Reimagining Strength and Mobility As We Age

A Live Online Natural Movement Course With Carl Rabke begins Wed, March 30th

"Movement is life, life is a process. Improve the quality of the process, and you improve the quality of life itself."-Moshe Feldenkrais

"What you encounter, recognize, or discover depends, to a great extent, on your quality of approach. When you approach with reverence, great things approach you. The rushed heart and the arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to meet that moment” -John O'Donohue

 

Many of us recognize the value of strength, but often the way we approach strengthening lacks imagination. It can be repetitive, or have a quality of top-down domination, or following someone else’s rules and instructions, or something we should do.

We can also lack imagination with how we approach mobility. Too much or not enough mobility becomes a problem as we age.  Mobility is not simply about stretching and flexibility, but about how our dynamic, intelligent system can move in relationship to the living environment around us.

What if rather than "working on our core," we experienced our core, and our entire body as awake, intelligent, self-organizing and continuously responsive to the living, animate world around us? Animals and children don't need to do yoga or lift weights to be strong, soft, mobile, coordinated, and in dynamic relationship with the world around them.

While it is helpful and necessary to add dynamic movement possibilities we have forgotten to our sedentary modern lifestyle, what can make a significant difference to our movement is our quality of approach. When we are dynamically inhabiting our animal bodies rather than objectifying ourselves from our heads, strength and mobility can arise spontaneously through the movements and interactions of everyday life- as it does for all other animals, and our human ancestors for 99.9 % of our time on this planet.

In this course, we will be exploring how bringing more play and curiosity into our movement can support life-long learning and joy in how we move, deepening our strength and mobility, while attuning us to the world within and around us. This class is for all ages and body types.

 

Some of the things we will explore include:

 

• Deepening strength while growing our embodied sensitivity (and how they support each other)
• Growing strength and mobility in a context of play and spontaneity.
• Learning how to learn through our movement (which changes everything)
• Exploring developmental and evolutionary movement patterns that are the foundation of human movement
• Steeping in principles that support embodied presence and learning through our movement, (which can be applied to any context in life.)
• Learning how challenge and pleasure in movement support each other
• Remembering and reclaiming functions that humans performed daily over the long arc of our evolution including squatting, climbing, running, lifting, crawling etc.
• Learning how to have access to the intelligence of the head, heart and guts simultaneously
• Growing quality of lightness and sensitivity in how we move.
• A reduction of unnecessary tension
• Experiencing a musicality in how we move
• A deepening of self-organized, integrated, animal body strength-soft, supple, strong, awake
• Growing our skill and lightness in our transitions like getting up and down from the ground and in and out of chairs
• Learning ways to improve our balance and agility
• Moving in a way that is in intimate relationship to the living world around you.
• Growing greater sensitivity and respect for the beings around us, and the spaces we move through
• A quality of grace and elegance in our aging

 

Each class, there will be a weaving of Feldenkrais floor work and standing and moving natural movement explorations that will help you deepen your own movement intelligence and embodied sensitivity. 

 

The Feldenkrais lessons and natural movement explorations we will explore help you to embody your own unique grammar of spontaneity in movement.  Through this course, we will explore fundamental principles of natural movement that can be a beneficial addition to an existing practice like yoga, Pilates or martial arts, or it can help support you in learning to grow your own unique playful, spontaneous movement practice. Ways that you can move rolling around on the floor, or standing at the airport, at a pause on a hike, or dancing, or if your back is tweaked- We will be learning how to listen to how the soft (and strong) animal of your body wants to move.

"Can you imagine your feelings when you discover that you are an ever-changing live organism, capable of self-correction and advancement for as long as you live? The optimism which accompanies the learning process, people's enthusiasm when they discover it, as well as their appreciation, are what make this method so attractive, and inspire commitment in both students and teachers" -Ruthy Alon on the Feldenkrais Method.

 

This class is for any age and any body type. Often, natural movement videos can have gymnasts and parkour folks demonstrating beautiful and amazing feats of handstands, jumps, and flips, and while inspiring, it can also feel unreachable to many.

I have loved this video of parkour for senior citizens- and it is in alignment with my view that there is a way you can access dynamic, strengthening, spontaneous movement at any point in life, whatever shape you are in.

Course details: 6 live Zoom calls, Wednesdays, beginning March 30th 10-11:30 am Mountain Time (Recordings provided)

 

Cost $200  (Includes recordings of all the live classes)

 

 

 

Also, as many are experiencing financial challenges in these times, I am offering pay-what-you-can spots for those in need, you can email me to claim one of those spots.

Please read our cancelation policy here before registering.

Looking forward!

Carl