What is the Feldenkrais Method?

The Feldenkrais Method is a unique approach to human movement and learning. Often our movement is limited due to unconscious habits of muscular holding.


Feldenkrais lessons help people to recognize and interrupt these habits, and eliminate limitations and restrictions. As a result students learn better body mechanics and discover natural flexibility and comfort. As students let go of unnecessary effort they start to move more in accordance with the design of the skeleton and experience reductions of strain and tension throughout the whole body. This new way of coordinating oneself results in increased strength, grace and well-being.

This learning is directly applied to improve all of life’s daily activities, as well as athletic and artistic skills. There are two complimentary formats of the Feldenkrais Method (Awareness Through Movement), and private lessons (Functional Integration).

Carolyn Townsend is a Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner and well-known Physiotherapist in Fredericton. She practices physiotherapy and the Feldenkrais Method at CBI Health Centre, Kings Place Mall and offers Feldenkrais Classes and Workshops at Lokamotion Complementary Health Studio, 151 Main Street, Unit 2, Fredericton, NB.

For more information, to book an appointment, or register for a workshop, contact ctown@nbnet.nb.ca or phone 459-8697. To contact her at CBI Health Centre call 458-0204.

The Importance of New Beginnings

You reach a certain stage in life when it seems there are more endings than beginnings. In his epic book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says that most people have given up their dreams by mid-forties. There are many ways to die.

I got thinking about this as I sat parked in front of the building that once housed our flooring businees. It's slated for demolition. It looks broken, used up, nothing like it once was.

I thought I might get a sense of soul if I went there just once more. I was mistaken. Gone is the laughter, the blood, sweat and tears. It used to vibrate with our passion and dreams.

I now get to view it all through rose-coloured glasses. I can let go of the struggles and remember the success. Brian and I would often look at one another and say, "We have the best customers!". It was a zoo in there. One former employee said, "It was a fun place to work".

The ambiance was such that our customers would come and linger: perhaps on the showroom couch, sipping fresh coffee, meeting their friends and sharing their news. Come, sit awhile. Times have changed.

It's important to begin again. With each passing, we must create a new adventure. There is no failure in life other than doing nothing.

It's all too easy to charge through life, breathless, numb and missing the meaning, the beauty and the possibilities for rebirth.

Entrepreneurs have an opportunity to truly express who they are and create a great experience for both staff and customers. Don't miss that! And, if you are in a job or career you hate, one that violates your deepest values, move on.

Begin again - because you can.

Feeling stuck? Call me.

Warmest regards,
Sharon

Stories are not Truth

We are a story-telling species. Stories make sense of our world, shape our identities, beliefs and tell us where we belong. Our past, present and future are embodied in our stories. From cave walls to Facebook walls we seek our place and fulfill our innate need to tell our stories and to hear those of others. By sharing our tales, we find validation and common ground. There are countless ways of expression through music, art, dance, writing and speaking.


The whole world is fuelled and shaped by stories. In order to understand a culture you must listen to the stories. Stories can inspire, motivate, teach, persuade and entertain.

Stories can also separate, isolate, segregate, manipulate and devastate.

Every experience has a story attached to it.

The story we choose to attach to our experience is influenced by the information we have at the time and the cognitive level we’re at. Before language, a child is imprinted emotionally. Future experiences will trigger past emotions and colour our stories. We are also influenced by culture, religion, schooling, assumptions and the opinions of others.

We can become entrapped by the stories of our life.

Become aware that You are not the story: You are more than the story.

Recognize that others are not the stories you make up about them.

What about your story can you reframe?

Leadership in this changing world requires that we re-write the stories of how things should be. And, the world today requires that we all be leaders. We need to take charge of our lives and that means first that we take command of our thoughts, our judgements and our script. Innovation and creativity don’t arise from a mind and soul trapped in stories that no longer serve.

What are the thoughts that chain your mind?
What if you were the “hero” in your own story?
What is your Bigger Story (your life purpose)?
What actions do you need to take?

