As a potential blogger, I declare I have mastery over the practice of procrastination, so this blog was conceived but not written during a long, hot, humid and sweaty summer of 2011 in New York City, earthquakes and hurricanes included, in between drinking many iced coffees in the Velvet Peach Café in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn and also the Heavenly Rest Café, Fifth Ave, Manhattan and - still drinking - the best poured Tanqueray and Tonics in my favourite bar in the world, Juniors in Brooklyn.
"We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups. That's fine with us. Every morning we glow and in the evening we glow again." Rumi
When I am not imbibing beverages, I was also creating words while pounding the streets of New York, sitting on the 2, 3, 4, and 5 subway trains from Brooklyn to the Bronx and listening to my favourite rapper and wordsmith, Eminem.
I apologise to those reading this on both sides of the Atlantic who are alarmed at my bad spelling, I have to admit to encouraging the torment provided by my American spellchecker and my long forgotten English education. ENOUGH procrastination, let us commence with some history.
"There is a way between voice and presence where information flows." Rumi
My Mother tells me I learned to walk at an early age, but then I had to learn to walk again at the age of 26 after an inauspicious impact with a speeding Saab that put me in hospital for three months with many broken limbs and joints. Upon leaving hospital, I can remember looking and walking like the Bride of Frankenstein, my body had been stitched together, surgically moulded and fused to eventually resemble - Me - again. My eventual recovery from a catalogue of disabilities led to a lifetime study of the Movement Sciences.
Along the way before I became a Feldenkrais Teacher, I took a Feldenkrais workshop on Walking. I had shed by this time the Bride of Frankenstein walk but after two days of learning to move with awareness, lubricating and freeing the joints, discovering and using the whole body to move effortlessly, I felt like a wood nymph or at least my concept of a wood nymph gliding gracefully through space.
I presented my walk to the world by walking down my street, Midwood Street in Brooklyn to the Prospect Park Subway. This takes ten minutes and to my joy I was approached in the best possible way by three gorgeous men who asked me out, I must mention they were all younger than me so I was happy as I was approaching my sell by date, 40 years old! All it took was the Walk.
Let us rewind now to when I was 11 and I was enjoying, I think a country walk with my sister and brother-in-law when my sister remarked about how much my hips swayed/bottom wiggled when I walked. As I was 11 and perceived everything my sister said as a direct insult, I stored her observation away in that recess in the mind assigned for irritating comments and misdeeds that become longheld grudges. I am sure her remark influenced my future walk as I was embarrassed to sway, wiggle, wobble or whatever. Although this was meant to be an innocuous comment and it could have been much worse (and I am using this as a soft example) it does typify very simply how we can allow ourselves to absorb emotionally, physically, mentally words, events or trauma that set up movement patterns for life.
Fast forward 30 years after my Walking workshop, my sister again made the same comment during a very fast nocturnal walk back from a New York subway, except this time I did not take offence. I enjoyed the healthy, natural process of walking with the whole body with the added advantage of undulating hips that moved as they were meant to and all those annoying twinges had disappeared.
My Feldenkrais study and training was the best thing I ever accomplished. My orthopaedic catalogue on the number of injuries I have sustained in my life dissolved through learning to move freely without pain, restriction or trauma.
"Beautiful" Akon
To emphasise the pure beauty of graceful posture and walking, let me remind you of a wonderful scene in the film 'Gentlemen Prefer Bondes' (yes, why wouldn't I like this?) when the great Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell enter the dining room of the cruise ship they are travelling on. They walk across the floor with breathtaking grace, posture and undulating hips. The room is silenced in open mouthed admiration. The ladies are not even dressed to the nines but the way they moved delights the eyes of all who are watching. Wow, what would that be like to experience jaw dropping admiration just for walking.
"Moving Work of Art" Rodney Crowell
Some years after qualifying as a Feldenkrais teacher I added another qualification to my menu which specifically addressed those of us in that very elastic band called Middle Age. Middle Age now stretches from 40 to 70 depending on how you perceive yourself. This training is called Change Your Age™ and was developed by the Director of my Feldenkrais training, Dr. Frank Wildman who while basing his own method on the pioneering work of the Feldenkrais Method™he developed a series of simple, but powerful exercises that will actually train the brain to send the correct signals to the body so it begins to move in healthier, stronger, more coordinated and even graceful ways. The results - a reversal of the aging signs of your mind and body. Frank Wildman says something that made an impact on me but as we age, we think of wrinkles, diets, or the aging aspects of inflexible attitudes yet really the culprit is out habits. Our movement habits at 40 and 50 impact how we feel at age 60 and 70 and beyond. When we unlearn these habits and create new ones, we make our bodies and minds younger, stronger and more flexible.
"My brain? It's my second favourite organ." Woody Allen
Prior to studying the Change Your Age Program I had smashed my knee rather badly, falling on the cobble stones in Edinburgh while wearing high heels and I was unhappy that my knee was affecting one hip joint, lower back and of course my walk. The easy to learn sequences of the Change Your Age Program totally assisted me in breaking away from physically limiting habits. My balance, posture and overall movement were transformed once again. I cannot say enough good things about Change Your Age and after completing the training, I felt 15 years younger.
"Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment would you capture it or just let is slip." Eminem
While thinking of my miraculous and newly transformed and youthful movement I decided to teach a Change Your Age workshop. There are many aspects to the program addressing the whole body, but I was thrilled with my walk and now my running (I usually hate running but at 52 I have learned to appreciate it) so I was practicing the lessons which of course included walking, balance and posture and so on. To satisfy my bizarre sense of humour and curiosity and desire to convince my students, I decided to arise as Marilyn Monroe and perfect my walk on the streets of Crown Heights. Crown Heights is ethnically diverse neighbourhood of Brooklyn, NY with people from the Caribbean and Orthodox Jews. It's never dull in my neck of the woods so I decided to walk my walk up Prospect Place to Nostrand Avenue, turn left onto Eastern Parkway, then left onto New York Avenue and home. If you blink here you will miss me telling you my age which at the time was over 50.
"Gansta Bop" Akon
As I was enjoying my walk, I met a gang of Mini Gansta Rappers i.e. a group of kids whose ages could have been anything from 11 to 16. They were hanging around on the street. As I walked close to them they surrounded me blocking my exit. The pack leader who could have been all of 13 or 14 was as tall as me and without smiling he looked me in the eye and asked, "Who are you?"
I replied, "My name is osel nyima"
He said, "You speak funny" (I have an English accent)
I replied, "Yes, I suppose some would say that"
He asked, "Whatchu do?"
I replied, "I teach Movement"
After a few moments while he looked me up and down, unsmiling he said, "We like the way you
move". And they let me walk by.
I rest my case.
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