This is not the kind of advice you will hear in many schools, workplaces or homes. In fact, you may never have heard them before, unless you have taken part in Feldenkrais classes.

When we try harder, the job often gets harder, it somehow solidifies into problem form, becomes a task, a strain. Pessimism and resignation show their faces. We start to believe there is no solution, no way out, so why go on looking for one? Depending on the job in hand, we may blame our intelligence, our age, or other people's behaviour. But frequently, if we can find a different approach, put on a different hat, the knot can magically unravel. Thinking harder, using more effort, more energy or a sharper focus generally means doing what you have already been doing more intensely, and, since this approach hasn't worked very well so far, and may even have been what created the problem in the first place, what you really need is a totally different approach. Holding your pen more tightly wont make your handwriting more attractive.

Change your perspective may be a familiar phrase and if it is, you'll know its more easily said than done, even if it rings true. Our ways of thinking, of dealing with our lives, are as habitual as the way we sit or stand, but while we may be conscious of being round shouldered or of slumping, its less easy to pin-point thinking habits. However, neither kind of habit is easily changed.

In most modern cultures doing our best is highly valued. We are goal-orientated, programmed to achieve and succeed, be it in school, work or love. The focus is on where we are going rather than how we get there. If we have few choices for how to arrive(or worse only one choice, which is not, by definition a choice at all), and little awareness of there being other ways of going about things, we often find that instead of achieving our goals we achieve frustration, pain, distress and stress. Instead of the things we do making us happier and freer, we find ourselves seemingly endlessly struggling, disenchanted and lacking energy. Feldenkrais work approaches the how of doing what we do.

Group and Individual Work