From the Summer 2007 Schedule

Taking time to turn inward

 Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And Lightning that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteors,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner's sure feet.

And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.

   This poem, by the American Elisabeth Coatsworth, is a favorite of mine. I resonate with it especially, I think, because in the Feldenkrais Method we spend much of our time in the place where “slow things are beautiful.”  

We humans have always had a need to go inward, and doing movements slowly is a way to bring yourself there. After so much energy has gone out, you use slow, focused movement to return to yourself. This balances the outward direction and strengthens your feeling of self.  

In the old days, when it was dark at night and cold during the winter, we had down time more naturally.  But now that electricity and its instruments are everywhere, we have lost a lot of our natural time for inwardness. 

Isn’t this the meaning of feeling so often “stressed?” We feel pulled in too many directions and always away from ourselves.