Feldenkrais® Your New Year

Here we are, at the beginning of another New Year. Everything is new, fresh, and we get to start with a clean slate. Anything is possible in a New Year, including keeping our New Year’s Resolutions.

However, the resolutions which sounded quite reasonable during the festivities and over-indulgences of the holidays are now staring us in the face. The let down after the holidays, the cold weather, demands of work, family, and the reality of time constraints might defeat us before we even get started.

Before you feel overwhelmed or out of control, let some of the principles of Feldenkrais help you get started on your New Year’s Resolutions, and help you meet your goals with ease and grace.

1). Organize yourself. Put your goals down in writing to allow your nervous system to begin activating the appropriate pathways you need before you even begin to implement them.

2). Use your imagination to see yourself achieving your goals easily and effortlessly. Visualization will activate the pathways in your brain to transition your goals from intention to action.

3). Be gentle with yourself and eliminate the judgment. There is no right or wrong, good or bad, better or worse, just opportunities to learn. If you aren’t achieving your goals, you are not failing; you are learning.

4). Approach your goals with a spirit of interest and playful curiosity. If you approach your goals with all the anticipation of a root canal, it may be a bit painful. Attitude is everything.

5). Focus on the journey rather than the end result. It is the process that is important, and after all, we are all works in progress.

6). Slow yourself down, pay attention to yourself, and make small changes. Small changes allow time for your nervous system to integrate new pathways into long-lasting patterns.

The most important principle to remember is that your nervous system is always listening. It is always paying attention to the messages you are sending it, and it will respond accordingly. So, speak softly and gently to yourself, and speak positive words of encouragement.

Giving yourself a positive opportunity to learn and grow is the best gift you can give yourself, and the best New Year Resolution you can make. Feldenkrais can help you do that. Feldenkrais….it makes the impossible possible, the possible easy, and the easy effortless!