Why Movement? Your Movement Reveals Something About You

A old woman is walking down a busy sidewalk in the city when she is firmly bumped aside as a man runs past her. Wait a second... that man stole her purse! Fortunately a police officer heard the cries and chases the man through alleyway, over fences, and past cooks in the hot frantic kitchen of a restaurant. The he turns the corner and it's a dead end. The thief is trapped. The police man aims his gun, and commands: Don't move.
Here is the question. Can the criminal really stop moving?
Can anyone stop moving if they are alive?

We explore this question and Feldenkrais' 5th of 9 reasons for Why Movement as a means for self-improvement.

You will hear the except get broken down sentence by sentence. We talk about how movement reflects our state of mind, how movement is inherent in every moment of living, all muscular activity is movement. I describe how I observe movement when I teach Feldenkrais® lessons. I offer a few descriptions of people's movement and how that evokes something about their state of mind.

It's a long excerpt this time so here it is for you to read.

All muscular activity is movement.

Every action originates in muscular activity. Seeing, talking, and even hearing require muscular action. (In hearing, the muscle regulates the tension of the eardrum in accordance with the loudness of the sound perceived)

Not only are mechanical coordination and temporal and spatial accuracy important in every movement, its intensity is also important. Permanent relaxation of muscles causes action to be slow and feeble, and permanent excessive tension causes jerky and angular movements; both makes states of mind apparent and linked with the motive of the actions. 

Thus, in mental patients, nervous persons, and those with an unstable self-image, it is possible to discern disturbances in the muscular tonus in accordance with the deficiency. At the same time, other attributes of action, such as rhythm, and adjustment in time and space, may be more satisfactory. 

It is possible to discern trouble in the regulation of intensity in movements and in the facial expression of a person on the street, even for an unskilled observer who does not know exactly what is wrong.

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Hi, I'm Jeffrey. 

I am a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Filmmaker. I am the director of the upcoming documentary on the Feldenkrais Method.

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