Lesson Search & Filter
Click "Show Advanced Options" to filter our audio lessons by duration, difficulty, or position.
Please contact us or comment below if you can't find what you're looking for. We're continually updating keyword search results.
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Found 184 Results
Showing Results 1-10
Rotating, Interlacing, and Integrating the Hands, into Palms Lengthening Overhead (Patrons)
Six Lessons for Anxiety
Arms in a Hoop, with Continuous Ground Support (Patrons)
Bonus Video Content
What Action Is Good? Feldenkrais's Answer
Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons)
- Lesson 1 - Reduce tension and anxiety and free your breath by sensing the details of how you hold and release it, then explore a new image of exchanging air with the environment.
- Lesson 2 (begin at 34:00) - Experiment with the elasticity of both the ground and your breathing apparatus, and directly experience what physicists call ground reaction forces.
Donor Event: 5th Anniversary Update and "Reversible Diagonals" Lesson
(Members & Patrons bonus video)
- Project Update: Where we've been, how we've done it, and where we're headed next.
- Lesson: Reversible Diagonal Lengthening and Lifting, with “Piano Playing” Fingers and Toes (back-lying and front-lying)
Lifting Like a Baby + Simultaneous Lifting (Patrons)
Joyful Lifted Rolling (Patrons)
Deep Dive: Grounding for Liftoff
Found 184 Results
Showing Results 1-10
New to Feldenkrais?
No matter what brings you to study, you'll usually find the fastest relief or improvement by exploring our Getting Oriented lessons first. You might also want to enjoy our next two collections, the ones for better uprightness and sitting, before using this search page.
“I’m here for my sore (body part)”
Try it as a keyword search first, but often there’s a better way to find relieving lessons, since the Feldenkrais Method doesn't target isolated body parts. Instead it's always pointing toward functional improvement, how we use our whole body and mind, and root causes of pain.
So, for example...
- Sore back? "Spine" works better than "lumbar". Functions to search might be things like "posture" or "lengthening" or "twisting".
- Sore neck or shoulders? Those work well, but functionally “turning” is often what you're looking to improve.
- "Hips" works well, "hamstrings" is a little too specific. Try "legs" or “walking”.
- Experiment and let us know if you have trouble finding what you're looking for. We're refining keywords and search results continually.
Context is powerful
Learning for self-improvement is a process that unfolds over time and multiple lessons. One of The FP’s best study tools is all the ways we show connections between lessons.
- Use the "Also display courses" option
- Click on the Context or Related Lessons tabs in lessons you find
- Or simply browse our lessons in the context of their collections or Deep Dives
Members and Patrons
Use the “Also search lesson notes” option to find more learning connections.
Tips when using that option:
- A great trick is to search for favorite Feldenkrais Project lessons by name, to find which other lessons point to it.
- Searching for well-known Feldenkrais teachers and resources will yield which lessons were derived from particular sources (Esalen, Alexander Yanai, Zemach-Bersin, Haller, Delman, Field, etc.)
- Not sure why you got a result? Your keyword is probably somewhere in the lesson's notes tabs.
For accessibility reasons we've chosen to use an EXCLUDE body position option in our advanced filter above.
Here are links to list all our audio lessons that INCLUDE each body position:
You can also click these links where they appear in the search results above and on every audio lesson page under the lesson description.
Let us know if you find a lesson that's been miscategorized.
Other ways to browse all audio lessons
- Rotating, Interlacing, and Integrating the Hands, into Palms Lengthening Overhead (Patrons) (6/21/2024)
- Arms in a Hoop, with Continuous Ground Support (Patrons) (5/22/2024)
- Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons) (4/21/2024)
- Talk: What Action Is Good? (4/9/2024)
- Lifting Like a Baby + Simultaneous Lifting (Patrons) (3/4/2024)
- Joyful Lifted Rolling (Patrons) (2/29/2024)
- The “Morning Prayer” Lesson (Patrons) (1/26/2024)
- Lifting Up and Through (12/26/2023)
- A Spiral of Length and Power (Patrons) (12/13/2023)
- As Light as a Finger: Games of Weightlessness (Patrons) (11/16/2023)
- Integrating the Feet, Torso, Head, and Breath: Connecting to the Earth (44 min, Patrons) (10/31/2023)
- Free Your Torso for Better Posture, Walking, and Running (9/28/2023)
- What Is Good Posture? (Patrons) (8/31/2023)
- Hip and Shoulder Diagonals for Better Walking (Patrons) (7/31/2023)
- Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 1 (35 min, Patrons) (6/29/2023)
- Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 2 (25 min, Patrons) (6/29/2023)
- Pelvic Floor Connections (37 min, Patrons) (5/31/2023)
- Two Sitbones, Two Sides of the Pelvic Floor (31 min, Patrons) (4/30/2023)
- Improving Pelvic Floor Control and Ease (Patrons) (3/14/2023)
- Sliding the Sternum, Integrating the Neck, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons) (2/16/2023)
- Drifting the Knees and Nose for Simpler Turns and Twists (Patrons) (1/20/2023)
- Simple Self-Hug (31m) (12/21/2022)
- Dynamic Balance: Coordinates of the Head (Patrons) (12/16/2022)
- Breathing with Floating Ribs and Sternum (49 min, Patrons) (11/30/2022)
- Whole Body Arms (Patrons) (10/4/2022)
- Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 1 (Patrons) (9/14/2022)
- Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 2 (Patrons) (9/14/2022)
- The Tongue and the Spine (Patrons) (9/6/2022)
- Softening the Jaw, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons) (8/28/2022)
- Relaxing Your Neck and Jaw (39 min) (7/14/2022)
- “Beard Pull” Pecking, with Chanukia (Patrons) (6/24/2022)
- “Generalize Your Skills” (Patrons) (5/24/2022)
- Arms Like a Skeleton, Integrating the Neck, Jaw, and Eyes (Patrons) (4/7/2022)
- Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated Action (Patrons) (3/10/2022)
- Calming the Nervous System, Integrating the Hands and Eyes (37m, Patrons) (2/6/2022)
- Getting Free with a Bell Hand (Patrons) (1/12/2022)
- Secrets of the Seated Twist (1/7/2022)
- Making Peace: Smooth Breath, Skillful Bias, Supple Chest (Patrons) (12/17/2021)
- Freeing the Shoulders by Rolling the Arms (Patrons) (12/6/2021)
- Finding Sensations of Not Shortening (Patrons) (11/19/2021)
- Thinking and Breathing (Patrons) (10/20/2021)
- Improving Rotation, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons) (9/27/2021)
- The Power of Prone: Twisting on Your Belly (9/10/2021)
- The Power of One Foot (22 or 36 min, Patrons) (8/20/2021)
- Self-Hug, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons) (7/1/2021)
- A Dynamic “Core” Lengthens the Spine (Patrons) (6/17/2021)
- Dynamic Balance: Stability Through Suppleness (Patrons) (5/26/2021)
- One Bell Hand / Two Bell Hands…and Feet (31m + 29m, Patrons) (4/28/2021)
- Perfecting the Self-Image (Patrons) (4/22/2021)
- Rib Basket, Shoulder Cloak (Patrons) (3/25/2021)
- Sensing Stability: The Sacral Clock (Patrons) (2/19/2021)
- Side-Bending with Listening Hands, Connecting Legs and Head (Patrons) (1/21/2021)
- Side Clock: Hips (42m, Patrons) (1/7/2021)
- The Liminal Lesson: Transitions Between Action and Rest (Patrons) (12/21/2020)
- Side Clock: Shoulders (and Intro to Hip) (12/17/2020)
- Free While Constrained: Side-Bent, Stepping Down (Patrons) (12/7/2020)
- Free While Constrained: Quiet Head, Twisting Spine (Patrons) (11/20/2020)
- Arms Like a Skeleton, Freeing the Shoulders and Neck (Patrons) (10/11/2020)
- Holding Your Breath, in Awareness (15 or 39 min, Patrons) (10/5/2020)
- Dynamic Diagonal Lengthening (Patrons) (9/10/2020)
- Side-lying Twist, and Rolling Recap (Patrons) (8/27/2020)
- Rolling and Hips Like a Baby (Patrons) (8/13/2020)
- The One Shoulder Lesson (19 min, Patrons) (7/21/2020)
- Freeing the Neck with Crawling and Rolling (Patrons) (7/16/2020)
- Refining the Shoulders and Hips (45 min, Patrons) (6/26/2020)
- Buttocks Organizing the Spine (Patrons) (6/18/2020)
- Arms Like a Skeleton, with a Bias (5/22/2020)
- Moving Your Head and Legs Backward (Patrons) (4/30/2020)
- Lifting and Pressing (38 min, Patrons) (3/24/2020)
- Interview: MindBodyRadio Talks to Nick Strauss-Klein (11 min) (2/19/2020)
- Simple Floor Clock (26 min) (2/19/2020)
- Freeing Your Breath and Spine (16 or 37 min) (2/19/2020)
- Strength Without Excess (23 min) (2/18/2020)
- Talk: A Radical Idea About Muscles (3 min) (2/18/2020)
- Stretch Without Strain (39 minutes) (2/18/2020)
- Talk: How We Respond to Strain (5 min) (2/18/2020)
- Talk: The Why and How of Growing Taller (6 min) (2/17/2020)
- Length Without Effort (36m) (2/17/2020)
- Sitting and Turning with Length (26 min, chair-seated) (2/17/2020)
- Dynamic Sitting and Chair Clock (24 min, chair-seated) (2/14/2020)
- Talk: Reducing Excess Effort and Sensing the Skeleton (3 min) (2/14/2020)
- Talk: We Can Learn to be Better for Ourselves, Moment to Moment (5 min) (2/14/2020)
- Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (35 min) (2/14/2020)
- Workshop: Stretch Without Strain (Patrons) (2/9/2020)
- Your Naturally Asymmetrical Spine (35 min, Patrons) (2/2/2020)
- Freeing Your Breath and Spine: the full-length edit (Patrons) (1/24/2020)
- Easing the Jaw and Neck: the short edit (28 min, Patrons) (1/24/2020)
