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The Tyranny of Virtuosity

An unfortunately pervasive idea is that we should only do things we’re ‘good at.’

Everywhere we look we see athletes, politicians, dancers, musicians, journalists, actors, business moguls and scientists who are excellent, extraordinary, at the top of their game. They are everywhere we look because they are, of course, the ones on television and celebrated by the media in general.   Concurrently, we see what happens when people err, when they don’t show up with their ‘A Game.’   They are eviscerated before a watchful public often waiting to pounce on the first show of ineptitude.  Essentially, we are willing to accept excellence, and nothing else.

It’s no wonder that we become increasingly a people of watchers.  We watch others play soccer , dance, play tennis, sing.  We design entire weekends around watching others – the virtuosos –do things.  We applaud. If, by inclination and experience we’re connoisseurs, we live to compare one virtuoso to another, to flesh out the nuances of difference and offer a critique.

What does this mean for the Feldenkrais student?

Most people are accustomed to being good at what they do. This impulse is so engrained as to render it invisible. Often we don’t even realize that we have habits about striving for excellence, and for perfection. So, when we are working with a Feldenkrais lesson, and we are asked to “Do it easily and simply; don’t work hard, don’t worry about doing it perfectly,” we wonder how this can possibly be effective.

Surprisingly, although it seems counter-intuitive, this ‘trying to do it well’ can really get in the way of progress. Why is this? How can trying to do well be an impediment to progress?

Very simply, this is one of the aspects of somatic work that is most distinctive. By way of explanation, for starters, when we try to do well, we call on our highly polished habits, our most practiced approaches.  Since the aim of somatic work is to create new pathways for action, there’s a conflict in intention there. Further, the approach of somatic work is to increase awareness and set up a kind of dialogue between movement and the brain. This dialogue seems to be most successful in generating change under a specific set of conditions:

1. When something novel is taking place, which generates curiosity;

2. When a spirit of exploration reigns, thus allowing the brain to find its own best solution;

3.  When movements, and their ‘ripple effects’ are followed closely with attention.

The constant seeking of excellence interferes with the second two conditions. It is impossible to be exploratory and controlling at the same time. And a focus on striving, doing things perfectly or the ‘right way’ uses up too much of our attention, leaving little for observing the fine tuning that is going on during a somatic lesson. In short, pursuing virtuosity just does not allow for a natural change process to take place; rather, it creates an obstacle to that kind of learning.

Somatic educators know from experience something that may seem ironic. When we let go of the judgment, and just DO, with awareness, we often surprise ourselves. We become more capable; we become more fearless.  We release some of our parasitic action and thinking that usually get in the way. We discover a different kind of natural excellence emerging on its own.

We ask open-ended questions, such as “Notice the difference in your left and right sides” or “Which way is easier?” to help our students and ourselves explore movement. This is very different than saying, “Do it this way, that’s the right way.”   Somehow our brains just respond very well to this open approach.  It leads to our finding our own good solutions, and for our innate intelligence to take center stage.

If you have never experienced this phenomenon, you might like to try it!

Embodied Moment

In each moment, of each day, we have the choice:  Will I be present in myself and in this moment I’ve been given, or will I instead vacate the premises, leaving noone at home to experience the wonders of the present?  It’s such a simple decision.  It seems it would be a simple task, too, to just decide, “I’m going to stay in the present and in my body today a little more than usual.”

The very fact that we might announce this kind of intention to ourselves indicates that it’s not our usual state.  In fact,  it runs counter to much of the training we receive here on Planet Earth. So much of the time we are concerned with the outer:  our impressions of and demands on others, the future goal, the schedule, the acquisition of something, the familiar emotional loops, the repetitive actions and routines.  The outer, and our relationship to it, is so seductive, apparently able to convince us for years at a time that IT is reality, and that the inner experience of ourselves is inconsequential.  But in those moments when we do, either by Grace, by practice, or through compelling circumstance, fall into the fullness of our present moment, experience the full weight, volume and sensation of  Body, and the clear space of Mind , it becomes obvious that this is our most natural state, a place that feels deeply like Home.

………………………………………

Here’s a wonderful teacher I’d like you to know about on this subject:

Russell Delman, my teacher and founder of Embodied Life, has this to say:  ”EMBODIMENT refers to the experience of wholeness, i.e., the integration of mind/body/spirit and includes: presence (the connection of self and world in present moment) and integrity (authenticity, honesty and self-responsibility). The body is viewed as a vehicle through which the entire human being and one’s relationship to life can be explored.”

