A Student’s Diary following Feldenkrais ATM &

Movement Intelligence Classes taught by Denise Deig

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Wendy Meredith, a retired Pharmacist, shared the diary she kept throughout her time in Feldenkrais ATM and Movement Intelligence classes. She notes the skills she learns and the changes and benefits she experiences in the classes.
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April 9th

You asked us to pay attention, in class, to any changes we might notice. I got a wonderful surprise coming up the 6 steps from our garage. I expected a little pain in my right knee, and there was none.  My right leg muscles lifted me with an improved authority. I was amazed not to favor the knee.
 
Another great thing--when I did my exercises this morning for my left ankle, the quality of movement was beyond anything I can remember in the last 5 years. The rotation range was excellent.  There was no crunching.  The joint felt oiled, and the movement was top quality. I hope I can keep these improvements. They mean so much to me. I cannot wait to get back into your class next week. 
- Wendy Meredith


​April 18th

My forward motion, for years, has felt like a full semi trailer moving across a long, swaying, suspension bridge against a very high wind. The hydraulics feel way off, and the laws of physics say a roll over is very possible. Choosing another route would be easier, but I do not want to do that.  I truly want to travel that long bridge, and I want to do it well. I feel persuaded that what you teach is going to help my stability a lot.
 
I have been asking for a path to healing and function for years. I found you accidentally on the Internet while trying to help a young friend with a very stiff neck.  I am a pharmacist, and she wanted me to recommend a pill....which was not the answer. I found a simple Feldenkrais movement and sent it to her. It worked. I tried it too and found it helpful. That is where the walk to you began. I needed to learn more about this method.
 
I am starting to feel revitalized as I think about and try the small, contrary challenges of these new ways to develop capacities. I have found that healing is not going back to anything like it was before, but instead is the establishment of a new normal which can be wonderful.  Confident in the hope of benefiting from this new normal,  I am striving to maintain a great attitude, and I am willing to work at being as improved as possible. Thank you for what you do.  
- Wendy Meredith

April 30th

I had a great time in your class. The back pain override was far less this visit. Still, a half hour after I got home, all enthusiastic and chatty, I got super grouchy with skeletal and sensory overload. The rotator-cuff-right-shoulder got stiff even though I had I protected it a lot during the class. Yet, it went to new reaches this morning, and all is good. 

​I am going shopping today with four ladies. This is a huge step out and away for me. I woke up at 4:45 rested and excited about my day. This is like being in my early teens and being offered the most wonderful new physical activity that is different and interesting with its own compelling energy. 
- Wendy Meredith

​May 8th

My Feldenkrais benefits are always more apparent to me well after class when the fresh, neuronal challenges have taken me to a new normal.  The next day, when all the extra "noise" settles down, I can reflect on the progress. I have lived for some time with misaligned hips.  There has been lots of pressure and tightness with minimum hip pain. I protect the lower back area religiously.

​In our Feldenkrais class Wednesday night, after we had done much of the work, I felt I should push down vertically on my right hip bone. I thought I felt something slip into place on the left.  It was a subtle shift, hardly noticeable. I was not even sure if anything had really happened. The following morning, lying on my back on the hard, living room floor, I realized the lower back contact point was dead center on the lower spine. I have lived a princess and pea life with a little lump always on the left when I lie supine.  I have never felt centered before.

My PT/Trainer, has worked on my lumbar and SI Joint areas.  He will get me straightened out, and I will go right back into misalignment in a week.  After your class, I asked him to evaluate my alignment.  He assessed my movement first and was very pleased with the flexibility. Then, he put me on the table and evaluated everything else. I was straight, and he was thrilled!  He wanted to hear all about the rib work. He was ecstatic for me and found everything wonderfully in line.  It is the best he has ever seen my hips. He asked me to do some balancing and noted that my core strength and balance is improved. He was incredulous with his assessment of me. The major pivot point in my progress has been the addition of Feldenkrais. It is great to find something so wonderfully interesting and healing in these later years.   
- Wendy Meredith

May 23rd

We just had a New York house guest, a concert pianist, who came to perform.  He and I were in conservatory together when we were kids.  He was a fantastic, child prodigy and has a great career.  He has a new coach who uses some Feldenkrais with his hands.  He was telling us that after all these years of performing and knowing that his hand strength/agility/balance/sensitivity were declining......he is now renewed. He had been balancing off the middle finger, and now this balance has been shifted to the little finger. The new pattern has rejuvenated something throughout his system and the entire gist is that everything is improved. 
- Wendy Meredith


June 2nd

I awoke feeling rested and exuberant about sending a few notes to friends. I have only just started some of my exercises for the day. The relaxed, small shoulder movements you taught me yesterday have allowed me to do my stepping exercises with new authority. Everything is in line and helping. I am able to experiment to see what feels better. I so want to be done feeling wobbly, and I think you are giving me the key. 
 
The time I have spent in you classes has been fantastic. Here I am at 73 enjoying my plastic brain and letting the physical side of me reorganize into lovely, new efficiencies. Yesterday was a wonderful, wonderful day all around. I am having some of the best fun of my life.
- Wendy Meredith

July 9th

I have kept asking and asking and asking for pathways, and that alone has kept a small but fading flame burning. I don't think I realized how discouraged I was feeling before coming to you. Your classes and the people in them have brought a renewed glow. I would have to call it HOPE. Without realizing it, my hope was fading.
 
Until classes start again in August, my gentle, new skills will carry me through.  I had forgotten going slowly.  I had forgotten "self care." 20% pressure is such a lovely tool.  I am using a pencil to feel the souls of my feet everyday. Now, I also feel my heels, which have been "absent" for years. Good body things are happening from that alone. It took a long time, but finally the meaning of integrating function has palpably come through. I am going to keep trying every day and hoping for more body awareness, because with it, comes such a special kind of healing. 
- Wendy Meredith