- Workshop: Access Your Axis (Patrons) (1/19/2020)
- Workshop: TCF 10 Year Celebration (Patrons) (12/20/2019)
- Workshop: Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (Patrons) (11/20/2019)
- Easing the Jaw, Neck, and Shoulders (11/13/2019)
- Reaching, Twisting, and Gazing Smoothly (Patrons) (10/25/2019)
- Lengthening the Arms, Freeing the Scapulas (33m, Patrons) (9/27/2019)
- Effortless Arms and Shoulders (Patrons) (9/25/2019)
- Advanced Folding (Patrons) (8/21/2019)
- Stepping Down, with a Bias (Patrons) (7/21/2019)
- Finding and Using Your Spinal Bias to Step Down (33 min, Patrons) (6/23/2019)
- Spine and Chest Side-Bending, Lengthening Limbs (6/20/2019)
- Walking with Your Sternum (Patrons) (6/13/2019)
- Nodding into Lengthening the Heels (Patrons) (5/16/2019)
- Connecting the Legs and Chest (Patrons) (4/22/2019)
- Supple Ankles, Shifting Pelvis (32 min, Patrons) (3/17/2019)
- Basic Arching and Folding (Patrons) (2/13/2019)
- Folding, Arching, and Rolling (Patrons) (2/10/2019)
- Simple Twisting (1/15/2019)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 2 (12 min) (6/29/2018)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 2 (7 min) (6/29/2018)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 1 (6/29/2018)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 1 (5 min) (6/29/2018)
- Breath, Belly, Back, and Hips: Connecting to the Earth (workshop lesson) (4/22/2018)
- Fundamentals of a Healthy Back (workshop lesson) (3/8/2018)
- Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Chair Practice (1/26/2018)
- Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Floor Practice (1/26/2018)
- The Hip Joints: Moving Proximal Around Distal (11/22/2017)
- Spine Like a Chain, Freeing the Shoulder Girdle (8/23/2017)
- Rolling to Sitting, and Beyond (6/29/2017)
- Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 2 (5/26/2017)
- Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 1 (5/26/2017)
- More Precise Hips and Spine (3/2/2017)
- Agile Hips, Knees, and Feet (2/9/2017)
- Gathering the Spine, Stepping Down (6/16/2016)
- Reaching, Rolling, and Ribs (4/11/2016)
- Softening the Ribs (4/3/2016)
- Folding, Foundation, and Feet (2/28/2016)
- The Ultimate Self-Hug (2/7/2016)
- Floating Toward Bridging (1/25/2016)
- The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature (Patrons) (12/22/2015)
- The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Movement of the Body (Patrons) (11/19/2015)
- Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of an Imaginary Clock (Patrons) (11/11/2015)
- Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors (Patrons) (11/6/2015)
- Differentiation of Parts and Functions in Breathing (Patrons) (10/29/2015)
- Folding, Foundation, and Length (Patrons) (10/28/2015)
- Some Fundamental Properties of Movement (Patrons) (10/23/2015)
- Advanced Twisting Part 2 (8/7/2015)
- Advanced Twisting Part 1 (7/10/2015)
- Spine Like a Chain, with a Bias (7/6/2015)
- Bending Sideways (6/15/2015)
- The Buttocks (5/7/2015)
- Chanukia, the Candle Holder Lesson (5/3/2015)
- The Periscope (4/30/2015)
- The Anti-Gravity Lesson (3/26/2015)
- Breathing from Head to Heels (3/26/2015)
- Your Navigational Pelvis (3/24/2015)
- Rolling with Length (3/23/2015)
- Periscope 2 (Patrons) (3/23/2015)
- Connecting Arms and Legs, Hinges at Feet and Knees (3/23/2015)
- Legs as Free as a Baby’s (3/23/2015)
- Activating the Arches (3/23/2015)
- “Beard Pull” Pecking, with Chanukia (Patrons)
- “Generalize Your Skills” (Patrons)
- A Dynamic “Core” Lengthens the Spine (Patrons)
- A Spiral of Length and Power (Patrons)
- Activating the Arches
- Advanced Folding (Patrons)
- Advanced Twisting Part 1
- Advanced Twisting Part 2
- Agile Hips, Knees, and Feet
- Arms in a Hoop, with Continuous Ground Support (Patrons)
- Arms Like a Skeleton, Freeing the Shoulders and Neck (Patrons)
- Arms Like a Skeleton, Integrating the Neck, Jaw, and Eyes (Patrons)
- Arms Like a Skeleton, with a Bias
- As Light as a Finger: Games of Weightlessness (Patrons)
- Basic Arching and Folding (Patrons)
- Bending Sideways
- Breath, Belly, Back, and Hips: Connecting to the Earth (workshop lesson)
- Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons)
- Breathing from Head to Heels
- Breathing with Floating Ribs and Sternum (49 min, Patrons)
- Buttocks Organizing the Spine (Patrons)
- Calming the Nervous System, Integrating the Hands and Eyes (37m, Patrons)
- Chanukia, the Candle Holder Lesson
- Connecting Arms and Legs, Hinges at Feet and Knees
- Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 1
- Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 2
- Connecting the Legs and Chest (Patrons)
- Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors (Patrons)
- Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 1 (35 min, Patrons)
- Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 2 (25 min, Patrons)
- Differentiation of Parts and Functions in Breathing (Patrons)
- Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of an Imaginary Clock (Patrons)
- Drifting the Knees and Nose for Simpler Turns and Twists (Patrons)
- Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Chair Practice
- Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Floor Practice
- Dynamic Balance: Coordinates of the Head (Patrons)
- Dynamic Balance: Stability Through Suppleness (Patrons)
- Dynamic Diagonal Lengthening (Patrons)
- Dynamic Sitting and Chair Clock (24 min, chair-seated)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 1
- Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 2 (12 min)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 1 (5 min)
- Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 2 (7 min)
- Easing the Jaw and Neck: the short edit (28 min, Patrons)
- Easing the Jaw, Neck, and Shoulders
- Effortless Arms and Shoulders (Patrons)
- Finding and Using Your Spinal Bias to Step Down (33 min, Patrons)
- Finding Sensations of Not Shortening (Patrons)
- Floating Toward Bridging
- Folding, Arching, and Rolling (Patrons)
- Folding, Foundation, and Feet
- Folding, Foundation, and Length (Patrons)
- Free While Constrained: Quiet Head, Twisting Spine (Patrons)
- Free While Constrained: Side-Bent, Stepping Down (Patrons)
- Free Your Torso for Better Posture, Walking, and Running
- Freeing the Neck with Crawling and Rolling (Patrons)
- Freeing the Shoulders by Rolling the Arms (Patrons)
- Freeing Your Breath and Spine (16 or 37 min)
- Freeing Your Breath and Spine: the full-length edit (Patrons)
- Fundamentals of a Healthy Back (workshop lesson)
- Gathering the Spine, Stepping Down
- Getting Free with a Bell Hand (Patrons)
- Hip and Shoulder Diagonals for Better Walking (Patrons)
- Holding Your Breath, in Awareness (15 or 39 min, Patrons)
- Improving Pelvic Floor Control and Ease (Patrons)
- Improving Rotation, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons)
- Integrating the Feet, Torso, Head, and Breath: Connecting to the Earth (44 min, Patrons)
- Interview: MindBodyRadio Talks to Nick Strauss-Klein (11 min)
- Joyful Lifted Rolling (Patrons)
- Legs as Free as a Baby’s
- Length Without Effort (36m)
- Lengthening the Arms, Freeing the Scapulas (33m, Patrons)
- Lifting and Pressing (38 min, Patrons)
- Lifting Like a Baby + Simultaneous Lifting (Patrons)
- Lifting Up and Through
- Making Peace: Smooth Breath, Skillful Bias, Supple Chest (Patrons)
- More Precise Hips and Spine
- Moving Your Head and Legs Backward (Patrons)
- Nodding into Lengthening the Heels (Patrons)
- One Bell Hand / Two Bell Hands…and Feet (31m + 29m, Patrons)
- Pelvic Floor Connections (37 min, Patrons)
- Perfecting the Self-Image (Patrons)
- Periscope 2 (Patrons)
- Reaching, Rolling, and Ribs
- Reaching, Twisting, and Gazing Smoothly (Patrons)
- Refining the Shoulders and Hips (45 min, Patrons)
- Relaxing Your Neck and Jaw (39 min)
- Rib Basket, Shoulder Cloak (Patrons)
- Rolling and Hips Like a Baby (Patrons)
- Rolling to Sitting, and Beyond
- Rolling with Length
- Rotating, Interlacing, and Integrating the Hands, into Palms Lengthening Overhead (Patrons)
- Secrets of the Seated Twist
- Self-Hug, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons)
- Sensing Stability: The Sacral Clock (Patrons)
- Side Clock: Hips (42m, Patrons)
- Side Clock: Shoulders (and Intro to Hip)
- Side-Bending with Listening Hands, Connecting Legs and Head (Patrons)
- Side-lying Twist, and Rolling Recap (Patrons)
- Simple Floor Clock (26 min)
- Simple Self-Hug (31m)
- Simple Twisting
- Sitting and Turning with Length (26 min, chair-seated)
- Sliding the Sternum, Integrating the Neck, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons)
- Softening the Jaw, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons)
- Softening the Ribs
- Some Fundamental Properties of Movement (Patrons)
- Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated Action (Patrons)
- Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (35 min)
- Spine and Chest Side-Bending, Lengthening Limbs
- Spine Like a Chain, Freeing the Shoulder Girdle
- Spine Like a Chain, with a Bias
- Stepping Down, with a Bias (Patrons)
- Strength Without Excess (23 min)
- Stretch Without Strain (39 minutes)
- Supple Ankles, Shifting Pelvis (32 min, Patrons)
- Talk: A Radical Idea About Muscles (3 min)
- Talk: How We Respond to Strain (5 min)
- Talk: Reducing Excess Effort and Sensing the Skeleton (3 min)
- Talk: The Why and How of Growing Taller (6 min)
- Talk: We Can Learn to be Better for Ourselves, Moment to Moment (5 min)
- Talk: What Action Is Good?
