What is Feldenkrais?

Buddha said Whatever you think, it won't be that way. Feldenkrais is that way. Beginners and experienced teachers both agree, it has to be experienced to be understood - just reading about it is not enough. All I can do here is give you some history, a few hints and some of my own insights.  

Moshe Feldenkrais was born in 1904 in the Ukraine. He left home at age 14 to walk to Palestine (now known as Israel). After ten years there, he went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne –physics, mathematics, and electrical and mechanical engineering. He earned a Doctor of Science, and began working with Frederic Joliot-Curie, director or the Curie Institute. During this time he learned Judo from Jigoro Kano, the Japanese Minister of Education. After obtaining his black belt he taught in France and wrote books on Judo.

Kano had tried before to train other westerners for this work, with no success. Kano saw that Feldenkrais had a special quality, and he did, indeed, successfully teach martial arts to many Europeans before WW II. Feldenkrais was on one of the last boats from France to England at Dunkirk, at the start of WW II and he carried with him, in a suitcase, lab notes from Joliot-Curie regarding research on nuclear fission, plans for an incendiary bomb, and two quarts of heavy water that were later used in the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. (Later, however, for personal reasons he declined an invitation to work for the Manhattan Project in USA). He worked in England for the Admiralty during WWII, helping to develop and refine sonar.

During this time he because interested in human development – especially human movement – and he learned much from observing babies in the office of his wife, Yona Rubenstein, who was a pediatrician. Feldenkrais had a photographic memory, and he studied his wife’s medical books, and in addition became a self-taught neurologist. Because of an old knee injury, he applied his new skills to curing the knee, and he succeeded in learning to walk again and even resume his judo.

He began to work – hands on – with friends in need, and he called this work Functional Integration®. Later he developed a format for teaching these ideas to groups of people, and he called this Awareness Through Movement®.

In 1950 Feldenkrais returned to Israel and worked for their Defense Force, and was instrumental in starting Israel’s nuclear program. He taught in Israel and Europe through the 1950’s and first taught in America in 1971. He continued to teach often in America until his death in 1984 at age 80.

Today there are thousands of Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioners® worldwide, with many thousands of students who have gained significant benefits from Feldenkrais work. Why is the Feldenkrais work unique, different from all other kinds of body therapies?

1) Practitioners – to be certified – must spend hundreds of hours on the floor doing Awareness Through Movement® (ATM). Before teaching movement – we first thoroughly experience it in our own bodies - it takes at least four year in a training!  Then we can better help others with movement difficulties. We feel, as a matter of integrity, that we must embody the ideas we are attempting to teach. Also, as a practical matter, we cannot teach what we do not thoroughly understand ourselves.

2) We focus on human movement – not on manipulation, energy flows, tissue work, joint mechanics, massage or osteopathic protocols, etc. When movement is rightly approached, it can and does beneficially affect all those other things, but without focusing on them at all, consciously. That’s because our brain has evolved to let us move and accomplish things, without worrying about details like how tight a particular muscle is, or whether the soft tissue of the left knee is torqued. In a Feldenkrais context, for instance, we may do what looks like massage – but we’re thinking about facilitating your awareness of that area, we’re thinking about improving your movement by doing that. The focus is movement, not muscles. 

Our work includes the sensory-motor cortex (concerned with human sensing and movement) rather than only the lower brain functions. By contrast, many other types of body work focus on reflexes, releasing muscle tightness, aligning bones, stretching and aligning the soft tissue, nerve manipulations, energy work, clearing nerve pathways, releasing unconscious, deeply held muscles due to inability to express emotions, or past traumas, helping the blood to flow, etc. These are mostly low brain functions. The conscious mind of a normal person is not active in those arenas, ordinarily. I don't mean to be critical of other types of work. I just want to draw a distinction. A lot of improvement can be had with these types of interventions and manipulations. Often such work is exactly what is needed. If I have recently had a car accident, and all my bones are jarred out of place, I'd prefer to see a chiropractor or osteopath rather than a Feldenkrais practitioner! Although, there are Feldenkrais Practitioners who can work effectively in that kind of situation. 

