Effort is glorified in our society, hard work is synonymous with success, there is no possible gain without the preceding pain, and pushing yourself is thought to lead directly to an increase in performance.
In the Feldenkrais Method we take a different approach, we seek to find ways of doing the required movement with a sense of ease and comfort and that in turn takes us towards greater coordination, self organisation and skill.
This provides the perfect contradiction to all the striving and pushing that has become a mainstay in most other movement practices, and our our lives in general.
There is no emphasis put on achieving specific outcomes or getting a movement right. The emphasis is placed instead on your sense of enjoyment, playfulness and giving yourself permission to get it wrong, moving only within your comfortable range, stopping when you need to rest, and many other self affirming ideals that help you pay attention to the quality of your process rather than your need for outcomes.
Hidden within process is a sense of agency, the ability to act in a way that is in accordance with our intentions, which begins to allow us to create the conditions for a happy life. By becoming more in touch with ourselves, more aware of how we are acting and thinking, we gain a degree of choice over what we do and how we do it. In this way we get access to our established habits, and we also become a true radical in society, by going against the trend of trying to succeed through pushing harder and instead aiming for greater care and refinement in your actions by practising #ThoughtfulMovements