Warmest regards,
Sharon

A Heartfelt Testimonial

I made a call to Sharon at a moment when I felt my life was spiraling down around me. I was a bundle of emotions with anxiety, sickness, despair and frustration. I remember being close to tears when I made the initial call saying I need to be fixed. Sharon, very matter of fact said, you are not broken and I will help you find the path to clear vision and a place of calm. Immediately after making that initial call I was feeling better, the weight I had carried with me for the past year was lightened because of our conversation and her reassurance that she would work with me to help me understand myself and my feelings.


That first call in my time of total despair put me on the path to finding the authentic me. Sharon asked me a very simple question that I had never really thought about in the past. What are your values?? A simple question yes, but for me it took some thought. Listing my true values on paper helped me understand my own feelings and how I relate to others. Another pivotal point for me in our weekly sessions was learning to respond and not react to situations. I learned why situations triggered my emotions and learned how to Respond instead of React. What an uplifting and motivating experience!!

These sessions helped me understand myself in a way that has given me self confidence and clear direction. It has helped validate who I am. My personalized coaching with Sharon moved my business forward in a professional manner at a very fast pace. This shift was taking place before my very eyes with each weekly session. Imagine my excitement seeing such immediate results!! I am in a leadership position so it was extremely important for me to understand Me before I could lead others. I am now having fun and enjoying the challenges life brings each day whether it is in my personal life or professional life. It has restored my desire to be the best I can be each and every day. I Now Believe in Me. I have lost the backpack of guilt, frustration and limitations, I feel lighthearted, happy and empowered to spread my wings and be open to opportunities, enjoy new experiences and new dreams.

Thank you Sharon for helping me find my way. It has been a positive eye opening experience for me and has made ALL the Difference in My World. The best part of this experience is knowing Sharon, you are only a phone call away if I stray from my path you are there to light the way!! For that I am very grateful.

These personal coaching sessions with Sharon are very powerful and helpful for anyone no matter where you are in the path of life!! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!! There is only One You!

Reignite your Passion for Life and Follow Your Dreams you will Love Yourself for it!

Sincerely,
Jane
Halifax, NS

Intentional Goals Part 3: Creating the Powerful Plan

The feeling of your INTENTION is the power that drives your goals. It’s not just your thoughts, words or actions.

The focus of your ATTENTION is when your thoughts and energy are aligned with your Intention.

I can’t stress enough that to achieve Clarity for the above, you must clear the clutter in your head!

NOW you are ready to create your Powerful Plan.

1. Your Intention and your Goals must be written down. This is the first and most important step.

2. Written goals should begin with “To...” Example: "My intention is to be a catalyst for my clients to achieve more clarity, joy, fulfillment and success in their personal and professional lives. My current goal is to create a program that will assist my clients to clear the clutter that obscures their full potential and purpose.”

3. All goals must have a completion date.

4. It is the smaller goals that are most important because they are the Action Steps that will get you there.

5. Get clear and specific about the obstacles: write them down.

6. Be prepared and flexible about changing the goals or steps when necessary.

7. Stay with it! Check in with your lists weekly.

A slightly new twist on SMART GOALS:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Accountable (for living into the Big “A” agenda)
• Resonant (fully honouring your core values, desires and true self)
• Thrilling (compelling, exciting, powerful, big)

Be Bold; Be Real; Be a Warrior!

Intentional Goals Part 2: Focusing Your Attention

If Intention is the “compelling why”, then Attention is the “what”. It is the mental, rather than the emotional, tool.

ATTENTION requires that you are fully present both mentally and physically to what is needed to serve your goals and propel you forward.

ASK YOURSELF:
1. What are you giving your attention to?
2. What is your “self-talk”?
3. Are your “doings” taking you to where you want to go?
4. What do you need to let go of in order to clear the path – your barriers and obstacles?

Now we get to the big question, the one my clients most often ask: HOW?

When you think of the journey towards a goal, most of us are wandering aimlessly and hoping for the best. Or, we’re tossing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

“HOW” BECOMES JUST ANOTHER STUCK PLACE!

If you are very clear about the Intention and you are giving your Attention to what you are doing right now, the How will unfold. Sounds a bit scary, right?

This is not to say that you don’t create a plan. In fact, we will deal with that specifically in Part 3.