Moshe Feldenkrais, however, was aware that the higher brain functions had a “supervisory capacity” over the lower brain functions. The question comes up – what does the “higher brain” or cortex, have to do with the lower brain functions? How can it “supervise”? The answer is movement. For instance, we can do “ordinary” movements either consciously, or automatically – unconsciously. We can breathe consciously, or unconsciously. When the understanding comes that the brain is mostly about movement, and movement includes all those lower brain functions, a whole new world of exploration and healing opens. We can reconfigure how we move – making it more elegant, with less tension and stress and compression – even though the low brain had formed a strong habit of moving you in a different way. The conscious mind can intervene – through the cortex, or higher brain – and that process is called Awareness Through Movement® or Functional Integration®.

Using movement as the primary focus, bones can come into better alignment, nerve function can be restored, soft tissue can be reconfigured back to normal, over-tight muscles can learn to soften and lengthen, blood circulation can be optimized, posture can be straightened, and much more. The wonderful thing about this, is that we are active participants, not helpless observers. That alone is unbelievably empowering and transformative. Every Feldenkrais Practitioner knows this, and wants to shout it from the rooftops, but we know people will think we are crazy. We smile and accept the compliment when people tell us "you have healing hands", yet we know the Work is so powerful, that anyone who does it will be accused of the same thing. Moshe Feldenkrais was also told the same thing, and he once responded (and I paraphrase) "Then why are my students told they have healing hands, when that was not the case before they learned this work?"

So with Feldenkrais we start a process of creative exploration of movement, with awareness as the focus. It seems so simple, so silly, or juvenile to think of doing a “movement lesson”. That’s for kids! I know how to move. That is how I used to think. Early in my Feldenkrais Training, I got regular doses of humility pills – discovering how wrong I was. It is a lifetime study, and even then you only scratch the surface. That’s no exaggeration. Scientists can spend their whole career, for example, on just one area of the brain. The study of human movement encompasses all areas of the brain. And, there is a whole lot more to it than just learning how the brain works!

3) The Feldenkrais touch is unique. Clients comment that you cannot get that “Feldenkrais Feeling....the melt down…that Feldenkrais zone” in any other place. They'll say things like "Feldenkrais is like the Cadillac of bodywork." We are sensing the whole body with our hands, we are listening for movement potentials, we are listening for learning opportunities, we are not imposing or doing something to you. Who else will touch you like that? It is a listening, “going with” touch, that is not invested in correcting, adjusting, or teaching – not directly. There is humor, trust, patience, allowing and profound acceptance in that kind of touch. It allows hidden resources, forgotten youthful hopes and dreams to surface – and these are potent healing forces. Such touch, all by itself, is potent - and combined with human movement, the results can be catalytic. In my opinion that’s why people experience “The Feldenkrais zone” during private sessions. And why, in one session, results can be obtained that were not forthcoming after many years of treatment with other modalities.

4) We’re working with the whole person – not just body parts. The common thread is a restoration and refinement of the organic ability to move with grace, intelligence, ease, power and poise – which is nearly always accompanied by decompression of all the joints, clarified awareness of skeletal support, better circulation, better sleep. Clients often are mystified: “How can something so gentle be so profound?” It's really not mysterious. When you help a person do more easily what they do most in life, and what the brain is mostly about - and which gets more difficult with aging -  certainly that will be a wonderful internal feeling. It is no small thing to help people move in a better way!  Many clients look forward to their hour on the Feldenkrais table as their “favorite time of the week”. Benefits come over time – some take less time, other more time. 

The neurological activity in the brain – and the rest of the body also – is concerned mostly (some physiologists put the figure at 95% others at 97% or higher) about movement. Logically, then, a modality must include some type of movement work to include "the whole person." Human movement includes proprioception, balance, self-image, muscular coordination, vision, hearing, touch, environmental mapping, and memory of movement patterns, release of extraneous tension, etc. 

5) Learning is a primary focus in The Feldenkrais Work. Movement is the very foundation of how we go about the process of learning anything new. That's not immediately obvious, is it? Yet, we spent prodigious amounts of time and energy as infants playfully learning new movements. Feldenkrais students spend many hours systematically studying that process both with ATM and Functional Integration (FI),  and we use those insights in working with people of all ages. What babies are doing is extremely sophisticated  and unbelievably intelligent; yet the fact that it appears playful, random and not guided by reason or will power leads many adults to dismiss it as of little significance. 

Those of us who do this work believe, beyond any doubt, that the kind of learning process we were engaged in during our early years can and should be continued throughout life. Instead, so many of us walk, reach, stand, sit, breathe, work, talk, think, feel or even sleep and  rest with "frozen" movement patterns, with predictable neurological circuits always being activated, predictable muscular configurations, an unchanging self-image. Why not make the whole thing dynamic? Life becomes something very different, more exciting, then. You can maneuver your way through life, then, with much greater finesse. It is kind of cool to learn to walk in new way - your friends will no longer recognize you by how you walk! This is a common event.

