Slow Down to Speed Up: The Value of Small, Slow Movements

Your nervous system can't learn from movement it can't perceive.

That's the reason behind one of the core concepts of the Feldenkrais Method and Debono Moves: slow down, do less, feel more. It applies to how you move, how you work with your horse, and how you handle your dog.

This episode explores what that principle actually means in everyday life.

Resources:

Grab your FREE video training to help your dog. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost. ⬅️⬅️⬅️

💥Learn how the Feldenkrais MethodⓇ can help improve your seat, position, and balance on your horse! Free rider videos masterclass: https://www.marydebono.com/rider 💥

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and does not constitute medical, veterinary, or training advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you, your horse, or dog are unwell or injured.  Always use caution when interacting with horses and dogs.

About the Host:

Mary Debono is a pioneer in animal and human wellness, blending her expertise as an international clinician, best-selling author, and certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner. With over three decades of experience, Mary developed Debono Moves, a groundbreaking approach that enhances the performance, well-being, and partnership of animals and their humans.

Mary's innovative approach draws from the Feldenkrais Method®, tailored specifically for horse and dog enthusiasts.  Her methods have helped animals and humans:

• Improve athletic ability and performance
• Enhance confidence and reduce anxiety
• Reduce physical limitations and discomfort
• Deepen the human-animal bond

Mary's flagship online programs, "Move with Your Horse" and "Easier Movement, Happier Dogs," provide animal enthusiasts with an innovative approach that combines the concepts of Feldenkrais® with her signature hands-on work for horses and dogs (Debono Moves). Through this transformative approach, both people and their animal companions discover greater harmony, ease, and connection.

Transcript

Ever taken a Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement class? You may have noticed that we're always, you know, encouraging you to slow down and do less. In fact, I consider that one of the key concepts of my teaching, slow down and do less. Now why is that? Matter of fact, let me give you a story. A woman I spoke to, she was telling me that she did attend a Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement class with someone else.

And this woman, by the way, is an accomplished horse trainer, wonderful instructor, you know, teacher herself. And she didn't quite get it. You know, she was used to being very athletic, you know, consider herself very strong. And she didn't. She wasn't clear on why the movements were small and slow. So she ended up not going back. But when I explained to her, because she was intrigued with my work and when I explained to.

Explained to her the value of it, like why we do it, then she was all in. Because here's the thing. The Feldenkrais method is a learning modality. That means that it's not an exercise program. It's a way so that you can improve your movement so that then you can be faster and you can be stronger. But it requires you to slow down and do less so that your nervous system has time and space to notice more, right?

We learn by noticing differences. If we want to improve how we move, we have to slow down. We have to do less, right? Because you can't, you can't learn from information that you can't perceive. So if I'm doing, you know, fast, big movements, my brain doesn't have time to notice how I'm doing them. They just. Your, your nervous system at that point just wants to get you through the exercise, right?

You're, you're just, you know, your attention is on just doing it, like getting through it, rather than on the quality of the movement. And what we're after here is improving the quality of the movement starting from a foundation. Matter of fact, what's really, really important is to think about the initiation phase of a movement. Like the very first thing you do when you start to do a movement.

Because you can really only change, you know, significantly the quality of a movement at the beginning of it, at its initiation. So, for example, if I'm reaching for something, right, And I just go ahead and I just try to reach for this thing over here, and maybe it's heavy and I, like, pull it towards me. Look, my nervous system is just going to be focused on not tearing something at that point, but instead if I slow down, And I think, okay, I'm going to reach for that thing.

What is the very first thing I do? And I notice maybe, oh, I held my breath. Well, that's not going to be helpful, right? Holding the breath isn't helpful. What's helpful is noticing that I'm holding my breath or I notice, oh, I actually braced with the shoulder instead of allowing my shoulder blade to glide. I actually restricted it. Who knew? Now I can, I can do some movements.

