In Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lessons you learn how to move with minimum effort and maximum ease, not through muscular strength, but through increased awareness of how the body works. Lying on the floor you are directed through a series of gentle, non-invasive movements that grow increasingly complex. At the same time you are asked to pay attention to specific sensory feedback. The teacher instructs you on how to adjust the direction, speed, timing, and force of each movement as the lesson continues.
Often the lessons are like puzzles in which you figure out how to move around fixed constraints. This puzzle-like situation prompts the nervous system to activate a different muscle pattern than you usually use. As a result, at the end of a lesson habitual muscle tension releases. You sense the stability of a balanced skeleton. Your breathing is freer, walking lighter, and eyes clearer. Your kinesthetic perception enhanced, you can move in ways that you thought were restricted. Being mindful of your sensory experience as you move through space helps ease chronic pain, improve the health of the joints, and change painful habits.