Feldenkrais is little like cold ocean water. You put your little toe in the water - to test it. You wonder whether you could get used to swimming in that cold water. A wave may wash over you; you may have one intriguing experience with Feldenkrais. You may decide it was a fluke, and ignore the whole thing, or you may jump in the water and swim - getting regularly involved in doing ATM (Awareness Through Movement) or seeing a practitioner privately for FI (Functional Integration) work once or twice a week for some time. Personally, I feel the reason many people do not get involved is not because they don't know about it's transformative power. They do. It's because they do know, but don't want to change. 

I usually tell my clients, "All I ask is that you have a little bit of an open mind. The way your "world is" may begin to shift, and that's part of your healing. Maybe the reason you are in this trouble is because Life wants you to grow and evolve, learn some important lessons."

When a person becomes aware that a certain  habit is tormenting him - perhaps he wants to stop smoking, or improve his posture, or change his diet - it  is a very common experience to encounter many difficulties and repeated failures in the process of trying to change. Yet, when The Feldenkrais Work enters the picture, the situation takes on a different aspect. We no longer have to work so hard to change a habit, to learn new ways of doing things. It can happen playfully, effortlessly, easily! 

Personal transformation and growth is inherent in The Feldenkrais Work.  One can become so engaged in the process that one does not even know he is changing so much! That's why it is said: "If you attend a Feldenkrais Training, be sure your spouse or partner attends with you." Otherwise - and it's a common event - you'll see a lot of relationship break-ups during a four-year training. One partner changed, the other did not. One of my colleagues, who attended the Amherst Feldenkrais training (the last training  that Moshe himself conducted) said that when she met some old friends after the training, at first they did even recognize her!

So, movement and awareness encompasses a very large playing field. So, why not work with them to enhance whatever else you are trying to accomplish, whether that is healing through tradition medicine, sports, excellence in a professional career, dance, theater, pain relief, or you-name-it? Why not include what the brain is mostly “about” instead of focusing on body parts as the problem, or on limited physiological concepts such as stretching, strengthening, coordination enhancement, fitness etc as a solution? That is what seems juvenile after one has had some years of intense Feldenkrais exposure. In fact, it is true that Feldenkrais practitioners work with physical therapy patients, dancers, athletes, children, adults and children with disabilities, healthy people with pain of some kind, and more.

We Feldenkrais Practitioners are sometimes accused of being arrogant, of rudely dismissing other types of bodywork as not as good or not as scientific as what others do. I apologize for that, and I hope I don't communicate that here. I love what I do, and how Feldenkrais  has packaged all these ideas and insights, and perhaps my enthusiasm gets the better of me.

In all humility I must admit that "all roads lead to Rome" and that other types of work do incorporate much of what we in the Feldenkrais community sometimes think  is our exclusive property. Some psychiatrists today, for example, actually work with breathing and posture as part of their treatment. Moshe would be very happy to know that. The human  body and mind is the teacher, and anyone who is dedicated to being effective as a healer or teacher or coach - will most certainly, sooner or later - have the same insights as I have described as perhaps being unique to Feldenkrais.  It's just that Moshe was one of the first to put it all together like this. It's an attractive package.  I've found, for example, that the average massage therapist knows far more about movement, posture, balance, breathing, learning and transformation than is commonly appreciated. 

Massage today cannot be dismissed as simply an unintelligent process of "muscle  rubbing" to release tension temporarily. Some massage therapists, in fact, know more practical procedures related to somatic healing than many Feldenkrais students! That is a fact I no longer question, after numerous rude awakenings. I used to think we had a corner on the market.  As one of my colleagues bluntly puts it "If I have trouble with my body, give me an experienced massage therapist any day, compared to  a brand new Feldenkrais student! Those veteran CMTs can work magic, they really know what they are doing. They have worked with so many people, for so many years, hands-on!"  

The fact that the work is called  "massage" is quite clever, since it is a concept that the average person can understand, appreciate - and will pay lots of money to have it done to him. That's meeting people where they are at. But what they actually do - and anyone who has seriously studied massage can tell you this - can often be far more sophisticated than simply rubbing muscles to release tension and make you feel good. Just pick up any massage magazine at a newsstand, and thumb through the articles, you'll get a clue. 

