WAYS OF KNOWING
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?
I realize that “how we know what we know” is a question perhaps more appropriate to philosophers or spiritual teachers. In fact, I give some credit for this article to Adreanna Limbach, a meditation teacher, and the course I recently took with her. Reading Martha Beck’s new book The Way of Integrity that in some ways addresses the question was another prompt.
The lens through which I will address this question is my experience as both a Feldenkrais® practitioner and as a mentor to Feldenkrais® trainees.
Most of us would agree that at least in part, we know stuff because we have been taught and learned stuff, in what might be described as a cognitive way. We can easily share that knowledge in words that probably make sense to others who share a common language and a relatively similar culture. This does not necessarily suggest an absolute truth. After all, at one point weren’t folks taught that the earth was flat? Still having learned something around which there is some consensus is rather a common way that we believe we know something.
In some situations, things we learn seem inarguable. If we measure one object with a ruler and it is six inches long, and another object that measures twelve inches long, we know that the second object is longer.
I am lying on the floor in a Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement® class. I do some movements with my arm that I will share later in this article. I am instructed to rest my arm and then asked if it feels longer or shorter. Huh? How can arms change length in a few minutes of doing some gentle movements? The most skeptical student in the class might have wished someone measured their arm before and after. Why am I even being asked this question?
Yet for some reason my arm does feel longer. Should I trust that sensation that the logical mind likely believes is impossible? The truth of the matter is that there are sense organs within us that give us information like this. It is likely that if the gentle movements resulted in some measure of decreased muscle tension, we sense that our arm got longer- and perhaps it did by a small amount disproportionate to what we are sensing.
Essential to the Feldenkrais® Method is this type of kinesthetic and embodied learning. Those who engage in the method learn to sense themselves in rest and in movement from the inside. Formally the method is called the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education® for this reason.
If I get lower back pain when I lean back a bit because I think that gives me better posture, and find relief by leaning a bit more forward, sustaining this relief lies in my ability to monitor when I sense this discomfort and using those internal cues to make the changes I have previously experienced.
This is in sharp contrast to being told that if I do some set of exercises things will improve and stay that way just because some muscles are becoming stronger or more flexible.
As a Feldenkrais® practitioner it is my task to help my clients and students pay attention to and trust their felt experience.
For folks coming in with a painful diagnosis, and familiar with that more common paradigm, this can be a bit of a “hard sell”. It takes meeting folks and their expectations where they are, and finding the movements (active or hands on) and words to convince them that another way is possible. I have been honing my ability to do this for many years.
My direct experience as a Feldenkrais® mentor and asking others suggests that one of the biggest challenges faced by new graduates of Feldenkrais trainings is recognizing and developing tools to bridge this issue if they are to have a thriving practice.
SIDE EFFECTS …
I am hearing a lot about these in the news recently relative to COVID 19 vaccinations. Typically, when we think “side effects” they are undesirable. This is not the case with the Feldenkrais® Method.
In addition to being a potent tool to address pain and movement related problems, it is also much more.
Through all that I have written here, a key take away point is that in the Feldenkrais® Method- with movement as the tool, we learn to trust our own internal knowing. Over time it has been both my personal experience and that of many many others who engage in the work, that we develop an increased trust in our own inner wisdom in all aspects of life.
What has become the annual Feldenkrais Summit recently concluded. One of the panelists mentioned that when Moshe was asked to briefly summarize his work, he said “know thyself”.
As Moshe Feldenkrais himself said …
“The object of this learning is to remove outside authority from your inner life. Eliminate the old habit of listening to others about your own comfort and convenience.”
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Movement Exploration – you will be working with your dominant arm unless it is painful or has been recently injured.
- Find a comfortable place to lie down on your back. The floor or other firmer surface is optimal (with a mat or other adequate padding) though your bed can work. Settle in and notice your overall contact with your surface and check in that you are breathing easily.
- See if you can get a sense of the length of the arm you are working with.
- Raise your arm slowly toward the ceiling and lower it to your side a few times – How did it get there? How did it return? (I am asking here for your felt sense or where and how movement happens.) Do this a few times and pause and rest.
- Raise your arm and leave your arm raised and lift it even closer to the ceiling. You will probably discover that this requires your shoulder blade to leave the surface. What else can you notice about this movement? Return to having your relatively straight arm raised and your shoulder blade again in contact. Do this a few times, lower your arm to your side, and pause and rest.
- This time you will repeat the same movement with one additional instruction. As your shoulder blade leaves the surface straighten your fingers (do not strain- they do not need to be stiff) and when you come down onto your shoulder blade let them droop. You may want to synchronize your breath with this movement. Repeat this several times and rest with your arm at your side
Many of you will find that your arm feels longer after just these few minutes of gentle movement.