You Have the Power to Feel Good in Your Body Again
It Used to Be So Easy
You’ve always loved moving your body, but lately, you’re not feeling so good.
Throughout your life, you’ve enjoyed all kinds of activities: walking, running, playing sports, martial arts, yoga, dancing, gardening, cooking, hiking, horseback riding, golfing, pilates, working out in a gym. You appreciate your body for what it allows you to do every day, so it’s very challenging to find yourself in pain, to feel out of touch with your body, and not able to move comfortably and freely.
Or, you may not have pain, but you know your body isn’t working quite right. You seem to be falling a lot or feeling off balance. You are unsteady on your feet. You can tell your walk is stiff and tentative. Your body isn’t moving as smoothly as it did before.
You can no longer walk for more than 15 minutes without back pain, so you’re reluctant to go for a walk with your spouse or friends or kids. You are feeling apprehensive about hiking, not knowing how your body is going to react later. You are finding Yoga practice not as comfortable and enjoyable as it did before, and it doesn’t feel quite right for your body. You have stopped working out in a gym because you fear that you might injure yourself and you don’t know what is too much, what’s good and what’s bad for your body. You are feeling dragging to get yourself to do gardening because your back doesn’t allow you to do gardening comfortably.
How You Feel in Your Body Affects Your Whole Life
In addition to the physical challenges you have, you see the same kind of constriction showing up in other areas of your life. Feeling pain, off balance in your physical body is making you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, anxious, irritated, frustrated, sad, afraid, insecure emotionally. You may come across as an unhappy person despite your natural personality. You are having more conflicts with your family, friends, and others. You’re struggling with your social life more.
All the Things that Haven’t Worked
You’ve tried everything
multiple doctors’ visits
pain medications
physical therapy
chiropractic
massage
yoga
tai chi & qigong
osteopath
acupuncture
meditation
You’ve tried so hard to help your body, but nothing has helped you to a point where you can get back to what you love to do and get back to the YOU who is very active, finds joy and pleasure moving his/her body.
You’ve tried massage, physical therapy, and the chiropractor, and even though you get some temporary relief, the pain you have keeps coming back, and they told you to keep coming back but never taught you how you can take care of yourself.
You’ve had injections to your hip that lasted only for a few months if you were lucky. You’ve tried physical therapy for your lower back and were told to strengthen your core muscles and work on your posture. So you did what they told you to do for weeks and months, but that didn’t really change your experience much. When physical therapy didn’t work for you, your doctor suggested a spinal fusion.
The only thing your doctor is suggesting is pain pills, injections, and/or surgery (hip replacement, knee replacement, spinal fusion, bunion surgery, etc). Your doctor keeps suggesting surgery; physical therapy doesn’t seem to relieve that lower back pain. You know it’s not sustainable to keep popping pain killers. Everything you have tried only addressed the surface but never addressed the root problem and never addressed your body, you as a whole.
You’ve tried physical therapy/physiotherapy only to get prescribed stretching and strengthening exercises that were not only hard for your body but also very uncomfortable and even painful. You followed through with the prescribed exercises for some time, but you got very little improvement, sometimes you got even worse. You were given so many exercises, but they never explained to you why you needed to do those exercises, and how they can help you improve your conditions.
You Sense Your Body is a Whole Not Parts
Those exercises only focused on the isolated parts but never addressed the whole body. Nothing you’ve tried has given you the awareness of your body and has taught you to notice your body. You searched for information on the internet and asked your friends for information only to learn that there’s an overwhelming amount of information and that left you feeling more overwhelmed and confused.
Even though you don’t know what’s underneath the surface, you intuitively know that all parts of your body are connected (body parts, body, mind, nervous system), so you need to work with your body holistically, and you know that your body and nervous system have innate ability and wisdom. You really want to take full ownership of your body and improve your body as a whole in a natural way. You are actually really ready to put your time and energy into changing this experience.
Your Dream of Feeling Good in Your Body Again
You’re feeling tired of being stuck in these conditions, but you are feeling quite overwhelmed and confused and clueless as to what you need to do. You might be wondering if this is how it is, If you need to accept these physical limitations. Or just go ahead and get the surgery even though you’re hoping there is another way.
You wish you could go through your day without worrying about whether your body can hold you up each day. You wish you could work out in the gym, lifting weights, running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike without fearing if you will be in pain the next day. You hope to move and live more comfortably and confidently. You dream of becoming the person you always were before, who was active, loved moving, playing sports, was happy, joyful, and fun, and was connected to your body.
