Writing

For the translation of his idea, a writer chooses not an exterior image, but hides it in a code of signs. The composition of signs smuggles information into the interior of the reader, and once there, little by little arranges an inner gestalt. Reading is less of an experience through the senses than within the senses. This seemingly trivial thought has vast consequences for the writing process itself.

Observed from the outside, a writer's physical movements are limited to his upper body. Common notion calls him the most intellectual among artists. To articulate his idea he can completely neglect any physical techniques, since the actual act of writing is unimportant to his audience and it doesn't at all matter how he holds a pen or touches the keys. Only few suspect how challenging writing is for his nervous system, how profound the emotional bond in this process can become. While he's sitting there, all inner movement streams from his body into the next line. For hours he's in a state of directed attention, sometimes fully giving himself up and over, sometimes in constant friction, sometimes balancing on the edge. The act of writing appears motionless, reserved, coy; experiencing it is filled with sensation and rich in changes. The writer himself has already noticed that ideas have a habit of showing up when he finds into the moment, into his body. At first, access to that realm isn't easily permitted, and it is certainly not part of a daily prepping routine. Obviously, other artists do as well get stuck, procrastinate. But most of them have the advantage to warm up, just try something, anything, jangle around, turn to a partner—gradually ’’swing“ themselves into a familiar state and take it from there. In the reduced manifestation of a written idea that's hardly an option.
Feldenkrais is a tool that allows exploring and enticing the inverse connection between mental and physical movement, between word and deed. Our ideas and stories remain untouched; we clarify sensations and inklings and increase the likelihood of drawing them into imagination from whence we give them shape and structure. Within this learning process we develop a completely new appreciation for and resilience of our own writing.