Lavinia Plonka – The Feldenkrais Method To Reawaken Your Body

Description

Lavinia Plonka – The Feldenkrais Method To Reawaken Your Body

Break free from tension, pain, and restriction with gentle movements to step back into the world with grace.

Did you know that when you’re “holding yourself together,” you’re literally gripping in different, often unnoticed, parts of your body like your hips or ankles?

You might feel stiffness or tension stuck in your joints or muscles… maybe in your legs, your belly, or perhaps your neck or shoulders.

Many of us have been feeling like we’re “just getting through this” — and coupled with spending more time hunched over our computers and phones, the stress is mounting in our hips, lower backs, upper bodies… bringing up new discomforts or aggravating existing conditions.

Our eyes are strained from too much screen time, and everywhere in our bodies, we’re holding tightness and worry about what our “new normal” is going to be.

What’s fascinating about the tensed-up positions we find ourselves in — and the way we move (or don’t move for long periods) — is that how you move is how you move through life.

The way you move reflects your health, your emotions, your ability to maintain balance in a challenging world…

So, what if you could move with greater ease, flexibility, balance, and agility — with surprising ways to soothe your nervous system and break free from tension, pain, and restriction?

How would that affect the way you lead your life?

And how might it light your way now that it looks like we’ll soon start rebuilding our world?

Harness the Power of the Feldenkrais Method® to Revitalize Your Body, Mind & Soul
Join us for a 12-week live video course as Lavinia Plonka — celebrated body language expert and Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher® — shows you how to adjust the way you move so you can find your way back home to a body you love that moves you through life with grace and comfort.

The Feldenkrais Method is a delightful, elegant, safe, and empowering practice that supports balance and resilience… by stimulating the intelligence you were born with.

This innate intelligence is the same brilliance that taught you how to walk as a baby, that allows you to drive your car without thinking about it.

Feldenkrais is known for its ability to relax your nervous system… improve your stress response… release tension and constriction… and open you up to a greater sense of well-being.

Crucially — especially now — it also helps you reorganize post-trauma without having to relive it… just release it.

In this restorative program with Lavinia, you’ll anchor in new habits to improve your posture and balance, sharpen your clarity of vision (both inner and outer), reduce pain, enhance the quality of your life, and step back into the world with calm.

Each week, you’ll reawaken a part of yourself that might have been feeling stuck in lockdown — from your eyes to your feet.

And each week, you’ll:

Experience a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson
Receive a Daily Movement Practice to take your healing deeper
Discover the connection between a part of your body and its emotional significance
Explore each part’s relationship with a particular chakra
Learn practical tools for bringing embodied practice into your daily life
You’ll receive movement lessons to relax your eyes… relieve back, shoulder, and neck discomfort… release the stress in your shoulder blades and hips… engage your core without strain… enjoy healthier walking, knees, and ankles…

… AND you’ll find out how to literally put your best foot forward as you open into a new world.

There are no limits to our possibilities.
— Lavinia Plonka
The calming movements, breathing practices, self-care strategies, and softening processes Lavinia will share are accessible to all levels of movement, opening up the interstitial spaces between your organs, and equipping you with surprising, effective ways to soothe your nervous system.

You’ll find the process very organic because with Feldenkrais, you take time to integrate, to release tension in both your body and your thoughts.

If you’re already familiar with Feldenkrais or have benefitted from Lavinia’s teachings before, you’ll build on the movements you know and love.

If you’re new to Feldenkrais, Lavinia will open you to the gentle power of the method, showing you how to restore your body with simple yet profound movements that make your before-and-after feel like night and day.

By the end of this training, you’ll have Feldenkrais practices to take with you and easily incorporate into your daily life forever — and Lavinia will show you how.

Receive Guidance From a Celebrated Body Language Expert
Lavinia has helped people improve their movement, behavior, relationships, and careers for over 35 years. Her unique expertise connects the dots between posture, movement, emotions, and the mind.