When your Intention is coming from the Real You, the path with heart, the steps will open up naturally from your gut, your inner voice of wisdom.

As you take these steps, do a mental and physical check:
1. What is happening physically? Excitement, clarity? Or, anxiety and stress?
2. What is your gut telling you?
3. What are your thoughts?
4. Are you vibrating?

When you are on the right path, you’ll feel energized, positive and passionate. If not, you may have to go back and examine your intention or perhaps redefine your goals.

WARNING: Be prepared for the “naysayers”. By following your truth and your passion, you quite likely will not be meeting the expectations of others.


NEXT BLOG: Intentional Goals, Part 3: Creating a Powerful Action Plan

Intentional Goals: Part 1

All of our successes and failures are tied to our Programming and our programming determines most of our thoughts and beliefs.


Our Self-talk , the endless chatter in our heads, reflects our strongest programs that we have carried with us since childhood. Much of this programming was imprinted before the age of reason, which is approximately age 7. It becomes stronger and more tenacious with time and repetition. If allowed, it controls our thoughts, influences our self-esteem, attitudes, beliefs and most of our actions and results.

Many of the goals we set for ourselves come from the “should” place.

“Should” is usually about meeting the expectations of others. We begin to collect the “shoulds” in the early socialization process and soon they become the hammer inside our heads.

“SHOULD” IS WHERE WE GET STUCK; it is a fear place.

Change your self-talk and the thoughts you attach to and you will change your programs. Change your programs and you will change your life.


INTENTIONAL GOALS: the goals you set based on your personal core values and according to the vision you have for your life. Intention is not a “doing” but rather, it is about outcome and feelings. It is the heart of the matter – the path – your passion. When you are in your authentic intention, you feel the energetic vibrations.

INTENTION IS THE “COMPELLING WHY”.


Until you identify the compelling why, you will continue to wander aimlessly in the wilderness. The “why” is not about satisfying needs and wants. It’s about realizing clear choices through inner wisdom and intuition.

Your first step to intentional goal-setting is to get uncomfortable and ask yourself:

1. What is my truth that needs to be expressed?

2. What is the outcome I wish to create?

3. How do I want to feel about the outcome?

4. What is stopping me?

5. Will this goal and outcome serve my greater purpose, my Why?

Be specific.

Be Bold and Courageous,

Sharon
NEXT BLOG: INTENTIONAL GOALS, Part 2: Focusing Your Attention

LEADERCAST

I attended Leadercast at the Forestry Centre on Friday and what a great opportunity, thanks to modern technology.  By large screen video we got to “attend” a live event taking place in Atlanta featuring many extraordinary people who are making a difference in the world.  Among them, Seth Godin, John C. Maxwell, Sir Ken Maxwell, Mack Brown, Suzy Welsh, Frans Johansson, etc.

The main messages for business leaders, entrepreneurs and anyone wishing for  more fulfilling and prosperous lives were as follows:

Values – your authenticity

Intentionality

Take responsibility

Imagination

Push the boundaries – Challenge the status quo

Don’t “react”

Do what you love

Good decision-making skills

Visualize outcomes

Creativity – be an artist – create from your uniqueness

Leadership is creative, comes from the real you and has momentum

Stay tuned for my next blog: Intentional Goal-setting

Millions of Souls, the Philip Riteman Story

The sadness in his eyes pooled and glistened, welling up from his very soul, as he rolled up his shirtsleeve to reveal to me his tattoo. Philip Riteman had been Prisoner Number 98706.

I met Philip in the 1980’s – he was the owner of an import trading company out of Nova Scotia. Over the months and years that he called on our retail flooring store, his story gradually unfolded. From this gentle, kind, and soft-spoken man, the tears fell with each telling.

In 1941 the Riteman family was uprooted by the Nazis from their home in Poland, along with the rest of the Jews and many Christians. Within a week of arriving in Auschwitz, Philip’s grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters were all dead. In all, he lost 30 family members by the end of the war.

Philip was only 14 when his odyssey of horror began. The journey took him through five concentration camps. The prisoners were subjected to starvation and tortured randomly for the amusement of their sadistic captors. He witnessed what the mind cannot comprehend.

