Too Darn Hot! Super Cool Minimal Movement ... It's All In The Eyes

Too Darn Hot

Super Cool Minimal Moves

It’s All In The Eyes - A very horizontal “Movement of the Eyes (Dead Bird)” Lesson by Moshe Feldenkrais

Naturally, as soon as I entitle the news series “Too Darn Hot,” temperatures here in the North Country drop from the high 80s to low 60s. Nonetheless, lazy dog days of summer are worth celebrating, heat or not.

Explore Feldenkrais Method techniques that make movement easy:

• leading with the eyes

• coordinating breath

• changing points of initiation

• powering from the pelvis

In “The Movement of the Eyes,” the tenth lesson published in his final book, “Awareness Through Movement,” Moshe Feldenkrais not only presents this seminal lesson on how eyes direct movement. He reiterates his message on the impotence of striving:

“If you try to reach the limit of your abilities every moment, you end up with little more than aching muscles and straining joints. When you strain for results, you make it impossible to achieve even a part of the improvement that can be obtained through the breakdown of habitual patterns of movement and behavior, which is the aim of these exercises.”

— Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement

“Make sure that all the muscular effort is transformed into movement, for effort that is completely converted into movement improves both one’s ability and one’s body. Effort that doesn’t not turn into movement, but causes shortening and stiffening. leads not only to a loss of energy, but to a situation in which loss of energy causes damage to the body structure.”

— Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement

“Note the important role the eyes play in the coordinating the musculature of the body; it is greater than the neck muscles. Most parts of the body have two functions... The muscles of the eyes and neck have a decisive influence on the manner in which the neck muscles contract. It is sufficient to recall climbing up or down stairs when the eyes didn’t see the floor at the end of the stairs to realize how great a part the eyes play in directing the muscles of the body.”

— Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement

For this lesson, also known as the ‘Dead Bird” because of the shape the hand takes, we forego the usual side-sitting position, lazing on our backs, barely lifting an arm. Gaze at the hand as it moves across your eyes, and then allow the hand to rest as the eyes drift across it, from pinky to thumb. There are some slow, easy head turns and soft spinal twists. All in the name of discovering how to use your eyes to simplify movement - look where you are going at it’s root.

Set Up:

• Lying on a mat with good support for head and knees - we will be on our backs the whole lesson save for rests

• Sitting in a firm, stable chair, knees and hips level, feet on the ground.

How you might feel after this lesson: Cool and quiet; Tuned into the way eyes lead movement; Aware of disconnects between eyes and the rest of the body; Aware of tensions that arise when eyes and body in conflict; Able to guide movement with the eyes (there must be a song there - suggestions always welcome.)

So many ways to be hot! This is the first of several covers of this famous Cole Porter tune, composed for the musical “Kiss Me Kate.”