Meet Anna
The Gyrotonic Expansion System® and the Feldenkrais Method® fueled my path to revival after many tougher periods in my life. Along with many of its wonderful teachers and body workers, they helped me along the way, bringing me back to what matters most – a more tranquil inner state of being. I didn’t know it as such at the time. Since, I have learned to become and stay resilient, bouncing back and ready to give it another go. It was a gradual re-learning process, cultivating deep inner listening, without a focus on any result. I came to sense and recognize, like old friends, the deeply rooted habitual patterns of thought and action that ushered with it fear, tension, chronic pain and panic attacks. The last one happened in the middle of my bank’s trading floor, when I thought I finally had it all, after 20 years in NYC finance. My nervous system sensed otherwise and was sending a clear and strong message that I could not ignore this time.
I have heard many times of transformation from within, but I had not experienced it until I landed on the island of Somatic therapies. There, all things relating to our inner organization and perception of self and the environment around us began to bubble up into my awareness.
Over the years that followed, I continued transforming old patterns into new ones and created a sense of abundance of choices. These new choices came without the habitual stiving and obsession over the outcome. Will they or won’t they… accept, like, appreciate me as I am? Is that the only way I can validate myself and be seen and heard? Who do I need to camouflage into to force an outcome my mind constructed in isolation? How do I need to stiffen my chest, hold my breath, and clench my jaw to seem in control and invulnerable? Softness had a place in my inner sanctum.
As my movement patterns became clearer and more easeful, my thoughts became lighter. My constant companion, the inner self-critic, started to loosen its hold. Maybe, I just could be enough … as I am. No way … wow… and phew! No words can substitute a felt experience. I gained a sense of what alignment of the whole self might taste like. And it was delicious, natural, and integrative! I sensed that I am not alone, isolated in a predicament I have no control over. Instead, we are all connected through this shared and expanding field of awareness. Working with my awareness became a delightful dance of mind, heart, breath and all the inner senses. My old buddy, fear, reverted from being a bite to a gentle hug. What else can be added to my awareness and further enrich my life’s experience? Yes, that too!
If any of those resonate with you at this part of your journey, please join me! Stay curious how expanding your awareness can change your path. How would you feel if your body was more easeful and fluid? If you found freedom in your chest and shoulders, lightness and connection in your spine and ease in your hips? You might just awaken into a higher, lighter vibration, inhabiting this moment to the fullest. I say, abandon the wait! Open door, step through … and I shall be there to guide you through this rich tapestry of movement through life.
Anna became certified after completing a 2-year Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) program in summer of 2023 through NEAT (New England Awareness Through Movement) based out of California and Vermont.
Anna has been involved in the Gyrotonic Expansion System® since 2012. She completed GYROTONIC® Level 1 Foundation in May 2021.