Consistency

Consistency

Here’s this week’s audio:  http://tiny.cc/tb69101

Studies show that maintaining consistent behavioral and social rhythms influences overall health. When you can synchronize the body’s circadian rhythm – a type of body clock that tells you when to sleep, eat, rest, and digest- this helps regulate and improve health outcomes, even when other factors can disrupt one’s biology and neurology.

If you don’t feel rested, do you realize your breathing and posture are often compromised with slouching, shoulders rolled forward, and head cast down?  Notice your mood, your state, and whether this enables you to act with more ease, confidence, or fatigue.  This will definitely affect a person’s sense of potency and vitality, or the lack thereof.

Issues arise when you try to fix yourself. What are the things you do to correct the concerns, and do these fixative approaches deal with the whole of you or just a portion?  Dr. Feldenkrais described an efficient, aligned structure as “Acture.”  That means you can do what you want without needing preparatory movements to begin.  This includes anyone, whether with significant scoliosis or any other medical diagnosis that would deviate from the optimal.  The sensation and feeling of being upright in your vertical, with your head on top of your spine, is the absence of having to do anything to put your head, chest, shoulders, or spine in a fixed position.  Your head doesn’t stay there; it returns there for a neutral reset, then you take an action and move more efficiently.

“The aim is to create conditions under which learning takes place, and in which a person feels free!  The aim is a body that is organized to move with minimum effort & maximum efficiency, not through muscular strength but through increased consciousness of how it works.”– Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

Did you know that our brain wants to simplify information to learn?  Storytelling connects directly to how we process information and can have a direct effect, as it shows a clear correlation: a narrative conveys lessons from another person’s experience.  This helps us gather information and learn from the past.  Psychological studies show how culture shapes storytelling in subtle ways that profoundly affect one’s well-being and self-image.

Dr. Feldenkrais shared many stories to help his students awaken to other options and possibilities for living life to the fullest.  He coped with so much stress and lack of security in his life that he wanted others to feel their own potency despite these assaults and injuries we all experience at some time in our lives.  He realized that to help a person learn, he shared stories and returned his students to each of our processes as infants, beginning with developmental movements and the logic that if you move better, you feel better and more choices become available.

Stories powerfully connect to the human psyche.  Now, what are the stories you’ve learned and the stories you tell yourself?  Are they justifying certain behaviors, or can we relearn and find other ways to influence more optimal behaviors that help us synchronize how we respond to, or react to information?  Are you hardwired to resist new ways of learning, listening, and behaving, or can you pause and re-evaluate how you do what you do?  Keep judgment out of this equation and just notice through comparisons so you can create other options.  Also, notice how you and others interpret another’s behaviors.  Is there judgment, or asking better questions about why they act in such a way?

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch

Life is an endless process of growth, learning, and becoming.  I hope we can all return to this process to grow, thrive, and nourish each other on our journey.

I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time and attention this week and wish you all health and happiness.

Warmest,

Peggi