My Journey Back to Loving Moving Again
As a kid, there was nothing I loved more than moving my body. On any given day, you could find me riding my bike, practicing martial arts, or running through the woods.
When I grew up, I wanted to learn more about and study the body, so I got my degrees in exercise science, kinesiology, and physical rehabilitation. Bit by bit, though, I seemed to lose my love and joy of moving.
I was a competitive rugby player for over 17 years and had many injuries (broken fingers, wrist, ankles, shoulder ligament tear, multiple concussions, ACL tear, surgery, MCL tear, meniscal tear, hip labral tear, central herniation of cervical discs, lumbar disc herniations, and more). It’s not surprising that I had suffered constant pain in my body.
As I became a movement coach and therapist, I applied what I learned to my body. All movements and exercises I learned felt quite awkward, uncomfortable, unnatural, and even wrong for my body even though they were supposed to be correct according to the research and experts. I couldn’t quite understand why I felt that way, but I intuitively knew something wasn’t right.
It wasn’t until I discovered Feldenkrais method that I started to get back to that childlike joy . I realized that I had become more of an outside observer for my body and I had forgotten how to be in my body, and learn about my body from the inside. I was so pleasantly surprised to have been reminded that this is exactly how I used to learn about my body and movement, just like when I learned how to ride a bicycle for the very first time. It was such an eye opening realization that my body is unique, how my body wants to move is also unique, and so is my experience in my body.
Once I reconnected with my body and started to sense my body and observe my body and movement from the inside, I started to understand how my body wanted to move, how I could move more naturally, easily, and comfortably. It felt so great. It sparked the joy in my body that I had forgotten for a long time. I felt like a kid who discovered a treasure map in a forest. Although I always loved moving my body, I never enjoyed lifting weights, running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, doing repetitive mechanical exercises. I did those things because I had to for what I was doing at that time (sports). For the same reason, I always hated running for the sake of exercising and training.
Now, I very much enjoy walking and jogging because I feel the joy of movement and I love feeling the connection with my body, and enjoy exploring different ways of moving my body, discovering ways of moving that gives me more ease, comfort, and joy! I find a pleasure connecting with my body, exploring my body and movement, getting to know my body, myself more each day through my practice.
That’s the feeling I want for you.
A New Way to Think About Your Body
You may think the problem is your knee (or your back or your foot), but actually it’s not. What appears on the surface (the ache, the twinge, the stiffness) is what you notice, so you think of that as the problem. What you may not realize is what is underneath the surface: the relationship/connection between your problem area(s) and other parts of your body. When you realize your problem is connected to the whole, then you can start to experience your body as an interconnected whole clearly and experience more ease and comfort with your movement in your body.
Pain Can Be An Invitation
When you realize that your body is unique and how your body wants to move may be different from anyone else, then you can start to connect with your own body and own sensory experience to know what feels right and what doesn’t. That is not decided by others, but by you based on your own experience, and you can feel more natural and authentic.
When you realize that it’s not about finding an expert to fix you, but becoming the expert in your body, then you start to focus more on how you sense your body and how you move from the inside, and start to learn about your body and how you move from the inside.
Become the Expert in How Your Body Wants to Move
The more you know about your body, and the more trust you have in your body, the more confidence you will have in your body, and the more secure you will feel.
We are culturally trained to push ourselves and work harder in order to overcome our challenges, so as you discover your habitual patterns, you will likely work harder to change your patterns with more physical effort, which actually works against you. Changing your movement patterns doesn’t actually mean working harder; it actually means becoming more curious and creative about how you move and discovering different ways of moving.
While you may think that your limitations are in your body and your body’s functions naturally decline as you age, the truth is that your nervous system and body have the ability to change and improve regardless of your conditions, age, circumstance.
What you believe is a body limitation is actually not just a body limitation because your body and nervous system are neurologically connected. How you move and use your body is a reflection of how your nervous system interacts with your body.
You forget all the ways you learned as a kid to stand, walk, skip, and run. You forget that you can still learn how to move by playing, and exploring, and experimenting. You don’t realize that your mindset about your body is keeping you stuck in your old patterns.
