"That's the way I work best!"

Hello everybody.

This is my first day of blogging, and I am excited about it.
I am starting this blog because I want to share interesting things from my practice of the Feldenkrais Method.

When I meet with my students and clients, most of what we do is about movement. I do, also, talk about the "envelope" of the movement -- the concepts that are behind it and the types of experiences that people have through participating.

Through this blog I wish to share more about that envelope.

Here is my first item, a true story:


Overheard in a restaurant

I had lunch in a restaurant a little while ago, and a family of three sat at a table behind me, mother, father and a boy about 3. Dad stayed with son Matthew while Mom went to get food from the buffet.
Matthew had a strong, well-enunciated, little boy voice. While he was waiting, he kept up a running commentary that everyone could hear. He asked Dad when the food was coming, and what he was going to have to eat. He had a lovely upright posture and projected a strong sense of himself.
When Mom returned and he ate, he observed that he liked the food, and that the rice had gotten cold.
Suddenly, Dad noticed that Matthew was kneeling while he ate. He told him, “Sit down, son.”
Matthew glanced at him and then looked away and continued eating.
Dad repeated: “Sit,” and pushed the boy’s legs to move him into position. “You don’t kneel on chairs. You sit on them.”
Matthew maintained his kneeling, his silence and his eating.
Dad raised the stakes: “It’s wrong to kneel on a chair.”
This brought Matthew to respond: “That’s the way I work best.”

Ignoring this logic, Dad picked up his son and placed him on his tush.
Mom, silent until now, protested. “But look at him. The table is too high for him. How would you like to eat with your chin in your plate?”
Dad looked. Dad relented.
Matthew quietly returned to his kneeling position. The way he works best.

I feel this simple story says a lot about what we are trying to do in the Feldenkrais Method. We are looking to develop ways of moving, and living, that are in accord with our natural design.