Liberated in 1945, the 17 year-old weighed just 75 pounds.

In 1946 he was brought to Newfoundland by his mother’s sister. With nothing but courage and determination and speaking no English, he became a door-to-door pedlar. Through the kindness of the people he rose to become a successful businessman.

Philip had recovered, but he was not free.

The darkness that encased his spirit and his mind gave him no rest. The voices continued to cry out in agony. The bloody images were indelibly etched upon his sight.

He remained silent for 40 years...until it became unbearable to do so.

Thus began his journey to finally speak for the millions and millions of souls whose cries haunted his days and nights.

In his eighties now, he is still speaking to hundreds of students each year.

His book, Millions of Souls: the Philip Riteman Story, as told to Mireille Baulu-MacWillie, was released in 2010. In his book, Philip says:

“When I go speaking in schools I feel like I am crying in the wilderness, I am crying to God, I am crying to young people so that they can be aware of the dangers of evil thinking and malicious intentions.”

Philip Riteman has been recognized for reliving the unimaginable. Among the many accolades are honourary degrees from Memorial and St. Thomas universities. In 2009, he received the Order of Nova Scotia.

Philip’s message to students is clear: “to think for themselves, to respect others, to love rather than hate, and to stand up against all evil.”

Choices

As a solo-preneur, there are times when hard choices must be made. For the past year, as I dealt with loss of loved ones, I decided to pull back from writing and concentrate my time and energy on my clients. The death of my ex-husband and business partner, father of my son, resulted in a very complicated estate. Due to mental illness and hoarding on his part, cleaning up and disposing of his material world became another “job”- complex, emotional and exhausting. As I plodded through it all on almost a daily basis, I needed to look for the gift in it all. That first required that I separate the mess from the man. The grieving became two-fold: the loss of his presence in my life and the loss of what might have been. Mental illness robs its victim of peace. It has far-reaching consequences for those who choose to stand by. Although separated, I chose to be there both in his life and in his death. In the gradual separating of him from the consequences of his illness, I finally reached the fullness of acceptance. I had harboured resentment and sometimes anger for the many ways he had complicated our lives for so many years. In choosing acceptance, I was then able to forgive him and, more importantly, myself. I smile now at all we shared that was positive. We had built a successful business, a family and a life. As his illness progressed he was living more in the past and we would often laugh about the many adventures we had shared in business and, the wonderful people we met. Brian remains in my heart. In my vision he is strong and healthy and smiling. He championed my journey into Life Coaching and he is still encouraging me with each new day.

Courage vs Complacency

Look around you. Complacency is everywhere in our society. We tend to look to the news headlines for the courageous, the heroes.

Complacency breeds upon itself and spreads insidiously through all areas of our lives as we unwittingly give up our power and our will to create excellence.

Good enough or that will do becomes the standard of the day.

Why should you care? No one else does.

Complacency is a deadly disease. It steals your energy, your joy and your aliveness. It kills companies. It destroys economies. It diminishes and destroys your relationships with your partner, children, friends and colleagues.

Complacency fosters the acceptance of negativity, violence, self-centeredness, isolation and substandard quality in all things. It has crept silently into our education systems with the “dumbing down” of standards and the “numbing down” of mind and spirit.

So, who are the courageous, the real heroes?

The most courageous amongst us are those who commit to discovering who they really are and seek the best in themselves. They are the individuals who are committed to learning and changing the beliefs and habits and thoughts that are holding them back from fulfilling their dreams. They are willing to fight complacency.

Change is the hardest thing that any of us can do. It requires that we face our fears, our limitations and take responsibility for our decisions and our mistakes. It means letting go of blaming and making assumptions.

How do you overcome complacency?

Napoleon Hill says: Control Your Own Thoughts.

Focus on the thoughts that feel natural to you: positive, intentional thoughts that move you forward towards your goals and feel congruent with your values. When things don’t quite work out, don’t bring out the WHY hammer and beat yourself or someone else. Learn, change and continue forward.

Courage brings you freedom.

“Only those who risk going far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
(T.S. Eliot 1888-1965)