Symbiotic Relationships for Improvement

Symbiotic Relationships for Improvement

Symbiosis is about biology, where there is an interaction between two organisms in close proximity. Typically we are looking for an advantage to both, rather than a parasitic experience where one benefits and the other does not. Did you ever think about this relationship with nature? Trees produce oxygen to fuel us. Where would we be without clean, nourishing oxygen? You wouldn’t be potent, healthy or feel balanced and vital.

I work with many people by supporting them to find more efficiency, learning without judgment, how to sense and feel their capability for self learning and improvement. Let’s start with your breathing, your natural breath. There are many disciplines to teach how to breathe optimally, but when you came out of our mother’s womb, your breathing evolved naturally. We can explore different patterns of how we breathe but this is a natural gift we all experience. When you breathe freely, notice what changes in your state of being, your energy, vitality and ease. How often do you allow yourself to yawn or sigh? Notice what happens in your mouth, jaw, throat and also shortly after – isn’t there a rich feeling of awakening? Do you sense anything, maybe your head moves on top of your spine instead of habitually being pushed in front? This very subtle, yet powerful, awareness of sensations is the essence of learning the Feldenkrais Method.

Have you noticed when you’re all folded over, hunched in front of a screen, your posture is rounded and contracted. I can assure you in this posture of flexion, you’re not breathing freely. There is an impediment in the chest that keeps your lungs from receiving a full inhalation. When you are able to fully exhale, another rich, deep inhalation enters to nourish and cleanse all of your cells. Cleaning even the smallest powerhouse of mitochondria cells that generate most of the chemical energy needed to function your cell’s biochemical reactions.

Just like your ability to improve how to breathe, you can also enhance the cleansing of all your cells. When you are not able to completely exhale to allow for another inhalation, your mitochondria cells are also not able to open and empty the metabolic waste that builds up. So suck in another inhalation, sigh, yawn and notice what you feel as a result. Yawns are contagious in a really good way, notice what you notice as you begin to explore and play with teasing out a yawn or maybe a sigh of relief, a release of holding your breath.

This week I will be offering a series of 4 Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons to enhance your well being. All that is necessary is; your interest, being curious about learning how to get comfortable. When you attend to your comfort, you are able to listen and find easier pathways to enhance your well being. Maybe it’s just a breath away as we can often say to someone that we are taken with, “You take my breath away” and then you inhale again!

“The exercises here are intended to reduce effort in movement, for in order to recognize small changes in effort, the effort itself must first be reduced.” – Moshe Feldenkrais

I hope to see you this week for explorations in sensing and feeling self improvement together.

Warmest,

Peggi