- The “Morning Prayer” Lesson (Patrons)
- The Anti-Gravity Lesson
- The Buttocks
- The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature (Patrons)
- The Hip Joints: Moving Proximal Around Distal
- The Liminal Lesson: Transitions Between Action and Rest (Patrons)
- The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Movement of the Body (Patrons)
- The One Shoulder Lesson (19 min, Patrons)
- The Periscope
- The Power of One Foot (22 or 36 min, Patrons)
- The Power of Prone: Twisting on Your Belly
- The Tongue and the Spine (Patrons)
- The Ultimate Self-Hug
- Thinking and Breathing (Patrons)
- Two Sitbones, Two Sides of the Pelvic Floor (31 min, Patrons)
- Walking with Your Sternum (Patrons)
- What Is Good Posture? (Patrons)
- Whole Body Arms (Patrons)
- Workshop: Access Your Axis (Patrons)
- Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 1 (Patrons)
- Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 2 (Patrons)
- Workshop: Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (Patrons)
- Workshop: Stretch Without Strain (Patrons)
- Workshop: TCF 10 Year Celebration (Patrons)
- Your Naturally Asymmetrical Spine (35 min, Patrons)
- Your Navigational Pelvis
Getting Oriented
Talk: We Can Learn to be Better for Ourselves, Moment to Moment (5 min) »
An introduction to the Getting Oriented lesson series, and to Lesson 1. Nick talks about why Feldenkrais helps, how Feldenkrais ATM lessons work, and how to take care of yourself and learn as much as you can.
Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (35 min) »
Back-lying, often tilting one bent knee. Improve the comfort, awareness, and organization of your hip joints, pelvis, back, chest, shoulders, neck, and head. Starts with a "body scan," an awareness technique used at the beginning of most lessons.
Talk: Reducing Excess Effort and Sensing the Skeleton (3 min) »
An introduction to Lesson 2 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick talks about the antigravity function of bones and how we'll learn to sense what better skeletal organization feels like.
Dynamic Sitting and Chair Clock (24 min, chair-seated) »
Explore and improve seated uprightness by getting to know your sitbones and learning to feel more clearly where plumb is. Discover different ways of moving and supporting yourself in a chair through explorations with the head, shoulders, chest, spine, pelvis, and feet.
Talk: The Why and How of Growing Taller (6 min) »
An introduction to Lessons 3 and 4 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick talks about the function of vertebrae and the axis, maximum skeletal length, unnecessary shortening, why trying hard can’t make us longer, and the power of imagery.
Length Without Effort (36m) »
Begins in standing briefly, then mostly back-lying, knees bent. Relating and improving turning and twisting functions from your head down to your feet and back, and becoming more sensitive to the movement and length possibilities between them.
Sitting and Turning with Length (26 min, chair-seated) »
Improve turning and twisting while seated in chair. Access and enjoy your full length in motion even while seated, including head and eyes, pelvis and knees, and everything in between.
Talk: How We Respond to Strain (5 min) »
An introduction to Lesson 5 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick recaps our explorations so far and talks about the choices we have when we sense strain, the dangers of “should,” and the value of choosing curiosity.
Stretch Without Strain (39 minutes) »
Feldenkrais isn’t stretching, it’s learning! Mostly side-lying. Learn greater ease and mobility of your shoulders, neck, ribs, and hips, and discover how a reference twist of sweeping a long, straight arm sideways through the air can improve without any strain at all!
Talk: A Radical Idea About Muscles (3 min) »
An introduction to Lesson 6 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick talks about how our muscles are rarely acting of their own accord, that there's usually a skill and awareness-based path to reducing unintended muscular efforts.
Strength Without Excess (23 min) »
Feldenkrais isn’t exercise, it’s learning! Back-lying, often hands and head configured like a sit-up, learning to skillfully draw elbows and knees together by sensing and regulating the flexors AND the extensors.
Freeing Your Breath and Spine (16 or 37 min) »
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!
Simple Floor Clock (26 min) »
Mostly back-lying, knees bent. (Begins briefly in standing, then sitting on the floor.) Using a mental image of a clock face on your mat, learn to better sense and coordinate essential arcing movements of your pelvis, and how they relate to your whole self.
Relaxing Your Neck and Jaw (39 min) »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Relax with simple Awareness Through Movement techniques designed to reduce stress and pain and improve function. You'll also discover pleasant connections of the jaw and neck with your breath, tongue, lumbar spine, and pelvis. Often very helpful for TMJ problems.
Simple Self-Hug (31m) »
Back-lying, one or both knees bent. Embrace and gently cradle yourself in our simplest version of this beloved ATM lesson. Melt tension and find more ease and comfort for your shoulders, chest, neck, spine, pelvis, and breathing.
Interview: MindBodyRadio Talks to Nick Strauss-Klein (11 min) »
Recorded in the fall of 2019. Nick talks about how he discovered Feldenkrais, what the method is, and what he's trying to accomplish with the Feldenkrais Project.
Lessons for Better Posture, Walking, and Running
1. Free Your Torso for Better Posture, Walking, and Running »
Mostly side-lying, framed by standing and walking explorations. Using your sternum as a reference point, free your shoulders, hips, chest, and back for better posture and upright movement. Experience how different organizations of your torso affect your ability to move with freedom and confidence. Ends with a 2-minute talk from the after class discussion.
2. Legs as Free as a Baby’s »
Back-lying, one or both knees bent, tilting the knees and letting their weight twist, turn, and lengthen the body. Transferring weight. Broadening and clarifying the function and ease of the pelvis, hip joints, and lumbar. Learning to bend and straighten the legs with the freedom of a baby. Integrating this learning through the whole self, including the chest, shoulders, head, and eyes.
3. Folding, Foundation, and Feet »
Back-lying, knees bent, integrating bending of the ankles through the joints of the legs and into the pelvis and lower back, blending into a classic Feldenkrais lesson which draws the head, elbows, and knees toward each other in different combinations. Improve the folding and unfolding of the body through refining coordination of the flexor muscles, building awareness of the use of the ground (foundation), and lengthening the extensors.
4. Activating the Arches »
Mostly back-lying, knees bent. The “tripod of the foot” lesson, great for improving feet, knees, hips, and more. Learn better awareness and control of the bones and muscles that create the fundamental ground contact structure of the body, and relate it to movements of the ankle, knee (especially the head of the fibula), hip, back, and beyond.
5. The Buttocks »
Lying on the back and front, and various kneeling and standing positions. Exploring and improving the use and awareness of the buttocks in relationship to the pelvis, legs, feet, belly, and spine. Once Feldenkrais fans are ready for this lesson it's a profoundly important one for better posture, walking, and running. See the Comfort & Configuration tab.
6. Lifting Up and Through »
Back-lying, mostly one knee bent, one foot standing. Develop an action of lifting your hip forward in a grounded and distributed way as you learn to draw clear support from the earth up and through you. Great for stability, strength, and confidence in walking, and all upright movement. Framed by experiments in standing and walking.
7. Connecting Arms and Legs, Hinges at Feet and Knees »
Side-lying, integrating movements of the arms, shoulders, head, neck, spine, and hips. Learning to sense and hinge bodyweight in relation to the ground, and between the knees and feet. Great for adding grace and ease to how we twist, turn, and walk.
8. Your Navigational Pelvis »
Back-lying, knees bent. A unique take on the classic Feldenkrais pelvic clock lesson. Learn how the interaction of the feet with the ground relates to the pelvis moving in all directions. Includes movements designed to integrate the spine, head, and eyes, all toward grounding and organizing the whole self for better walking and an easier upright life.
9. Breathing from Head to Heels »
Various positions, about half back-lying. Experiments with the breath mechanism, learning how it relates to the head, spine, and pelvis, and integrates into the length of the heels for standing. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.”
10. The Anti-Gravity Lesson »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Some modified side-lying and brief front-lying. We can’t beat gravity, so let’s get organized to oppose it effortlessly with bones instead of muscles. Pushing and pulling movements from the feet, moving you up and down your mat, are throughly explored, as the horizontal floor substitutes for the plumb line of gravity.
Lessons for Easier Sitting
Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 1 (5 min) »
Nick introduces the workshop and discusses how to stay comfortable in the lessons, and why we're often tempted to try harder than is useful for the learning and improvement process Feldenkrais harnesses. The sitbones are discussed. The workshop's handout graphics are in the Curiosities tab of the lesson notes below the audio player.
Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 1 »
Chair-seated, with a middle portion in back-lying. Identifying the sitbones and enriching your awareness of them, then developing the relationships between the head, sitbones, and spine as they relate to plumb (the line of gravity through the vertical skeleton). Introduces the classic Feldenkrais pelvic clock image as a way to refine and expand dynamic support possibilities for the sitbones, pelvis, and whole self.
Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 2 (7 min) »
Nick discusses the value of sitting dynamically and moving as an integrated whole, no matter what constraining situation is expected of you. Modern cultural expectations and chair design are discussed as the major factor in our sitting challenges. The underlying principles of the workshop are briefly named and discussed.
Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 2 (12 min) »
Chair-seated. This brief lesson directly follows up on the previous one and is intended to be explored after a short break. Turning relationships of the head, eyes, chest, pelvis, knees, and sitbones are explored, using imagery of sitting in the driver's seat. Part 1 of the workshop is here.
Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Floor Practice »
Mostly back-lying. Begins and ends in floor-seated. With explorations and benefits for all sitting situations, this lesson uses imagery of being in the driver's seat to promote lively, dynamic sitting and turning while negotiating the challenge of a typical "bucket" car seat. Postural expressions of rounding and arching are clarified, then used to improve the range, comfort, and awareness of whole body turning movements.
Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Chair Practice »
Clarify the skeletal support provided by our sitbones and discover their lively role (and roll!) in all seated movements. With some emphasis on side-bending, all three planes of movement are discussed, explored, and differentiated, first in "pure" forms, and then blended together into natural movements.
Lessons for Freeing the Spine, Chest, Shoulders, and Neck
1. The Ultimate Self-Hug »
Back-lying, learning to use the feet – and later, the arms in a self-hug position – to roll the body and reach to the sides. Setting up later lessons in this collection through developing suppleness of the torso and integration of the feet and eyes as they relate to smooth weight-shifting. "Walking" the hips and shoulders along the floor. Recorded in a series of classes about posture, balance, and grace.
2. Simple Twisting »
Back-lying, often both knees bent. Tipping crossed legs and eventually "triangle arms" to gently twist, turn, and roll the body, in order to learn more awareness, control, and coordination of the major flexor and extensor muscles of the torso.
3. The Periscope »
Side-lying, using a reference movement of the arm standing like a periscope. This lesson softens, mobilizes, and integrates the use of the chest and shoulders.
4. Softening the Ribs »
Lying on the back and sides, with some rolling transfers between, hands often on the lower ribs, learning to sense and soften the ribs, spine, and shoulder blades and integrate their movement with the pelvis and legs.
5. Reaching, Rolling, and Ribs »
Back-lying, side-lying, and learning to transition between the two efficiently and comfortably. What happens when we reach so far we can't help but change orientation? A more advanced lesson (it's ok, as always, to skip or return to it later).
6. Spine Like a Chain, Freeing the Shoulder Girdle »
Back-lying, knees bent, learning to gradually lift and lower the pelvis and spine. This variant of a classic Feldenkrais lesson cultivates awareness especially around the middle and upper spine and ribs, the shoulder blades, sternum, and C7 (seventh cervical vertebra) region.
7. Chanukia, the Candle Holder Lesson »
Mostly in back-lying, knees bent. Using a precise configuration of the shoulders and elbows to mobilize and build awareness of movements and relationships of the shoulders, shoulder blades, clavicles, sternum, spine, head, pelvis, and the whole rib structure.
8. The Power of Prone: Twisting on Your Belly »
Designed to be as accessible as possible, this lesson uses frequent back-lying rests and auxiliary movements to help listeners find more comfort, ease, and learning value while prone. Moving with awareness while lying on your belly can lead to unique benefits for the spine, chest, shoulders, and neck, as well as improvements for posture and breathing. NOTE: Be sure to read the Comfort & Configuration tab.
9. Bending Sideways »
Framed with standing explorations of shifting weight, this back-lying lesson explores important and often underrepresented functions (in our self-image of movement) of bending sideways, and connects them to improving balance, and our use of the hips, spine, chest, neck, head, and functions of the legs and feet.
10. Spine Like a Chain, with a Bias »
Lying on the back, knees bent. This lesson explores the basic human function of the legs pushing the pelvis forward into the world. It creates opportunities to better sense and articulate the spine and ribs, and organize the flexor and extensor muscles, all within the frame of discovering and using your natural primary spinal bias.
11. Advanced Twisting Part 1 »
Back-lying, tilting the crossed legs to organize the flexors and extensors, and eventually using the tilted crossed legs as a constraint to help learn more suppleness of the spine, chest, shoulders, and neck.
12. Advanced Twisting Part 2 »
Prerequisite lesson: Advanced Twisting Part 1. Back-lying, using the tilted crossed legs as a constraint to help learn more suppleness and better upright organization of the spine, chest, shoulders, and neck, with awareness of and sensitivity to one's own biases.
Lessons for Learning the Limbs, from the Center
1. Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 1 »
Side-lying, improving functional relationships of the shoulders and hips through small and large movements. Constructing and improving your image of the "quadrilateral" of the torso while integrating the ribs, spine, neck, and head. Later, harnessing the suppleness of the quadrilateral to support reaching and circling the arm.
2. Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 2 »
Side-lying, further expanding the image of the shoulders and hips toward improving major postural and gait-related organizations of the torso. This lesson uses bending and thrusting the legs from the hips along with lengthening, arcing, and circling the arms. Prerequisite linked in lesson notes.
3. Rolling to Sitting, and Beyond »
How do we get off the floor? This lesson explores the path from lying on your back to sitting up, and getting back down again, organizing the torso and limbs towards a smoother, simpler, more pleasurable transition. These movements are also powerful organizers for improving upright posture.
4. Arms Like a Skeleton, with a Bias »
Back-lying. This quiet, simple presentation of a classic Feldenkrais lesson becomes the background for a potent exploration: how does seeking and sensing our natural spinal bias – and resting our attention with it or away from it – affect how we move, feel, and function? Recorded near the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown, this lesson starts with a four-minute talk about embodied equanimity, and the particular "rabbit hole" of learning we'll be heading down together.
5. The Hip Joints: Moving Proximal Around Distal »
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, often one leg resting out to the side on a pillow. Learning to move the whole self (proximal) in relationship to a quietly resting limb (distal), often using pelvic clock movements. This reversal of the typical image we have of moving a limb creates a novel learning environment within the self, with benefits for the legs, hips, back, and our overall organization. Sitting on the floor at the beginning and end of the lesson is used to help identify some of the changes that take place.
6. Secrets of the Seated Twist »
Side-sitting, back-lying, and side-lying. Beginning and ending with classic Feldenkrais explorations of twisting while side-sitting on the floor, this lesson is designed to make side-sitting more accessible, and to free your torso and hips. Alterations – including chair-seated – are discussed, and long lying down portions of the lesson reveal how folding and arching can improve turning and twisting.
7. Floating Toward Bridging »
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, variations on lifting and lowering the pelvis, and eventually bridging the arms, to improve upright organization and balance.
8. Agile Hips, Knees, and Feet »
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, exploring connections between the joints of the legs, and clarifying their relationship with the abdominal muscles, pelvis, back, breath, and head. Improving leg function by developing some movements into rapid action.
9. More Precise Hips and Spine »
Back-lying, knees bent, with a floor-seated frame at the beginning and end. Preparing for and clarifying an important primary relationship in the body: arching the spine while flexing the hips.
10. Gathering the Spine, Stepping Down »
Back-lying, side-lying, and transitioning into side-lying, refining and harnessing your image of your spine's bias and action as it relates to (and powers) the stepping down of your feet. All toward reorganizing your gait.
Miscellaneous Lessons
Side Clock: Shoulders (and Intro to Hip) »
Side-lying. Starts as a "Feldenkrais basics" shoulders-and-hips lesson, then uses the image of a clock face to explore precise coordination, developing freedom and skill in the shoulders, chest, neck, and more. An emphasis on choice, imagery, principles, and improvisation creates a unique learning opportunity for your Feldenkrais study: you're invited to complete your own hip clocks.
Easing the Jaw, Neck, and Shoulders »
Back-lying, briefly framed by seated explorations. Exploring and refining basic movements of the jaw, and integrating them with movements of the head, neck, and shoulders. This lesson is often helpful for reducing many types of jaw-related tension and discomfort, including some kinds of headaches, TMJ pain (temporomandibular joint), and discomfort and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and spine. The recording begins with an important discussion. NOTE: There's a recommended prerequisite in the lesson notes.
Spine and Chest Side-Bending, Lengthening Limbs »
Framed by standing explorations of how we shift weight onto one foot, this mostly back-lying lesson (often one or both knees bent) is designed to free the torso and improve awareness, suppleness, and integration of lateral movements of the spine and chest in walking. Includes explorations of sensing and initiating movement from the spine.
Breath, Belly, Back, and Hips: Connecting to the Earth (workshop lesson) »
Back-lying, mostly knees bent, framed by brief explorations in standing. Investigations of the lower torso, especially as it connects through the legs and feet to the earth. This lesson develops awareness and spaciousness of this "middle" area, and the Tanden (a concept from the martial arts, also known as the lower Dantian) is discussed and sensed. See the Context tab if you wish to go on to the next lesson in the workshop.
Fundamentals of a Healthy Back (workshop lesson) »
Back-lying, often knees bent, sometimes legs crossed, tilting. Clarifying our image of the "five curves" of the axial skeleton in action: the traditional three (lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine), plus the sacrum/tailbone and the skull. Learning to sense functions and efforts through all five curves, including breathing. See the Context tab if you wish to go on to the next lesson in the workshop.
Rolling with Length »
Back-lying with one knee standing, and front-lying. Rolling over a long, spacious, breathing side, with plenty of room to improvise.
