SomaQuest

Moving day!

2010-02-27T17:42:00.003-06:00

Hello, Followers:
The time has come, and SomaQuest is moving/has moved.
We have a great new website at http://www.houstonfeldenkrais.com , and we're thrilled that SomaQuest is now integrated with our main website for the Feldenkrais Center of Houston.

Please change your bookmarks, and click the button to receive the RSS Feed from the SomaQuest blog, as ever. You can also sign up to receive the latest posts in your email.

Thanks so much for following!
cheers,
MaryBeth

Order and Chaos -- Again

2010-01-25T00:43:00.002-06:00

Image by AirBeagle via Flickr

This weekend, the miraculous manifestation of a used filing cabinet set into motion a chain of events known as "the law of unintended consequences." The Murphy's Law variation is, "Whatever you set out to do, something else must be done first.

Before I knew it, I had turned my office into a total wreck. It seems that things always get a little worse before they get better. My ambition and frustrated longings led me through a train of thought that culminated in the reorganization of my entire office; including (dun dun DUN!!!!) the closet. The simple de-cluttering turned into a "pitch fest." The next step -- loading everything into my car for a trip to recycling.

Two days after beginning, I am finished -- all except for vacuuming in the morning before my first client arrives. I feel ready to welcome new people and new ideas. Possibilities are ripe! It literally feels like I have a new office to go with the new year. It's not THAT different, at least in appearance. I can't wait to see how the subtle changes -- settled in after a tumultuous few days -- affect my work and my students.

It's a perfect analogy to what happens during a Functional Integration lesson. Over time, our unconscious movement habits -- simple adaptations to everyday life, really -- have gotten the best of us. That sore neck or back is just the "calling card" for the hidden clutter in the total system. With gentle lessons in the Feldenkrais Method, the effects can set in motion a chain of events that is transformational.

Feldenkrais @ NiaMoves

2010-01-24T21:10:00.001-06:00

Thought you would enjoy this video shot at NiaMoves studio during our workshop, "A Pleasure in the Neck" last Sunday.

more about "Feldenkrais @ NiaMoves", posted with vodpod

How to Feel Younger

2010-01-18T00:44:00.002-06:00

Image by Sebastian Niedlich (Grabthar) via Flickr

That title got your attention!

The Pepsi Generation, those of us who grew up saying "Don't trust anyone over 30," eventually decided that hanging in there for the long haul was vastly better than the alternative. We spend a lot of money and energy to look and feel our best -- and to many, that means wanting to feel younger.

We can't know for sure if we felt great when we were younger. It's possible that we were fine: it just looks so much better now, from a distance, and through the rosy lenses of nostalgia. "I wish I could have the wisdom I have now, with the body I had when I was 25" is a frequent lament.

Beauty may be skin deep, but youthful energy and "zip" comes from the inside. Your best bets for looking and feeling younger?

Live. Do the best you can with what you have. Count your blessings. If you're away a lot, get home more. If you're home a lot -- get out more. Welcome variety and fun into your life. Enjoy -- really enjoy the people in your life.

Laugh. Cultivate your sense of humor. Be gentle and forgiving, especially with yourself. Rekindle your own ability to be surprised and delighted. Laughter improves your breathing, your complexion, and your outlook.

Learn. There's probably nothing more absorbing and energizing than learning something new, taking on a new project, and expanding your capabilities. Classes or lessons in the Feldenkrais Method can reconnect you with that time in your life when everything was new. When you improve the quality and gracefulness of your movements you also improve your thinking, feeling and sensing. Then, you'll be ready to take on the world -- or at least your corner of it -- refreshed.

New Year, New You

2010-01-03T17:47:00.004-06:00

The New Year offers the promise of a new start, a blank slate, and a fresh hope that MAYBE we'll "get it right" this year. Since 99% of us will abandon those resolutions before Valentine's Day, perhaps your strategy for self-improvement could stand a new approach.

The Feldenkrais Method offers a counter-intuitive approach to self-improvement. It is in accord with an old proverb that says, "Only when I accept myself completely as I am, am I completely free to change."

Self-acceptance is not rationalization, where you lie to yourself that your behavior is OK. Self-acceptance is the willingness to look at the truth and acknowledge it. It takes ongoing self-awareness to notice when the time is ripe for positive change, and when the way is blocked. Your Feldenkrais classes can be the foundation for new self-awareness, from the inside out. Feldenkrais classes "upgrade" the connection and communication between your brain and your body, using movement -- the native language of your entire nervous system.

You'll be amazed at what can change.

Guest Blog: Joanna Myers, Feldenkrais® Ann Arbor

2009-12-14T10:41:00.005-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

My colleague, Joanna Myers, GCFP, is a dear friend and continuous inspiration. Her words resonated with me, so I wanted to share them with you.

What would your life be like if you felt truly supported? What would that look like? In a culture that values self-sufficiency, is it possible even to accept support without feeling it will somehow make us soft or, dare I say... spoiled?

As I find myself leaning on people in my life in new ways, I have found it quite challenging to my self-image. Like many women, I'm more comfortable in a giving role and have always been extremely independent. What I realize is that holding onto this image of myself as self-sufficient not only limits my options but is a lot of extra work in itself.

We Feldenkrais® practitioners often mention "giving support where support is needed" as a maxim in our work. If you have areas in your body where you're working extra hard (i.e., tight!), like in the back of your neck, or your shoulders, one of the first things we'll do is support what your muscles are already doing. Whether through touch during Functional Integration® or your own movements in a class, the idea is to give yourself the feeling of "not-working" long enough for it to register internally.

It works almost every time. Shoulders drop from around the ears. Necks lengthen. You may, in the course of an hour, let go of tension you have carried around for years.

It's so simple, yet for us go-getting proactive disciplined doers, such a notion can be downright controversial. For people unused to the phenomenon, eyes widen and brains whir with objections--"But I didn't do anything....Shouldn't I be writing this down so I can do it every morning at 5 am?"

It takes real courage to accept support, especially from oneself. The feeling of being carried by the bones of your body, without excess muscle tone, is an ideal worth pursuing, simply because it frees us for the most meaningful action--that which flows effortlessly through us.

What would that look like for you, this busy time of year that is so other-focused?

We can help! Treat yourself to a Functional Integration® lesson over the holidays, or in the new year. After the holidays, bring a friend to ATM class at any of our locations. Now how supportive is that?

Connections (and the Feldenkrais Method)

2009-11-30T06:46:00.005-06:00

Image by MyEyeSees via Flickr

Every year, on Thanksgiving morning, I polish the family silver. This year, the task took on the power and meaning of ritual.

Knives, forks, spoons; dessert forks, butter knives, serving pieces. I soak everything in the kitchen sink in warm sudsy water. Then, with paste silver polish and that funny sponge that comes with it, I polish each piece, and then set it in the other side of the sink, in clear water. Some of the pieces are hardly tarnished at all, while others are very discolored. Each piece gets an inspection and at least a once-over with the silver polish. When I finish, all the silver is gleaming. It gets a final rinse in hot running water, and a last inspection before drying each piece with a soft cloth, then placed on the table. First the place settings, then the large serving spoons are staged about the theater. Dinner is show time and go time.

I've grown to love this chore, the older I've gotten. I remember my mother taking out the silver when my cousins and their parents came to visit for the holidays. The polishing was a task given to the children, and come to think of it, was probably the best way of keeping a bunch of kids busy and out of the way. This year, as I polished, I thought of all of those children. I also thought of my grandmother as a young bride. This was her silver, wedding presents given at the turn of the 20th century. She had five children and was married more than fifty years. She must have used this service countless times. Did her children polish it, or was it for the maid to do? Who sat around her table, sharing holidays and everyday meals with the family, year after year?

That's the thing about performing a mindless task -- your mind wanders all over the place. Random thoughts, memories, curiosities are evoked in the action, whether it's polishing silver or "chop wood, carry water." I felt connected, via the silver and the act of polishing, to the past, present, and future. The meal, the friends, their families near and far, on and on, all formed a dense web of interconnections through space and history that I could actually FEEL. Simple objects, actions, and awareness are the touchstones for reviving these connections. They help us -- me -- to recognize a profound sense of sacredness in the everyday.

As I pondered these connections, via silver polishing, I realized that the work of a Feldenkrais teacher is about helping people to make unexpected connections. The gentle movements seem kind of mindless and repetitive, and they usher you into a state where your mind can wander. Typical patterns are interrupted, and new sensations pique interest, curiosity, and appetite for more. People sense connections within their own bodies: for example, the way your feet contact the floor can be sensed in your jaw and neck -- and return to an almost childlike amazement at how "new" they feel.

The act of ritual doesn't have to be mindless or compulsive. Any action, repeated mindfully, can become a vehicle for improvement, possibility, connection, and creativity. The work of Moshe Feldenkrais is a method of intelligent, mindful action. Last weekend, it leaped up off of the floor and into my sink with the silver polish. I felt, and feel, extremely appreciative for all of it.

The Neuroscience of Mindfulness

2009-11-25T09:51:00.005-06:00

Image by [Adam_Baker] via Flickr

Thanks to Melissa G. for bringing this recent post from a blog on the Psychology Today" site.
The Neuroscience of Mindfulness by David Rock.

As a person who was interested in mindfulness and meditation for years, but failed miserably in each attempt, I was very grateful to "stumble into" the Feldenkrais Method. As Dr. Rock's article states,

"The key to practicing mindfulness is just to practice focusing your attention onto a direct sense, and to do so often. It helps to use a rich stream of data."

The longer I practice the Feldenkrais Method, the more appreciative I am of the value of my senses and the information I process through my own body and perceived experience. That starting point -- what's happening here, and now -- is the best first step on whatever journey you're on.

Learn more about the Feldenkrais Method here.

We're on TV! High Heels Workshop

2009-11-19T14:53:00.005-06:00

Watch our recent appearance on "Mirror, Mirror" with Rebecca Spera, as seen on ABC's LiveWell HD TV Network. Be sure to have your sound/earphones "on."

Now I know what shoes to buy! AND our next High Heels Workshop is December 6!
Click here for information and to register online.

Problem Solving, Part II

2009-11-18T08:35:00.006-06:00

Image by divamover via Flickr

After my post here on November 16 about "Point of View and the Feldenkrais Method," which dealt with problem-solving (read it here), it's exciting to see this new article:

ScienceDaily (2009-05-13) -- Swinging their arms helped participants in a new study solve a problem whose solution involved swinging strings, researchers report, demonstrating that the brain can use bodily cues to help understand and solve complex problems.

According to lead researcher and professor Alejandro Lleras:

The new findings offer new insight into what researchers call "embodied cognition," which describes the link between body and mind, Lleras said.

"People tend to think that their mind lives in their brain, dealing in conceptual abstractions, very much disconnected from the body," he said. "This emerging research is fascinating because it is demonstrating how your body is a part of your mind in a powerful way. The way you think is affected by your body and, in fact, we can use our bodies to help us think."

Dear Reader: please picture me, a Feldenkrais teacher, doing handsprings and saying, "HA!"

Read the article here.

Point of View and the Feldenkrais Method

2009-11-16T09:00:00.007-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

Words matter. Word choices matter.

The spirit in which words are chosen matters. It all depends on the topic and your point of view to determine whether the search for finer distinctions is an engaging exploration, or arbitrary nit-picking and hair-splitting.

So, I began to wonder about the distinctions between "problem solving" and "solution finding." Point of view, intention, and habitual ways of perceiving can make a big difference in whether, or how, you change your situation to the better. It's a similar stance to your personal view of "is the glass half empty, or half full?"

People come to me with problems. They have pain, or difficulty, or impaired function. They have a desire for things to be different, and better, for them. In part, the Feldenkrais Method shifts the attention away from the problem or deficit, and toward solutions. Not just "a solution," or "the solution," but to come up with multiple solutions. The situation improves, not by ignoring or denying the difficulty, but by working (or playing) with it to transform it.

Each Feldenkrais lesson is an experiment in problem-solving/solution-finding. Each lesson begins with a small, gentle, safe, comfortable movement of some part of your body. Gradually, you realize that that part of you is connected to some other part of you, and it moves, too. The task is to find the simplest, most comfortable, most efficient and economical ways to allow the movements to change, and grow. You don't have to figure it out on your own. Your Feldenkrais teacher guides and facilitates the process. You find solutions that work for you. Or, you begin to learn a process for finding solutions in the future. It's all good.

I find that focusing exclusively on the problem side of the equation makes the problem grow, and even multiply. People get stuck with a problem because they can't find a way to change it. I love the exploratory action of the Feldenkrais Method, because it accesses each person's curiosity and creativity. Some folks have not accessed their curiosity and creativity since they were small children.

The catalyst for the creative process is the question, "What else?" What else could you do? How else could you do it? For example: whatever you are doing, try doing it:

slower
faster
smaller
larger
smoother
"jagged-er"
shorter duration
longer duration
looser
tighter
in reverse
sitting, standing, walking, staying, lying down: on front, on back, on side (change your position)

Get the idea? Your actions and your thinking will begin to take on a Dr. Seussian quality: could you do it in a box? Could you do it with a fox? However, if you pay attention to what happens with each variation (your "results"), and incorporate what you liked best about each, something new will begin to emerge. Add the aspects that work well. Eliminate the aspects that don't work. There are almost endless possibilities and variations. You just have to take time to play to discover them.

All of this pre-supposes that you know what you're doing in the first place, before you start changing it. As Moshe Feldenkrais said, "If you don't know what you're doing, then you can't do what you want." His work incorporates a hardy optimisim that things can always improve. The Feldenkrais Method sees your glass as half full, and endlessly refilling. "Another round" is always on the way.

Lessons from Pooh

2009-11-09T11:57:00.004-06:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It's Monday morning.

I'd been up and working for about 90 minutes and still had not made coffee. Update the website. Send the newsletter. Answer that email. Take the call. Each led to something else, something off-task but on point for what was interesting to me in that moment. I had to stop and take a breath -- and then updated my Twitter Status:

"The hurried-er I go, the behind-er I get. #WinniethePooh #Feldenkrais "

It was a revelation, really; one of those moments of awareness that put everything into perspective. It doesn't matter how long or how short the weekend is. It doesn't matter how many deadlines loom. It doesn't matter how many clients are booked in for the day. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING feels worse when I HURRY.

Hurrying and rushing are two hallmarks of stress. One of my favorite sayings of Moshe Feldenkrais is that it's possible to move quickly, without hurrying. WOW.

Do you feel rushed, stressed, on edge? How much do the words "Hurry" or "Hurry up!" creep into your vocabulary? Hurry is an unhappy merry-go-round that makes you and everyone around you stressed out. However, it's not hard to shift gears and find a better way.

We've come to associate speed with competitive urgency, rather than the joy of ease and agility. Pooh had it right. Sometimes the best way to catch up is to slow down. Hurrying allows errors and inefficiency to creep in. Pay attention to the quality of what you're trying to do. Those old tricks we know of making a chore into a game, or counting your blessings, or just taking a short breather, all work because they interrupt the pattern of rushing and stressing. You can't experience things differently if you don't change the pattern.

What are your stress patterns?

Wise Words/DUH!

2009-10-19T09:07:00.006-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

For a frequent giggle and a good perspective-changer, I read The Onion online. It's a satire publication, focusing on news stories that are either made up, or not news at all ("Local Man Thinks First Date Went Well"). How does this compare with regular news outlets? First, The Onion is funny. And secondly, their stories often ring true with just the amount of accuracy and irony to make you stop and think. A lot of it falls into the category of juvenile, rude, college humor, so sometimes it's not for the easily-offended.

A story last week caught my eye, and I just had to share it. You can read it on The Onion here. But here's the main text of the article:

Study: Majority Of 'Calm Downs' Ineffective

October 12, 2009 | Issue 45•42

ITHACA, NY—A study published recently in the Journal Of Mental Health found that attempting to reverse a loud emotional display by asking an individual to calm down was effective only 9 percent of the time. Researchers at Cornell University's behavioral lab induced anxiety in subjects by administering a series of electric shocks, after which everyone was told to "calm down" and "take it easy." "We were surprised to find that not only were these phrases ineffective, but in an overwhelming number of cases they actually exacerbated the situation," psychologist Kenneth Pulaski said. "Even when participants were told to 'just take a deep breath,' they became more and more irate and were eventually reduced to a screaming mess." The study also concluded that telling someone to "just mellow out" would invariably lead to a researcher being punched in the face.

This is a wonderful finding, and thank goodness research has "proved" it, finally! Point noted. Check.

Have you also noticed that, as a professional brings your attention to your tight muscles or pain, they often tell you that you "just need to relax" or "stop holding" or "stop resisting?" It's the same thing, isn't it? The problem is, most people have FORGOTTEN how to "relax." If you knew how to do it, you'd be doing it, right?

There's another problem with this whole "relaxation" idea. Deep down, we know that the state of total relaxation you feel during a wonderful massage, or the momentary zombie-like feelings right after a Feldenkrais lesson, are not very useful, except perhaps for falling asleep! Our problem is that we have only two choices: either be a caffeinated, wound-up, stressed-out, Type-A maniac, or be an unconscious puddle of invertebrate goo somewhere on the floor. Most people realize, at some level, that total relaxation is not a real solution for navigating the demands of daily life.

There is good news, however. Just as you may have forgotten what easy, pain-free, effortless action (much better, distinct from "relaxation," wouldn't you say?) feels like, you can RE-LEARN those sensations and find some relief. That's where movement education, or re-education, is valuable, and that's what The Feldenkrais Method teaches. That's why I don't tell my clients to relax. Students of the Method re-learn the patterns of moving, feeling, and sensing that are part of our human birthright.

Moshe Feldenkrais wrote a fascinating book, entitled "The Elusive Obvious." In it, he explores an essential human folly: we find one good idea, and expect to apply it everywhere and from henceforth, with uniformly positive results. However, this is rarely the case. The book gets you thinking more deeply about your unconscious assumptions about yourself and the world around you. The idea of The Onion's made-up research study is one of those "elusively obvious" notions -- one you might not have thought of before, but leads to a dawning awareness.

Looking UP!

2009-10-11T11:33:00.005-05:00

This week, it's my privilege and pleasure to attend a world-class gathering of "thought leaders" in Houston, The UP Experience.

How does MY attending a conference on October 15 affect YOU?

it's a full day of listening (and talking, and eating, and meeting new people)
listening (and that other stuff) leads to learning
learning changes the brain
when you change a brain, you change the world

I "reboot" my brain and nervous system each time I work through a Feldenkrais lesson. The UP Experience will install a bunch of new programs!

I got involved with this event through my partner, Chris Welsh. He was involved with getting the first UP Experience on its feet in February, 2008, as a sponsor, founder, and recommender-of-speakers. This year, both of us were part of the speaker selection process, and the Feldenkrais Center of Houston is also a sponsor of The UP Experience this year. See the list of sponsors here.)

The UP Experience makes Houston the center of the "innovation universe" for one concentrated day. With 16 speakers

(Peter Diamandis
Anne Korin
Juan Enriquez
David Plouffe
Gavin Newsom
Brené Brown
Robert Ballard
Michio Kaku
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Tomasz Tunguz
Dan Ariely
Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry
David Eagleman
Jenifer Fox
Peter Sheahan
Bruce Lipton) onhand, each speaking for 20 minutes about their consuming passion -- ideas will be more contagious than H1N1. Philanthrophy, business, astrophysics, economics, technology, neuroscience, government, medicine, education, psychology, exploration: The UP Experience offers more than a forum for wishing that the world could change. It's an opportunity to listen to people who ARE changing the world. The speakers are Unique People with Unique Perspectives (hence the name, UP) -- and so are the attendees.

The UP Experience is a dynamic system, much like the brain itself. The exposure to one new idea, one possible solution, one inspiriting person, has the power to change individuals, their businesses, their communities, and beyond. That's because learning causes change. Neuroscience confirms that the most fundamental of these changes happens in the chemical, structural, and functional activity of each brain. Even one new synapse has a ripple effect -- and YOU are in the "ripple zone."

I'm a retired opera singer and academic, now voice coach and movement educator. I could stay within the echo-chamber of my own professional organizations and interests, and would be busy and self-satisfied. However, I know I can make a better contribution to EVERYTHING I'm involved with when I have more input, more experiences, more ideas. You never know where an idea will lead, who will use it, or the difference it will make. How will learning about undersea exploration from Robert Ballard, crazy new gadgets from Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry, or the dynamics of economic decision-making from Dan Ariely, affect my work, my blogging, my relationships? I can't wait to find out!

You can still register for The UP Experience here.

Making Sense of Life

2009-10-05T10:49:00.006-05:00

Image by divamover via Flickr

Life is interesting.

Through good times and bad, great joys and great sorrows, all we can do is make the best sense of it we can.

It is this "making sense" that so intrigues me, and to which I have devoted my life and work. It seems that we have all learned to separate what is going on in our thinking processes (logic, linear progressions, judgments, or imaginations) from what is going on in our bodies. Most people (especially Baby-Boomers, newly perceiving themselves -- ourselves -- in decline) come to see their body as a maintenance problem, constantly to be exercised, strengthened, stretched, moisturized, conditioned, fueled, satisfied, and monitored for signs of impending doom. Everything that goes in or comes out of our bodies is scrutinized, and we actually FEEL very little of what goes on. How much obesity occurs because the person cannot feel the sensation of fullness, or satisfaction? How many injuries occur because painful warning sensations are ignored? My continuing fascination with the Feldenkrais Method usually comes back to the interplay within the system of moving, thinking, feeling, and sensing. Improving our sensitivity to our senses can help us to "make sense" of the world around and within us.

Here follow three stories of people "making sense."

Divergence Vocal Theater presented their third artistic collaboration and multi-inter-extra-disciplinary production this past weekend. Their performances defy description; even their self-proclaimed status as "Houston's renegade, indie opera company" doesn't do it justice. Artistic Director and Founder Misha Penton embraces her vision to let more and more of the experience evolve for her performers and her audience. The evening was a mix of contemporary vocal and instrumental music (harp, sitar, and piano), spoken word, modern dance, and stunning visuals created through lighting, film, and long diaphanous strips of colored fabric. The fabrics, in warm oranges, taupes, and sages, stretched the length and breadth of the performing space, on the stage and in the audience; constantly changing, weaving, carried, carressed, abandoned by the performers. The entire evening, around the theme "Autumn Spectre," was one of achingly beautiful sensory demand. The performance defied all traditional expectations of making sense, if you needed a story line, characters, conflict, or moral. However, sense was made in the way love is made, one delicious sensation at a time. Each person made their own sense. Even seated in the space, all were moved.

***

The little girl is four years old. She is bright, funny, cheerful, and beautiful, and every day is a struggle. Because of a rare anatomical defect in her brain, she has not yet sat up by herself, crawled, or supported her weight to walk. With gentle playfulness, we access her own deep knowing of how to move. We explore the human developmental sequence, picking up at about 6 months of age, where the limits of her brain structure reached and then sort of stalled. With each movement, lifting the head, or tucking the chin, or bringing knees up over her belly to roll back and forth, her brain is making new connections, finding "ways around." Her sensations give her input on which to build toward the next part of the sequence. She rolls over onto her tummy much more easily and readily. It's a thrill to see her roll her pelvis then so that one knee can begin to bend and come up alongside, then under her. Her family and I are banking on neuroplasticity -- the ability of the brain to change, grow, and adapt to useful input -- and we are seeing progress. We are all making sense -- discovering it, sensation by sensation -- the best way we can. Who knows where it will lead?

