 2009
“The aim (of the Feldenkrais Method) is a person that is organized to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength, but through increased consciousness of how movement works.” ~Moshe Feldenkrais
Hi Students:
I am excited to share with all of you, new pictures on every section of my website. I feel the new compulation of pictures helps to capture the essence of the Feldenkrais Method more than the previous ones. Please send your friends and families to my site when you just can’t seem to convey to them what Feldenkrais is! Let me know if it helps. (Thank you, Deborah Welsh Photography!)
I will not be working from June 12-20th. Following is my Feldenkrais class schedule:
Saturday, June 13 at 11:45 a.m. at S. F. Dance Center: Sub.: Pat Bourne
Wednesday, June 17 at 11:30 a.m. at Club One: No Class will take place
Saturday, June 20 at S. F. Dance Center: Sub.: Pat Hendricks
Enjoy learning from the wonderful teachers that are subbing for me.
Sincerely, Donna
May 7, 2009
Hi Feldenkrais Students,
Following is an article in it’s entirety written by Moshe Feldenkrais. I picked out three sentences that I think, summarizes Moshe’s definition of health, from his article:
“In short, health is measured by the shock a person can take without his usual way of life being compromised.”
“…a healthy person is the one who can live his unavowed dreams fully.”
“The outstanding difference between such healthy people and the others is that they have found…, that learning is the gift of life. A special kind of learning: that of knowing oneself.”
I hope you are enticed to read the article in full, now. I highly recommend that you do. I think it will leave you pondering.
My next workshop, “Dynamic Sitting in Chairs”, will be on Sunday, August 9, 2009 from Noon - 3 pm. Save the date! I will give you more details later.
Sincerely, Donna
May 6, 2009
“A healthy person is one who can live fully his unavowed dreams.”
A few years before World War II, I was teaching judo to make a living while working at the Sorbonne with Joliot-Curie for my doctor’s degree in Science. One of my pupils turned out to be a hunter of wild animals in Africa, and he invited me to his house where I was left alone for a few minutes. I was startled when a lion walked in and came over to lick me. It had been brought to Paris as a cub and had grown up into a real lion.
A few months later the lion was taken by the police to the Paris Zoo. The lion had gone into the street and an old lady with a little Pekingese dog and dim eyesight, mistaking him for a big dog, chased him through the streets with her umbrella. After refusing food and drink for about ten days, the lion died in its cage. I have shortened the story by omitting the details.
Now there was a healthy animal that died, obviously due to an emotional trauma. But what is a healthy animal? If a healthy lion dies ten days after a sudden change in its life, what is health?
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