Awareness Through Movement®
Awareness Through Movement® work takes the form of group classes or workshops. The practitioner guides students not through touch as in a Functional Integration session but verbally. Lessons most often take place lying on the floor - sometimes also in sitting or standing.The intention of an Awareness Through Movement® lesson is to provide a structure of movement through which a student can discover for themselves easier ways of moving – by easier I mean with less effort, with more flexibility or fluidity, with a better sense of balance and co-ordination and with fuller breathing.
​
Coming to Awareness Through Movement® lessons is a great way to develop and maintain a sense of embodiment. As well as helping to improve the quality of your movement , lessons can bring a more general sense of presence and vitality.
Organic Learning
Unlike with many forms of movement or body work in these lessons we don’t look for improvement through instruction or by suggesting the students copy the teacher. Moshe Feldenkrais based his work on a very different model of learning. One that trusts the learners own experience of themselves and is rooted in their capacity for exploration and discovery.
In a lesson the practitioner will guide you through a sequence of movements that are related to a particular function or action (e.g. rolling over, reaching, sitting up, etc). They will also invite you to experiment with a range of possible variations. Generating this field of variations prompts a kind of learning which is both experiential and selective. It enables the learner to adopt new
co-ordinations and let go of old habits that may be
restrictive or unhelpful.
Following the Path of Ease
Movements are usually made slowly, consciously and in small increments. The focus is on awareness of how the movement is being made rather than on the end result. The student is encouraged to reduce the amount of effort involved as much as possible. Paradoxically by reducing effort and inhibiting concern for end results students often experience positive changes to their movement and sense of themselves that can sometimes be quite startling.
​
In an Awareness Through Movement® lesson we are training our ability to focus attention on the sensory information coming from the body. This is in itself an important skill. Bringing focus to the somatic is intrinsically calming. It can help us to regulate our nervous system and move into states of mind that are more responsive and less reactive. It brings us a sense of self that is at once more grounded and more spacious.