Expand Your Ability: Embodiment, Somatics, and Feldenkrais

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Hey there, this is the last episode of 2023, so let's reflect. We'll look back on the events of this past year, our relationships, our challenges, and what we've learned. And we'll do this in an embodied way, with movement to help us ease into the process and open the doors to insight. So that means this episode includes audience participation. That's right, you. So please take a listen to this episode when you have some undistracted time.

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Welcome to the Expand Your Ability podcast. I'm your host, Jeffrey Schwinghammer. This show explores the rich, sensorial details of our physical experience that we often overlook when we speed through life. So why go into the sensory details? Because when we go into sensation and we get curious, we open our minds. Okay, so we're going to be doing some somatic reflection of 2023 together.

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and why do I call it somatic reflecting? Because we will play with movement and being attentive to our internal physical and sensory experience as we are in the process of reflecting on the past year. Before we get started, I just wanna say that, yes, I'll be offering movement suggestions as we go, and feel free to do as little as you like, or even to skip sections, or to riff on them in any direction that you prefer.

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provided you're avoiding painful sensations and you're enjoying yourself. Please have a pen and journal nearby and come to the floor. Let's get started. All right. So with a journal and pen, would you write an answer here to the question? How was 2023?

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Let's take a few moments and.

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Go ahead and write a little bit. Just your first impressions, your first thoughts.

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And as you write...

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What is the internal attitude that you have?

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What sort of emotional tone do you have? Is he right?

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What are the first things that come to mind?

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Okay, take another moment, and when you're ready, sit down in your journal, sit down in your pen, and come and lie on your back. We'll use this first assessment as a bit of a reference. We'll check back in a few times throughout this lesson. We'll ask more questions, and we'll see how movement plays with how we reflect.

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If you prefer, you can have your legs long or you can have your knees bent and your feet standing.

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And with your hands, would you bring them to your low abdomen? So they, your arms rest somewhere easily, and then your hands can rest kind of where your belly button is a little bit below your belly button, just to bring your attention there.

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can think of your attention filling your pelvis, filling your abdomen, and you invite the air to come there.

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How does the air come in? Does it come in through your nose, through your mouth?

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Does it leave through your nose or through your mouth?

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And then if you would please have your breath be even in through the nose, out through the mouth, even in, even out, a sort of circular breath.

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Feel how the air interacts with your hands.

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interacts with your abdomen.

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And as you breathe like this, please reflect.

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Where were you at at the beginning of the year? All the way back in January.

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What were you thinking about?

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What were you doing?

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and then roll the clock forward.

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Well, what are some of the events throughout the year?

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and a year is a long time. You won't...

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remember everything, but you can just track what comes to mind.

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Did something happen in February or March?

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move forward month by month and if you don't remember that's cool you just see what comes to mind

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And as you imagine and reflect, still be with your breath. Still be with the movement of your hands and your abdomen.

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Alright. Still with your attention on your breath, please bring your journal and pen to you, and then write some notes. What are some of the events of this year?

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and you can write in shorthand, you don't have to use long sentences or paragraphs.

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Just note some of the events, bullet points.

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And as you write more ideas, more events might come to mind. Great.

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Write them down, Tim.

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When you're ready, come on back onto your back.

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and it's totally okay if you still feel like there's a lot more to write. It's an incomplete list.

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onto your back, bring your hands together, move your hands over each other, create a little friction, create a little warmth as you rub your hands.

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palm on palm, fingers on fingers. You think of it as moving energy here. You can think of it as generating heat. Just rub your hands. You can do the back of the hands, the front of the hands.

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And then please bring your hands to your eyes, rest your palms over your eyes, and have it so that your palms are a little bit cupped, that you don't press into the eyes, but the, the, the palms may contact with the bone around your eyes. And then you can bring yourself into darkness.

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and rest into the darkness. Whether your eyes are open or closed, they can rest. There's nothing really to see. Nothing to do.

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and as you're here in this darkness, please reflect.

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Who are some of the most meaningful people that were in your life this year?

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Perhaps their family.

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friends colleagues

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People.

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you met in person? people you met online?

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And as you reflect on these people, bring them to mind. Maybe you see their face. Maybe you just get a sense of their presence, whatever it is for you. Sense your breath.

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sense your internal experiences, you reflect on these people. How do you feel about them?

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What did you do together?

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then you can come to your side, grab your journal, your pen, and write out some of these names.

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As you write, is there some...

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some bodily remembering of what it's like to be with him.

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How do they make you feel?

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Perhaps they were really helpful for you.

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Is there some sense of gratitude that just emerges as you think about them? And how do you know you feel gratitude?

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Where is that?

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once again another incomplete list I'm sure please when you're ready come back onto your back

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You're gonna have your knees bent, your feet standing.

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Return to your breath.

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Just having your attention in your lower abdomen can influence your breath.

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Please bring your left hand to your right upper arm.

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and then bring your right hand to your left upper arm. So your arms are crossed.

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And then please slowly slide, caress your arms with your hands. You go a little bit up, you go a little bit down, go towards the elbow. Do you feel skin? Do you feel fabric?

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Go from elbow to shoulder. You can play with one hand at a time, alternating. You can do two hands.

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Feel how your back shifts on the floor. How does this influence your breath?

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And as you are with your physical experience, the sort of tender self touch.

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Please reflect. What actions did you take towards your goals this year?

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What was forward movement for you?

