I first encountered Awareness Through Movement® lessons because I was in pain.
At 47, I literally crawled into my first class with back pain. That single lesson relieved my pain enough that I became committed to daily practice.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was also living with undiagnosed ADHD, inattentive type. I struggled to read books. I struggled to listen without interrupting. I was impulsive and easily distracted. I compensated by working hard.
By most external measures, I was “successful.” I was working at Facebook, immersed in a culture built on speed, urgency, and constant optimization. I loved the pace. My job fit my nervous system. My relationships did not. I had little ability to self-regulate and felt disconnected from people, even when surrounded by them.
Within weeks of doing daily Awareness Through Movement® lessons, something unexpected happened. My focus improved. I could stay with conversations longer. I felt more empathy and connection with others.
The teacher who introduced me to the method shared a series of 20–30 minute lessons. Had I started with traditional 45-minute lessons, I’m not sure the relationship would have taken hold. Even during my four-year professional training, very still lessons were hard for me. I needed physicality to find calm.
For most of my life, I also struggled with insomnia, which I now understand as part of my ADHD. I cycled through being a night owl, using sleep aids, and eventually extreme exercise. When I began practicing Awareness Through Movement® lessons at home, my sleep improved. At first, I assumed it was because rib-opening movements were improving my breathing. That was part of it. But what was really happening was my nervous system was learning how to downshift.
It’s important to say that the Feldenkrais Method® does not typically work with diagnoses. The work isn’t about labeling what’s “wrong,” but about improving awareness and expanding options.
Receiving an official ADHD diagnosis in the past couple of years gave me language for patterns I had spent decades interpreting as character flaws.
What I know with certainty is this: twelve years of daily Awareness Through Movement® lessons changed capacities I once believed were fixed traits. What I thought were deficits turned out to be wired patterns. And patterns can change.
Start with recognition, not blame
We live in an always-on culture.
We switch tasks constantly.
We reach for our phones in moments of discomfort or boredom.
Scrolling provides fast, variable rewards.
At the same time, we’re flooded with advice promising to “fix” attention through hacks, discipline, or digital abstinence.
The implicit message is that if you can’t focus, you’re failing.
Attention isn’t something we perfect. It’s something we learn through practice.
Attention isn’t just cognitive
We often treat attention as if it lives solely in the mind—as if we could simply decide to “focus harder” and make it happen.
But attention is shaped by the whole system: by how we sense our contact with the floor, how much effort we’re using, and the pace we’re going.
When the nervous system is overloaded, it does exactly what it’s designed to do: it braces and speeds up—or, for some people, shuts down.
Trying to override that state with rules (“don’t check,” “stay disciplined,” “push through”) often increases internal conflict. The body remains on autopilot, and it feels like there is no choice.
With pause and awareness, comes choice.
Research shows meditation can improve focus. But if you can’t sit still, what do you do?
Paradoxically, giving yourself something to do—movement, sensing, gentle variation—while intermittently noticing can improve attention.
Pattern interruption as learning
Awareness Through Movement® lessons function as gentle pattern interruption. They disrupt habitual ways of organizing effort, posture, and attention—without force.
The lessons work slowly and within a comfortable range because slowness increases sensory feedback. When movement is small and unforced, the nervous system can detect subtle differences.
Rather than repeating a “correct” movement, the brain builds richer internal maps by comparing options.
Effort is intentionally reduced. When we do less, we sense more.
Lessons are guided verbally, without visual demonstration. This keeps attention oriented inward, toward sensation and experience.
Awareness itself is the goal. The movements are the vehicle.
Where Feldenkrais fits
The Feldenkrais Method® is a learning method focused on awareness, not correction. It doesn’t ask you to override who you are. It asks you to become more aware of how you organize yourself—and from that awareness, new choices emerge.
Traditional Awareness Through Movement® lessons may be challenging at first—longer lessons, slower pace, more scanning and stillness.
This is where technology becomes an ally.
With recorded lessons, you can select a shorter lesson. You can choose a more active lesson. You can even experiment with 2× speed.
This may feel sacrosanct to some traditional Feldenkrais practitioners. But for me, it was a doorway. It allowed me to build capacity until I could appreciate the longer, subtler lessons.
I am living proof that attention and awareness can improve through a movement practice.
Try it for Yourself!
Here are some sample lessons from Beverly’s Pauseture.com lesson catalogue.
Dan Clurman – Tilting Arms & Legs (11 minutes)
One of seven lessons in our Calm & Release series.
Dan Clurman is a certified Feldenkrais Teacher® with more than 20 years of experience leading Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® classes. He also incorporates somatic awareness into his work as a communication coach.
Allison Linamen – Oppositional Diagonal Reach (10 minutes)
One of seven lessons in our Moving with Awareness series.
Allison Linamen is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher® and Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor based in Cleveland, OH.
Access more lessons by downloading the Pauseture app for a 7-day free trial, in the app you can filter 350+ lessons by teacher, duration, orientation, function, spinal movement, and more.
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Beverly Atkins
Beverly Atkins is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher® and the founder of Pauseture, a mobile app with more than 350 Awareness Through Movement® lessons from 10 different teachers, sound-engineered to support busy minds and busy lives.