What Is ATM Good For? What is Integration?

What is this picture? Is it light? Is it shadow?

This is a close-up of water. Given that statement, you already 'know' several things about it without my saying so. You know that it has depth. You know that it is wet. You know without question what it feels like. You can imagine it. You may even be able to conjure up the taste and the smell of it. This means you have integrated water, not just intellectually, but as an experience. And since our bodies are composed of at least 80% water, it is vital to your survival to know it. You could survive with just the most minimal amount of water, but what would your quality of life be like? Even so with the rest of experience. If you have not integrated your knowledge, you can usually get by, even thrive to some extent. But how much more depth could you experience in your life if you focused on developing a sense of how to integrate your knowledge into concrete experience? This is the very essence of what you learn in ATM. Integration is a global skill that translates from movement into many other facets of living to produce a whole that works better than fragmented parts.

How can one approach have such a profound effect on so many aspects of living?

Sometimes, the obsessive desire to understand can interfere with improvement itself, because the very nature of the question is concerned with theoretical knowledge rather than embodied experience. On the level of ego, the mind is often concerned with 'doing it right.' We have all been socialized growing up to learn according to external measures of success. SAT scores, grades, even parental affection is often grounded in this compulsive need for proof of worthiness. Yes, even fitness, which is very popular right now, is for the most part externally motivated, rooted in the desire to look better, to be more attractive or desirable. Most systems of movement training have specific theories about optimal movement as if it were an empirical truth that exists outside ourselves, as if there were only one right way to do things. Poppycock.
Everyone is different.

Is this not the age of diversity? Do you want to learn how to celebrate it? Become fluent in noticing how unique you are yourself! Given that individual ATMs have no function in and of themselves, why bother doing them? In most fitness training, the directions are generic. Stretching is generic. When you bend over to stretch your hamstrings, no one mentions that it makes a difference if your pelvis is tilted forward or backward. Silly little details, such as these, will dictate whether or not you are stretching the hamstrings or using your pelvis in a way that generates length. You and your trainer may not know the difference, but your nervous system does, I guarantee it. By discounting your own experience in favor of someone else's authority on the subject, you loose access to the most sophisticated applications of your own brain by abdication. It is a great violation we have wrought upon ourselves with the advent of the scientific age, to honor only as valid that which can be measured by others. It leads to a habit of discounting our own impressions, ideas and experience.

Basic functionality is a fancy way of referring to the stuff we do every day: such as standing, sitting, lying down and getting up from lying down. These can all be done in a complex myriad of ways. Most of us pick a few standard ways that we stick to without question. We then wonder why, forty years later, we have certain muscles that ache more than others. ATM retrains you to use parts of yourself you have not used in years! That's entertaining to be sure, but it's only when you learn to integrate these new options into your daily repertoire that you find you have the juiciest fruits of your labor. The way you know you have integrated a new option is when you are doing something on your own, completely unrelated to ATM, and suddenly, you notice you have moved in a way that you never usually do and that it feels really good! But this is merely the most superficial level of change. When people say that improvement with the FELDENKRAIS Method is usually global, what that means is that the impact often leads to improvement in several areas of experience at once. This is true integration, it's improvement on several levels without intentional thought to making it happen. It's spontaneous. Yes, you have to put in the time to get the result, but the result may not happen at that time. It happens eventually. It may lead to physical improvement, or lessening of discomfort. It may lead to greater clarity of thought. It may improve problem solving ability. It may even result in greater creativity.

These green fields are a sight for sore eyes, relaxing, beautiful. Unless we see them as grass to be mown, as one more thing we have to take care of...Then, by our very thoughts, we create a prison from within our own minds...

Is FELDENKRAIS The Answer?

"It is a mistake to believe that a thought system based on lies is weak. Nothing made by a child of God is without power. It is essential to realize this, because otherwise you will be unable to escape from the prison you have made."

- A Course In Miracles


Is FELDENKRAIS the answer to everything? No. Absolutely not. It is only a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

If you love to eat as much as I do, (growing up in Switzerland makes one appreciate both cooking and gastronomic finesse!) you know you have to do other things to burn calories! For myself, I ride my horse at least three days a week, and if I am cross training, I make sure she (my horse) gets exercise and turn out. When my horse is in training, I ride at least five days a week to get us both in shape, moving well and strong enough to gallop cross country at 35 miles an hour over solid jumps. Yet, we also need to still be balanced enough to do the sharper turns in the stadium jumping arena, and agile enough to do the graceful sideways moves that make up the balletlike patterns of classical dressage. It's a tall order. However, I do FELDENRKRAIS because it lends me the experience of earlier days. I feel much younger than my 44 years!

When I am cross training, I run, I ski, I swim, I walk. Walking will always be the best way to burn lactic acid, making the muscles less sore and permeating them with the oxygen vital to healthy muscle function. My first experience of this was years ago, when I went to Ireland for a five day horseback ride around the ring of Kerry. What an idylic voyage! As we crested the low mountains of Kerry, I became ever more curious to view the other side. I gleaned a sense of the compulsion for new territory that drove the early settlers of America ever westward. We traveled thirty miles a day over hill and dale on sure-footed Irish Thoroughbreds. Yet, at the end of the day, saddle sore and weary, the best cure and surety of good mobility the next morning was a slow walk along the verdant country roads before heading to bed.

I highly recommend whatever exercise you prefer. What you love is what lights you up. Granted, there are other methods of exercise that overlap with what FELDENKRAIS has to offer. Yet, there is a singular benefit to ATM, and that is that it improves your ability to particiapate in any other activity you set your hand or your mind to do. In my own experience, I can tell you that I tried a semester of yoga at school in college. I was in my early twenties and you would think it would have been easiest for me then. It was a basic Hatha Yoga class. However, I found it difficult and although the philosophy spoke to me, the physical aspect of it did not. What amazes me is that twenty years later, after getting a serious foundation of ATM, I went back to try some Yoga and found it EASIER! Riddle me this Batman, how could it be that a forty year old found Yoga easier than a twenty year old?