Her training has included theater, dance, yoga, and the martial arts — and she’s the only teacher to offer Feldenkrais through the lens of myth and archetypes. (You’re likely to explore the Atlas in your shoulders or the Persephone in your re-emergence in the world!)

Lavinia’s students consistently report feeling a renewed sense of hope, self-awareness, re-engagement with their bodies, and one of the most profound benefits they experience is — to use one participant’s words — leaving “chronic pain in the dust.”

In this nourishing, LIVE video training, you’ll:

Receive movement lessons to relieve back, shoulder, and neck discomfort
Relieve the stress that’s stuck between and under your shoulder blades
Free your upper spine to turn further with greater ease and comfort
Explore the direct link between your inner and outer worlds — and how the way you move your physical body mirrors your self-worth, creativity, and worldview
Discover concrete strategies to relieve plantar fasciitis
Learn the connection between eye tension and balance issues
Receive a somatic practice for clarifying a vision for your future
Deepen your understanding of how your eyes and brain work together
Release neck tension and lengthen your spine for easier posture
Understand how the 3 parts of the eye relate to the different functions of your body
Receive a meditation on releasing toxic emotions that cause gripping in your hip flexors AND a movement for freeing up the muscles around your hips
Improve your breathing by mobilizing your ribs
Understand the link between the soft palate and the pelvic floor
Relax your facial muscles for a “natural facelift ” (!)
Relieve nasal congestion
Find out why deep breaths are NOT nourishing when we’re stressed, and what is
Use sound and vibration to relax
Allow the Earth to support your bones on a brand-new path

Is This Course for Me?
If there are parts of you that want to be re-enlivened with simple, powerful movements for flexibility, balance, and calm, Lavinia designed this course for you. In her warm, compassionate style, she’ll integrate the principles and practices of the Feldenkrais Method in a timely way that’s unique for this training and these times, so you can break free from tension and emerge into a changing world with grace. She created this course both for those who already know and love Feldenkrais, and for those who are ready to experience its benefits for the first time.

What You’ll Discover in These 12 Weeks
In this 12-week transformational intensive, Lavinia will guide you through the fundamental Feldenkrais movements and practices you’ll need to release tension and restriction for flexibility, balance, and a calmer nervous system.

The Power of Live Streaming Video

You’ll connect with Lavinia and experience her teachings through live streaming video. This connection is easy to use and will enhance the impact of Lavinia’s wisdom and guidance. Or you can easily connect just via audio if you choose — through your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.

(Can’t make it live? No worries! After each class, the video and audio recordings will be available for you to download or stream in high-quality format at your convenience.)

Course Sessions Thursdays at Noon Pacific
This course will feature LIVE teachings, interactive training sessions, and experiential practices with Lavinia. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to reawaken your body for resilience and calm.

Module 1: Seeing Your Way Ahead Physically, Mentally & Emotionally (June 11)

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up and start a new day?

Your eyes take in information and send it directly to your brain. They’re your information gatherers, the mental parts of your face, and they orient you in space.

When your eyes are stiff from focusing on screens, your peripheral vision suffers, and you can’t take in what’s around you — literally or figuratively. Not only that, because you need healthy eyes for balance, strained eyes signal to your body that you’re unbalanced, that you’re not safe… which increases your cortisol levels, placing you firmly on an anxiety loop.

In this opening session, Lavinia will guide you to see differently, feel more balanced, and have a new vision for when you go out into the world. You’ll explore your eyes’ connection to your sixth chakra, and:

Improve your peripheral vision
Understand how the 3 parts of the eye relate to the different functions of your body, telling your story to yourself and others
Learn a movement practice to relieve head and neck tension by relaxing your eyes
Expand your proprioceptive abilities to perceive yourself in your surroundings
Learn the connection between eye tension and balance issues
Enjoy a visualization process for improving your interoception (your perception of your internal state)
Receive a somatic practice for clarifying a vision for your future

Module 2: Laying Down the Burdens You’re Shouldering (June 18)

Are your shoulders tensed up near your ears? Maybe one of your shoulders is a bit curled in a protective gesture? Perhaps it feels like your shoulders are hunching forward, creating a rounded posture. This can communicate sadness and fatigue — and you might feel sadness and fatigue too.