Thirty years of informal research, study and practice in the field of health, nutrition and personal growth helped me to recognize the power of the Feldenkrais Work. That was 16 years ago, and I have not looked back.

Finally, it has to be said: The Feldenkrais Method® requires participation. Little benefit accrues unless you start doing some kind of movement or awareness work, or regularly see a practitioner for private work. I recommend 6 private lessons a year, or 12 ATM lessons. This means an hour a week, or more. I have found that can keep you out of pain and trouble as you grow older. That is not much time to dedicate to correct a lifetime of habits that may be causing you pain and difficulty. In my blog, stevehamlin.blogspot.com, I give many insights, movement “tricks,” practical suggestions. I hope you try out some of these.

Plantar Fasciitis

This condition can be extremely painful, and prevent one from standing or walking for any length of time with any degree of comfort. It can be discouraging, when you get lots of treatment, PT, chiropractic, home exercises, massage, etc and nothing helps. You might contemplate surgery or injections to deaden the pain. 

Here I will describe one such case I had, and the successful outcome, when nothing else helped. For a serious case like his, it takes private work to resolve; nonetheless on your own there is much you can do for yourself, in a Feldenkrais sense. In fact, this condition, more than almost any other, requires full participation and willingness to learn new things, from the client. If you stay with the old way of thinking, you get the old familiar treatments and diagnostics. 

Here is what my client had to say about my work:

The Elusive Obvious
Awareness through movement…that’s what it’s called.
At first glance, the expression may appear as just another cliché; yet I quickly came to understand that the “awareness” referred to is –self-awareness- and I know the value of such knowledge to each and everyone is nothing less than profound. The Delphic oracle’s invocation to “know yourself” is bought to mind when one seriously considers the work of Moshe Feldenkrais.

The Feldenkrais Method, as it is popularly known, was introduced to me by Steven Hamlin when I was suffering with a condition known as “plantar fasciitis.” Before meeting Steven I had tried, in vain, to find relief for my complaint with various conventional and alternative medicine practitioners. By that time, regrettably, I had spent considerable time and money seeking a remedy.

What was missing from all the sources I had earlier consulted was a clear understanding of the causes of the condition which troubled me. And that is the great strength of Feldenkrais: it has the ability to provide you with a comprehensible appreciation of what it is that is happening in your body when you are suffering from a physical ailment. It allows you to know how certain physical/mechanical adjustments to long conditioned skeletal and muscular habits most likely will take you down a path that leads to abatement and relief for your health condition.

For this to occur, of course, two things are necessary (i) a limited amount of patience and (ii) a knowledgeable and skilled practitioner to introduce you to an understanding of the Feldenkrais Method.

For me Steven Hamlin was that practitioner and I am thankful for his effort.

Daniel Collins
West Hollywood
California


Plantar Fasciitis is almost certainly related to how you stand and walk, and how you breathe and move and the stability of your balance, and most especially your posture. It is not simply that something has gone wrong with your feet, and therefore you need to have injections, or stretches, or special arches or shoes or exercises or massage for your feet! All that may help, but as many discover, they are as likely to aggravate the condition if the underlying cause is elsewhere, as it usually is. Plus, all that can be a distraction from doing the real work that is necessary.

For this condition, private work is needed for sure, for three or more sessions. Involvement in ATM - Awareness Through Movement - is also highly recommended. Daniel Collins, in fact, was doing ATM from the online "Open ATM Project."  He simply choose all the ATM's he could find related to balance and the feet or legs, although other choices would have been good also. Plantar fasciitis is one of the more difficult conditions, and it can take a little time. Most likely you created it over a lifetime of poor movement and postural habits, and that cannot be turned around overnight. All of a sudden it hits you, and you want quick relief. 

What will I do if you come to me for this condition? Whatever intuitively comes to me as the important underlying issue, every session, while fully taking into account your history and traditional methods. I do not work from textbooks, or from any proscribed method, although I have learned and studied (and even use, occasionally) many such methods. I deliberately try to empty myself to stay open to the best avenue, moment by moment. I have learned over many years this is the safest, and best approach – and the quickest. Whenever I have a plan, as opposed to being the appreciative creative wanderer, I am less effective, and might even hurt a client. You'll need to push your "reset" button to get used to this type of "treatment". 

