A Special Gift for You: A "Mini-Lesson"
This "And Be Grateful" Breathing Prayer Mini-Lesson was created & recorded by Maggie Miles as part of the support materials for the "Sacred Rest" class originally taught at First Christian Church, Morehead, KY in 2011. As such, it is a prayer. While Feldenkrais embraces the Body/Mind/Spirit as one system, most lessons are not explicitly spiritual. It still is a beautiful introduction to the Feldenkrais Method as taught at Holistic Healing.
Unless requested by the group, the virtual lessons for Summer Camp 2018 will not be breathing prayers, but exploratory movement lessons focusing on how to wake up easier and sleep better.
At-home recorded lessons are a wonderful support to taking regular classes, virtual classes, workshops, and/or private lessons. But, it's very important to maintain a connection with the practitioner and other participants by staying engaged as you can.
Please read the "How to Use" instructions before doing the lesson.
How to Use Audio Recordings:
My recommendation for you is to set aside 15 minutes (the mini-lesson is about that long) where you will not be interrupted. And be present and open to the lesson. It is a lovely lesson. It has the bonus of teaching you a breathing prayer, and doing the mini-lesson both sitting and lying in bed. While preparing this page, I did the lesson myself.
Once you've done it a few times, try doing it on your own--focusing not on getting the moves right but on generating comfort and ease. That your movements are your inner Healer guiding you. You are creating the feeling and moving better.
Unless requested by the group, the virtual lessons for Summer Camp 2018 will not be breathing prayers, but exploratory movement lessons focusing on how to wake up easier and sleep better.
At-home recorded lessons are a wonderful support to taking regular classes, virtual classes, workshops, and/or private lessons. But, it's very important to maintain a connection with the practitioner and other participants by staying engaged as you can.
Please read the "How to Use" instructions before doing the lesson.
How to Use Audio Recordings:
My recommendation for you is to set aside 15 minutes (the mini-lesson is about that long) where you will not be interrupted. And be present and open to the lesson. It is a lovely lesson. It has the bonus of teaching you a breathing prayer, and doing the mini-lesson both sitting and lying in bed. While preparing this page, I did the lesson myself.
Once you've done it a few times, try doing it on your own--focusing not on getting the moves right but on generating comfort and ease. That your movements are your inner Healer guiding you. You are creating the feeling and moving better.
Do the "And Be Grateful" Breathing Prayer Movement Mini-Lesson:
Continue Reading About How to "Do" Self-Care:
Taken from "Self-Care: Awaken the Healer Within" Class Page:
Doing Self-Care & Making Taking Care of Yourself a Good Habit:
The single best thing you can do to awaken and strengthen your inner Healer, besides coming to class, is to DO SELF-CARE daily.
That is where most of us fail. We buy materials, we go to workshops, but then our hectic lives still suffocate any attempt to develop a habit of self-care. Or we just go back to our old habits. We must make a change in our lives to make room for self-care. The family system needs to shift.
Not a HUGE step. Just a small shift for now. Baby steps. We are talking about 15 minutes a day.
The time we spend worrying about making a change, about making a self-care shift, is often more than 15 minutes a day. And it sure drains us.
If your family system cannot support your taking 15 minutes for yourself to be healthier, happier, and more flexible, then there are deeper problems than taking "me" time. Bottom line, this is about the family respecting you--and YOU respecting yourself.
In reality, most of the time, once we make the shift, our families shift with us. The system is more resilient than we think. If not, then get the support you need (talk to me).
You'll discover that once you put these mini-lessons into practice--when you actually do them on a daily basis, your life opens up, becomes more elastic. There's more room to breathe.
What I Say Apart from Movement Directions:
Listen carefully. There's lots of great commentary about doing the Feldenkrais Method and how to develop the skills to use your body, mind & spirit to heal yourself on these recordings. That's one main reason I'm putting them up for you to use during the class period. Even back then, I was talking about using yourself to generate comfort, ease, and healing. Even then I was talking about transforming your daily living to transform your life.
Switch them up:
I suggest learning a few of these mini-lessons we do in class and switching them around. In other words, don't do this lesson every day for three months. Switch them up. Perhaps in the next few classes we'll review the mini-lessons we've learned.
You can also, as Beverly asked, do a few movement sequences from a full lesson that you find particularly useful. Explore. Discover. Be open to learning something new about yourself.
Remember: it's not about getting the moves right--it's about the quality of awareness and attention you bring to the movement. And set your intention that you will be generating comfort and ease (or whatever you need). Do the movements with this intention. Trust your inner Healer who is learning with you.
These mini-lessons will be your foundation on which to build your self-care habit.