Being a non-native speaker is funny. Most times, my brain is making sense of the words that I hear in a way that even trying to explain that to you, my kind reader, would make you quickly bored and click away from this page. Other times, as I speak, I’m sure that the listener is wondering what the heck am I trying to say -that is- when they understand the words I am actually saying.
The kindest ones call it “a beautiful accent”. The other ones go: “hmm, what?” with a puzzled face. Ha! I’ve seen all kinds of responses under the sun.
My favorite one: Otter.ai. The marvelous app that transcribes my second language into a first-world experience of the English word. Or at least it tries its best. (By the way, I get no commission for this pitch, I really love Otter).
Recently, as I was correcting the transcribed files from my first online course (soon to be published), I had no choice but to smile when I saw over and over again the words “feeling grace”. Not that I am not graceful or haven’t experienced such an elevated state, a few times in my life. But I didn’t remember talking about it so much on this recording. So I zoomed in.
What Otter was transcribing as Feeling Grace was no other than “Feldenkrais®”, which to you probably won’t make any sense anyhow. See? I told you.
Feldenkrais is the last name of a Russian genius — Moshe — that lived most of his life in Israel and taught in the US to groups as large as 275 people. In the late 40’s he invented a revolutionary method, making a novel smoothie out of Physics, Martial Arts, Neuroplasticity, Human Development, and Movement. The key ingredient: Awareness. Sounds delicious, right?
I’ll write more about this soon, and in the meantime, I promise you that the word Feldenkrais will be forgotten by you, no matter your brilliance.
Not because the power of this method doesn’t deserve to be known. Quite the contrary, it really works! Maybe because his last name is a mouthful to pronounce, tricky to remember, and because even after 70 years, its description is hard to understand by most.
My hope is that by inviting you to think about it as my AI helper did, as “Feeling Grace”, at the very least, it will make you curious to hear more…
(… to be continued)
The following are service marks, trademarks, collective, or certification marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America in the US: Feldenkrais®.
