Changing Seasons

Dear Reader,

Here in Texas, we’ve had a long, hot, dry summer. Until recently. Lately we’ve had a bit more rain—in some areas there was even some flooding. Also recently, kids have been going back to school. And fall schedules are on the horizon.

Something different is in the air. Maybe the barometric pressure has changed; maybe the economy is shifting; maybe traffic is different; maybe the moon is full—or waning or who knows what. I’m not really sure what’s shifting, but it seems that something is. Many of us are responding to something different in the air. And I don’t think we like it. We’re feeling stressed and we can’t quite put our fingers on why that is.

We humans seem to prefer for things to stay the same. Until it gets boring. Then we want something new and exciting. But if it gets too exciting, we call it stress and want things to get back to normal.

So, what’s a human to do? I’d like to suggest exploring movement as an avenue for learning how to adapt to change. In Feldenkrais lessons we explore both familiar and unfamiliar movements. We expand our sense of what our bodies do—and what’s possible for us to do. There’s something about this expanded awareness that can be deeply calming to ones nervous system. And when we’re calm, we can face the world with equanimity. It doesn’t mean that we’re always passive or still, but it does mean that we can calmly move forward with elegance and strength. We can move in ways we didn’t realize were possible. As I’ve said before, it seems like magic, but it’s not.