Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 9

The last couple of weeks of Feldenkrais have been very interesting it is amazing to me how the brain controls your body. When I was in hospital they said wiggle your toes, I looked down at my toes they didn't move and I thought how do I wiggle my toes. The overall feeling I got from the hospital experience was I would never move again. Thanks to my sisters belief there must be something that can improve my movement I have gone on this Feldenkrais reflexology journey. We all know the old saying "Move it or lose it" but if you can't control the limb with your brain you can't move it! Also your brain learns not to move things that cause pain so over time you learn not to move or forget how to move. When it comes to relearning movement there are reasons you can't, they can be a physical restraint, pain, lack of feeling or muscular degeneration. My advice when relearning is a little is best and learn to feel the results. Today's session was on the feet, we did exercises like twisting your foot using each toe in turn as the pivot point. As always it is about the brain as I am doing these exercises I try to think what is stopping me doing them and understand why that is happening. I might come away with only 1 or 2mm more movement but that improvement makes such a difference  in mind, body and soul. As we do the foot exercises I can now feel my knee, hip, pelvis and lower back moving. My calf muscles are stretching and starting to ache. Today walking felt much better in bare feet there was no pain and I didn't have to think about my foot movement. I leave the session feeling more upright and flexible walking down the stairs of the building is much easier I don't need to take one step at a time and my overall balance is better.

Family Tree - Ivy Heather MacEwan nee Kerr

I recently had the honor of looking at my grandmother's (Nana) photo album and scrapbook. Growing up I thought she was a fierce woman. She was eccentric with her colourful clothing, pressed flowers and strange behaviours. Nana was of Scottish descent and I thought that explained her strength and toughness. I assumed she had come to New Zealand married and started her family just like most hard working Scottish families would have done. I was too young to understand what Popa and Nana had done or why, they were old and had retired their family was growing so their job was done.

Ivy Heather Kerr

Ivy Heather MacEwan wedding c 1930

  In her scrapbook she had kept momento's of her life, school reports, sports teams, drivers licenses, photos of her family all these things suddenly made me realize I never really gave Nana the respect she deserved and the time to understand her life. She hadn't just come to New Zealand and started a family, Nana had traveled the world going back and forth between Scotland and New Zealand. Spending enough time in Melbourne Australia to get her drivers license. The photos showed her traveling around New Zealand with her mother (Granny Kerr) Auckland, Timaru, Rotorua, Mt Cook and Wellington. Nana was obviously well traveled and she traveled in style. She had her pressed flowers and home made cards something I thought she had done in her later years to pass the time. Nana and Popa traveled the world on their honeymoon.

 I have spent a lot of hours around the elderly at the moment and there is so much useful insight that can be gathered from them if you just give them time and listen. They are not here forever and when they are gone they won't be able to answer the questions. Why did you do .... why did you move ...
Families are interesting and make great stories 

Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 8

Today's Feldenkrais session focused on the eyes! The eyes to the soul no, eyes to the brain maybe. Focusing on an imaginary ball moving left and right then towards and away with your eyes shut. I am sure it has an effect on your brain cause it sure did make me feel queezy. I think while the brain is concentrating on these mind bending tasks your body just relaxes and lets go. They say stress is a killer and ties your body up in knots, well I think stress is more than we think there is. Although today's session was a low key affair and more about calming the body down. I still come away with a lightness in my body with much more upper body freedom and movement.  

I have recently gone to walking barefoot as I can now roll toe to heel before I needed support or boost of a shoe with a heel

Must remember t take it slowly over stressing with exercises can cause an adverse effect on the recovery process

Updating the MacEwan Family Tree

I am currently updating the family tree both online and offline as a resource for the future generations. I am unsure why I am doing this as I will have no descendants but it does keep the brain occupied. I had heard stories growing up about J.B. MacEwan marrying Mary Fisher and her brother  (Frank) Francis Marion Bates Fisher being a Mayor of Wellington, . With a name like that there can't be many matches on Geni.com so when I found a match and added him to me tree job done? Oh no stories from mum (Florance Perress MacEwan) and the names of relatives of FMB Fisher just didn't match, so after much researching I found a match for other members of the family and even an old family tree written in my grandmothers handwriting (Ivy Heather MacEwan nee Kerr). I am leaving a lot of name bread crumbs so if some other sole is researching these names they might be able to find my link. I wish you luck.

Here is today's historical find Ian & Heather MacEwan's wedding. You can see my work on the family tree here have a look we may even be related. Updating the family tree was meant to be just add photos to the entries with no photo but as I searched and added. I gathered more and more photos of family members not on the tree not only descendants but ancestors as well. This then lead me to many stories about the family that will be lost if not recorded before my mothers generation depart this world. So I am gathering the stories as text, images, videos and audio to edit into a e-book

Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 7

Today's session was focusing on the pelvis and doing the wave ankles - pelvis - neck. The idea is to get your co-ordination and spine moving the exercise is a bit of a brain teaser. The best result today was when I was asked how does that feel now. You know when you get that question and you really think "well it is just the same". Well I didn't need to make up a story it did feel different and I could explain how it felt. The exercise was to relax and lie on the table and the result was I could actually relax the muscles and I could feel more contact with the table. I have spent so much time with my muscles so tight with the fear of pain just letting go was impossible, but not today. Actually today standing had become more natural. I could just stand without thinking tighten that muscle, lean slightly forward. I could stand relaxed, slouched or at attention which one is best. Although the Feldenkrais exercises aren't massive or strenuous you do feel some soreness after the sessions. Due to more movement and less pain when sleeping I have been able to sleep a full 4 hours where as before I would sleep for an hour or less and wake up in pain get settled again and sleep another hour. We also did steps which is just taking a small step forward previously I was fine on the left side but the right side was a struggle today either foot leading was fine. The feet are now more flexible and I can walk on tippy toes and do calf raiser exercises both of these were impossible before.