"Do a little less than your utmost while learning... continuing to do a little less than your utmost, you go on improving.... The wisdom of doing a little less than one really can pushes the record of achievement further and further as you come nearer to it, similar to the horizon that recedes on approaching it."
This is Chapter 20 from Feldenkrais Illustrated: The Art of Learning, excerpts from the writings of Moshe Feldenkrais, edited and illustrated by Tiffany Sankary.
"We are beginning to place enormous emphasis on creativity, but there is a tendency to think that being creative is limited to “producing” something. I would suggest to you that the basic creativity of the human being consists in his working toward his own fullest development, the realizing of his own potentials, the allowing himself to grow. What we create first is ourselves and it is out of ourselves that the producing comes.” - Mary Whitehouse
We can improve the use of our eyes but not without improving all of ourselves. Feldenkrais said:
"...we have to learn to listen and think and feel and feel the length of our body and the width of the body and feel the movement and the voice and the thinking that we do and yet move your eyes."
"There is no waste in creative process." -Amy Walsh
The little things, big things, stolen moments, mess, serendipity, inspiration, education, devotion, mistakes, misspellings, struggle, dust, dream---all of it.
When you stay in the process, with the practice, in whatever imaginable and unimaginable ways, all the little drops add up.
If you are a human being, you have a deep natural wellspring of creativity that is your greatest resource for vitality.
The Feldenkrais Method is most fundamentally about rediscovering your inherent creativity and learning to apply and embody it in each moment. Your creativity is your most potent tool for diminishing your aches and pains!
"Do a little less than your utmost while learning... continuing to do a little less than your utmost, you go on improving.... The wisdom of doing a little less than one really can pushes the record of achievement further and further as you come nearer to it, similar to the horizon that recedes on approaching it."
This is Chapter 20 from Feldenkrais Illustrated: The Art of Learning, excerpts from the writings of Moshe Feldenkrais, edited and illustrated by Tiffany Sankary.
"We are beginning to place enormous emphasis on creativity, but there is a tendency to think that being creative is limited to “producing” something. I would suggest to you that the basic creativity of the human being consists in his working toward his own fullest development, the realizing of his own potentials, the allowing himself to grow. What we create first is ourselves and it is out of ourselves that the producing comes.” - Mary Whitehouse
The people who are coming to me via the NY Times article are intelligent, curious, fascinating people--therapists, professors, lawyers, artists, writers---open and eager to learn. It has been an honor to work with them. PAIN is the reason they all came to the method and they are finding that the same process which helps reduce their pain also supports overall well being, and for many, more vibrant creativity. It is a paradigm shift from our pain-no-gain culture.
In one lesson on the difference between exercises and learning he says, "If you go through these exercises in order to gain something," which is just like the zen in where if you think you're meditating to gain something, it's not meditation, 'if you're going through these processes to gain an outcome, then the outcome will be gone within five minutes after you leave the class.
“Failure is information—we label it failure, but it’s more like, ‘This didn’t work, I’m a problem solver, and I’ll try something else.’” -Carol Diener What's your attitude about failure? Infants and children are constantly trying things they don't yet know how to do. What can we gain from understanding a child’s approach to motor learning?