August ATM's - a variety of lessons #25

Moshe Feldenkrais, Swift eyes Make Smart Body (Book Lesson 10)

We’ll be finding greater clarity on the area which is not right and not left, some call it the ‘centre’, with touch, and the imagination.

This lesson is not in the book, yet it’s included in the series.

Having just done the lesson, I thought this paragraph from page 58 might fit for what can be learning from this experience:

“To the extent that ability increases,
the need for conscious efforts of the will decreases.
The effort required to increase ability
provides sufficient and efficient exercise for our will power.
If you consider the matter carefully
you will discover that most people of strong will power
(which they have trained for its own sake)
are also people with relatively poor ability.
People who know how to operate effectively
do so without great preparation and without much fuss.

Men of great will power
tend to apply too much force
instead of using moderate forces more effectively.

To understand movement we must feel, not strain.

To learn we need time, attention, and discrimination
to discriminate we must sense.
This means that in order to learn
we must sharpen our powers of sensing,
and if we try to do most things by sheer force
we shall achieve precisely the opposite of what we need.”

Enjoy,
learning :)