This post was first published November 22, 2023, weeks after I began this newsletter, and has had the most views.
This list is useful when you are learning something new or when you feel bunched up.
Be present right here, now.
Presence feels slow.
Your focus is soft, expansive
and curious
Space opens up
Look around…
Just in this moment, what feels good? What’s appealing?
Take your time and space
to notice
and enjoy
You are simply present
You can take your time
and space
to do what you want to do
and let it be what it is
We begin life learning without effort
we still do.
You are present and curious
doing what you want to do
and
finding out what happens
Just this, right now, is precious as it is
Take it easy.
Feeling an urge to push forward or pull away?
Let go of effort.
Be present and slow
Space opens up
Look around again
See what happens next
Taking it easy, you do what you want;
as you find out what happens
choices appear,
and preferences emerge
Take your time to notice
and enjoy
Who’s bothering to be efficient? If so, go back to the beginning.
Taking it easy is efficient
in the long run
which is now
Your presence is a relaxed and open field of awareness
free association
fresh energy
surprise
arise spontaneously
If you start with an ideal
hold it lightly
while it easily
changes
Wonderful!
…
Thanks for wandering down this list with me. I enjoy your company.
Moshe Feldenkrais was a Ukrainian-Israeli physicist, engineer, and martial artist with several black belt degrees in judo and jujitsu. He studied with Madam Curie, worked at the Radium Institute, escaped the Nazis, worked on submarine defense in Britain during the second world war, and taught self-defense to servicemen recovering from injuries.
Refusing surgery for his own various injuries, he created a healing modality that he taught for the last 30 years of his life based on the idea that “thought, feeling, perception and movement are closely interrelated and influence each other.” This list is from Learning to Learn, an essay about how to get the best results from the Awareness Through Movement lessons taught in his book by that name, and in classes by Feldenkrais practitioners everywhere.
Over time, practicing these principles, taking a path of ease seems the only way to proceed. I used to think it was a counter-trend logic but increasingly, I see people letting go and letting things be what they are. What a relief! It’s like the sparkle after a long rain, and the intoxicating pungency of wet earth. Here and now is where life is lived and learned, easily.
As I mentioned in this previous posting, we turned Feldenkrais into a verb:
“Having a rough time editing your book? Feldenkrais it, you don’t want to mess it up.”
“Here come the holidays. We’ll feldenkrais them, and surprise ourselves.”
“I still don’t get this Substack thing!” “Oh well. Feldenkraising it gets it done.”
Easy does it.
I’d love to hear how this works for you in the comments!
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