Making Mistakes

Dear Reader,

I don’t like to think of myself as a perfectionist, but I do like to do things correctly. I try to be deliberate and methodical about certain things. For example, I participated in a pattern drafting workshop this past weekend. The idea was to make a basic sewing pattern for a bodice—one that would fit like a glove. And from there you could make all kinds of changes to create a custom garment.

But first, the basic pattern—it’s called a moulage. You start with measurements, and then there’s geometry. Draw perpendicular lines, based on those accurate measurements—we hope they’re accurate—and on a few pattern making standards.

Then you check your work. Does what you’ve drawn match up with the numbers you started with? Maybe yes; maybe no. Out comes the eraser. With any luck, you have a good eraser that doesn’t smear your work. With further luck, your mistakes don’t have too many cascading consequences.

And with even better luck, the teacher reassures you that you don’t have to start all over again, from the very beginning. It’s especially nice if you can see where you went wrong and learn from that.

I don’t like the idea of “failing forward.” I’d rather fail as little as possible. But, I do like the idea of learning from mistakes. In life, one of the hardest lessons might be to take responsibility for our mistakes. It’s so much easier to point fingers, to blame others, to puff ourselves up with righteous anger.

It’s more useful to look at our contributions to the problem or situation. What can we learn from that? What might we do differently as we move forward? Not to be harsh with ourselves, but to take responsibility. To recognize and act on our “response-ability.”

In Feldenkrais and in coaching, I’ve noticed that many of the things that we think are “bad” started out for perfectly good reasons. Rather than eliminate all the “bad” things, maybe we can examine them, and begin to make choices. When is this behavior bad or costly? When is it beneficial? What are other options?

If you’re interested in taking responsibility, learning and moving forward, here are some ways we might work together:

About three times a year, I’ve been teaching felt-making workshops and Feldenkrais Mini-Retreats at the Jung Center of Houston. More details:

Felting a New Story is Friday afternoon, July 18.

Unlock Your Neck and Shoulders is Friday afternoon, July 25.

Our weekly online Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson is still Free/Pay As You Wish. It’s a gentle way to explore nicer options for movement.

If you’d like to work with me privately, you can Book an Appointment or reply to this email and let me know what you’re most curious about.