Finding a Fascial Pattern Using Your Imagination

If you need to recognize when a muscle pattern engages, and if you happen to be a person who needs to notice this with all of your consciousness, there are a few tricks that help. The thing to know is that muscles ‘initiate’ before you are aware that you have made a decision. This is why the 'imagining' variations are so important in Feldenkrais: they help you see the part of the sequence of your muscle engagement that is the most opaque and the most important – the part where you commit yourself before you actually even know you have decided to move.

To develop this skill, close your eyes and imagine the motion, but don't actually move. Encompass as many details as you can; pare away the superfluous ones. Then do it for real and see how your imagination succeeded, how it might have missed something. Go back and forth until you have refined your image, stopping before you get bored. I encourage you to play with this skill of imagining a movement in your own way, frequently, for fun.