But certain true, general statements that apply to all cases of Plantar Fasciitis can be made. When balance is compromised in standing it is natural - no, inevitable -  for the body to grip the bottom of the feet. No amount of stretching or exercise or cortisone shots or custom arches or relaxation drills will change that dynamic. It’s about physical survival – balance – and the low brain, not the conscious mind, is in charge of that arena. So the issue becomes to improve your balance in standing and walking and running (if you run).

Of course, if you tell me that you are no longer able to stand or walk, we will proceed along a different avenue at first – get the feet better first, well enough so you can walk. That involves many things, too much to describe here.

How to improve balance – stability in standing and walking? This can involve many factors, such as ankle mobility, walking style, missing early developmental movements (if some of these were missing, walking will be balance-compromised, too stiff and tense, for the adult, and the best fix is to go back and actually do the missing movements), a rib cage that is too stiff, and more.

Perhaps you were an only child, and because of that your parents encouraged you to walk too soon, before your balance was stable. You stiffened your whole body in fear, even as your mother or father held your hand to force you to walk. From that moment, you learned to walk stiffly, with tight gripping soles-of-the-feet. It just took you all these years for the feet to finally flare up and complain with pain. Your feet were never the problem – in fact they did a heroic work all those years. Don’t try to fix what is not broken. Go to the underlying cause. When you do a Feldenkrais fix, you fix your whole life, as well as the presenting problem.

Perhaps you were toilet trained too early, before you could discriminate between tensing the whole pelvis, and tensing just the necessary sphincter muscles. So, you learned early on to have an uptight pelvis, all the time, to please mommy or daddy. An uptight pelvis guarantees a belly that is too tight, a jaw that is too tight, and soles of the feet that grip the floor all the time your are standing, and even when you are not! And today you do not know how to release that longstanding tension. It takes time, and mentoring, and good movement, some breathing work, patience and willingness and right understanding. Judging from what I see walking down the street, very few persons have learned not to be uptight there.

Perhaps you have learned to stand and walk with a back that is too tight and chest is lifted too high – almost as if you are falling backwards. Like a “good” military posture. If so, that literally guarantees that your toes will always be gripping the floor and the soles of your feet will be tense.

Perhaps  you learned - too well - to "sit up straight" and you did this  will power, stiffening the back, instead of using intelligence and skill, and deep relaxation and movement strategies. All my articles concerning chairs and sitting cover this aspect in great detail. 

Or perhaps the reverse is true. You are too slumped and balance is compromised the other way. Your ankles are working overtime, and your toes are always gripping the floor. Postural correction, and intelligent ankles are the solution here, not fixing the feet!

Or perhaps your posture is more or less OK, but your eyesight is failing, and therefore your balance is compromised. The solution here lies in ankle work, and learning to balance in standing and walking with less visual dominance and dependence. Relaxed, confident and balanced standing and walking then becomes the immediate goal.  If blind people can do it, at any age, so can you - with great success, safely and fairly quickly. Are you willing to jump into that new world of learning? For instance, you could walk along touching a wall with your eyes closed for a little while. This will help your ankles wake up and teach your other proprioceptive senses to get busy and help you balance, since the eyes are doing nothing! The body is smart that way. You could also stand in front of a wall, close your eyes, and fall into the wall – if you can do this safely and confidently. Gradually introduce degrees of difficulty, turn a little, cross the legs, etc. Balance is quickly improved in this fashion. But proceed slowly and safely, and it’s best done under the guidance of a qualified teacher.

Go for a walk, have someone hold your hand, and keep your eyes closed. How long can you do that? Do this once a week for a month, and see the changes.

Any variety you can introduce into your usual routine of body exercise or movement will be beneficial, since it will make your nervous system more competent. For instance, you can run and walk backwards - some persons even run marathons backwards. This is not going to give immediate relief, but long term, it is a helpful strategy. 

An important exercise for all people with this condition: In bed, after waking up, draw the alphabet with your big toes. Relax the feet as you do this, since the movement must come through the ankles. The feet cannot move the feet! Any tension in your feet will interfere with the movement. This develops ankles mobility, softness of the feet, and intelligent usage of the feet and ankles. It will definitely improve your balance. Please read all my articles on feet and balance for more on this issue. 

Another key exercise – which temporarily may seem to make it worse – is to make it a point to stand up and balance on one foot, whenever you tie your shoe laces (If you can). Not everyone can do this, but if you can, it is a sure way to quickly improve your balance. This is more “hard core” and not for everyone. If  you do yoga, emphasize one-legged postures. You want to improve your balance, you want to improve  the competency of  your ankles. 

