STUDY WITH ALFONS

Almost a decade ago I had the idea (and courage) to call my Youtube channel “Feldenkrais With …”, and was the first to do so. However, last year I renamed my Youtube channel from “Feldenkrais With Alfons” to “Improving Ability”—in order to better reflect what my channel is about.

In my videos I often work on improving abilities. But what are those “abilities” that I am speaking about?

For example, mechanoreception, proprioception, and equilibrioception are all abilities — sensory abilities to be more precise. Abilities are often thought to be innate and immutable, but in fact you can—and you may—improve them, and why shouldn’t you? Let’s look at a definition of these 3 examples:

Mechanoreception:
This ability involves perceiving mechanical stimuli such as pressure, touch, vibration, and tension. It allows you to sense and respond to physical interactions with your environment, like feeling the texture of an object or detecting pressure on your skin.

Proprioception:
Proprioception is the ability to sense the position, orientation, and movement of your own body parts. It helps you have an awareness of where your body is in space without needing to look. This ability is vital for coordinating movements, adjusting muscle contractions, and maintaining stability during activities like walking, picking up objects, and fine motor skills.

Equilibrioception:
Equilibrioception, also known as the sense of balance, enables you to maintain stability and an upright posture. It relies on various sensory inputs, including the inner ear’s vestibular system, proprioceptive signals from muscles and joints, and visual cues. These combined inputs enable you to perceive and respond to shifts in position, movement, and gravitational forces, ensuring that you remain steady and oriented within your environment.

For example, a question (Alfons):
When I tilt my head to the right I can feel the skin of my right cheek slightly hanging down (minuscule but still perceptible due to my training), and the skin of my left cheek pressing against my left cheek bone. Is this attributed to equilibrioception or mechanoreception or something else?

Answer (ChatGPT):
The sensation you’re describing when tilting your head is primarily attributed to mechanoreception rather than equilibrioception. Mechanoreception refers to the sense that allows organisms to perceive mechanical pressure, touch, vibration, and other physical forces on the body’s surface.

In this case, when you tilt your head to the right, the changes in the orientation of your head and the gravitational pull can cause the skin on your cheeks to respond to the shifting forces. The sensation you feel—where the skin on one cheek slightly hangs down and the skin on the other cheek presses against the cheekbone—is a result of mechanical pressure and deformation of the skin due to the change in position. It’s the mechanoreceptors in your skin that are detecting and signaling these tactile sensations to your brain.

Equilibrioception, on the other hand, primarily relates to the sense of balance and spatial orientation. It involves the detection of changes in head position and movement through the vestibular system in the inner ear, as well as feedback from proprioceptive receptors in muscles and joints.

To conclude…

There are many more abilities. For example, the ability to appreciate your innate abilities, find comfort in them, and feel grateful. 🌺🥰

And in fact there are many ways, methods and settings to improve those abilities, if you think about it. However, to stick with my lessons on my Youtube channel “Improving ability”… what did you find has improved through working with my videos, for you, on a deeper level, and on your abilities level so to speak? And how did this improve your life?

Psychomotor learning refers to the process of acquiring and developing skills and abilities… …that involve both mental and physical coordination… but what doesn’t?

Skills:
Skills are cultivated through training, education, and experience. They allow for effective and proficient performance. Examples of skills include playing a musical instrument, cooking, programming, or writing.

Abilities:
Abilities are inherent or natural capacities possessed by an individual. They are often regarded as being innate. Abilities serve as the basis for acquiring skills. For example, spatial reasoning could be seen as an ability that can facilitate learning and excelling in fields like architecture or engineering.

Abilities provide the foundation (or potential) for developing in particular skills. Abilities can be seen as the tools or resources you have at your disposal, and skills as how you build upon or apply your abilities to achieve specific tasks.

Psychomotor learning:
The term “psychomotor learning” is composed of two elements: “psycho” and “motor.”

• “Psycho” originates from the word “psychology,” which relates to the study of the mind, behaviour, and mental processes.
• “Motor” refers to movement and physical actions.

When combined, “psychomotor” refers to the interplay between the mind (psycho) and physical movement (motor). It illustrates the connection between cognitive processes (thinking, understanding, perceiving) and the execution of physical tasks.

So, first of all, a new lesson cannot be called “Feldenkrais” because The Feldenkrais Method®  is a trademarked term and subject to legal protection as a proprietary method. Likewise one can’t just make a new drink and call it “Powerade” or “Coca Cola”.

The difference is that while Coca Cola Inc. would sue one’s home-brew out of existence, the Feldenkrais community quite handsomely counts any new creation of their own toward the Feldenkrais brand popularity (and ultimately tends to attribute any new creation to Moshé Feldenkrais, in full, or at least in part.)

However, the drinks have enclosing categories: Powerade is a “Sports drink” and Coca Cola is a “Carbonated soft drink.” And Feldenkrais? Is it a “Somatic Education”? A Soma…what?

