Intelligence in Action
Making The Impossible Easy
by Graeme Lynn, GCFP, CSTAT
A powerful means of effecting improvement in human well-being is a somatic one, that is, one accomplished through the dynamic interaction of conscious intelligence with the body. This is so because the body reflects and affects the other levels of our functioning and is most accessible to our influence, and for the obvious reason that many human problems are physical in nature.
Three of the most successful of somatic approaches are the Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique, and Structural Integration, each of which accesses the body through a different strategy and which, together, offer an effective way of facilitating human growth.
The Feldenkrais Method uses sensory awareness stimulated by intelligent movement or manipulations to facilitate alternative patterns of action which are harmonious with one's physical structure (thereby, by-passing pain) and rightly conformed to the mechanical requirements of the surrounding world (and so, maximally effective). The movements and manipulations used in this method are founded in a sophisticated scientific understanding of human psychomotor development and function and of the integrated or systemic nature of human movement. The method, grounded in modern neuroscience and in the movement sciences, successfully treats many conditions resulting from such diverse conditions as stroke, neurological impairments, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia, as well as common sensory-motor deficiencies associated with deterioration of any kind in structure or function, such as headache and backache, neck and shoulder pain, poor breathing, movement difficulties, and ailments commonly associated with the ageing process: stiffness, aches and pains, fatigue, and limitation. In cases of incurable conditions, it often provides significant symptomatic relief through re-educating maladaptive patterns built upon the untreatable problem. And, like the Alexander Technique, it is an effective help for those wishing to improve their performance, in the arts, athletics, at work, or in daily life activities.
In the Feldenkrais Method, as in all somatic disciplines, the individual himself participates and is responsible in the improvement of his physical well-being and in the deepening of his knowledge of himself via the body. And, unlike many therapeutic modalities, somatic education understands that true improvement occurs most readily when the newly proposed means of action are more pleasant than the old and are, therefore, acceptable and desirable to us. This is significant because we find pleasant sensations enjoyable and as our ability improves through such enjoyable self-exploration, we will want to continue to improve our ability. Whereas when we do what is not pleasant - for example, aggressive stretching, body-building, high-impact aerobics, and so on - even if the result seems to represent an improvement, we will not naturally choose to do it, and, without the ongoing effort of misplaced will power, we will give it up as soon as we can. Thus, learning that is functionally transformative returns to its rightful place in our lives as a desirable process.
Individual lessons in the Feldenkrais Method, called Functional Integration, take a person through a process of sensory-motor learning. Through refined touch, attention, and skilful handling, the Feldenkrais practitioner clarifies and then undoes patterns of habitual tension, mal-coordination, habituated reflex patterns, stereotyped movement, and so on, resolves limitations thereby, and then creates for the person the sensory-motor basis for better coordination options. By thus breaking down limiting patterns in posture and movement at the root of pain, stiffness, poor coordination, even lowered vitality, the learning process regenerates health.
Moshe Feldenkrais was a true Renaissance man, a renowned physicist, a brilliant mechanical engineer, master judoka, Gurdjieffian, neuroscientist, and educator. After a debilitating knee injury where surgery offered a doubtful prognosis, he began a tireless and in-depth exploration of his movement capabilities and, eventually, of human movement in general, thereby not only regaining his own ability to walk but establishing a technology of human movement and a method of relearning exemplary coordination through refining awareness which has found universal applications.
In contrast, F. M. Alexander was a gambler, a horseman, and an actor. But like Feldenkrais, a limitation in his own functioning - in Alexander's case, an acute loss of voice during recitals - forced a painstaking investigation into his physical mechanics, an investigation he pursued with a single-minded obsession. And like Feldenkrais, this self-investigation brought about his own recovery and a discovery which has proven itself of tremendous benefit to all and which has been acclaimed by some of the greatest artists, scientists, and thinkers of the twentieth century and by ordinary people alike.
Alexander discovered the core dynamic of human movement, what he came to call the 'primary control', which exerts a substantive influence on all functioning. He learned, over a period of many years of self-study and work, to master this core dynamic and thereby improve what he called the use of himself. In time, he came to teach others and then, to teach others to teach.
Teachers of the Alexander Technique re-educate a person's use through instruction and with their hands, which hands are uniquely trained to sense subtleties of movement and tension. The teacher's expertise is in his or her ability to best organize or coordinate, through refined and gentle manipulation, the pupil's movement, coordination, and response to gravity via an ongoing address to the pupil's core dynamic or 'primary control'. The Alexander teacher guides the person through primarily gentle active movements while always finding and facilitating the easier way, which easier way is rooted in a deep understanding of and feel for this core dynamic. At the same time, the teacher enlists the individual's innate capability to attend to him- or herself and to become aware of habitual patterning, and, through this gentle guidance, stimulates the person's sensory-motor self-exploration and growing capacity for freedom and self-control of the physical mechanism. The teacher works to ease out chronic action of muscles that are doing too much and coax the appropriate degree of activity from muscles that are under-used. Through thus guided simple activities such as sitting, standing, lying down, bending, reaching, and walking, the pupil learns to free him- or herself from misuse patterns and allow natural poise and balance to re-emerge. In time, the person becomes able to generalize the practices and principles learned so that lightness, ease, and freedom of movement become the common experiences of everyday life.
Where the Feldenkrais Method addresses the organization of movement, the Alexander Technique addresses the organization of the 'movement prior to movement', what Alexander called the primary control. Structural Integration, in contrast, addresses the organization of that which makes movement possible, the muscle and connective tissue network which shapes the body and determines its flexibility, balance, and alignment in the field of gravity, what Ida Rolf called 'structure'. Structure, the soft-tissue, tensile, three-dimensional envelope invested throughout the body, is changed directly in structural bodywork through intelligent force purposed towards a model, unique to each individual, of his or her ideal lines. Approximating this ideal is neither easy nor easeful in every case. Participating in this process of restructuring necessitates a practice of awareness and letting go.
Indeed, awareness is fundamental to all somatic approaches to human change. In the Feldenkrais Method, intelligently constructed movements or manipulations stimulate intelligent awareness, which refines the quality of movement, which enhances sensory awareness, which further improves movement, establishing a 'virtuous' circle of regeneration. In the Alexander Technique, a beginning understanding and sense of the primary control coupled with awareness, intention, and the repeated experience of freedom elicited through the guidance of a skilled teacher ensures the gradual improvement in the use of the self which directly improves breathing, posture and movement, and positively impacts all other functioning.
Sensory-motor learning, or improvement of self-sensing, coordination, posture, movement, and action in general, is natural and native to the human process. Somatic education in the form of the teacher-student relationship takes advantage of this fact. We all educated ourselves somatically in our own development from virtually helpless little soft bundles of energy that could only suck, flex, and perform a few other simple reflexes to children who could walk, run, swim, skip, skate, and so on. And yet, many of us have lost - un-learned in fact - that youthful ease, fluidity, and joy in bodily being through faulty development, lifestyle, occupation, emotional patterning, injury, surgery, disease, and many other factors. And many activities that were at one time easy for us have regressed to the difficult and even the impossible.
The Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique, and Structural Integration can not only reverse that deterioration but also initiate a regenerative process which can take us to new and higher levels of self-organization and awareness and thus quicken our development towards our full potential.
To schedule lessons, please contact Graeme in Toronto, Ontario, at 416-964-7026, or click to email.