In these challenging times, we sometimes feel as if our shoulders are like those of Atlas, holding up the whole world.

In this module, you’ll identify your burdens and explore the story in your shoulders. You’ll discover how your shoulders relate to your fourth chakra (your heart center), and you’ll:

Understand how your shoulders carry locked, hidden, and unexpressed emotions
Enjoy a movement lesson to relieve stress in your shoulders and neck
Discover how your gestural choices impact your shoulders and vice versa
Find the freedom to embody giving and receiving — the emotions of ecstacy and agape (the highest form of love), surrender, and delight
Learn the connection between your shoulders and your spine (and any back pain you might be struggling with)
Find beauty and grace in how you reach out to the world

Module 3: Loosening Your Shoulder Girdle to Liberate Your Heart (June 25)

Your shoulder girdle literally hangs on top of your rib cage. It’s attached by muscles to your neck, your ribs, and your spine.

When these tighten — due to factors like stress, too much sitting, or fear — the entire girdle becomes less of a girdle and more like a vise. Your neck pulls forward, your head weighs a ton, and your ribs get stuck.

In this module, you’ll release the vise, expand your heart center, and:

Receive a movement lesson to relieve back and shoulder discomfort
Relieve the stress that’s stuck between and under your shoulder blades
Free your upper spine to turn further with greater ease and comfort, emancipating your head and neck
Deepen your understanding of how your eyes and brain work together
Release neck tension and lengthen your spine for easier posture
Unglue shoulder attachments (both physical and metaphorical!)
Improve your breathing by mobilizing your ribs

Module 4: What’s Holding You Back? Releasing the Grip in Your Hips (July 2)

We don’t think of our hips as being very emotional, yet they can hold stuck frustration and other emotions. In order to move ahead in life, you need to mobilize your hip joints and have a functional relationship with your hip flexors. In fact, your hip flexors are key in your fight/flight/freeze response.

Since you can’t beat up your irritating boss, or jump out of your car in traffic, you spend most of your time in freeze mode. This can create tension in your spine, which impacts your hip joints themselves. Add in cultural constraints that affect our sense of freedom and mobility in our lives, and you have a recipe for balance problems that can lead to falling, or to hip replacement surgery.

In this module, you’ll explore your hips’ connection to your second (sacral) chakra, and:

Improve your posture by freeing your hips
Understand why we grip in the hips when we’re “holding ourselves together”
Receive a meditation on releasing toxic emotions that cause gripping in the hip flexors
Enjoy a movement lesson for freeing up the muscles around the hip joints
Get an “experiential anatomy” visualization tour of your hip joints
Liberate your walk and put some swing in your step

Module 5: Relaxing Into Your Core Superpower (July 9)

Stop holding yourself back and holding it in!

Your body’s powercenter lies right in the middle of you. Most of us hold this area in an iron grip, sucking in our bellies, gripping our abdominal muscles, squeezing our butts.

Yet in order to move freely, your ground force needs to flow like a ripple from your feet to your head. By tensing in the middle, that current is stopped, and so is your ability to step into your true power.

In this module, you’ll embolden your second chakra, and:

Find your powercenter
Identify your superpower — and your kryptonite
Understand the myth of tight bellies and core strength
Experience a lesson that allows you to engage your core without strain
Find out how to sense the movement of the “kinetic chain” from your feet to your head
Master a movement that enlivens your internal organs, activating the deep muscles that help breathing and aid the connection to your psoas and back

Module 6: Letting It All Out — Breath & Movement to Calm Your Nervous System (July 16)

How many times during stressful situations have you been told, “just take a deep breath”?

