Mistakes and How Important They Are for Improving
Mistakes and How Important They Are for Improving
There’s a deep human need to be seen and heard, and to be needed and respected, but what happens when we make a mistake? Too often, one begins to demean and belittle themselves or others they judge, which actually separates us from others. Did you realize that to grow, learn, and progress, mistakes are necessary? This is how we learn through comparisons. What if you changed the way you judge a mistake as something essential to life?
“My life is full of mistakes. They’re like pebbles that make a good road.” – Beatrice Wood
A rebellious girl and free-thinking woman, Beatrice Wood was an American sculptor and ceramicist. Known as the “Mama of Dada,” she collaborated with Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché early in life before turning her creative soul to pottery, where she gained worldwide renown for her innovations and for inventing spectacular, never-before-seen glazes. I’m sharing a bit about Beatrice’s creative gifts that came from many mistakes in attempting to find something unknown but she knew she could find.
In many different iterations, it has been shared that Edison never found all of his attempts to create the light bulb as wasted efforts. Instead, he clarified, all the mistakes created clarity of what didn’t work and piqued his curiosity to continue into the unknown to find what he knew was possible.
Decades ago, as I began my quest in The Feldenkrais Method®, I was told again and again that mistakes are our friends, enabling us to learn what we don’t know. We are not islands unto ourselves; we are creative beings seeking to thrive, enlighten, and improve what life puts in front of us instead of just accepting what a specific culture, era, or conditioned learning imposes without challenging it. Be curious, ask questions, and think of better questions. You’ll begin to awaken to how new answers, unknown to you, begin to surface.
In a sense, this is our process in Awareness Through Movement (ATM)® lessons. There is guidance in these wonderfully skilled movements, a “red thread” to follow, like bread crumbs, when you’re afraid you’ll get lost and won’t be able to find your way back. While we guide, we encourage you to listen within to your responses and reactions, which I consider more intense than a response, to find your way. Just noticing how you interpret the words, and your experience is so powerful.
“In my lessons, the student learns to listen to the instructions while he is actually carrying out an exercise and to make the necessary adjustments without stopping the movement itself. In this way, he learns to act while he thinks and to think while he acts.” Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, ATM pg 160
I invite you to join me whether for ATM classes as well as private sessions both virtual and live known as Functional Integration (FI)® where learning is alive without any negativity. Allowing for little mistakes or errors to compare so you find for yourself what actually is more efficient, pleasant, and you want to continue to explore and play. The benefits are endless, no matter what issues you need to cope and deal with. This is how we find more resilience in life, instead of locking into our habitual patterns that too often are the mistakes we continue to make without realizing what we’re doing.
Holidays are approaching so whatever you celebrate, gift yourself the permission to make mistakes as they are the jewels that allow us to awaken, learn and grow with more resilience and vitality.
I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time and attention this week. Be lovely to welcome you to join me in my passion in learning through living life with the awakening of how Feldenkrais has opened so many doors to greater ease, freedom and pleasure.
Wishing you all happy holidays.
Warmest,
Peggi
