About Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method® uses touch, awareness and sensory learning to improve movement, coordination, balance and overall performance in all activities.

How does the Feldenkrais Method® work?  The human body, like other animals, has a nervous system with a central processing area with two dynamic parts much like yin and yang.  This interactive system receives information, processes the input and then carries out an action.   

The first  part , our sensory nervous system, has sensory nerves and sensory organs that receive stimulus and information which is felt by our bodies.  This information  includes smells, tastes, sounds, sights, touch, pressure, heat, cold, gravity and velocity.  The sensory nervous system reports stimuli to the spinal cord and brain. 

 In response to the sensory system’s  input  to the brain or spinal cord, the second part, our motor nervous system sends out commands via motor nerves  from the brain or spinal cord to the body, specifically to muscles, organs, glands, circulation, etc. , to keep our bodies in an optimal state.

The central nervous system, our brain and spinal cord, organizes and maintains our bodies for survival and optimal pleasure.  Some functions of survival don’t need to be processed all the way to the brain and can be regulated at our spinal cord, while other functions require analysis, decision-making and problem-solving abilities that our intricate cerebral cortex can provide.  As human’s we have an enormous potential in connecting more of our brain to our sensory system.  The creative potential we humans have with our brains and nervous systems cannot begin to be compared to even the most advanced computers we could create!  Our nervous systems are like computers that are highly underused and capably of much higher upgrades to our software.

If our sensory system reports a change from our normal resting stimulus (“baseline”), that information  needs to be processed and responded to by the brain or spinal cord to command the motor system’s response.  How our brains organize the sensory information is unique to each person, as much as tree roots grow finer roots into the ground to seek out the best water and nutrients for its survival.  When our brains and spinal cords receive stimuli from our senses, we consciously-- as well as unconsciously, compare this stimulus to our “baseline” or normal resting operations. 

Once we make this sensory comparison to baseline, we send a command message via  the motor nervous system to our heart, glands, organs  and muscles for best survival.   

For example, there is a certain point where a person notices they feel cold (sensory system) and need (central system command) to put on a sweater (motor system).  Sometimes, adapting to a change in our “baseline” operations is unconscious , i.e.,  when we have been sitting too long in one position and naturally shift our weight. 

This is a simplistic account of our nervous system.  The depth of our ability to sense has only begun to be recognized by neuroscience.  Recent neuroscience studies show that our hearts and abdominal area s have very refined sensory systems that often respond and relay to our brain and entire body to changes to our baseline operations.   Hence the old adages, “Gut feelings”  or “heartfelt,” have a renewed value  by modern science.  “Extra-sensory” abilities demonstrated by some people  are still being studied by science to learn more about our nervous systems potential.  Research of Chinese medicine practices such as Qigong show  that there is a capacity for the human body to heal itself internally, influence healing in others, and interact with our environment in a much more sensitive, harmonious way.   There is much we are discovering about the capacity of our nervous systems. 

Brain studies consistently show after thirty years of neuroscience research that most adults still use approximately ten percent of their brains.  Studies of Native peoples, like Australian aborigines, have been shown to use up to fifty percent of their brains.  The difference between native peoples and industrialized peoples may be  that native aborigines have to rely constantly on their sensory nervous systems to survive in the world.  Industrialized people tend to only engage a small portion of their brain in order to survive in society.  Studies have found that certain professions that engage more sensory parts of our nervous systems use a larger percentage of the brain.

Think of the difference in entertainment in the two cultures of aboriginal versus industrial.  Imagine how much more of your brain you use if you were telling and acting out a story in front of a fire in the woods with an awareness of potential predators lurking in the dark a few paces away.  Compare that experience with lying on your couch in a supine position with a glass of beer or soda and staring at a relative small box  several feet wide for many hours in the dark.  Which experience stimulates and engages your brain and body more?  Which situation increases circulation of your blood and spinal fluid more?  Which situation would you feel more alive?  Which situation requires more of your full participation? 

Brain studies conclude that watching television reduces our brain activity  to less than when we sleep and reduces our ability to learn and pay attention. 

The Feldenkrais Method® engages our sensory nervous systems to experience new sensations and movements that are outside our habitual “baseline” resting positions.

What makes Feldenkrais work interesting is that we use both the conscious and unconscious parts of our brain to interact with organizing sensory information to improve our comfort and performance.  People who experience these changes in comfort and performance can feel the difference  in their bodies and retain the skill level because they feel pleasure and increased sense of security and confidence in themselves.  While the expression, “Seeing is believing” is common, I have found that “feeling is knowing” stays with us much longer because of feelings are necessary for survival whereas sight is secondary in comparison to feeling.  Sensory experiences and feelings are the closest experience we have to “reality.”   What we see is often given interpretation and meaning and needs to be felt to give it the “weight” and “position” in our memories.  What we feel is a direct, imprinted experience that later is processed and used.

(More to come… include back up references for the neuroscience information)