Unfortunately, when we’re stressed, that deep breath is not nourishing in the way it should be, and could even make you more anxious.

Your breath patterns — whether relaxed, shallow, rapid, or held — communicate different messages to your nervous system about your safety and your environment. How you exhale can make a difference in your health.

In this module, you’ll explore your solar plexus/diaphragm/third-chakra area, and:

Learn a relaxing breath meditation
Develop, through a movement lesson, greater awareness of how you breathe in different situations
Explore a surprising strategy for calming your anxiety while increasing your breath capacity
Connect your respiration with your cellular structure
Choose your response to a somatic challenge
Understand your own breath so it can flow more fully

Module 7: Using Sound & Vibration to Tone Your Vagus Nerve (July 30)

The physicist David Bohm once famously said that “the universe is frozen light.” In other words, everything is simply faster or slower vibrations — including you!

We know that sound can be very healing. It’s even more useful when you combine it with awareness of how you use a sound and where that sound travels through you.

In this module, you’ll explore your fifth chakra, and:

Explore how toning, humming, and vibration support vagal tone, helping you feel better
Discover the relationship between breath, movement, and sound to calm your nervous system
Open your throat for a clearer voice
Relieve nasal congestion
Use sound and vibration to relax
Increase your breath capacity

Module 8: Building Resilience to Recover From Shock & Stand Back Up (August 6)

Health is measured not by the capacity to stay standing, but by the ability to be knocked down and then return to standing.
— Moshé Feldenkrais
There’s an old Irish drinking song (some of us remember Chumbawamba’s version in the 90s) that goes, “I get knocked down, and I get up again…”

Resilience is becoming a prized quality these days, for good reason. When you become physically resilient, you’ll find yourself emotionally resilient as well, and you’ll be more able to “roll with it” when life tries to knock you down.

In this module, you’ll explore health as the ability of your system to recover from shock, and:

Experience a movement lesson that opens your hip joints and softens your back
Delve into how infant developmental movements can improve your mobility
Learn how to approach novel movement in an organic, safe way
Develop greater freedom and more choice in the way you move
Rediscover the joy of playing with movement
Improve your agility and balance

Module 9: Moving Your Mouth to Clear Tension & Brighten Your Spirit (August 13)

Who really thinks about the inside of their mouth? Unless you have a toothache or a blister, the inside of your mouth is just the place where food goes, right?

You’ll be surprised… the roof of your mouth can actually change its shape, your tongue has a life of its own, and everything inside your mouth — including your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) — is connected to all the other parts of you in myriad ways.

In this module, you’ll explore why the soft palate is like the connector between the fifth and sixth chakras, and:

Discover how to create spaciousness in your mouth
Learn to relax tension in your jaw and tongue
Experience the relationship of your tongue to your soft palate
Connect this space with your skull and abdomen through a guided visualization
Understand the link between the soft palate and the pelvic floor
Relax your facial muscles (for a “natural facelift”!)
Understand how a smile can be your umbrella

Module 10: Releasing Constraint & Gaining Support for New Directions (August 20)

Many times in life, what appears to be an obstacle can turn out to be just the thing we needed to let go of an old pattern, an old direction, a toxic habit.

Often, you can’t see what’s holding you until it releases — or, as is often said, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

In this module, you’ll explore new sources of support connected with your sixth chakra, and:

Learn how to use a rolled-up blanket in an elegant movement lesson to support and stabilize you
Experience the profound relaxation of yielding your muscles to gravity
Learn how to relieve neck and back tension with a simple prop
Acquire a self-reflective tool for finding support for new directions while letting go of the unnecessary
Effortlessly improve your alignment

Module 11: Putting Your Best Foot Forward as You Open Into a New World (August 27)

Your feet follow your intention.

Or do they? Are you able to feel confident as you move ahead?

