how lazy is too lazy?We humans are inherently lazy. (Bear with me here) This is of benefit in my work. Believe it or not, I exploit this trait in order to allow healing to take place….

We are programmed this way. Efficiency is what we strive for. We have sayings like “less is more” that show up everywhere from Zen Buddhism and the skimpy attire of pop culture. We are always looking for simplicity. Less. Why? Because we want more! Somehow these two opposing concepts make sense to us on an intuitive level. Why? Because we’re lazy, people.

It’s no accident that this is true. Our brains are set up to look for the path of least resistance. On a biological and evolutionary level, this helps us to survive. While survival today doesn’t involve running from the saber tooth tiger, our reptilian brains don’t know the difference and frankly, don’t care.

The sticky part comes when we take this drive to do less, and combine it with another valuable survival skill we have: identifying patterns. Can you imagine having to think about each step you took? Each sound that makes up a word or sentence? No? Of course not! And thank goodness! How exhausting that would be! We also create patterns to protect ourselves when we’re injured. If I sprain my ankle, I organize my whole self around not causing pain through further injury until it’s healed – good thing! We simplify the process by learning these useful patterns. We do less so our attention and energy can be focused elsewhere – on doing what we want.

What’s sticky about that? Well, we take these learned patterns and habituate them. In essence we get stuck. We rely on them so heavily that regardless of the situation we still do the same thing and expect a different result (….remember the definition of insanity?). We fail to recognize when the ankle is healed, and still maintain a pattern of protection, even though it is no longer useful to us. This pattern likely isn’t balanced. The uninjured leg takes more weight to allow for healing. But once the ankle has healed, this extra work is no longer justified. Just like the home in which the division of labor is unbalanced – after a while, someone’s going to complain, right? Our bodies complain through pain. They are trying to communicate a need for change. The ankle has healed, so why are we still doing the same old thing!?

The good news is that when offered a simpler, easier way, we are drawn to it. We know we want to do less. We want to feel good and comfortable in our bodies. We’ve simply forgotten that we know how. As babies, we all fumbled around with limbs and sounds until we figured out the proper pattern to get what we need. We learned to walk, we learned to communicate without anyone explaining each step along the way. We sill have these skills. We each have an innate ability to sense and feel and choose the path of least resistance.

In my work with the Feldenkrais Method®, I help my clients remember. I work with them to tap into this innate skill, and learn to move with ease, grace and comfort. In essence, I teach people how to do less, and gain more. More energy and comfort to devote to what they really want. What a gift! To learn more, visit www.bodysongcenter.com.

Thanks for listening!
Sharon

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