Making New Neural Connections to Solve Old Problems: Feldenkrais and Neuroplasticity
This article is drawn from a conversation between Aliza Stewart and Cynthia Allen for a talk at the Move Better, Feel Better Summit. We have extracted the wisdom shared in that interview for your reading pleasure, and focused it into a practical guide to Feldenkrais® thinking, neuroplasticity, and the body-based skills that help you find new options when life gets hard.
If you’ve ever wondered why stress, pain, or old habits can feel so stubborn, the Feldenkrais lens offers a clear (and kind) way to look at it: your nervous system is not broken, it’s organized. The question becomes, can it reorganize?
Aliza’s answer is a steady yes, and she ties that “yes” to movement, attention, and learning how to learn. Through decades of experience with the Feldenkrais Method®, she has seen how gentle, attentive movement can help the brain build new neural connections and expand what feels possible.
This perspective supports nervous system regulation by helping you respond to stress and habits with greater flexibility and awareness.
Why new options rewire the brain
Aliza Stewart opens with a personal reality many people recognize: the last few years have been challenging, both individually and globally. She shares that she doesn’t detach easily, and as a child of Holocaust survivors, anxiety can return quickly when the world feels unstable.
What surprised her, though, was not that stress happened. It was her ongoing ability to respond with new ways of thinking and acting.
Solving Old Problems Through New Neural Connections
She doesn’t describe this as positive thinking, or forcing calm. She frames it as training. After decades with the Feldenkrais Method, her brain had practiced making new connections so often that it could keep doing it when circumstances changed.
She uses Einstein to set the tone:
“We cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them.”
Then she adds a subtle but important point. New problems don’t arrive alone. They land on top of older, unresolved ones. In her experience, when you find a new action that truly fits the present moment, it can help with both the current issue and the older pattern underneath, because those patterns don’t live in separate compartments.
This is the practical power of Feldenkrais neuroplasticity — creating new options through learning. This work isn’t just about moving better. It’s about changing how you meet life when the old ways stop working.
Movement builds new thinking
Aliza asks questions that sound simple but go deep:
- How do you come up with a new thought?
- Why is movement one of the best tools to improve thinking?
- How do you know when your movement isn’t efficient?
She points to curiosity as the starting place. Not willpower, not discipline, curiosity.
From there she anchors the conversation in a core Feldenkrais statement:
“Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself.”
Aliza makes it concrete. To realize an intention (and certainly to live a dream), you have to move. Even in severe conditions, she notes, a person still needs some movement to communicate and be alive, even if it’s only the eyes.
She also reminds us that we learned our first and most important lessons without words. As infants, we learned to move in gravity. We learned lips, tongue, jaw, eyes. We learned to suck. Nobody “taught” it with verbal instructions. Given enough safety and time, we experimented, compared, and improved.
What is Organic Learning in the Feldenkrais Method?
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais called it organic learning.
Given safety and time, we experimented, compared, and improved. Feldenkrais helps adults return to this nonverbal learning capacity — strengthening the nervous system’s ability to adapt.
Proprioception and Interoception
Aliza describes a word she invented for herself: feelking, a blend of feeling and thinking.
It points to something many people experience in Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lessons: learning happens, but it isn’t always verbal. Later, as she began studying neuroscience more deeply, two terms kept appearing that beautifully matched this experience:
Proprioception: your sense of where your body is in space.
Interoception: your sense of the internal state of your body.
Proprioception: Knowing Where You Are in Space
It allows you to walk through a doorway without bumping into it, reach for a cup without knocking it over, or step off a curb without looking down. Most of the time, this system runs automatically and unconsciously.
Aliza jokes that if someone bumps into the doorway every single time, they may need a neurologist — but her point is serious. Proprioception is always operating in the background, and it can be refined. Through slow, attentive movement, you can improve the clarity of your internal body map.
Interoception: Sensing Your Inner State
Interoception is your ability to sense the internal condition of your body — signals like muscle tension, breathing patterns, hunger, temperature, or subtle discomfort.
For Aliza, interoception is especially important because it allows for earlier detection. If a muscle is chronically tight but you can’t feel it, you can’t change it. Many people only notice something is wrong once pain appears — and by then, the brain may already have built a strong pain association.
Her work focuses on helping people notice sooner.
For example, if turning your head to the right feels easier than turning to the left, instead of pushing through the restriction, you might ask:
- What feels different?
- Where do I sense effort?
- What exactly does “tight” mean here?
That kind of inquiry begins to shift patterns before they escalate.
Much of nervous system regulation starts with this earlier noticing. When awareness improves, new options become available — and that’s where neuroplastic change begins.
For a related perspective on slowing down and sensing more clearly (especially when stress is high), see: https://futurelifenow.com/slow-down-you-move-too-fast-the-feldenkrais-method/
A Movement Lesson in Neuroplasticity
The best way to understand these concepts is through experience. Aliza Stewart guided an Awareness Through Movement lesson to demonstrate how quickly the brain can retrain the nervous system.
