“This is the one time that I have in my day when I can be free of stress, expectations and demands of others,” says one man, a regular student at my Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) classes.
“I haven’t felt any back pain since I started the class and I feel better overall,” says another student. “How does this work?” she wonders.
In order to answer the question ‘How do ATM classes work’ we should first look at some of the causes that lead us to seek out solutions to persistent pain, or look for better ways of organising ourselves so that we can live more fulfilling lives and not be hampered by our existing difficulties.
We tend to go through life barely noticing that nagging neck pain. Until we can no longer NOT notice it, because it hurts so much. We search for a diagnosis and a treatment for the problem. Or we continue to ignore it and suffer the consequences. Many of us never have the opportunity to learn to look into our own actions and our own capacity to change toward a new trajectory, and that is where Awareness Through Movement classes come in.
At a time when more people are expressing a desire to stay active with less pain, the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education offers an engaging and hopeful path to changing our habits without hurting ourselves further.
The idea in an ATM class is to learn how to notice and pay attention to your own physical, mental, and emotional responses as you move through the movement lesson. With the support of a qualified Feldenkrais Method teacher, you learn to pay attention to yourself in a new way, and to feel the changes that come from that learning.
The doorway to improvement through movement is found in developing a clear capacity for paying attention and sensing; that is, focusing on yourself, noticing what is happening in a given moment of action. We find that by paying attention to what we are doing, in non-judgmental awareness, it leads to many results that we might have thought could only be improved through some type of “fixing” by somebody else.
For example, if I can learn to take away my feeling of knee pain by shifting my weight and opening my chest a little more, I have learned not to think of my knee as a “bad knee”, a disempowering and possibly untrue, limiting belief. Rather, I have learned to be more attuned with myself, to make adjustments, and to proceed in action from a more coordinated use of myself, which feels much nicer.
When you feel something new, you learn that you have options and that you do not have to stay in the habitual way. Freedom from a pattern of movement, of thinking, of feeling, or of some combination of those arises organically in a person’s awareness during the class.
Consider some of the typical responses I have heard from students after a lesson:
“I have never felt my back rest so fully on the floor.”
“My shoulders are more relaxed and my feet are more connected with the floor.”
“I feel more freedom in my ribs and lower back.”
“I learned that I have been letting my fear of re-injury keep me from moving more fully.”
“It feels like I have gotten out of some kind of prison!”
“I slept better after that class than I have in months!”
“One reason I love this work is that it feels so respectful.”
Students often feel relief from physical difficulty as well as finding new outlooks on how to work with and understand themselves within an ATM lesson, and while there are some common reactions, like these examples above, they are not ‘expected’ reactions. Each person comes into an ATM class with their own set of conditions and interacts with it in a unique way. Therefore the effect is deeply personal and the outcomes often connect with the needs of each person.
In teaching Awareness Through Movement, Feldenkrais practitioners use the following research-supported components to support the students learning:
- Experiential learning. Students learn to feel more freedom, comfort and ease through a guided process that allows the conditions for those sensations to occur naturally. The teacher asks questions that guide students to notice how parts of themselves are connected and coordinated for comfortable action. There is no better way to learn than to explore and practice what it is you want to gain, within a pleasurable and safe environment.
- Expanding attention skills. Some people discover that they have only paid attention to their body when something feels injured or painful. Learning to notice the connection between how you move and what you sense in your body is a skill that you can cultivate through practice. ATM lessons guide you to try varied options in your movement so that you can feel distinctions between those that cause strain and those which are more efficient and coordinated, and as a result more enjoyable.
- Mindfulness. There is a meditative quality to the Feldenkrais Method because while you are in class you learn to distance yourself from external pressures, standards, and expectations. Turning your attention inward, a student learns to notice sensations and the mental or emotional responses to what you are doing in the moment. With practice and time, you can learn to be present with yourself in an embodied way and to use your own sense of what feels safe, useful, and supportive. ATM lessons are structured for kinesthetic learning, which includes increased self awareness.
- Self-Knowledge and Resiliency. ATM lessons provide students a variety of ways to notice how they move, think and feel. By gently exploring your habits and finding new options, your self-awareness grows and you become more nuanced in your actions. Many people have found that, with a teacher’s support, they work through a process of discarding habits that are limiting or harmful, replacing them with healthier options, leaving them feeling more ready for life and more resilient.
- Neuroplasticity. Our brains are formed by our experiences, and it is through our senses that the nervous system processes information and interprets the world. This creates the conditions for negative learning as well as positive. In ATM lessons, the learning process provides an experiential way to live a healthier life, by helping you move more comfortably. As a result we find that when students begin to improve how they move, other parts of their life tend to improve as well.
As you begin your journey with the Feldenkrais Method and take your first Awareness Through Movement classes I would encourage you to use the guiding principles listed above. They will help ensure that you are treating yourself with gentleness and self respect as you engage in the process of change, which isn’t always easy. Consider that you know yourself best, and allow each instruction the teacher gives to be a doorway to new discoveries, rather than another demand on your already over-stimulated nervous system.
If you take it slowly and create the right conditions for learning, you might find yourself standing at the end of a class, without your regular back pain, wondering ‘How does this stuff work?’.
Mary Rudd, GCFP, works with students from the larger central Kentucky area in her Danville studio, Wise Move Studio, LLC. Mary maintains a general “Mindful Movement for Mindful Living” Feldenkrais® practice, supporting a range of people who are active and wish to remain so, who are recovering from injury or illness, or who simply enjoy a learning experience that helps them explore their creativity, resilience, and other pursuits according to their interests.
Drawing from her earlier career as a teacher, administrator and literacy and leadership consultant, Mary emphasizes the learning process in her work, supporting students in trusting their own insights as applied to their daily life.
Her website is www.wisemovestudio.com