Would you like to visit Russell’s website?  Here’s a little blurb from his site, and  a link.  Tell me what you think!

“In recent years, Russell’s teaching has focused on the integration of: Embodied Meditation, Embodied Movement, Embodied Emotions and Embodied Communication. These programs, collectively called “The Embodied Life“, reflect Russell’s deep interest in guiding people toward the living of everyday life with greater awareness, integrity, compassion and fulfillment. Seminars are offered in the forms of residential meditation/movement retreats as well as workshops of varying lengths.”

www.embodiedlife.com

Victory and Discovery

Yesterday one of my treasured clients — let’s call her Catherine — returned for her 39th visit in 18 months. During this time  we have experienced many ah-hahs together as she gradually transformed herself.  She has become an articulate spokesperson for this somatic work we share together — the Feldenkrais Method and Bones for Life.   These days she often explains what’s going on as well or better than I can, and I find her company an absolute joy.  Although she is ‘the client’ and I ‘the practitioner,’  Catherine and I are sharing a mutual journey.

So, back to yesterday…   She had already made  profound changes in her posture, mobility and comfort level. She had also become a far more self-confident person, much to her surprise and that of her family members.  When she first arrived at my door she was apprehensive and I gradually learned that she was apprehensive in many circumstances, especially when something new or unexpected happened.  When she first arrived, Catherine was not likely to embrace new things without a great deal of forethought and verification from authority figures whom she trusted.  I think it’s fair to say that she felt vulnerable in many ways in her life.  Now, after consistently learning about herself through these profound somatic methods, she is feeling and projecting a very different kind of attitude — a different self-image.

When things get rough at work, when situations arise which would have previously produced high levels of anxiety  — she now takes more of a watchful point of view, observing the circumstances but not being so drawn in. She is much more confident in her physicality and tries new things that would have been quite out of her reach just a short time ago. As she puts it, “This work has  changed the way I relate to my everyday life.  I realized that I do have choices — certainly with my body – but also with my emotions. I can choose to be angry, or I can choose to just let it go, to worry about it or let it go. I have choices as to how I react. Now when something goes wrong, I just relax about it. That’s so not like me at all! I usually worry, worry, worry.  The big changes in my body are related to everything else. I’m not panicking over little things any more.”

So much progress and victory already achieved, and yet, yesterday she had another exciting breakthrough.  30 years ago she had a brain tumor removed, and the surgery compromised her vision fairly dramatically. In our session together yesterday, she became crystal clear about something which has  been limiting her movement and her self-concept ever since. She realized, on her own, how the traumas she experienced as a result of that surgery had effected not only her sight, but her entire way of being in the world. And, just like that, she saw it all — the compensating, the ways she has limited herself, the increased tension levels, the cautiousness — and just as quickly, she began to let go of it.  In the midst of this amazing set of revelations, Catherine voiced what was going on inside:  “I’m concentrating on watching rather than on doing.”  This kind of subtle awareness may be her greatest victory of all.

Congratulations Catherine!  I can’t wait to see what happens next. Thanks for letting me be a part of your life!

Watching the Wild

For the first time in many years I have made gardens — lots of gardens. Vegetables and flowers, shrubs and trees, perennials and annuals, yellow and blue, old favorites and plants I’ve never seen before. Every day I watch the unfoldment. What is taller this morning? What is thriving, what is fading away?  The lilies alone are enough to generate songs of rapture as they burst open, more blooms each day with colors unexpected and vivid. The butterfly bush has lost all semblance of decorum, jutting out new branches at 90 degree angles to the ground. That new kind of alium I planted — at the last possible moment last November before everything froze — is now a cosmological wonder, even more stunning now that all the blooms have faded and only the fantastic delicate spherical structure of the thing remains. Oh! For a ride in that alium space ship!

Every day a new development; even the young tomato plants are starting to form fruit.  My imagination is carried away by thoughts of  the tiny zucchini plants and how, in their maturity, they will attempt to take over the entire back yard.

Watching the wildness of nature — even those developments that are predictable are still completely filled with a kind of wild primal surge — I feel the freedom and joy of being alive.

Yogurt Oatmeal Mask

RECIPE for Yogurt Oatmeal Mask,  thanks to beauty.about.com

This face mask is suitable for all skin types and is super simple to prepare. It will cleanse and rejuvenate your skin.

