If you missed it last time, fear not! Nik Curry is offering another session of his Postural Patterning, Level 1 Workshop at Healium in just a few weeks' time. See below for details, and click here for my take on Nik's work. - Ryan
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Workshop details
Postural Patterning helps you achieve awareness and balance within your body. The level-one workshop is a four-hour practical course that combines postural concepts and yoga positioning with connected "power posture" in the center ideal.
The workshop is dynamic and hands-on, and you'll learn how to:
see and understand your own postural pattern.
achieve postural balance and find your personal keys in achieving the ideal.
connect the links between posture and movement.
find your physical self.
This exclusive training event includes course notes, demonstrations and heaps of interactive learning. Limited to 15 students - so get in quick!
How Much: $100 prepaid. To register or learn more, call Nik Curry on 04 905 4151 or email him at curry.nik@gmail.com.
What: Postural Patterning, Level 1.
Who:Nik Curry. He's been working with people's wellness through the physical body for over 30 years as a physiotherapist in teaching hospitals, in private practice here and abroad and as a patient himself. His passion is creating self-awareness of the bodies we live in, providing a means of ownership for our wellness and an understanding of the language of the body. For more information, visit Nik online at www.posturalpatterning.com.
If you've been reading along here, following us on Facebook or listening to Jenifer's yammering in yoga class, you know we're excited to host Nik Curry's Postural Patterning Level 1 Workshop later this month. If you want to learn more, or you just can't wait to learn how to achieve beautiful posture, physical freedom and dynamic well being - do not despair! You can join Nik for a free 45-minute talk this coming Friday.
When: Friday, 17 May at 1.15 pm (replaces the regularly scheduled Power Yoga Basics class).
We at Healium are very excited to offer a special postural patterning workshop with Nik Curry. Here's why: the first time I met Nik I had just emerged from a blissful relaxation massage - a rare treat, actually - and this fellow introduced himself and then, after a mutual exchange of pleasantries, proceeded to enumerate a comprehensive inventory of my postural issues.
For an athlete recovering from multiple injuries, this was exciting stuff. In fact, within a matter of minutes Nik had read my body like a book. He could tell just by observing how I stood, walked, and carried myself what was going on with me - my injuries, my history, asymmetries, strengths and weaknesses - in short, my experience of my body. Nik had identified my postural patterns.
Then, after conducting several simple tests, he was able to provide with me with some cues to follow: hold my elbow like this, rotate my wrist like that, and so on. These were my personal keys in achieving ideal positioning . . . and in time would play a significant role in my healing.
We all have postural patterns, strategies we pick up from an early age. Over time, these strategies may no longer support us - literally. Think of these adaptations as physical coping mechanisms. We hurt our knee, so we take up the slack on the other side of the body. This might work in the short term, but over time such a strategy may well lead to dysfunction and breakdown elsewhere - in places other than the original injury. You know how that goes.
I like to joke that it was only after working with Nik that I actually learned how to walk. I'm excited for all of you who will get to experience Nik's work for the first time, and who will see firsthand why we call him "the posture wizard." This workshop is designed for people who do yoga, and it's great for athletes and others interested in learning how to move - and live - better. I'll see you there! - Ryan
. . .
Workshop details
Postural Patterning helps you achieve awareness and balance within your body. The level-one workshop is a 10-hour practical course over two days that combines postural concepts and yoga positioning with connected "power posture" in the center ideal.
The workshop is dynamic and hands-on, and you'll learn how to:
see and understand your own postural pattern.
achieve postural balance and find your personal keys in achieving the ideal.
connect the links between posture and movement.
find your physical self.
This exclusive training event includes course notes, demonstrations and heaps of interactive learning. Limited to 15 students - so get in quick!
When: Saturday, 25 May and Sunday, 26 May, 11 am to 4.30 pm each day.
How Much: $175 prepaid. To register or learn more, call Nik Curry on 04 905 4151 or email him at curry.nik@gmail.com.
What: Postural Patterning, Level 1.
Who:Nik Curry. He's been working with people's wellness through the physical body for over 30 years as a physiotherapist in teaching hospitals, in private practice here and abroad and as a patient himself. His passion is creating self-awareness of the bodies we live in, providing a means of ownership for our wellness and an understanding of the language of the body. For more information, visit Nik online at www.posturalpatterning.com.
The first time I met the near-famous Oli Wiles at last year's Global Mala (I later discovered that nearly everyone in Wellington already knows him), he told me that his practice, the Feldenkrais Method, is hard to put into words.
Some would say that it's also hard to pronounce. It's not, really: /ˈfel-dən-ˌkrīs/. But since our initial conversation Oli has described Feldenkrais quite eloquently on his website, and I thought I'd also share my experiences with this subtle and deeply affecting practice.
One of the qualities unique to the Feldenkrais Method is its openness. It doesn't prescribe ideal states for the human musculoskeletal system. It doesn't say that you have to move in this way and not that way. It doesn't say, for example, that your rounded shoulders are bad and that you need to balance your pecs with your traps, or your ability to extend and depress your shoulder blades. Instead, it recognizes where you are, how your body is moving now - without concerning itself with past circumstances, or the stories you may have invented around perceived limitations or injuries - and asks you to try something new. To listen and "tune in" to how your body feels. To consider your options.
In a group class, for example, Oli might have you lie down on your mat and then ask you to very slowly raise your right hip off the ground. You do that, and then let it down. And then you elevate the left hip and let it down. Very simple. Then you do those movements in varying combinations: with the soles of your feet on the ground, while also moving your head left and then right or elevating one or both shoulders. Again, very simple stuff taking very little coordination or skill, like rubbing your belly and tapping your head at the same time!
What happens through these gentle movements, however, is an integration of both sides of your body. I realized very clearly, after only a couple of Oli's Awareness Through Movement group classes, that my body positioning was actually quite asymmetrical. This is a common experience, apparently, and can be a first step towards taking some "corrective" measures.
Sometimes, however, the experience is hard to put into words. Oli stresses that you are in a feeling space here, trying to tune in, and you may not be able to consciously articulate - yet - what it is your body is learning. You will be keenly aware, however, that you're taking in new information and processing it, integrating it. It's like you're five years old again and learning how to ride a bike! You're engaged in a holistic process, a subtle art that takes time and patience to fully appreciate.
In a one-on-one, or Functional Integration, session, pretty much the same thing happens, only the movement patterns and choices are specific to your particular needs. What if you tried this? What if, in my case, I squatted not by tucking the pelvis and focusing on the hips but by allowing the knees to rise? By bringing my attention to my knees I could suddenly squat without the usual tension. I was literally free to move in a way that had not been available to me.
In my experience, the Feldenkrais Method is about cultivating inner awareness, listening to your body and identifying and owning the choices you make with it as you move through the world. It's about bringing consciousness and intention to your movement . . . which leads to grace.
As Jenifer put it - and she's an experienced yoga teacher - "I haven't felt my skeleton in this way . . . ever!" Here's a clip of Jenifer and Oli working together:
The workshop is dynamic and hands-on, and you'll learn how to:
