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Superfluous effort shortens the body. Efficient action involves growing taller, lengthening the limbs and the spine.

This is a fundamental idea in Feldenkrais. Scan your feeling of height as you sit in your chair reading this. Then clench your jaw--do you grow taller or shorter? Tighten you shoulders. Taller or shorter? Grip your stomach like you've just had a fright. Taller or shorter?

One of the great mysteries of Feldenkrais: how does that "phenomenological weight loss" happen? I weigh x pounds when I arrive for the lesson; I weigh the same an hour later when it's over. How can I feel so much lighter on my feet?

This lesson explores the question at that very moment of shifting weight onto a foot.