How to Make Your Own Differentiations

Eventually you will make up your own differentiations. Here is the basic template:

- Move groups of things (you can think 'muscles' but there are more choices than that) together in their habitual way.

- Move one thing differently — cattywompus, the opposite — from the rest, and keep going softly, slowly, gently until the weirdness melts a bit, or more than a bit.

- Or else just move one part and keep the other softly still — which probably means really small movements.

- Go back to the habitual coupling and see whether it has gotten smoother.

Most of the time, after differentiating, you'll still move everything together as before — but with an almost inexplicable improvement. Clients say it feels 'cleaner.' Sometimes, though, you discover that parts of you are involved that would be better off resting — they just make more work or more confusion. In those cases, after exploring, you don't put it all back. Trying to lift your leg with your diaphragm is an example of something that might want to stay uncoupled — once you notice that's happening, you can let it go. (Note: the change in that habit is complicated and not as easy as I just made it sound — but this is where Feldenkrais really shines.)