***
It's a lovely fall Friday evening in Houston, and happy hour is underway. Self-identified geeks -- a mix of web and software designers, programmers, photographers, and other technophiles get together for beverages and conversation at our favorite Midtown watering hole, The Coffee Groundz. Another group intermingles with them -- people who get together quarterly with the sole purpose of socializing while wearing tiaras. The Venn Diagram of the two groups has a surprisingly large overlapping center. Frivolity reigns. There's nothing like a group of people together relaxing and having a good time. One can sense that these people work hard. They play with great dedication. They'll go forth to conquer the world again on Monday.

***

Take a breath, try something new. Use your powers for good. By feeling your way, you're bound to make sense of some of it.

The Right Combination

2009-09-28T10:43:00.003-05:00

Recently I had the opportunity to revisit an interview of Moshe Feldenkrais on the subject of actor training and the benefits for actors in the Feldenkrais Method. And it got me to thinking -- how people of wide varieties of interests can benefit from these insights directed at actors. With the supremacy of specialization, we are highly likely to become trapped in the echo chamber of ideas that are virtually identical to our own. When I find something useful from another field, it brings a breath of fresh air to my own. (A link to the interview appears at the end of this post.)

And so -- one aspect that Dr. Feldenkrais and the interviewers discussed was the idea of relaxation. You may be familiar with the notion from athletics, acting, or music that the performer must "stay loose" or relaxed. We all know that we probably need to stress less, and well-meaning advice comes from all quarters to "relax." Yet, we know less and less how to do that!

We also view relaxation and stress as a binary, all-or-nothing function. We picture the caffeine-crazed, hair-standing-on-end, wide-eyed, wound-up, in-pain version of ourselves. The only alternative we can imagine is the semi-conscious puddle of goo, the wet noodle, the about-to-fall-asleep self. Feldenkrais draws some useful distinctions.

As Feldenkrais observes in the interview, the state of total relaxation is not very useful -- unless you are trying to fall asleep! If you were "totally relaxed," you wouldn't have enough get-up-and-go to accomplish anything. The Feldenkrais Method helps people to discover something he called "eutony:" the capacity to sense, with comfortable precision, the appropriate amount of muscular effort needed to accomplish a desired action. The undesirable choice between "Burn Out" or "Rust Out" is expanded into a much more practical and diverse spectrum of virtually limitless options.

Eutony, then, is something you recognize when you experience it. It actually feels -- GOOD. You might need some practice to find new choices for yourself, other than StressGirl or NoodleBoy. That's what our classes and lessons in the Feldenkrais Method are for. You'll find your own right combination of action, attention, and ease that makes all aspects of your life more enjoyable and sustainable.

Read the article, "Image, Movement and Actor: Restoration of Potentiality," a discussion of the Feldenkrais Method and Acting, Self-Expression and the Theater here.

Learn to Learn

2009-09-21T08:33:00.003-05:00

I recently came across an article by Moshe Feldenkrais on the website of the Feldenkrais Studiengesellschaft of Vienna.

The subtitle of this breezy and brief article is "A manual to help you get the best results from the Awareness Through Movement lessons." You'll find his advice has much broader applications.

In just a few short paragraphs, you'll be challenged to QUESTION everything you've ever thought -- or been told -- about effective learning.

Read the article, then try the Method. We can support and assist you. What do you notice? What are your results?

Please copy and paste this link into a new window.
http://www.feldenkrais-wien.at/article-1.htm
Then, please come back here to comment.

Congress, Tennis, and Music

2009-09-14T09:46:00.003-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

A curious juxtaposition of events last week has gotten me thinking.

It's been an interesting time to be an observer of human behavior.

A U.S. Representative made a public outburst during a Presidential Address to a joint session of Congress.
A world-ranked tennis player threatened and verbally abused a line judge after an accurate call.
A rap star hi-jacked the MTV Video Music Awards and discounted the achievements of a fellow performer and award recipient.

Crystallized in these three examples, we can see the cultural consequences of a widely-held belief. That belief is: Making other people "wrong" is an effective problem-solving strategy. The accompanying belief is: above all, be "right."

Just look around you, and you'll see a lot that is wrong. Do you remember how you felt the last time someone told you that you were wrong?
Did you begin to defend your point of view?
Did you also point out something that was wrong with the other person?
If the person was in authority over you, how did you feel?
If the person was NOT in authority over you, how did you feel?
Was anything resolved? Did anything change?
Strange as it may seem, people don't generally appreciate it when someone else points out that they are wrong.

Making someone wrong is a sure-fire strategy for either 1) creating a deadlock or 2) damaging a relationship.

Most of our educational system is based on correction. Education in the arts, in high-performance sports, and most of our health care is consumed with fault-finding and correction. Small wonder that faults proliferate, and improvements are few. You can't find improvement if you're not looking for it.

What if it were possible to tell the truth, (or your part of it) without making someone else wrong?

It seems that when we're not busy making other people wrong, we're busy making ourselves wrong. We believe that we need correction, that if we could just do everything "right" our lives would be perfect. We make all kinds of unnecessary purchases from any outfit that promises to correct our defects. Some people make their living by inventing defects to correct. We chase around looking for people to tell us what we should be doing -- and then resent the hell out of it whenever someone does. We lose faith in ourselves, and in other people.

The Feldenkrais Method is unique in its fundamental respect for each individual. (Thanks to my colleague, Dan Schmidt, for providing the catalyst and the tie-together on his blog.) Our process of dealing with balance, gait, posture, or pain management, is not to correct ("Do it THIS way), but to present constructive and creative possibilities ("How could this be possible? What's another way? Which way feels better?") from which a person can act and choose. We do not coerce, force, pressure, shame, or "motivate." We make exploration, inventiveness, and learning irresistible.

Our results are often astonishingly effective, successful, and achieved with simplicity. Part of the design of our process is in asking productive questions.

One Facebook post this week asked, "Where do you stand? Are the Republicans idiots? Are the Democrats dangerous?" These questions only further entrench people in their own positions. What if people started asking, "What is of value here? What does each stakeholder need to be able to move forward? How COULD this work?"

Watch your own habits and behavior this week. Does it seem that a lot of people around you are "wrong?" Or certain groups of people? Do the same sentences keep echoing around in your head, the same emotional tone arises? What if it were possible to feel different -- to feel better?

The potentially profound effect of the Feldenkrais Method is in the way that movement becomes metaphor. Rigidity in movement often correlates to rigidity in thought. You can learn to open your mind, and move forward.

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-06T16:22:00.004-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon. The cats are asleep in the shade on the patio, and I've been flirting with the idea of a nap all afternoon. A little TV, a little reading, a little cooking. It's remarkably easy to entertain myself, and I hope to spend MOST of tomorrow completely "unplugged," disconnected from phones and computers. That will be a big change for me. I'm not sure I can do it.

The value of a long weekend is in being able to rest and relax. It's also an opportunity to have a change from routine: perhaps you sleep in, or get up earlier than usual for a special activity. A movie, a cook-out, a little trip or a chance to stay home -- any change in your habitual pattern can re-charge your energies. Your nervous system benefits enormously from these regular, but not too frequent, interruptions in the usual routine.

People often remark after their first Feldenkrais class that it wasn't what they expected. Yet, they don't say this with disappointment. They are curious, interested, and surprised at how easy, fun, and unusual it was. They are also fascinated to discover some new sensation, or ability, or capacity that they didn't know they had. The class provides the same benefits of a long weekend, but in condensed form. The break from routine, the discovery of the unexpected, the enjoyment of something different, keeps your body and your brain in shape, ready for the next challenge.

I hear the gentle rumble of thunder in the distance, and it's beginning to rain softly, a rain we really need. Maybe I'll take that nap after all. . .

The Clean Slate

2009-08-30T22:16:00.003-05:00

Image by Your Secret Admiral via Flickr

Sometimes, you gotta do it.

I always do it around New Year's, and perhaps one other time, if necessary.

It's now necessary.

I've decided I'm completely caught up on all the emails I'm going to catch up on. I have flagged and filed everything I may need to refer to. And so, sometime on Monday, I am going to delete all the emails hanging around in my in-box. It's time for a fresh start.

Having experienced this in the past, I know there is nothing to fear. The people who need to hear back from me will email me again. I can have a clean slate in just two clicks of my mouse. The feeling of freedom, of happiness, of fresh newness is amazing -- almost like going on vacation. It's a time and attention jackpot. Just like that.

Every time I move through an Awareness Through Movement lesson, I feel like my nervous system is refreshed. I can notice what habits and patterns I've been using past their "expiration date." My mental inboxes are cleared, and I feel new with the rediscovery of simpler, less cluttered ways of moving, thinking, and feeling.

Delete, re-boot. How about you?

Monotony/Mono-toe-ny

2009-08-24T09:29:00.009-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

There's nothing like completing a big project to make you feel -- like you've completed a big project. After I recover from the exhaustion, I will celebrate. But first, I need aspirin. Let me explain.

I spent the weekend doing the tedious but necessary work of transferring 160 digital products to a new shopping cart, part of the secret life of an e-commerce mogul. That's intended as an ironic statement, since I am a one-person, self-employed show. The project had been on the back burner for months, and an open stretch of time appeared. I hunkered down.

Luckily, there was not much typing. However, there was a lot of "highlight - copy - paste - next." Over and over and over and over. . . let's say, there was a pattern. It took me about two minutes to go through the entire process for each entry. That's a little over five hours on data entry. I spread the tasks over two days, took frequent breaks, and ended up with a fully-functioning and re-designed web site after about 15 hours at the computer. And I realized, once again, that humans are not suited for monotony.

I noticed the physical effects within the hour. My wrists and fingers began to tingle. My thumb began to hurt. Luckily, the only slave-driver boss I had to please was myself, and I'm a Feldenkrais teacher. I set a timer for 30-minute intervals, and made sure to get up and walk around for a few minutes during the breaks. I began to explore different ways that my "mouse wrist" could stay softly bent away from the mouse, rather than resting on the desk or wrist-rest. I also wondered -- am I using more force or power than is necessary? What was the least amount of "impact" needed for my finger to click the mouse, for my wrist and thumb to guide, for my hand to grip? I began to feel the connection of my hand to my whole arm, and to my shoulder, seeing where I could soften, and allowing my pelvis to shift and roll on my chair. I looked for small variations that I could incorporate so that my movements did not become rigid and rote. If I had not had this awareness and movement training, I could easily have gotten myself into some serious and long-term pain. These repetitive motion strain injuries are leaders among workers compensation insurance claims.

During my escapes to do errands, I noticed that I was mentally sluggish. I wandered around the grocery store in more of a daze than usual. I was preoccupied with the task back at the office, thinking of the monotonous pointing and clicking even as I surveyed the artichokes. I wondered -- am I too impaired to drive? I felt the pull back to the office. Must. Complete. Mission. Must. Click. Mouse.

The word "monotony" has the same origins as "monotone," or "one sound." Our nervous systems actually become "tone deaf" when we don't have enough harmonious stimulation, or several melodies to make the day's song interesting. Variety is the spice of life, and it's also what your brain needs to stay vital and engaged.

Those monotonous hours put my brain into a dulled, unresponsive state. As I was preparing for dinner, a big, heavy dish slipped out of a low cabinet and fell onto my toe. Had I broken my toe? This was not the kind of "break" I wanted to take! Now, my focus was even more "mono-toe-nus." After the required expletives, my throbbing toe dominated my senses, my awareness, my self-image. The pain from my toe was the brightest blip on my internal radar, and I felt like my entire body was just one, gigantic, throbbing, possibly broken, toe. Ice, please. More expletives. Elevate. Dinner.

The happy ending is -- the dish is fine. My toe is not broken, just badly bruised. A few aspirin and keeping it elevated has helped a lot. And, the computer task blitz is completed. I look forward to my Feldenkrais classes this week, to bring my self-image and my brain back to a harmonious state, free of monotony -- in every sense!

Photo by Chris Welsh, "MaryBeth's toe."

The website construction that led to my injury is DictionHelper.com . MP3 audio downloads of foreign-language pronunciation for beginning classical vocalists, resources for singers, and podcasts.

There are no photographs. . .

2009-08-16T23:00:00.002-05:00

We had a nice gathering on Saturday to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston. Sorry if you missed it -- you'll have to join us another time. Did we take pictures?

*Forehead slap.* Nope.

Why not?

I could tell you a big long story about how I'm just not inclined to take pictures, usually; or that I thought about asking Chris to take some snaps during the party, but ended up not mentioning it; or several other lame excuses. However, it just boils down to this: I didn't make it a priority.

Even though I have a Flickr account, a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, and we had several of the most socially-networked and digitally-connected people in Houston show up to nosh some hors d'oeuvres and raise a glass , nobody made picture-taking a priority, and so it didn't happen.

Among so many distractions, it's easy to let minor details slip. In the larger scheme of things, it's not that important. This non- crisis has shown me how I tend to classify as "minor" many things that are really in the "it would be nice if. . ." column. Just because a situation isn't an emergency doesn't mean that it's not important. The "it would be nice's" are what add quality to life. It's why we plant flowers around our homes and in front of our businesses instead of leaving the dirt bare. It's why we leave the porch light on. It's why we savor that fabulous dinner, or vacation, or a few extra moments to snooze before the alarm goes off in the morning. The non-essentials are always what we'd like just a little more of. And it's why we like to have some pictures after a party. It prolongs the fun, rather than having it recede into memory. On the other hand, there is no incriminating evidence. . .

The Feldenkrais Method teaches, among other things, how making just a tiny difference can make a big difference. That "it would be nice if" that you think isn't important could be the key to a transformation.

BULLETIN: I Missed the 80s

2009-08-14T19:15:00.006-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

WOW.

Every once in awhile, I have these amazing Moments of Awareness.

This is to be expected. After all, I am a Feldenkrais teacher. Awareness is our Bidness.

So. I have become aware, in a flash of insight, that I was, apparently, in a coma during the 1980's.

There are isolated strands of melody, fleeting images, dreamlike, that waft through my consciousness from time to time. But I always say, "Naaaaahhhh. Couldn't have been."

Two of my 30-something-ish friends have recently posted these delightful mashups-- well worth watching.

and

I've been in denial all these years. My daughter was born in 1983, and my son in 1988. I've suspected this accounts for the fact that I remember the shock, sometime around 1995, when I saw a movie that DIDN'T have animated characters in it. I f@$%ing missed the 80's. Yes. I blame my children. Music, movies, culture -- maybe I even missed -- history. YIKES.

So, in the name of learning, and that it's never too late -- what did I miss?

Please include your links and synopses in the comments.

Full Disclosure

2009-08-10T09:45:00.012-05:00

Maybe you saw this blog and video from the MD Anderson Cancer Center last week:

The accompanying article on the CancerWise blog appears here.

Perhaps you also saw this "rebuttal" in the blogosphere, in which the author condemns the Feldenkrais Method as quackery. You can read MD Anderson's official response in comment number 92, and mine in number 108. Oh, well. I guess you can't expect that everyone will like you.

To point out the obvious, neither the blog nor the video make a health claim that the Feldenkrais Method cures anything. It says that the Feldenkrais Method may be helpful for patients dealing with treatment-related side-effects. That statement is based on the survey responses of class participants.

Apparently, the offending sentence in the CancerWise blog, which I contributed, was " his [Feldenkrais's] findings have been confirmed by research in neuroscience." I should have been more careful. I wanted to be concise, writing for a popular and interested audience.

While I'm not going to worry about Dr. Very-Righteous-and-Indignant-and-Doesn't-Use-His-Name, I feel an obligation to be clear to you, my regular readers. As you know (or can easily find out by reading the sidebar to this blog), I am not a scientist, nor am I a researcher. I am a teacher, and an observer and "reflect-er" on the human condition. I am also a curious and inquisitive person. Many people -- including some with education and pedigrees in the hard sciences -- are intrigued enough by the results or effects of the Feldenkrais Method that they have asked, "Why should this be so? What could explain this phenomenon?" This curiosity and willingness to explore the unknown is the beginning of all scientific inquiry.

There's not a lot of research -- yet. There are, however, over 30 published studies that speak to the issue of whether or not the Feldenkrais Method actually can and does work for individuals with specific concerns. The most complete listing I know of appears on the web site of the International Feldenkrais Federation. In my statement on the CancerWise blog, I should also have credited some of the recent, research-based popular books on neuroscience (The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, for example), where it is easy to "connect the dots" or perhaps weave together strands that connect to the findings and writings of Moshe Feldenkrais. When my colleagues and I read of new research in neuroplasticity, learning, and the apparent link between movement and brain development, we cheer. And, we go looking for research partners to help us "build the bridge" and bring the ideas of the Feldenkrais Method to more widespread public awareness. Dr. Doidge has listed numerous studies and articles in the "Notes and Resources" chapter of his book, so I will not list them here. None of them specifically mentions the Feldenkrais Method. As my colleague, Ryan Nagy, points out, that fact is meaningless. All the studies, and the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, point to the same thing. No room to elaborate on that on the CancerWise blog!

I am certain that within the next five to ten years, there will be more solid research to prove the effectiveness of the Feldenkrais Method. Until then, what are people to do?

Well, I hope you'll continue to come to Feldenkrais classes and lessons. You are reading this blog, and so I am preaching to the choir here. You are already curious. You have already experienced something of the Feldenkrais Method, or are thinking about coming to a class or to lessons. Typically, you are someone who would like to have choices in how you deal with difficulties, with roads of inquiry leading away from surgery or drugs, if possible. You're willing to try something different.

Since I don't have a medical background, I am careful not to identify myself as a "healer." I don't give treatments, or adjustments, or therapies, or follow protocols. I teach people, and lessons, in that order. I engage with people at the level of whatever it is that they would like to learn about themselves, and how they do things, and how they might have things more the way they want them to be. I see improvements big and small every day in each of my clients. I don't know how to quantify it. Maybe somebody does. I'm more interested in the individual case, the outlier, than in the big-picture, one-size-fits-all, broad brush approach. That's why I do the work I do.

Quantitative and qualitative measures are different types of data, and each is suited for particular purposes. You don't demand that every job be done with a screwdriver when a wrench will do the trick for some. So -- there's some quantitative data on the effectiveness of the Feldenkrais Method, and we'd love to have more. We have more qualitative data, and we'd love to have more. Until then, we trust you to do your own "research." In our method, intellectual rigor and non-judgment walk hand in hand. Come to a class where your experience and your perceptions are important. Come to a class where you can prove to yourself that change is possible. If you need to have some hard data before you come, we'll give you what we've got. However, you'll probably be waiting awhile. If you're willing to come and make up your own mind, we're ready for you, right now.

Housecleaning

2009-08-02T22:36:00.005-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Last week, I treated myself to a real splurge.

A fancy dinner? Spa treatment? Retail therapy? No, something even more decadent.

I hired a maid service to come and clean my house.

This was even more of a splurge because the place was in fairly good shape. We keep things pretty well picked up and presentable. However, there were lots of little things that perhaps nobody else would have noticed, but I was feeling dissatisfied. And, with a busy life, career, and appointment schedule, all but the most basic cleaning and straightening goes undone. It was time!

I had mixed feelings about calling a maid service. I still remember, long ago, my mother cleaning along the bathroom baseboards with an old toothbrush. And I also remember her saying, "If I don't move anything, then you can't tell how dusty it is." Needless to say, those two extremes are hard for me to navigate. After returning from travels and launching into some major work and volunteer projects, I decided it would be more valuable for me to hire out for the cleaning so that I could focus on other things. I called the Keep It Green Maid Service, an eco-friendly mom-and-pop operation, and felt good about my decision to "Support Local, Grow Together."

Now, I am filled with a convert's zeal. I'm more aware of the new standard of cleanliness (nearer to godliness are we!) and so it's pretty easy to keep. However, I know that time will pass, I will get busy, I will pay less attention, and things will begin to deteriorate again. Life happens, and stuff along with it, and dust and clutter. I'll need the Keep It Green Maids to come back in another month. I'll also get them to teach me some workable strategies for keeping things under control between our sessions.

It occurred to me that learning, especially the kind of learning we do in the Feldenkrais Method, is kind of like having your house cleaned. To keep the changes, you have to pay attention. You have to remember how it was, and how you wanted something better. And then, you have to do just a little bit each day to be able to maintain the awareness and the results. A Feldenkrais lesson provides a gentle but thorough housecleaning of your movement patterns. Those aches, pains, or klutziness are like dust and grime that keep things from going smoothly. Your Feldenkrais lesson will leave you feeling calm, focused, and in improved condition. Sometimes, you need a pro.

On Human Interaction

2009-07-26T15:18:00.008-05:00

Image by Jon Wiley via Flickr

This blog post is an experiment to see whether the person who monitors social media for United Airlines is watching their Google Alerts or Twitter search feeds. I don't have a formal grievance, and I'm not looking for anything from you other than the acknowledgment that you are paying attention, and taking steps to once again be able to invite people, without irony, to "fly the friendly skies of United."

I flew those purportedly friendly skies on United yesterday (Saturday, July 25, 2009), and actually found them to be pretty unfriendly. Other adjectives: indifferent, unconcerned, irritable, grumpy. I was exhausted, queasy from my cab ride to the Albany airport, and needing a little help. I assumed a submissive posture, tried to stay out of the way, and did my best to smile. Alas, my efforts were not reciprocated.

To their credit, United delivered the basics: air travel that takes off and lands safely. Both of my flights had the additional benefit of departing on time. The second flight actually arrived in Houston a bit early. I am very appreciative of those details we often take for granted, so thank you. However: United Airlines is apparently completely unaware that the current business climate requires more of a company than simply meeting the minimum standard. They are apparently also unaware that their brand is in trouble. Someone needs to intervene, and fast. United: get busy training your employees to value the customers you have, and to do right by them. Re-brand yourself to be identified with fantastic customer service. You might survive. Until then, customers have choices. Just sayin'.

I understand that the company is in trouble, and that your employees are as worried as everyone else about their job security and how far their salary doesn't go. I get it that it's irritating when the infrequent fliers (like me) haven't looked at the web site to be aware of new policies. I also get it that these employees work for long hours at low pay, and probably wanted to be home with their families instead of working the early shift on a Saturday. I accept responsibility for my part of my own difficulties yesterday. I could have avoided the shock of a last-minute charge if I had looked at the web site for their carry-on and baggage check policies. I would have made different choices for how I packed. Despite the fact that I teach an awareness practice (the Feldenkrais Method), it doesn't make me perfect, or aware of EVERYTHING. I became aware -- I learned -- that there's a lot more to traveling well in the current economic climate than in simpler times.

A friend recently reminded me of a quotation that should be part of every company's customer service training. "Be kinder than necessary-everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
Customers are doing the best they can. Traveling is stressful. Airline patrons are traveling to funerals, on family emergencies, traveling with children, traveling without children, traveling for work; pre-occupied, tense, self-absorbed. They just want to get where they are going, and a little human kindness can go a long way. I've long been an advocate of service employees who have to put up with surliness from The American Public on a daily basis. The person who can persevere on the job and stay calm, friendly, and helpful, is a treasure to the company, and a blessing to each customer. Each person just wants some quality in human interaction; some empathy, some kindness, no matter where they are. And especially if they are about to be inconvenienced.

