Being an entrepreneur is a practice of self-awareness—learning to leverage your strengths and improve your weaknesses. Balancing your sense of self while driving your business is an art. Staying grounded and balanced within yourself enables you to close deals and advance your business effortlessly.
The Feldenkrais Method® (Feldenkrais) is a universal approach to enhancing human life through improved movement, sensation, posture, and breathing. Neuroplasticity is central to the effectiveness of the Feldenkrais Method.
The way you interact with the world and communicate with others is an outward expression of your inner self. When stress rises in your body or you are tired, it shows externally. Your physiological cues reveal your mental state.
Why do entrepreneurs often place self-care at the bottom of their to-do list?
The Feldenkrais Method’s approach to learning involves rewiring our body’s awareness, moving us out of our heads and into our movements. It brings us back to the basics, re-learning forgotten movement patterns to become more effective in our conscious and unconscious choices, thereby developing a new state of conscious awareness.
Coming from a dance background, I view sales similarly to performing on stage. The best dancers can improvise within complex choreography and clearly express their desires and emotions.
Feldenkrais helps you break through the physiological manifestations of your inner emotional perspective. Learning to breathe easier reduces stress and lessens the tension held throughout your body, creating shifts in your attitude and focus, and building greater self-awareness. This helps you perform the choreography of business more efficiently and with less effort.
In our modern world, everything has escalated; we think bigger, bolder, brighter is better. The faster and harder we exert ourselves, the less sensitive we become to subtle changes, to the loud and the soft, to light and shade.
How does Feldenkrais cut through this noise? Let me explain: “The law of the least amount of effort.” known as Weber’s law and Fechner’s law.
If you are carrying a piano and a fly lands on it, you won’t feel the difference. However, if you are carrying a feather and a fly lands on it, you will feel it. Feldenkrais allows you to sense subtle differences in your system.
We each have the power to choose. Let’s consider some choices you might want to think about and implement as strategies to become more aware of your actions:
Let’s start with one fundamental idea when implementing this modality: pace. The speed at which you work matters. Moving at the speed of sound doesn’t guarantee success. Moving too fast may harm your personal well-being. Know when you need a slow pace and when you have the momentum to move a bit quicker.
Discover your unique way of doing things. Just because a strategy worked for someone else doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Learn from others, but remember that everything is in a state of change. What worked once for them may not work for you as the environmental conditions may have changed.
Eliminating unnecessary distractions allows you to attend to the entire situation, your body, and your surroundings, becoming aware of any changes or differences and noticing the important things.
By doing one task at a time, having one tab open at a time, and answering one email at a time, you can sit comfortably with your shoulders relaxed and breathe. Resist opening another tab until you complete the task in the open tab. Commit fully to finishing the first task, and you will soon notice how you get more done in less time because you’re not constantly switching tasks, and your body will be more relaxed and in flow.
Here are three basic fundamentals of the Feldenkrais Method for building awareness:
- Find your way of performing your movements.
- Eliminate parasitic actions—actions that don’t need to happen to perform the task you are working on.
Let’s look at a few steps you can take every day to build your awareness:
Observe yourself in your work environment.
- Do you always stand the same way?
- Do you turn the same way to get things on your desk, like answering the phone?
- Change things around in your environment to give yourself some variety.
Observe your breathing.
- Do you notice you hold your breath when doing something difficult?
- How deeply do you breathe?
- Where do you feel your breath, in your belly or chest?
Notice where your shoulders are:
- Reach up with your right arm and extend it down the back of your neck. How far can you reach?
- Now reach behind your back with your left arm towards your right arm. How far can your fingers go up your back? Can your hands reach each other?
- Do this at least once a day and see how your shoulders become free.
Remember, self-awareness is a skill we continue to develop, not a state we arrive at. Learning to navigate the complexities of life with emotional intelligence is an art. Feldenkrais offers a way to move effortlessly, calm your system, and build your awareness so your emotional state can glide through the challenges life throws at us.
Stress Management and Personal Well-being: The Feldenkrais Method not only aids in stress management but also enhances personal well-being by promoting better posture, breathing, and movement awareness. Entrepreneurs often neglect their well-being, but by incorporating Feldenkrais techniques, they can achieve a balanced state of mind and body, leading to improved productivity and overall health.
Business Efficiency: By integrating self-awareness practices and the Feldenkrais Method, entrepreneurs can significantly enhance their business efficiency. Understanding and managing one’s physiological and emotional states leads to better decision-making and more effective communication within the business environment.
Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness: Emotional intelligence and mindfulness are critical components for any successful entrepreneur. The Feldenkrais Method fosters these qualities by encouraging individuals to be present in their movements and aware of their emotional states. This heightened awareness translates into better interpersonal relationships and a more mindful approach to business challenges.
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