Prep Time:  3 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp oatmeal, finely ground
• 1 tbsp live, organic yogurt (skip the flavored stuff)
• A few drops of honey

Preparation

1. Add the yogurt to the oatmeal in a small bowl and mix together.Warm a few drop of honey. To do this, warm a spoon under hot water for a minute, then add a few drops of honey to the spoon.
2. Stir the honey into the yogurt and oatmeal mixture.
3. Apply the mask to the face. Leave it on for 10 minutes, then rinse off with several splashes of warm water. Follow with a warm washcloth.
4. Apply moisturizer.
5. Feel your face breathe!

The Swing in Your Spring

Spring-ey Things…

When I was growing up, every spring my very busy mother (I don’t know HOW she did it with 5 little children) turned our 2-story family house in Hawesville upside down in pursuit of the Fresh Start every home needs after accumulating winter’s dust. Every rug was shaken, every speck of woodwork washed, every curtain dry-cleaned or thrown in the washer and then ironed. (In those days we even ironed our pillow cases, something my mother couldn’t be forced to do now under threat of incarceration!)

Whether or not we practice that kind of old-fashioned spring cleaning in our homes these days, it’s a certainty that most of us could do with some post-winter sprucing up — of our most important home – our BodyMindSpirit home!

Kentuckians don’t particularly like winter. It gets in the way of our lawn mowing, gardening, and porch sitting. It requires us to wear entirely too many clothes, and cope with too many grey days. So, now that spring has finally sprung (aren’t you glad we turned those clocks forward earlier this year??), I suggest that each of us make a Spring Make-Over plan for our dearly beloved BodyMindSpirit.

What works for you? I’m just going to jot down everything I can think of in the next two minutes, and I hope you’ll send me some more ideas:

• Pitch all the clothes you don’t like any more, even if they were gifts.  Better still, have a Giveaway Party where several of your friends do the same, and pick up something new without spending any money!
• Have a pedicure; have a massage, a very long one
• Find or make yourself a flowered-y apron to wear while you cook
• Find a place in your neighborhood you can walk to, sit down, and enjoy the view
• Take a relaxing movement class, or enjoy a free guided meditation online
  
• Plan a late spring lawn party with your neighbors, and require everyone to come in costume, or wear a hat
  
• Turn off your telephone for an extended period of time
• Pull out your most colorful bedspread, and then hold an exclusive poetry reading in your bedroom
  
• Buy some heirloom tomato seeds and plant them in a large flower pot
• Bring your kids together to paint a mural on the wall of your garage
• Take all those plastic bags you’ve been saving to the Good Foods Co-op for recycling
• Give yourself a yogurt oatmeal mask (suitable for all skin types, see recipe on this blog.
• Spend an entire day doing nothing but listening to your favorite music, and eating your favorite food, with your favorite friend
• DON’T go to Goodwill and buy more junk that you don’t need
• Make a hand-made book of thigh-slappin’ jokes or your dearest prayers and give to a friend who needs inspiration
  
• Open ALL of your windows the next time it’s warm outside
• Howl at the moon
  

That was 10 minutes!  I couldn’t stop.  Add your own ideas for a Spring Makeover; I suspect we need all the help we can get to clear out the cobwebs and get into the Swing of Spring.  Thanks for stopping by.

What do you mean, don’t stand up straight?

Most people have been admonished at some point in time to “Stand up – or sit up — straight!” And we have all tried to do just that – straighten up from our sometimes less-than-perfect posture, in the midst of a long day or a tedious task, or while seated in an uncomfortable chair.   In the 1950′s, a very militaristic pose was often struck when demonstrating so-called ‘good’ posture.  The basics of this model are:  stand up straight, pull your shoulders back, tuck in your chin, stick out your chest, and don’t let your butt protude in the back.  If you like, you can try this on right now.  Just take a moment, get up from the computer, and try it.

How’s that feel?  Is that something you would want to maintain?  Is that something you could maintain?

I wish I could be standing there with you to see the look on your face right now.  You’ll either be relieved — or appalled — at my next statement, because I just want to recommend something that could be taken as posture blasphemy.  Here it goes:

DON’T STAND UP STRAIGHT!

What?!

Don’t do it.  Don’t stand up straight.