So, United: here's what would have been nice:

Instead of: "You have to check that bag. You can only have two carry-ons," and "It's $20 to check the bag."
It would have been nicer: "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but you're only allowed two items to carry on. May I take that for you?" and "Unfortunately, we've had to adopt a policy of charging for checked baggage, even on the first item. Would you like to try to re-pack your carry-on so everything fits in the one bag? Otherwise, the fee is $X."

Instead of: irritated attitude and disappearing act when the last bit of my drink spilled after a bumpy patch, and I rang the call button for the flight attendant to bring some paper towels.
It would have been nicer: "Oh, let me help you with that. Here are some paper towels. Do you need some more? I'll be right back. May I take that blanket for you, it's probably wet, too. Let me see if I can find you another one. Would you like another Coke?"

Instead of: "Yeah, you'll really have to run for it now" after a delay at the arrival gate at Dulles, when the flight attendant knew of my tight connection to Houston.
It would have been nicer: "Oh, so sorry for the delay, you'll really have to hurry. I'll call over to the gate for your connecting flight and tell them you are on your way, and to please hold the flight for you."

Unfortunately, United Airlines, you have a bad reputation. Grousing on Facebook about my travel woes (a canceled flight on the front end, and unhappiness on the return) unleashed a torrent of unsolicited shared bad experiences with the airline and its customer service. A quick search of the Twitter stream for @UnitedAirlines reveals about one positive comment for 9 or 10 negatives. In tough times, your employees AND your customers are your sales staff to generate future customers. It is essential that they do a good job for you, and understand how vital they are to your success. Relationships and referrals are the only way to build a happy and loyal customer base. It's not hard, and it doesn't take much time. Best of all, it costs nothing to be kind. Small things, like a smile, tone of voice, eye contact, warmth, and attention, are valuable "smoother-overs" in almost any situation. Good news travels in social media with the same speed and enthusiasm as bad news. Just imagine when the online chatter says "I had the most fantastic experience on United, of all places," and "The folks at United went out of their way to help me in a difficult situation." Comments like that could transform your company and its fortunes.

Fortunately, I receive few complaints in my business. But when I do receive one, I do my best to apologize and then make it right. Relationships and referrals are everything to the small business person, and I try to make sure that everyone is treated well. So United, here's the deal: most complainers don't want to be difficult, or to make your life miserable. They want you to get better. They want you to get your act together so that they can do business with you again. They want everyone to be happy. Learn from your customers. They know how you're really doing.

"Be kinder than necessary-everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." The root of kindness is compassion. Compassion grows from awareness. Customer service makes the difference when times are good. It is golden when times are tough.

Click here for video from my flight on United, Dulles to Houston.

Reflections on RESONANZ

2009-07-26T12:57:00.009-05:00

It's not often that you get an opportunity to fall in love with 25 people all at once. That's why I am still treasuring the memory of my week in Albany, NY, at the College of St. Rose Massry Center for the Performing Arts. Wonderful musicians and artists have gathered for three weeks of learning, self-development, and new perspectives at RESONANZ.

Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Heidi Skok envisioned a summer festival and training program where students and faculty could experience something different from the typical "grind" of coach-practice-perform-stress that is typical of such programs. Her inspiration came, in part, from the tragic suicide of a colleague, Jerry Hadley, in 2007. She reflected: Why must performers feel so desperate? What ingredients are missing in training, or in life? At RESONANZ, she has created an atmosphere of sincere caring, mutual respect, and joy in performing. The student artists receive mentoring, coaching, and honest feedback from top-flight faculty with impressive performing credits. These folks have got the goods.

The unique feature of RESONANZ is its emphasis on each singer as a whole person. I was honored to contribute the perspective of the Feldenkrais Method in classes during the first week of the program. Students and faculty participated in a daily Awareness Through Movement class, as well as in meditation training from Lance Brunner from the University of Kentucky. They will have the opportunity to incorporate the benefits of a yoga practice in the coming weeks, taught by Albany area teacher Susan Hoffman. This ain't your standard opera training program.

Whatever your field of interest, from sports, or opera, cooking, or knitting, there's always the temptation to fall into narrow thinking about it. It's rarely just about how much you "know;" it's about how much you can learn. Learning offers an open and dynamic process and perspective; "knowing" can turn rigid and dogmatic if you're not careful. At the beginning of the vocal masterclass I presented last Thursday, I shared part of one of my favorite poems:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there. (Rumi)

I invited the singers and the audience to meet in that field. To include other points of view and new experiences in their thinking. To develop an expanded "movement repertoire" that will permit freedom, comfort, expressiveness, and enjoyment in performing and in living. To expand their notion of "THE one, right way" to include their very own versions of several ways that work pretty well. Each of the three singers discovered new freedom, new sound, new capacity. The audience witnessed the transformation of each person, not just each song. Tears of joy flowed as they experienced "Making the impossible, possible; the possible, easy; and the easy, elegant." This ain't your standard opera masterclass.

The Feldenkrais Method offers concrete experiences of exploring and experimenting with new ideas. For some, the new idea is that you are an interesting, wonderful, and worthy human being. For some, the new idea is that performing does not have to be an expression of ego: it can be a demonstration and expression of LOVE. When you are more aware of yourself, you will be more aware of others. You can use your powers for good. A Feldenkrais class is a laboratory for learning how to turn intentions into actions. Embodied, intelligent action is the foundation for excellence in whatever you pursue.

The Way it Is

2009-07-19T12:33:00.005-05:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

When you read this, I'll be on my way or arrived in Albany, NY, for a one-week gig teaching Feldenkrais lessons at RESONANZ , an intensive study and performance program for career-track opera singers. Sunday morning, as I was hurriedly doing the laundry, cleaning, and packing for the trip, I had to stop and watch a bit of the CBS Sunday Morning tribute to Walter Cronkite. It's hard to believe that he retired as anchorman of the CBS evening news 27 years ago. Respected, admired, loved, and trusted, he signed off each broadcast saying, "And that's the way it is. . ."

Walter Cronkite was the narrator and interpreter of history during my formative years and into early adulthood. I remember well the demand of youth culture in the late 1960's, when Cronkite was already a fixture on the evening news: "Tell it like it is!" In an era when the slogan was, "Don't trust anyone over 30," Cronkite was trusted nonetheless. He was trusted by my generation because he told it like it was.

It seems that "telling it like it is" is still a rare and treasured trait. I can't think of any contemporary public figure who is universally trusted as Walter Cronkite was. He earned our collective and individual trust with his clean delivery of factual information, rarely colored by his own emotions or views. It was as if he trusted us to make up our own minds with the facts available.

I had an opportunity this weekend to reflect on "telling it like it is" relative to the Feldenkrais Method. As a teacher, I make the space for people to observe the way it is with them. You lie on the floor for a bit at the beginning of each class, receiving unbiased feedback from the surface about where you feel comfortable, and where you don't. Where you are struggling, and where you are flowing. Each movement gives you more information. You realize what you know, and what you don't know about yourself. Moshe Feldenkrais trusted each person to work out what was best for them. In this work, we learn to trust ourselves again.

Local, Global, Local

2009-07-12T21:31:00.017-05:00

Each Feldenkrais lesson begins with an invitation to notice something. This noticing is gradually directed toward the observation of curious details about the way you move, rest, and solve minor problems. A movement that feels isolated, strange, and difficult quickly reveals itself to be easy, graceful, and that your whole self is involved. You learn a process of learning and exploration that can be applied in any setting. After awhile, most people report that the effects of the lessons have begun to generalize -- to "show up" as improvements in unexpected places, like their relationships, their work, their outlook. What began exclusively as a personal exploration of a specific issue eventually affects the world around you.

This ability to change your viewpoint, from local to global, or self to environment, and back again, is a crucial skill. Without it, you literally cannot move. A changing perspective gives a more complete view, and yields the opportunity to take intelligent action. Individual actions make a difference. Last week, I saw several examples of this, "on the ground."

One client, a zippy octegenarian, has a new lease on life. After two surgeries on the same shoulder and a slow recovery, she was discouraged with her lack of progress. After 14 months and several courses of frustrating and painful therapy, she still could not drive without pain, lift her arm overhead, or dress herself normally. After a little more than a month of Feldenkrais lessons, she has regained most of her range of motion, and can now drive and do household tasks without pain. She learned that her shoulder is connected to the rest of HER, and that when her whole self is involved in movement, her shoulder moves more easily. She has regained her independence and is now eager to get back to her social life. Another client, having survived a brain aneurism, still walks haltingly and has difficulties with balance. Our first lesson helped her to sense her ankles as she walked. She reported that later in the day, a friend told her she seemed to be moving better and with more stability. She was thrilled! One solution involved viewing the problem in a larger context; the other solution involved a seemingly minor detail that was an essential part of the whole. Both perspectives are needed for a fresh outlook and a new beginning. As Moshe Feldenkrais said, "The possibility of improvement is limitless." The cumulative effect of many small actions can lead to a big result.

Here's another story. Houstonians Ernie and Sheryl Rapp thought that our city should host its own version of the TED Conference, bringing the top creative minds to Houston to speak from their unique perspectives. They founded and launched The UP Experience ("Like TED, Only Hotter) in 2008. A second event is planned for October 15, 2009. Home-grown initiative and actions have resulted in an event of international caliber and influence. Through Ernie and Sheryl's creativity and dedication, locals will get a global perspective we wouldn't have had otherwise.

In another example, some Houston entrepreneurs, artists, and musicians have begun an initiative called "Support Local/Grow Together." It's a simple idea, really, do to business in your own community, with people you know, like, and trust. SLGT adds a personal, word-of-mouth, nice-to-know-you dimension to the buying decisions you make every day. Hang out at your local coffee shop, independent book store, or neighborhood mom-and-pop restaurant. Recommend your hairdresser, doctor, computer genius, or designer to your friends. You could purchase some fabulous vegetables at a farmer's market, get your printing done at a local shop, collect pieces by a Houston artist, seek out Houston musicians and performers for your next party. Attend a local conference, sample a new wine, follow your curiosity into new plans for self-development! (I recommend the Feldenkrais Method.) Again, the cumulative effect of many small actions can lead to a big result.

If you live elsewhere, you can begin to promote SLGT wherever you are. The "top down," big solutions to our economic woes are only part of the picture. SLGT is grass-roots, right in your own backyard. Global and local perspectives are points on a spectrum, and we must continually navigate between them. Individual actions, chosen with awareness and intelligence, will always make a difference.

You can become a fan of SLGT: Support Local/Grow Together on Facebook.

The 100-Degree Rule

2009-07-06T07:18:00.003-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

(Translation for our international readers: The 38-Degree Rule. Celsius. Right.)

We can't help ourselves, talking about the weather. The 100-degree Rule is: if it's 100 degrees outside (or more), stay inside!

Houston has endured weeks of record-breaking temperatures. And it's a damp heat, mostly. Day after day with the thermometer reading in triple digits begins to wear. People feel cranky. We have the summer version of "cabin fever."

Amid lots of great entertainment options last week, leading up to the Independence Day holiday, we passed on all of them. Ordinarily, an evening out at Discovery Green would be delightful. Dining al fresco at our favorite spot in Midtown is usually a treat. However, we invoked the "100-degree rule" and watched the celebratory fireworks on television, in air-conditioned comfort. It's a matter of self-preservation. At its root, this is an issue of respect. You have to respect the heat. And, you have to respect yourself.

Luckily, most people do take care of themselves under these extreme conditions. The heat assaults you as you open the front door, nagging and nagging you to pay attention. Stay cool, dress lightly, protect from the sun's rays, keep well hydrated. However, most people won't take care of themselves on a daily basis, or in the absence of emergency conditions. We don't view self-care in terms of sustainability.

If only we had more personal "100-degree rules," individual barometers to gauge when "enough is enough." More respect for self might lead to more respect for the messages of pain, of satiety, of anxiety. The heat is like a 2x4 upside the head. You have to be listening and all senses "tuned up" to appreciate more subtle and habitual sensations. The 100-degree rule is simply an invitation to pay attention.

The Feldenkrais Method is remarkable for its respect of individuals and the circumstances in which they find themselves. The work leads inevitably to deeper explorations of self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and independence. You could even say that people find freedom here. However, these are not empty platitudes or tenets of an ideology. They are the building blocks for intelligent, cooperative action, within oneself and within society. The Method values your senses and sensations as first-line sources of information about your body, your safety, and your environment. Any action is only as effective as the sensitivity to initial conditions.

Pop-up thundershowers throughout the coming week will bring some relief. A visit to a Feldenkrais class (all air-conditioned!) brings a similar refreshment. Have your own personal independence day. New ideas, actions, and possibilities abound. Let freedom ring!

Feldenkrais With Children Who Have Cerebral Palsy

2009-07-03T14:02:00.001-05:00

Feldenkrais With Children Who Have Cerebral Palsy
Video sent by lightcrusader2

Lisa Walker of Feldenkrais Minnesota shows a wonderful example of teaching a darling young girl how to roll over by herself; and how to continue teaching herself "new stuff!"

You Wanna Talk Fireworks?

2009-06-27T18:04:00.008-05:00

If you want to experience REAL fireworks, watch what happens when you try to change someone's routine.

Ooooohhh, LORDY! Stand back! And, unlike those displays you'll watch at the park, on your porch, or on the television later this week, the "fireworks" I'm talking about can happen suddenly, without warning, at any old time. And, it can happen to people who supposedly have this whole change thing DOWN. It's all cool, right, whatever? (Begin Twilight Zone theme. . .) People like you and me can go, well, a little bonkers. Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to recount a tale of my recent experience, which will shock and amaze you. What sets off your fireworks?

For the past two years, I've taught a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement class each week at the MD Anderson Cancer Center's Place. . .of wellness. The POW (as "insiders" call it, strangely appropriate this week, it seems!) is a wonderful place where anyone whose life has been touched by cancer can take advantage of free programs designed to reduce stress and feed the body, mind, and spirit. Yoga, Quigong, Acupuncture, and Feldenkrais Method classes have been regular fixtures for many years in this ground-breaking "complementary and alternative" wellness-based approach to cancer care. The POW hosts patients currently undergoing treatment, families and caregivers, and members of the community at large. I am privileged to be there, and I enjoy a cordial relationship with the regular staff. I really look forward to teaching my class there each week. I look forward to the experience, even though I must deal with (dun dun DUNNNNN!) The Medical Center.

Say, "Medical Center" to anyone who lives in Houston, and you'll get an understanding eye roll, or perhaps a shudder. It's the renowned Texas Medical Center, the largest in the world. The traffic is atrocious. The parking is expensive. For many people, just dealing with the place once is enough to send them, terrified, on circuitious routes to avoid the area. Yet, each day, countless people drive there and park, to spend an hour or the entire day dealing somehow with the realities of cancer. I used to become very impatient each week as I pulled into Garage 10, the one closest to POW. One day, I realized that the drivers were doing the best they could. They, or a loved one, are probably a patient, completely preoccupied with a serious life-crisis. Driving, Schmiving. It's the last thing on their mind. I've learned to chill out, breathe, and plan to spend extra time in the garage to make it to my class on time. However, I'd be fibbing if I told you I wasn't a little stressed out by my trips to the Medical Center.

So, last week, progress came to the Medical Center. The entire method of paying for parking has changed. You used to drive into the garage, push a button on the gate, and the machine would spit out a paper ticket with a magnetic strip. You had to take the ticket with you -- o god don't leave it in the car -- and later validate it and pay via a large machine in the lobby of the garage. Although I only mangled my ticket a couple of times, I learned the system, and even learned to joke about it with other sufferers. The kiosk's robotic voice sounded a lot like Stephen Hawking ("Your parking fee is Six Dollars. Please pay. With cash. Or Credit. Card."), which amused me, and I rather looked forward to talking to Stephen on my visits to the garage. Was he living in Houston now, inside that box? Or were we talking on the speakerphone? Whatever. Stephen and I had our thing. However, last Thursday, EVERYTHING changed. Or so it seemed.

I drove in the entrance, and the gate was different. I pushed the button, a new button, and a yellow plastic disc was dispensed instead of a ticket. What the hell? I put the token in my pocket, a bit shaken, but noticing the advantage of the non-mangling. When I was ready to leave, I inserted the token into a new machine. Although I was relieved that the experience of paying was about the same (the same slots were available for cash or credit cards), I quickly became rattled. Stephen Hawking was GONE! Did Stephen get fired? All that we had was now finished, just like that. Some new young guy is now in the machine. Oh, well.

Attendants were stationed in the garage lobby, and at the exit gate ("Just insert the token, Ma'am.") to help anyone who was on the verge of flipping out. I had to breathe. And I realized how I, even I, a helper of people who are in the midst of navigating change, was using my sense of humor to deal with a disruption of a routine I didn't even realize I had. Others were not able to access their sense of humor. They were perturbed. Some, explosively so. Apparently, we all attach to our routines. We notice when we must change.

The lesson is, a little perturbation is necessary in life to move us forward, and to help us to adapt to a changing environment. I'm glad I have my training in the Feldenkrais Method to help me play with change, discover possibilities, and enjoy my expanding capacities to do new things. Who knows? That new guy in the machine might be really nice.

Improve Balance with the FELDENKRAIS METHOD

2009-06-27T08:50:00.005-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Last week, an exciting new study was published: "Feldenkrais Method® Balance Classes Improve Balance in Older Adults: A Controlled Trial."

Although it's not light reading, the introduction to the study provides a clear description of the Feldenkrais Method, and how it helps people to improve their functioning in balance. Your motor skills, usually the focus of traditional therapies, are improved by improved sensory awareness. The Feldenkrais Method specifically improves the kinesthetic sense (awareness of HOW you move) and overall coordination, which are NOT usually included in a comprehensive way in traditional therapies.

To quote briefly from the study: "Twenty-six participants in the treatment group engaged in twice-weekly Feldenkrais classes that were specifically tailored to address balance issues. The combination of exercises was named "Getting Grounded Gracefully," and lasted a total of 10 weeks. An "activities specific" questionnaire, a physical test known as the Four Square Step Test (FSST), and "self-selected gait speed" (walking speed) were assessed before and after the trial."

The results? "All measures of balance and mobility were improved in the Feldenkrais treatment group. In addition, most of the active participants noted benefits with regard to body image and a greater ability to engage in everyday activities, such as walking pets and climbing slopes." (Healthy Fellow)

While the new study dealt with older adults experiencing difficulties with balance, there's another perspective on balance from the world of fashion. Coming soon to a city near you: "How to Walk in High Heels using the Feldenkrais Method." You'll learn how to walk in high heels with safety and comfort. Here's a video story from Good Morning America about one such workshop in New York City. (Click to play.) Houston, Texas holds a High Heels workshop coming to the NiaMoves Studio in the Heights on July 18. Click here to register.

The sense of balance is perhaps our most essential sense. Anyone, young or old, can improve balance with the Feldenkrais Method.

Starting and Stopping

2009-06-22T08:56:00.005-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

We all know it's true: with many things in life, starting and stopping are the hardest parts!

Hard to start: cleaning out the garage, relationships, waking up (or going to sleep!), new projects, a diet
Hard to stop: eating potato chips, sliding downhill, having a good time, quitting smoking

How much never gets accomplished because you just can't get started, or can't stop? You might even say that you are "Stuck in 'Neutral.'" Sir Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion states: "objects in motion stay in motion; objects at rest stay at rest." We find it easy to obey that law!

However, you are not an object. You are a human being. The key difference is that you are capable of having an intention.

The Feldenkrais Method offers a unique perspective on that pesky "Neutral gear" that just might help to get you un-stuck. Rather than seeing the neutral state as worthless, where nothing is happening, you can see it as a place of infinite possibility. Your neutral gear is your own potential, waiting to be fulfilled.

When muscles are "in neutral," they are neither flexed nor flaccid. They are poised, and ready for action. Muscle pain will occur when the muscle is pre-occupied with another task, and then is asked to take on additional load. If your muscles "idle in neutral," they are not slackers! They are ready and able to help you move with ease, grace, and power, rather than with pain, awkwardness, or ineffectiveness. Muscles awaiting their cue in neutral will engage with coordination and a feeling of balance throughout your whole body.

The false limitation of choices, Stop or Start, is clarified by the addition of this third option, which is Neutral, or perhaps Get Ready. You could also add "Just A Little Bit" to each category, and you see that even more choices emerge. Many possibilities will fall along a spectrum, increasing the chances that you'll find a choice you like, and will take action.

Moshe Feldenkrais demonstrated that many choices, with clear distinctions, are better than a few. He said that having only one choice, and acting on it repeatedly, is compulsion. Two choices are an ultimatum. In the presence of three or more options, we can be fully human. We exercise not just our bodies, but our intentions.

I think most people never fulfill their potential because they haven't FELT it. They've thought about it, have ideas about it, been told about it, have emotions about it. But they haven't used their SENSES, their bodies, the physical feeling of being poised with possibility. Habitual busy-ness drowns out the sensations that could be most informative, useful, and valuable.

To learn more about starting, stopping, and infinite options in between, find a Feldenkrais practitioner near you!

Fan Page on Facebook

2009-06-20T18:04:00.003-05:00

Are you on Facebook?

If so, you'll want to become a "Fan" of the Feldenkrais Method(R) of Somatic Education. Here is the link: (click here).

Here, there, or everywhere, you'll see this video extolling the virtues of connection through social media, and the Facebook group.

Facebook is the "gateway" social media site. Start there: it's a good place to get your feet wet. Soon, you'll move on to LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg. . . And you'll find the Feldenkrais Method everywhere, if you look.

Strong Back, Comfortable Arms, Hands Skillful and Free: the Paul Rubin Houston Workshop

2009-06-15T22:32:00.014-05:00

Paul Rubin, one of the original U.S. students of Moshe Feldenkrais, presented a workshop at NiaMoves in the Heights (Houston, TX) June 6-7. Twenty-one people attended, and the experience was transformational. Here are some of the responses to the workshop.

"I found the workshop interesting, fascinating and enlightening. . . When I got on my computer Saturday evening, I noticed that I was using my whole arm to move the mouse versus just the wrist. That was astonishing. At the office on Monday, I noticed that my whole arm was moving when I was mousing. The lesson was still hanging on. I enjoyed meeting and listening to Paul. Quite the storyteller and hugely interesting. Thanks for providing the opportunity to attend the class."

"It has been an unusual week after the workshop. I . . . thought I was prepared for the weekend activities --but was most surprised. The gentleness and subtleness of Feldenkrais is deceiving. It is very powerful work and has taken me several days this week to begin to process all that changed and I feel that I have just begun. The most significant thing I noticed is how much emotional baggage I carried in my body and that continues to release. . . ."

