Classes are at 11 a.m. Eastern US Time

 The core similarity between mediation and body awareness methods such as Feldenkrais is that they are facilitative rather than authoritative. Mediators don’t have a solution for the parties; they do have a role in helping the parties to find constructive ways to get their interests met. Body awareness methods, likewise, aren’t about ‘fixing’ a person’s movement patterns towards some ideal, but rather helping the person to notice what’s easier and what’s not, what patterns of movement might be more comfortable and sustainable for that person, in a certain context. The student is helped to explore a wider repertoire of movement. It is up to the student what they choose and how they evolve.

Timing is another example of how mediation and body awareness overlap. Come to this class series and learn more about the timing of your movements. You will find that your increased skill in choosing an appropriate tempo and sequencing will seep into your mediation work as well—understanding the all-important pause, being aware of the cascade from spark-of-intention to initiation to follow-through, and appreciating that slower isn’t just slower. Sometimes slowing down results in a different organization altogether.

Force is another unifying theme across the two disciplines. In extended movements--in striving, in overreach—there is a decline from grace to fuzz, potentially ending in stuckness. In this class, you will more keenly notice the ‘tell’—from the ribs, the mouth, the left big toe?—that for now you have extended beyond your zone of grace, and why. Easing off and then coming back to that movement, then being able to engage slightly differently, is magic. When you notice the changes you like and the ones you don’t like, when you pare the motion down to its essentials, managing to maintain yourself in the zone of grace, you accomplish a lovely change at the physical level. Movement becomes easier. And this applies to mediation! You may find yourself being more in choice about when you interject and when you don’t. Notice, too, when your parties might be overextending their force, and find ways to help them to let up a bit, for a moment. Notice whether some ease can sneak in.

Perhaps the most relevant body awareness theme, for mediators, is the idea of moving ‘with all of yourself.’ If you reach for a glass, you’ll notice how your hand and arm move. But what of your shoulder-blade, ribs, neck, lower back, hips? They can’t not be involved. But the necessary muscles can be… asleep, recalcitrant, stuck on yesterday’s movement or last year’s stumble. Worried, protective. Still in habits. So… look at your parties. How often have they declared they want to reach for the glass, or stay married, or take care of their business—but not everything in them is reaching in a harmonious way? You have helped them move from positions to interests but their interests might still be in discord or just dis-ability. Becoming more body-aware has an amazing ability to heighten a mediator’s understanding of how their parties may lack clarity of intention, and how to help them find it.