…by Emily Glidden
In my work with horseback riders, I’m frequently amazed at how changes in the rider’s body are reflected in the horse’s. When the rider loosens her back, the horse’s back loosens also. When the rider frees up her shoulders, the horse’s shoulders also become freer. It’s a fascinating result of two nervous systems connecting.
What really took me by surprise was when I realized that teaching Movement Lessons to riders wasn’t just improving the riders’ bodies and the horses’ bodies, but my own. I’d recently attended a Seminar with MBS Academy as part of my Foundation training. After spending an entire weekend applying my new learning to help riders loosen and mobilize hips, ribs and shoulders, my own body had loosened tremendously.
At the end of the second day of teaching, I went for a walk and was shocked to feel how freely and evenly my shoulder blades were sliding, and how much more mobility I had in my ribs. My arms were swinging like I was a kid headed to her friend’s house on the first day of summer vacation.
I felt like I’d had a deep tissue massage, an epsom salt soak and a painkiller, but I’d had none of that. I’d been working. What was going on? I felt like I’d hit the fountain of youth.
Upon further reflection, I realized that I’d actually loosened myself through my own awareness, simply by spending so much time in focused awareness empathizing with my clients.
It sounds almost like magic, I know, but it’s not. It’s just the result of following a really beautiful system for tapping into human potential. Our brains are so much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for.
This work, this MBS Academy work, based on the teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais, is about teaching people to release their own tension, to learn to move gracefully and with minimal effort. In the process of teaching people these Movement Lessons, the teacher who gives the lesson also receives the lesson.
It kinda is the fountain of youth. I’m so grateful to have found it.
Finding our true potential 