It’s amazing that nature has created us to balance our entire weight on those two tiny points on the ground. One slight shift in the direction of the foot and the entire skeleton is affected.

Could your sense of instability, your hesitation to move ahead, your fear of falling on your face, all be connected to where you put your feet?

In this module, you’ll explore the act of grounding in your first chakra, and:

Discover the joys and challenges of being bipedal and how your feet bear weight
Experience the differences and the relationship between dynamic stability and rigidity
Enjoy a movement lesson that frees your ankles and improves balance
Step into new movement options for better walking
Learn concrete strategies to relieve plantar fasciitis
Embody the connections from feet, ankles, knees, and hips
Understand some of the emotions connected with knee pain

Module 12: Allowing the Earth to Support Your Bones on a Brand-New Path (September 3)

Your bones are information conductors — communicating ground forces, gravity, and support.

When we don’t give information to our skeletons, our bones weaken because they like to be used!

This concluding module offers a whole new way to change your relationship to gravity… to let go, feel the vibe, and move to the beat of your own drum.

You’ll explore your sixth chakra’s guidance for the future, and:

Experience a unique movement lesson to help you let go and allow the Earth to support you
Coordinate your body parts in a unique, rhythmic way
Wake up every part of yourself
Expand your comfort zone
Strengthen your bones, soften your muscles
Understand why stomping and clamping can actually calm your nervous system
Step confidently onto a new path to achieve your goals

The Reawaken Your Body Bonus Collection
In addition to Lavinia’s transformative 12-week virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful training sessions to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.

The Eye Connection
Audio Compilation From Lavinia Plonka

Vision is such an important function. And your eyes, like any other part of you, can get overused, misused, or lose their abilities. Your eyes don’t just take in light. They orient you in space, affecting your balance, your ability to maintain your posture, and so much more. While age takes its toll on the whole self, we can continue to maintain eye health. These five lessons can help you relax your eyes, improve your vision… and you may discover the connections between your eyes and the rest of you.

You’ll receive the following lessons:

Resting Your Eyes
Eyes & Hands
Your Eyes & Your Spine
Deep Into Your Eyeballs
Your Eyes & Your Legs

Plus… you’ll receive these bonuses too!
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The Art of Living a Creative Life
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Tiffany Sankary

Ready to feel more aligned on your creative path? In this conversation about the intersection of the Feldenkrais Method, Organic Intelligence®, Authentic Movement, and the creative process, Tiffany shares about embodying the creative process and guides you through a mini-practice to help you tap into your creative potential.

Tiffany Sankary is an artist who integrates the Feldenkrais Method, Organic Intelligence, Authentic Movement, and creative process. She’s an Assistant Feldenkrais Trainer and a mentor in Organic Intelligence Human Empowerment & Resiliency Training. She’s the creator of the Movement & Creativity Podcast and the Movement & Creativity Library, as well as the editor and illustrator of Feldenkrais Illustrated: The Art of Learning.

Plus… you’ll receive these bonuses too!
Fall Softly, Recover Quickly
8-Part Audio Program From Lavinia Plonka

Why do we fall? Clumsiness is not the only reason. Learn to recognize the danger signs and what you can do in the event of a fall.

This audio program offers you seven easy-to-understand movement lessons you can do in the comfort of your own home (some even on your bed). Thousands of people have learned how to prevent falls or recover more quickly using these simple techniques, which anyone can do.

What Your Vagus Nerve System Has to Do With Your Health & What You Can Do to Feel Great
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Elinor Silverstein

Join us in the great journey of the amazing, encompassing vagus nerve system! Elinor offers valuable information about the interplay between the vagus nerve and our health and wellbeing. This interview includes several self-help strategies using touch and movement to increase the quality of your health, lessen anxiety, and reduce pain.