Retrain Your Nervous System instead of “Fixing” Your Body Problems
Your nervous system is keeping you stuck in your patterns. When you shift your mindset from “fixing/correcting your body” to playing, exploring, and experimenting (when you shift your nervous system), then you will begin to discover new ways of moving, and you will be more connected to your body. You will then discover ways you can move and use your body comfortably and easily.
Through exploration, you might discover that you are putting your weight on your toes when you walk, and it actually feels better when your weight is further back on your foot. You might discover that you are habitually sitting on your tailbone, and your back and neck feel much more comfortable when you sit clearly on your sitbones. You start to shift your body weight from hip to hip to discover which placement feels the best, when you walk, you notice how your hips move, and you have fun trying different ways of moving.
You Can Feel Like a Kid Again
When you learn how to connect with your body and learn to sense your body and movement from the inside, you start to move more organically and feel how all your body parts are connected. You realize how you can move as a whole, and you start to feel more authentic.
You feel like a kid again in some ways, moving through the world with more ease and enjoying the sensation of moving freely. You start to have the confidence that you can not only feel better now but also take care of your body for your lifetime, exploring, adjusting, and changing as your body changes.
The Skills You Learn Will Help You Navigate a Lifetime of Body Changes
Even when you slip back into your old habitual patterns and experience a sciatic nerve attack or back spasm, you have the tools, skills, and resources within yourself and know-how to get yourself back to a pain-free life, enjoying your life, and trusting your body.
Life is unpredictable and presents you with all kinds of challenges, but that confidence in your body and the trust you have in your own process translate into how you present and carry yourself in the world with confidence. You know that you have faith in your ability to overcome challenges and limitations of all kinds. The ease in your body translates into ease in your life, influencing how you navigate through your life and fostering ease in your relationships with others and your environment. Freedom in your body and movement allows you to move effortlessly in your life. Finally, for the first time in a very long time, you will feel at home in your body, like children at home in themselves, discovering ease, joy, pleasure, and comfortable ways to move. You are no longer limited by age, condition, or circumstance to the smaller and less comfortable life you had accepted as normal.
That’s Why I Created the Understanding How YOUR BODY Moves Method Course
When you complete the course, understand the 7 elements of becoming the best expert of your body, and explore the full map of your body through the course, then you will gain confidence in your body and yourself to walk into new territory and overcome challenges and limitations of all kinds with faith in your ability to learn and grow for a lifetime.
David Lambson’s Story:
“After what felt like an endless journey through hundreds of sessions spanning physical therapy, Bikram Yoga, chiropractic treatments, and Gyrotonics, I stumbled upon something—or rather someone—truly remarkable. That someone is Taro, my Feldenkrais teacher.
For years, I grappled with the aftermath of a torn ACL, an injury that ultimately led to a knee replacement. It was a challenging path, one filled with adjustments and compensations. But then I met Taro. His approach through Feldenkrais was the first that didn't just band-aid the symptoms but delved into the root of my issues, teaching me not just what to fix, but how.
Each session with Taro brought new revelations, those "a-ha" moments that anyone who has struggled with chronic pain or physical limitations dreams of. It's not just about the exercises or the movements; it's about relearning how your body can and should move, and Taro is a master at guiding this journey.
I'm not alone in my experience. I've joined a growing list of individuals who have had their lives transformed by Taro's expertise and the Feldenkrais method. It's not an overstatement to say that working with Taro has been life-changing. The path to recovery is often long and winding, but with Taro's guidance, it's a journey marked by profound learning and genuine improvement.
To anyone considering Feldenkrais or seeking a way out of chronic pain and limited mobility, I cannot recommend Taro enough. His knowledge, patience, and ability to connect with his students are unparalleled. Thank you, Taro, for opening a door to healing and mobility that I thought was permanently closed.”
How This Course Will Change How You Feel in Your Body
So what I do in this training is guide you through the seven elements of becoming the best expert of your body so you can move more easily and joyfully through the world.
1. Retrain your nervous system through movement exploration rather than trying to fix your body
Trying to fix your body mechanically won’t really touch the root of your problem because your nervous system is keeping you in old patterns. You need to shift your nervous system by being more curious, creative, and flexible about how you move. That means you will retrain your movement patterns, discover new ways (more optimal ways) of moving. For this process, your attention to your body is the key element. Through movement exploration, you will rewire your nervous system, create new neural pathways, and create a new relationship with your body, yourself.
2. Trust yourself over outside experts to know what is going on inside your body
You learn about your body by feeling and sensing your body, connecting with your body, experiencing yourself as your body.