Another helpful idea – learn to sense your talus bones as you stand and walk. Here you need a teacher to show you the skeleton, and show you - with hands on your feet, as you stand -  how to to sense this part of the body, as you sway your body back and forth, or in circles. We should balance from the talus bone (working with the lower leg muscles), not from gripping the feet, which immobilizes the ankles!! Roman soldiers were taught to stand, march and fight “from the talus bone”. It seems a strange idea, but when you learn it, walking and standing becomes so much easier!

When a foot takes weight it should lengthen and soften – not grip. What is your habit, as a foot takes weight, when walking? Your cure may be as simple as changing that habit. And that means waking up the ankles, being able to sense the talus, and improving your balance skills.

Another idea – walk with many variations of the ankles. Walk toes in, then toes out. Walk on the inside edges of the feet, then the outside edges. Walk on your heels. Walk on your toes. Walk on uneven surfaces barefoot. Give your feet the blessing of natural, uneven surfaces to walk upon. Walk on sand. Don’t use the same shoes all the time. Vary your shoes. The body thrives on variety and the incentive to adapt. Do even a few minutes of this now and then, and improvements will come. Of course, start easy, stop at any sign of pain, and move slowly at first. The paradox here is that the feet crave stimulation and variety of contact in weight bearing - in fact it is essential to have this for full recovery - yet it is painful, because of the inflammation. That's why a skilled practitioner is a must. 

The most important thing you can do for yourself: Do an online ATM lesson as indicated earlier, one hour per week without fail. And practice and review parts of that lesson during the week. This will improve your balance like nothing else can, expand and refine your body awareness and self-image, and reconfigure your movement patterns so that in time, your condition will naturally, unobtrusively simply vanish. In time it will cover all the bases, what is behind your plantar fasciitis, and your entire outlook on life, your ability to sleep, your mood, everything improves.

What is it like to experience this kind of "healing"? You need patience. Those muscles at the bottom of the feet release layer-by-layer. You can work for weeks, or months, and not get to the end. But then, all of a sudden - no pain, you're back to normal. Over many years, your body (your brain) has added a layer of tension and guarding to the soles of the feet, every time your balance was compromised. As we grow older, that happens more often. To reverse this process is something you won't have patience to endure, unless you are warned up front:  it may seem like the process goes on forever, and it seems like so many things to learn. No, there is a definite end. 

As with any condition involving inflammation, diet and lifestyle are best modified to minimize inflammation. Start now, by eliminating grains from your diet for a month or more (especially wheat, rye, barley and oats, the gluten grains), reducing simple carbohydrates, and taking appropriate supplementation – especially anti-inflammatory type fish oils. Work with a nutritionist. 

I also advocate appropriate usage of castor oil, topically, as it helps greatly to speed healing, reduce inflammation, and reduce pain. Please see my article on castor oil. I also recommend getting educated about MSG – see www.MSGmyth.com or Truthinlabeling.org. Whether you not you believe you are sensitive to MSG, go for one month on an MSG free diet (this is not easy); you have little to lose, lots to gain, more than you may realize. MSG can be in the coffee you drink at a fast food restaurant - MSG stimulates your desire to eat more, especially more junk food. MSG is injected into rats, to insure that they become obese!  Yet, MSG is pervasive in our food supply. Even non-organic lettuce has often been sprayed with MSG. One has to take great precautions.  Just try it for 30 days. 

Here are additional strategies: eat more raw foods; increase your intake of Vitamin D or sunlight is also very important. Take MSM supplements. Think green - green drinks, cooked green vegetables (do a web search for Bhieler Broth), more salads. These dietary strategies can reduce inflammation and quicken your healing. 

Take just one or two of these ideas and work with them for a week or two.

Of course your particular situation may be the result of an injury, or trouble with the foot itself (in rare cases). In addition to proceeding along the above lines, I will also work to align the bones of the feet, do stretching work on the calf muscles (as they are usually extremely tight, especially for former runners, who did not stretch enough during their running career!), and soften the rib cage, since comfortable balance in standing is not possible without a supple rib cage – all this, of course, takes time. Also, I will use osteopathic protocols (from Ortho-Bionomy® or Jones – Strain/Counterstrain) to position-release the many tender points that are found in the foot, ankle and knee area (with the understanding that it is not a cure but a necessary and helpful measure).