Patrons Monthly Lessons
Rotating, Interlacing, and Integrating the Hands, into Palms Lengthening Overhead (Patrons) »
Reduce anxiety and organize your nervous system by refining simple, pleasurable actions of your hands, arms, and shoulders. Integrate them better with your head and eyes. Eventually expands into lengthening your whole self, with surprising effects on stability. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
Arms in a Hoop, with Continuous Ground Support (Patrons) »
Back-lying, feet standing. Explore turning and twisting movements of the shoulders, pelvis, head, and eyes with arms held in a loose hoop in front of you, and find a flowing sense of ground support through your feet and back. Framed by detailed experiments in standing which connect your mat learning to upright life.
Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons) »
This pair of short lessons is designed to be completed together the first time, or with a short break between them.
Lifting Like a Baby + Simultaneous Lifting (Patrons) »
Discover how baby-like games of effortlessness can make you a more poised and potent adult. Starts with explorations of how you first lifted your head while lying on your belly in your crib. Then in back-lying you'll learn to quietly, precisely lift and lower parts of your body while studying details of ground support, muscle tone, and reversibility of movement, leading to a discovery of surprising "new" baby skills at the end. Begins with a three-minute talk about the perceptual paradoxes of "effortless" movement.
Joyful Lifted Rolling (Patrons) »
Starts with an exploration of grounding in standing. Then very simple side-lying movements gradually expand toward rolling. You'll learn to extend and gather the limbs on one side of your body, then the other, as you coordinate larger rolls with increasingly skillful control of your flexors and extensors. All this creates a profoundly lighter sense of your body and mind. Starts with a two-minute talk reviewing the major principles of grounding for liftoff.
The “Morning Prayer” Lesson (Patrons) »
With the hands together like a child praying, learn to move them up and down in front of you first in lying down, then sitting, then kneeling, gradually expanding this gentle movement into a larger and larger action. Details of the scapulas, spine, atlas, tongue, eyes, and floor support are investigated. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
A Spiral of Length and Power (Patrons) »
Back-lying, one knee bent, one foot standing, learning to lift that hip and spiral out of the ground into diagonal lengthening. Clarify your hip joints and create lightness, power, and eventually the seeds of explosive athletic action as you learn to distribute muscle tone proportionately throughout your whole self. Then enjoy an unusual inchworm-like experiment. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
As Light as a Finger: Games of Weightlessness (Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by brief standing experiments. Create a lighter sense of your body and mind in the field of gravity by using a playful neurological analogy. Explore how your hips, feet, and head can become as light as a finger when you learn to lift them with evenly distributed muscle tone throughout your body. Begins with a 3-minute talk about work, effort, "weightless" movement, and proportional tone.
Hip and Shoulder Diagonals for Better Walking (Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by brief standing and walking explorations. Develop the diagonal connections across your torso and limbs through gentle movements and creative imagery. Expand the scope of your learning through references to the pelvic floor, breathing with length, and the freedom of your head.
Sliding the Sternum, Integrating the Neck, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons) »
Side-lying. Gentle movements of lifting the head and looking toward the floor are used to integrate the eyes, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, and pelvis in increasingly sophisticated movements. Later, learn to differentiate the sternum and soften the chest further by maneuvering your sternum and ribs with your fingers.
Drifting the Knees and Nose for Simpler Turns and Twists (Patrons) »
Back-lying, knees bent. Drifting the knees to ease the spine and clarify its turning and twisting functions, with gentle integration of the shoulders and head. This quiet, deceptively simple lesson is a powerful reorganizer for your nervous system, adding grace and wholeness to all your movements. Typically also eases the neck, chest, lower back, hips, and the anxiety pattern.
Dynamic Balance: Coordinates of the Head (Patrons) »
Back, front, and side-lying, framed by explorations of dynamic balance in standing. Soften your chest, integrate your head, spine, and pelvis, and improve your balance, posture, and breathing by learning to circle your head in your hands in many lying down configurations.
Breathing with Floating Ribs and Sternum (49 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by brief standing explorations. Encounter, expand, and enjoy the three dimensional movements of your floating ribs, sternum, and the rest of your chest in this detailed investigation of your profoundly adaptable breath. Discover how changes to breathing and internal spaces alter your perception of yourself and your role in the world.
Whole Body Arms (Patrons) »
Side-lying. Learn to reach, roll, twist, and circle your arms with better whole body support from your shoulders, chest, and all the rest. Framed by standing explorations designed to demonstrate how the freedom of the neck, shoulders, chest, and pelvis benefits balance.
Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 1 (Patrons) »
In this workshop Nick shares practical tips, tools, and Feldenkrais lessons to improve your balance. He dispels common misunderstandings and highlights principles of physics and learning you can sense and practice on your own.
Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 2 (Patrons) »
In this workshop Nick shares practical tips, tools, and Feldenkrais lessons to improve your balance. He dispels common misunderstandings and highlights principles of physics and learning you can sense and practice on your own. Part one of the workshop is here.
The Tongue and the Spine (Patrons) »
Chair-seated and back-lying. Dive deeper into the many connections between the eyes, jaw, tongue, neck, shoulders, spine, and breath by reviewing and expanding ATM techniques from our previous jaw lessons. See the Context notes for recommended study order for these lessons.
Softening the Jaw, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons) »
Back-lying and side-lying. Develops the simplest jaw movements we've explored by linking them to movements of the spine and shoulders, and to softening and turning the torso. Can be very helpful for TMJ difficulties. See the Context notes for recommended study order for our jaw lessons.
“Beard Pull” Pecking, with Chanukia (Patrons) »
Back-lying, exploring pecking movements to create ease, clarity, and better carriage of the head, neck, shoulders, and spine. Uses the playful image of having a chin beard that an imaginary friend gently pulls toward the ceiling. Movements from the Chanukia lesson are used to develop possibilities. A link to that prerequisite lesson is in the Comfort & Configuration tab.
Arms Like a Skeleton, Integrating the Neck, Jaw, and Eyes (Patrons) »
Back-lying. Designed to help you find new options for ease in your neck, jaw, and eyes in relationship to movements of your shoulders and chest. Great for reducing tension and improving posture, particularly carriage of the head, neck, and shoulders.
Getting Free with a Bell Hand (Patrons) »
Mostly in a "three-quarters prone" position (halfway between side-lying and front-lying). Learn to use a gently pulsing "bell hand" to calm and regulate your nervous system, and to help you organize larger, more demanding movements with greater freedom and skill. See the lesson notes for a recommended prerequisite lesson.
Making Peace: Smooth Breath, Skillful Bias, Supple Chest (Patrons) »
Back-lying. Recorded in a "Rest and Recharge" themed class, this workshop-style lesson weaves together three related ATM explorations designed to calm and restore your nervous system. Balance your breath, find and enjoy your primary spinal bias, and then unlock more suppleness in your ribs and shoulders by gently moving within unusual constraints.
Freeing the Shoulders by Rolling the Arms (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, arms in a "letter T" position. Improving the function and mobility of the shoulders by connecting them more skillfully with the chest, spine, and head. Particular attention is given to the neck and to the spine between the shoulder blades.
Finding Sensations of Not Shortening (Patrons) »
Side-lying and front-lying with optional rolling, framed by brief standing explorations. Movement riddles for the chest, shoulders, neck, spine, and legs are presented in a focused context of lengthening. Uses sensory images of the five cardinal lines of the body, breathing, organizing the “core,” and expanding into the support surface to create opportunities to sense and inhibit unnecessary shortening. Begins with a summary of what we're exploring.
Improving Rotation, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often using the self-hug configuration, as well as front-lying. Learning to better sense, differentiate, and skillfully integrate turning your head, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, and pelvis. Best for experienced Felden-fans, see the Context tab for links to recommended prerequisite lessons.
Self-Hug, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Learning to gently roll the head, shoulders, and chest from side-to-side while skillfully differentiating other parts of the body, especially the legs and pelvis. Explore how we constantly reconfigure our internal organization in order to keep a part of our body unmoving in relationship to the outside world. NOTE: helpful photos in the Comfort & Configuration tab.
A Dynamic “Core” Lengthens the Spine (Patrons) »
(Advanced lesson. Be sure to read Comfort & Configuration notes) Back-lying, often knees bent. Using a reference image of the five lines of the body, movements of folding the legs create gentle challenges to awareness and self-regulation as you first let the pelvis move freely, then later dynamically stabilize it. While the "core" reckons with the weight of the legs, you'll explore how to maintain simplicity and length in the spine, easy fullness of breathing, and efficiency of effort.
Dynamic Balance: Stability Through Suppleness (Patrons) »
Framed by brief explorations in standing, this mostly side-lying lesson presents gently de-stabilizing movements of the head and legs to help you explore and improve your balance in a supple, whole-self way.
One Bell Hand / Two Bell Hands…and Feet (31m + 29m, Patrons) »
Named after the shape the hand makes, this pair of half-hour lessons is designed to be completed together the first time through. Reset your nervous system and learn to relate the activity and skillfulness of your hands with your whole self.
Rib Basket, Shoulder Cloak (Patrons) »
Framed by brief standing explorations of breathing and walking, this mostly back-lying lesson is designed to improve differentiation of the ribs and shoulders, and to improve their integration with functional movements of the arms, legs, hips, spine, and head. Uses a fascinating constraint of precisely relating the scapulas to the plane of the floor.
Sensing Stability: The Sacral Clock (Patrons) »
Framed with explorations of dynamic stability in standing, this back-lying lesson is a play on Moshe Feldenkrais' most famous image. Small movements in an unusual configuration of the legs create a precise, gentle challenge designed to promote new awareness and choices for our hip joints, pelvis, and lower back (along with everything else).
