We are our experience. The person that we become is a direct result of an interaction between our mind- body system and the environment. As humans our brains and nervous system develop, grow and change dependent on the experiences we have. This is neuroplasticity in action.
Ultimately, we become creatures of habit. As a species our nervous system has enabled us to survive by identifying and perpetuating patterns. Neurons that fire together wire together! This mind-body system is geared to creating habit, be they physical movements or habitual patterns of thought, emotion and perception.
A habit is simply a mental short cut, that creates an association between the context you are in and the response that you gave. Once you have a strong habit then all you need is to be in that context and the response automatically comes to hand. In other words, our brains are set up to form habits so we can free up the brain space to focus on and learn new things. In “habit mode”, we act quickly without thinking. This division of labor is partly how newer parts of our brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, were able to evolve the ability to think ahead.
However, habits are both a blessing and a curse. Although they save energy and cognitive resources, they become so ingrained that they become our default way of functioning at the exclusion of refining skill and improvement in action. The paradox of habit is that a process that evolved to free up neurological space to learn, also closed off access to refinement, sensitivity and diversity. In doing so we become less responsive and more restrictive in our action as we perpetuate patterns that may not always be serving us in multiple and changing contexts. Indeed our ability to learn and refine maybe hindered.
Learning how to move effectively through the world
From my perspective there is purpose to movement. We move to act in the world, to take action or respond meaningfully. Part of this is learning how to respond effectively in a chaotic and ever changing world. One must remember that human beings are the only animal that must learn to move. At birth, we are only hard wired for basic survival processes; respiration, digestion, excretion and other operative function regulating and maintaining homeostasis. All other movement and action, is learnt through experience.
Indeed we live the first three years of our life, discovering how to relate to different parts of our body. We learn to feel where our arms are, how far our feet are from our head, where up and down is and how we orientate ourself in the world. Without this learning process we would not be able to use our bodies; we would not know how to move our arms and legs in order to crawl, eventually walk, keep our balance, or to function in the world.
For most of us this “organic” learning process ends once we can move well enough to get by. The playful and curious experimentation with movement and the attentive perceiving and experiencing of what goes on in our bodies stops, and we begin to execute our movements automatically. We become satisfied with performing activities in a habitual and familiar fashion and we cease to refine our movement and to deepen our body awareness as soon as we reach a passable degree of competence. We stop improving and refining our skill in action.
Our usual movements may serve the immediate and apparent purpose, however we never learn to use the full potential of ourselves; we move with unnecessary effort and over exert certain muscles, while others are hardly ever brought into play. The consequence of this automatic, unaware use are physical complaints, chronic tension, fatigue, and unnecessary strain that can lead to incapacitation.
We generally assume that all of our problems arise because our bodies aren’t able to understand the exertion caused by a certain activity, or because we’re not strong enough and don’t have enough stamina, or because the activity itself is too demanding. We try to remedy this situation either by making our body stronger and more flexible and increasing our endurance -or by avoiding the activity in question. We rarely consider the possibility that the reason for our complaints is how we perform the activity, how we move, how we use our body.
The Feldenkrais Method is a movement modality for your brain that will help to improve your physical and mental abilities in a pleasant and effortless way. It can teach you how to move with more ease, more comfort, and more efficiency. It does so by improving the effectiveness with which the brain coordinates and controls movement. The method creates an opportunity for you to learn how to make use of the unlimited possibilities of your brain.
From a Feldenkrais perspective, every action has an opportunity to improve itself. We learn better ways of doing what we are doing as we are doing it! Instead of relying on habit or auto pilot, the Feldenkrais Method helps us develop awareness. Paying attention to what we are doing in such a way, so that we continually refine ourselves and our ability to act in the world.
We learn how to become our own measure for efficient movement. We deepen our understanding by learning to make finer distinctions. Our action then does not fall victim to being ruled by habit or compulsion. It is this process that allows us to become more skilful and potent humans.
Below is an exert from the Book Mindful Spontaneity. Ruthy Alon is one of Feldenkrais's earliest students who undertook his training.
Mindful spontaneity- Ruthy Alon
"We are all addicts- creatures of our habits We acquire and are fitted through repeat exposure. We do not give them up without anxiety and distress.
What began as opportunism, in response to specific events or traumas, and served as quick fix solutions at the time, become embedded in the neural repetoir and embodied in our neural muscular capacities. They are the framework of our routines. In that we do not have to waste time and energy preparing novel responses to the multitude of changing circumstances, habits serve us well and we become hooked by them. But the trade-off is that we forsake our rich capacity for creativity and spontaneity. What saves us from the absurdities of unnecessary invention also closes off access to refinement, sensitivity and diversity. We set ourselves up to restrict responsiveness and so we trigger aging by our resistance to change.
The Feldenkrais method is a tool for tapping into and honing personal awareness. By engaging in this process, each person has the opportunity to kick the addiction to habit in a pleasurable non-confronting way. The result is the ability to become increasingly confident in taking charge of the direction and dimensions of one’s life!
Feldenkrais worked with improving movement, but his goal was awareness, the ability to know what one is doing and use effective action in one’s life. Increased vitality is one result. Another is to live one’s dreams and aspirations. Learning to improve oneself involves understanding the nervous system and how it promotes learning. The Method explores how to become more aware of one’s action and sensation. At its core is the question “how do we best organise ourselves for our intended action”
As infants our capacity for learning is extraordinary. Within the first two years of life we have learnt to stand in gravity and walk, to communicate with others in language, to use our senses to construct a perceptual world so that we can move about and act in our environment. This learning involves the basic organizing of our nervous system. This form of learning is organic, occurs without instruction and at a surface level seems somewhat elusive. It is however this learning that gives us the capacity to organise our action and perception through acting in the world. This learning is vital for our existence and is available to us all with the right enquiry."
Comments