How Feldenkrais 'Works'

There’s an irony to thinking about Feldenkrais as ‘working.’ Work can mean effort, and for what we teach, effort makes learning much less likely. The learning zone is the easy, spontaneous, uncomplicated zone.

‘Work’ could also be thought of as asking ‘does this work?’ – as in ‘does this accomplish the goal?’ But strangely, having a goal also gets in the way of learning. I can’t explain this part… but in the more challenging Awareness through Movement classes, as a practical matter, you only pop up to your feet, or roll over or whatever it is you are challenged to do when you give up the goals and just sort of let it happen.

Would it be nice if some scientists would measure how well it works to pop up? Kinda sorta. But maybe it is beside the point. Yes, it is lovely that Feldenkrais helps a person become more agile and effective. But that is more like fallout. The point of the lesson is more generalizable: to find that marvelous sense of spontaneous ease – to float up onto your feet rather than working your way there.

The closest study I know that gets to the question ‘does Feldenkrais support spontaneous ease?’ has to do with how we rest on the floor. The study compares how a person rests on the floor at the beginning and end of a Feldenkrais Functional Integration session. At the end, you rest more completely on the floor. But you can’t make that happen from ‘work.’ Meeting the floor happens from getting in the zone, not from commanding it.

But really, you ask: c’mon, does it WORK? – or is Feldenkrais just a lot of hand-waving? Of course I think the best answer is to do it and know for yourself.

But it can also be useful to ask – how does it work, and as I write my 2,700 remaining entries, I hope to share as much as possible about that.