"But I Need My Lumbar Curve"

It's OK to slump while sleeping! This strange advice is practically guaranteed to give some relief from back pain or trouble. It can even change your life! It costs nothing, is very easy and pleasant, and has no downside. But of course you need to understand it thoroughly first, and practice it for a few weeks. Then you'll do it automatically, since it feels so good. This is a longer post, so please bear with me. 

As a Feldenkrais Practitioner I often tell people (if they have back pain, and sleep on their side) "It's helpful to curl into fetal pose - slumping while lying on your side - and be sure to have a good pillow (preferably down) under your head and under your top leg." While this may seem counter-intuitive, the opposite of good posture, surprisingly it offers relief from back pain, and people feel more rested, refreshed.

Many are resistant to this, thinking it will interfere with good breathing, it will create a tendency to slump, the internal organs will be compressed, or "I need my lumbar curve" as a client recently told me. Other therapists have explained to her the importance of a good lumbar curve. So she wanted more explanation for my strange advice. So I launched into one of my Feldenkrais explanations, as I love to do.  

Would it make sense for you to keep your fist clenched all day long, because in the evening you are going to work out with a punching bag? Of course not. A lumbar curve is needed for weight bearing, in erect sitting or standing particularly. You don't need a lumbar curve while side lying in bed. You don't need a lumbar curve while resting on your back, either. Some folks keep their lumbar muscles so tight, I can feel their heat with my hand. Muscles can't and don't fully relax until they are encouraged and allowed to lengthen. 

Lumbar back muscles cannot lengthen unless you explore rounding out the lumbar curve. Sleep is a good time to do that. Let those muscles rest then, and they will work better for you for the rest of your life. But if you keep vigilantly tensing them, to keep your "proper" lumbar curve, eventually they will get so fatigued, or go deeply into rock-hard spasms, that any sudden or over-strong movement in that area will over-stretch the ligaments. Or more commonly, the entire back is recruited to take the place of the lumbar curve, which should be down near the sacrum. This stiffens the entire back, creates an elevated or lengthened lumbar curve and destroys the natural curves of the spine. That's a high price to pay! That describes so many people. Then you'll have lots of movement challenges and compensation and possibly  chronic back pain. I've seen too many cases of low back surgery, where the patient is left in chronic pain. Get smarter before you need surgery (That's not to say that there are not good back surgeries, I just never see those people). 

We need supple, intelligent, strong and responsive body parts - with nothing being held obstinately, unresponsively stiff all the time. Body parts need to cooperate, coordinate with each other. If you have any ideas of holding yourself in any "correct" posture, you create havoc with body part coordinations. It is useful to consider posture in the context of movement - after all, posture comes from movement, and is a dynamic (not static, as many believe) process, as scientists are confirming today. 

This very desirable, human-birthright natural level of functioning is not found in repetitive or corrective exercise, stretching or yoga, or practicing holding yourself in a particular way. It takes a variety of creative, challenging, yet safe, movements in a comfortable learning environment for that.  That is one way to describe Awareness Through Movement. 

For instance, in walking the lumbar spine does (or should do) something different on the left vs the right side, with each step we take. Holding the spine and pelvis stiff, as most do, will prevent this, overworking the hip joints - i.e. compensation areas take over - such as Lumbar 1, which is a trouble spot for most everyone. It's not the fault of Lumbar 1. It's doing the best it can. If you keep correcting Lumbar 1 (or wherever) with chiropractic, yoga, stretching  - you name  it - without dealing with the underlying issue, you'll have L1 trouble for life. And, because of constant manipulation or adjustment of the lumbar spine, or wherever,  the ligaments there can eventually become unstable; then your troubles multiply. 

In Awareness Through Movement (ATM) classes you'll spend hours exploring various concepts - such as the pre-curser infant movements to walking, where you actually practice differential activation of the lumbar spine. Or maybe you'll do something apparently completely unrelated to the lumbar spine, yet, after the hour, you stand up to stand and walk, and it is like you have a new lumbar spine. It is not something you can acquire any other way, as far as I know. We have to slow down, feel, be adaptive, creative and  playful (yet focused)  to create this kind of organic learning (like a baby does). It is so different from exercise or yoga that group classes are extremely helpful. On our own, alone at home, with a ATM tape, we too easily revert to our old patterns - obey instructions mindlessly, be goal oriented, work too hard. When everyone in a group is actually not doing those things, it is much easier.  

