Ruth Schechter, Instructor

Bio

Tai chi and chi gung “help me keep my balance and move through difficult life places,” says Aging Bodies teacher Ruth Schechter. Keeping a flow going is an experience common to most practitioners, but Ruth adds some twists. Both as a cellist and as a longtime teacher of her “Start with Music” classes for young children and their parents, she works intricately with modulating and redirecting energy.

“Some of what I'm doing is modeling how to use music as a survival technique, helping parents deal with kids during their more difficult moments.” The music can mirror kids' high energy or help shift them into lower energy. Her tai chi practices keep her grounded so that she is able to use her full attention to read and help regulate their energy. The same holds for BTC seniors classes-coming into a room and reading the energy. Here the unproductive habits that require modulating are postures that need unlearning so people can move more freely. “I enjoy giving people the tools to help them take back their life,” she says. The most common issues she reports are tight shoulders, frozen hips, balance problems, not breathing, and “having forgotten where body parts are. Many of us have lived our lives with our heads totally disconnected from our bodies.” Softening hands, finding their feet, and partner exercises have a big payoff. People are often thrilled to feel their fingers and feet start tingling in the first class. Poor balance, so often considered normal with aging, changes dramatically when you can feel the floor.

Ruth also taught chi gung to seniors in W. Roxbury, Roslindale, and at Hebrew Senior Life's adult day care and is trying to start a new program in JP. Her music classes in Brookline, Boston, and JP have included intergenerational music making, developmental programs for special needs children, outreach for teen mothers, workshops for preschool teachers, and-speaking of redirecting energy- ”Singing for Chickens,” for “Musically Uncertain Adults.”