Life long learning
Last week, I was teaching on the Feldenkrais Training, London 5, which has just started. (There’s still time to sign up if you’d like to be a Feldenkrais Method teacher. Or if you would like to dive into the work in more detail!)
It’s always great to be there. It’s like practising as a musician. No matter how much complexity you can play, it’s always useful to go back to basics: long notes, scales, studies. So even if I’ve done many of the lessons before, when I repeat them, they go in at a different level. I noticed different things whilst moving, and made new connections.
It’s a learning process, and we can always learn more, however old we are. That’s one of the joys of being human.
Responsibility and agency
One of the radical ideas in Feldenkrais is that you’re in charge of your own learning, and self-care. With the responsibility comes agency. So you rest when you need to, rather than when the teacher tells you too. For many it takes some time to do this.
It allows for your brain to rest as well as your muscles. Often solutions come at moments when we’re not thinking about something. It’s when we make neural connections, or improve the speed of those connections. A rest allows the next repetition to be a new neural event for the brain, as well as reducing physical strain. When we’re tired, we’re more likely to pull or strain something. After all, we’re not as aware of what we’re doing when willpower and efforting becomes part of the action.
Transform how you move, feel and live 