Kicking Butt through NeuroMovement.

One day I found myself lying on the floor in a large room with 80 other people in California.
Hello NeuroMovement.
I had joined the training to help my daughter, who has a rare genetic disorder. I definitely didn't join because of me. (I will post more about this one day!)

So, I was lying on the floor about to experience my first Group Neuromovement Lesson (also called a Transformational Movement Lesson - TML for short), definitely not for myself, but for my daughter. I'd just spent a hell of a lot of money to get there, flights, meals, tuition, etc... so my expectations were pretty high.

The room was abuzz when Anat Baniel walked in. To most of the parents in the training, who had witnessed miracles in their children underneath her hands, Anat has earned a certain awe-factor status. 

Anat also has one of those commanding presences that demand attention. Ha, which happens to be one of her essentials. 

So when she told us to go slow, do the movement with awareness and not to 'stretch', but to only go as far as comfortable, I was a bit confused.

I was there to kick some butt. Conquer my daughter's mixed-up genetic code to the curb. 

Anat instructed us to do small, seemingly insignificant moves. A slight shift of the arm, a tiny movement of the leg.
All the while shouting at us to: "Go slower! Go s-l-o-w-e-r!"

Lady, if I went any slower I'd be dead.
Dear God, what in the world did I get myself into?!?!

Tamping down the panic that I had just spent a small fortune to learn how to do nearly nothing, I tried even harder to go slower.

"No, no. You are moving your right knee. I said move only your left knee. Your other left knee. Wake up!"

"It is only when you know what you are doing, that you can do what you want."
Moshe Feldenkrais

Awareness.

At some point I became aware of what I was doing. Not what I should be doing, or what my teacher wanted me to do, but what my own body was actually, in-that-moment doing. Suddenly, I had control. I had options. I knew exactly where my body was in space. My movements morphed magically from clumpy and awkward to elegant and graceful. 

I had found home within my body.

And it was ready to kick some butt.

Neuromovement, or the Anat Baniel Method, is based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais.