Going Easy and Letting Go: We can go one step further in describing the way in which people behave when finding Feldenkrais’s methods to be helpful. We can look both at the behavioral side and at the side of neural functioning. We turn first to the behavioral side and rely once more on Alfons Grabher’s (2010, p. 87) account of how it is possible to go with easy—even in a world that promotes the triumph over adversity:
Our culture celebrates the idea of pushing the limits. When trying to achieve something, no amount of stress seems to be too much. “Feel the burn”, “destroy those legs”, ”no pain, no gain” are the mantras. Jane Fonda pioneered this philosophy in the 1980s, and while her taped workouts aren’t selling any longer, her catch phrases live on.
Pushing yourself to the limits might give you satisfying feelings in sports and working out, but for in the field of somatic learning pushing it won’t have the same effect. You might have some short-term success, but as the stress levels drop, so will your gains.
At an even simpler level, Feldenkrais is about less (rather than abundance). Another departure from prevailing contemporary views (Grabher, 2010, p. 87):
For learning and refining movement, less is more. It’s just so much more effective. If any move hurts, stop immediately. That is your body telling you to not do that particular movement. However, if you discover that something feels pleasant, linger there for a while; that is your body telling you that you need that movement.
Feldenkras is about learning to let go, literally (Grabher, 2010, p. 34-35)
Everybody knows how to contract muscles. When someone grabs a cup, gets hold of a chair to move it, or pulls on a door – there is contraction. Everybody is familiar with this feeling and can relate to it – using muscle power to contract, flex, extend and twist, to pull or push or squeeze or hold onto something. Less commonly trained, yet equally important, is that muscles can be released. However, this does not refer to the term “extension’, performed by extensor-muscles. Just like contraction, releasing and letting go of muscle contractions involves a certain kind of feeling and intention. For many people it seems quite challenging to develop this skill, to find this feeling; and yes, for some it actually takes a while to find it and get better at it.
Perhaps this is the most important lesson for the Tin Man to learn. He might not have needed the oil or even the assistance of Dorothy and the Scarecrow (though their caring attitude is certainly gratifying). He could move without assistance. His body was not hollow but was instead filled with self-organizing properties that would enable the Tin Man to travel all the way to Oz without difficulty. Perhaps, his “heart” was to be found in this self-organization—and in self-organizing on behalf of some greater purpose (such as assisting his new-found friends in their journey to Oz).
Multi-level processing
While it was the Scarecrow that complained of not having a brain, it was important for the Tin Man (along with Dorothy and later the Cowardly Lion) also to have brains. For Feldenkrais, the brain (central nervous system) must play an important part in the self-organization of behavior—and benefits from this self-organized behavior. The marvelous self-reinforcing pattern that we have repeatedly witnessed with Feldenkrais (and Reich).
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