Newsletter #130 – Feldenkrais on national TV & a book about animal perception

Highlights

1. Announcement
• Yvo Mentens about the Feldenkrais Method on France TV
2. Did you know? …
3. Book recommendation
• An immense world, by Ed Yong
4. Quote of the week
5. Student corner
• A section to respond to students’ questions

1. Yvo Mentens about the Feldenkrais Method on France TV

Interview France TV

Two weeks ago, Yvo Mentens was invited to speak about the Feldenkrais Method on the program Bel & Bien on France 2.

We decided to share a few moments from the show with you and to explore certain topics more deeply.
5 short insights will be uploaded to our social media channels; here we share with you the 1st and 2nd parts.:

1. part: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUx1PI2iP_Q
2. part: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU5wSUrCPGn

The theme of the program was:
the benefits of movement in relation to physical pain

The February 6th episode is available on replay on the FranceTV application (France 2):
https://www.france.tv/france-2/bel-bien-ensemble/

2. Did you know? …

Your bones can hear stress and respond

Through a process called mechanotransduction , bone cells sense mechanical forces and adapt — thickening where stress is frequent and thinning where it’s absent.
That’s why astronauts lose bone density in microgravity, while weightlifters and movers of all kinds build it.
Every step, jump, and push is a conversation between your skeleton and gravity.

3. Book recommendation

- Rediscovering the Senses We Live In

An Immense World — by Ed Yong

In An Immense World, science writer Ed Yong invites us to imagine life through other eyes, and ears, noses, and skins. He explores the astonishing diversity of perception in the animal kingdom: turtles that sense magnetic fields, elephants that hear through their feet, bats that navigate by echoes, and fish that feel the electric pulse of others. Each lives in its own Umwelt — a sensory world as real and vivid as ours, yet entirely different.

Evolution fine-tunes each sense not for truth, but for survival. Humans, dominated by vision, overlook how limited our sensory range is. We live, Yong writes, inside a “thin sliver of reality,” unaware of the immense symphony that surrounds us.

Yong reminds us that there is no single, shared reality. Every species inhabits a unique version of the world shaped by its senses and needs.
Humans, too, live in a sensory bubble — one that we rarely notice because we take it for granted. Our eyes and ears reveal only a thin slice of what exists. To perceive fully would be overwhelming; perception is always a selective act.

For students of the Feldenkrais Method, this idea resonates deeply. Awareness Through Movement lessons invite us to explore our own Umwelt, to notice how we perceive through touch, weight, and orientation; how small differences in sensation can transform our understanding of the world. Each lesson expands the boundaries of our sensory field, reminding us that perception is not fixed but learnable.

Yong shows that animals perceive actively, not passively. A bat’s sonar works only because it moves. The same is true for us: movement, action and attention, shape how we sense.

In Feldenkrais practice, we refine this capacity, learning to feel more, move less automatically, and listen more deeply to the subtleties of contact, breath, and tone.

An Immense World ultimately teaches humility and wonder. The world is larger than we can know, and our senses are not limits but invitations, pathways into relationship. In cultivating awareness, we rejoin the immense world around us, not as observers, but as participants in the symphony of sensing that connects all life.

4. Quote of the week

“The only true voyage, the only fountain of youth, would not be to go to new landscapes, but to have other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees.”

— Marcel Proust

5. Student corner

Last week we talked about « cramps » during an ATM lesson.
Bene, from Puglia, in Italy asked whether drinking pickle juice, could help him, because of the electrolytes in it, when he has cramps in his leg, during an ATM lesson, is that correct?

Short answer: It’s partly true, with an important clarification.

Yes, there is credible evidence that pickle juice can stop some muscle cramps quickly, but not because of electrolytes as most people say, and not because it rehydrates you.

What seems to be true is that pickle juice can sometimes relieve cramps very rapidly (often within 30–60 seconds). That speed is far too fast for sodium or potassium to be absorbed into the bloodstream and reach the muscle.

Research suggests the effect comes from the strong sour/acidic taste, which stimulates receptors in the mouth and throat. This sensory input appears to trigger a reflex inhibition of overactive motor neurons in the spinal cord, helping the muscle relax. Because it’s a reflex, just the strong taste in the mouth is the trigger. You often don’t need to drink a whole glass, a small sip or even just swishing it around to taste the acidity can be enough to spark the reflex..

The idea that “you don’t even need to drink it” is broadly consistent with how the mechanism is understood. It doesn’t work for all cramps. It seems most effective for cramps linked to neural over-excitability (exercise-associated or fatigue-related), not cramps caused by neurological disease or other medical conditions.

So calling pickle juice an electrolyte solution in this context is misleading. Electrolytes may matter for general health, but they don’t explain the immediate anti-cramp effect.

From a Feldenkrais perspective, what’s interesting is not the pickle juice itself, but the principle:
Strong sensory input can rapidly change motor output.

The sour taste acts as a powerful signal to the nervous system, interrupting a runaway contraction pattern. This aligns well with what we see in lessons: changing sensory input, attention, or organization can reduce excessive tone without directly “fixing” the muscle.

- Yvo Mentens, Feldenkrais Trainer