Your body is unique, and so is your experience in your body. You really cannot learn about your body with textbook knowledge because only you can feel and sense your body. Focusing on preconceived correctness disconnects you from your body and keeps you in your head. You need to connect with your body.
As we live in an information-saturated world, it’s easy to get distracted by the “outside noise” and become worried, anxious, overwhelmed, and get trapped in our heads. It’s important for you to trust your own process and yourself because the resources you need to overcome your challenges are within yourself, not outside. When in doubt, connect with your body, turn your attention inward, not outward. It’s important to remember that only you can become the best expert in your body.
3. Focus most on what feels good in your body when you move
How easily, comfortably, smoothly, lightly, softly, effortlessly, pleasurably, elegantly are you moving? These are all qualities of movement, and these qualities are sensed and felt experience, which lives inside your body, which only you can access.
I feel that there’s a heavy emphasis on structural correction and fixing in Western culture where people impose correctness based on the norm onto everyone’s body as if everyone has the same exact body. Whether you’re moving correctly or not can only be objectively judged by “experts”, that has nothing to do with your experience in your body. This process again disconnects you from your body and keeps you in your head.
4. Notice daily the range of different things your body can feel
Once you shift your attention into your body, you begin to connect directly with your sensation and feeling in your body. Felt and sensed experience in your body is very different from intellectual understanding in your head. So in the beginning, your beliefs, knowledge, and judgment often get in the way of sensing and feeling your body, but as you become more in tune with your body, you can start to notice more subtle sensation in your body and how you’re moving, and you will begin to become more aware of your body. Then, you will begin to discover new ways of moving, more optimal ways of moving.
This movement practice is not just about learning movements or doing exercises. This is a practice of getting to know your body, and yourself, and becoming a better version of yourself through movement. If you don’t take your practice with you to your daily activities, your life, you really won’t change your deep habitual patterns. If you want to overcome your limitations and move beyond, then you need to make this noticing a daily practice.
5. Realize that your body functions as a whole not separate parts
Our culture (modern culture) trains us to think of our body in parts, our body from our mind separately, and compartmentalize our body like a machine. Your beliefs influence how you think about your body, how you work with our body, and how you move our body. If you understand your body as such, you work with your body in an isolated way. However, in reality, all your body parts, body, and mind are connected, and your body functions as a whole. Thus, you must realize that your body functions as a whole.
6. Embrace that the way your body wants to move may not be like anyone else
You intuitively know your body is unique, different from anyone else, but our culture trains us to be disconnected from our bodies. An overwhelming amount of information may be keeping you in your head. Many “experts” tell you what you should do about your body, what is correct and what is wrong, the correct way of moving, breathing, sitting, walking, etc. You probably no longer know what is right, what is not for your body because you have forgotten the fact that the way your body wants to move may not be like anyone else. You need to remember and embrace that to become the best expert in your body.
7. Understand that your body is always changing and what feels good is always changing
A lot of solutions to the body don’t last, but what I’m trying to teach you is to be the expert in your body and explore and discover for yourself what feels good in your body because the body is always changing. Nothing in the universe is static, stationary. Everything is constantly changing. This includes the state of your body, mind, nervous system. When you see your body, yourself as a fixed state, you will always run into problems. You will struggle and suffer not because your body changes but because you cannot adjust and adapt to changes. When you become attached to your wish and expectations, your nervous system gets stuck and keeps you stuck in the same state. When you understand that your body is always changing, then you can begin to adjust and adapt to changes, move with changes, and continue to discover new ways of moving that feel good in your body. You can continue to improve the quality of your movement and life.
How the Understanding How YOUR BODY Moves Course Works
In my Understanding How Your Body Moves Method course, you’ll learn these seven principles, and then apply them throughout the map of your body.
Module 1: Welcome & Introduction
Module 2: Foundations for Learning YOUR optimal movement
Module 3: Optimal Hip & Low Back Movements (straight plane)
Module 4: Optimal Hip & Low Back Movements (rotational plane)
Module 5: Optimal Hip & Low Back Movements (diagonal plane)
Module 6: Optimal Hip & Low Back: Application to Walking
Module 7: Optimal Neck & Shoulder Movements
Module 8: Optimal Knee & Ankle Movements
Module 9: Optimal Breathing and Posture
Module 10: Now what?
