Awareness Through Movement?

Most of us avoid pain until it prevents us from doing what we could do last year, or the year before. ATM gives us the power to be aware of where the twinge in the back will happen before we feel the pain of it. When our attention is turned toward internal sensation, emotions become calmer, and internal thought and conversation become quieter — perhaps even silent. From this process came one of the most known quotes from Moshe Feldenkrais: “The purpose of the method is to allow the impossible to become possible, the possible easy, and the easy elegant.”

I became certified to teach ATM® in 2016. My right arm was still hanging stiffly at my side, my fingers tense and unused, as it had been since birth. After a decade of self-directed practice as an adult, I now write with my right hand as well as my left. There were life circumstances that interfered with my brain’s capacity for neuroplasticity, but I never gave up on the intent to make the future better. 

When we drive a car, do our work or interact with friends, we likely have a few principles we keep in mind to guide what we do. There are a few for Awareness Through Movement® too. 

• Pauses are moments to process sensations within your own sense of stillness.
• Observation is a path to follow; effort is a traffic jam that goes nowhere.
• Discomfort is a teacher; strain and pain are the enemy.
• A lesson is a space where nothing is compared, nothing is judged, and nothing needs to be right. 
• No action is too small, as long as it is done with awareness.
• Imagined sensation is just as real as movement we can see.
• Everyone’s path is different.
• As a teacher, I am only a guide. Your attention to what your own body tells you will lead you farther.