Small variations. Gentle pacing. Increased awareness.
Within minutes, participants often feel measurable changes in coordination and ease.
That is neuroplastic learning in action.
Self-image and Brain Maps
Aliza says a key Feldenkrais idea truly landed for her during an ordinary moment with technology.
Years ago, she was driving in Boston using a GPS. Under the Big Dig, the signal dropped. The GPS lost its location — and so did she. Instead of staying underground, she drove above ground to reorient herself.
A few moments later, the GPS voice calmly said:
“Recalculating.”
That word stayed with her.
It perfectly described what her nervous system had been learning to do through Feldenkrais: recalculate.
Using the Feldenkrais Method to Update Brain Maps
But a GPS cannot recalculate without maps. It needs stored information. It also needs the ability to update that information when conditions change.
The nervous system works the same way.
We can adapt. We can find new routes. We can reorganize after injury, stress, or change. But only if we have internal maps — and only if those maps are detailed enough to update.
This raises two essential questions:
- How do we create our internal maps?
- How do we update them when life changes?
Through new experiences and awareness, we rewire the brain to choose more functional patterns of action. Patterns that feel better and use less energy.
Self-Image in the Feldenkrais Method
Aliza connects this to Moshe Feldenkrais’s concept of self-image — not in a psychological sense (confident or insecure), but as a literal neurological body map built from proprioception and interoception.
She quotes the opening line of Dr. Feldenkrais’ book Awareness Through Movement: hyperlink to https://amzn.to/47Oa3RA
“We act in accordance with our self-image.”
If your internal map is incomplete or distorted, your actions will be limited accordingly.
Feldenkrais once used his own feet as an example. Because his sense of his feet was minimal in his self-image, he experienced more accidents. When part of the body is missing or vague in your awareness, your coordination reflects that gap.
Richer Maps, More Options
Aliza extends this idea into early development.
Babies move their feet constantly. Feet connect neurologically to hands. Those connections enrich the brain’s map. But when feet are confined early in rigid shoes, the many moving parts of the foot (there are 26 bones in each foot) don’t get as much exploration. The internal map can become less detailed.
A richer map creates more options.
If one arm is injured, for example, you may still manage daily tasks more easily if your brain has multiple pathways and strategies available. Adaptability depends on map richness.
Learning without forcing
Awareness Before Change
Aliza describes a teaching approach that can feel almost radical in a culture focused on self-improvement:
Before you change anything, first:
Don’t judge. Don’t fix. Don’t try to make it better from the beginning.
Simply become curious.
She shares that what felt most profound for her was the willingness to genuinely ask: What am I actually doing? Not, How can I make this better? — but, What are my habits? How do I organize myself right now?
Because if you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t really know what you’re trying to change.
As Moshe Feldenkrais said:
“If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want.”
Awareness is what creates choice.
Compensation and Aging
Cynthia Allen echoes this perspective, especially when speaking about aging, spinal issues, and long-standing movement patterns.
The nervous system is brilliant. It will create clever compensations to keep you moving through injury, stress, or limitation. But over decades, those compensations can accumulate. Patterns that once helped can begin to interfere with one another.
Feldenkrais doesn’t attack these patterns. Instead, it gently brings awareness to them, allowing some of that habitual compensation to unwind. As the organization becomes clearer, movement can become easier again — not through force, but through refinement.
The Conditions for Real Learning
Aliza also names a key learning condition: comfort. When you need to survive, you act for survival. When you want to change a pattern, improve a skill, or learn something new, you set conditions for learning: comfort, less noise, slower pace, better attention.
This is why Awareness Through Movement lessons online — can feel very different from exercise classes. The goal is not to push harder or stretch further.
The goal is to notice, compare, and discover options.
And from that place of awareness, change becomes possible.
Real-World Feldenkrais Questions Answered
In the audience Q&A, Aliza and Cynthia respond with curiosity, practicality, and honesty about both possibilities and limits.
How can I help a musician’s tremor while bowing?
Aliza explains that a tremor while playing violin is rarely just a hand problem. You have to observe the whole system — breathing, posture, coordination, and even how the sound is being produced.
Often, the issue lies in how the entire body supports the gesture. For specialized concerns like this, private Functional Integration sessions are usually the most effective approach because they allow for individualized observation and refinement.
Does Feldenkrais help with the aging spine?
Yes — not by stopping aging, but by improving how you age.
With time, disc height may decrease and tissues lose some elasticity. Over decades, we also accumulate injuries and compensations. As Cynthia explains, the nervous system makes wonderful adjustments to keep us moving. But those compensations can pile up, and eventually they begin to restrict movement.
Feldenkrais helps gently “unwrap” those long-standing patterns — particularly in the cervical spine and throughout the back. Among the key Feldenkrais Method benefits are improved coordination, reduced tension, and greater ease of movement. By reconnecting the head, neck, shoulders, eyes, ribs, and pelvis, you restore coordination and options.