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And then, if you would, grab your journal or your pen. You can sit and write, you can lie on your side and write, whatever's comfortable for you. Jot some of these things down. What did you do?

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on your way towards your goals this year.

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And it's quite possible to have mixed feelings.

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You might appreciate what you've done. You might not appreciate it so much. And is there a way to just tune in to the signal of, hey, this is all right. I've done some good work this year.

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Take another moment or two.

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And when you're ready, please come back onto your back.

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I'm sure you've done a lot more than you can actually write.

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your back here, please bend your knees and stand your feet, tune in with your breath.

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contact with the floor.

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I invite you to tilt your legs a little bit right and left. Just an easy amount. Just a so easy. So simply, and you could do this in two ways. You could have your feet kind of spaced apart, just a normal amount of spacing. You could also have your feet together and your knees together.

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Just two options of tilting. Find what works for you. And as you tilt, it's not just the knees that move. Of course, it's the pelvis. It's the spine. It's the ribs. Even your head may feel some, some movement. And when you find such a small, simple, easy range,

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that you can just go back and forth without issue, without hesitation.

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that you can be with your breath as you do this.

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There's no ambition here.

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Sense how your breath flows with the movement.

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And please reflect on what challenges did you experience this year.

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And as that question is posed and you begin to think of answers, does that affect your breathing?

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Does it affect this movement?

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Our challenges can live in us as sort of tension, as flinching.

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protecting ourselves. That's okay.

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as we're aware and we move slowly and comfortably.

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we can let go of some of those ties, those, those, those, those ways that the challenges hook into us.

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Would your head like to roll with the direction of your pelvis?

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What would it be like for your head to roll opposite?

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Try both ways to see what you like.

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and you don't have to linger on any one challenge, you can just note it, hey, that was a challenge, that was that was tough, alright, what's the next one, okay, that was this happened, okay, cool

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Okay, what's next? Okay, I also had this. Cool.

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Let yourself be easy with yourself.

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Gentle with yourself.

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So perhaps you have a couple challenges or a few challenges that have come to mind. Go to the next question. What did you learn from these challenges?

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or and what could you learn now from these challenges?

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As much as you're with the question of what you did learn or could learn, be with your sensation. Be with your contact with the floor. Be with your breath. Be diffused in your attention.

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because that is the doorway to insight, the doorway to awareness.

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Slowly come to a pause, find your journal, your pen, and please write out some of these learnings.

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in your shorthand.

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An important part of learning is... learning to avoid the challenges we've had in the past. How do I not get into this situation again? Or... What can I learn that... if I am in that situation again, what can I do?

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Regardless if we've had good situations or challenges, it's learning that can help us become more strong, more capable.

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When you're ready, please come back to your back. Please have your knees bent and your feet standing.

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Check in with your contact with the floor, the way your breath is.

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please bring your left hand to your ribs under your right armpit, so your arm crosses. Your right hand comes across to the ribs beneath your left elbow, and so this is another sort of crossing of the arms. So each hand is to the ribs on the other side, and would you, with one hand, reach a little bit?

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reach to the side. So it kind of pulls you to the side, so your right hand could pull you over to the left. And the hand that's still on the ribs can help pull you too, right? There's this sort of reach and pull, and then you come back to the middle, and then let's say it's your left hand now, that reaches to the floor. And the other hand gently encourages your ribs to come with.

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So in this way we can go from left to right simply. It's like a self hug and a roll at the same time. Then would you reduce your ambition, make it light and simple, because then you can sense the relationship of this movement with how your back touches the floor, how your head is invited to.

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to move perhaps, perhaps even your pelvis rolls a little bit. You go ahead and make it real small. It's this small oscillation, a small, almost like a vibration, left and right. Real simple, real small.

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and then let your mind reflect on

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Are there any outstanding moments? Wonderful memories.

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And would you relive one of those memories a little bit? Where was it exactly?

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Were you with somebody? Who were you with?

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What was the situation?

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What were you doing? Was it a laughter?

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Were you smiling?

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As you remember this memory...

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Is there some impulse in this moment? Some internal, yeah, it was like this. And you can feel it now in some way. Maybe it's in a small way. Maybe it's a big way. Whatever it is for you. How does it influence your breath?

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the expression on your face.

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Is there another memory that comes to mind?

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Go there. Relive it a little bit.

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What were people doing?

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What made it so good?

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And of course, keep an equal measure, being with the memory, and then also being with your sensation, being with your breath.

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the touch of your arms.

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the gentle shifting behind your back.

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Great. Please bring that to a pause.

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You can bring your hands back to your abdomen to feel your breath.

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Hmm

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And reflect on the question once again, how was 2023?

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What's a short summary of 2023 for you?

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And when you're ready, you can roll to your side, come back to your journal, grab your pen and make a few notes. How was 2023?

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And since now how it is to write, can you write with an attention to your body, attention to your breath?

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And is there something different about your attitude or that emotional tone?

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Take a few more moments.

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we can find the last sentence of course it's an incomplete reflection there's much more to reflect on the ear, I'm sure but maybe you can summarize it into a sentence find some way to close this particular exploration

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All right, thank you very much.

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Alright, that's the episode. Thank you for joining me. I hope the process generated some awesome insights for you. If this is your first time listening, please check out the show notes, where you can subscribe to my newsletter and discover how we can learn together in 2024. My final question for you today is, what did you learn about yourself through this process? And who would you like to share that with? Thank you for your attention.