When All The Parts Work Together

By Maureen McHugh, Feldenkrais

Wellness In Motion

. http://wellnessinmotion.com

More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles

When All The Parts Work Together

If your knee buckles, how do you make it reliable again?

If your neck hurts, what will make the pain go away?

If your back hurts, how can you feel better?

If you have these problems and consult a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, you will get connected with a way of looking at the body, and the psyche, as a whole system. Truly, a holistic view.

It may be that with these, or similar, problems, the origin of the pain is local, and a local intervention is the right choice. It may be that a knee replacement is needed, or a neck brace or back surgery. But, as medical research shows, these interventions do not always solve the problem.

The Feldenkrais Method can help where what is needed is better use of the entire self.

As an example, please try this short, one-sided sequence:

1. Shift forward to the edge of your chair, as though you might fall off. Sit in an upright manner, a little stiff.
2. Imagine you hear a sound behind you and to the right. You wonder what is there. Turn only your head. Three times. Measure how far you can see.
3. Next, as an antecedent, shift your weight to the right. Naturally, the left sit bone lifts. With the weight now mostly on the right sit bone, and letting the left knee come forward, again turn to the right. No longer stiff, allow as much of your body to turn as is convenient. How far do you see behind yourself now?
4. Next, all of the above, plus as you turn, shift your hands. Bring the left hand to the right knee, and the right hand behind. How far do you turn?
5. Next, all of the above, plus as you turn, bring your left hand to your right shoulder and push the shoulder backwards. Does this improve the turning?

This beneficial use of “all the parts” Moshe Feldenkrais, the founder of the Feldenkrais Method, called “integration.” Team work is another good name.

Do you find this obvious?

Feldenkrais did. With good humor, he characterized the Feldenkrais Method, his life’s work, as the clarification of the Elusive Obvious.

It is just like when you misplace your phone. Once it is in your hand again, where it was – and how it got there – is obvious.