"I'm so appreciative that you brought Paul Rubin to Houston and that I've gotten to know him and work with him. Those two days were amazing in so many ways. First, I found myself feeling like a kindergartener again working on the floor mats. Being on the floor brought me back to a "nap time" remembrance of Kindergarten and how I was learning new things about the world, only this time I was learning about my body. The whole time was such a good mix of thinking self awareness and feeling awareness. It's hard to describe exactly, what changes have taken place. I know I have a much greater appreciation and self awareness of how I move in space and sensing my movement originating from my core, and also having a curiosity to see how my body does things. "

"There were many, many things I enjoyed about the day and ½ and how Paul Rubin teachesI think ….that I observed a brilliant method of providing opportunity to “anticipate” a movement “fill in the blank” with one’s own ideas too. . . >The weekend workshop has been on my mind frequently. Thank you very much. Here are my thoughts and observations. I have slept better since. ">When I put on my earrings Monday morning….I noticed that my right ear was higher than my left ear. Yes! I thought that I had “lifted” my right side out of my back and shoulder in the last set of movements on Sunday.I did a day of physical work on Monday…down and dirty…polishing the floors in my old house, which I do by hand and on my knees. I was able to be more aware of fatigue and tension and move in such a way that there is no pain.But more than that…..The thinking that Paul Rubin presented is so consistent with what I understand to be “a systems view of the body (including brain)”. And he put in words observations I still struggle to articulate. Which means I understood more deeply myself after the workshop. He has clearly integrated experience and science in a way that is very helpful."

"Thank you for organizing this workshop. You and Paul are wonderful teachers and now I have a little better sense about ATM and its benefits. My impressions during the workshop were more experiential than anything and a little difficult to describe in words. Enjoying the exploration of what felt comfortable and what didn’t during the lessons was very interesting. Also, noticing how my parts fit together (i.e. hand into arm into shoulder)"I had a dream early Monday morning that I was dancing an Irish jig! Very funny initially, but I was REALLY good -- LOL!!! In the reverie before I woke up, I had a visual of using my hands to go through the stacks of work on my desk. My visual also including prioritizing the work so that I was only dealing with the most critical issues first. Needless to say, Monday and today have been extremely productive for me."

Did you miss it? Paul will return to Houston in September. Dates will be announced soon. Be there, or, as they say. . .

Old Dogs, New Tricks

2009-06-15T08:51:00.008-05:00

When was the last time you learned something new?

Now, stop for a moment. When you think about answering that question, do you feel 1) excited and eager to share, or 2) bewildered, searching to remember, or 3) clenched, thinking, "Enough with the learning already!" ?

Learning has taken a bad rap. I think this is because we think of "Learning" as something we have to do for a set period of time, as in the school years, during a university degree, or a formal class. The most highly valued evidence that this type of learning has been successful is performance on a standardized test. Somehow our culture sets us up to expect that one day we'll be done learning, and then will go do something real, or practical. Learning has been taken over by professionals whose emphasis is on teaching, or content delivery. Teaching in our schools, and the vast majority of inservice or corporate training programs are woefully one-sided and delivery-oriented. All too few are concerned whether the "target" (student) actually received, assimilated, and is using -- learned -- the content. I've been intrigued with this distinction between teaching and learning since I first read Carl Rogers' Freedom to Learn in the early 1970's. But I digress. . .

Rogers says, in part, that nobody can teach another person anything. All they can do is create the conditions so that the individual can learn for themselves. Think of the "force feeding" you may have experienced with your worst "educational experience." Contrast that with the joy, sense of accomplishment, vitality, and total absorption you have felt when you are truly engaged with something new that interests you. This is learning, true learning, and it can go on throughout your life. The evidence that this kind of learning has occurred is that behavior changes. You are doing something new, or doing something old in a new way.

This past weekend, I attended an event called PodCampHouston. Based on the BarCamp model, PodCampHouston attracted people who were interested in learning more about online media, or "new media;" specifically podcasts and video blogging. This was my second experience with the Camp idea, and it's unlike any workshop or conference I've ever experienced. In fact, it is promoted as an "un-conference," or more accurately, a "user-generated" conference. Each participant is encouraged to make a presentation! A white-board in the entry hall is marked with a grid, times on one axis and room availability on the other. You sign up for a time, announce your topic, and then people "vote with their feet" when the time comes.

Well, I took the plunge and signed up to present. Several people had expressed interest in my vocal coaching and movement work, so I thought I could probably riff for awhile on "You and Your Voice" for these budding broadcaster/podcasters. What a blast! Twenty-five people showed up, asked questions, and the room filled with animated conversation, connection, and laughter.

Moshe Feldenkrais said that anything you learn that stays with you in a profound and positive way was learned when you were having fun. At PodCampHouston, we met as friends and colleagues in an atmosphere of fun and mutual respect. We learned from each other, shared, and grew in the process.

I have two core beliefs that regularly pop up into consciousness. 1) You can do anything if you don't know how, and 2) Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Remember what I said about learning changing behavior? Well, Sunday afternoon, I sat down at my computer and made my first video podcast series! It's called "You and Your Voice: Do I Sound OK?" and is taken from my presentation at PodCamp Houston. As with any new ventures, it's a first approximation. I don't have a fancy set or makeup artist. The six, 10-minute segments are basically just my talking head. However, I created some content, shared it, and I'll get better as I continue to learn more. Yes, it's a little scary to put myself out there. Yes, there will be criticism at all levels. Oh well. It was fun. I learned something. I'll do it again. So there.

Madeleine L'Engle wrote a book called "Walking On Water" about the creative process. She uses the metaphor of a vast and beautiful lake to represent the sum of all creative work -- every symphony, novel, play, invention, everything. She says you can't hold yourself to the standard of creating a St. Matthew Passion each time you begin your creative work. Your only job is to "feed the lake." Contribute something, even a trickle, from your small stream of creativity, no matter what it is. Accept, and feel satisfied, with that. You and your abilities will improve over time as you continue to "feed the lake." I love this image.

The Feldenkrais Method is a great way to jump-start your love of learning (real learning) and your creativity. It uses your own body, your attention, and gentle movement as the vehicle for developing awareness, fluidity in thought and action, and a sense of infectious curiosity. If this old dog can learn new tricks, so can you!

What's In Your Junk Drawer?

2009-06-07T23:23:00.006-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Do you have a "junk drawer?" Nearly everyone does.

Maybe it's in your kitchen, or the desk, or the hall table. It's the drawer where all the odds and ends, the useful bits with no immediate or obvious usefulness, end up. Perhaps yours contains some paper clips, string, a bottle opener, scotch tape, a key that you can't remember exactly what it opens, so you can't throw it away. "Twistie ties," a screwdriver that never makes its way to the toolbox. Got the picture? What's in your junk drawer?

This past weekend, Feldenkrais protegee Paul Rubin visited Houston for a two-day workshop. After an Awareness Through Movement lesson, one class participant asked, "What did I just learn to do? How is that useful?" Paul's answer was profound and evocative.

He used the metaphor of the junk drawer. Each of us has one, and if you think about it, you can probably do an instant mental inventory of what you might find there. Paul said, "And you know much more, and in greater detail, what is in your junk drawer, than you know your own shoulder, or neck, or self." Might it be at least as useful to know yourself, your body, your sensations, in as much detail as you know the contents of your junk drawer?

Just as you forget what's in the junk drawer until you need something in there, and rediscover it again, certain aspects of ourselves get "filed away" because of disuse, confusion, or experience. "I'll need this someday," we tell ourselves. It's in a crisis -- where is the allen wrench? Didn't I have a crochet hook? -- that we frantically search for the perfect, simple, and elusive tool that solves our problem. Likewise, the experience of a freely floating shoulder, an easy neck, or a flexible and buoyant spine gets "filed away" after years of sitting still in a school desk or before a computer screen. The gentle and pleasurable movements we experienced as children are "filed away" in our brains, waiting to be rediscovered. When your neck feels tight, you know you should relax or release -- but how do you do that? If you knew how, you'd have done it long ago. This information is in the junk drawer.

The Feldenkrais Method provides the means so that you can know and understand yourself as well as you know what's in the metaphorical junk drawer. Some of this knowing is below the level of consciousness or cognition. This knowing comes via your senses, your emotional tone, and your experiences in action. You're bound to find something handy -- a way to move without pain, to feel more alive, to improve a skill. Gradually, you might organize the "drawer" so that you can find what you need when you need it, and get rid of the stuff that is just clutter. Your brain, your movement patterns, your physical experiences, get loaded up with a lot of junk through the years. You can streamline, travel more lightly, and get reaquainted with yourself in depth and detail you never imagined. Then, just as having the right tool for the job makes all the difference, your movement patterns contain the clues to your peak performance potential.

Moshe Feldenkrais did not intend his work to be "naval gazing" self-absorption. Nor is the Feldenkrais Method "body work" as such. The Feldenkrais Method provdes tools for better functioning, for living the life you want to live, to the best of your ability. Why keep the good stuff in the junk drawer?

Tip of the Iceberg

2009-06-01T16:56:00.012-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

I look ahead this week to a major milestone. My youngest child, my son, will reach the age of majority on Thursday. June 4 is his 21st birthday. This gives me temporary pause.

My daughter turned 21 a few years ago, and that was big, too. I was officially old enough to have a 21-year-old. But my son, the baby of the family, 21?

We still make marks on the kitchen door frame to see who is taller. My son now looms over his older sister, and the door frame chronicles the progress of this achievement. Each acknowledgment of the passage of time brings its own poignancy. I remember when each of them got on the school bus for the first time, leaving me stifling sobs. The nostalgia for those days of naivete and innocence -- theirs and mine -- is sweet. However, the joy and the sheer dumb luck of having adult children whom I truly enjoy as human beings? As MasterCard says: "Priceless."

I'll be drinking a margarita in Texas while my son is having his first *legal* beer in Pennsylvania, a long-distance toast to his happy survival thus far. It's a thrill to think of a young man with the world and all its possibilities stretched out before him. I'll be emotional. Despite my ability to feel and experience these milestones with great intensity, that doesn't mean that I wish that time would freeze, or that things could be like they were. I enjoyed each of my children at each stage of their development. I was not the kind of mommy who "wished they could stay little forever," nor did I wish they would hurry and grow up. To have children and watch them grow is to be deeply engaged in the process of change.

I enjoy practicing the Feldenkrais Method because it allows me to assist clients as they go through changes. They adapt to the effects of aging, injury, accident, and desire as best they can, with the tools they have. Some feel that adaptation represents a defeat. "I just have to slow down now." "I have to pay attention more." "I can't do all the things I used to do." There are always icebergs beneath these tips.

The magic in the process of a Feldenkrais lesson is in helping each person to discover new possibilities for himself. Old ways of doing things -- even fondly remembered things from earlier in life -- can give way to the "new and improved." Many possibilities emerge for action, for thinking, for sensing, and for feeling. Life opens up in a new way.

Holiday Weekend Recovery

2009-05-26T09:24:00.009-05:00

Image by K. Todd Storch via Flickr

It's a Tuesday morning that feels like a Monday morning.

It's the aftermath of something wonderful: the extended Memorial Day weekend. Most people I know packed as much flag-waving, barbeque-eating, beer-drinking, and all-out week-ending as was humanly possible. Add in your own favorite hypenated pastime: mine this weekend included Law-and-Order-marathon-watching and week-ahead-meal-preparation. Yours might be bike-riding, game-playing, kid-enjoying, tube-floating, wedding-attending, house-cleaning, or mega-shopping. You get the idea. When we have a long weekend, we do it up BIG. And today, Tuesday morning, for some of us, feels like -- a HANGOVER.

I watched the Twitter stream for awhile this morning, as "Memorial Day" was still a trending topic. One person, @chadwicknorris, said

It's almost 10 am and I'm still trying to get motivated. I call it "The Memorial Day Weekend effect".

We leave work, feeling exhausted, and eagerly anticipating the extended weekend. We return to work, stil exhausted. What's wrong with this picture? Why do we do this to ourselves?

I suspect that one aspect is an almost universal and unconscious belief that we "should" be like the Energizer Bunny. "He keeps going, and going, and going. . ." We expect nothing less of ourselves. Our idealization of heroes has become pathological: we revere the person who is least like, well, a person. At least superheroes have superpowers! We expect ourselves, without superpowers, to work relentlessly at peak performance, requiring nothing in the way of rest or routine maintenance. We are no longer satisfied with being "superhuman." We now aspire to be like a super machine. And, when or if we are injured, we see no alternative but the scrap-heap. The imperfect machine gets traded for an upgrade. No wonder we are terrified to stop, even for a moment.

We kill the pain with more activity, more relentlessness. We can't tell when we've had enough. Hell, we'll never admit we've had enough. That's the formula for a hangover.

The best antidote here is an ounce of prevention. Season the recipe of your life with some good, old-fashioned PLAY. Play is the ingredient that refreshes, renews, and re-energizes your life and your perspective. Re-discovering your ability to play can be the key to finding a more creative, innovative, imaginative, resiliant YOU. Most people have forgotten how to be playful.

The Feldenkrais Method can re-connect you with your innate abilities to move, sense, think, feel, and PLAY. Remember those long summer days as a kid, when you happily lost track of time, engrossed in whatever you had discovered? Like that. During a one-hour Awareness Through Movement lesson, your curiosity is tickled. You are invited to explore and experiment. How will it turn out? We don't know. But we know you will feel safe and comfortable during the process. And we know you will feel DIFFERENT afterwards. People take this playful stance back to work with them, back home to their families, back into their daily activities. The fresh approach, the awareness, the courage to play helps them to reap dividends in the present moment as well as the future.

Stuart Brown, MD, is one of the leading researchers on the neuroscience of play. He says that the opposite of play is not work, but rather, depression. He argues that work at its best can FEEL like play: absorbing, enlivening, experimental, improvisatory, satisfying, time-expanding fun! Play has many beneficial after-effects, unlike the hangover of the Memorial Day Effect. You are in the present moment, happy to be where you are, and refreshed for the day's tasks.

It's summertime! Come and play with us!

Rome Built in a Day?

2009-05-12T12:12:00.004-05:00

"Rome wasn't built in a day."

I grew up on that proverb. My mother would say it any time progress toward a desired goal met an obstacle. I learned to have patience and a philosophical attitude toward life, and to value processes as much as achievements.

And now, someone HAS built Rome in a day. Read the story here.

How did she do it?

She got a friend to help her. Projects are much less daunting when you're not alone.
She scaled down "the ideal." It looks like her Rome fits on a table top, and she used paper and wood.
She approached it as play, with curiosity. She didn't know how it would turn out.
She lowered her standards. She created something that pleased herself. She's apparently not too worried about what anyone else thinks of it.

This story appeals to me because it resonates with the Feldenkrais Method. Although the work has many benefits for people who desire pain and stress reduction, and improvements in posture, coordination, and well-being, I also value this work as a method of learning and problem-solving. The Feldenkrais Method is useful for anyone who is dealing with overwhelm, or even with just "whelm." We have so much on our individual plates -- work, family, relationships, deadlines, projects, goals, physical issues -- that easy proverbs and platitudes lose their ability to encourage us. The Feldenkrais Method teaches a comprehensive approach for thought combined with intelligent action.

The teacher or practitioner is not in the role of "therapist," but rather more like a tour guide. I'm there to help, to witness, and to acknowledge. I've got a map, and I know the landmarks of your experience. There's much you can do for yourself with this type of assistance.
By "scaling down the ideal," the task, whatever it is, becomes more manageable. Remove your pre-conditions and pre-judgments, and see what happens. Many small steps lead surely to your goal. Celebrate each one. For example: you don't have to redesign your entire filing system TODAY. Spend 5 minutes trashing the junk mail. Want to keep something? Find, or make a file folder and file it. You've made progress.
Get curious and "muck about." Experiment and explore. You will find unexpected resources as you go. You'll discover how creative you are.
By "lowering your standards," you make space for change to begin. If everything has to be perfect, or nothing -- frequently you are left with nothing. Action stalls out under the judgement of perfection, and always comes up short. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. After you have begun, you have surmounted the biggest obstacle. Improvement is inevitable.

Whether you are a skilled high-achiever at the top of your form, or a person with serious challenges, you can benefit from working with the Feldenkrais Method. As you become more aware of what you are doing, you become more adept, more adaptable, more effective. You can "build your own Rome," whatever that looks like. Let's get started!

Attention SURPLUS Disorder

2009-05-05T10:03:00.002-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Sounds funny, doesn't it? With all the emphasis on Attention DEFICIT Disorder, the idea of an attention surplus catches us off guard, makes us laugh, perhaps even elicits an "I wish!" response.

I think your experience of a deficit in attention is the response to so many demands on your attention. After all, how many blogs, emails, social media sites, children, tasks, friends, conversations, causes, projects, and events can someone REALLY pay attention to? Too many payments of attention can result in not enough attention to go around -- a deficit.

Another way of describing attention is with the infinitive form, "to attend." When you attend school, or an event, or a meeting, you show up. Attention is the state of having mentally shown up. We can look further at the word, and find "tend," as in, to tend a garden, or to tend bar. To tend in this way implies cultivation over a sustained period of time, and taking action toward what is needed. Things you have tended to, with your attention, have a tendency to grow.

Perhaps those who are labeled with attention deficit disorder are actually attempting to tend to too much, rather than too little. So many bright shiny objects and ideas out there are truly fascinating. The choices, the possibilities, the expectations, the load seems enormous. The rapt concentration of total absorption in an interesting project is derailed by another demand.

There are several possible solutions to this dilemma. Typical strategies involve elaborate devices or techniques to block out the "distractions." This approach pre-supposes that you are clear about what you want to be paying attention to in the first place. That's probably another topic. Other strategies employ the philosophy that you have to "stretch" your brain by loading as much into it as possible. Increase the capacity so you can get more in. In my experience, this is a short road. Trying to cram more through the "bottleneck" of neurological processing (as discussed in The Overflowing Brain by Torkel Klingberg) just leads to more frustration and overwhelm. Multi-tasking is no solution. (Take a short and impressive test here.) Yet, you can find several million Google entries from people and organizations who want to help you to improve your multi-tasking ability! (Computer processors should multi-task, not people.) If attention is the new currency of modern society, then your attention will have more and more demands placed upon it.

The ability to pay attention is the foundation of your ability to learn, to adapt, to relate, and to survive. If you want to get control of 1) the input stream, and 2) your response to it, then the Feldenkrais Method is your "refresher course." The Method uses simple, gentle, novel movements to engage your attention, then directs that attention in specific ways. Over time, you develop the ability to turn down the volume on all of the "outer noise," and discover your own guidance system. Along with lowered stress levels and improved attention, people also report improvements in their posture, balance, breathing, coordination, and comfort.

As your ability to pay attention improves, you'll notice improvements is many other aspects of your life. Best of all, attention will start to pay YOU.

The Big Rains

2009-04-20T06:56:00.003-05:00

It was a wet weekend in Houston!

Friday and Saturday, it POURED. Lines of thunderstorms, some of them severe, barreled through Houston one after the other. It rained hard, and it rained LONG. It was the type of rain that my Dad would have called "a frog-choker." That's a lot of rain!

So much rain fell on Friday throughout the area that the first leg of the MS150 was canceled for Saturday. Other plans were changed or canceled as weather and road conditions worsened. Tragically, lives were lost. Most people, however, stayed indoors and marveled at the rain. We've been in a drought for months (now officially over), so the sight of dark skies and pouring rain was strange and novel.

We have frequent flooding in Houston, for several reasons.
1. This one's obvious: too much rain falls too fast, overwhelming the drainage system. The water has nowhere to go.
2. Also pretty obvious: there's a LOT of concrete in Houston. Water doesn't soak into the earth, but just runs off. See #1, repeat.
3. Our terrain is low-lying. The city is in a bowl. It fills up. It's a constant battle to keep needed infrastructure improvements in the works and on track, but it's never enough. Conditions are favorable for flooding, rather than draining.

This got me thinking about learning, and the Feldenkrais Method. We see learning going on everywhere, not just in classes or schools. The purpose of learning is fundamentally to create a change for the better, for example, improved understanding or skill. Learning and change are creative -- some new capacity emerges.True learning is not just about knowing, it's also about being and doing. The Feldenkrais Method helps people to navigate change and discover new capacities and possibilities for and within themselves.

1. If you try to learn (or change) too much all at once, you overwhelm your system with the flood of information. ("Information" is not just facts: your sensations, emotions, and thoughts are also information.)
2. You won't learn well if you are not "absorbent." The best and "quickest picker-upper" I know of is curiosity.
3. Conditions must be favorable for learning. Senses of fun, meaning, and achievement enhance and inspire learning.

I'm making a distinction here between "immersion" and flooding. Immersion learning throws you into water that is shallow enough to stand up in, but deep enough to swim in. You can get somewhere, and everyone knows what outcome is desired -- it is constructive. A flood is destructive. You'll drown! The drought may be over, but at a very high price. Our culture is pre-disposed for "flooding." We love excess and extremes, super-sizing everything. However, quantity is not necessarily quality.

The Feldenkrais Method uses body movement as its vehicle, so that you can sense, feel, and think while you are in action. We are sensitive to pacing, curiosity, and fun, creating conditions for learning and maximum "absorbency." The evidence of learning is your perception that some change has occurred. Like gentle rain, gradual and light, soaking in to a thirsty mind and nervous system, the Method provides essential conditions for future growth. You can learn your way out of pain and stress, finding grace, fluidity, and ease in movement and in life.

The Element of Surprise

2009-04-14T08:29:00.003-05:00

Did you know that your brain is more likely to learn when the unexpected happens than when things are predictable?

Recent research at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that the learning centers of your brain go on "stand-by" when you engage in repetitive and familiar actions, such as driving the same route each day, or when mechanically going through your workout. Since the action is familiar, there's no need for the brain to encode new information. However, when the unexpected happens -- a deer jumps out onto the road, or you make a novel movement in a Feldenkrais class -- it seems that your brain and nervous system are wired to encode the new information. When new encoding takes place, we call it learning. You can read a summary of the research in a short article here.

As humans, we have competing needs for security and for novelty. When economic times are tough, and as we age, we want more security and predictability. We learned at a very young age that not all surprises are good ones. However, it may be time to heed the words of futurist Alvin Toffler: The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

When I read the article cited above, I immediately thought of a recent incident. Last Saturday, I attended a dynamic gathering called FreelanceCamp Houston. It was a user-generated conference, meaning that anyone who wanted to make a presentation could do so, by signing up for a time and a room. Organizers and sponsors, notably the Houston Technology Center, Werkadoo, Angelo's Pizza, The CoffeeGroundz, Caroline Collective, and St. Arnold's Brewery, arranged for the location and the amenities: in other words, a minimal structure in which the day could unfold. The participants were the "experts," sharing their knowledge, helping each other, and making connections for the possibility of new business. At the end of the day, we were asked to give feedback to the organizers to use for the next event. Let me summarize what one person said: "You need to have more descriptors in the promotional materials so that people will know exactly what is going to happen. That's important to me if I'm deciding whether to give up a Saturday." On the one hand, that's a perfectly logical request. On the other hand, if you already know what something is going to be about, why engage at all? Isn't the point of learning that you are willing to have, and are seeking, a new experience?

Learning takes place throughout life. You don't have to enroll in a class, or attend a conference to learn, although those are great and convenient possibilities. The best way to learn is simply to be aware of your surroundings, of your sensations, and your self, and to be awake and curious to observe the novel and the non-habitual. This is the essence of aliveness, isn't it?

