The group lesson

Awareness Through Movement

By: Rinat Levin-Chervin

This very moment, while you are reading this article, pay one moment of attention to the way you sit or lie down. Do not change anything, do not attempt anything. Just pay attention. You will surely discover some interesting things, which may turn out to be useful. 

Please note, do you feel comfortable? Do you breathe freely, or are your breaths fast, shallow, sparse and short? Are your shoulders dropped forward, or pulled back? Where is your head? Is it bent down or held upright? What about the legs? Are they crossed, or spaced out wide? Are your legs bent, or stretched out long? Do they swing at a certain pace? How are your back and neck feeling? Are they tense, or free? And do you need any support when sitting or lying down?  

If you are sitting, note the support to your body. Are you sitting on the edge of the chair, or stretched wide on an armchair? Do you lean on the back support, or on the table in front, using your arms and elbows?

If you are lying down, notice the way you lie. Do you lie on your back, on your side or on your stomach? Do you need a pillow for support under your head or legs?

Now, try to imagine how you would change your posture, breathing and feeling, in the following events: this minute, your boss/ your spouse / the janitor / your colleague / enters the room and starts talking to you. This puts you in a situation in which you are happy, angry, interested, bored. 

After you answered all these questions to yourself, try to figure out why you decided to choose this posture or another, and is it connected to certain habits which you have acquired during the course of your life?  Is it related to your character, temper, status? Is there something you would like to change or improve?

In person there are other people in the room with you, do not tell them anything, and examine them quickly, from a distance, like you did to yourself. Ask the same questions again, regarding them.

Habits of Movement

I can say with absolute certainty, that following such a short, random observation as described above, the conclusions and answers to the same questions will differ for each person. If you keep doing this examine on more and more people, you will realize that each person has his own specific, typical posture and unique way of moving, which he/she acquired during the course of his/her life, and which is completely different from any other person’s.

These habits of movement are usually adapted to the physique, life experience, status, profession, character and body image of every one of us.

Some of our acquired habits of movement are “correct”, “good”, and serve us properly. Others are harmful to our health, limiting, frustrating and obstructing us, causing various pains, inconvenience, and damages whose origins we are not aware of.   

Ways of moving (walking, sitting, standing, turning, running, swimming, riding bicycle, dancing, bending, lifting objects, carrying baskets or bags, getting up) that are “incorrect”, “wrong”, “lacking” or too “excessive” cause, over the years, disorders, degeneration, and physical and mental illnesses.         

Body and Soul

Such disorders affect the body and soul and eventually cause a decline in the general functioning capability.

This decline in general functioning is expressed and usually accompanied with: pains, aches, fatigue, stress, inconvenience.

In extreme persons, this decline in functioning can lead to total malfunction: physical disability, paralysis, dependency on others and inability to function independently.

Returning to normal functioning

In the Feldenkrais lessons we regain our capabilities, and by doing this, return to normal functioning.

During the lessons, every student undergoes a process of self re-examining and re-discovering, which enables him to reach his potential in a minimum amount of effort, and maximum efficiency, all through developing the awareness to his body.

Each student undergoes an internal learning process of “know thyself!” (words usually attributed to Socrates). The student performs a sequence of movements according to verbal instructions given by the teacher. The movements are gentle, complex, effortless and unforced. They are neither mechanic nor aggressive, and are not performed in a dictated pace, nor through imitating the teacher.

The student moves slowly while thinking and listening to his own movement, body and breathing. The dosage is individual, with each student moving according to his own pace, understanding and ability. The performance of the movements is not a competition, neither between the student and other students, nor is the student competing against himself. The student is in no way required to please the teacher, whether through ideas, movements, or ideal posture. This is a (basic) (fundamental) principle guiding the Feldenkrais method, and uniquely distinguishing it.  

The course of the lessons

During the lessons, the student gets to know his body, its way of moving and its range of capabilities. Through this observation and movement, he discovers tissues, tendons, joints, muscles and vertebrae, which so far went unnoticed, or unused. This way, the student’s awareness and sensitiveness to his body and its movement, develop and grow.

The movements are guided by the teacher in a gradual, continuous manner, in order to improve a specific function every lesson. For example: improving the ability to bend forward while sitting or standing. Rolling from a lying (supine) position, into sitting. Rising in various ways from sitting to a standing position. The lesson’s movemental topics are most varied, each lesson differs from the previous one, and lessons do not repeat themselves. 

Every lesson, a new, additional challenge is being set to the student, thereby keeping the student interested, and curious. In each lesson, we examine certain topics from different viewpoints.

Persistence

People who persist in performing a wide range of lessons and movements, while listening to their inner voices and sensations and noticing the nuances, the connections, the relations and the small changes taking place all at the same time, are able to widen the range of their possible movements, retain their flexibility, increase their movement potential, and choose for themselves the movement path that is best suited and most correct for them.   

Every lesson is an exciting internal experience, at the end of which the student feels that he had rediscovered his potential, and that his present way of moving is more diverse, efficient, flexible, light, clear and aesthetic.

In addition, the student had learned new information about his body, and understood connections and mutual relations between the different actions and functions in his own “human machine”, with which he is now even more acquainted and friendly.

