On Feldenkrais

Sure there are the miracles.  Walking along one day you realize the knee twinge is no longer part of your experience.  Or the neck doesn't lock, or the electric toe is at peace. 

But the most profound effect of Feldenkrais method is pleasure. The practice of trying things, sensing what connects with what, what makes what move, and finding ease in All That is really so much fun.  I remember noticing my young daughter's attitude when she was playing: what happens when I do this?  

It is still possible to play, to engage in discovery, like figuring out how to roll like a baby or lift your neck as if it is the first time. It isn't always easy, especially if you are old, or grew up with disabillity, or both. Feldenkrais technique aims to disrupt compulsive action, or habit. In most Awareness Through Movement lessons, the teacher introduces a wierd counterintuitive thing like moving your eyes in the opposite direction of your head. Oddly, after doing such a thing, all of this spaciousness sprouts, and then there is freedom of movement where there wasn't before.  

Of course doing this again and again provides direction and practice for the mind. When I encounter something really hard, I try switching things up, like the antidote to the oft-quoted notion that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Just do something different.  See how it goes. If you don't like it, try something else.  

I think this is all tied in to listening, to improvisation, to letting go.  What comes next?

September 2017

Zen Practices that Help with Stuff

Coming home from the zen retreat, having realized the importance of non-conversational camaraderie, I was excited to try a new schedule that included working at a café. On the first day of this exciting new plan I worked efficiently in the morning, knowing my time was limited, then headed down to meditate at the Village Zendo, and then, then, my reward! I went to my favorite café, found an excellent spot, planted myself and my laptop, opened it with a deep sigh of anticipatory pleasure.  

Can you guess?  It was dead. I had no charger with me.  

Waves of disappointment and rage.  At what? At whom?  No target. I could either abandon my plan or park my stuff and walk 12 minutes back and forth to get the charger. So I walked, furious, thinking about how much time I had wasted. People and traffic lights were obstacles as I imagined how fast I could grab the charger and run back to where I should have been already.  

Fortunately the absurdity of all that alighted in my consciousness. Then I entered the fury, and the fury changed. I continued to feel anxious, and then I entered the anxiety, and the anxiety changed. Eventually, I made my way back to the café, and when I discovered that the outlet near my perfect table was dead, I just moved. No perfection, only movement and adaptation.  

These are some big things I've learned through my Zen studies.  

• Enter here. Include emotion and everything else, without exception.
• Let go of This so you can welcome This. Die with every breath.
• Do it for the doing, not the goal, but don't forget the goal.

But there are also little things like: 

• Settle in completely, even if you are only there for three minutes.
• Clean up completely, even if you will get back to it soon.
• Just enough is more satisfying than a bit too much.
• Leave space between things, just enough to be able to roll a little paradox around on your tongue before you swallow.  

Now I'm having fun.  

Attention!

Today a client lamented that no matter how well she prioritized, constant impingements from ‘the feed’ kept taking her attention.  This is our world.  No matter what job we get or freedom we attain from this or that obligation, data continues to come at us, and asks for an instant response.  We buy something and we’re not done.  We have to complete a survey—about the product, the merchant, the delivery service and then the survey.  Could we have improved the experience of taking a survey?  I’m only little bit kidding.  The need for feedback seems to fold in on itself as it multiplies in some kind of quantum equation I am not qualified to generate.  

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The Change Steps

For real and lasting change, you'll need DIPS: Determination, Intention, Practice, and Support.um..change steps?

D for Determination: When we've banged our heads against the wall enough, frustration points us to a new direction.  Yes, this really is a step.  Banging our heads is quite productive.   It produces pain that leads us to an alternative (unless we have learned helpnessness, which is another conundrum addressed elsewhere.)   We are determined to quit smoking, for example.

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Your Working Zone

I'm calling It the Working Zone, because of the clarity of its counterpoint--not working.  As in: this is not working!   Because you know when it's not  working, don't you?  You're burned out, or enraged, or stuck, or depressed, or freaking out with anxiety.  In that condition, nothing is more important than finding a way to lower the decibel level of the stress until we can work with it.  Go ahead and sweep that problem under the rug for now.   

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