lost in translation

so my very friendly and gracious student B with very limited english skills returned to my feldenkrais class, with his friend. apparently he liked the class so much last week, that he told another woman about the class..and she showed up and brought a friend too..i think she said there were a couple other people who she thought were going to show up..just as well they didn't. it was enough to have 4 on the floor and one sort of doing the lesson in a chair.  there were 2 people with very limited english skills..especially when it comes to feldenkrais directions..and one of the women on the floor would sometimes translate for the other two..though she had no felden experience either, so i hoped her interpretation/translation made sense to the others. i still had some pointing and demonstrating and a lot of repeating to do..but i made it through the lesson. unscathed.

for now, i have to let go of my ideas of how to teach these lessons, and just be happy to get people to follow basic instructions (moving slowly and resting not in their minds yet) by any means necessary. (Feldenkrais classes are normally taught with all verbal instructions and no demonstrating or adjusting students.)  It is so hard to tell what the students' experience of the class is while they are doing the lesson. I see them working too hard, not resting, and moving faster than they ought..but at the end, when someone tells me that they feel relaxed and feel the difference where they should, all i can do is be thankful that the felden lessons work despite language confusion.

i also told myself before the class that i was not going to freak out over what people can or cannot understand..i do need to start picking up some basic spanish vocabulary..just so i can connect with the non english speakers a bit better. and i need to find some spanish language info on feldenkrais..It is going to be a challenge to teach this group this summer. 

I felt ok after teaching this time, unlike last week's post class freakfest and emotional exhaustion over not feeling understood (and i don't think it was just about teaching the class). i won't be able to be at all ambitious in terms of lessons i teach for the rest of the summer if this is the new "group" of the class..but so be it. i think i was partly annoyed last week at feeling like i had to backtrack (how dare students need something other than what i wanted to teach!)..but these folks have never done feldenkrais before..and that is enough of a challenge, even without the language issues. now i am glad that i will have a couple classes to sub in august..i can teach a bit more involved lessons to that class. 

Saturday, i hibernated at home. watched the exciting second half and then overtime and then tiebreaker penalty kicks to break the tie for brazil v. chile. it struck me that i have really been enjoying watching the world cup with spanish commentary..commentary that i cannot understand..other than names of players..and gooooooooooooooooooooaaaaallllllllllllllll!!!!! tone and volume of voice conveys a lot already. so maybe not all things need complete verbal comprehension to be enjoyed and understood.

Last of the marichasanas..part 2

So I definitely fall into the bendy (and apparently twisty) but not strong (or good endurance) category of practitioner, though I don't consider twists easy or fun at all. Bound Mari D by myself on both sides today. I was expecting this to be a whole lot of drama (judging by what other people have said to me, and what I have read), that I would not be able to bind for a long time, etc. but lo and behold, I can bind (and even breathe a bit in it). It‘s not great, but it is a decent beginning. I just got the pose last week. I suspect it also helps that I tend to take a long time about my practice, with 7-8 breaths in almost all the seated postures (that way I am less exhausted at the end, from the vinyasas, ashtangi vinyasa count police be damned). I think those extra couple breaths do a lot. Eventually, I am sure I will cut it back, but for now it seems ideal.

Every day, when I get to the mari's, I have to regroup a little after each one, and I wonder if letting myself regroup has been helping me get deeper into the postures (such as it is for a beginner).  The marichasanas exhaust me. Weirdly, D now feels the easiest energetically of the 4, which I am sure either means I haven’t really gotten too deep into it yet, or that I am relieved to be done with them.

I have also been spending the weekend trying to make up missed training days for my feldenkrais program, and doing Awareness through Movement lessons. In the lessons, they emphasize the necessity of resting. For feldenkrais, the rests are when your nervous system integrates what you have done and actually learns. You are supposed to try to do each movement with a quality of attention as if you are doing it for the first time. Probably a great attitude to take into my yoga practice as well.

Really hoping that navasana is NOT coming this week. That is a pose I rather dread. I have no idea how the legs can be straight, let alone doing so many of them at once…

Last week was also my first week of going 5 days a week to the shala, since my injury. It made practice feel energetically better, and helped with my memory problems (ie remembering what pose or side of the pose comes next-yes, I can very easily forget what side I am on in seated!). I rewarded myself Friday with a trip out to King’s Sauna in NJ, which was pretty awesome. I can’t remember the last time I did something like that by myself. I am definitely going back next month. It isn’t as posh in some ways as Spa Castle, but it is also not a day trip just to get there and back. They had a sauna and a hot tub with mugwort (I think that is what it was)..very rejuvenating. Being a Korean sauna place..it is open 24/7 (just like Koreatown here, which is the only truly open all night part of Manhattan, as I know from my salsa dancing days.)

I went to a wild edible and medicinal plants walk in my neighborhood today. This is my first attempt at wild plant cooking. Sauteed violet leaves with wild spinach, onion, garlic and hemp seeds. Going to try making mugwort tea later to add to my bath, as it should relieve my rather sore hip muscles.