The lessons purpose

 The lessons purpose is to improve and enhance one’s capability and widen the limits of his performance, in order to enable him to perform seemingly difficult, perhaps even impossible, actions, and make them easy, flexible, comfortable, pleasant and enjoyable.

High flexibility, especially in older age, is most essential in maintaining the body’s normal functioning. It contributes to an efficient and regular functioning of the internal organs, and prevents health disorders, pain and disease.

In this method we put an emphasis on the way to perform a movement, and on its quality, rather than on the (mere) content of the exercises. This is another fundamental principle that guides the Feldenkrais method.

Introspection       

In the Feldenkrais method, we look inside ourselves as if observing a drawing or a photograph. We activate our nervous system, think and feel while in action, and by doing so we “watch” the existing movement habits. This observation brings about our desired change.

This is another fundamental principle, underlying the method, and distinguishing it: we do not shift from one rigid, existing state to another, ideal, desirable state. Rather, it is observing the existing state, which initiate internal processes that lead to change. The change is spontaneously expressed, in preserving and maintaining what is useful (“correct“ habits), in changing changeable incorrect habits, and in the ability to tell them apart.

After the student accumulated some “impressions”, learned and understood, to a certain extent, a number of principles regarding his body and the way it moves, he is able to analyze the source of his problems, and possesses a tool in attempting to solve them.

Awareness

We are aware that most people wish to dispose of bad habits quickly, or “by miracle”. However the truth is, that most people are not prepared to break the fixed pattern they became accustomed to.  Mostly, they look for a shelter, and want to live in a secure, familiar territory - whether it is in life in general, within the family, in the bank, in the professional life – free from any revolutions or obstructions (how many people do you know, who continue and persist in a diet they went on, or in giving up smoking?). From this we learn how difficult it is to change existing habits, of any sort.

The student’s look at himself and at the way he moves, the confidence he acquires from better knowing himself, and the fact that he knows a few more ways to move – bring him to acknowledge the need for change, by himself. It is then that his internal processes begin to change, and the improvements soon follow. 

The observed improvements

The observed improvements: the student gets out of his previously “stuck” situation, and begins to move in a new, easier, more interesting manner. He becomes more flexible, his posture changes and improves, his mood improves, he feels more stable physically and mentally, his breathing becomes more smooth. His coordination and his sense of direction and orientation, improve. He becomes more likeable, friendlier, more relaxed and open. His backaches disappear, he feels light, fresh and calm, more at ease, on friendlier terms with himself. He is able to realize and utilize his huge potential, which existed all that time but was not properly utilized so far. He is able to better handle daily pressure and stressful situations.

Group lessons – awareness through movement 

The group lessons that are unique to the Feldenkrais method are usually carried out while lying on the back or stomach. This way we neutralize the force of gravity, exerted on our extensors and flexors (muscles which we use to bend or extend ourselves ). Accordingly, the muscular tonus is lowered, and so is the influence of the background noise, both internal and external. Low muscle tone and slow, effortless movements while listening to one’s own breathing and movement, enhance the ability to notice, the sensitiveness and the awareness.

This course of movement provides optimal conditions for learning and re-education of the nervous system.

Hence, the learning process requires: patience, persistence, openness, and both internal and external listening.

During the process the student has to be prepared, at times, to feel unconfident, fear and frustration, but since our way of learning is the same as the natural learning of a baby - trial and error - we should not be angry with ourselves or criticize ourselves when slipping down along our way. 

 The method’s efficiency

The Feldenkrais method is most useful in improving the quality of life for people who suffer from functional disorders in the following areas:

A. Physical - limited movement, inability to bend, turn, move freely, difficulty in lifting objects, getting dressed, tying up shoe laces, going up and down stairs as a result of back problems such as disc hernia, scoliosis, kiphosis, lumbago and more. Damage to internal organs as a result of incorrect posture; Digestion and metabolic disorders, due to incorrect breathing; High muscle tonus, Osteoporosis (thinning of the bones due to loss of calcium, resulting from insufficient exercise and lack of bone growth stimulus).     

 B. Social/ personal - absences from work; inability to function at home; irritability, impatience; aggression towards family members; inability to dance and enjoy social events.

Deficient functioning in professions which require extensive walking and supervision, as a result of back problems, pains and limited mobility.

C. Mental - anxiety, lack of confidence, sense of insecurity, lack of wish to live, depression and even suicidal tendency - resulting from poor physiological condition, flawed posture, breathing disorders and deficient, abnormal functioning.

The method is essential       

The method is essential for people who want to get rid of pain in their back, neck, shoulders and knees; to people who want to ease stress and pressure resulting from workload, studies, exams; to people who are paralyzed, disabled, or suffer from brain and spinal cord damage, as a result of neurological diseases, or accidents; to elderly people; to artists – actors, dancers, musicians, players, painters and more, who wish to improve their awareness to their body and in this way to improve their expressiveness; to anyone who wants to improve and nurture his posture and his quality of life, anyone who wants to enjoy a healthy life full of energy and freshness deep into old age.

 Published in: “Briut al burya” An alternative medicine magazine