"Organic learning" results in delightful surprises.

After my Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement class on Monday evening, one of the students came up to me and told me that her arms were swinging when she walked for the first time in her life, after the lesson. She had also attended my workshop the previous weekend. She said that her arms had always just hung down by her sides without motion, until after this class.

She seemed very pleasantly surprised, and wondered how it happened. I explained that the arms swing, by themselves, in connection with the mobility of our hips, spine and ribs in the walking pattern. I told her that some people swing their arms intentionally because they think they should, but this does not mean the arms are moving in coordination with the other parts of the body.

Through the lessons, she had learned that she could move her ribs, spine, hips, etc. in new, more connected and cooperative ways, so that in walking, her arms were now swinging.

Feldenkrais is organic learning. This is a great example of how it works. She learned through exploration and feeling connections of the parts of her body in motion, without any idea that the outcome would be her arms swinging freely when she walked.