10222007: Clearing the Clutter
It can really sneak up on you, the clutter. I haven't been very diligent lately, as the not-so-neat stack on my desk shows. I do know where everything is, but it will take a quiet period of extended awareness to go through everything to decide what is really useful now and what can be discarded. One pile has been there for so long, I'm used to having it, so closeby and convenient. Never mind that it's unstable, and one wrong move could send everything sliding. . .Sound familiar?
The problem of the desktop evolves over a period of hours, days---for some, weeks or even months! There's another kind of clutter that creeps into our lives with much more subtlety. Our daily habits of movement gradually lose the easy, graceful, and efficient qualities that we experienced in childhood. Unnecessary elements and tensions creep into nearly every movement, whether you are standing up from a sitting position, rolling over in bed, or walking. If we've had some specialized training (for example, in some form of exercise, performing in music or athletics, or in the aftermath of surgery or other injury), we don't realize that we've brought a lot of extra movement baggage into daily life. De-cluttering our movement patterns can bring more comfort and clarity to life, just like cleaning off a desk.
Of course, that's exactly what Moshe Feldenkrais had in mind as he devised this marvelously useful method. Change the way you move, and you'll change the way you sense, feel, and think. Life is great without the clutter. I'll get busy on this desk, and I hope to see you at a class or lesson this week!
