Awareness Through Movement #6

Turning The Head Around its Circumference - LEARNING TO LEARN

This lesson also gets filed under novelty which is a strong Feldenkrais theme… it seems when the mind is entertained it has people accomplish otherwise unobtainable results.

Have you ever seen somebody who “can never catch a ball” stand in front of a group of people, have somebody else throw a ball as the group confirms “yep, this person can not catch balls”. Then have that same person study the seam of the ball as it approaches them so that their attention is placed on the object rather than what they consider a fact… and then catch the ball really easily? I’ve been in a room where that happened, too afraid to put up my hand for the public experiment and wishing I had once I saw it play out. This example showed everyone in the room… especially the person who could never catch balls, it’s where we place our attention that matters.

Tonight’s lesson has us engage with the spine in a curiously interesting way. The movements cause us to involve more of the spine as we imagine objects to move the head around. What this can do is intercept a common misnomer, that the spine is a “column”, and instead have people experience how the spine is able to move once that dogma is out of the way. Now, what I’m also curious to learn is… how does giving you this information before doing the lesson change the way you approach it?

And then even curiouser, how can we possibly know the answer to that question if you’re doing the lesson for the first time? Even if you have done it before, how have you thought your spine? Does knowing what you’re doing give you a greater access to doing what you want?? (And there may be many more questions arrive once we’ve finished).

Regardless of the answers, you are invited to play, explore and have fun with these movements, to give your back a break, I mean rest… if it’s been moving as if it’s in 3 separate pieces :)