Rosemarie Morgan-Watson's Blog

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12 Mar 2012 | Habits

We have to have habits: they play an important role in our development and our ability to function in our day-to-day activities.

However, a second look at our automatic selves can be illuminating. And until we take stock of our habits, and see those “forgotten” parts of self, real change can be difficult. We can stay in our comfort zone, following the same track, missing out on possible advantages and benefits.

In Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (FI), we are lighting up those well-known pathways, which have dissolved into our consciousness, and asking the questions that can open up new avenues. These can be a re-discovery or completely new ways of approach.
So which habits serve us and which are no longer needed, surplus to requirement ? Do we have to know the answer to the questions asked?

I would say no....in fact, if we can keep the questions running and be content with not having the answers, we may be less likely to get stuck, both in mind and body. Flexibility and adaptability can be a habit to feel comfortable with!

28 Feb 2012 | Received Wisdom and the Rules..

Life is full of rules and in given contexts they are essential. However when it comes to human beings nothing fits everyone, all of the time. Each individual has their own history, their own unique experiences and understandings of their life and of their own physical and mental make-up.

Rules for me are guidelines in many circumstances: they are the automatic response but often need modifying. The more we are able to discriminate quickly and efficiently, and have the ability to adapt, the more successful we are at navigating life’s surprises. And so it is with our physical being. Rather than sticking to rigid ideas of the ways we should stand, sit , walk, breathe, our strength lies in staying awake to the whole range of possibilities.

Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes provide an interesting environment where you are not told to “do it like this”, “watch me and copy,” which equates to “do it my way”. Feldenkrais promotes learning and self-discovery with guided lessons, where there are suggested movements and alternatives for each person to explore...always working within the limits, avoiding strain and discovering that if we are kind to ourselves and maintain awareness, those boundaries alter as our mind and body integrate the information. We can observe ourselves, sense our movements: movements that are taken apart and put back together again.

This playful attitude illuminates the varying relationships and at the same time allows a release and an abiding in ourselves. Those changes can seem miraculous. Indeed we are truly miraculous...regardless of our abilities, and when we honour and recognise the inherent magnificence of who we are, we can listen to others but also listen to our own wisdom, and act.

16 Feb 2012 | A Question of Posture...

What does this word mean to you?
What messages have you received about “good” or “correct” posture?

Posture affects the way that bones and joints of the skeleton work with the muscles. The word tends to conjure up some fixed image, but usually we adopt different postures according to our environment, our physical well-being, our emotional state.

There is no ideal posture, however we do want to avoid getting into fixed patterns which lead to aches, pains and injuries.

Many of us spend long periods of time on chairs and sitting creates pressure on the spines of the discs . Further discomfort arises from designs unsuited for our particular physical needs.
There are benefits from finding a quality, an ease in posture where there is balance to allow the skeleton to support us and where muscles tension is minimalised.

How do we do this?

In many ways you could say it is by going back to how we learnt as children: we play! We let go of the 'shoulds', the expectations, the judgements, the need to compete and succeed and we learn by being alive to how we are moving, by being curious and simply exploring the possibilities.

Feldenkrais Classes provide guided lessons of step by step movements working on a particular theme to re-discover how the whole of us communicates and functions.
We generally work with small, slow movements to start with, in an atmosphere of mindfulness.
This is not a “workout”: pushing and pulling, feeling pain is positively discouraged. Our system wants to learn ease, not strain.

The movements show up the relationships between various parts of the skeleton and how postural balance can be achieved or disturbed. We identify those postures which lead to un-necessary tensions and fatigue. It is not out muscles we are looking to train to be more or less tense. Instead we want to raise our sensitivity to the messages between our mind and our body. Years of habits lead to a kind of forgetting and as we get older, maybe an acceptance of “feeling older” in our physical being.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! Raise your awareness, tune in and be amazed at what happens.
At the end of the lesson, individuals report the changes they perceive and notice the sense of freedom.