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Whatever position you are in at this moment, take some
time to notice the surface you are sitting or standing
on and what parts of your self are more in contact,
what parts less. Notice these differences as if you
are just taking in information without looking to form
any conclusion or judgment about what it means.
If you’re sitting, notice how each foot is pressing
into the floor, how your buttocks are weighted on the
chair, whether one side of your body feels heavier than
the other or one shoulder higher, whether your back
is pressing into the back of the chair. Try nodding
your head ‘yes’ and notice whether it is
easier to bring your chin away from your chest or toward
it, then nod ‘no’ and see if it is easier
to turn your head right or left. Or move your jaw to
one side and notice whether your eyes automatically
follow. You might also notice how easy it is to feel
nonjudgmental about yourself when you are considering
actions as neutral as these.
A body scan is always the baseline for a Feldenkrais
movement sequence. It shows up, X-ray like, restrictions
in movements as habitual as turning the head. You need
to notice how your body is currently wired together
before you can reorganize how you hold yourself.
We scan both before and after each movement sequence,
and in between do gentle, repetitive movements, aiming
for the least possible amount of effort. Often, the
later scan shows a strikingly different range of motion.
If I told my students to turn further, they would stretch
and strain. But by practicing nonhabitual movements,
we can actually trick the body into doing more without
actively trying.
I can’t say enough how individual everyone’s
Feldenkrais practice is. The brand of empathy that is
so special in Feldenkrais is what I call “somatic
empathy,” or feeling into your own experience
and knowing your body from the inside out. The Feldenkrais
Method taps into, at a very practical level, that esoteric-sounding
thing called body wisdom and applies it in a nurturing
way to self-care.
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