Many of the ideas I have are closely aligned with those of Moshe Feldenkrais, who is the author of several books on “body awareness”. These are some of what I think are the best ideas taken from his books.
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We act in accordance with our self image. In order to change our mode of action we must change the image of ourselves. The ability to move is important to self value.
The question is really to what extent and most particularly, in what way can one best help oneself.
Several things must be clearly understood to make the acquisition of a new set of responses possible. We must not become discouraged if we find we have slipped back to the original condition at any time. These regressions will become rarer and return to the improved condition easier as the learning process continues.
Changing a habit or established pattern means a change in the whole way an act is performed, a change in its whole dynamics. A man who cannot jump will not be aware of the parts of the body involved that are clearly defined to a man who is able to jump.
Until a new habit is fully integrated with awareness, improvement may be likened to correcting playing on an instrument that is not properly tuned.
Persons found their own personal, special way of carrying out activities that came naturally. When this personal method proved to have advantages, it tended to be adopted by others.
Mans faults and deviations should not be overlooked or suppressed but used to direct his correction.
By muscular movement we mean the impulses of the nervous system that activate the muscles which cannot function without the impulses to direct them.
We can prevent ourselves from giving visible expression to fear and other feelings.
A drastic change in the motor cortex will have parallel effects on thinking and feeling. A fundamental change in the motor basis within any single integration pattern will break up the cohesion of the whole and leave thought and feeling without anchorage in the patterns of their established routines. Hence corrected movement is about learning something at a feeling level that one has not been able to do before.
The execution of an action by no means proves that we know, even superficially, what we are doing or how we are doing it. If we attempt to carry out a movement with awareness – that is, to follow it in detail – we discover that even the simplest of actions such as getting up from a chair is a mystery and that we have no idea how all of it is done. With awakened awareness, realization can come that the performance of an action does not really correspond to what he thought he was doing. Some actions prove to be close to the exact opposite of the original intention.
Awareness is consciousness together with a realization of what is happening within it. It is much more difficult to become aware and in control of involuntary muscles, senses, emotions, and creative abilities. Development stresses the harmonious coordination between structure, function, and achievement. A condition for this is complete freedom from self compulsion or compulsion from others.
Clear thought is born only in the absence of strong feelings which distort objectivity.
Lessons are designed to improve ability, to expand the boundaries of the possible. To turn the impossible into the possible, the difficult into the easy, the easy into the pleasant. We shall do better to direct our will power to improve our ability so that in the end our actions will be carried out with ease and understanding.
Most people of strong will power are people with relatively poor ability. If you rely mainly on will power, you will develop your ability to strain and become accustomed to applying an enormous amount of force to actions that can be carried out with much less energy if it is properly directed and graduated. When learning to act we should be free to pay attention to what we are feeling, what is going on inside of us. A man who does not feel cannot sense differences, and will not be able to distinguish between one action and another. These exercises are intended to reduce effort in movement through a greater ability to sense differences. Conscious mental effort must be made until the adjusted position or habit ceases to feel abnormal and becomes the new habit. The exercises are intended to eliminate from action all superfluous movement and effort.
In systems of teaching generally accepted today emphasis is placed on achieving a certain aim at any price, without regard to the amount of disorganized and diffused effort that has gone into it. Will power may cover up an inability to carry out an action properly.
Awareness allows discovery of how infinitely little man knows about his own powers and about himself in general. A mans ability to make a livelihood may improve dramatically when he discovers what is reducing the efficiency of most of his activities.
We shall learn to recognize efforts that as a result of habit, are normally concealed from our conscious mind. Effective action improves the body and its capacity to act. Reversibility is the mark of voluntary movement. Light and easy movements are good. When activity is freed of tension and superfluous effort, the result is better discrimination and greater ease of action. As this sensitivity of action is further refined, it continues to become increasingly delicate up to a certain level. In order to pass this limit there must be improved organization of the entire personality. But at this stage further advance will no longer be achieved slowly and gradually but by a sudden step.
The limit of ability must be widened by study and understanding rather that stubborn effort and attempts to protect the body. Our powers of identifying such matters are insufficiently developed.
Greater effort does not make better action. When you strain for results, you make it impossible to achieve even a part of the improvement that can be obtained through the breakdown of habitual patterns of movement.
Asymmetrical Awareness 