Our Little Dips explore a theme of Feldenkrais learning, then illustrate it with one or more lessons. They always include at least one free lesson or other free content. Most Little Dips are first published in our newsletter.
“What Action Is Good?”
This question is Moshe Feldenkrais’s title for lesson #2 in his book Awareness Through Movement, which he wrote to introduce his method to the masses. (Here’s our collection of these 12 foundational lessons.)
Feldenkrais’s answer is multi-faceted and worth exploring. My free recorded talk below explains his thinking, along with lessons which illustrate it. Two lessons are for donors, but at the bottom you’ll find recommended additional free content.
One of Feldenkrais’s first answers to his question deserves special attention. It’s mentioned in the talk, but worth emphasizing because it’s so richly connected to all aspects of the Feldenkrais Method:
A good action, Feldenkrais says,
must also improve a living and developing body at least to the extent that the same action will be carried out more effectively the next time.
You can hear that he’s implying learning, learning better ways to do what we’re doing as we’re doing it. This is an inspiring standard he sets, which he means for us to apply in regular life, not just in his lessons. Feldenkrais teaches us to pay attention to our experience of everything we’re doing in such a way that we continually refine ourselves and our abilities.
This process can be harnessed to create more and more ease, autonomy, and dignity in our lives. When we follow the path of action that is good for us, Feldenkrais explains that we may even discover deeply satisfying abilities we hadn’t even dreamed of!
To learn more, dip into the talk and lessons below.
– Nick
“What Action Is Good?”
You can start with either the talk or the Reversible Diagonals lesson
Free Talk (20 min)
Nick’s talk dives deeply into Moshe Feldenkrais’s answer in lesson #2 of his Awareness Through Movement book. Learn about many of the principles of physics, neurology, and psychology on which Feldenkrais built his method.
This was the best I have ever heard about Feldenkrais! Thank you so much for explaining it so clearly!!!
-Anna
Reversible Diagonal Lengthening and Lifting (Members & Patrons)
Based on lesson #3 in the ATM book. Nick created it specifically to illustrate his talk on lesson #2, above.
Some Fundamental Properties of Movement (Patrons)
Nick’s rendition of Feldenkrais’s classic version of lesson #3 from his ATM book. It has important connections to lesson #2.
Additional free content