Living as a bundle of tensions – a word about mindfulness
Its interesting that there is now a course that can be taken in ‘mindfulness’.
Many teachings, practices and therapies are based on being mindful, present to the moment, watchfulness and observing oneself.
How does Feldenkrais fit in? First off Moshe (the man himself) never alluded to any kind of spiritual practice. His writings though full of acute perceptions never held any kind of world view or belief system. He was however very sure of the relationship between the mind, body and feelings – a movement of the body is always accompanied by thought and feeling, even if we are totally unaware of this. All habitual postures and actions are linked with habitual feeling and thinking.
The Feldenkrais Method brings us directly into an experience of the physical body – for instance -how are you breathing right now, how does this relate to what else you are doing? Are you tensing yourself in various parts of your body (unconsciously) which is also making you feel more stressed, tense, anxious, afraid? or put in reverse – are you feeling worried and anxious and therefore stressing parts of your body? which comes first? a bit of the chicken and egg syndrome.
Ingenious lessons called ‘Awareness Through Movement’ group classes, and ‘Functional Integration’ private lessons address these patterns of tension, by investigating the patterns of the physical body, and ‘teaching it to move better’, via your own brain and nervous system – giving you the sense of greater ease and freedom – in both your movement, your thinking and your feeling.
It also enables you to be more present, however you might define that term for yourself!