Elinor Silverstein is an internationally recognized Guild Certified Feldenkrais PractitionerCM who holds degrees in biology and zoology. Integrating nutrition and movement biology, she teaches her Gut-Brain and Vagus Nerve connection programs to medical professionals, Feldenkrais Practitioners, and the general public. She has over 35 years of experience using the Feldenkrais Method to assist people with their healing process as they deal with serious nervous system disorders.

Heaven & Earth With the Pelvis Between
Audio Recording From Lavinia Plonka

What happens when you reach up? What happens when you reach down? Even more interesting is reaching in both directions at the same time. And what’s the relationship between the act of reaching, and your pelvis and ribs? This lesson is a whole-body experience, offering you options for movement in many different directions.

Join the Global Community

The Feldenkrais Method to Reawaken Your Body offers some of the most advanced online teachings available, within a thriving, global community of learning and practice.

Join fellow students and practitioners to support and inspire each other as you integrate the teachings and practices Lavinia Plonka will share in this powerful training.

You’ll be part of an international community that’s on the leading edge of a global movement of people manifesting a world grounded in principles of cooperation, harmony, and reverence for all of life.

Here’s What You’ll Receive

Twelve 90-Minute Class Sessions With Lavinia Plonka

Experience a unique opportunity to be mentored by and learn from body language expert and Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher Lavinia Plonka — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a live streaming video option and guides you to discover specific somatic skills and abilities to reawaken your body for flexibility, balance, and a calmer nervous system. Course sessions are on Thursdays at Noon Pacific.

Twelve Video Recordings of Class Sessions

After each class, the video will be available for you to download or stream in high-quality format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.

Twelve Audio Recordings of Class Sessions

After each class, the audio will be available for you to download in high-quality MP3 format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere — on any connected device and at your convenience.

Twelve PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions

In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.

Twelve 30-Minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions

With live class attendance, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive practice session directly following each class. You’ll be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the conference call to interact, share, and do additional practices with — to help you further integrate the weekly lessons. Practice sessions are available for live attendance only, not recorded for playback. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Facebook online community group allows you to connect with each other and find alternative times to interact.

Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson

Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.

Online Community

Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can continue the discussion about your course materials and interact with your fellow students to take your exploration to an even deeper level.

The Reawaken Your Body Bonus Collection

The Eye Connection
Audio Compilation From Lavinia Plonka
Plus… you’ll receive these bonuses too!

The Art of Living a Creative Life
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Tiffany Sankary
Plus… you’ll receive these bonuses too!

Fall Softly, Recover Quickly
8-Part Audio Program From Lavinia Plonka
What Your Vagus Nerve System Has to Do With Your Health & What You Can Do to Feel Great
Video Dialogue With Lavinia Plonka and Elinor Silverstein
Heaven & Earth With the Pelvis Between
Audio Recording From Lavinia Plonka

An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join The Feldenkrais Method to Reawaken Your Body Virtual Training

We feel honored that Lavinia Plonka has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online training. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with a body language expert and Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Teacher whose powerful insights and movement lessons are helping us calm our nervous systems and build flexibility, balance, and resilience.

If you’re serious about nourishing and reawakening your body with transformational somatic practices, then you owe it to yourself to take this one-of-a-kind training.

About Lavinia Plonka

Lavinia Plonka is a body language expert who has helped people improve their movement, behavior, relationships, and careers for over 35 years. Her unique expertise connects the dots between posture/movement, emotions, and the mind.

Lavinia’s training and professional career have included theater, dance, yoga, and the martial arts. She has taught the Feldenkrais Method for over 25 years and is also an Assistant Trainer. Lavinia is a level CL4 teacher of the Alba Method and an Emotional Body Instructor. She was an artist in residence for the Guggenheim Museum, and a movement consultant for theater and television companies around the world, from the Irish National Folk Theater to Nickelodeon.

From Esalen to the Council on Aging, from Beijing to Mexico, Lavinia’s popular workshops explore the intersection between movement, emotions, and the mind. She is currently the director of Asheville Movement Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Lavinia’s writing includes several books and audio programs.

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