About Learning
by Eva Alewa Geueke
Learning is fantastic, and our brain is ready-made to learn.
Learning is what I keep enjoying about SmartMoves/Feldenkrais.
After a typical Feldenkrais lesson, I do not just feel good, balanced, and newly organized in body and mind. Still, I also have the satisfaction that I genuinely learned something valuable.
Awareness through Movement/ Feldenkrais and SmartMoves is about learning and expanding your infinite possibilities through conscious movement. Dr. Feldenkrais said, ‘everyone has the potential to be a genius, which is our human birthright, but few people are taking the time to develop their genius. To do that, we have to look at or better sense our limitations without judgment and then find a way to overcome them, by exploring new possiblities. For the brain/Nervous System it is like mapping out a new path and making a road out of it.
One response to limitation is to pretend it is not there like when people have a shoulder that hurts or gets stuck for a moment in movement. Instead of paying attention, slowing down, and looking at what inhibits the shoulder, they quickly pass that point and try to ignore it. This lack of awareness can continue for years, and suddenly there is so much pain that one cannot ignore it anymore. The shoulder becomes frozen or has painful arthritis. The body seems to be brighter than the one driving it. Self-preservation kicks in and tries to stop the abuse through inflammation. However, in that place where the shoulder seemingly gets stuck lies a chance for reform and ingenuity to emerge.
Dr. Feldenkrais was a genius himself. He was very curious and learned early to take his destiny into his hands. He left Ukraine by himself at 12 years old and worked in Palestine before he became a physicist and electrical engineer in Paris, graduating from the prestigious university Sorbonne in Paris. He became the first Black Belt Judoka in France under Kano Jigoro.
One of the turning points for Dr. Feldenkrais was that his knee injury from his youth became so bad, he could not walk anymore without crutches. So he decided to take his fate into his own hands as doctors gave him little hope. He had to find a way on his own to restore his functioning. By learning to increase his awareness of himself he discovered how to get the brain to lay new neural connections and restore the brain’s image of his knee functioning, and his self-image to a pain-free, efficient movement in the body and life. While learning and improving his condition, he created his new work that helped many thousands of people around the globe to improve their lives in his lifetime alone.
The Feldenkrais work certainly enhanced my life. It helped me to heal many injuries from my professional dancer’s career and martial arts. The Method helped me not just to become a better dancer with more self-reliance, self-trust, self love, compassion and much more but also how to age gracefully and healthily.
Aloha, Eva Alewa Kauikalani Geueke