Your Name: Sharon Starika
Business Name: Sharon Starika, a movement educator that uses the Feldenkrais Method®
Type of Business: Coaching & Consulting; Health & Beauty; Medical
Business Location: Park City, Utah,United States
Website www.SharonStarika.com
Twitter @Sharonstarika
Facebook www.facebook.com/SharonStarika
Reason for starting
I have a deep passion for running and have been a competitive triathlete and runner for more than 20 years. I was introduced to the Feldenkrais Method 29 years ago after a debilitating accident with a semi-truck. The accident resulted in nine surgeries on the left side of my body and doctors gave me little hope of ever running again. Through practicing the Feldenkrais Method I was able to heal myself, run, and compete again. From my remarkable recovery, I found my passion for movement and realized that I wanted to teach others to move with greater ease, comfort, less pain, and to live fuller lives with movement. As my mentor and lifetime teacher Moshe Feldenkrais said, “Movement is life.”
Biggest Success
Would it be okay to say myself? After being hit by a semi-truck and the subsequent nine surgeries, there wasn’t much hope for me to survive, let alone run and compete again. Through my incredible experience of learning how to feel, move, walk, and then run again gave me the greatest gift life could ever offer, the gift to help others. The Feldenkrais Method awakens one’s self to go deep inside and to feel, sense, discover, and to learn their inner self and body. My own personal experience gave me the gift and tools to assist others to discover their inner self and body, and ultimately learning that all changes come from within one’s self. My work isn’t about me. It is about my ability to guide others to their own inner knowledge, self-learning, and self-discovery to heal themselves. My biggest success has been helping not one person, but volumes of people around the world through the Method.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
The biggest challenge is teaching the public, in a very short period of time, the miraculous benefits of the Method. First and foremost, individuals need to develop an awareness of themselves and their body. Secondly they need to be open to understand how to learn. There is no situation in life where you can’t learn something different, new or fresh but it takes desire, curiosity, interest, openness, and awareness. We have been taught by most learning systems that there is a right answer or right way of doing things. Unfortunately, this isn’t learning. The Feldenkrais Method develops one’s ability to learn through awareness; this truly is the greatest gift of the Method. I feel grateful for this challenge has directed my teaching to a broader spectrum that now involves presenting, speaking and writing as well as expanding my website to touch more individuals throughout the world.
Who is your most important role model?
For sure it would have to be Moshe Feldenkrais. Even though I never got to personally meet him before his death, the impact his Method had on me changed my life forever. I think because of my deep love and passion for the work, I have a deep passion towards Moshe. I feel as if I know him, and I sense his presence around me everyday as if he is looking down on me. I have often thought if we had ever met, we would have really enjoyed each other.