Newsletter #126 – Before the year closes

Highlights

1. Announcements
• End of the year surprise for our readers
• NEW masterclasses
2. Did you know? …
3. Book recommendation
• And there was light, by Jacques Lusseyran
4. The student corner
• A section to respond to students’ questions

1. Announcements

New Masterclasses

We’re happy to announce a new learning format on our Neurosomatic Platform: masterclasses, designed for deeper exploration of specific topics.

Each masterclass is available as a one-time purchase with lifetime access — allowing you to learn at your own pace, wherever you are.

You can already access the following masterclasses, open to all and with no prior experience required:
Unlearning Pain — Dr. Howard Schubiner: https://feldenkrais-education.com/en/masterclass/unlearning-pain/
The Skeletal Voice — Robert Sussuma: https://feldenkrais-education.com/en/masterclass/the-skeletal-voice/
The Singer’s Voice — Robert Sussuma: https://feldenkrais-education.com/en/masterclass/the-singers-voice/

👉 Discover our masterclasses here.: https://feldenkrais-education.com/en/platform/#masterclasses

2. Did you know? …

Balance is not stillness, it’s a dynamic process.

Even when you appear to stand still, your body is constantly in motion. Subtle shifts, up to 10 times per second in visible sway, and many more in tiny muscular adjustments, keep your center of gravity finely tuned.
Postural sway, the small, continuous oscillation of the body around the center of gravity, occurs in all directions. Sensors in your ankles, hips, eyes, and inner ear work together in a continuous conversation with gravity, helping your brain sense where you are and how you’re moving.

What feels like stillness is actually your nervous system orchestrating movement and support moment by moment.

3. Book recommendation

Seeing from Within

‘And there was Light’
- Jacques Lusseyran -

Jacques Lusseyran was eight years old when an accident left him completely blind. Yet soon after, he discovered that darkness was not the absence of light. In his extraordinary memoir And There Was Light, he describes realizing that when he stopped trying to “look” with his eyes and began to attend inwardly, light returned, steady, luminous, and alive. “I saw light and went on seeing it, though I was blind,” he writes.

What Lusseyran describes is not mystical poetry but a profound experience of perception freed from habit. He learns to “see” with his whole body, through the resonance of sounds, the vibrations of objects, the pressures of touch, and the atmosphere of emotions. From a young boy at school in Paris to a member of the Resistance during the war, a prisoner in Buchenwald, or a literature professor in Hawaï, Lusseyran teaches us that perception begins within, that seeing, like awareness, is an act of presence, not of the eyes.

For Feldenkrais students, Lusseyran’s story offers a vivid example of sensory plasticity and embodied attention. It reminds us that perception is not located in the eyes or ears, but in the nervous system’s capacity to organize experience. When one sense quiets, others awaken; when fear and effort dissolve, clarity appears.

In his blindness, Lusseyran rediscovers what Moshe Feldenkrais invited us to explore through movement: that awareness is a sensory-motor act, and that our ability to “see” ourselves anew depends not on sight, but on attention without strain.

Reading And There Was Light is like entering a lesson in perception, one taught by a man who found radiance where others would have seen only loss. It is a book not about blindness, but about vision.

4. The student corner

Here is a question we received from Margo from the Netherlands:

“I would love to know more about Feldenkrais lessons and sleep.
Some lessons help me sleep wonderfully, while others wake me up or keep me awake.
How does that work? Are there certain types of lessons that are more activating, and others that are more relaxing?
Many people struggle with sleep, and I know Feldenkrais can support the sleep process, but I don’t fully understand how.”

You are absolutely right: some Feldenkrais lessons bring you into deep rest, while others make you more alert or even wide awake. That’s not accidental. Each lesson can touch upon a different aspect of your autonomic nervous system.

Movements that slow down, soften, and round off often help the body shift into a resting state. They activate the parasympathetic system, which supports recovery and sleep.
For example, I once worked for a long period with a young girl who was coming out of a coma and was afraid to sleep again. Gentle, quiet lessons were exactly what helped her find rest and safety.

Lessons that ask for more differentiation, spatial orientation, or coordination tend to awaken alertness and clarity. These activate the sympathetic system, which prepares us for activity and engagement.

In the Feldenkrais Method, the aim is not to relax but to learn to recognize both states, and to move fluidly and functionally between them.
Good sleep doesn’t arise from relaxation alone, but from the ability to shift freely between wakefulness and rest, between activation and letting go.

In that sense, every lesson, whether it quiets you or wakes you, becomes an invitation to get to know the rhythm of your own nervous system.

- Yvo Mentens, Feldenkrais Trainer