Better in 45
How Awareness Through Movement allows you to take a higher level of control over seemingly unconscious things like mood, energy level and the effects of the stresses of life.
“You look tired.” “You seem stressed-out.” “Are you feeling OK?”
What are people noticing when they say these things to us? Sometimes the signs are obvious, such as when there are big bags under our eyes or when our faces are pale. On the other hand, a lot of what our faces reveal is more subtle. The rims of our eyelids can be slightly more red than usual or our eyes themselves can have a slightly cloudy quality. These signs are less obvious and our friends who see us as tired or stressed might not even be aware specifically what they’re reacting to but. If asked, they might just say something like, “I don’t know, you just seem a little off.”
We tend to think that when things have gotten so bad that other people can see on our faces that we’re in rough shape we must need a vacation or a job change or a different life partner. We tend to believe that there not much we can do about it without, at least, a fun weekend during which we can refresh. But this kind of mindset doesn’t give enough credit to the power of awareness, that is, specific awareness of exactly the subtle things that add up to an experience of bad mood, tiredness and stress. It also doesn’t give enough credit to the ability we all have to radically shift how we feel relatively quickly, in a matter of forty five minutes or even less. In fact, with some practice and some awareness, it’s often possible to shift out of these modes in a matter of minutes or even instantaneously.
Before and after 5 Lines Fitness, a martial arts-derived Feldenkrais Method-based system of movement. Taught daily through 5 Lines.
We’ve all had strange experiences where our mood or energy level is suddenly greatly improved. An obvious example would be hearing fantastic news but there are many other times when mood and energy can shift quickly and dramatically. We might have a chance encounter with someone who has a big effect on us or we might even find a big improvement after something seemingly negative, like being startled or stubbing a toe. Such events set off big changes in the nervous system that can shift our internal state very dramatically and quickly. Our increasing understanding of the way our brains control mood and energy makes these experiences less mysterious. What seem like bedrock, objective facts like being tired, hungry or stressed are experiences that result from a complex set of neurological mechanisms that are a lot more plastic than they seem to be.
Is it possible that we can learn to shift our mood and energy level more purposefully and less reactively? People with a lot of experience doing Awareness Through Movement know that the answer to these questions is yes, absolutely we can.
ATM makes use of the fact that there is a strong link between the autonomic functions that dictate mood and energy level and our control of normal body movement through intentional motor function. When we reduce the overall effort in the muscular system and evoke efficient, whole-body patterns of movement organization, as in ATM, the benefits to mood and an overall sense of well-being is immediate and dramatic.
This is why it is possible to feel so incredibly refreshed after a 45-minute session of ATM. To be sure, other things can have a similar effect. Things like taking a bath, exercise, sex (and pleasant touch in general), and even just listening to music can all have strong effects but what makes ATM so different from these other things is the way it specifically guides our attention to noticing the subtle details of our own movement and sensation. ATM is fundamentally a learning process though which, over time, we become more and more capable of eliciting a shift in the way we feel without the need for a session of exercise, sex, or anything else. Over time we become much more aware of, and much more able to control, the little kinesthetic details that make up our mood and overall sensation.
The signs that we’re not feeling well can be much more subtle than tired eyes. Slight tensions in the facial muscles can create changes in the shape and quality of the skin, not wrinkles exactly but a slight thickening here, a slight thinning there, that give away the fact that something is stressing us or wearing on us. These subtle signs, when they aren’t sufficiently ameliorated by rest and relaxation, can build up over time. We all know people who seem to have a certain grimace perpetually pasted onto their faces like a kind of mask. Sometimes these habitual expressions can be so extreme that you wonder how the person could ever smile or laugh and, in fact, often smiling and laughing are rare events for people who have habits like that.
Such habits aren’t limited to our faces. The posture and attitude of the entire body is just as susceptible to the kinds of habits that people read on our faces. Subtle holding of the breath, tightening of the abdomen, tensions in the hip joints, tightness in the shoulders and a million other subtle (and not-so-subtle) muscular habits reveal to others that something is not right and, more importantly, have a powerful affect on how we feel. Our habits make us unwitting collaborators with the external stresses that can bring us down or wind us up.
ATM is a robust antidote to these things not just because it causes a shift in us, as many things do, but because it is specifically geared toward helping us learn what those shifts consist of in their practical details so that we don’t get into such bad habits in the first place and, when life does start to get to us (as it inevitably does, however good our habits may be) we have the tools to make a change without the need for an hour at the gym, a loving touch, or a weekend away from it all. To begin with we learn that we can feel much better in 45 minutes. Then 40. Then half an hour….