“Somatic Education” being the umbrella term doesn’t help much with category recognition because it’s not as descriptive as “Sports drink”; and upon hearing it the first time people wouldn’t know what “Somatic Education” actually is—including myself, to some degree, especially from a legal and trademark perspective. 🤷‍♂️

However, I’m fine with the word “Education” and with being a private teacher. And walking down the path of breadcrumbs I would guess “Physical Education” is the sub-category of choice, and then “Psychomotor learning.” In case nobody has claimed that as a trademark, certification training or proprietary academic field. I didn’t check. I wouldn’t even know how. So here’s the breadcrumb trail:

Education > Physical Education > Psychomotor learning

“Psychomotor learning is the relationship between cognitive functions and physical movement. According to the three-stage model of psychomotor development, individuals progress through the cognitive stages, the associative stage, and the autonomic stage.” – Wikipedia

Furthermore, it’s obvious to me that the “Feldenkrais Method” is very different from the work and legacy of Moshé Feldenkrais himself. Therefore we’re looking at two different things here. Confusing these two with each other might come from the fact that the legacy of Moshé Feldenkrais is monetised and guarded by the same legal entities that own the “Feldenkrais Method” and all related trademarks (I guess.)

To conclude, I think there should be an alternative to the “Feldenkrais Method.” Especially since they put the legacy of Moshé Feldenkrais behind closed doors. In their own words: “The materials are published by the IFF to [..] prevent the Materials from entering into the public domain” (from the License Agreement with the International Feldenkrais Federation Distribution Center – IFF). I guess there should be an openly accessible Moshé Feldenkrais Society, just like, as a model example, the Julian Jaynes Society – julianjaynes .org

So- it’s the 13th of July 2023 and over the past two weeks I’ve created a movement sequence for Psychomotor learning from scratch, and it’s called “Your knees can bend better, Lesson 5.”

Actually not entirely from scratch. All the movements I found through experimentation, teaching and reflection. And the movements and strategies that I chose and sequenced for Lesson #5 are actually the logical continuation of my previous Lesson #4. Which in turn is a continuation of Lesson #3, and #2 and #1.

I started to create Lesson #1 when one day I was lying on my back and noticed that my right foot slides better to the right than my left foot to the left. Why is that? And furthermore, after playing with that for some time, I noticed afterwards that my knees felt more flexible and stronger. And that I was standing upright easier. And that I could breath more freely. Therefore I started to explore the ingredients of this movement…

• What is relevant to the bending of the knees and what isn’t?
• What are strategies that contribute to it?

And that’s how eventually Lesson #1 came together.

Ok, now I’ve already spent more than 2,5 hours on this blog post (and another 3 hours since then.) I need to get on with my life. Here’s the outline of Lesson #5. I wrote it down to make sure I have a complete lesson. So- that’s another interesting question: what makes for a complete lesson?

Title: Your knees can bend better (5)

“In this video, the instructor focuses on improving the flexibility and range of motion in the knees. The viewer is guided through various movements to explore how different body positions and movement pathways affect their body. The emphasis is on observing any changes in comfort, knowledge, range of motion, and quality of movement. The instructor concludes by inviting viewers to reflect on their perception of themselves and their movement abilities before coming up to standing.” — Summarize .tech AI 

Step 1. Review the sliding of the foot

Stand both feet. Pick one foot to slide and observe.

Step 2. The position of the other leg

Come back to the question of the 1st lesson: Where to put the other leg? How does the leg position affect the pelvis in terms of a) mobility of the pelvis b) connecting the legs to the torso and up to the neck, head, and shoulders?

Cross the other leg over the sliding leg, like a piggyback ride. How does it change everything?

Step 3. Introducing instability

How much does the middle of the back press flat against the floor, to create stability? And how much the shoulders, neck and arms? Let’s change that, to see the difference. Therefore, do the following:

Put your arms behind your back. Cautiously. Or use a rolled up face-towel instead of your arms. Continue sliding one foot with crossed legs, then the other, what did change?

Step 4. Increase the instability

To increase the instability even more we will be increasing the flexibility of shoulders, arms, and chest. Rest on your front-side, slide your arms up and down, lift them backwards in see-saw fashion, extend both of them backwards which will also lift your head, an extension movement.

Side-theme: Observe whether you are moving your shoulders backwards and at the same time forwards… this creates a conflict that we now have the time and opportunity to resolve.

Step 5. Observe the differences for your knees

Back on the back, slide your legs, experience the increased flexibility, connection and sense of connection, the many details.

Also, by this time the foot should be able to slide more smoothly and further towards the pelvis, which means the knees bend better, and also, bending the knees should now be more of a coordinated teamwork of multiple body parts and systems.

When considering the various movements and postures of the body, as well as activities like walking, sitting, and sleeping, we can refer to them as “physical functions” or “body functions.”

These terms encompass the actions and capabilities performed by the body in different contexts. While people may commonly think about specific body parts (e.g. the knees, the hip joints, the lower back, the neck, …) it is equally important to recognize and appreciate the functional aspects that enable us to engage in daily activities. These functions involve the coordinated efforts of multiple body parts and systems, working together to facilitate mobility, rest, and other essential actions.

So far so good, ChatGPT. Mobility and rest, eh?

