Reluctant Definitions

How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

One of my favourite movies. And no it is not set in Switzerland! – the clue to this is the ending where they walk over the mountains to escape the Nazis by entering Switzerland. (A personal gripe).

Well that’s all good and well but what does this have to do with the Feldenkrais Method? Simply that the song came to mind when I was contemplating this entry.

Here is my dilemma. One of the intended purpose of this blog was for me to personally nut out how to define the Feldenkrais Method in its full glory and applications without writing an essay. But after my first blog entry I’ve already hit a stumbling block – the problem is that some people who have read my first entry (and thank you very much to everyone who has already taken an interest) don’t know anything about the Method. So while I’m hoping they hang in there and learn much more as we go along, I feel I do need to give them a starting point.

However any definition I have myself created or come across fails to encompass the full potential of the method. So replace Maria with The Feldenkrais Method in the song and it becomes far less musical – but nonetheless demonstrates my dilemma. (Except the last line that doesn’t relate at all, but how could I leave out a word like flibbertijibbet?)

My concern in offering an incomplete definition is that it will be read, understood and nicely slotted into the filling cabinet that is our brain, as bodywork or alternative therapy, never again to be extracted and re-evaluated. Where as it should be torn into numerous pieces and slotted under so many different categories that it is impossible to list and purely dependant on the personal history and needs of the owner of the filing cabinet brain.

So with cringing heart, I offer two very incomplete definitions (yet of the better ones that I’ve come across) that nowhere near do The Feldenkrais Method justice, on the condition that you take them for what they are, but please, please return here to learn the Method’s full application. It has so much to offer every one of us that it would be such a shame for it to be filed away and never to be seen again.

So here it is:


direct from answers.com

“The Feldenkrais Method is an educational system that allows the body to move and function more efficiently and comfortably. Its goal is to re-educate the nervous system and improve motor ability….” (please follow the link for their full definition)


and from Natural Therapy Pages:

“The Feldenkrais Method is recognised for its demonstrated ability to improve posture, flexibility, coordination, self-image and to alleviate muscular tension and pain. The effectiveness of the Feldenkrais Method is in its ability to access the nervous system's own innate processes to change and refine functioning. The Feldenkrais Method is a unique and sophisticated approach to human understanding, learning and change...” (again please follow the link for more)

Intended Intention

Hello and welcome!

Oh you're just browsing? That's fine. If you have any questions my name is Denise and I'd be happy to help.

This is how we're trained to welcome customers in the store I manage. This is how I train my staff to welcome customers. Because if it is discovered that we don't use this phrase, it is reported back to the powers that be — to whom I then need to explain myself.

Today I was listening to a book on CD by Seth Godin titled "Tribe. We Need You To Lead Us", in which he says something along the lines of 'managers do not lead they merely manage within set parameters'. That has to be amongst to truest statements I've heard. It's a good thing that in my other life I'm a Feldenkrais Practitioner and even better that I'm also married to a Feldenkrais Practitioner who gently eases me out of my mold each evening.

As anyone in the know knows, the Feldenkrais Method is all about individuality, about breaking the mold (on a side note: you should never use the expression 'break' in the bodywork industry... so it’s a good thing we're in the education industry instead); or perhaps better stated it's about disregarding the mold and doing what works best for you.

Well, this blog hasn't started at all how I'd anticipated. Do I go back and erase it (not very Feldenkrais) and start on perhaps a more professional note like I'd intended?

Speaking of intention please allow me to start over. After all if we always did what we intended, then no-one would need The Feldenkrais Method. And as we know everyone can benefit from the Feldenkrais Method. And I sincerely do mean this — no sarcasm intended here - I truly do believe that everyone, every single person out there, can benefit from The Feldenkrais Method.

So to start again, I do sincerely welcome you to my blog and do hope you have a good browse around. This blog has come about from listening to the before mentioned CDs by Seth Godin in which he speaks about tribes and leaders and sharing of information. I have been inspired! This is the first blog I have ever attempted so bear with me while I sort out what is interesting to everyone and what is only interesting to me.

The 'intended' purpose of the blog is to help people understand the Feldenkrais Method and how it can help. Since The Feldenkrais Method is so multi-faceted it makes it very difficult to explain succinctly. What I hope to do is look at articles about (or not about) The Feldenkrais Method and related (or unrelated) health and movement material; write up my interpretations of these (and most probably some incredibly witty anecdotes from my own life — sarcasm intended) and see if I can't make this an enjoyable and informative blog for anyone interested in The Feldnekrais Method. I very much encourage comments and debates and sharing of information and maybe together we can work out a perfect (again not very Feldenkrais - so lets say suitable but malleable) definition for this Method that I feel so passionately about.

NB: This entry was not written by Patrick Hughes as it states below but by Denise Hughes (I hadn't yet created my own account)