But lets recap some of the options. Tai Chi, for example teaches you to ground yourself more firmly in connection with your skeleton. This is an excellent practice that improves your mobility and your bodyawareness. As does Yoga. Yoga is at least as multidimensional as ATM. It also ecompasses the physical, mental and emotional aspects of experience. Yet, it is more invasive. It's about pushing the envelope. It's about stretching. Whereas FELDENKRAIS is about respecting your limitations. What's appropriate for you depends on where you are on the journey. Pilates is a really interesting choice because it not only builds strength, it teaches you to mobilize yourself from the inside and to reorganize yourself to include the deep muscles of your core in your self image. But, even pilates is easier with FELDENKRAIS!

The reason for this is that our limitations, in terms of movement, are usually self-imposed, assuming we have had no major accidents or surgeries. But even accidents are often survived without major misshap. The misshap occurs as a result of apprehending pain, of attempting to prevent anguish by blocking, holding and bracing against an impending incident that may never materialize. It takes energy to try to fend off every possible disomfort. Constantly scanning the environment for potential disaster is a perpetual drain. The practice of ATM all0ws us to knock down the walls of our own making. It first trains us to perceive the walls we have built to protect ourselves from further harm. Next, we look to see if how we feel is a true reflection of what we intend for we may think we fully intend to be open and freely mobile. Finally, we get to bridge the gap between awareness and intention. ATM is a call for accountability with SELF in a way that no other form of movement offers. Not only are you called to notice the discrepancies, you are given the means to work with yourself to break down the walls of limitation, even if you don't really understand what they are. By learning to open the door to your own innate intelligence and potential, you open yourself up to improvement without really having to understand how it works. Just recieve it in gratitude for what it is and be glad for 'not knowing'.

At first 'not knowing' seems difficult and uncomfortable. But it is a gift. It's an opening. It means you are truly teachable. Ask any of the philosophers of ancient Greece and you will find that this is exactly where you want to be. Ask any of the philosophers of our own time, and you will find that being in 'not knowing' grounds you in the present. This, of course, is the only moment we have any power over at all. Old blueprints of how to move, how to think and how to act may govern how we behave, but we can change all that by becoming present. As Eckhardt Tolle says, "The Moment of Power is NOW".

Check out www.eckharttolle.com for a new sense of being present. For more on A Course In Miracles, check out http://www.facim.org/acim/description.htm

How Long Does It Take?

How open are you to change? How much change can you accept before you get overwhelmed and put on the brakes? How long it takes to experience significant change depends, in part, on your ability to absorb and adapt.

People new to the FELDENKRAIS Method often want to know how long it will take to see significant change. The short answer is that you may experience adequate improvement in one session. However, what is 'adequate'? My question to you, is to ask if you are willing to experience more than just doing okay. What if you could see your way clear to allowing that perhaps, just maybe, there might be a possibility that you could feel better than you remember feeling in a long while?

The more extensive answer is that it would be good to try at least five live ATM classes, supplemented with two to three Functional Integration sessions to have a basic idea of what the work is about. Then you get a little more than 'adequate' improvement, you get a glimpse into what is possible - qualities of improvement that may otherwise not even occur to you.

The really long answer to this question is that it depends. It depends, in part, on you and

a.) your ability to learn
b.) your ability to notice small differences and
c.) your ability to stay open to new experiences.
As a practitioner working with you, my job is to give you a sense of new possibilities.

Your ability to learn is, in fact improved by doing FELDENKRAIS, because movement is the basis of all learning. Improving our ability to track movement is a newly forged link between you and the innate intelligence of your nervous system.

Your ability to notice small differences allows you to integrate change. First you are given the opportunity to feel yourself from a completely different perspective: one of relaxed attention without strain. From this point of view, you may experience life very differently than you do now. Then, when you go out into the world, you can choose to either go back to ignoring what you have become aware of, or, you can notice how some of the small differences you noticed in class or in your session can create a domino effect in your daily life. Utilizing theses changes is up to you. We all have free will. When you make the connections, spontaneous improvements can occur.
Your ability to stay open to new experiences determines how much benefit you will experience. This is because the fundamental premise of the work is to show you parts of yourself, both habits, postures, attitudes, and ways of relating that you have hitherto been unable to see, feel or notice. You see, our habits are like old clothing, so comfortable we hardly feel them. Yet, when scrutinized, you may find that they are pretty ratty and that you may want to change them out for something new.
If all you want, is to get rid of the pain you came in with, that may be a project or it may happen very quickly, depending on how old the issue is. But you may discover that more than that is possible and find yourself engaged in a process that takes the rest of your life.

This, certainly, was my experience. I have always been interested in lifelong learning, as a means of fending off boredom, but this is different. This is like a voyage into the unknown where things are possible that I would never have thought to ask for. What kinds of things? Like having the ability to sit upright with the ease of a toddler. Like being taller than I was before instead of growing shorter as I age. Like feeling a sense of having more space inside my body. Like finding my two 'left feet' on the dance floor have disappeared! Like seeing old mental thought patterns and emotional reruns fall away effortlessly. Like the sense that colors are more vibrant, the earth under my feet more welcoming and the world I live in infinitely intriguing. May I invite you to share this journey with me? Would you like your life to be more fulfilling?


Thanks to Feldenkrais Practitioner Ralph Strauch of Pacific Palisades CA for his comments on this subject. Check out some of his ideas - careful - it may change your reality: http://somatic.com/create.exp.html