Video Podcast Interview with Irene Lyon: "Unpacking Feldenkraisian Learning"

October 12, 2020 Andrew Gibbons

My first video interview: "Upacking Feldenkraisian Learning" My colleague, Irene Lyon, who runs the very successful Smart Body Smart Mind online course, interviewed me for her podcast back in July. It's a wide ranging conversation, and we're clearly having fun as we go.

Irene saying some very nice things: "Andrew is as expert as you can get with this body of work, and I’m thrilled to share his origin story, his love of Feldenkraisian learning, and his many insights around what it means to not only be a good practitioner, but also what it takes to be a stellar student of this work."

My favorite quote: "Your kinesthetic intelligence is a renewable resource."

Breakdown
00:02:50 Andrew’s origin story
00:14:00 Feldenkrais in a masterclass setting
00:27:15 The gift of an injury & choosing pain as a teacher
00:32:25 A relationship to practice
00:39:00 The tyranny of the final product
00:42:30 The Meadowmount Music School practicing motto
00:43:45 Orientation to problems and outcomes
00:50:52 Narrowing the gap between subjective and objective
00:55:10 What makes Feldenkrais a "dark art"?
00:55:45 The problems & opportunities of slow
00:56:30 Principles vs. strategies
00:58:22 Relating teachers to audiences
01:05:23 "Slow" is not a principle
01:07:22 Principles as a compass
01:15:15 A quote on "genius as a modality" from Eric Weinstein
01:19:40 State changes vs. trait changes

Welcome to the Body of Knowledge Course

January 15, 2019 Andrew Gibbons

The lessons train your physical and mental equipment in a single, unifying context, where movement and attention are given equal weight. What makes Awareness Through Movement different from any other approach is the way it integrates the physical benefits of exercise and the mental poise of meditation.

Why Audio?

January 15, 2019 Andrew Gibbons

With Awareness Through Movement, you’re not bound to an external visual model.

You’re freed to pay attention to yourself, which is exactly what you need to learn better anyway. In the end, this is actually the more genuine path to improvement.

The Weight and the Stick

January 15, 2019 Andrew Gibbons

One of the biggest blindspots people have, is the relationship between muscular effort and skeletal support. Here’s a short demonstration to help you sort it out, and change your mindset when you move.

Turning Posture Inside Out

January 15, 2019 Andrew Gibbons

Awareness Through Movement is the best tool I know of to restore the dignity of choice. The strategies built into the lessons—the pace, the timing, the variations, the questions and constraints—are explicitly crafted to help you see into this mysterious layer of human behavior. Because good posture is both the condition you seek, and the ability to measure that condition.

The Kinesthetic Sense

January 15, 2019 Andrew Gibbons

Awareness Through Movement is oriented completely different than exercise. You’ve heard of the phrase, “no pain, no gain”? That’s an exercise aphorism. That’s a mantra that justifies the unpleasantness of your exertion. But what if exertion, or rather it’s potential for amping up the nuerological noise, is masking the problem?