Now I wonder, “What are the clean versions of mobility and rest?” How much does mobility bleed into rest, and rest into mobility? At its worst a person is unable to rest, and at the same time unable to move and perform well. Always tired, yet unable to sleep. Always agitated, yet unable to work and do even the most necessary things.

What else can we mix up? Can sitting hunched over (for any periods of time) bleed into our standing up straight? Can justified caution bleed into confidence? Can doubt bleed into trust?

Where—in our minds—does one word start and the other end? In my movement explorations I use the concept of “Differentiation” to get to know one from the other, and see “Integration” happen, as “things” (for the lack of a better word) are being put together, into context again.

Mindfulness and Feldenkrais are two different approaches that can be used to enhance self-awareness and promote personal growth, but they have distinct origins and methodologies. Here’s an overview of their differences:

Origins

• Mindfulness: Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist meditation practices. It involves paying attention to the present moment, intentionally and non-judgmentally, with a focus on cultivating awareness and acceptance.
• Feldenkrais: The Feldenkrais Method was developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, a physicist and engineer. It draws from principles of physics, neurology, and motor development to explore movement and promote efficient functioning of the body and mind.

Focus

• Mindfulness: Mindfulness emphasizes present-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment. The aim is to develop a non-reactive and non-judgmental attitude towards experiences, leading to increased self-acceptance and reduced stress.
• Feldenkrais: Feldenkrais focuses on movement and body awareness. It aims to improve physical and mental functioning by exploring and refining movement patterns. The method uses gentle, slow movements and sensory awareness to enhance flexibility, coordination, and overall well-being.

Techniques

• Mindfulness: Mindfulness meditation is a key practice in cultivating mindfulness. It involves intentionally bringing attention to the breath, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Mindfulness can also be applied to daily activities, such as eating or walking, by paying full attention to the sensory experiences involved.
• Feldenkrais: Feldenkrais consists of two main approaches: Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (FI). ATM involves verbally guided group classes with specific movement sequences that encourage exploration and self-discovery. FI is a one-on-one hands-on approach where a trained practitioner uses gentle touch and movement to facilitate the client’s learning and self-awareness.

Applications

• Mindfulness: Mindfulness practices are widely used for stress reduction, improving attention and focus, managing emotions, enhancing overall well-being, and cultivating a greater sense of compassion and empathy.
• Feldenkrais: Feldenkrais is often utilized for improving movement efficiency, posture, and flexibility, relieving pain or physical discomfort, enhancing athletic performance, recovering from injuries, and promoting relaxation and body awareness.

Legal Status

• Mindfulness: Mindfulness itself is a practice and a state of awareness rather than a specific technique or method. As such, mindfulness is not subject to legal status or regulation.
• Feldenkrais: The Feldenkrais Method is a trademarked name and has legal protection as a proprietary method. Only certified Feldenkrais practitioners are authorized to teach the method under licensing agreements.

Usage Rights

• Mindfulness: Mindfulness is an ancient practice that has been shared and taught in various forms for centuries. While there are numerous mindfulness-based programs and courses available, the core principles and techniques of mindfulness are generally considered to be in the public domain. This means that anyone can teach or incorporate mindfulness practices into their work without requiring specific permissions.
• Feldenkrais: The Feldenkrais Method is protected by copyright and trademark laws. This means that the use of the name “Feldenkrais” and the specific teachings and techniques are restricted to those who have received certification and licensing from authorized Feldenkrais organizations. Unauthorized use of the Feldenkrais name or teaching methods can infringe upon copyright and trademark laws.

Copyright

• Mindfulness: Since mindfulness is a broad concept and does not have a specific set of techniques or exercises attributed to a single author, it does not have specific copyright protections. However, individual works, such as books or guided meditation recordings, that incorporate mindfulness teachings may be subject to copyright.
• Feldenkrais: The specific writings, books, and recorded materials authored by Moshe Feldenkrais, as well as the instructional materials and curriculum are protected by copyright. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of these materials would infringe upon copyright laws.

To conclude, while mindfulness primarily focuses on the mind and emotions, Feldenkrais encompasses both physical and mental aspects, emphasizing movement and body awareness. However, it’s important to note that these approaches can complement each other, as both involve cultivating present-moment awareness and can contribute to overall self-improvement and well-being.

Prompts by Alfons, Texts by ChatGPT 3.5, 24 May 2023 Version. I (Alfons) might not agree with the texts that were generated by ChatGPT.

We understand some things when we see them. 

Like, “Pasta in tomato sauce on a plate on the table in front of me.” Clearly, it’s pasta in tomato sauce (unless proven otherwise).

We understand some things when we taste or smell them. “That’s good pasta!”

We understand some things when we hear them. Like, listening to this guy talking about cooking pasta we know from his voice that he takes it very seriously.

We understand some things when we feel them. Joy. Confidence. Satisfaction. Danger. Anticipation.

All this can happen automatically, unconsciously. But sometimes we  seek understanding actively, and then, too, we look, we listen. In such a moment we are conscious. Mindful. Open.

In this moment, what is it that we are doing? The start of it, the process of seeking understanding—did it come upon us unwittingly? And where do we end it? Who would we be without such moments? And who would we become if we would catch the essence of such moments, and hold them dear?