Intelligence in Action
Do LIONS Exercise?
by Graeme Lynn, GCFP, CSTAT
Have you ever wondered if there's a way to be flexible, aligned, adaptable, relaxed, and fit without working hard, stretching, strengthening, aerobic exercising, and so on? The Feldenkrais Method is such a way, and it develops optimal coordination through conscious means. The Feldenkrais Method achieves and quickens what otherwise happens naturally by epitomizing and systematizing the sensory-motor learning processes of Nature.
Consider the difference in the energy expended and information processed in pounding around a gym circuit, and then the same in clicking a computer mouse. No computer can compare to the human nervous system's inherent intelligence and capacity for learning, which lie largely untapped. The Feldenkrais Method taps into this vast available intelligence, much of which is concerned with the sensory-motor functions: movement, sensing, coordination, and responding to the ever-present force of gravity.
Generally, we presume that our sensory-motor capabilities are determined by nature, that each of us, as we are, has reached our natural limits, and that deterioration is inevitable. Fortunately, this is not so. There are no known limits to learning and few of us have approximated our full potential. Indeed, pain, stiffness, mal-coordination, stress tension, poor posture, most so-called signs of ageing even, are not necessary or predetermined processes, but faults in or regression of learning. And these limitations can be undone, not through aerobics, exercise, stretching and so on, which do not effectively improve the way we characteristically move, and tend, in fact, to reinforce the very sensory-motor habits which are at the root of the limitations we are suffering, but through renewed learning. And it is somatic learning, the kind of learning a child does at its best, but with an adult's maturity and understanding and with this technique's sophisticated methodology, which eliminates the trial-and-error approach of childhood. Thus, through the Feldenkrais Method, the course of learning is truer than in childhood, and our native intelligence can soon renew its sensitive control of our physical functioning.
Group lessons in the Feldenkrais Method, called Awareness Through Movement or ATM, are carefully designed movement explorations developed from Feldenkrais' profound understanding of human movement, in which the teacher verbally guides students, with slow and detailed attention, through a coherent series of biomechanical, developmental or functional movement patterns combined in artful ways, some simple, some complex (for example, reaching, bending, twisting, or rolling, or elaborations that look like complicated dance sequences), draws attention to the sensations elicited by these movements, and thereby facilitates a widened self-awareness and an integrated coordination. The lessons are interesting and refreshing. They increase flexibility and suppleness without strain, improve efficiency while actually reducing effort, and frequently resolve chronic and acute pain. Because ATMs take ingenious advantage of our virtually unlimited learning potential, anyone can begin to improve his or her movement capabilities and, through practice, this improvement can be continuous.
An individual Feldenkrais lesson, called Functional Integration or FI, uniquely addresses the person's particular patterns of sensing, moving, posture, and coordination. An FI is designed to specifically address the individual's particular needs or presenting limitations. In guided manipulations in lying, kneeling, sitting, and so on, the practitioner gains an intelligent sense of the person's unique manner of 'organizing' movement. And, with the skilled and gentle use of his or her hands, the practitioner clarifies, resolves, and remakes that 'self-organization'. Like ATMs, FIs are founded on the understanding that a person changes most readily when the new ways of functioning are more pleasant than the old, that effectiveness comes through reducing effort - by working 'smarter' not harder - and that learning is natural.
It is not really possible to properly describe a lesson in the Feldenkrais Method. Still, the experience is deeply familiar because somatic learning is what each of us did as children when we took ourselves from the helplessness of infancy to running through our childhood home shouting for joy.
Transforming a lifetime's patterns is not a miraculous process. The human nervous system is not only the most sophisticated of learning mechanisms but also the most adept generator of habits, which are the taking over of voluntary processes by subconscious mechanisms. Through the skilful means used by the Feldenkrais practitioner, ineffective habits can be brought again to consciousness, felt, resolved, and transformed. This takes patient commitment to the learning process. Still, improvements are generally noticed from the start and, in time, freedom, balance, equanimity, ease of movement, and restored function become the common experiences of everyday life.
To schedule lessons, please contact Graeme in Toronto, Ontario, at 416-964-7026, or click to email.