Awareness Through Movement #206

On the side, getting the spine flexible – SELF ORGANISATION

As part of the secret study group, this little, yet really important area of the brain came up in a discussion. In my opinion it’s a huge part of what makes Feldenkrais so different from other methods - the others, which focus mostly on “getting stronger” through pain.

With Moshe’s method we improve a number of ways, one of them is…

“…. by connecting the two sides of the brain….
the corpus callosum facilitates the transfer of visual and emotional information from the right side and relays the meaning of the text from the left side.”
(This little area of the brain)..
“conveys and integrates the disparate aspects of reading
into a cohesive and harmonious experience that seems, to us,
perfectly seamless.”

the corpus callosum looks and acts as a bridge between the two hemispheres.

The way I interpret what Moshe repeats over and over again, to:
move slowly,
be gentle,
stay within our comfort zones…

is for us to work out the differences between our right and left sides in THE WAY we move. When we can work out, figure out, discover what we’re doing differently…

how we press, or lift, or collapse, or lengthen.. or shorten..

the ribs, the pelvis, the thigh, the foot, the toes, the hands, the ear, the eyes, the collar bone, the shoulder blade

on one side,
yet on the other we fail to do the same..

only THEN we can make a change.

During this enquiry one side of our brains is feeding this information to the other… “hey mate, what about you do this with me…” through this little bridge.

The brain then processes the required time and space it needs (in rest periods) to transfer that information from one side to the other…. and become WHOLE… as we slowly, gradually, one lesson at a time…. learn to integrate these really important discoveries.

Some call it “learning”,
we’re learning

to learn!!

Perhaps now when you hear “compare the left side with the right side” you can appreciate (if you’re not already) why it’s so important to acknowledge and appreciate these differences. In a way it verbalises information for the brain which can then give life, or animate these new discoveries.

Once these new differences are acknowledged (in a great-full way), THEN, the brain can go to work on figuring out ways to mirror the other side and synchronise the movements… which, again, then offers a different, unusual, unknown pathway.

YAY! The lights go on… new territory!

You may all be familiar with the double slit experiment… posting it here as a little prompter… this experiment proves that it is our AWARENESS that changes everything, the observer completely shifts behaviour… sometimes of dark, nefarious critters that hate the spotlight:

sunlight is the greatest disinfectant!!

Feldenkrais provides a spotlight, to assist us to develop awareness as a skill, a tool for causing change…

… in ourselves.
And, through these shifts in ourselves
our environment “magically” shifts too.

With that said… please bear that in mind as you do this lesson, Moshe (yet again) offers some golden opportunities to bring into existence all that we have learned, practiced and (re)membered to date.

Here is the lesson: