Freeing Your Breath and Spine (16 or 37 min)

Recorded live in a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) class, the lesson below is copyright Nick Strauss-Klein, for personal use only. All our audio lessons are ad-free and 100% donor-supported.

Before you begin read this for practical tips and your responsibilities, and check out Comfort & Configuration below. Click the other lesson note tabs if you’re curious.

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Various positions, using what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.” The back-lying first 16 minutes can be studied alone. Discover more pleasurable, adaptable breathing using 360 degree experiments with the chest and abdomen, and find a more supple, supportive spine along the way!

Study tip: Complete one movement before beginning the next. You’ll improve faster if there’s enough time between movements that you feel fully at rest.

Study tip: If you’re really enjoying a movement and want to explore longer, or you just need a break for a while, pause the recording!

Study tip: If you can’t find a comfortable way to do the initial movements or configuration of a lesson, it’s ok to skip it for now and go on to another lesson.

Study tip: If a configuration or movement causes any increase in discomfort, or you feel you just don’t want to do it, don’t! Make it smaller and slower, adapt it, or rest and imagine.

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Study tip: Directions are always relative to your body. For example, if you’re lying on your back “up” is toward your head, and “forward” is toward the ceiling.

Study tip: It helps to have a large bath towel nearby when you start a lesson. You can fold it differently for comfortable head support in any configuration.

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Study tip: Wear loose, comfortable clothes that are warm enough for quiet movement. Remove or avoid anything restrictive like belts or glasses.

Study tip: Many instructions are repeated. If you get a little lost, rest and listen. You’ll often find your way. If you need it, use the 10 seconds back button.

Study tip: Interrupted or don’t have enough time? You can return to the lesson later today or tomorrow. Read how best to continue your learning on our FAQ page.

Study tip: Comfort first! Carpeted floors usually work well, but it’s great to have an extra mat or blanket nearby in case you need a softer surface in some configurations.

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LESSS is more: Light, Easy, Small, Slow, & Smooth movements will ease pains and improve your underlying neuromuscular habits faster than any other kind of movement, no matter who you are or what your training is!

Comfort & Configuration
Clarifications
Curiosities
Context
Related Lessons
Alternate Version
Source
Download

The back-lying first half of the lesson (through 16:30) can be studied alone for an even shorter breathing awareness refresher.

In the second half of the lesson there are belly-lying and hands-and-knees configurations. Adaptations to keep you comfortable are discussed. For hands and knees, it may be helpful to have an extra towel, mat, or blanket nearby to fold up for additional softness under your knees. You may at any time stand on your fists if your wrists struggle with the position. Rest in another position as frequently as you like. If hands-and-knees is not possible for you, rest on your back with your knees bent and imagine the movements as they are described.

Back-lying, as you begin to “float your head into the air” with your interlaced fingers behind your head, the position is much like a sit-up, but the effort and range are far, far less.

Belly-lying, as you “wag your tail,” your bottom, belly, thighs, and heels are all invited to roll (I say “toss”) from side to side.

We typically habitually use only a fraction of the options we have for breathing. One of the goals of studying the breath with the Feldenkrais Method is to free ourselves from habits and cultivate a more flexible, adaptive breath. Ideally our breathing is changing moment to moment always, in response to many factors: oxygen needs, position, movement, speech, our emotional landscape, etc.

For a brief anatomy lesson about the breathing apparatus followed by the experiential learning of a Feldenkrais lesson check out Thinking and Breathing (Patrons).

This audio recording is found in Getting Oriented, our introductory collection of Feldenkrais basics for newcomers (and longtimers looking for a “tune-up”).

It also appears in our Breathing with Vitality Deep Dive.

Cross-references to other related lessons in our free-for-everyone and Patrons-only collections are a “thank you” benefit for Members and Patrons. Please login or join the Project to view related lesson titles, links, and discussion.

Patrons can listen to an expanded version of this lesson with about 15 additional minutes at the end, including discussion about the effects of coughing and the problem with trying to breathe any “right” way, and several additional ATM variations.

Please login or begin or renew Patron-level donation to the Feldenkrais Project to access our Legacy and Alternate Lessons collection.

Nick’s discussion of his lesson sources are a “thank you” benefit for Members and Patrons. Please login or join the Project to view them.

Members and Patrons. Please login or join the Project to download this lesson’s MP3 file.

Comfort & Configuration: The back-lying first half of the lesson (through 16:30) can be studied alone for an even shorter breathing awareness refresher.

In the second half of the lesson there are belly-lying and hands-and-knees configurations. Adaptations to keep you comfortable are discussed. For hands and knees, it may be helpful to have an extra towel, mat, or blanket nearby to fold up for additional softness under your knees. You may at any time stand on your fists if your wrists struggle with the position. Rest in another position as frequently as you like. If hands-and-knees is not possible for you, rest on your back with your knees bent and imagine the movements as they are described.
Clarifications: Back-lying, as you begin to “float your head into the air” with your interlaced fingers behind your head, the position is much like a sit-up, but the effort and range are far, far less.