Let’s think about what straight means in this context.  Straight things are: poles, walls, doors, sign posts, bookshelves.  Virtually nothing in the organic world is straight, although straight lines are incorporated into the microscopic design of many things like snowflakes, undersea creatures and leaves.  Being a part of this organic world, People are not straight.  In fact, one of the central determinants in your posture is your spine, and if you have a straight spine (a few people actually do), that’s going to make some things more difficult for you in life. Especially as you age, if you have a straighter spine, you are not going to have as much spring in your body.  In fact, the natural healthy spine in most people has LOTS of curves.  So, to stand up straight is no kind of goal at all.

You may ask, “Well then, how should I stand if I have good posture?”  That is the 64 thousand dollar question, and the answer is one that can only be hinted at through words.  Good posture is something you have to experience, from the inside out, and it is not the same for every person. Good posture, or perhaps we could call it ‘delicious’ posture, because it just feels so darn good, isn’t a product of just your spine!  It’s about how all the twiddly bits, bones especially, in your body, are assembled on top of each other.  Delicious posture arises when these structural pieces are stacked up in a way that allows for not only standing, but moving.  Good posture arises from the contact your feet have with the ground, the spring in your ankles, the give in your knees, the responsiveness in your pelvis, and the relationship between all the 26 bones in your spine from your tailbone to the two inside your head.

Posture is complex, and it is simple.  Once your find it in yourself, it is easy to maintain, but you can’t force it .  So, I repeat.  Don’t stand up straight!

Posture and Your Happy Organs

Last night I watched an episode of Grey’s Anatomy in which a patient had had a lung removed.  The absence of his lung left a space in the interior order of his thoracic cavity, and caused his heart to “drift” to a new location.  There’s  a technical medical term for this phenomenon (mediastinal shift), because this can actually happen as a complication of lung removal.   As  you can imagine, this caused various problems for the young man in Grey’s, mostly resulting from the cramping and crowding of other organs, blood vessels and nerves.

This fictional scene reminded me of an obvious but little-discussed aspect of Posture that I think is very important.  ’Good’ posture  contributes to a healthy space for your internal organs to live in, and ‘bad’ posture can create a cramped, compromised environment.  Think about an hypothetical office worker who spends 2 – 6 hours a day at her computer.   Unless she’s trained her posture and found a chair appropriate to support her in an upright position, she’s going to be sagging  by the middle of the day.  What does that do to her lungs, her digestive organs, etc.?  It can’t be good!

Sandrine Walker from Britain’s Wellbeing Magazine agrees with me.  ”During the last decade we have turned into a nation of flexion addicts. We are sitting at the computer, eating, traveling in cars and planes, eating, watching TV… talking on the phone…. We are sitting, and more accurately, slumping. We are almost always inclined forward even if we are doing nothing. This posture degrades our musculature and impacts our neurological systems. In other words, it is bad!”

Earlier I referred to ‘training’ your posture.  Since that’s my specialty, I have a lot to say on the subject, but just let me clarify for this entry that what I DON’T mean is to ‘stand up straight’ or ‘pull y our shoulders back’, ‘tuck your chin’, or any of the other wildly simplistic admonitions you may have grown up hearing, or may, unfortunately, still hear in a classroom of some kind here and there.  More on this, lots more, later.

Planning Ahead with Posture

Every day I see women my age walking down the street, or in the health food store — sometimes women who I know take yoga and pilates and work out with weights in an admirable and consistent effort to stay active as long as possible as they grow older.  If I have the opportunity to chat with one of these women, some of whom are my friends of many years, we might discuss their proactive practices, the nutritional supplements they have added to their regimen, or the latest result from a doctor’s visit.  Being and staying healthy are indisputably high on the priority list of women my age, in fact most women over 45.

What surprises me is that many don’t realize that, even with all these smart actions they are taking for themselves, they are still neglecting something essential to their long term mobility — and that one thing is their POSTURE.  I’m speaking specifically here of the slow decline in uprightness that begins to take place with the accumulated effects of life and, sometimes, bone loss, after age 45.

Whenever I mention the word ‘posture’ in public, there is a sudden, universal and unplanned response by nearly everyone within earshot.  They immediately ‘stand up straight’ — emulating the posture they think is correct, but which is absolutely not natural for them.  It’s really funny — you can try it on your own.  Next time you’re with your family or a few of your girlfriends, just mention that you are taking a course to improve your posture and see what happens!

So, in the next months, I’m going to be addressing this as a key means for staying active longer — improving posture from the inside out, so that when posture is mentioned — you’re already there!  No extra adjustment needed.

Hey!  Let me know what happens with your group posture experiment!  I’d love to hear about it, and everyone will get a good laugh — you’ll see!