Here’s how You’ll Work through the course:
You’ll watch and practice the module lessons daily (15~30 minutes daily) (“homework” #1)
You’ll practice applying the principles from the course and new movement patterns into your daily activities (practical application) (“homework” #2)
You’ll write down your learning journal daily (what you observed and noticed about your body and movement patterns, aha moments, events/activities that impacted you physically and emotionally, how you applied the principles into your daily activities, what activities, what principles, etc). You will email me your learning journal weekly, and are encouraged to share your learning with other students in my private FB community. This process not only enhances your learning, but also helps you stay more engaged and focused. (“homework” #3)
We’ll meet on zoom 4-5 times over the course of 8 weeks for coaching/mentoring sessions.
You’ll get access to me via zoom, emails, my private FB community for coaching and mentoring whenever you need for as long as you need at no additional cost to you. I encourage you to move through all the module over approximately 8 weeks, but the way this course is designed you can move faster or slower.
What You Get From Taking Understanding How Your Body Moves
You gain a deeper understanding of your body based on your experience with and in your body.
You feel more connected to your body and become more aware of your body.
You can recognize “good” movements and “bad” movements for YOUR BODY.
You gain more confidence and feel more authentic in your body.
You move more easily, comfortably, freely, and joyfully through the world.
You know how to explore your body and movements to continue learning and improving.
You develop the skills that you carry and apply for the rest of your life.
Bonnie Johnston’s Story:
“This course is one of the most valuable approaches to movement that I've ever experienced. I feel like Taro gave me the keys to understanding why I've had back pain for most of my adult life, and even better, how I can retrain myself in ways that distribute the effort of moving to the parts of my body that are meant to support it, taking the pressure off of my back muscles. For each movement we explored, we learned multiple variations that we use all the time in everyday tasks, and how to do each variation so that it took much less effort.
The information was practical and hands-on, and the lessons were well-paced, with plenty of time to explore each movement, and short breaks in between to integrate the experience before moving on to the next. I also love that the course with pre-recorded lessons is allowing me to go back through the sequence and go deeper into the movements at my own pace.
If you keep reinjuring yourself in the same way, if you're stuck in a pattern of chronic pain that stretching, chiropractic, and other therapies haven't been able to fix, or if you're looking for a deeper understanding of how to move your body with ease and comfort, this is the course you've been looking for. Thank you, Taro!”
Get Started Today Feeling Better in Your Body
“Understanding How YOUR BODY Moves Method” will help you transform what it feels like to live and move in YOUR body. And it teaches you the tools and skills to keep your body feeling good for a lifetime.
And it’s an investment in yourself and your health.
Here are some ways to think about what you are already spending, or what you might spend to try to feel good again:
Even with insurance, you might pay close to $1,000 for a series of 10 sessions of physical therapy treatment that might not give you lasting relief. And you might feel like you have to go back again and again for more help.
Even with insurance, you could easily be out of pocket thousands of dollars for a surgery that might not give you lasting relief, and that keeps you out of work and out of your life for six weeks or more.
If you are doing some combination of acupuncture and massage and chiropractic to feel better, you could easily be spending hundreds of dollars a month and feeling a little better but not getting to the root of the problem.
Just living with the pain or discomfort you are having may be costing you in many small ways that add up to a lot. You may be missing out on time with friends and family, you may be hesitating on taking next steps in your career, you may simply not be enjoying each day as fully as you could.
Understanding How YOUR BODY Moves Method course is $2,200 for lifetime access to the materials.
Over eight weeks, or longer, you’ll learn skills that will bring immediate change in how you feel, and help you have a lifetime of enjoying life in your body.
If you are tired of spending money on approaches to feeling better that aren’t working, you’ll want to sign up and take the Understanding How Your Body Moves Method course.
Your next step is to book a conversation with me.
Here’s what will happen in a conversation with me:
We will talk about you: what you have gone through; what you have tried; what has helped you, what has not helped you; where you’re at and where you’d like to go (your transformation); what’s keeping you from getting the results you want, why you’re not getting the results you want (your major obstacle); what drew you to me; etc.
We will discuss the details of the “Understanding How YOUR BODY Moves Method” course and how we work together through the course, and together figure out whether we’re a good fit to work together.
I promise that there will be no hard sell, just a genuine exploration of whether or not this course is right for you.
*If there’s no slots available, please email me from “Contact” page, and I will put you on the waiting list.