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While Moshe Feldenkrais’s 1972 book titled Awareness Through Movement is one of his most accessible works, his scientific writing and broad musings about the social and anthropological implications of his discoveries can be challenging to parse.
The whole book is worth reading, but I’ve highlighted below the sections that are most helpful to read before working through the lessons with my recorded renditions. You’ll also find my recommended study order for the lessons (don’t do #1 first!) and a discussion with a listener about the context of the book.
Feldenkrais’s instructions are hard to follow while holding a book, so I recommend first listening to a lesson in our ATM book lesson collection, then reading through it in the book to reinforce its principles and integrate your learning. His commentary can really help elucidate the lesson.
Later, after your first listening and reading, you can lead yourself in the doing the complete lesson from the book or stick with the audio if you prefer. You can also use the book to refresh small parts of the lesson, or use it as a tool for imagining feeling the movements or principles of the lesson, which can be extremely helpful for your learning and improvement.
– Nick Strauss-Klein
Feldenkrais on how to study at home
Read his introductory sections before the lessons in Part II: General Observations and Some Practical Hints. For another list of practical tips straight from the man himself, check out his Learn to Learn pamphlet.
Feldenkrais on what the Feldenkrais Method is
Check out these sections in Part I: Understanding While Doing. I’ve prioritized them in what I think of as the most practical order (not the order they appear in the book).
- Where to Begin and How
- Structure and Function: Read from the subsection “The delay between thought and action is the basis for awareness” and onward.
- The Self-Image
The other sections of Part I, including the preface, may be of interest to you. I’ve left them out here because they contain broader reflections about society and our state of education and personal development. If our goal is to focus on self-improvement from practical application of the lessons in the book, I believe your understanding of Feldenkrais’s ideas in these sections is perhaps less important than what may be gleaned from the sections I’ve highlighted above.
Recommended study order for the lessons
Lesson #2, What Action Is Good? is a free talk which can serve as an introduction to the series.
Most folks shouldn’t study these lessons in numerical order. Below you’ll find a list of the lessons organized by my perceptions of their level of difficulty – either physical, attentional, or both – for the average student.
Ideas about the difficulty of Feldenkrais lessons always come with a “your mileage may vary” caveat. We’ve all got unique histories and patterns. And these lessons have wildly varying levels of physical and attentional challenges. Each of us has unique abilities in both of those spheres. Something that one person finds impossible to do or notice, another may find spontaneously easy or fascinating.
Attuning to the process of exploration, rather than your goals or limits, will lead to the best learning – no matter your starting point.
– Nick
These audio recordings are exclusive “thank you” content for Patron-level supporters of The Feldenkrais Project.
All users can click the titles to read these lessons’ descriptions, free lesson notes, and listener comments.
Within these categories there is no recommended difficulty order – it’s just numerical.
Lecture/intro
Most accessible
#5 Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors
#6 Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of an Imaginary Clock
#10 The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Movement of the Body
More complex
#3 Some Fundamental Properties of Movement
#4 Differentiation of Parts and Functions in Breathing
#7 The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature
Most challenging, in one way or another
#9 Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated Action
I am looking for a book on Feldenkrais method that at the end had several case histories which were clear easy to understand. As a result we did several classes with Mia Segal. She was in ny at time immeasurably helpful. Have been doing it over years. I would really appreciate it if you could guide me to this book. Need it for a friend. I think case histories would her believe our tale of success. We are now in florida ages 84 And 90
I know Feldenkrais people are good and kind as well as gentle. Will appreciate your help
I don’t remember off the top of my head but I could dig in my library a little. Are you sure you’re not thinking of The Case of Nora? That’s all one big case study, and it’s remarkable.
I found my book Awareness thru movmen by Feldenkrais but could not find case I meant about 1st violinist whose finger was damaged and restored by Feldenkrais himself. I did Not mean the book of NORA. Thank you for recommending it and for answering my note.
Evelyn, maybe you are thinking of the book by Yochanan Rywerant, The Feldenkrais Method, Teaching by Handling. There are some case histories in the end and one is regarding first flutist.
Thank you very much. That is surely book I meant. Is it available second hand? Will be away till Dec 15 so may not answer till then. Can’t thank you enough
I haven’t read the book, but was only exposed through Nick’s teaching and followed his recommended order. I wonder if someone started with lesson #1 right out the gate if they would give up! I tried looking up the order in which Feldenkrais’ books were written to get a sense of where this one fell in the order. I assumed this was an early book and while it feels a lot like fundamentals, some of the lessons seem a bit obscure and I wondered if he was being experimental at the time. Or if he learned a lot after writing this book and would give more value to his later works? There is always value gleaned all along a journey…
Great questions and observations. Awareness Through Movement was first published in Hebrew in 1967, which is roughly in the middle of Moshe Feldenkrais’s career teaching his method. His intention with this book was to introduce his method to the world. While I think in terms of sharing concepts and explanations he achieves his goal well, from the practical perspective of a reader coming to the method without prior knowledge, just seeking to improve themself, you’ve hit on THE major pitfall, as I see it: the writing is at times a bit too abstracted to easily turn into personal improvement, for most people.
To put it another way, in this written form he’s teaching principles, not students. While all the stories and videos and audio recordings of Feldenkrais personally guiding individuals and classes clearly show a teacher as sensitive to his students as any has ever been, in writing we see more clearly the scientist. A scientist who has a lot to explain, because his ideas are so counter-cultural.
All of that said, each of the lessons is designed to demonstrate principles of the Feldenkrais Method, and they all do so wonderfully. But some of the important principles he’s inviting you experience for yourself are very sophisticated (i.e. Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated Action), or require very physically demanding movements (i.e. Perfecting the Self-Image) – not where the average person should start with the Feldenkrais Method!
In a sense the collection is such a wide-ranging exploration of human function and learning that it’s hard to dig in fully to each “topic” when working through all the lessons. My goal in rendering them all in my own words was to make each lesson’s movements, awareness cues, and ideas more accessible, and to help folks not get thrown off course by the difficulty spikes.
And I also designed the Curiosities and Related Lessons tabs to dig into each lesson’s conceptual learning more deeply. It can be fascinating to explore a challenging lesson in this collection, then do several Related Lessons, and return to the challenging lesson. I hope that many do this!