Change This Later

2009-04-06T07:17:00.004-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

The title of this article started out as a placeholder. I thought I'd come up with a real title, or a real article, and fill in the blank later.

For example, this picture of an Easter Bunny. No bunny available? Let's use Gladys! She's a placeholder for the real thing, yet is becoming famous in her own right, thanks to Wikipedia and Flickr.

Using a placeholder offers temporary convenience, but it can be a dangerous practice, sometimes with comical results. I recall one harried church music director, responsible for a flurry of printing bulletins and service leaflets, leading up to all of the Holy Week and Easter services. He would start preparing weeks in advance, submitting all of the information so that the secretary could produce all of the bulletins. Frequently, titles of choral anthems, organ pieces, and especially sermon titles, would be inserted or changed just prior to printing, as those choices were made. Amidst the distractions and pressures of multitasking, occasionally a placeholder title would slip through. Once, thankfully not at a major service, a bulletin was printed and distributed to the congregation which listed "Some Little Ditty" as the special choral music for the day. Another time, the temporary placeholder for the sermon title, "Twenty Minutes of Droning," slipped through undetected. Until Sunday morning. Oops.

It seems that there are lots of examples of things we do, or have, or are, where we intend to change it later. Sometimes, we do go back and make an adjustment or an improvement. However, sometimes the placeholder becomes permanent. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's possible that what was originally intended as a placeholder actually works quite well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

That doesn't mean that the status quo can't be improved. All too frequently, placeholders become permanent because the prospect of changing whatever it is seems too daunting. I've been able to enlarge my perspective on this through my continuing work in the Feldenkrais Method. Instead of two choices: a) settle for the same old, same old; or b) insist upon and strive for perfection, I have many choices for effective action that fall along that spectrum. Anything that we learn to do well, we learn by successive approximations.

It's possible to make tiny changes over time, that result in a big difference. If I set a timer for five minutes, and use that time to organize my workspace, things look, feel, and work much better, almost immediately. Relationships can blossom or heal with the simple inclusion of a smile or kind word. Ways of moving with better coordination, more comfort, increased skill and effectiveness, improved balance, deeper enjoyment -- all become available as we learn alternatives to our "placeholders" for those actions.

A placeholder is a "first approximation" of what you desire. Make a tiny change, and notice the result. Would you like more of that, less of that, or something different altogether? The process goes quite rapidly, and the results are astonishing. You can learn to play along the way, improving with each successive approximation. In this way, growth and change are assured. After all, everything is temporary.

The Vital Ingredient

2009-03-29T12:37:00.011-05:00

This man is Stuart Brown. He thinks you should play more.

He has devoted his life and career to researching why "all work and no play make Jack (and Jill) a dull boy (girl)." He's got some serious advice, with brain research, psychological studies, and hard data to back it up.

We've become joyless, wary, and guilt-ridden in the face of our obsession with hard work and problem solving. Without play, we're doomed to stay in the same rut. Play is essential for health and creativity. In fact, it may be the single most significant factor in determining our success and happiness. However, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, people seem reluctant to use this simple process for building a better life: make time for play. To watch Stuart Brown's TED Talk, click here. (Highly recommended!)

For something to qualify as "play," it must be purposeless, all-consuming, and restorative. Some people have forgotten how to play. We operate by the notion that everything must have a serious purpose ("What's this going to do for me? What am I accomplishing?), we are constantly distracted by multi-tasking demands, and we wonder why we're always worn out. We are sleep-deprived (there's another soapbox for another time), and we are even more play-deprived. We're willing to do anything to achieve "peak performance" and positive results. Anything, that is, except the activities that are most effective: rest, and play.

Nothing will inspire a chorus of "Yeah, but. . ."'s quicker than the suggestion that someone take some time out to rest and play. If you see yourself here, it's easy to get back on track. Classes and lessons in the Feldenkrais Method can reconnect you with your lost ability to play. Through the gentle, sometimes whimsical explorations of subtle movements, your mind and body gain refreshed focus, the ability to see fresh perspectives, and the safety to experiment with something new. Moshe Feldenkrais often exhorted his students to "play with this movement," "do this with the greatest ease possible," "do this as if you had the afternoon to waste." To reconnect to your body, your sensations, and your imagination is of vital necessity.

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." The wisdom of this ancient scripture advises balance in all things, a yin and yang in a constant and dynamic cycle. Come and play with us!

To find a Feldenkrais practitioner anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, click here.

The UP Experience Blog

2009-03-18T09:48:00.002-05:00

I'm lucky to be one of the writers for the blog for The UP Experience. Here's a new post that speaks to some themes of the Feldenkrais Method:

Steve Wozniak started ballroom dancing five weeks ago. He’s had two weeks of competition. He is a beginner, and he is a fast learner. Having made some footwork mistakes on Monday night, he analyzed the problem, perceived the pattern, and was able to correct it. The studio audience gave him a standing ovation, and Twitter went wild. Dancers and audience members alike learn, over the course of the season, to make ever finer distinctions. Even though the back-stories can be a little cheesy and often seem like unnecessary padding in the bloated show, they allow us to witness the personal growth of the contestants. Real growth and development. That’s extraordinary, especially in prime time. Everyone learns, and the American Public learns to appreciate the process and the plain old hard work behind the scenes that leads to excellence and ultimately, to the best possible performance. Who knew that Dancing With The Stars would demonstrate — DEPTH?MaryBeth Smith, The UP Experience Blog, March 2009

Please read the whole article. I'm very interested in your comments, either here or there.

Ka-Blooey!

2009-03-15T14:04:00.016-05:00

Sunday morning, I stood in the dark, damp, cold; under the glare of parking-lot lights. It was too early to be up and out on a weekend, yet we gathered, quietly waiting. Some had been working since before 4 a.m. The rest of us rolled in a bit before 7:00. Surrounding streets were closed, vast stretches of the parking lot were cordoned off, and the friendly but firm security detail in their yellow vests and hard hats made sure nobody went under, over, or around the orange tape. Families, couples, singles, young and old, looked from their watches to the hard hat with the walkie-talkie, and then across the street. "We live in the neighborhood, and heard about it." "My husband used to work there, and he's really bummed." "The demolition company is a client of my firm." An office building at 2200 Post Oak, in the heart of Houston's Galleria area, once bustling with life, now stood grey, gutted, and waiting.

"Ten minutes," said the walkie-talkie man. Five minutes, one minute and holding. Finally, a siren, and I turned on my video camera. Then, BOOM! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! BOOM! And then, almost gently, the building collapsed into a heap of rubble. As the crowd cheered and applauded, a cloud of dust began to overtake us. We got into our cars and drove through thick dust fog into the remainder of our Sunday. (Click on the photo to watch the YouTube video!)

I thought about how what I had just witnessed had been the result of a process involving countless people and steps. Equally, the construction of the building had been the result of such a process, as was the building's inhabitation, the moving in and out of tenants through the years. Process continues, a flow of endings and beginnings, interpreted by individual perception. The destruction of the office building at 2200 Post Oak is an ending, to be sure. It's also part of a process to redevelop that prime real estate into something more appropriate and profitable. And then I thought, "Oh for Pete's sake! How trite can you get?" (Cue music: The Circle of Life. . .)

Our habitual patterns of action stand, like an outmoded office building, the result of a process of learning and actions over a lifetime. Taking up valuable real-estate in your brain, the entrenched neural pathways limit your choices for the possibility of higher functioning. The process of changing the habits may seem difficult at times. Most people take an explosive approach to change, filled with nagging, shame, judgment, and punishment. The Feldenkrais Method uses sensitivity and awareness. The old pattern gently collapses, making room for something new.

(Click here for YouTube Video.)

Perfect Timing

2009-03-09T06:40:00.015-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Daylight Savings Time has me all messed up. Talking about DST is almost as boring and futile as talking about the weather, but we all do it because the time change interrupts our habitual patterns and preferences. Love it or hate it, DST provides two important reminders: 1) how cranky people get when they have to change, and 2) how flexible and adaptive we are. What is in the foreground today -- the felt lost hour of sleep, the kids or cats not moving with the clock -- will fade into the background in just a few days or weeks. We'll all go on as if nothing happened.

I contemplate this twice a year while I am adjusting, or not, and am no closer to understanding why it's so difficult for me. The "springing forward" is awkward and even upsetting. My sleeping patterns, usually reliable, go completely bonkers for a couple of weeks. Even though we have plenty of warning that the time change will occur, the Morning After is never easy. I feel as if THEY have "sprung it" on us, in a huge bureaucratic "gotcha!" by the Keepers of Time. We're passengers on a catapult, being hurled into the future, with no assurance of a soft landing. In a few months, the "Fall Back" will also disrupt the status quo. The fear of falling is fundamental, and we'll do almost anything to avoid it. Most people snuggle down for the extra hour of zzz's, and snooze right through.

As a movement specialist and teacher of the Feldenkrais Method, I'm very intrigued by all of this springing and falling, and with figuring out how to help people (and myself) to manage it all. The language with which we describe something can determine how we experience it. So, rather than associating "springing" with a surprise deception, I can use other associations. I can think of being poised to pounce upon a great opportunity, or to be flexible, powerful and buoyant, storing energy and potential within my coils. I can also think of the beautiful Comal Springs in New Braunfels, TX, where my kids grew up. The springs bubble forth, cool and refreshing, fed by the immense Edwards Aquifer. The spring flows decrease during times of drought. The springs can only spring if they've been fed and nurtured from within. I like these images of "springing" because my imagination is stimulated to action and ease. I actually begin to feel that I would LIKE to spring forward, and that I am ready and able to do so. Likewise, the "fall back" needn't be imagined as a defeat or a danger. Imagine the effortless grace of the martial artist, falling and rolling with it, to stand right up again. . .

There's a difference between "Time" and "Timing." You can know what time it is, yet not know (sense, feel) what it's time FOR. Time is an outward construction. Timing is the inner experience, the sensation of proper sequence and order in action. My cats don't care what time it is (we're not quite sure if they can actually tell time, or if they understand English, for that matter). For them, it is always Now, as in pay attention to me now, scratch my chin now, let me out now, feed me now. They respond easily in the present moment, always knowing when the time is right.

Spring and Fall, like yin and yang, are two points on a continuum. Transitions are smoother when you can flow among many options, rather than bouncing from one to the other. You can learn to be springy, buoyant, flexible, and adaptable as appropriate. You can also learn to sense when you need rest and recovery. We need practice along the full spectrum of possibility.

Join me in an experiment, an exploration. Let's let it be Now. What possibilities are available to you Now? Whether to eat, sleep, work, walk, play, what is available? Which choice moves you in the most positive direction? When it's Now, you can take intelligent action. You have to think, and move, and sense, and feel. You'll know when the time has come.

Constraints, and a Cat

2009-03-02T07:26:00.005-06:00

You head for the office. You arrive at your desk. You and your staff greet each other, and the work day begins.

Although I teach Awareness Through Movement classes at venues throughout Houston, my office is at home. The first tasks of the day are at the computer. There's always email to check, newsletters and other items of professional or personal interest to read, and maybe a video to watch before things really get down to business. I like to write in the mornings, when my mind is clear, and before the demands of the day's schedule take over. Usually, I am assisted by a member of my courteous and professional staff. Bean is the office assistant.

Bean has trained me to sit with a blanket or towel over my lap and legs. It's nice on cold mornings, and it also helps to protect me from her tiny, sharp claws as she leaps and lands in my lap. She looks like a big cat, but she's all fluff. She only weighs seven pounds, but she is a force of determination, focus, and efficiency in her life's purpose: to be petted and stroked as much as possible.

You may have tried to type with a cat on your lap. If not, I'll tell you, it's not easy. Bean turns her back to me, so that she faces the screen to proofread as I go. She rests her chin squarely on the keyboard, so that I have to slide my hands beneath to continue typing. The movement of my fingers gives her a nice scratching. She may rest her head on one of my hands, or may turn to "head butt" my right arm and elbow as I type or use the mouse. (She is interested in mice, but not this mouse, other than that IT is getting more touch time than she is.)

This goes on for quite some time. She may settle in on my lap, with her front paws touching the desk, her head resting on my right forearm. In this precarious position, her bottom is in constant need of readjustment, by me, to catch her just before she might slide off. Type, type, shift. Type, type, scratch. Type type, stroke. We have our routine worked out. I don't work as quickly or efficiently as I might because I am operating under a constraint.

In everything we do, we face constraints. It's a fact of life in this time-space continuum, on this planet, in this gravitational field. While it can be inspirational and motivational to envision a life without limits, in reality, some constraint is always present. You are constrained by time, resources, skill level, or other conditions. A constraint is something that gets in your way of doing what you intend to do. If you want to know what some of your constraints are, complete this sentence: "I'd like to (fill in the blank), BUT (fill in the blank). What comes after the BUT is the constraint.

"I'd like to win American Idol, but I can't sing."
"I'm really attracted to Fabio, but I'm married to Bob."
"I'd like to stay up late and howl, but tonight's a school night."
"I'd like to speak up at the meeting, but I don't want to rock the boat."
"I'd like to get some work done, but there's a cat on my lap."

Constraints can easily become excuses for not living the life you want. Rather than constantly whining about them, or struggling to change them, the Feldenkrais Method offers a surprising alternative: accept the constraint, and adapt. For the examples above, the adapatations might include taking singing lessons, planning more quality time with Bob, taking a rain check on that party, or refining your communication skills. Each adaptation presents an invitation to engage in an ongoing process, leading to positive change. New possibilities, new solutions emerge. You begin to think creatively, to explore options, to create value, and to improve everything -- even the experience of the constraint.

To "accept the constraint" doesn't mean to give up or give in. Rather, it means to acknowledge that the constraint exists, don't deny it. Acceptance opens the way to discover that the constraint might not really be an obstacle, but an opportunity. You can honor the constraint, so to speak, by embracing it. You do this by changing the BUT to AND.

"I'd like to get some work done, AND I have a cat on my lap." Hmmm. I can change the order of tasks at the computer, so that I watch a video or read newsletters while I am petting her. Frequently, she is satisfied with just a few minutes of my relatively undivided attention. She will either settle down in my lap and go to sleep, or she will move elsewhere to complete her supervisory duties. If I continue to struggle, shift her around, fuss, or put her on the floor, the game can go on and on. The constraint transforms itself when you work with it, rather than against it.

There is a caveat here. This approach requires deeper thinking, the willingness to go beyond the obvious or the inherited and into the realm of original thought and lived experience. It requires curiosity, attention, and self-awareness to stay rooted in the present moment, and to realize when you're not there. It requires a firm commitment to quality over quantity. It also requires a certain adventurousness to experiment with the non-habitual and the unknown. Some people can't be bothered. However, the rewards are worth the investment.

Each Feldenkrais lesson has within it a constraint. A hand on the floor, or legs to one side. The weight of your head, or shoulders, or pelvis. You're guided during the lesson to explore the constraint, to understand it, and then to discover a way to work around it or incorporate it into a solution. It's amazing how small, gentle movements, refining sensation and awareness, can teach so much. If you have been coping with pain, loss or limits of functioning, or ache to expand your potential, the Feldenkrais Method offers the promise of improvement. The constraints you bring are the tools of your transformation.

To see a lady about a horse

2009-02-22T16:49:00.008-06:00

Last Friday afternoon, I took a field trip out to far west Houston, near Bear Creek Park, to visit a new client. I was grateful for the timing of my trip, since at 2:30 p.m., the Friday rush hour traffic had not yet begun. The last time I had driven on the Katy Freeway, it was fraught with delays and detours because of construction. Now, it was smooth sailing, as I practically zoomed along the monstrous expressway. I was distracted and nervous, however. I needed to see a lady about a horse.

Remembering the phone call from earlier in the week, I wondered what I was getting myself into. What was I thinking, agreeing to give a Feldenkrais lesson to a horse? Yet Courtney, the animal communicator who called to enlist my help, had been very persuasive. Baron, a resident of the Remington Acres Equine Refuge, had apparently slipped in a muddy patch somewhere on their 64 acres, and had come hobbling home. His left hind leg was sore, his knee was swollen, and he was in pain. He was checked out by veterinarians and other animal specialists who said that nothing was broken, thankfully. And yet, the horse was having trouble walking, and seemed not to be able to feel his leg very well, except for pain. Could I help?

Some Feldenkrais teachers work regularly with animals. I don't -- or haven't. There's an off-shoot of the Feldenkrais Method, developed by Linda Tellington-Jones (one of Moshe Feldenkrais' original US students), that has animals as the focus. T-Touch, as it's called, is used to help animals learn better patterns of movement and behavior that can facilitate in the healing of injuries, relieve pain, and calm anxiety. Since we're a few months away from having our first T-Touch practitioner in Houston, Courtney called me as the next best bet. I told her I would try my best, and see what I could do. She was fine with that. "So far, our alternatives have been to take him to [Texas] A & M for surgery, or put him down. We want to try everything possible before we go that way."

I pulled off of Eldridge Parkway and into the driveway for Remington Acres. As I walked up to the ranch gate for Courtney to let me in, I saw my client standing in the paddock. Baron, as I had been told, is 1/2 Clydesdale. He is the most enormous horse I have ever seen. A big, cranky, hurting horse, waiting for me. Oh boy!

Courtney introduced me to Baron, and to Rose Westover, one of the founders of Remington Acres. The refuge cares for abused and neglected horses, and horses whose owners can't take care of them anymore. They are expanding their abilities to provide equine therapy for humans with emotional or physical difficulties. Today, it was Baron who needed help. He and I needed to get to know each other.

Needless to say, working with a gigantic animal outdoors is very different from working with a class in a dance studio, or a person on my table. Baron was a bit impatient and agitated, so Rose and other volunteers made sure to bring plenty of hay and treats to keep him pacified. He stood 16 hands at his shoulders. His hip was way above my head, and his hoofs were huge. I spoke gently to him, moved slowly as I stroked him, and tried to stay out of the way of the hoofs. He only stepped on me once.

Baron could tell that I was uncomfortable -- we both were. As I quieted my mind, the nagging inner voice saying "What will you do? What will you do?" was replaced with another voice. My major mentor, Paul Rubin, often said, "Just do the Feldenkrais Method. Work the Method." That became my mantra as I began.

I watched him stand, and walk. Baron clearly favored his left hind leg. His left knee there was swollen, and his left hip looked strange somehow. But what aroused my curiosity was his hoof and ankle. He would bend his ankle and drag the hoof sometimes. The ankle was not coordinated with the rest of his leg. This was particularly pronounced when he was following Rose, in pursuit of hay. I stroked him and told him I was there to help him, and that he was a very big horsie. Then I started talking to him in a higher, softer voice, telling him that he was such a pretty little pony. His ears perked up and his eyes twinkled. Flattery will get you everywhere. He was somewhat skittish, but gradually calmed down enough that I felt like I was safe to touch his hip and his knee. I did not try to manipulate or correct anything, or force anything to move that didn't want to move. I simply touched to bring his awareness to those parts of his body. I touched his ankle, and the bones of his lower leg. Gradually, he came to rest his left hoof completely on the ground. Something shifted.

We worked for about 40 minutes, taking frequent pauses so that he could nibble on some hay, or have a little walk. I traced his spine, from his shoulders down to his sacrum. Since he was sort of dragging his leg, I was curious about whether he was stiffening in his lower back, as people often do when they limp. I felt for his vertebrae just above his sacrum, trying to form some kind of mental map of equine anatomy, for myself and for him. As I touched his spine, I felt gently for his ribs with my other hand. His huge, broad flank seemed to soften as I found ribs and traced them up to his spine. I was without agenda, simply exploring, questioning: "Can you move here? How about here? Can you breathe here?" I did all of this on his unaffected side, then returned to the injured side to touch his left hip, knee, and lower leg again. His hoof seemed more firmly on the ground.

With each walk around the paddock, Baron moved more easily. His ankle "fired" at the right time, and he no longer dragged his foot. His hoof was taking his weight, and his body seemed straighter, closer to vertical, as he walked. Since he was tired, we let him out into the pasture and watched him. He loped along, with only slight evidence of a little stiffness. "Will you look at that! He looks almost normal again!" Rose and Courtney were thrilled.

So, how did I work the Method? It certainly wasn't in my technique. There was no magic in the touch or in the moves. I made sure to make my client my focus, paying attention both to his body, and the way he moved in his environment. I got curious. I considered the prior diagnosis, but didn't allow my thinking to be limited by it. I brought his attention to himself, inviting him to include his spine, his ribs, and his leg in his self image of "a whole horse." As a sentient being with a brain and a nervous system, eager to learn, he had a good lesson.

I am always impressed by the power and the beauty of this work. It is entirely terrestrial, no mysterious energies, spirits, to contend with, no belief system to install or dismantle. Communication between two brains, two nervous systems, communication through touch and voice, are the main ingredients. When the student and teacher are both aware and willing to learn and change, amazing things can happen!

Learn more about Remington Acres here. They welcome volunteers, and donations of services, time, items, and money.

More than the sum of the parts

2009-02-15T12:42:00.010-06:00

Fun fact: did you know that Amazon.com lists 746,365 books with the keyword "food;" and 600,696 with the keyword "exercise?" That's a pretty good indicator that people are interested in those two topics. Leave it to our modern age to take two basic, foundational aspects of life and health, and complicate them to the point of confusion and controversy.

Image by flickr

Food is a sensitive subject, and with good reason, since our national statistics for obesity and the health problems related to it are alarming. Michael Pollan has identified the "American paradox:" it seems that the more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we become. In our Western diet, food has been replaced by "nutrients," edible food-like substances, some touting a health benefit on the pretty package. Sometime during the mid-20th century, food left our grandmother's kitchens and found its way, in the name of progress, to the lab. Healthy, wholesome, nutritious foods were analyzed and broken down into their chemical components, then processed and packaged. This reductionist approach (to reduce something to its individual constituents, the sum of the parts) has made us fat and completely irrational about food.

A similar irrationality persists around the topic of our bodies, specifically our anatomy and how to move it and use it. Since most people no longer do physical labor or farm chores, we now “work out,” something that wasn’t necessary 50 years ago. If you are tossing hay bales, or hanging laundry, or painting the front porch, you’re thinking about how to get the job done, not whether your hamstrings are tight or your subscapularis is impinged. Children and adults used to play outside. A game of catch before dinner, riding bikes after school because it was fun and transportation, and the leisurely walk after dinner to see the neighbors, have all been replaced by simulated activities performed on equipment. Just like eating food-like substances with nutrients but no nutritional value, we perform movement-like actions that have no functional relevance. Who has to walk up stairs for 45 minutes in the real world, or dead-lift weight equivalent to a refrigerator?

The experts, to whom we have entrusted our bodies, have taught us not to trust our sensations. A feeling of pleasure means you’re not working hard enough. “No pain, no gain” rules. We dissect ourselves and each movement, being careful to execute perfect form while maintaining the illusion that we control the individual firing of each muscle fiber. The body is the enemy, and it must be punished, pummeled, stretched, exhausted, and shown who is boss. We learn to strain, to push, and to congratulate ourselves for surviving a “brutal” workout. Small wonder that back pain and exercise-related injuries are at an all-time high. And yet, people seem unwilling to hear any suggestion that our attitude toward exercise is unhealthy.