Side-Bending with Listening Hands, Connecting Legs and Head (Patrons) »
Side-lying. Using your own soft, listening hands to help integrate your head, hips, and legs with an increased awareness and suppleness of your ribs.
The Liminal Lesson: Transitions Between Action and Rest (Patrons) »
Mostly side-lying. Improving quality of rest and efficiency of action by clarifying the transitions between them. Get to know the actual sensations and somatic processes of preparing for action and transitioning to rest. Explored in a lesson structure designed to improve uprightness and gait.
Free While Constrained: Side-Bent, Stepping Down (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, some front-lying. Enjoy the rich internal reconfigurations and freedoms that are prompted as you learn how to use your legs and pelvis with ease while your head, spine, ribs, and shoulders are constrained in a gentle side-bent position. Themes of skeletal support and sensing your primary spinal bias are also touched on. The bias is discussed briefly after the lesson.
Free While Constrained: Quiet Head, Twisting Spine (Patrons) »
Back-lying. In this lesson you'll explore your options for moving freely while your head is constrained under the gentle weight of your hands. Among other benefits, it's designed to improve everyday movements of the carriage of the head, as well as the coordination and ease of our whole self while we orient our head one way and move our bodies another.
Arms Like a Skeleton, Freeing the Shoulders and Neck (Patrons) »
Back-lying, side-lying, transitioning. This detailed exploration starts simply then dives deep into variations designed to help you get to know your scapulas and improve their relationship with your spine, chest, pelvis, neck, and head.
Dynamic Diagonal Lengthening (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, small side-to-side rolls, often one hand connected to the opposite knee. This lesson uses subtle weight-shifting to help you effortlessly lengthen your spine and limbs, free your ribs, and improve diagonal relationships among the five lines of the body.
Side-lying Twist, and Rolling Recap (Patrons) »
Back-lying, side-lying, transitioning, and eventually circling the arm. Recorded as the third in a series (see the Related Lessons tab). With plenty of room for improvisation, this lesson builds on recent classes and discussions with students about encountering difficulty in Feldenkrais study. Starts and ends with three-minute talks.
Rolling and Hips Like a Baby (Patrons) »
Back-lying. Free your hips, shoulders, chest, and back as you explore rolling and weight shifting. Designed to help you add suppleness to your movements, expand your mental image of rolling in internal and external ways, and peek into the developmental neurological value of rolling and the substantial improvements available to most adults.
Freeing the Neck with Crawling and Rolling (Patrons) »
Front-lying, back-lying, transitioning. Improving integration of the head, neck, shoulders, and chest through explorations of crawling movements and improvisations toward rolling.
Buttocks Organizing the Spine (Patrons) »
Mostly front-lying. Exploring and integrating contractions of the buttocks with different movements and configurations of the axis (pelvis, spine, and head).
Moving Your Head and Legs Backward (Patrons) »
Mostly front-lying, frequently one knee pulled up your mat. A sophisticated exploration of primary arching organizations in combination with twisting and pushing off the ground, from head to toes. Begins with a brief "ATM rules" reminder about taking care of yourself in challenging lessons. The lesson begins in back-lying at around the three-minute mark.
Freeing Your Breath and Spine: the full-length edit (Patrons) »
Various positions, first half back-lying. Experiments with the verticality and 360 possibilities of the breath mechanism, leading it toward greater freedom and adaptability. Along the way, imaging and prompting a more supple, supportive spine. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.” TIMESTAMPS: • 0:00 Lesson: Freeing Your Breath and Spine • 37:00 Discussion: effects of coughing, and the problem with breathing any "right" way • 39:00 Additional ATM explorations
Reaching, Twisting, and Gazing Smoothly (Patrons) »
Side-lying, learning to reach, turn, twist, and roll effortlessly by improving integration of the rotation functions of the axis (head, spine, and pelvis) with movements of the hands, arms, shoulders, chest, breath...and eyes! The Curiosities tab has notes from an introductory discussion with the students before this lesson was recorded.
Effortless Arms and Shoulders (Patrons) »
Side-lying, arm extended toward the ceiling. Sensing, organizing, and expanding effortless movements of the arm and shoulder by integrating them with the whole self, with particular attention to imagery of lengthening the torso. Learning to sense the gravitational plumb line and its neuromusculoskeletal relationship with ease and effort. The recording picks up during a brief discussion. Lesson begins around 2:00.
Advanced Folding (Patrons) »
Back-lying, knees bent, drawing the head, elbows, and knees toward each other in different combinations, followed by more advanced variations. Improve the folding and unfolding of the body through refining coordination of the flexor muscles with the simultaneously lengthening extensors. Includes detailed work with the hips and eventually lengthening the hamstrings while flexing elsewhere. (A prerequisite lesson may be recommended; see Comfort & Configuration in the lesson notes.)
Stepping Down, with a Bias (Patrons) »
This mostly side-lying lesson explores the relationship of our natural spinal bias with our uprightness. It's designed to help us clarify and harness the fine movements and wonderful sensitivity and power available throughout our spine as we step down. "Stepping down" is how we organize ourselves to deliver force through our legs as we stand, balance, walk, and move in all upright activities.
Walking with Your Sternum (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Learning how preparatory movements for taking a step involve the whole self, by sensing and exploring movements of the sternum, both as a reference and a challenge to expand the self-image of walking. Lengthening and sweeping the arms in many directions encourages suppleness of the chest and awareness of the sternum, and helps integrate them with movements of the pelvis, hips, and walking.
Nodding into Lengthening the Heels (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often one or both knees bent, exploring relationships of "nodding" parts of ourselves in the sagittal (up/down) plane, including head, pelvis, one foot, and two feet, to better organize the full unfolding of the legs and send our heels into the world, a function essential for clear skeletal support while standing or walking.
Connecting the Legs and Chest (Patrons) »
Mostly side-lying, exploring relationships of the head, spine, chest, and pelvis with a riddle: how do we actually lengthen a leg? Designed to bring awareness and improvement to an action we need for every step we take in the world, this lesson uses breath, foundation forces, and "hinging" at the feet and knees to connect our image of leg lengthening with our whole self, especially the chest.
Basic Arching and Folding (Patrons) »
Front-lying, improving the organization of the extensor muscles of the back and distributing their efforts. Learning to lift the head and one arm – and later, one leg – away from the ground together. Integrating the eyes with these arching movements. Alternates with back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, basic folding (flexion) movements, as the brain is always coordinating the major flexors and extensors of the body with each other.
Folding, Arching, and Rolling (Patrons) »
Mostly side-lying. Refining our awareness and skill for the many ways we can gather the front of the body together (folding) and also lengthen it (arching), including very fine work with the spine, sternum (breastbone), and shoulders. Integration of breathing with these ideas. Experiments at the end of the lesson turn these primary functions into rolling.
Patrons Monthly Shorter Lessons
Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons) »
This pair of short lessons is designed to be completed together the first time, or with a short break between them.
Integrating the Feet, Torso, Head, and Breath: Connecting to the Earth (44 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by standing. Refine your connection with the ground and use it to improve your posture, breathing, and action. Lengthen your feet and heels, differentiate your toes and ankles, and integrate your feet with your hips, diaphragm, spine, ribs, shoulders, head, and eyes. This lesson points at powerful primitive biological organizations of flexion, extension, and uprightness.
Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 1 (35 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying. Refine your pelvic floor sensitivity, awareness, and control by learning how distinct, gentle contractions of the front and back of the pelvic floor are neurologically connected to movements of the pelvis, spine, hands, and lips. A brief chair-seated beginning helps you identify the four skeletal landmarks of the diamond-shaped pelvic floor.
Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 2 (25 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, then chair-seated. Refine your pelvic floor sensitivity, awareness, and control by learning how the two sides of the pelvic floor can be differentiated. Link gentle contractions to side-bending movements of the legs, pelvis, spine, and head. Later, generate unusual sensory distinctions by sitting and moving on a towel "saddle" to further clarify the pelvic floor. Part 1 is a prerequisite for this lesson.
Pelvic Floor Connections (37 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying. Discover the "non-Kegel"! Gentle, gradual contractions and releases of the pelvic floor – connected with the breath, belly, back, and various ways of tipping the pelvis and knees – help you find more detailed awareness and control.
Two Sitbones, Two Sides of the Pelvic Floor (31 min, Patrons) »
Chair-seated. Get to know your sitbones (illustration in the Curiosities tab), then sense that you have two diaphragms, and discover more awareness and control of your pelvic floor through gentle weight shifting experiments.
Calming the Nervous System, Integrating the Hands and Eyes (37m, Patrons) »
Back-lying, using a "bell hand" movement to differentiate and integrate the hands, eyes, and breath. This lesson is a powerful tool for self-regulation and reorganization, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and shifting us away from "fight or flight" and toward "rest and digest". Begins with a 2-minute introduction to this lesson’s particular bell hand movement (see photos below the lesson notes).
The Power of One Foot (22 or 36 min, Patrons) »
A "short version" stopping point is noted in the middle. Back-lying, one knee bent, framed with brief walking explorations. This potently asymmetrical lesson dives deeply into the common ATM lesson ingredient of pushing one foot into the floor. Intended to inspire improvisation after studying, this lesson asks: can you learn how to improve how you’re feeling and functioning even with short or very simple ATM explorations? How about one-sided, or self-led?
Side Clock: Hips (42m, Patrons) »
Side-lying. Uses the image of a clock face on your mat to explore precise movement coordination, developing freedom and skill in the hips, lower back, chest, and more, with nudges toward improvisation. A companion lesson to "Side Clock: Shoulders (and Intro to Hip)". It's recommended to enjoy that lesson first, then experiment with your own improvisations as recommended, THEN try this lesson – though this lesson can be studied on its own.
