How are habits formed? How useful are they to us?

The Feldenkrais Method® is largely about examining our habits so we can learn new ways of doing what we want to do. It is only through reflection and review that we can decide if a habit is useful or if it requires rethinking.

Much of what we do in our lives is habitual, and much of the time these habits serve us well. But if we carefully take stock of what we are doing and are open to changing some of our regular patterns, we can learn a lot and often make some positive changes.

That is what we do in our Awareness Through Movement® classes and in individual Functional Integration® lessons. We repeat movement sequences and with each repetition we examine another element of the movement, or we look to do it in a different way or we try to incorporate another part of our body in the movement.

So what does this have to do with chocolate? We all know that chocolate is a good thing, especially if we eat the good kind (full disclosure, I prefer only very dark chocolate), and if we only have a little at a time (when you eat good dark chocolate you only need one piece at a time).

A few years ago I wrote a blog post on the benefits of the Feldenkrais Method and chocolate.

Also a few years ago,  one of my students brought a special chocolate bar to the Wednesday evening class. It was this brand, “galerie au chocolat“, but in a sea salt flavour. Then a few weeks later someone else brought in a bar and we tasted it after class.

Slowly a tradition, or habit started. Chocolate crept into all the classes (at the Feldenkrais Centre Vancouver, sorry those of you attending at the JCC), and most recently even during the morning class. Every so often someone shows up with a new type or flavour to try. This cinnamon flavour was imported from Montreal by a keen student and was loved by all. We have tried chocolate from Iceland, Ireland, Norway and all parts in between.

So if you are not ready to come to a Feldenkrais class to learn something new about yourself and how you move, come to learn about chocolate!