Michael Pollan has a simple solution to food insanity. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Moshe Feldenkrais devised an ingenious process to restore sense and sensibility to our actions and our way of being in physical experience. Move. Think. Sense. Feel. Feldenkrais’ work restores the image of a healthy functional system, involving the whole self in every action. The pleasures and benefits of food and exercise are only available when we remember that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Dancing Eyebrows

2009-02-08T22:35:00.004-06:00

Are you one of the nearly 1.5 MILLION people who have seen this ad for Cadbury Chocolates? Click here to watch the video..

While I definitely believe the world could be a better place if people just ate more chocolate, that's not the reason for including it here. I'm amazed and amused at the coordination required to make those eyebrows dance! Some of the cynical commenters have said that the eyebrow movements are all computer generated, and so, not what they appear to be. Nonetheless, real or fake, the video makes you think -- how is it possible to do that? Truthfully, now: didn't you have a go at seeing whether YOUR eyebrows could do some of the dance?

Ah, Coordination, an unsung hero in the Quality of Life Hall of Fame. Other aspects of physical activity take more of the spotlight and glamor; Strength, Speed, and Agility being the most popular. It seems that whatever the physical problem to be solved, the first solutions we seek are 1) to become stronger, 2) to become faster, or 3) to become stretchier, or more limber. Yes, they are sexy and direct, easy to understand and tempting to emulate. Yet, none of these three can hope to exist or make sense without our friend Coordination.

If you're honest, you'll know immediately that any action that you want to improve will likely stay mediocre (or painful, or ineffective) if all you do is try to power your way through it, or do it faster, or bigger. In fact, in the presence of pain or difficulty, strength, speed, and "too big" will set you back, trigger a flare up, or otherwise be unpleasant. Coordination is much less flashy. It has much more to do with the HOW of action than with the WHAT. As a result, Coordination demands a level of attention that is not required if you are working from brute strength, speed, or other ego-expressions of excess or analysis. Coordination is concerned with tiny details. What is the preparation for action? What is the sequence of events? What is the timing, what happens when? Quiet Coordination is almost a wallflower among the popular kids who command easy and uninvolved attention. Coordination requires more focus, more investment, and more practice. Coordination is not just about knowing: it is about feeling and sensing your way through the problem. Yet, despite these disadvantages, without Coordination all attempts to improve Strength, Speed, and Agility will fail.

There's a famous saying in the somatics field: what you can't feel, you can't move; and what you can't move, you can't feel. In order to develop coordination, first you must develop your ability to sense and to feel yourself. Perhaps the two most basic questions of existence are, "Where am I?" and "What am I doing?" Without knowing those two facts, other questions like "WHY am I here?" have no foothold. You must know what you are doing before you can make any kind of meaningful change.

As for me: I'm the kid whose mother constantly cautioned, "Don't make that expression! What if your face froze that way?" When, in horror, I heard those words coming out of my mouth to my then four-year-old daughter, her response was, "I'll get a job on Star Trek." She always was pragmatic; such choices didn't exist during my childhood. A rubber face was good for comedy and theater, yet I never developed the coordination to do the close up stuff, the wry eyebrow, the subtle wink. I can only wink my left eye; my right eye will "wink" only when I eat something really sour, but it's not under my control. Through a lifetime of training, experience, feeling, and not feeling, our abilities to coordinate our action are shaped.

Coordination forms an arc, an intention, a coherent gesture, a gestalt. It is concrete and functional rather than abstract and reductionist. While in the Feldenkrais Method we pay attention to details, we do not micromanage action. Dissecting yourself in motion, consciously thinking "contract this muscle and that one while maintaining this or that" is an exercise in futility, because it's not the way the brain works. Your brain controls every action, and it processes movement as a pattern of action, not as a series of isolated muscular events.

People often find classes or lessons in the Feldenkrais Method to be a breath of fresh air, an unusual intellectual and sensory treat. If you take a few moments to notice and feel the effects of what you are doing, you can make much more intelligent choices about what you might do next. You can make finer distinctions and create better outcomes when you take the time to be aware of details. Whether you're learning a tango or recovering from an injury, Coordination is your best friend.

This is catching. . .

2009-02-03T08:48:00.006-06:00

One of the many charming aspects of the city of Houston, Texas, is its year-round allergy season. Whether a full-on cold, or just lingering sniffles, you quickly learn that everybody's got it, or has had it, or will get it -- and eventually, you will, too. I found this cool animation that reminded me that we're all connected in some way, and that whether we're passing a ball, a virus, an idea, or an attitude, our participation is required. Click here to view.

Perhaps you're like me -- did it take a moment to realize that YOU are the one who keeps the ball in motion? It's ironic that for all the awareness work I do, I was so habituated to moving the computer mouse that I didn't realize I was doing it! This past week, I've been thinking about participation, and contribution, and -- contagion-- in the most surprising places.

Last Sunday, I attended an open house at one of my favorite workshop venues, The Spectrum Center. The Spectrum Center offers a wide range of programs and services, befitting its name, from psychotherapy to anti-clutter workshops to writer's groups to movement and various somatic practices. Around 200 people popped in during the afternoon, and the vast majority were there in time to witness something extraordinary. As part of the general "blessing" of the event, we all participated in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. In such a diverse group, sharing tea and good intentions for each other was a perfect way to find common ground, and community. It was only afterwards that I stopped to realize how different we all were, in background, experience, politics, religion -- but the universal values of hospitality, humility, beauty, and respect were ones we could all agree on. The effects of that ceremony are still with me. If values are contagious, what are you spreading?

Second example: 365 in 365. A small group of nuts in Houston, Texas decided to do something BIG in 2009. Their intention is to exercise every day, for 365 days. As part of the intention, a blog appeared where group members could document their progress and get acknowledgment and encouragement from the others. The best part is, the idea is completely for you to define and develop. There is no program, no uniformity, not even a standard! You decide what qualifies as "exercise," and how much of it, and you commit to do something every day -- that's it. Not surprisingly, the idea is appealing -- so appealing, in fact, that the blog and the group are gaining members every day, from around the world. Such is the power of the internet, and social media, and a good idea. What is the spark that makes someone think, "I could do that!"

Yes, one of my good friends (and Feldenkrais clients) is the founding"nut," so now I am one, too! Although I am a professional "mover," I've never been able to sustain a proper exercise program. I am completely captivated by this idea, as I imagine the personal benefits, the benefits to communities and to the world at large if people just set out to be mindful about movement and exercise, and do SOMETHING every day. You can check them out on their blog, 365 in 365. The group consists of devoted exercisers, and never-exercisers. Everyone is a valued member of the group, everyone is seen as having something to contribute.

The tea ceremony and the 365 group are powerfully contagious, because of the power of their intention. I felt a tremendous resonance with the work of the Feldenkrais Method. Our world-view is one of the dignity of each human being. In each Feldenkrais class, you are invited to shape your intentions for each movement, and for yourself. Some who come with the identity of "patient," with the intention "to be fixed" will blossom as they explore a new intention. A powerful shift occurs in the transformation from "patient" to "student," from "helpless" to "capable," from "thwarted" to "effective," and from "impossible" to "possible."

"What I'm after isn't flexible bodies but flexible brains. What I'm after is to restore each person to their human dignity." --Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc.

Star Wars, or whatever

2009-01-25T22:52:00.005-06:00

We live in a Cliff Notes world. The executive summary reigns, "just the facts, ma'am," Reader's Digest Condensed Version, bottom line, get to the point! While useful in some contexts, in others, it can have hilarious, or disastrous, consequences. Take a moment to watch this skillfully edited funny short video. (3:43) "Amanda" gives an executive summary of an executive summary of the epic Star Wars saga. As one commenter said, "So close, and yet, so far, far away!"

I can see why Joe and Amanda are friends. She is a delightful AIRHEAD! Granted, she hits the high points of the Star Wars trilogy. (My favorite quote from the video is, "They blow up the Death Star, I said that, right? That's important.") The whole point is that Amanda has never seen any of the movies, but "she already knows what happens." Or, she thinks she knows. Gaps in her understanding are subsumed under the general category, "Whatever." I could riff for awhile about how Star Wars is iconic in our culture, go all "Joseph Cambell-y" on you-- but that's not what interests me at the moment. I'm thinking about times when we think we know about something, so that stops us from really knowing about it.

Knowing "about" something, as in knowing that it exists, is a theoretical, abstract way of knowing. Abstraction is, by definition, non-specific. It's easy to get into very muddy waters in the world of the abstract, or to go "far out," even farther than that mythical galaxy far, far away.
Most people have some need for clarity, for the specific, and for the experiential. True understanding can't come without depth. We long for the abstract to be made concrete.

Moshe Feldenkrais was interested in the relationship between thought and action. He used body movement as his laboratory in which to explore and observe. Over and over again, he saw in himself and others, that often we are certain that we are doing something that, in fact, we are not. Or, certain that we are NOT doing something, but we are. Why such a gap? HABIT. Our habitual ways of being and doing in the world make it difficult to see something new, or see it from another perspective. Instead of focusing on anatomy or pathology, Feldenkrais' work focuses on function, and on how functioning can be improved. As you pay attention to what you are experiencing, clarity and concreteness emerge from the physical, mental, and emotional fog.

When you stay in the present moment, and become aware of what you are experiencing, suddenly life gets a lot juicier. If the quantity is high, and the quality is low, you might as well get through it quickly, and with as little involvement as you can get away with. However, when the quality improves, it's worth spending a little more time to savor. It's worth spending a LOT more time. How would you like to spend your time?

We're surrounded by jargon, technology, and continuous streams of information. We think we already know what we're doing, which keeps us from exploring whether or not our actions are creating the desired consequences. In Feldenkrais lessons, movement becomes metaphor, and new possibilities for better clarity and quality emerge in other aspects of life as well. The key to sifting through the vast amounts of "stuff" that comes our way is to take time to discover and improve the quality of the experience.

Hmm. . . might have to rent the Star Wars trilogy from Netflix and fill in the gaps in my own memory and understanding! I know there is more to perceive and enjoy in the process. "Whatever" can never supply the depth necessary for appreciating nuances, relationships, and the next creative step forward.

But it was just a tiny fire. . .

2009-01-19T13:15:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, the unexpected happens.

Saturday morning, during our weekend "Brain Spa" event, the guests were engrossed in the morning activity. Casually, Vanessa looked up and said, "Does it smell kind of smoky to anybody else?"

You can imagine what happened next.

It was a cold morning, and the space heaters were on, so we stopped and sniffed. I remembered that a ceramicist had a studio next door -- might it be her wood-fired kiln? Suddenly, we heard banging on the front door. A man and woman opened the door and came in. "You guys have to get out of here! There's a fire upstairs! We've called the fire department! Get out now!"

As we stopped what we were doing, we grabbed whatever we could carry on the way out as the sirens screamed in the distance. The Houston fire department was on the scene in about two minutes -- outstanding. Neighbors gathered, additional units arrived, all watched the billowing smoke from the residence whose tenant was away on holiday. We heard later that the fire was something electrical, from the air conditioning system, but they are still investigating. The fire fighters clambered up ladders, onto the roof, onto the balcony. The fire was quickly extinguished. Luckily, nobody was hurt, although one unit certainly sustained some damage.

That was a little more excitement than we had planned for a relaxing day of Feldenkrais movements and cognitive "rebooting." However, everyone adapted to the situation at hand. Why are some people successful at adapting to current conditions, and others aren't?

Life doesn't always go along smoothly, and things don't always turn out exactly the way you planned. It is simultaneously true that humans need a secure, safe environment within which to grow and thrive; and that humans who are sheltered from life's realities are ill-equipped to deal with them when they arise. It's as if all those little "bumps in the road" serve to give us practice in the business of survival and creating quality in our lives. You can either give up, or adapt and go on.

So, standing out in the parking lot, watching the fire trucks, the smoke, and the work in progress, we made our plan. We decided to go ahead and take our lunch break, even though it was only 10:30 a.m. Everyone reconvened back in our home after lunch for the remainder of the day's activities, and it worked just fine. Chris and I went back to the venue that evening to check on the status. There was no damage to the part of the building we were using, although it did have a slight smoky smell. The odor was pleasant, like a distant cozy fireplace, rather than the stale cigarette smell of a bar when it opens. We were able to complete the third day of our program back at the venue.

Feldenkrais lessons provide opportunities to develop your ability to adapt, and to thrive; to innovate, create, and enjoy what comes your way. Within each lesson of easy, gentle movement patterns, a constraint appears. For the moment, you feel limited, blocked, challenged. Is the constraint an impediment, or an advantage? The constraint can be the key to unlocking the mystery of the movement, the pattern, the difficulty. Higher functioning results, and a good time is had by all. It's not about strength, power, forcing, or determination. Rather, it's about awareness, sensitivity, resposiveness, and options. The Feldenkrais Method is an extraordinary model for problem-solving, in any setting.

We love our Brain Spa venue, and our new friend who allowed us to use his space. We'll be meeting there again, grateful that it's still there to use and enjoy. However, our future clients will just have to understand: the fire will not be included in future programs!

Life in Legos

2009-01-12T07:38:00.008-06:00

My son was a big Lego fan as a kid, and he probably still is. At every birthday, Christmas, or other special occasion, all he wanted was Legos. I still understand why: building is fun, and building with Legos is REALLY fun. Pieces large and small can all fit together in myriad ways, limited only by your imagination.

Several years ago, I visited the Mall of America outside of Minneapolis. One of the features was a huge Lego City, with skyscrapers at least 10 feet tall, houses, cars, and an airplane overhead-- all made of the little Lego blocks. All the passers-by were stunned at the sight, as was I. My unspoken thoughts: "I'm so glad my kid doesn't have enough Legos to build this at home!"

I was delighted this week to find another demonstration of Lego creativity and whimsy. OK, silliness. Someone has paid homage to the world's most recognizable artistic masterpieces, recreating them in Legos. My favorites are the Warhol send-up and the Magritte, but you may prefer the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper -- in Legos, mind you. Click here to see them all.

To build with Legos, you have to start out with some idea of what you want to build, either from the picture on the box, or in your own imagination. Indeed, anything that shows up in the material realm, from a Lego creation, to a spacecraft, or a musical composition, has to begin as an idea. With Legos, you frequently assemble smaller sections and then fit them together into the larger whole. Kids begin to learn this process of problem-solving through building. Most people don't realize that movement -- any movement of your body in space -- is also determined by the ideas you have. In the language of Moshe Feldenkrais, "We act in accordance with our self-image."

Feldenkrais classes and lessons are fundamentally different from exercise, therapy, or treatment protocols that you may be familiar with. Moshe Feldenkrais said, "What I'm after isn't flexible bodies but flexible brains. What I'm after is to restore each person to their human dignity." Feldenkrais lessons shape your ideas about movement as you experiment with actual movements. Ideas can be limited, or limiting. You might not have enough Legos, or too much of a shape or size block that won't let you build what you want, the way you want to build it. By introducing non-habitual movement patterns, your brain makes new connections -- and movement becomes easier, more comfortable, more capable. You begin to see yourself in new ways. You build on what you know, and what you have. Something new emerges, sometimes as a surprise!

Work in the Feldenkrais Method can ease pain, improve function and performance, restore lost capacity, and reveal new possibilities, in movement and beyond. Profound changes concurrently take place in your thinking, in the way you view yourself, and the way you make contact with the world around you. Your potential is virtually limitless. Even better than Legos.

The Human Slingshot

2009-01-06T08:14:00.006-06:00

OK, let's get it over with. Click to watch this short video to establish the context for what is to follow. As a disclaimer, DON'T try this at home; and we don't endorse the website or any of the other content on it.

So, on some level, I get it. He's having a blast. The sheer novelty, the shock, the speed -- sort of like those extreme amusement park rides, except this guy did it out in his back yard. However, I also related to the image in a different way, that led me to consider once again our culture's attraction to all things extreme, and how that affects each of us on a personal level.

The human brain has a high need for novelty. The expectation of novelty keeps us focused, learning, and adapting to our environment. Extreme sports, with their speed, danger, and high performance demands, provide an ideal fantasy outlet for spectators who do routine work. Watching or participating in an extreme sport seems like a perfect antidote for boredom.

To digress momentarily: when was the last time you got excited about seeing a television program or a movie in color? Never, right? Unless you remember the year 1939, when The Wizard of Oz was one of the first movies to use the brand new technology of color film. If all you had ever seen on screen had been black and white, can you imagine the shock and amazement of seeing moving images in color? It's hard to imagine now, getting that excited over something we take for granted. Another example: watch the original Star Wars movie from 1977. The special effects were amazing at the time. Now, they look kind of quaint in comparison to what is possible today. To bring it back around to the point, our "threshold" for novelty has ramped up with each innovation in entertainment, culture, sports, business -- everywhere.

As a result of this higher threshold, it takes a lot more stimulation to even register on the scale of attention. Put another way, sustained levels of high stimulation actually makes you LESS SENSITIVE. The higher threshold, or the point at which a stimulus is of sufficient intensity to begin to produce an effect, explains why we quickly get bored or take things for granted. Soon, even being hurled across his backyard in a giant slingshot will not be enough to make our fun-loving friend feel alive.

The other side of the coin is this: sustained high levels of stimulation that are associated with trauma are equally destructive, in that the traumatized person can become overly sensitized, or hypersensitive. The sound of a door opening, a car hitting a bump in the street outside, or a siren in the distance can trigger a cascade of hormones, neurotransmitters, anxiety and panic that is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. The brain's calibration system is out of whack.

The higher threshold may also explain why we increasingly mistreat ourselves. Our self-expectations are frequently built on notions that have no basis in reality. Why must we punish ourselves to lose weight? Why must we splurge unhealthily to celebrate? Why must we exercise to the point of exhaustion and injury? Ancient religious aceticism, the mythology of sacrifice, pain, and struggle as being part of the superperformer's compelling backstory, all contribute to our unthinking use of ourselves. It's as if we fear that without a punishing workout regime, we will lose all our strength and vitality, and die. Many refuse to see that their injuries and pain are self-inflicted, and unnecessary.

Living under this constant stress makes us less able to handle the inevitable stresses of life. You can waste your physical, mental, and emotional resources by "always giving 110%," or demanding it of others. Living 10% beyond your means will certainly lead to bankruptcy. Like a rubber band that gets stretched to the snapping point, we lose our resiliance, our ability to spring back. Put another way, life can lose its color, and eventually no thrill will restore it.

Moshe Feldenkrais, a revolutionary thinker of the last century, took a radically different approach to the idea of novelty as applied to learning. All achievement of any kind starts with learning, and learning begins with being able to pay attention. God and the Devil are in the details, and details are essential subtleties on the path to mastery. In Feldenkrais lessons and classes, I use body movements to teach people how to lower the levels of stimulation in their nervous system and in their lives. With directed attention and a quiet, slow pace, results occur quickly, seemingly as a little miracle. Stress levels drop, pain is relieved or eliminated, sensation and sensitivity recalibrate for normal functioning. Inner resources of strength appear, or are restored. The student discovers, under a gentle and playful regime, what simple and wondrous novelty there is in every moment, in this body.

One of my favorite people, Allegra Heidelinde, is a Feldenkrais practitioner in Portland, OR. I had the great good fortune to attend a class that she taught this summer in Boulder, CO. She began the lesson by telling the class to imagine an ideal dance partner for tango or other social ballroom dance. You wouldn't want to dance with someone who was rude, or abrupt, or rough. You wouldn't like being thrown or yanked around the dance floor with no consideration for your comfort or enjoyment of the dance. And yet, she pointed out, this is how we usually treat ourselves whenever we begin to move, exercise, or embark upon any program of self-improvement. We bully and insult ourselves if things don't go according to our expectations. Her next words will stick with me for a long time. She said, "Be the perfect dance partner for yourself. Treat yourself with the respect and gentleness that you would want in your partner. Be tender and kind to yourself. Be patient as you learn the dance. Treat yourself as the dance partner with whom you'd love to dance again."

SO-- it might not be necessary to torture yourself, or your organization, to elicit your best work. In the words of Don Miguel Ruiz, "If you try too hard to do more than your best, you will spend more energy than is needed, and in the end your best will not be enough." You don't have to build a giant slingshot in your back yard in order to feel alive, joyful, and effective. Give yourself some loving attention, lie down on the floor in a Feldenkrais class, and watch your wonders unfold.

Blackeyed Peas

2009-01-01T14:19:00.006-06:00

It's a ritual in my family, handed down from my Arkansas mama in our suburban-Chicago kitchen when I was growing up, and handed down to her through generations of southern cooks. I've passed along the cultural and culinary imperative to my children as well. We eat blackeyed peas on New Year's Day.

I accept this tradition without question. When I was growing up, we did not enjoy the multiculturalism or diversity that we take for granted today. Eating blackeyed peas up north was kind of weird back then. We are also blackeyed pea purists. No "Hoppin' John" for us, no cooking them with jalapenos or anything else funny. A little bacon, or maybe ham (omitted during my vegetarian period). Some onion. Salt and pepper. Water to cover, boil, simmer, let them cook down. I've added a few simple innovations through the years. Chicken stock, or beer, or both, for part of the liquid. A couple of tablespoons of cumin tossed in. If I'm using bacon, I cut it into small pieces and brown it in the pan before I start. I drain off most of the bacon fat, give the pan a shot of olive oil, and then saute the onions until soft. I add the cumin, salt and pepper, and just a little stock to get all the good stuff off the bottom of the pan. Then, in go the peas, covered with liquid. They don't take long to cook. You can eat in about an hour, but they can keep cooking all day if you have a lot of people through.

We also serve the peas drained. No soupyness. They shall be served with pickle relish. Also pretty good with some fresh chopped onion. Ham and cornbread round out the menu. WHY do we do this? It's the insurance policy for good luck in the coming year.

Even though it's against everything I was brought up to believe, I do understand why cooks would be tempted to go all fancy with a blackeyed pea recipe. People devoutly defend their preferences as a matter of faith, which it is. Additions of rice, cream, peppers, exotic spices -- well, it's not my style. What nobody really comes out and tells you is, blackeyed peas have no flavor. None. None of their own, anyway. If you're expecting a flavorful dish, you'll be disappointed. The fancier the recipe, the more obvious the fact becomes. Better to just go pretty plain.

So I got to thinking that blackeyed peas are the perfect food to start out a new year. I remember my mother emptying the bag of peas into her hand to rinse them as the water ran into the colander. She went through, pea by pea, because there might be some little rocks in there, and you don't want that. I do the same thing. The flavorlessness of the peas reminds me that they, and the year ahead, can be bland and boring, or they can be a feast. I think of my maternal grandmother, visiting us for New Year's when I was about seven, piling on the pickle relish like there was no tomorrow. She went for it, and so should we all. You have to add what you like to make it tasty, nourishing, fulfilling. The blackeyed pea, like the year ahead, is the tiny tabula rasa, the blank slate, waiting for your contribution. As Moshe Feldenkrais said, "Trust yourself to work out what is right for you."

Have you some peas, now. And a Happy New Year!

You Won't See These in 2009

2008-12-30T11:24:00.006-06:00

What do Bill Blass, Polaroids, and Chocolate-Cherry Dr. Pepper have in common? All will be moving on in 2009. (Click here for the complete list.) Having run their course, become obsolete, or just wanting to try something different, they will move aside to make room for The New, whatever that is.

