Page 174 - Total War on PTSD

For many Veterans, the concepts and principles of the Feldenkrais Method may seem foreign especially because they run counter to long-held beliefs about physical fitness. For others, there are familiar aspects. Engineers, physicists and mechanics may see scientific principles enacted through the body. Dr. Feldenkrais trained first as an engineer, then earned his doctorate in Physics from the Sorbonne in Paris. Veterans familiar with Judo and other martial practices may see martial arts roots in his work. Dr. Feldenkrais was one of Europe's first black belts in Judo and, at the request of Judo’s creator Jigaro Kano, he introduced Judo to France during the 1930s.
We focus on the skeleton rather than the muscles. Many people with some familiarity of the Feldenkrais Method believe that it is solely about flexibility. It is not. We look principally at how a person organizes their skeleton, which provides both stability and flexibility. Most people don’t trust their skeleton to support them, because they don’t know how to let their bones do their work. When your skeleton works efficiently your muscles don't have to overwork to hold you up, no single part does more than its fair share of the work and force transmits throughout the skeleton without torsion, shear, or compression, causing less wear and tear on the body.
Movement should be performed as slowly as possible. The human nervous system, which controls our posture and movement, learns new things slowly. When we do movements quickly, we are not learning anything new — we are simply reinforcing existing learned patterns. Fast action at the beginning of learning is synonymous with strain and confusion.
Movement should be done consciously and with attention. Conscious attention is key to the learning process; we can’t learn something new if we aren’t aware of what we’re doing. In a keynote address before the American Society for Cybernetics, Feldenkrais trainer Lawrence Goldfarb said, “The problem encountered in learning a new way of moving is that an old and often habitual pattern interferes. It is not possible to simply do something new. Learning a new movement means learning about what is already happening, so as to understand what to change. It also
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