Aliza adds that neuroscience supports lifelong learning. Movement is part of that learning. The goal is not to prevent aging, but to maintain adaptability, awareness, and choice.
Can Feldenkrais help with tinnitus?
It may not cure every case, but it can improve quality of life.
Feldenkrais can help regulate the autonomic nervous system, which may reduce reactivity and stress related to tinnitus. Cynthia notes that tinnitus has different causes, so improvement doesn’t always mean the sound disappears — sometimes it means the system becomes less distressed by it.
Aliza also emphasizes prevention, such as protecting hearing in loud environments, as part of developing somatic awareness.
What if I can no longer do yoga due to hand pain?
Hand and wrist pain often comes from overloading the limbs.
Aliza doesn’t reduce the issue to the wrist alone. She sees pain as a whole-system signal. Many people “lean” into their hands without organizing their torso and pelvis. When the center isn’t well-supported, the limbs take on too much strain.
Her approach is to start more centrally — improving torso organization and skeletal alignment — and then reconnect the limbs. When the center works better, the hands don’t have to overwork, and people can often return to activities they love with more support and less strain.
If you’re someone who crosses between yoga and Feldenkrais, this comparison may help frame the difference in goals and structure: https://futurelifenow.com/is-feldenkrais-the-same-as-yoga-or-a-unique-approach-to-awareness/
Is Feldenkrais helpful for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue?
Yes, with appropriate pacing and structure.
For fibromyalgia — especially when combined with hypermobility — Cynthia often recommends Bones for Life. The lessons are shorter, more structured, and include gentle pressure and transmission through the skeleton, which many people find supportive.
For chronic fatigue, Aliza focuses on reconnecting the “edges” of the body to the center to gradually wake up larger muscle groups. The emphasis is on developing strength against gravity paired with awareness — not pushing, but building capacity carefully.
How do you work with an autistic child who bangs their head?
Rather than simply trying to stop the behavior, Aliza suggests engaging it safely.
For example, placing something soft under the head and turning the action into a regulated game can help the child experience control and modulation. Over time, this supports nervous system regulation and builds the ability to pause and choose.
Can nerves recover after spinal tumor surgery?
Recovery focuses on decompression and organization rather than force.
Aliza works with gently lengthening the spine above and below the surgical area, improving rib and pelvic mobility, and restoring sensation. By reducing compression and improving skeletal support, the nervous system may find new functional pathways.
The emphasis is not on forcing recovery, but on creating the conditions that allow it.
How to keep learning
Aliza closes with two Feldenkrais quotes that capture the long-term aim of this work.
First, about avoiding rigid routine:
“We do a big mixture. We don’t want any routine for the human brain so that when it does start a routine, it is the best thing it can do, and it is open to revision with any change in circumstances, in order to make life easier.”
~ Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
Second, about learning how to learn:
“I am going to be your last teacher, not because I will be the greatest teacher you may ever encounter, but because from me you will learn how to learn. When you learn how to learn, you will realize that there are no teachers. There are only people learning and people learning how to facilitate learning.”
~ Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
That’s the heart of somatic education in her framing. You’re not collecting perfect movements. You’re building the skill of updating your map, then using that skill everywhere.
If you want a trauma-informed companion piece that stays in the same spirit (movement, dignity, resources), see: https://futurelifenow.com/somatic-movement-trauma-release-healing/
Full interview link (longer listen)
A link to watch the full interview with Cynthia Allen and Aliza Stewart on YouTube.
Watch the full interview: Making New Neural Connections to Solve Old Problems
It’s a powerful way to experience these ideas directly—not just read or think about them.
Conclusion: How to Rewire the Brain Naturally
Old problems often persist because the nervous system is loyal, it keeps running what it knows. Aliza Stewart’s message is that you can build something new, not by forcing change, but through Awareness Through Movement learning that updates your map from the inside. When proprioception and interoception improve, self-image becomes more accurate, and action becomes easier. Keep it simple, stay curious, and let the brain do what it does best, learn.
Speaker and Host Bio
Aliza Stewart - M.Music, Feldenkrais Trainer
Aliza Stewart is an internationally known Feldenkrais Method Trainer and educational director. She has trained students in guild-accredited Feldenkrais training in the US, Europe, Israel, and Brazil. Aliza also trained and performed as a concert pianist, and she brings a deep understanding of performers and musicians into her work, while also helping many people outside the performing arts.
Aliza’s website: https://feldenkraisinmotion.com/
Cynthia Allen, GCFP, STMI
Cynthia Allen Cynthia Allen, is a senior Feldenkrais practitioner and co-founder of Future Life Now. She blends Feldenkrais, Bones for Life, and other somatic approaches in her online teaching. Known for her clear guidance and care for those living with pain or anxiety, she makes somatic education accessible worldwide.
Explore her Your Learning Body membership, a supportive Feldenkrais community, to continue learning, attend upcoming events, and explore step-by-step guidance for better movement and well-being. FutureLifeNow.com