Somatics for You

Newsletter July, August, September 2014

Come to Class
Feel So Much Better!

Saturday Class Schedule:
July 26
Aug. 16, 23
Sept. to be announced
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To receive the specific dates (and any changes) of my upcoming Saturday classes join my email notice list. How?
By emailing me at <susankoenig@earthlink.net> You will receive a short email with my class dates.

National Holistic Institute
5900 Doyle Street, Emeryville, CA 94608

Saturday Somatic Classes

Every class teaches and reviews some of the basic 7 movements created by Thomas Hanna in his "Daily Cat Routine" (Somatics, p. 99). Additionally you'll want to add some of the other movements that especially speak to your specific pain and stiffness.

Explore movements done on the floor, in sitting, standing, and walking to expand your ability to move with ease and confidence. Learn some specific movements for recovering your sense of safety, balance, and alignment under stress.

Come to My Classes Any Time
Somatic exercises are done slowly, gently, always within your comfort zone, and with internal focus on the sensations of the movements.

Doing somatic exercises this way engages the voluntary motor cortex of the brain, the only part of brain's motor system that can reduce muscular tension (contraction).

Recommended reading is the book, Somatics, by Thomas Hanna (my teacher, now deceased). Over time you will learn all the basic exercises called the "Daily Cat Routine" (p. 99, Somatics, in the last section of the book). Class fee: $20 per class, or 4 classes for $60.

Private Sessions with Susan Koenig available

Call 510-848-4129
susankoenig@earthlink.net

Serenity

Just in case you wanted to review the cranial nerves!

My good friend Jim O'Hara who just published a fabulous book, In the Land of Shiva: A Memoir. A must read. Beautifully written personal memoir of 25 years as a Brother of the Catholic Church doing good works (mostly education of children) in India and Nepal. You are transported into the communal life of the brothers, their reassuring routines and rituals affirming shared beliefs, close friendships, and service. India changes Brother Jim, the head organizer from Wisconsin. You journey with him to a new sense of life with its smells and colors, large crowded cities, small rural villages, pantheons of Hindu gods and goddesses, Buddhists influences, tragic political events, and eventually witness his deep and abiding longing to find his own inner relationship to the spiritual.

Teaching in Taiwan

I'm back from teaching Hanna Somatic Education in Taiwan. It was a fantastic experience and very successful. We had over 100 participants! I taught in a 4 day Symposium sponsored by the University of Taitung, Taiwan. Hsiu-Lien Huang, from Taiwan, and Masako Hirasawa, from Japan, were my teaching assistants. Both women are teaching assistants in our professional Hanna Somatic Training Program in Novato, CA.

I'm leading the exercise called "Arch and Curl on the diagonal."

Hsiu-Lien Huang (left), me, and Masako Hirasawa (right) in the gymnasium where we taught over 100 participants the movement exercises.

Participants are resting between exercises to experience the sensations of the movements they've been doing.

The students gave us foot massages after one of our teaching sessions. Here we are soaking our feet before the actual foot massage began. It felt wonderful!

The Power of Combining Anatomical Understanding and Ease of Movement

These 2 videos combine anatomy and movement. I hope you watch them and experience the effects of the movements to help clarify the relationship between the hip and pelvis and their impact down into the foot and ankle.
As you improve your (unconscious) internal image of your bones and joints, your brain organizes you more efficiently.

Differentiated Movement at the Hip and Pelvis

Differentiated Movement: Foot to Pelvis