Even people who are not particularly introspective will take the opportunity at New Year to take a personal inventory. We make our resolutions like sorting through a crowded closet: most people occasionally see the need to clear things out, and we use certain universal criteria. What don't I wear anymore? What has gone out of style? What needs to be pitched? What do I love?

People are at their most ambitious around New Year's Resolutions. We are pulled toward the grand statement and the bold gesture. We love the drama of the complete overhaul, especially if it comes with great sacrifice. Because of our love of overdoing, most New Year's resolutions are not sustainable. Any new behavior, whether we're starting something or stopping something, has a learning curve. Behaviors are learned, and get better with practice. It's no surprise, then, (since I'm a Feldenkrais teacher) that I favor incremental action, baby steps, and successive approximations as a way of sustaining our good intentions of the new year. If you learn as you go, and make small adjustments along the way, you'll vastly increase the likelihood of success. We can return to the image of cleaning out a closet.

"What don't I wear anymore?" Has anything become obsolete? This question doesn't just apply to articles of clothing. It can apply to your total self-image, and thus to your actions. What groups do you belong to, but never attend? (Include online groups as well as in-person.) What about all the email newsletters, blogs you read (including this one)? What about your relationships, clients, activities, beliefs? Anything just "taking up space," bandwidth, energy? Anything no longer useful, or fun, or joy bringing? Pass them along, throw them away, make a decision.

"What has gone out of style?" What has just run its course? That was then, this is now. Is there anything you keep doing, "Just Because?" All forms of over-indulgence can go here. It's fashionable to think of eating, spending, or things in the "Vices" category at New Year's. How about overworking, over exercising, spending too much time online? Realistically, it's not like we can stop anything completely. We must eat, we must spend, we must work, we must exercise. Our resolution can be to be more mindful about the quantities and make actual choices rather than staying on auto-pilot. Who do you want to be this year?

"What needs to be pitched?" Anything broken, and not fixable? Threadbare and worn? Recycle and reuse what you can, but let go of the rest. In movement, we can discover patterns that emerged long ago, after a physical or emotional injury, that helped us to deal with the pain. The guarding here, the holding there. The slump or slouch, the ramrod-straight back. Shallow breathing, muscles tensed. The pattern remains, although the danger has passed. It takes special awareness to shift away from these unconscious patterns of action.

"What do I love?" What can't you do without? What's really worth the investment of your time and attention? What would you like to make even better than it is now? What would you like to explore, discover, enjoy?

At the end of the process, you will have less "stuff," but more happiness, satisfaction, pleasure.

Moshe Feldenkrais was one who observed that the difference between the person who has mastered a particular discipline, and the person who is incompetent. Oddly, the difference is not in the level of skill, or dedication, or focus. Incompetents are often highly skilled, committed, and single-minded in their quest for achievement. The difference is, the incompetent person is always doing more than is necessary, usually unaware of this fact, and thereby gets in his own way. The master's efforts are efficient, streamlined, almost minimalist in comparison. Nothing is wasted, everything is conscious. It seems so counter-intuitive to us that we can achieve our goals by learning to do less. I like to think of each Feldenkrais lesson as being a little laboratory experiment, where I can learn how to reduce the effort, the noise, the stuff. Is it any surprise that everything works better, looks better, feels better, when the way is clear?

Perhaps you'll develop your own personal list of "Things You Won't See in 2009." What you WILL see in 2009 is the continuing presence of the Feldenkrais Center of Houston, and the Feldenkrais Method worldwide. We look forward to assisting you in your learning in the coming year!

Simultaneity

2008-12-22T08:11:00.007-06:00

I've always enjoyed images of the Roman god, Janus, for whom the month of January is named. The end of one year, and the beginning of another, occur simultaneously. We're looking forward to the future and back at the past at the same time.

Moshe Feldenkrais probably would have seen this as a classic case of "cross motivation:" attempting to accomplish two contradictory actions in the same moment, resulting in anxiety, muscular tension, overall inefficiency in accomplishing either, and possible breakdown. Now THAT explains a lot about why the holidays are as they are for many of us!

If you try to move in two directions at once, you'll find that you have come to a stop. Trying to move in both means that you can move in neither. The failure to see this, and to struggle against it, results in frustration, anxiety, and everything else that goes with it. However, you could stop, look both ways, and then choose how to proceed.

We don't like to stop, we like to go. Yet, pausing to stop can be seen as a dynamic action, if chosen freely. You stop at crossroads.

All religious traditions point to the same truth, providing the opportunity to reflect on natural and personal change, of moving from darkness into light. All of them advise: watch where you're going!

This looking forward and backwards can be a lovely, poised place. Not a place of struggle or of static "balance," but of neutrality. The neutral place, sought by martial artists, is the place from which movement in any direction is possible. The neutral place is the place from which effortless and effective action springs.

This kind of neutrality will help me to move through my occasional holiday "funks." I can navigate emotional swells without capsizing. I envision the fun that lies ahead, in my personal life, in my relationships, and in my work. To leave the old year behind requires a shift, a gear shift, into neutral and through it. I'll clear off the desk, straighten up the files, weed out the email folders, and clean the house. My work in the Feldenkrais Method helps me to find neutral. I've had lots of practice, exploring through movement, how the actions I take and the choices I make can move me into what's next.

Less, and More

2008-12-14T16:35:00.018-06:00

One of the recent additions to my work and play life is an online social media site called "twitter." The site and its associated culture are a phenomenon, hot and getting hotter. As a participant, aka "twitterer," you agree to an interesting constraint: all posts to update the status statement, "What are you doing?" must be 140 keystrokes or less. To give you an idea what that is, if this paragraph were a twitter update, it would have stopped after the word "culture" in the second sentence. (Actually, that's 138 keystrokes.) You see the challenge?

Yet despite this constraint, millions of people worldwide now twitter. Within the 140-keystroke limit, known as a "tweet," twitterers share business and personal resources, music, movie and restaurant reviews, publicize upcoming events, comment on the news, ask and respond to questions, compliment and acknowledge their friends, and offer support in trying times. I've been amazed at the creativity and humor that are able to flower under this constraint, and at how large my world is becoming, getting to know people 140 keystrokes at a time. Twitter is growing because of this limitation, not in spite of it.

You can't help but notice: in 140 keystrokes, you have to make your point quickly. You don't waste strokes on unneeded spaces or redundancy. You use short words and abbreviations. You don't try to say everything you know about a subject. Now that it's the holidays, I've had an amusing cocktail party fantasy: cornered by the creepy office guy or the inappropriate sales pitch, escape is just 140 keystrokes away. THAT could be a wonderful world. . .

You don't need to worry: the tweet will not replace the doctoral dissertation, nor the great novel. Moshe Feldenkrais often showed how behaviors that are useful in one situation are not necessarily useful in every situation. Twitterers realize this fully. Each tweet is an introduction, a curiosity-inducer, and an invitation to sample more in another format, like a someone's blog or another website of interest. Feldenkrais based his work in movement and human development around the exploration of constraints, and the power of SMALL actions. (You can click here to download some short examples in audio mp3 format.)

I've learned through exploring constraints via the Feldenkrais Method, that a constraint is neither good, nor bad: it just IS. Now what will you do? Your habitual pattern of action probably won't work under the new conditions. What else could you do? Is there another way? Slowly, easily, gently, humorously, a little bit at a time, something new, interesting, and useful emerges. A new possibility is created.

I think both twitter and the Feldenkrais Method have a lot to offer us now, in what many acknowledge to be difficult times. A constraint can be a limitation, but only if you struggle against it and keep doing what you've always done. Small changes, added incrementally, mindfully, yet lightly, can make a huge difference. In problem-solving, you might be tempted to spend your energy on removing the constraint. This may or may not be possible. A more interesting solution is to work with the constraint, embrace it, and let imagination and experimentation reveal new possibilities.

If you take the long view, life itself is a "tweet." We have one life, or one life right now, depending on your viewpoint. If it's just going to be 140 keystrokes, how do you want to spend them?

Follow MaryBeth on twitter: http://twitter.com/divamover

Society for Word of Mouth

2008-12-14T16:11:00.001-06:00

Paying Attention

2008-12-07T21:32:00.007-06:00

Tom Brokaw said something very interesting this week at the end of "Meet the Press." In a warm, colleagial moment, he handed over the position of moderator to David Gregory today. As they reflected on the significant place that "Meet the Press" has held over the years, ol' Tom said this:

"People are really paying attention now."

That was music to my ears.

They were talking about the history of "Meet the Press," the untimely demise of the program's esteemed host, Tim Russert, and Brokaw's temporary assignment as moderator for the past six months. David Gregory has made his mark as Chief White House correspondent for NBC, and has honed his chops reporting for the national network since 1995. They were talking of the value of mentoring (Brokaw's and Russert's of Gregory), of the values of fairness, and preparation, and ultimately, holding up the belief that the truth is worth seeking, even if it makes you look like a jerk sometimes, and the truth will set you free.

They were talking about the momentous times we find ourselves in today. That "Meet the Press" is the longest running program in broadcast history (it started in 1947). That more people are making a point to watch "Meet the Press" now than that at any time since 1968. That people care about their lives, the economy, and the world, and are watching and waiting. People are paying attention, considering facts and opinions, deciding how to move forward.

Attention is the hallmark of any dynamic process. Every spiritual tradition on the planet exhorts its followers to be attentive, mindful, to "watch and wait, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour." Attention is crucial for learning. Frequent, short periods of concentrated, directed attention will ALWAYS trump rote repetition. By paying attention, you are able to influence the unfolding of events. Through a process of successive approximations, attention allows you to make fine distinctions and adjustments to your course of action or thought. Paying attention allows you to ask the questions, "Is this clearer? Is it working? Is it beneficial? Is it fun?" The purpose of paying attention is not to gain answers. Answers end the process. Once you have an answer, there's nothing else. The purpose of paying attention is to get better questions. The better the questions, the more your "higher self" can activate, develop, and create the reality we all will share.

One of the hallmarks of the Feldenkrais Method is that each student is continually managing attention. At first, attention is close-range and limited, specific and precise. Attention grows to include the elements that appear as a result of that specific focus. The student practices a smooth transition of focus, from the immediate and local to the overall and global, and back. All of this learning takes place easily, gently, and humorously, in the safe and relatively inconsequential arena of noticing one's body movements, habits, and preferences. Awareness grows, and with it, a feeling of ease, of competence, of confidence, and of effectiveness.

It would be easy to say that the problems we face as a nation and on our planet today are the result of a prolonged period of SOMEBODY not paying attention. That statement may be too facile, because it hands over responsibility to "Them," whether elected officials or those in-the -know who were supposed to be taking care of everything. Increasingly, we are seeing that there's only us in this boat; that we're all in it together; and that we all need to be paying attention, every step of the way.

The ability to pay attention requires something of you. That's why it's called "PAYING attention," because you have to pay something. It's not passive and no-brain, it's not something that somebody else will pick up your tab for, it's not something that will just roll by and dawn on you. It takes a special intention, a humility to acknowledge that you don't know everything, that there's room for improvement, and that learning something new will make it better. It's really a small payment, if you think about it; one that is easily within the grasp of anyone; and yet how few choose to pay attention and make a difference.

So we're out of practice at paying attention, or at least paying attention to the things that require it now. That's OK. We can learn, we can develop our skill, and we can enjoy the new possibilities that arise. With awareness, the world changes.

Music to my ears.

That Vampire Thing

2008-12-06T10:17:00.003-06:00

Most people are writing about holiday cheer at this time of year. That would be too easy. What better time to write about vampires?

Vampires aren't just for Halloween anymore. They've burst upon the scene, again, in the HBO series, "True Blood" (seen it--every episode--and loved it) and the recent release, "Twilight" (vampires on the teen scene-- haven't seen it--yet.)

No doubt, countless academic and sociological discussions are heating up around the topic of vampires. Why does the vampire theme keep re-cycling? Why do vampires intrigue us? And, most urgently on the need-to-know list: Why do chicks dig them? Check out this fabulous satirical exploration of the question by Sarah Haskins.

Since I write, live, and think about the Feldenkrais Method, I'm always interested in multiple perspectives and the power of exploring non-habitual actions. And it would seem that the whole theme of vampire attraction fits right into that. Women say that vampires are exciting, forbidden, the "bad boy" who is irresistible -- at least in fantasy. Why settle for a nice guy when you can have somebody dangerous and creepy? The vampire, and vampire culture, is novel, a break from the ordinary. It seems very non-habitual, but for the fact that these answers are so PREDICTABLE.

I think satirists like Sarah Haskins, and my other favorite, Stephen Colbert, are much better at tickling the part of our nervous system that craves true novelty. They begin with a habitual action or pattern of thinking, and just stay with it until the idea can no longer withstand the gentle assault of humor and reason.

It's sort of how Feldenkrais teachers work. We support a person's habitual movement pattern until it becomes conscious. Once the pattern is conscious, new options can be introduced. The new options can be easily and effortlessly incorporated for greater ease and grace, more comfort, and higher levels of functioning. It's "neurological diplomacy," as Feldenkrais protegee Ruthy Alon would say.

Nothing disarms an argument faster than agreement. By appearing to agree with the status quo, Sarah Haskins lets us see the sociological and feminist implications of the latest vampire craze in a challenging way. Satirists keep us from being "glamoured" by the narrowness of our habitual thinking patterns.

Index

2008-11-30T21:53:00.010-06:00

Over many years of observation and experience, I've become a student of holiday stress. You're probably familiar with the "Stress index," which assigns a score to various life events. There are other stress indices to measure occupational stress, parenting stress, and other "locational and temporal" stress. In fact, Google lists 1,480,000 entries for "Stress index." That's a lot of interest in stress! However, examining one's own habits, behaviors, and attitudes can provide a more accurate indicator by measuring your reaction to potentially stressful situations, rather than the situations themselves.

We've heard (and possibly ignored) some of the sensible advice about managing stress: to eat right, exercise, don't hold emotions in. However, it's interesting that the stress inventory published by the Canadian Mental Health Association also includes the following "fill-in-the-blank" possibilities to the question, "Do you frequently. . ."

Fail to get a break from noise and crowds?
Race through the day?
Fail to build relaxation time into your day?
Think there is only one right way to do something?
Make a "big deal" out of everything?

These elements are equally essential in managing your stress as are exercise, diet, and rest. They are harder to "fix," because they require a level of awareness and choice-making that goes beyond a simple "just do it." Yet, it's precisely in these neglected aspects that the Feldenkrais Method can help you learn to do better, and lower your stress.

There's something wonderful about the mood and ambiance of a Feldenkrais Class. No matter how many people are there, each one seems to blossom in the quiet expectancy that fills the room. Everyone has enough personal space on their mat, on the floor. There's no music blaring; just a calm, friendly voice to calm and guide you, and let you think, or just be. The movements are slow and gentle. You feel the contrast between the racing you left, and something else that feels better. You remember what it feels like to relax, to let your body and mind float, completely safe and supported by the floor.

Each lesson offers practical experience in exploring multiple options for accomplishing the same thing. Sometimes an easy solution is not obvious. You have to experiment to find the best way for you. You might catch a glimpse of another student, and notice that he's doing something a little different than you are. Together, you explore separately, and arrive at your own best way. It's refreshing for the mind and body to engage in an activity, just for a short time, where the stakes aren't so high.

It seems that our culture is full of judgment for those who "escape" or "turn off" like this. For some, the therapeutic language of pathology is the only way to rationalize the human need to be human, and on occasion, to rest. If you were a machine (and you're not, by the way), you probably would understand that you have to turn it off every once in awhile. You have to refresh, reboot, update. The "machinery" of your mind, body, and soul deserves no less. It can be as simple as making opportunities for yourself to examine how you do what you do. Improvement can be enjoyable!

People sometimes get the impression that the Feldenkrais Method is just for relaxation, to become a mellowed-out wet noodle of a being, floating through life with a silly smile on your face. It's important to remember that Moshe Feldenkrais was a black belt in Judo, and trained others in hand-to-hand combat, for real. He understood that strength, power, and endurance must be balanced with rest, awareness, and efficiency.

A little bit of stress and anxiety can be just what you need to get up off the couch and go do something productive. However, they can also sneak up on you, and suddenly you're not having any fun. (Neither is anyone around you.) I like the Canadian Mental Health Association list because it lists "stress habits" that can be changed with some self-awareness and a little practice in doing differently. This is where the Feldenkrais Method can help you to excel.

Thanksgiving Week

2008-11-23T08:11:00.012-06:00

I'm one of those people for whom "The Holidays" are difficult. Something about the season makes old griefs resurface, like finding a container of leftovers that you had forgotten about in the back of the fridge. What was a faint memory is rediscovered anew, not pleasantly, barely recognizable now, upon examination; no longer nourishing, and best chucked into the bin. Don't get me wrong: friends, family, and faith do sustain, as well as dogged determination and a personal pledge to stay in the present moment as much as possible. And it's still hard.

There's no time like the holidays to see habitual patterns in action. People make travel plans, clean the house, decorate, and prepare to play out family dramas. Even resisting the holidays is a habitual pattern! Some traditions make the season bright, and others heap on the stress. But there's one fixture of the holidays that you'd better not mess with--the menu for the holiday meal.

Each of us carries a mental and emotional template for the ideal Thanksgiving (or Christmas) dinner. The template is based on whatever was served for Thanksgiving when you were a kid. In my family, we had turkey, bread dressing, green bean casserole with the canned fried onions on top, mashed potatoes, and canned, jellied cranberry sauce. Pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. (I know, I know.) Dinner rolls. Relish trays with radishes, celery sticks, and ripe olives. I married into a family that also included sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top and a fruit salad with coconut. That's just wrong. But only because I didn't grow up with it. My daughter married into a family that mixes cornbread stuffing with the cranberry sauce, and she just can't take it. 'Tis the season for her to learn to make Her Favorite Dressing that she grew up with.

Even the most tolerant, accepting, diversity-spouting, easy-going omnivore can become dogmatic and unbending over the issue of holiday food. There's no more treacherous time in a new relationship than to meet the other family during the holidays. Judgments are made over the canned vs. fresh berry debate, wondering just what other oddities lurk under the surface of this seemingly ideal partner and their family. The gravy could be a deal-breaker. We base these judgments on nothing more than preference and familiarity.

Preference and familiarity can be unconsciously restrictive, or they can be the departure point from which to sample that which is new and potentially enlivening or transformative. You don't have to make everything an issue of "right" or "wrong," when it's simply a case of "this is my preference" (and, wow, you prefer something else) or "this is what I know" (and, this new food, person, idea, is really interesting). As the poet Rumi wrote:

Let the beauty of love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
*
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

The Feldenkrais Method offers a wonderful laboratory in which to try new experiences, always honoring your individual sense of safety and pleasure. In the context of movement, you learn via metaphor that it's possible to try just a tiny bite of the unknown, before heaping it on your plate. New possibilities, capacities, and revelations abound. The world seems more inviting.

Through the many metamorphoses of my home life as an adult, I've always tried to include "the stranger" sometime during the holidays. We would host foreign graduate students, or a single friend far from family. Guests bring a dish or a wine they like. I intend to find a way to make the experience a pleasure for everyone, including me. In those moments, I can let go of my resistance to the holidays, and actually embrace them. There's an outward and visible sign of this inward and spiritual grace. Our holiday feast now includes both canned AND fresh cranberry sauces. Small progress is sometimes the most significant.

Happy Thanksgiving.

MaryBeth's bread dressing (learned from Mary Fran, MB's mom) My dad was from Philadelphia, and my mom was from Little Rock, and we ate this every Thanksgiving I can remember, in Oklahoma and Chicago: so I have no idea if this is a Yankee stuffing or a southern stuffing.

This is a recipe that you develop a "feel" for. Each successive approximation is better and more to your liking. It's also a magical recipe. You can make a little, or a lot, and it's always enough. I don't like it stuffed in the bird, so I make it in a dish. If you do stuff the bird, make sure to remove it immediately when you take the bird out of the oven.

Ingredients:
large loaf of plain white bread
onion
celery
poultry seasoning
sage (dried or fresh)
fresh Italian parsley (not in the original--my addition)
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
olive oil
chicken broth

Start the day before by taking the loaf of bread out of the wrapping, and putting all of the slices in a big roasting pan on the counter. Rip the bread, crusts and all, into bite-sized pieces. Let the bread sit out like this overnight so it can get a little stale.
About an hour before the turkey is due to come out of the oven, chop a big onion and several ribs of celery. Saute in a pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper until the onion is translucent and the celery is just starting to get tender.
When the onions and celery are done, dump that on top of the torn up, stale bread.
Add a good palmfull of poultry seasoning (2-3 Tablespoons). Add the sage (you'll need less if using dried herbs-- perhaps 2 Tablespoons dried or 1/2 cup of chopped fresh sage).
I like Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, so I chop up a bunch for 3/4 of a cup to a cup. Don't bother with dried parsley. Add the parsley to the bread mixture.
Add as much salt and pepper as you like. Easy on the salt, since the broth will probably have salt in it.
Add about 1/2 cup of light vegetable oil, drizzled over the top.
Begin to combine everything by hand. Slowly and gradually pour in about 1/2 cup of chicken broth. You want everything to be moist, but not soggy. The texture might not be completely uniform, and that's OK.
When it's well combined, put it into a baking dish that you can cover with a lid or with foil.
Put it into the oven at whatever temp you have the turkey baking at-- probably around 325. Leave it for an hour. It should look kind of crispy on top and golden brown.

I remember one year, my mom added chopped pecans before baking. Meh. You might be tempted to add some craisins, or dried apricots, or some such. Resist. Less is more.

If you like to stuff your turkey, you can skip the chicken broth, since the turkey juices will do the job. Be sure to remove ALL the stuffing immediately after you take the turkey out of the oven!

Serves 4-6. Calories? Fugeddaboudit.

Alternatives

2008-11-17T10:16:00.006-06:00

Sometimes it's hard to stay on an even keel. It seems impossible to detach from the Bad News and just settle down, and breathe. In stressful circumstances, especially if those circumstances seem prolonged, it's human nature to get caught up in beliefs or coping mechanisms that don't serve us. Two biggies are perfectionism and urgency.

There's actually another "cousin" to these two, and it is Worry. Most of us know, on an intellectual level at least, that worrying is a waste of time. Worry doesn't affect the outcome of what you're worrying about. The best cure for worry is to take action. Any action, preferably something small, can begin to remove the sense of powerlessness that takes over when you're in the downward spiral of useless worry. Some people take action by pouring a vodka, munching a brownie or ten, or warming up the credit card. There are positive alternatives that are more likely to take you toward an actual solution. Instead of worrying, you could make a list, or clean out a drawer, or go for a walk. Your next actions will be much clearer if you begin with something. But then, what if you worry whether the action you're taking is the right one?

You can earn a lot of points in our culture for being a perfectionist. You might be perceived as being difficult, but all will be forgiven, you tell yourself, because you are exacting, you have the highest standards, and everything must be Just So or it's No Go. "If I can't do it right, then I'm just not going to do it." The problem is that perfectionism can serve as a big smoke-screen for non-productivity. In terms of real output, perfectionists come out the same as the unabashed slackers. They just get to feel superior. Soon, however, something MUST be done. Worry arrives again, this time with Urgency.