Will curling up into fetal position cause restricted breathing? Perhaps, but you don't need much air as you sleep, so shallow breathing is appropriate. Plus, the curling will gradually encourage relaxation and breath movement in the upper, middle and lower back (instead of the front) - a new concept to most people who are overly frontal in their body image. Abdominal breathing, for most, is too frontal, with the belly going in and out. Lots of people believe abdominal breathing is good, but don't do it for this reason. Who wants a large belly? So instead the belly is continually held too tight, and the poor lumbar spine has to work much harder to keep us erect. Unopposed belly tension means slumping, and we vigilantly prevent this by tensing (hard!) the lumbar spine - and upper and middle back. This tension is aggravated by harmful emotions (we over-tighten the belly) - which is why emotional clearing work can help back pain. This creates a scenario that Thomas Hanna called "The Dark Vise" where the lumbar spine is like in a vise. Discs get damaged, nerves get compressed, etc. 

When we breathe more to the back and sides of the abdomen, and not just the front, we begin to feel relief,  pleasant feelings. Relaxed fetal position is one way to teach yourself that.

Will curling up into fetal position cause compression of the internal organs? Certainly, but this kind of compression is beneficial, if you don't overdo the rounding at first. There is a breath rhythm, and no weight bearing, so the process is gentle. WIth compression, toxins can be squeezed out, like with a sponge. Many spend hours  doing yoga, to compress and flush out toxins, and provide the internal organs with fresh blood. For instance, if you always keep your chest lifted (even while sleeping) , as in "good posture" when will the front part of the lungs ever be squeezed (like a sponge) to eliminate their toxins? Never.  

By side-lying in fetal position, we take the legs out from under us, as they are in standing. This gives our brain a message to relax the back extensor muscles, which always must tense to hold up upright in standing. This neurological release of back tension can be felt immediately. A rounded back while sleeping means the back muscles can lengthen and relax. 

Also - consider that a martial artist in ready-position, a baseball player receiving a ground ball, a tennis player in ready-position - is curled up into "slumped posture".  It is actually a very functional stance - lots of movement choices, lots of power, like a coiled spring. If one of these persons were instead to stiffen their back, as in "good lumbar curve" or "proper erect posture" their athletic performance would suffer.  It's obvious that Nature never intended that we should never slump. 

Why shouldn't we consider that sitting is a form of athletic activity, that requires some mentoring?  Truly, it does. Consider that sitting or standing stiffly erect is not stable - you could be pushed over backwards very easily (hence, the popularity of lumbar supports and back rests). Can unstable sitting be good? 

When I first heard these arguments, I was taken aback. It contradicted much of what I thought I understood about posture, but I could not deny the truth of it. 

All this is not a recommendation to slump instead of having good posture. Experienced Feldenkrais students don't inappropriately slump when sitting. Yet, neither do they have rock-hard - painful to touch -  back muscles, like almost everyone else. They spent years learning how to do this. 

Slumping has a proper time and place, like anything else. If you want to learn to sit or stand without stiffening the chest and back, a good choice would be to get involved with the Feldenkrais Method, find a practitioner, or take ATM classes. There is a surprisingly lot to learn, and weekly Awareness Through Movement classes, for your entire life, is the cheapest, easiest way. 

To sum up this strange Feldenkrais advice:

• Take 3-5 seconds as you lie in bed to adjust your body, "chin in, knees to to chest, soften the ribs - put a pillow under the upper leg." and perhaps once or twice during the night if you waken.  It's easiest in side-lying but can also be done lying on the back with pillows under the knees, and a small cushion tucked under the lower part of the pelvis, to round out the lumbar.
• If you use a body pillow or sleep on your stomach, still you can round slightly and keep the chin slightly more in, etc.  Whatever you can do is fine; gentle persistence is the key. 
• Start slowly, relax into it, never use force. Force can over-stretch ligaments, making joints unstable, especially when muscles are still tense.   

In a few weeks, this can be a reliable habit, then you won't need to even think about it again. When you wake up and go about your day - forget all about this, just be normal. You don't have to keep doing anything at all. By doing this, life will be easier for you. Relaxation will become more accessible, you'll be more gentle with your co-workers, and yourself. Your breathing will naturally be easier and fuller. This simple protocol is pure magic, in many ways. You'll never give it up if you explore it in a gentle, easy manner. 

Actually, you can forget all these details, and simply remember "it's OK to slump while sleeping" and that is all you need to know.