Now there is more evidence to support what we teach regularly in Feldenkrais classes: using your imagination to do parts of, or entire movements.
I know when I first heard of imagining a movement I thought it was crazy. But there is support for the benefits of thinking, feeling and visualizing movements before doing them or instead of actually doing them.
An article from three years ago recently came to my attention. It asks whether practicing a skill in your head will help you be better at it. The short answer is yes, if you already good at it. The article suggests that if you don’t know how to do something, then imagining it might be difficult. You don’t know the steps, techniques, trajectories, etc. However if you already know how to do something but cannot do it for some reason, then imagining it is very beneficial. The reasons include that you can practice the skill anywhere, it is safe, and you won’t get as tired as easily.
I use the power of imagination frequently in my classes. Often we explore a sequence of movements on one side of the body, and imagine many of them on the other side before actually doing them. The goal is to transfer what was learned on the previous side but to do so feeling the movements and their connections to the rest of the body. I also suggest paying attention to areas of lightness, areas of less freedom and to the breath. After a period of imagining we might do fewer movements on the second side, and most often the benefits are almost as great or sometimes even better than on the side we spent lots of time on.
Want to rejuvenate your imagination? Sign up for an Awareness Through Movement class or workshop today. Spring 2018 session registration is now open.