Urgency is to blame for many bad decisions -- which is what gets us back to worrying. We tend to give our attention to what is the most urgent, at the expense of things that are less urgent, but more important in the long run. Unintended consequences and overall shoddiness frequently characterize knee-jerk reactions to urgency. Excuses abound. "I don't have time to mess around. I have to DO SOMETHING NOW." The spiral continues.

The Feldenkrais Method offers an effective solution for stepping off the merry-go-round of worry, urgency, and perfectionism, and toward effective, intelligent action. Each lesson provides the opportunity to test the approach with something small and inconsequential, and then to look for opportunities to apply the learning to daily life. The approach is based on making successive approximations toward the desired end. You have to begin somewhere, so begin with a small action, and see how that goes. Your first action will not be perfect, probably, and it will probably not provide an instant solution or immediate arrival at the goal. That needs to be OK.

If the first approximation was a disaster, you can try something different. What the hell? If the first approximation was not a total wash, you can take the elements that worked, and see how to make those work better. You can vary the other elements, and see what the effects are. Gradually, each successive approximation improves. You get better with experience. And, quite counter-intuitively, moving by successive approximations toward the goal can actually be quicker and more efficient than trying to do it perfectly on the first go. During a Feldenkrais lesson, it's likely that you will be so absorbed, amused, and engaged, that mental and physical stresses seem to evaporate for a time.

Now there is a caveat here. I'm not talking about doing the same thing over and over, and that somehow the magic of rote learning takes over and it will get better. If anything, rote learning perpetuates mistakes by forging deep neural pathways. We all have had a friend at one time or another who was looking for "Mr. Right," but because of urgency and worry, she found "Mr. Right Now," who turned out to be "Mr. Wrong." Working by successive approximations toward a goal requires some reflection, analysis, and mindfulness. Your aim is not just to have another go and hope for the best, but rather to have a specific intention to take a small action so that the next approximation is better in some way. It's the only way to make mistakes valuable-- to learn from them.

When you can spare a quiet hour for yourself, please come back to this post and click on this link. It's an mp3 full-length Awareness Through Movement lesson, where you can listen, move, and experience what I'm talking about. Your own small, comfortable body movements become a metaphor for the kind of action that is possible in your life. Afterwards, give yourself some time to notice what feels different from when you started. Sometimes, the smallest differences can make a big difference.

In the Feldenkrais Method, there's no failure-- only information. The work is so applicable to such a variety of human issues that it is useful to almost anybody. There's no better time to invest time and attention in yourself. New possibilities can emerge when you least expect it. Isn't that a great alternative to worry, urgency, and perfectionism?

[Additional Awareness Through Movement mp3 lessons are available for purchase on our website.]

Creative Juices

2008-11-10T00:40:00.006-06:00

I can't explain it.

For some reason, this past weekend, it was as if a curtain had lifted and I felt like a human being again. For weeks I've been dragging around, suffering with fall and post-hurricane sinus irritation and congestion. I've had enough energy to see my clients, teach my classes, and meet my deadlines -- but nothing more. The election and ensuing excitement provided nothing more than a temporary respite from my doldrums. And now, I'm on a tear with new projects, new ideas, and creative juices flowing again. What made the difference? I'm still trying to figure it out.

Perhaps I was uplifted by witnessing the creativity of others. One of my friends, Karine Parker, has been working for several months on a concept for providing authentic encounters between artists and the public. This past weekend, her idea, RougeArt, became a reality. A stylish gallery and art space was transformed with music, refreshments, an exhibit by four local artists, and lively conversation between the viewers and the creators, the lines blurring as they shared experiences and stories with each other. The culmination of months of planning, producing, and organizing, RougeArt was the manifestation of Something, where there had been Nothing before. Stay tuned for future appearances of RougeArt, a new experience on the Houston art scene.

Another friend, Misha Penton, has been percolating for several years on an idea to create unique performance experiences. She has studied, performed, traveled, written, and networked her little butt off. Next weekend, the result of her creativity is Divergence Vocal Theatre's premiere. Music old and new, dance, and literature combine to bring voices and people together in a way that is fresh and compelling. I can't wait to see what the production, "The Ottavia Project," will be like. Opera with an edge? Divergence Vocal Theatre is something fresh on Houston's musical landscape.

It seems that all human beings have imagination. Whether it's flights of fancy or fantasy, or just anticipating dinner at your favorite restaurant, we can generate ideas and images in our heads that can delight or terrify. However, creativity is something else again. I believe it was Sir Ken Robinson who said that it's creativity that transforms the imaginary into reality. Think of it: nearly everything we see in the physical world is an idea before it manifests in material form. The iPhone, hybrid cars, bridges, buildings, performances, websites-- all are ideas imagined, implemented by human creativity, to produce something of value.

There's no limit to creativity, and there's no limit to the number of valuable ideas. "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door," as the old saying goes. For this reason, the economy can continue to grow. Something of value appears where there was Nothing before. There will always be a market for the "new and improved" version of ANYTHING. To keep improving, you need imagination and creativity.

The world's problems won't be solved just by talking, or thinking, or hoping. However, talking, thinking, and hoping can form the backdrop, the context in which ideas and positive solutions can be born. Any problem can and will be solved by ideas imagined, creatively brought into being and implemented by those who are able to work, to innovate, to cover the distance between How It Is Now and How We'd Like It To Be. It takes intention and intelligent action. The abstract must become concrete.

My practice in the Feldenkrais Method is a continuing source of inspiration, imagination, and creativity. Each movement exploration is a unique experience, engaging thought, sensation, and emotion. When I encounter a problem or obstacle, in movement, or in life, I can ask, "What ELSE could I do? How ELSE could I approach this? What would happen if. . . Through the magic of successive approximations, curiosity, and the willingness to experiment a little, it's amazing how the light bulbs go on, and choruses of "Aha!" ring out.

So here I am, writing late into the night, my creative juices flowing again. I've spent several hours today working and playing, like a mad thing, turning stalled-out abstractions into lively pixels and bits on the internet, turning words into graceful and revelatory movements, or persuasive calls to action. To experience the spark of imagination, the flow of creativity, and the satisfaction of working to birth an idea into reality, is probably about as good as it gets. My creativity, and yours, transforms the world, just a little bit at a time.

What would get your creative juices flowing again?

What I Want

2008-11-03T06:26:00.005-06:00

Time was, you didn't discuss religion or politics, ever, except with people with whom you were intimate, and except if it was your job, like if you were a political commentator on TV. That's the way I was raised, and it has some practical value. I generally keep my views private, especially in professional or social situations. My job is to create conditions where people are able to learn something new about themselves. If I express my belief, and my client agrees with me, then all we are doing is reinforcing a habitual pattern. If I express my belief, and my client disagrees with me, then I've just put her in a position where she must resist and defend. Neither path creates conditions for real learning.

In the last several weeks, I've been fortunate to be able to learn from two of my peers visiting Houston. Fernanda Zamar, from Argentina, was visiting family and initiated a get-together for Feldenkrais exchange. Last week, Thomas Spring, a Feldenkrais teacher from New Zealand, was visiting Houston. I've been amazed at how much we had to learn from each other. It's interesting to experience another teacher's touch, to hear how they express themselves, to listen and observe the ways they bring and give attention during a lesson. After meeting and working with them, and learning from each other, I know that I have grown.

I have a magnet on my fridge that says, "Always make new mistakes." After all, if you keep making the same mistakes, it's a pretty good sign that you're not learning from them. It takes no talent, imagination, or originality whatsoever to keep doing the same thing. A mistake is the risk you take for trying something new. It's an opportunity to learn. It can even be an opportunity to explore a familiar idea, but in a new way. In this sense, Feldenkrais work is like live music. Even if you play or hear the same piece several times, it's never exactly the same. The audience, the moment, the acoustics, the emotional background of the experience all influence the final outcome in subtle and profound ways.

That's what makes it difficult to answer a seemingly simple question, like"What does Feldenkrais do for bad knees?" or back pain, or carpal tunnel, or anything? It's hard to answer, because lessons are not a pill or a protocol. The Feldenkrais Method is a remarkably ingenious way of interacting with people to help them discover new possibilities in any arena of their choosing. Since every person is different, I must constantly adapt to their needs, their learning style, and their sense of progress and accomplishment. If I don't adapt to and learn from my client, he won't be able to learn from me.

Developing your own ability to learn and adapt is your best strategy for making it through turbulent times. Learning doesn't stop when you leave your formal education. Learning is necessary to be able to use new information that can benefit you in business, in relationships, in your own health. Learning is necessary to keep pace with technological innovation. Technology shapes our lives in myriad ways. Our survival as a species through millennia has depended upon our ability to learn. Without the ability to learn, we go off-course quickly, put ourselves in danger, or become obsolete.

Here's my bias: I was an academic for over a decade. My frustration was that the emphasis was on KNOWING rather than LEARNING. The only way to "security" was to know everything. To admit that you didn't know everything, by pursuing opportunities for learning, was professional suicide. I never understood why They thought learning was a threat to knowing--didn't they support each other? Well, I'm no longer in academia, for a variety of reasons. I felt too constrained, and a majority of my colleagues felt I was not constrainable enough. The experience left me with my perception that KNOWING is static, unchanging. LEARNING is a dynamic process. Here's an illustration for you. A few years ago, I was clearing out storage boxes and bookshelves, and came across the family set of Encyclopedia Brittanica, purchased proudly in 1960. I thought for sure there would be some collector's value there, but the reality check came when I was advised that it was so outdated, I'd be better off just taking it to recycling. I couldn't get a penny for it. The major compendium of knowledge for 1960, now worthless. Today the world is changing so rapidly, information is out of date as soon as you print it. So for me, I'd rather be learning.

Which brings us back around to politics. So much of the discussion has centered around "who knows more," or less. Indeed, knowledge is vitally important. If I didn't value it, I wouldn't have stayed in academia for so long, and I wouldn't have held on to that old set of Britannica. As I look at the world, I see vast unpredictability. I want a leader who is a learner.

More Soup

2008-10-27T09:41:00.007-05:00

Soup! I love to make soup, especially when the weather turns cooler and the fabulously redolent smells fill my kitchen. The next soup I make will be one of my favorites for this time of year, a pumpkin and squash combination with Indian spices that tastes so creamy without one drop of cream in it. I don't think I even have a recipe for it. I just throw it together, and consequently it's a little different each time, but always delicious and always deeply satisfying. I like knowing what's in my food, knowing that it's fresh, and knowing that food prepared with love tastes different than food without.

A new soup recipe is always an adventure. The first time I make soup, I follow the recipe to the letter. Well, not exactly. Once I get into it, I can tell that I'd rather use vegetable broth than chicken broth, or vice versa; I can get by with adding less salt. I know there's no such thing as "too much garlic" at my house. But I don't substitute ingredients, or experiment with variations, until I know what the basic recipe is and how I like it. Over time, I've learned which recipes are trustworthy as-is, and which one's I'll need to jazz up a bit. And, I've learned enough basics of soup-making that I can extemporize and come up with something edible, and often sensational.

I made a new recipe for the Book Salon last week. It was one of the recipes from an NPR piece about autumn soups, and so I went to the website and printed off all the recipes described. First up was a mushroom soup that sounded just perfect. Along with the onions, carrots, potatoes, and barley, the secret seemed to be a handful of dried porcini mushrooms, which made the plain-Jane mushrooms perk up and rise to the occasion. The aroma of that soup cooking was amazing. (Since our book this month was "The Emperor of Scent," we HAD to smell wonderful.) Our guests gobbled it down, and the soup was mighty tasty. But, to me, something was missing.

The soup was earthy and rich and delicious. I thought the taste was too "dark," with too many "low notes." In musical terms, it was heavy on the trombones and cellos, and all tasted like accompaniment to me. I wanted a voice, an oboe, or perhaps a triangle pinging to lighten things up and bring some focus. It needed something acidic. In leftover homemade soups, you can tweak the recipe for the next meal. Overnight, the flavors marry and the taste is more refined, without the rough edges. The solution to my low note dilemma with the mushroom soup was to add some seasoned rice vinegar, one of my favorite, must-have, pantry staples. The effect was immediate and miraculous. There was now a clear, high note, a little tart and a little sweet, and suddenly the other flavors sprang to life! There was harmony in my bowl.

Everyone has individual tastes and preferences. Now that I know this recipe, I can make it completely vegetarian if need be, or leave out the onions if I make it for my friend Martha. The important thing is not the exactness of adhering to the recipe, but the experience of dining with friends, of good conversation, and of pleasure. Makes you want to have a second helping.

I have several clients who have come to me because traditional solutions to their problems have left a bad taste in their mouth. Too much discomfort, and too little progress have made them curious to find out if something else is possible. Often they get a delightful surprise. Rather than being a diner, held hostage in a restaurant where they don't like the food, they find that they are the chef! They learn the basics of organizing a way of moving that will nourish them. With the basics, they can learn to move in ways that will reduce the likelihood of further injury, and return to activities they enjoy at higher levels of functioning.

Each Feldenkrais lesson is like a "movement recipe." What would you like today? Just as my friend knows that onions are not for her, there may be some movements that are not for you. To feel yourself move, in whatever way or range is possible for you in this moment, is the beginning of awareness, and an appetite for more.

Tell Tale Signs

2008-10-20T08:19:00.011-05:00

As I sit here typing, I'm listening to a Bob Dylan marathon via streaming audio. I've been a Bob Dylan fan for years. When I was in the sixth grade, I began to learn to play the guitar as an aspiring "folkie." I could play and sing "Blowin' In the Wind," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," and other songs that stirred my WASPy Midwestern suburban pre-pubescent heart. I was taking piano lessons and singing in choirs, beginning down the long road of classical music training, but something about Bob Dylan's music grabbed me. I loved his poetry; and his voice, with all its limitations, captivated me. I was one intense eleven-year-old.

"Tell Tale Signs" is the latest in a series of releases of previously unavailable recordings by Bob Dylan. The two-disc set includes bootleg recordings from live performances, as well as outtakes and other "first approximations" from the recording studio over the past 20 years. It's some good listening, and Bob Dylan still fascinates me. His career has spanned more than 50 years, and he continues to write, perform, and tour. He has new things to say that are worth listening to. He continues to grow, explore, and transform himself and the culture.

Recording brings out the perfectionism in people. I confess to needing a couple of "takes" to get my outgoing voice mail message just right. Recordings of performances have an archival quality, and you know when you're making one that it will be preserved for posterity. We try to be extra good, to hit it out of the park every time, so to speak. We become self-conscious, awkward, stumbling around. A bootleg recording, however, captures something immediate, fresh, and real. The recorder surreptitiously captured the artist in her natural state, going about her business, unpreoccupied by the demands of perfection. We can see, hear, and feel the "Tell Tale Signs" that something special is going on. Small wonder that we treasure these recordings as representative of an artist's best work.

You probably agree that it's hard to do your best work when you are self-conscious. Legion are the theatrical productions that give their best performance at the dress rehearsal, when no critics are present. But self-consciousness is not the same as self-awareness. Self-consciousness makes you worry about the judgment of others, constantly compares you with someone or something else, and takes you out of the present moment. Self-consciousness has its own "Tell Tale Signs;" it makes you stilted, stiff, and uninspired. Self-awareness, on the other hand, allows you to respond spontaneously to whatever is before you. Self-awareness elicits the peaceful, yet energized, flow of attention, expression, and creativity.

The work of Moshe Feldenkrais offers the opportunity to transform self-consciousness into self-awareness. When you experience yourself moving effortlessly, with comfort, ease, and grace, it's almost like having a "bootleg recording" of yourself, capturing your individual genius. My students often say, "WOW! I had no idea I could do THAT!" This ability to see yourself in a new way makes the "recordings" dynamic and alive, rather than static. Feldenkrais knew that we can't learn, adapt, or attain our full potential when judgment and self-consciousness take us out of the present moment.

Don't be afraid: you don't have to aspire to nirvana-like states of awareness perfection to benefit. Even small, incremental improvements in your awareness can lead to surprising returns. The dawning awareness inspires you to go deeper, broader, more specific, more general, to find what else might be possible. Rather than being pressured from the outside to accomplish something, the rewards come from within. It reminds me of a few lines from the old Kathy Mattea song:

Now here is the one thing I keep forgetting
When everything is falling apart
In life there's enough no I need to remember
There's such a thing as trying too hard

You have to sing (sing) like you don't need the money
Love (love) like you'll never get hurt
You gotta dance, dance, dance like nobody's watching
Its got to come from the heart if you want it to work . . .

Frequently, Moshe Feldenkrais would instruct his students to move in such a way "as if it didn't matter." I think that's the equivalent of "dance like nobody's watching." In that atmosphere of freedom, the "Tell Tale Signs" of your own brilliance begin to emerge.

"The Economy, Constraints, and Learning" by Joanna Myers, MM, GCFP

2008-10-13T05:52:00.010-05:00

[This week, I've done a lot more reading than writing. Some weeks are like that. So I wanted to share with you one of the best and most appropriate pieces I've come across this week.]

Have you heard what's happening with the economy? (Duh.) Daily we're made aware of it not only by the media, but by higher fuel and food costs, faltering investment portfolios, or stories (perhaps your own) of difficulties selling a house.

Even for those in relatively stable situations, there's a perception of vague danger-an invisible predator in an era where humans are no longer prey. The fight or flight response kicks in, but is no longer adaptive.

For example, do you freeze--your breathing, your spending? Or do you flee--tense your muscles for a run on the bank? Most of us respond with sense and subtlety, by staying abreast of our own situation and, if necessary, placing constraints on our usual spending. In short, we expand our repertoire of behaviors in order to adapt to a changing world.

In the Feldenkrais Method® we use constraints-in the form of unusual positions and movements--as opportunities to learn and improve our physical selves.

Using our bodies as we always have--even if we don't experience discomfort at first--can lead to physical problems that intensify over time. Perhaps you've bumped into this in the form of back or neck pain, feelings of stress, or restrictions in your movements.

The good news is we have within us the wisdom to learn new ways of moving and perceiving ourselves physically that not only can alleviate physical difficulties, but make us even better than we were before. And the Feldenkrais Method is the fastest, most effective means around to access that inner learning. Through guided attention and gentle movement, you can release chronic tension, improve your alignment, and move with more power, elegance, and pleasure.

Only you can decide what's adaptive in response to "hard times." Perhaps at the end of this crisis we'll all live less on credit, bicycle at least once a week, grow our own tomatoes, and cook a wicked bean stew-and be better for it.

The Feldenkrais Method is better experienced than described. Take one of the upcoming Awareness Through Movement® classes or a Functional Integration® lesson and see for yourself how to raise your quality of life.

Joanna Myers is a Feldenkrais teacher in Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Email her at feldannarbor@gmail.com
www.feldannarbor.net

Eye of the Beholder

2008-10-05T12:59:00.006-05:00

I don't write about politics, so don't worry. I won't be expressing a political viewpoint or preference here, so it's safe to read on without fear of being offended or angered by what you read. I won't be writing about the debates, nor the candidates, nor even the issues. I'd like to write about perception.

Perception is completely individual. It has to do with sense and sensation, with attention and preference, and with our desire for order or our tolerance for different levels of chaos. Art, including photography and film making, has always experimented with the play of images and sounds to create particular perceptual effects. Increasingly, news outlets actively present images and information intended to shape our perceptions. A popular saying posits, "Perception is reality." But sometime, our perceptions can be demonstrably false.

(Please open this blog in another window, and click on the picture to view the animation.) Here's something fun to show you how perception can change. If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, the dots remain one color, pink.

However, if you stare at the black "+" sign in the middle, the moving dot turns to green. Keep looking at the "+" sign. The pink dots gradually disappear, and you'll just see one green dot. Isn't the brain interesting? There is no green dot, and the pink ones don't disappear--all you have to do is blink, and they'll be back. This example illustrates how perception shifts. We don't always see what we think we see. (More fun optical illusions at http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/illusion/illusions.htm)

Do you remember the time before cable TV and the internet reigned supreme? There were basically four television stations: ABC, CBS, NBC, and later, PBS. Everyone watched the same programs and talked about them. In conversations, people would express different opinions about what they had seen, and you could learn a lot about the world from listening to different viewpoints. Can you imagine only four choices on television? Cable TV and the internet have given us virtually infinite choices in what to watch and what to read. It's possible to select your favorites, so that you get more and more of what you like, and what you agree with.

Unfortunately, what was intended to provide breadth, depth, and variety in information has actually limited us, our intelligence, and our decision-making. It's possible to choose news and entertainment preferences so that you never hear an opinion that conflicts with yours. You might never see or hear anything that challenges you to move beyond what you already know or believe to be true. There's a never-ending supply of brain-candy, causing the intellect to shut down so that curiosity dies, and you lose the ability to process anything that doesn't give you that feel-good jolt of total agreement. Never mind out-and-out conflict: just a differing viewpoint can come as a shock, or even a threat. You can find lots of ranting cable TV personalities and internet bloggers all along the ideological spectrum who parley honest differences of opinion and approach into self-aggrandizing, superiority-inflated name-calling and vitriolic judgment of those with whom they disagree. What up wid dat?

One of the most valuable things I have learned from my study and practice of the Feldenkrais Method is the ability to develop multiple approaches and perspectives to the problems I face in daily life. Each lesson begins with a scan of the body, which serves not so much as a "reality check," but as a status report on what is being perceived in the moment. In an atmosphere of non-judgment and safety, I can explore gentle movements that are familiar to me. I can begin with what is familiar and make minor adjustments, additions, deletions, expansions, and something that looks new begins to emerge. The novel and unfamiliar inspires my curiosity to explore further, and to choose whether to incorporate some of it because it's immediately useful, or come back and explore more for another time.

If a movement is uncomfortable, I can usually do it if I am more gentle, if I go more slowly, or if I just do a small version. I emerge from an "all or nothing" mentality and can actually implement actions that lead me in the direction I want to go. I can even do the same movement in a different position or orientation: we can often do some of the very same movements in different planes or positions. The same movement can activate different neural pathways, different sensation and perception. My original perceptions often change, and I am able to function at a higher level as a direct result of considering and experiencing different ways of doing the same thing. This approach to movement can translate into all areas of life that involve action, thought, and emotion, in addition to sensation.

Moshe Feldenkrais often said that high-functioning individuals have at least three different ways of doing anything. Only having one way means you repeat the same actions again and again, with no alternative. This is compulsive behavior. When you have two choices, you are equally limited, but in a mechanistic way. You're either doing "it," or you're not doing "it," and you are reduced to a binary system. As soon as a third option is available, you are more able to exercise your human potential to create and choose. Being able to choose between multiple options leads to higher quality decision-making and actions that result from them. You may still return to your original choice as the best option, but you will do so consciously and humanly instead of reactively, compulsively, or mechanically.

This election season has caused me to be more questioning of what I see, and hear, and read. How much of your decision-making is based on preference and habit? How much does perception cause you to react, rather than reflect? Perception is not Reality: but it is A reality. To perceive more, with awareness, can lead to a richer and more accurate reality for you and for those around you. Perception is in the eye, the brain, and the intentions of the beholder.