Belly-lying, as you “wag your tail,” your bottom, belly, thighs, and heels are all invited to roll (I say “toss”) from side to side.
Curiosities: We typically habitually use only a fraction of the options we have for breathing. One of the goals of studying the breath with the Feldenkrais Method is to free ourselves from habits and cultivate a more flexible, adaptive breath. Ideally our breathing is changing moment to moment always, in response to many factors: oxygen needs, position, movement, speech, our emotional landscape, etc.

For a brief anatomy lesson about the breathing apparatus followed by the experiential learning of a Feldenkrais lesson check out Thinking and Breathing (Patrons).
Context: This audio recording is found in Getting Oriented, our introductory collection of Feldenkrais basics for newcomers (and longtimers looking for a “tune-up”).

It also appears in our Breathing with Vitality Deep Dive.
Related Lessons: Cross-references to other related lessons in our free-for-everyone and Patrons-only collections are a “thank you” benefit for Members and Patrons. Please login or join the Project to view related lesson titles, links, and discussion.
Alternate Version: Patrons can listen to an expanded version of this lesson with about 15 additional minutes at the end, including discussion about the effects of coughing and the problem with trying to breathe any “right” way, and several additional ATM variations.

Please login or begin or renew Patron-level donation to the Feldenkrais Project to access our Legacy and Alternate Lessons collection.
Source: Nick’s discussion of his lesson sources are a “thank you” benefit for Members and Patrons. Please login or join the Project to view them.
Download: Members and Patrons. Please login or join the Project to download this lesson’s MP3 file.

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11 Comments. Leave new

Andrea
July 8, 2020 2:45 pm

I like this lesson a lot. Just a question. When doing the movement of rolling on the head when u are on your forearms, when I finished i felt like I was going to get a nosebleed. I didnt get one but just had the sensation. Was I doing something wrong? Thanks

Reply
- Nick Strauss-Klein
  July 14, 2020 4:11 pm
  
  As you explore and follow the “only do what’s comfortable” instructions, that guideline goes for any kind of experience/sensation during the lessons. Assuming you were moving slowly, smoothly, and comfortably you were doing just fine by the movements – but, if you have an unpleasant sensation or even an uncertain one, it’s best to do less, go slower, or take a break. Later, if you come back into the movement or repeat the lesson, stay curious about those sensations.
  
  Reply
Rashmi Ripley
July 9, 2020 8:49 am

Really enjoyed this lesson, Nick. As a long time meditator, it’s fascinating to feel grounded and full in a new and different way. Also, loved your question on sensing into which breath is more pleasurable. Thank you for the reminder of pleasure, and for your precise instruction!

Reply
Andrea
July 14, 2020 4:55 pm

Thanks

Reply
Beverly Brookman
October 31, 2020 3:16 pm

Again I want to remark, at first I only did the first 16 minutes 2 or three times because I have been discovering how my breathing is mostly belly with my ribs very retricted in movement. this is am\n incredibly valuable learning for me. I’m learning to “point my breath” to teach my body how to move more “fluidly” ?!

Reply
Beverly Brookman
November 1, 2020 12:42 pm

Second time doing the whole lesson,usually only did first ½. There was a definite shift in how much more I breathe with my whole body! I notice my shoulders even moving, not only my belly.thanks I believe my chest rib constrictions will lossen. Thanks, Nick

Reply
- Nick Strauss-Klein
  November 1, 2020 5:23 pm
  
  Thanks for sharing your process with me and other users! Great to hear that you’re discovering new options. I love that you took my up on just doing the first 16 minutes the first few times!
  
  Reply
Simone
August 2, 2021 8:56 am

I did this one and the next, the simple floor clock yesterday morning. Afterwards, I felt really cold (even after putting on sweats) and nauseous. After about an hour, I started to feel normal again. Did I try too hard??!

Reply
- Nick Strauss-Klein
  August 2, 2021 11:15 am
  
  It may be that the two lessons one after another were too much, or as you suggest you overdid something. Hard to say from a distance. Did you feel any straining or unpleasantness during either lesson? This is an unusual response, so please take it extra easy for your next lesson and don’t hesitate to ask more questions.
  
  Reply
Tamar Zinn
September 13, 2021 7:50 am

Today was my first experience of paradoxical breathing in an extended lesson. While I was introduced to aspects of this during FI sessions several months ago, it was enlightening to move through the process more slowly and with these variations. I plan to repeat this lesson several times and then do the other two you mention. Thank you Nick!

Reply
Muriel
February 16, 2022 11:11 am

Another magic lesson! as you say Nick everything is related! I’ve been struggling with on and off stiff neck and shoulders for the past month, so when I lay down to do this lesson, I was only expecting to “relax” and breathe deeper. Well that did happen in a very interesting way in so far as my belly expanded much lower and deeper and my chest was willing to swell> Wonderfull feeling, but the best feeling of all was doing the bit at the end on our hands and knees, and discovering that my neck was free to join in! and is still free to write this email (-;
Thank you so much Nick for your fantastically clear and slow-paced instructions!

Reply