Holding Your Breath, in Awareness (15 or 39 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying and some front-lying. Relaxing the nervous system by exhaling through consonants, then bringing awareness to what actually happens when we hold and release the breath, so we can become freer and more spontaneously adaptive to life's different breathing situations. The first 15 minutes can be a standalone lesson.
The One Shoulder Lesson (19 min, Patrons) »
Side-lying. A brief, asymmetrical exploration of movements of one arm and shoulder in relationship with the whole self, intended to leave you curious about and learning from the differences created between the two sides of your body.
Refining the Shoulders and Hips (45 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, sometimes knees bent. Explore small, precise movements of the shoulders and hips, and the fine relationships between them, with an intention toward reducing unnecessary efforts in the torso and improving walking.
Lifting and Pressing (38 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, some front-lying. Relating to the support surface with simple, potent movements designed to promote whole-self awareness and distributed, lengthening efforts as we physically connect to our world.
Your Naturally Asymmetrical Spine (35 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, learning to sense the relationship of movements of the arms in the plane of the floor with movements along the side aspects of the spine, and eventually to initiate them from there. Discover essential differences between one side of the spine and the other (which I call the primary spinal bias), and how those differences are part of every action we take.
Easing the Jaw and Neck: the short edit (28 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, briefly framed by seated explorations. Exploring and refining basic movements of the jaw, and integrating them with movements of the head and neck. This lesson is often helpful for reducing many types of jaw-related tension and discomfort, including some kinds of headaches, TMJ pain (temporomandibular joint), and discomfort and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and spine. Prerequisites! See the lesson notes.
Lengthening the Arms, Freeing the Scapulas (33m, Patrons) »
Back-lying, knees bent, arms often resting loosely upwards on the floor, and in self-hug position at other times. Lengthening the arms, differentiating the head, and expanding the mobility and self-image of the shoulder blades (scapulas).
Finding and Using Your Spinal Bias to Step Down (33 min, Patrons) »
Framed by brief explorations in standing, this mostly side-lying lesson helps you discover your primary spinal bias. You’ll explore how a refined awareness and conscious use of your spine’s natural bias can improve how you send your foot out into the world in all upright activities.
Supple Ankles, Shifting Pelvis (32 min, Patrons) »
Framed by explorations in standing, this mostly back-lying lesson explores how improvements in the sensitivity and function of the ankles and feet relate to movements of shifting and turning the hip joints, pelvis, spine, and chest.
Lessons from Awareness Through Movement
What Is Good Posture? (Patrons) »
Standing, chair-seated, and transitioning between. Experience for yourself Moshe Feldenkrais's three-part answer to his lesson title: 1) Good posture is synonymous with the greatest potential for action. 2) Whether we're standing, sitting, or anywhere in between, in good posture our bones (not our muscles) must continuously counteract gravity, leaving our musculature free for action. 3) Posture improves spontaneously when we eliminate superfluous efforts in the sit-stand-sit transition, as we become more sensitive to the physics and neurology of that function. A 5-minute talk begins the recording. Demonstrations and principles are in the Clarifications and Curiosities tabs.
Talk: What Action Is Good? »
This is the only one of the 12 lessons in Moshe Feldenkrais’s seminal book Awareness Through Movement that's a lecture, not a movement lesson. As Nick summarizes and explains it, you’ll learn about continual refinement, “reversible” action, finding ease in strenuous actions, sensing skeletal mechanics and shearing forces, proportional use of musculature, the effects of self-limiting labels, and what Nick calls the “positive snowball effect” of longterm Feldenkrais study.
Some Fundamental Properties of Movement (Patrons) »
Lying on the back and later on the front with the limbs in a large letter X shape, learning to lengthen and lift the limbs by organizing from the torso, discovering a pressing foundation, and inhibiting unnecessary shortening and tightening responses related to anticipated difficulty.
Differentiation of Parts and Functions in Breathing (Patrons) »
Various positions, about half back-lying. Experiments designed to help you differentiate the various mechanisms of breathing, and to learn a fuller, more adaptable use of the diaphragm and ALL the ribs and surfaces of the torso. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.”
Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors (Patrons) »
Lying on the back, knees bent, one or both feet standing, variations on tilting crossed legs and "triangle" arms/shoulders in order to twist and untwist the torso, learning more awareness, control, and coordination of the major flexors (folding muscles) and extensors (arching muscles).
Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of an Imaginary Clock (Patrons) »
Lying on the back, mostly knees bent, feet standing, using the image of a clock painted on the back of the pelvis as a guide for building awareness and refining control of the pelvis, and relating it to movements of the head.
The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature (Patrons) »
Lying on the belly, knees bent, soles of feet oriented toward the ceiling, learning to tilt the feet to the side in order to integrate the pelvis, the length of the spine, and the ribs and shoulders with various configurations of the head and neck. Also, late in the lesson, discovering the potency of imagined movements.
Perfecting the Self-Image (Patrons) »
Seated, back-lying, and eventually transitioning between, all while holding one foot in two hands. This lesson clarifies how our attention and sensory motor imagination can be consciously harnessed to improve our self-image, options, and behavior, since – as Moshe writes – "We act in accordance with our self-image."
Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated Action (Patrons) »
Floor-seated, with back-lying rests. Guided asymmetrical attention and imagination tasks are applied to symmetrical movements, powerfully demonstrating your nervous system's ability to change and improve your body, movement, and awareness based simply on what you pay attention to. See the Curiosities tab for a post-lesson discussion.
The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Movement of the Body (Patrons) »
Standing, then mostly side-sitting on the floor, with rests lying on the back. Discovering how improving the smooth tracking of the eyes in various turning motions can improve the whole self.
“Generalize Your Skills” (Patrons) »
Front-lying. Become more skillful in everyday and high-performance actions by expanding your perception of the diagonals of the back of your body, with the help of an imaginary ball gradually rolling over you. Begins with a 5-minute talk about principles at work in this lesson.
Thinking and Breathing (Patrons) »
Back-lying and seated, improving awareness and use of the whole breathing apparatus by directing attention to specific anatomy while experimenting with "stepped" breathing and different body configurations. Starts with an essential anatomy lesson that cultivates concepts and imagery used throughout the ATM lesson. Illustrations are below the lesson notes.
Legacy and Alternate Lessons
Improving Pelvic Floor Control and Ease (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, framed by chair-seated. Begins with identifying the four skeletal landmarks of the diamond-shaped pelvic floor. Discover more pelvic floor awareness, control, and ease by learning how contractions of the anus, urethra, and other parts of pelvic floor are connected to movements of the pelvis, spine, and legs. May be very helpful if you have concerns about continence, digestion and elimination, or sexual function, and also typically benefits breath, balance, and walking.
Workshop: Stretch Without Strain (Patrons) »
This full workshop recording presents two short talks and two lessons on the theme of Stretch without Strain. Patrons can listen to the full, uninterrupted workshop on this page. All users can access the separate, edited tracks in our Getting Oriented collection.
Workshop: Access Your Axis (Patrons) »
This full workshop recording presents two short talks and two related lessons on the theme of Access Your Axis. Patrons can listen to the full, uninterrupted workshop on this page. All users can access the separate, edited tracks in our Getting Oriented collection.
Workshop: TCF 10 Year Celebration (Patrons) »
A public workshop celebrating 10 years of Nick's Twin Cities Feldenkrais classes at the St. Paul JCC, suitable for newcomers and long-timers alike. The first of the three lesson recordings is only available here.
Workshop: Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (Patrons) »
This full workshop recording presents two short talks and two lessons on the theme of Stretch without Strain. Patrons can listen to the full, uninterrupted workshop on this page. All users can access the separate, edited tracks in our Getting Oriented collection.
Folding, Foundation, and Length (Patrons) »
Lying on the back, holding the head and knees in different combinations, improving the forward folding of the body through building awareness of the use of the ground (foundation) and aspects of lengthening. Relating the ankles, lower back, and head.
Periscope 2 (Patrons) »
Side-lying, using the arm like a periscope to improve the use of the shoulder, and learn about and integrate the function of the whole shoulder structure with the neck, chest, spine, pelvis, and legs. Also develops relationships with the eyes.
Getting Oriented
Talk: We Can Learn to be Better for Ourselves, Moment to Moment (5 min) »
An introduction to the Getting Oriented lesson series, and to Lesson 1. Nick talks about why Feldenkrais helps, how Feldenkrais ATM lessons work, and how to take care of yourself and learn as much as you can.
Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (35 min) »
Back-lying, often tilting one bent knee. Improve the comfort, awareness, and organization of your hip joints, pelvis, back, chest, shoulders, neck, and head. Starts with a "body scan," an awareness technique used at the beginning of most lessons.
Talk: Reducing Excess Effort and Sensing the Skeleton (3 min) »
An introduction to Lesson 2 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick talks about the antigravity function of bones and how we'll learn to sense what better skeletal organization feels like.
Dynamic Sitting and Chair Clock (24 min, chair-seated) »
Explore and improve seated uprightness by getting to know your sitbones and learning to feel more clearly where plumb is. Discover different ways of moving and supporting yourself in a chair through explorations with the head, shoulders, chest, spine, pelvis, and feet.
Talk: The Why and How of Growing Taller (6 min) »
An introduction to Lessons 3 and 4 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick talks about the function of vertebrae and the axis, maximum skeletal length, unnecessary shortening, why trying hard can’t make us longer, and the power of imagery.
Length Without Effort (36m) »
Begins in standing briefly, then mostly back-lying, knees bent. Relating and improving turning and twisting functions from your head down to your feet and back, and becoming more sensitive to the movement and length possibilities between them.
