Between the Ears

BETWEEN THE EARS

Happy Thanksgiving;


Let’s say I have a repetitive strain injury, aka RSI . My hands and fingers seem tense and cramped and painful, from too much time at the computer, perhaps. One way to look at this as a problem of the hands, or a problem of computer-itis. However, another way of looking at this is as a problem between the ears. What does that mean? It means that the problem is that my brain has forgotten how to use my hands the way nature designed hands to be used, as part of an arm, which is part of a shoulder girdle, which is floating near and in synch with my ribs, which are attached to my spine, which is connected to my pelvis, which is rooted down into the floor via my legs and feet.

So according to nature, when I use my hands at the computer, I can feel their use all the way down into my feet. According to bad habits that have gotten into that space between the ears, the hands are supposed to crank away on their own. Guess which way is going to feel easy and integrated with all of me, and which way is going to lead to pain and injury.

This is what Moshe ´ Feldenkrais discovered that led to his creating the Feldenkrais Method®. His knees where wrecked from soccer and a mental habit of playing with intent to win at all costs. At the time, in the 1940’s, his doctors told him an operation would have a 50% chance of success. He thought that was the same as flipping a coin and set out to discover how to heal himself. Drawing on his background as a judo master, and a scientist, he set out to discover how our bodies work, when they work efficiently, and from observing babies in his wife’s pediatric practice, he saw more of how we move when we move naturally. He discovered that to heal his knees, he need to learn to more naturally move his ankles and toes and legs and pelvis and ribs and spine and neck and breathing and eyes, and brain. He needed to relearn how to go about something with curiosity rather than intent to succeed. When he learned all this, he could walk and even do judo again in his seventies with knees which should have left him paralyzed.

This is the glory of finding a solution between the ears, rather than in the knees or the hands or the shoulders or the back.

Similarly, in the last essay, I offered an explanation of the “Work” of Byron Katie. Here, too, the usual suspects are rejected as the cause of the pain. Instead of a “bad” husband who says the wrong thing to us, and a “bad” wife who doesn’t smile at the right time, or “bad” parents who criticized us, or “bad” children who disobey, or “bad” people around town who don’t appreciate us or return our calls, the problem is between our ears. It is our thinking about and reaction to their so called “bad” behaviors that causes us the pain. This is not to say that all is equal, and we might as well be rude or selfish since if others don’t like it, it’s their problem. This is about our own freedom and happiness inside. The world is such that other people are going to be busy or distracted or mean or selfish occasionally and we can either deal with our pain as a problem between our ears, which we can do something about, or as a problem “out there,” which is usually a straight path to frustration and ineffectiveness.

This all relates to the essay two back on seeing a “problem” as a chance to use our curiosity and intelligence to make the whole system better rather than falling for the attack mode. So whether it’s insects attacking plants that stimulates us to improve the soil and growing conditions, or a “bad” person, who stimulates us to see what in our thinking and reacting is setting us up to push our own buttons, or a sore back giving us a chance to learn how to organize ourselves in a freer and more natural way, these “problems” are all an opportunity to use that most miraculous (and under-utilized) piece of matter in the universe: our human brains.

( More of Byron Katie at thework.org. More on the Feldenkrais Method at Feldenkrais.com. For my past essays and many more, see slowsonoma.com. Hey, hello, you are here. Keep looking, reading and enjoying. Contact me for Feldenkrais or Byron Katie lessons, at 707-996-1437)

Feldenkrais, movement and children

CHILDREN AND FELDENKRAIS
Once upon a time, I taught fourth grade. I like to ask the children their favorite time of day. There were always two answers: lunch ( food, plus freedom to move) and recess ( freedom to move). One has to spend only a short while with a three year old to see how exciting and delightful movement is to children.

Life is movement. Slow movement in a redwood tree, faster in bamboo, and we get to walk to the redwood trees in Bartholomew Park. To walk on two feet is not so easy and yet almost every child performs this feat of genius: they learn to roll over, to raise their head to look at the world, they learn to crawl, to walk. And to talk. Another act of genius. Our brains are mighty and magnificent and love to learn.

How might we re-awaken our latent and deeply human urge to learn? One way is to re-establish a connection to our love of and fascination with movement. Movement that is “present” at three levels is truly delicious, an opportunity to “wake up” to our Life. Like this: find a peaceful place to walk. Sense your arms and legs as they move and be aware of which foot is pressing down on the Earth. That’s the skeletal level. Add on awareness of breath, the old life maintaining breathing in and breathing out. That’s the lung, heart, air level. And add on an awareness of light coming into the eyes and sound coming into the ears as we stroll through the world on this miracle called Life.

Some people think that if you can improve the quality of your movement, you can improve the quality of your life. Moshe Feldenkrais was one of these people. Born in 1904, in what is now Poland, he left home at 14 and walked to Palestine. Starting life there as a laborer, he later received a doctor in science in physics from the Sorbonne in France. Mastering several languages, always intensely curious, he became the appointed Westerner to bring judo to Europe. Wrecking his knees playing soccer, he opted to discover how to heal them himself. His discoveries resulted in the Feldenkrais Method®, which he developed and taught from the 50’s until his death in 1984.

Feldenkrais wrote only a few books, with each title illuminating an important aspect of his work: Awareness Through Movement, the Potent Self, and The Elusive Obvious. His work has been of use to all ranges of people, from children with cerebral palsy, to stroke victims, to seniors with balance issues, to professional musicians and athletes, to people with sore backs, shoulders, hips, to those wishing to improve walking, dancing, golf, skiing, or simply the quality of their lives.

What the work always has in common is the awareness that comes from discovering options to our habitual ways of moving.

THIS WORK IS NOT JUST ABOUT BECOMING MORE FLEXIBLE, THOUGH THAT WILL IMPROVE. IT IS ABOUT LEARNING TO CONNECT MORE OF OURSELVES TO MORE OF OURSELVES, TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE CONNECT AND FEEL AND MOVE WHEN WE DO SO WITH EASE AND GRACE. IT IS ASLO ABOUT DISCOVERING POSSIBILITIES OF MOVING THAT WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY NOT KNOWN ABOUT BECAUSE OF OUR HABITUAL WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES AND HABITUAL WAYS OF MOVING.

This may sound vague, but as we walk, there is a deep and useful connection of our left shoulder and right hip, our right foot and the pelvis, our eyes and the spine.

Meditation is nice, and this, an awareness of our arms and legs and breath and spine and light and sound as we move, this is a very sweet meditation. After finishing this chapter we can all go take a walking. Walking isn’t just for warding off feared heart attacks. It’s for exulting in the miracle of being human. Walk today, walk tomorrow. For the rest of your life, watch children and see how they flow as one. And take walks in Nature, delighting to wake at three levels.