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 Mhairi MacInnes

 

I was born in an old house on a Scottish island where we never locked doors. Perhaps that is why I try to unlock the potential within each of my students. I have 30 years of experience as a professional musician, theatre practitioner and International school teacher. Experiencing schools in many different regions of the world, I wonder at the power of organic learning and how easily it is overlooked. I love to watch curiosity being restored.

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Studying Feldenkrais gave me the opportunity to reconnect with myself and my learning in totally unexpected ways. The act of taking a walk, for example, becomes constant and enjoyable research into the way I move myself through the environment. This deceptively simple idea is at the core of Feldenkrais’s teaching; if you are not aware of how you are doing what you are doing, then you miss out on a complete experience. Another example; in playing a musical phrase, I focus not only on the way each note is executed, but on the quality of the spaces between them and how I approach that. This opens up a larger universe of possibility as a musician but also as a dancer, in conversation and as a teacher.  Applied to every day life, I have more choice in how I approach all my actions, I can decide how to move myself within new situations and I can pay attention to the quality of interactions I involve myself with.  This has undoubtedly increased my quality of life.  In a larger context, this can over time contribute to a higher quality of life for the community where I work. This is one of the higher goals of Feldenkrais; to enhance the life of the community through enhanced awareness at the individual level.

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