The following is a list of contemplations and considerations on qualities we might experience in movement and embodied life in general. Whether you’re doing a Feldenkrais lesson or a yoga practice, engaging in anti-racist education and action, cooking a meal, diving into a creative project or anything at all, I hope these inquiries might support your liberated well-being.
The Feldenkrais Method is rooted in a very helpful understanding: You can’t do what you want until you know what you’re doing. With these gentle questions, you’re invited to step into Rumi’s field, out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, and to step into greater awareness and choice. When you know what you’re doing, you’re more able to do what you want. Feldenkrais lessons themselves are explored in a spirit of inquiry that allows us to remove outer authority from our inner lives and instead, to return to the trustworthy feedback that arises from our own lived experience. Enjoy the learning process!
Copyright Erin Geesaman Rabke 2006
- Am I doing this in a way that brings more ease? More energy?
- Or am I doing this in a way that brings more tension? Pain? Constriction? Dullness? Boredom?
- Am I experiencing this movement, posture, or action from deep inside myself?
- Or am I experiencing it from inside my thinking mind?
- Am I experiencing wholeness?
- Or am I experiencing fragmentation? (e.g. Am I wondering if I look ok? Wondering if I’m doing it right? Am I judging myself through the imagined eyes of others?)
- Am I doing this from myself? As myself?
- Or am I doing this to myself? At myself?
- Do I experience repetitive nagging?
- Do I experience a quality of increased openness and presence?
- Is my inner voice encouraging?
- Or is my inner voice discouraging?
- Is my inner commentary, (my attitude and approach) giving me courage?
- Or is it increasing my fear?
- Am I experiencing more criticism or more support?
- Does my attitude give rise to hope? Inspiration? Kindness?
- Or depression? A sense of failure? Hopelessness?
- Is my approach bringing peace?
- Or is it bringing fear and anxiety?
- Am I approaching this experience in a creative way?
- Or an uninspired, stale, mindless way?
- Is my approach to myself through this action kind?
- Neutral?
- Forceful?
- Judgmental?
- Cruel?
- How is my attitude?
- Am I increasing a sense of openness to life? Caring?
- Am I comparing myself to others?
- Am I more deeply available for genuine connection with myself and my experience?
- How might I experience this without my inner critic?
- How might I change my approach so I feel lighter and more energetic?
- Is something standing in the way of my feeling ok? What does it need to feel better?
- How can I engage this process in a way that brings out the best of who I am?
“When nothing is working very well,” says Caroline Casey, “it might be a cosmic conspiracy to get you to experiment.”
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