This is an excerpt from my book, Feldenkrais Illustrated: The Art of Learning. The quotes in this chapter are from 2 books by Moshe Feldenkrais:
Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning and The Potent Self: A Study of Spontaneity and Compulsion
You will find all of the references below.
References
Quotes from Moshe Feldenkrais were taken from the following sources:
Body and Mature Behavior: A Study of Anxiety, Sex, Gravitation and Learning by Moshe Feldenkrais. Copyright © 1949 by Moshe Feldenkrais. Copyright © 2005 by Michel Silice. Reprinted by permission of Frog Books and Somatic Resources, Berkeley, CA.
The Potent Self: A Study of Spontaneity and Compulsion by Moshe Feldenkrais. Copyright © 1985 by Moshe Feldenkrais. Copyright © 2002 by Michel Silice. Reprinted by permission of Frog Books and Somatic Resources, Berkeley, CA.
CHAPTER 7: HABITS
"Society gradually teaches the child, through personal contact with the adult, a series of responses which will become in time more or less automatic. These are habits of feeding, language, habits of thought and general behavior." -Moshe Feldenkrais, Body and Mature Behavior, p 69.
"…the habitual response formed by your mode of adjustment to dependence is the only response you are capable of that feels right to you." -Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, p 43.
"…each person explores his world to find those conditions into which that pattern fits, just like the duck that heads for water." -Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, p 33.
"Thus you create again and again the circumstances in which that response is sustained." -Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, p 43.
"In some existences, for instance, misery is an essential and vital element, without which life is practically impossible or at least unthinkable. Eliminate the apparent source of misery, and the person will resort to the most ingenious inventiveness in order to reestablish conditions in which the old misery can be enjoyed to the full." -Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, p 33.
"When a person continues to use a stereotyped pattern of behavior instead of one suitable to the present reality, the learning process has come to a standstill." -Moshe Feldenkrais, Body and Mature Behavior, p 205.
"In those planes of life in which our maturity is least developed, we continue acting compulsively; we do (or we do not do) things knowing perfectly well that we want the exact opposite." -Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, p 8.
"To alter the course of an existence, the whole attitude and manner of action must be changed." -Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, p 33.
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