The initial objective is to practice using sensation and attention to learn through self-sensing about your movement ease and movement limitations. This creates a baseline of knowledge from which to measure change, to bring about mindful movement improvement, at the level of the skeleton and the nervous system, i.e., the brain.
The shape, speed, size and trajectory of any movement or movement sequence that you do, whether in Awareness Through Movement® classes or Functional Integration®, is determined entirely by what feels comfortable to you in that moment.
You may even choose to do the movement in your imagination, if the initial exploration of a movement feels unsafe, uncomfortable or inaccessible or limited in any way. This is one of Dr. Feldenkrais's discoveries -- that doing movement by visualizing is a powerful force for improvement and is completely safe. Elite athletes and performers use the technique, going over and over a routine or sequence in their minds. Then suddenly range of movement improves, alignment and organization is better. Many things happen during visualization that we cannot measure, with or without technology.
Moving mindfully, whether in reality or by visualizing, also helps to reduce pain and muscular stress, improves breathing, balance and allows the body to find itself in a way that is reminiscent of how we were as children, when we were free of the self-consciousness we are burdened by as adults. We become more free in ourselves.
In this relaxed, observant and open state, many parts of ourselves can become more responsive, vital and creative, more available to us. Our senses are more alert, our attention improved, our awareness of our surroundings is heightened. Life can become more vibrant and rich, more conscious. Here is what painter, writer and philosopher William Segal wrote about attention and consciousness:
“When one first begins to work with conscious attention one discovers that the subsystems of body, feelings, and mind function inefficiently and disharmoniously. Yet the simple awareness of misalignment may introduce an element capable of binding the disparate parts into an integrated whole. With sustained awareness comes a heightened sensitivity, openness, a quiet mind. Man’s structure becomes receptive to the advent of fresh, vivifying energies descending from a mysterious source. This creates a field, where higher energies can transform the lower.”
~ William Segal (quote thanks to Ian Sanders)
Thanks for reading,
Carole
Carole Bucher, BA, CGFP
Reno Feldenkrais Integrative Movement
