It might be fair to say I'm a synthesizer. I'll read books, listen to podcasts and watch videos from all sorts of domains: sports, business, spirituality, science, art etc.

For instance, going deep into the topics of learning, creativity and wellbeing, I went and pulled up a book from my library from way back called: The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin. It's a biz book.

I am not interested in business as a topic.

So why the hell am I reading it, and more to the point, why on earth am I writing you about it?!

Two reasons:

1) So you don't have to. I love sharing the big take-aways with you.

2) I can better help you as all my studying helps me be a better Feldenkrais® practitioner.

It's not what you think:

Many people think the Feldenkrais Method® is about helping people move better or improving posture or relieving pain.

Although it is great at all those things, that's not what makes it especially powerful.

One place where it's easy to go wrong is to think that 'paying attention' is something you do with that lump of tissue inside your cranium 🧠.

Another place people go wrong is to think that improving movement is all about 'moving' or 'doing' (and not so much about thinking and awareness and attention).

These ways of thinking and doing get in the way of living happier, more fulfilling lives.

How you pay attention is not separate from how you're organizing your musculature. For real. This really is a thing.

And of course, how you move or how you do anything is not separate from your thinking, attention and awareness.

Thinking and doing are not separate distinct things.

What makes the Feldenkrais Method so powerful is it's brilliance in helping us learn:

• how to pay attention better and more flexibly
• how to learn better
• how to engage in creating a better life
• how to be aware in the grandest sense of that word-- that which brings profound wellbeing

Back to this biz book...

In The Opposable Mind, Martin defines what he calls 'Integrative Thinking' as:

The reason I love this way of thinking is because of the inherent creativity embedded in it.

In Awareness Through Movement®, this is kinda like discovering what it means... what it feels likes to move with effortless effort.

Martin goes on to write:

This is, in large part, what makes the Feldenkrais Method so powerful.

It helps us discover and create new possibilities within ourselves-- we can make our inner (and/or outer) worlds better.

For me, nothing comes close to the Feldenkrais Method and Awareness Through Movement lessons in helping us learn how to organize our neuro-musculo- skeletal system to attend in just such a way so as to open up and produce possibilities for our lives.

Integrative thinking (as Martin calls it) is not just something that happens in your head. It's a total organization of your self.

So the next time you're faced with a challenge, consider not only opening your mind to see more than one possible solution, but also pay attention to your sensations and how you're organizing your muscles and skeleton:

• Are you breathing freely?
• Are your eyes fixed?
• What of your jaw?
• Can you sense the space behind you as well as in front?

And so on and so forth...

You might be surprised at how you relate with that challenge your facing, and the way you are able to navigate it.

Cheers,

Gisele