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“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh.
Lets try again.. try a search here..
By Melinda Glenister. This was originally written for Feldenkrais Awareness Week and the audio lesson I'm referring to- Four Points can be found here..
The lesson I am sharing here is not an easy lesson.. I would call it an extreme lesson. It doesn’t mean that it’s not possible for a beginner to do it.. But it does mean that it’s for the more adventurous.
I love teaching challenging lessons.. and not only to athletes but to all kinds of people. Feldenkrais is not only about slow and gentle movements. An important part of the method is about how we deal with challenges, and so I have never been one to shy away from these types of lessons.
How to approach it...
There is one piece of teaching that I keep hearing from all kinds of wise people, which starts to drive me a bit nuts.. It seems to me to be as useful as ‘relax’ - which might be the most useless piece of advice ever.. Relax how? If people knew how to relax they probably wouldn’t be needing your services at all, or asking for advice in the first place.
So to me its along similar lines..
And what is this gem of wisdom so many great teachers like to impart upon thee?
“Be yourself”
Or “Be you!”
Or the one that really tipped me over the edge to write this today…
“Just (just.. ahem..) be MORE of yourself.. “
My question is.. how can a person be more of themselves if they aren’t clear who they are?
I have a confession to make… I have been experiencing amnesia.
Not the kind where you forget appointments or can’t remember where you put your keys.. (although I did lose my car in a car park recently.) The kind of amnesia that happens when you fall into a fracture between worlds. Trapped somewhere between the old and the new, without a compass, unable to remember how to get out, or where you were going before you forgot, or even how you began to solve the problem the last time. The kind where you do remember that you’ve been here before, in this state of amnesia, and you’ve found your way out before, maybe countless times- but you cannot remember how you did that.. What did you do? Where did you look? What was the first step?
That is the kind of amnesia I’ve been in this week.
The ironic thing is- the last thing I remember before I fell into this amnesia- was that I was talking about amnesia. The matrix of our beliefs that contain us become camouflaged and disappear from view if we do not pay close attention- thus inducing an amnesiac state. Philip Shepherd in his incredible book 'New Self New World' describes this state and spending years leaving written notes and post-it notes everywhere lest he would succumb to amnesia and forget who he truly was...
We live in a changing world. A time of paradoxes. Everything we thought we knew has been turned upside down. It’s easy to be disoriented when we cannot find which way is up.
As I discussed in my last blog, letting go of our attachment to our identity is necessary to find any feeling of flow, and to remove the massive resistance that many of us are experiencing,
We now live in a world where we do not know who to believe when we look around. And it is more important than ever before to find a guidance system which will foster trust not create more anxiety. This becomes a very big issue when we have adopted beliefs and practises which inhibit our ability to tune our own guidance system.
I’d love to present this in a more palatable way, maybe with a ribbon around it, but the truth is we are screwed if we think the answers we are looking for are going to come from outside us. We are equally screwed if we continue to dissociate our heads from the rest of our bodies and give creative and reasoning control to the parts above the neck, and keep that prioritised above any other information the body may present us with.
It's been a while since I've been writing publicly. Sometimes the silences in between need a little longer than you planned. Sometimes there is more dust to settle. And sometimes the storm keeps going, nothing settles, and there is no form to hold onto. Sometimes you realise you can let the form go entirely, and gradually something completely new begins to emerge. That process needs it's space. It happens both at glacial speed and lightning fast. Before you know it the world looks different, and you look different to the world.
There have been many before and after watershed moments in my life, and this blog represents one of them. Not one that involves death or relationships.. and yet one that involves both death and relationships. To allow for a rebirth there had to be a death of the old. To find new life I had to redefine my relationship with myself... I'd like to introduce you to Version 457835!
We are bombarded with messages that we need to protect our backs and strengthen our ‘cores’. There are so many misconceptions and assumptions made about ‘core stability’ which have seeped into our culture. However, more and more people are waking up to the limitations of the approach and realising that the premise needs to be deeply questioned. Even the notion of what the ‘core’ is and if it actually exists is disputable.
An act of fate brought me into working with children. More than 10 years ago my baby nephew had a brain injury. I was one year into my Feldenkrais training at the time. That changed the course of my training and my work in the method. Initially I was learning all I could to help him in his recovery and long journey ahead. Over time I started working with other children with all kinds of needs and difficulties, all with extraordinary courage.
I have been really blown away by how many people have been listening to my recordings over the last few months, form all corners of the world.. I have been receiving messages from people who have been affected or inspired or moved by them in all different ways. So I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you…
Body Intelligence
As players push themselves and each other to ever increasing levels of physical abilities, they also increasingly push themselves to and beyond their limits. More and more players are breaking down under the strain. This becomes a dangerous trend particularly if we perceive the increasing level of injuries as the new norm, or just part and parcel of the game. If instead we take it as a sign to look at the problem in a different way, it could be the beginning of a different approach to training, where players train smarter not harder.
Burnout
It is my belief that players can’t just push themselves continually through training. That eventually will lead to breakdown. Something is missing in the way most players are training, and that is sensory body awareness. The incredible demands that players have to face during matches require them to be faster, stronger, fitter, and to go beyond pain or discomfort. If training also pushes them beyond their limits, they start to lose touch with themselves and lose their ability to manage themselves. In other words, push hard enough for long enough and performance, ability to adapt, ability to recover, as well as enjoyment will start to go backwards. This is burnout....
Can you be humiliated to death? I was struck this week reading excerpts from Monica Lewinsky’s interview in Vanity Fair magazine, (the first time she has spoken of her affair with Bill Clinton) by the power of shame and catastrophic effects it can cause. That you can actually be humiliated to death, as in the case of 18yr old Tyler Clementi who committed suicide after being filmed kissing another man and having that streamed on the internet. ....
That’s what comes to me when I look at this picture, not seeing the head above the water but what’s beneath the surface. Feldenkrais taught that it doesn’t matter which part you pay attention to - each part it is a reflection of the whole. And in the case of creating space, the act of making space for the class in your weekly schedule, for the recording in case you are not available for the class, creating the space in your home in which to practise, taking the space within your family construct. Allowing yourself to take your space on the floor, and within the class. In so many ways this reflects back to ourselves, inwards to outwards, within without how we make space within our whole being. And how comfortable are we when there is a space. When there is enough space to feel.