And this is what we do in the Feldenkrais method. We have very, very specific movements that we pay attention to and then do variations on them. But we can notice like, oh, we can be, we can be curious. It gives us space to be curious when we go in a smaller, slower, comfortable way. So we can, we can fine tune our movement. But again, that requires us to do less so we can notice more.

So the speed of the movement is slower and the size of the movement is slower, at least at first. But it's not that the goal is to learn how to be a slow person or only move in a small way. Not at all. The idea is to, to create a foundation to, to give your, your nervous system time and space to better coordinate your movement so that then your speed and your power improve and, you know, increase automatically.

And you're reducing wear and tear, you're increasing your vitality, you're moving in a more elegant way and nothing is forced. And this is really, really important. Now, this isn't just about how to get better at doing a Feldenkrais lesson, because what's the point of that? The Feldenkrais lessons are meant to help you improve how you live your everyday life so that the learning you, you get from doing Feldenkrais transfers automatically into your everyday life.

And there's also things you can do to help integrate that, to kind of speed that along. So if you think like, think of how many times a day you sit down, right, you sit down in a chair, you sit down into in your car. You stand and sit right many times throughout the day. So if we think about, like, how do you, how do you come from sitting to standing?

Many people do it in a way that actually damages their knees. So over time, maybe it doesn't bother them when they're 30, but maybe by the time they're 60, their knees are really sore or they're really stiff. So if they think about, what if I just slow down? And there's, there's actually lessons I teach about how to get up from sitting in a chair that Are Feldenkrais, you know, based.

But even just thinking, okay, do it. Can I turn first to minimize, you know, tension, to minimize, you know, wear and tear, and then can I line my legs up so I'm not torquing my knees? I mean, there's all kinds of even small adjustments you can do to make movements be healthier for you. Okay, and now if you, if you take this into your horse or your dog life, like even things like, you know, how you pick up the leash or the lead rope, you know, when it's attached to your animal, like, how do you do that?

Do you find that you're stiffening? Do you hold your breath? You know, you, you just start to slow down and notice things. Maybe you're walking with your horse or your dog and you're noticing, oh, when I step onto my left leg, I feel tall, but when I step onto my right leg, if I do it, you know, slowly in a small way, I notice that I shrink a little bit, like I'm doing something funny somewhere else.

So these are things that can be really, really helpful to notice. And then you can, you can explore and you can, you can experiment, you can, you know, become really curious about it. And that's your, that is such a good tool is curiosity. But again, it requires you to slow down and do less so you can improve the movement. And this is, this is a key concept, by the way, of the hands on work too.

So you probably know if you've been listening to the podcast that I teach, De Bono moves, which is a hands on approach for animals. So horses, dogs, etc. And it's one of our key concepts, slow down, do less to feel more. So that when you're doing hands on work with your animal, the animal, also the horse or the dog will feel more, their nervous system can notice more because you're not just like, you're not using heavy pressure and doing just huge movements all the time that are, you know, just noise in the nervous system.

But instead you're, you're, you're slowing down and you're doing tiny things and you're really noticing how your animal responds to that and then you can adjust. So again, I just want to emphasize, you know, your nervous system needs time and space to notice differences and we learn by noticing differences. And we want a foundation of healthy, organized, like coordinated movement. Then you can allow the size and the speed to increase automatically and it'll still be in a healthy, efficient way where you'll feel vital and youthful.

It'll be so much better. So these are just some ideas to think about, like where can you slow down and do less in your life and will that allow you to notice more, to improve your awareness, your self awareness? Right, it's all about that. And it can improve the quality of your life and the lives of your animals, your horses and your dogs. So slow down, do less, stay within your comfort zone and notice how you initiate movement.

And you know, you can even take this into, you know, other kinds of actions, maybe projects you're working on or you know, whether work related or personal hobbies, things like that. But notice how you can make changes by really getting curious about how you do things, how you initiate action. And then let me know, let me know what resonates for you. Let me know what you discover. I love hearing from you.

I appreciate you listening. So now go out, enjoy yourself by doing less and feeling more. Here's to easier movement and happier lives. Thanks so much. I look forward to talking to you soon. Bye for now.