INTERVIEW: Mark Keogh, Feldenkrais Practitioner at Oscailt

 

Tell us about the connection that can be drawn between meditation and movement.

 

The  Feldenkrais Method uses movement to awaken our attention. The lessons are designed to improve function but within an envelope of attention to what we are actually doing and not what we think we are doing. Being attentive to the body in this way brings us into presence. It can have a meditative quality to it yet still be active. We are doing but also developing a kind of witness mentality to that doing.

  

Many people are very confined in their physical movements eg. sitting at a desk all day, sedentary lifestyle. Can this also have an affect on the mind, as well as body?

 

Just as the mental state expresses itself in how we walk, talk, breathe – perhaps we could say our state of being IS the totality of our breathing, posture, feeling, thinking, and moving – so our posture, breathing etc. is intimately interwoven with our emotional and mental state. Sometimes this is easy to become aware of and change with no outside assistance but often we have unconscious habits of movement, posture, breathing which are so much us that we do not know we are doing them. This is where we can develop or deepen our awareness and make conscious what has been working us from our unconscious. In this way we gain conscious control over what belongs to us most intimately.

 

 

Tell us a little more about your background and where your initial interest in Feldenkrais stemmed from.

 

I studied philosophy and literature in Trinity College  before eventually settling in Germany. I had already an interest in the work of the  Indian philosopher Krishnamurti and his ideas of presence without judgement. During this time I started to get pretty bad headaches and a friend suggested I go to some Feldenkrais classes. I immediately clicked with it and as it happened a training was starting up in Switzerland just as I was going to move there to live with my wife.

 

Have you got examples have you seen of people who have improved drastically when they incorporated Feldenkrais into their activities?

 

I think so. I have had people with severe headaches who have quickly benefitted from the method. Others have come with various aches and pains some of which they have had for years and found that a different way of using their body elliminated the pain. I have worked with musicians with repetitive strain and singers who have improved their vocal range. The work can also be a very satisfying way of approaching more subtle psycho-somatic  issues and can be used very succuesfully in conjunction with psychotherapy.

 

 

Who should practice Feldenkrais, is it suitable for everyone?

Anyone can do it. For a few the group lessons may be too challenging but one-to-ones(functional integration) are tailored to the individual person.

 

 

When people feel mentally unwell or depressed, very often they focus on the mind to get better. Do you feel that a holistic curing of both mind and body is preferable?

 

I think the separation of body and mind is an illusion and when it comes to working with these kinds of issues the body can be used as a point of access to the mental and emotional. Anthony Damassio put it very well saying “the body is the theatre of the mind”. for me it is becoming clearer and clearer that one can work with the whole person using a combination of awareness training, movement, and language.

 

 

What kind of bad physical habits do people adopt and why? Such as, poor posture, rigidity etc.

 

There is nothing that is really bad in terms of posture. It is the compulsion to act in one way and lack of alternatives that leads to problems, pains, wear and tear  on the body. Getting a bigger repertoire of movement allows us to avoid over-using or under-using the bodies parts.. What we are looking for is that big strong muscles do their share of the work leaving the smaller muscles for fine tuning and direction. What  is also important is that we have a skeleton which can take over so much more of the work than it is allowed to and this can happen due to permanently contRacted muscle groups which feel they need to be switched on all the time. When we get the feeling of the skeleton taking over then there is a great relief, a sense of ease, grace and lightness.

 

Do people who are confident and happy hold themselves in a different way, in posture, movement etc.?

 

Yes I think that anyone can see if their friend is feeling well or is a bit down without having to use words. There is an effortlessness of acting, and a flow between thinking, feeling and moving which goes hand in hand with feeling good. When we are down (even the word says sometihing about the physical nateure of the emotion) there is more contraction often shortening the spine and neck and constricting the breath. These are things we can become aware of use in the relationship to our inner world.

 

 

Where does the Feldenkrais practice originate from?

 

Moshe Feldenkrais was an Isreali physicist, Engineer and judo black belt. He had a sporting injury and was told he probably wouldnt walk again. He didnt accept that and started to put his understanding of structure and bodily movement to good use combining it with a study of the developmental stages of babies and an attention to his own body and inner processes. He saw that it was the unconscious movements he was doing (related to fear) which was preventing him from being able to use his legs for walking. As he discovered these habits he gained control over them and could choose alternatives which enabled him to walk again.

 

 

How can practising Feldenkrais transform the body and mind?

 

What I like about the method is that its basic point is you are exactly right as you are. Find out about youself, your body, mind and feelings and you can free yourself from their unconscious workings. You dont need to be different. Feldenkrais said “if you know what you are doing you can do what you want”. For me this puts awareness, attention or mindfulness at the centre of the method and this is what helps to heal.

 

Frankie Macken