One of the unexpected benefits of working on SageGuide is that I get to experience all kinds of eye-opening practices, treatments, and classes that I would never have known about otherwise. Yesterday, I had one such experience when I attended my first Feldenkrais® class. What’s that, you say? Well, according to the Feldenkrais Guild of North America®, the Feldenkrais Method® is about “Learning to move with less effort.” But, to be honest, I didn’t find this so compelling initially, since I think I move pretty effortlessly already. But Feldenkrais® practitioner, Josh Shreiber Shalem, informed me that a master teacher was in town and so I thought I’d check it out and see what this was really about.

I attended a class held at The Arlington Center and taught by visiting instructor, Larry Goldfarb. I and several other students each laid out a quilt folded in half and then lay ourselves down in our comfy clothes—sort of like a sleepover, I thought. Then Larry explained Feldenkrais® in a way that made me see it as a sort of psychotherapy for the body. He pointed out that our current movements are based on what we learned when we were kids; movements that maybe made sense at the time, but are not serving us now. Feldenkrais® helps you recognize these habitual patterns and gives you an opportunity to reassess and modify them.

Throughout the class, Larry guided us through a series of seemingly simple movements: lying on our sides and lifting our heads in various ways, lifting and rotating our legs. He asked us to pay attention to the multitude of body parts that were engaged in each action. “When you raise your head, what’s happening with your rib cage? What about your spine?” I initially approached it like a yoga class, lifting my leg as far as I could, seeing how much I could stretch. But Larry would remind me that “we’re not seeing how far we can go, we’re paying attention to what happens at the beginning of a movement.” So that’s what I finally did.

I was surprised by how many body parts are affected by even simple movements. Even though the movements we did weren’t particularly challenging, I was having one of those, “feeling muscles I didn’t even know I had” experiences. Clearly, I spend way too much time at a computer because I could feel streams of tension in various and odd locations around my back and neck, tension I wasn’t previously aware of. Of course, that’s why this practice falls within the realm of mindbody movement. And now, because of Larry (and Josh), I’ve become more mindful of my body and more educated about the Feldenkrais Method®. Thank you.

For more information about Feldenkrais®, you can check out Larry’s amusing and informative article “Felden-WHAT?” and other information at The Feldenkrais Guild of America® and you can find out about his upcoming courses and trainings at Mind in Motion. You can also find local Feldenkrais practitioners at SageGuide.

Alternative medicine is a contentious topic. Mention alternative health to anyone and you’re likely to get one of two responses. Either the person will rave about their fabulous acupuncturist/chiropractor/yoga instructor or they’ll rage about what a crock it all is. It makes sense that people have strong reactions to healthcare, given that there’s so much at stake. The quality of our lives; big business and obscene amounts of money; and political movements all hinge on this issue.

Yet, still, I’m often taken aback when I get verbally assaulted for running an alternative health and wellness website. I had such an experience one evening at a cocktail party. I was getting along nicely with a man when the topic of our professions came up. He, it turns out, was a physician who treated cancer patients and was openly hostile when I told him about SageGuide.com. He said that it was irresponsible to encourage patients to take their health matters into their own hands and into the hands of lesser-trained practitioners. He seemed greatly disturbed by the idea that patients would be interested in seeking alternatives to his care until . . . I pointed out that so many illnesses Americans suffer from are lifestyle driven. I explained that in the alternative healthcare world, practitioners often spend ample time with their patients learning about patients’ lifestyles, exploring connections between illness and life habits, and guiding patients toward making lasting changes in their lives. Then, surprisingly, the doctor I was talking to did a complete one-eighty. He conceded that helping patients adjust their lifestyles can be a difficult task and something he doesn’t have the time or resources to do. He seemed to relax into the idea that there was a place for alternative healthcare that didn’t completely dislodge his place in the field of medicine.

It’s widely recognized that many illnesses suffered by Americans are due to lifestyle, so it makes sense to pursue resources to help people embrace healthy lifestyle choices. Yet these resources are often hard to find. SageGuide.com is set up to make these resources easy to access and gives us an array of choices to choose from.

In upcoming blog posts, we’ll be sharing more about Boston area resources for healthy living by giving you first-hand accounts of local events, interviews with practitioners, and stories from local people about their experiences.