Awareness Through Movement #399

Differentiation in turning - arm, head, and leg

“Distinguish between learning and doing.
When you learn how to do something,
you must do less than you are able to do.
When you “do” you must be able to do it quickly, powerfully with everything good.
When you learn, it is different than “to do.”
Whoever does not distinguish between these two things,
never learns”.
Moshe Feldenkrais

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This method is something of a paradox, which might become clear with tonight’s lesson. We learn more about differentiation through this classic Feldy range of movements, separating the eyes from the head from the legs which are moving in the same direction as the head and then arms do the opposite. I promise it will make sense when you’re doing it! By consciously separating the parts we’ve been trained to think of as separate from the rest… we encourage the arms to do their thing as the legs do theirs, treating them as though they don’t belong together, to feel what that’s like. And there are endless variations as we observe the chaos… and teach the right side to train the left… excellent fodder for the brain!!

… and then we bring all of these movements together to experience the one-ness of self, a sense of BEing whole,
*living*
in ONE system…
to learn that the arm IS the leg,

and the front..
IS the back,
when viewed from a different angle.

It’s all about perspective…

this is Grok’s:
When the lesson differentiates the eyes from the head,
it challenges habitual patterns
—eyes typically follow the head’s lead—
and this break from autopilot
can spark a subtle existential shift.

You might begin to question:
What else do I assume is fixed?

The torso,
as the movement’s anchor,
becomes a metaphor for your BEing’s foundation,
steady,

yet adaptable.