(Re)Mind Your Body

It’s difficult to get across what 'Feldenkrais' is, but recently there emerged a great analogy.
Developmental psychologist Annette Karmiloff-Smith, on ‘The Life Scientific’ on Radio 4, described a ‘eureka moment’ she experienced when watching her small daughter trying to balance a knife on a cutlery rest. Over and over the girl placed the knife, over and over it failed to balance. The girl had acquired a theory about the world – that things balance at geometric centre – and this idea overcame her ability to observe what was actually happening and to adapt. Karmiloff-Smith knew that a younger child would have been able to balance the knife - they would have relied on what she called ‘kinaesthetic feedback’, that is, they would have attended to moving, sensing, and feeling and adapted to what that told them.
Feldenkrais classes offer real-time directed experiences of moving which enable the student to rediscover their ‘kinaesthetic feedback’. As for the younger child successfully balancing a knife, the process is empirical, trial and error, sensory, real and in a Feldenkrais phrase ‘the elusive obvious’ – so simple and effortless, you wonder why you haven’t sorted it out already. Humans have to learn how to sit, crawl, walk, use fine motor skills; but once acquired, the patterns repeat without conscious direction and they become habits.
Let’s compare these movement habits to the girl’s unhelpful ‘theory about the world’. Daily practices, injuries, tensions, social conditioning, can all contribute to habits of movement being not very ‘well organised’ in a Feldenkrais phrase, but they’re so familiar people don’t notice they’re not great theories – even when they are painful or even harmful. It is difficult to change - the superimposition of another theory (to use this muscle, to stand or sit like this not like that) can often seem to reinforce the first problem. Feldenkrais lessons offer a practical, possible, easy, enjoyable strategy to circumvent this – lateral thinking for bodies!
The sessions enable people to understand unwanted habits and change them, to move more easily, and to feel better. Many take class just to enjoy the pleasure of moving easily … yet others to experience the awareness – mindfulness – of your body and mind: being here, now!
The Feldenkrais Method® is widely used to prevent, manage and alleviate workplace injuries by large companies and individuals, especially in Germany and the US. It offers practical, enjoyable, affordable, optimistic experiences of moving with attention.
Finally, Neil Young credits Feldenkrais with sorting his back and feet issues .....(p400 in his autobiography).
Find out more from these links (thanks to originators)
- Home
- Dance for Parkinson's !
- Feldenkrais one-to-one lessons
- CARLISLE CLASS TIME 2020
- PENRITH CLASS TIME 2020
- Easy Neck & Shoulders 7.3.20
- Move without effort 8.2.20
- Contact Us
- Feldenkrais Monthly Workshops
- Feldenkrais and me
- What is Feldenkrais?
- Eden Dance Collegium
- What we do
- Rolling for Fun 7.12.19
- 10.3.18 Flexible Ribs
- shldrs neck STERNUM! 3.11.18
- Hips, pelvis, lwr back13.10.18
- Ankles and Balance 1.12.18
- 7.4.18Core Stability&Mobility!
- 10.2.18 Backs and Hips again
- 2.12.17 SHOULDERS!
- Bend, stand, sit - balance!
- 4.11.17 Feet&Ankles precisely
- 11.3.17 Rotation and balance
- Oct 2016 Arms,Necks,Shoulders
- 12.11.16 Feet Ankles Balance
- Eye Function June 25 2016
- Edinburgh Dance Residency
- 11.2.17 Hips Knees Ankle
- Awareness Week 2013
- Backcat Improve your balance
- Physics of the Body! 21 May 16
- Look Behind You! 21.11.15
- Pelvic Floor Workshop 16.4.16
- 27.2.16 RU sittting comf?!
- BackcatJoin up your Joints
- Breathe Again! 11.4.15
- 26.9.15: Easy Balanced Sitting
- 13.6.15 backcat Back Probs
- Backcat Walk Even Easier
- 16.5.15 Feet & Balance
- Backcat Lying to Standing
- 14.3.15 Breath, Posture, Ease
- Looking Tall15.11.14 workshop
- Back catalog Look Behind You!
- 14.2. 15 Workshop Neck etc!
- Backcat.Easy Neck Arms Shldrs
- Back catalogue: 2014 AwareWeek
- Back Catalogue: Posture(?)
- Back Catalogue: Energy
- Back catalogue: Stress
- Back catalogue - Feet!
- Back Catalogue Eyes
- Back catalogue - Workshops
- More about Feldenkrais
- More about us
- Home
- Dance for Parkinson's !
- Feldenkrais one-to-one lessons
- CARLISLE CLASS TIME 2020
- PENRITH CLASS TIME 2020
- Easy Neck & Shoulders 7.3.20
- Move without effort 8.2.20
- Contact Us
- Feldenkrais Monthly Workshops
- Feldenkrais and me
- What is Feldenkrais?
- Eden Dance Collegium
- What we do
- Rolling for Fun 7.12.19
- 10.3.18 Flexible Ribs
- shldrs neck STERNUM! 3.11.18
- Hips, pelvis, lwr back13.10.18
- Ankles and Balance 1.12.18
- 7.4.18Core Stability&Mobility!
- 10.2.18 Backs and Hips again
- 2.12.17 SHOULDERS!
- Bend, stand, sit - balance!
- 4.11.17 Feet&Ankles precisely
- 11.3.17 Rotation and balance
- Oct 2016 Arms,Necks,Shoulders
- 12.11.16 Feet Ankles Balance
- Eye Function June 25 2016
- Edinburgh Dance Residency
- 11.2.17 Hips Knees Ankle
- Awareness Week 2013
- Backcat Improve your balance
- Physics of the Body! 21 May 16
- Look Behind You! 21.11.15
- Pelvic Floor Workshop 16.4.16
- 27.2.16 RU sittting comf?!
- BackcatJoin up your Joints
- Breathe Again! 11.4.15
- 26.9.15: Easy Balanced Sitting
- 13.6.15 backcat Back Probs
- Backcat Walk Even Easier
- 16.5.15 Feet & Balance
- Backcat Lying to Standing
- 14.3.15 Breath, Posture, Ease
- Looking Tall15.11.14 workshop
- Back catalog Look Behind You!
- 14.2. 15 Workshop Neck etc!
- Backcat.Easy Neck Arms Shldrs
- Back catalogue: 2014 AwareWeek
- Back Catalogue: Posture(?)
- Back Catalogue: Energy
- Back catalogue: Stress
- Back catalogue - Feet!
- Back Catalogue Eyes
- Back catalogue - Workshops
- More about Feldenkrais
- More about us