Magic back lesson, 39 min
Don’t be fooled! This lesson starts with a simple move of folding the wrists and grows to coordinate the whole walking pattern.
It’s wonderful for flattening the back, letting go of tension, and challenging the brain the patterns are complex so pay attention!
And have a good laugh when you get confused, as you likely will.
I feel completely, bizarrely flat after this lesson, as well as a little zoned in that “I have so little tension I don’t even know what to do with myself” kind of way.
Find out what happens for you.
Thought for February 15th: Creative acts
Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think about it.
— A. A. Milne
Edward Bear is on the right track. Searching for another way can be a powerful creative act.
Am I Doing It Right?
I hear this a lot. I, too, want to know if I'm doing it right!
Unfortunately, there is no external concept of right and wrong in Feldenkrais. And yes, everyone gets frustrated by this, myself included, because how do you know if you're doing it right?
Dr. Feldenkrais often talked about obtaining new skills.
He didn't mean athletic skills or cooking skills, but skills in feeling, sensing, and thinking. I repeat: skills in feeling, sensing, and thinking.
His method is based on pure exploration with a nonjudgmental feedback mechanism. It takes us back to when we were babies and explored our movement without positive or negative input from the external world.
It's a Creative Act from the Inside
Real growth happens when we engage in this process of exploration. We progress past babies and become adults through exploration.
Dr. Feldenkrais talks about how a creative act occurs when we compile all the tiny details of all the functions we already know and out of that, a new function emerges, rather like babies learning to walk.
It's like building a whole new car out of the engine parts of many old ones. You cannot say the new car is just an improved version of one of the old ones because it is, in fact, a completely new car.
New functions are like that.
This is why there is no right way to move in the Feldenkrais method. If you were just improving on a old function, I could tell you to move in such-and-such a way and function X would improve.
But you wouldn't own it, and it wouldn't last because it didn't come from your own explorations.
What is missing is your own personal creative act, the act that compiles your own car parts in a way that is uniquely you.
Feldenkrais lessons are catalysts for your own creative act of uncovering new functions and changing your life.
Edward Bear had it right: it's not about improving how well you bump down the stairs, it's going down the stairs in a whole new way.
If you like this lesson, you’re going to love the Feldenkrais Treasury.
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New to Feldenkrais?
Check out New to Feldenkrais articles in my blog.
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Quote(s) of the week:
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
“What happens when people open their hearts?
They get better.”