Sitting and Turning with Length (26 min, chair-seated) »
Improve turning and twisting while seated in chair. Access and enjoy your full length in motion even while seated, including head and eyes, pelvis and knees, and everything in between.
Talk: How We Respond to Strain (5 min) »
An introduction to Lesson 5 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick recaps our explorations so far and talks about the choices we have when we sense strain, the dangers of “should,” and the value of choosing curiosity.
Stretch Without Strain (39 minutes) »
Feldenkrais isn’t stretching, it’s learning! Mostly side-lying. Learn greater ease and mobility of your shoulders, neck, ribs, and hips, and discover how a reference twist of sweeping a long, straight arm sideways through the air can improve without any strain at all!
Talk: A Radical Idea About Muscles (3 min) »
An introduction to Lesson 6 of our Getting Oriented series. Nick talks about how our muscles are rarely acting of their own accord, that there's usually a skill and awareness-based path to reducing unintended muscular efforts.
Strength Without Excess (23 min) »
Feldenkrais isn’t exercise, it’s learning! Back-lying, often hands and head configured like a sit-up, learning to skillfully draw elbows and knees together by sensing and regulating the flexors AND the extensors.
Freeing Your Breath and Spine (16 or 37 min) »
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!
Simple Floor Clock (26 min) »
Mostly back-lying, knees bent. (Begins briefly in standing, then sitting on the floor.) Using a mental image of a clock face on your mat, learn to better sense and coordinate essential arcing movements of your pelvis, and how they relate to your whole self.
Relaxing Your Neck and Jaw (39 min) »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Relax with simple Awareness Through Movement techniques designed to reduce stress and pain and improve function. You'll also discover pleasant connections of the jaw and neck with your breath, tongue, lumbar spine, and pelvis. Often very helpful for TMJ problems.
Simple Self-Hug (31m) »
Back-lying, one or both knees bent. Embrace and gently cradle yourself in our simplest version of this beloved ATM lesson. Melt tension and find more ease and comfort for your shoulders, chest, neck, spine, pelvis, and breathing.
Interview: MindBodyRadio Talks to Nick Strauss-Klein (11 min) »
Recorded in the fall of 2019. Nick talks about how he discovered Feldenkrais, what the method is, and what he's trying to accomplish with the Feldenkrais Project.
Lessons for Better Posture, Walking, and Running
1. Free Your Torso for Better Posture, Walking, and Running »
Mostly side-lying, framed by standing and walking explorations. Using your sternum as a reference point, free your shoulders, hips, chest, and back for better posture and upright movement. Experience how different organizations of your torso affect your ability to move with freedom and confidence. Ends with a 2-minute talk from the after class discussion.
2. Legs as Free as a Baby’s »
Back-lying, one or both knees bent, tilting the knees and letting their weight twist, turn, and lengthen the body. Transferring weight. Broadening and clarifying the function and ease of the pelvis, hip joints, and lumbar. Learning to bend and straighten the legs with the freedom of a baby. Integrating this learning through the whole self, including the chest, shoulders, head, and eyes.
3. Folding, Foundation, and Feet »
Back-lying, knees bent, integrating bending of the ankles through the joints of the legs and into the pelvis and lower back, blending into a classic Feldenkrais lesson which draws the head, elbows, and knees toward each other in different combinations. Improve the folding and unfolding of the body through refining coordination of the flexor muscles, building awareness of the use of the ground (foundation), and lengthening the extensors.
4. Activating the Arches »
Mostly back-lying, knees bent. The “tripod of the foot” lesson, great for improving feet, knees, hips, and more. Learn better awareness and control of the bones and muscles that create the fundamental ground contact structure of the body, and relate it to movements of the ankle, knee (especially the head of the fibula), hip, back, and beyond.
5. The Buttocks »
Lying on the back and front, and various kneeling and standing positions. Exploring and improving the use and awareness of the buttocks in relationship to the pelvis, legs, feet, belly, and spine. Once Feldenkrais fans are ready for this lesson it's a profoundly important one for better posture, walking, and running. See the Comfort & Configuration tab.
6. Lifting Up and Through »
Back-lying, mostly one knee bent, one foot standing. Develop an action of lifting your hip forward in a grounded and distributed way as you learn to draw clear support from the earth up and through you. Great for stability, strength, and confidence in walking, and all upright movement. Framed by experiments in standing and walking.
7. Connecting Arms and Legs, Hinges at Feet and Knees »
Side-lying, integrating movements of the arms, shoulders, head, neck, spine, and hips. Learning to sense and hinge bodyweight in relation to the ground, and between the knees and feet. Great for adding grace and ease to how we twist, turn, and walk.
8. Your Navigational Pelvis »
Back-lying, knees bent. A unique take on the classic Feldenkrais pelvic clock lesson. Learn how the interaction of the feet with the ground relates to the pelvis moving in all directions. Includes movements designed to integrate the spine, head, and eyes, all toward grounding and organizing the whole self for better walking and an easier upright life.
9. Breathing from Head to Heels »
Various positions, about half back-lying. Experiments with the breath mechanism, learning how it relates to the head, spine, and pelvis, and integrates into the length of the heels for standing. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.”
10. The Anti-Gravity Lesson »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Some modified side-lying and brief front-lying. We can’t beat gravity, so let’s get organized to oppose it effortlessly with bones instead of muscles. Pushing and pulling movements from the feet, moving you up and down your mat, are throughly explored, as the horizontal floor substitutes for the plumb line of gravity.
Lessons for Easier Sitting
Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 1 (5 min) »
Nick introduces the workshop and discusses how to stay comfortable in the lessons, and why we're often tempted to try harder than is useful for the learning and improvement process Feldenkrais harnesses. The sitbones are discussed. The workshop's handout graphics are in the Curiosities tab of the lesson notes below the audio player.
Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 1 »
Chair-seated, with a middle portion in back-lying. Identifying the sitbones and enriching your awareness of them, then developing the relationships between the head, sitbones, and spine as they relate to plumb (the line of gravity through the vertical skeleton). Introduces the classic Feldenkrais pelvic clock image as a way to refine and expand dynamic support possibilities for the sitbones, pelvis, and whole self.
Easier Sitting Workshop Talk 2 (7 min) »
Nick discusses the value of sitting dynamically and moving as an integrated whole, no matter what constraining situation is expected of you. Modern cultural expectations and chair design are discussed as the major factor in our sitting challenges. The underlying principles of the workshop are briefly named and discussed.
Easier Sitting Workshop Lesson 2 (12 min) »
Chair-seated. This brief lesson directly follows up on the previous one and is intended to be explored after a short break. Turning relationships of the head, eyes, chest, pelvis, knees, and sitbones are explored, using imagery of sitting in the driver's seat. Part 1 of the workshop is here.
Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Floor Practice »
Mostly back-lying. Begins and ends in floor-seated. With explorations and benefits for all sitting situations, this lesson uses imagery of being in the driver's seat to promote lively, dynamic sitting and turning while negotiating the challenge of a typical "bucket" car seat. Postural expressions of rounding and arching are clarified, then used to improve the range, comfort, and awareness of whole body turning movements.
Driving and Dynamic Sitting – Chair Practice »
Clarify the skeletal support provided by our sitbones and discover their lively role (and roll!) in all seated movements. With some emphasis on side-bending, all three planes of movement are discussed, explored, and differentiated, first in "pure" forms, and then blended together into natural movements.
Lessons for Freeing the Spine, Chest, Shoulders, and Neck
1. The Ultimate Self-Hug »
Back-lying, learning to use the feet – and later, the arms in a self-hug position – to roll the body and reach to the sides. Setting up later lessons in this collection through developing suppleness of the torso and integration of the feet and eyes as they relate to smooth weight-shifting. "Walking" the hips and shoulders along the floor. Recorded in a series of classes about posture, balance, and grace.
2. Simple Twisting »
Back-lying, often both knees bent. Tipping crossed legs and eventually "triangle arms" to gently twist, turn, and roll the body, in order to learn more awareness, control, and coordination of the major flexor and extensor muscles of the torso.
3. The Periscope »
Side-lying, using a reference movement of the arm standing like a periscope. This lesson softens, mobilizes, and integrates the use of the chest and shoulders.
4. Softening the Ribs »
Lying on the back and sides, with some rolling transfers between, hands often on the lower ribs, learning to sense and soften the ribs, spine, and shoulder blades and integrate their movement with the pelvis and legs.
5. Reaching, Rolling, and Ribs »
Back-lying, side-lying, and learning to transition between the two efficiently and comfortably. What happens when we reach so far we can't help but change orientation? A more advanced lesson (it's ok, as always, to skip or return to it later).
6. Spine Like a Chain, Freeing the Shoulder Girdle »
Back-lying, knees bent, learning to gradually lift and lower the pelvis and spine. This variant of a classic Feldenkrais lesson cultivates awareness especially around the middle and upper spine and ribs, the shoulder blades, sternum, and C7 (seventh cervical vertebra) region.
7. Chanukia, the Candle Holder Lesson »
Mostly in back-lying, knees bent. Using a precise configuration of the shoulders and elbows to mobilize and build awareness of movements and relationships of the shoulders, shoulder blades, clavicles, sternum, spine, head, pelvis, and the whole rib structure.
8. The Power of Prone: Twisting on Your Belly »
Designed to be as accessible as possible, this lesson uses frequent back-lying rests and auxiliary movements to help listeners find more comfort, ease, and learning value while prone. Moving with awareness while lying on your belly can lead to unique benefits for the spine, chest, shoulders, and neck, as well as improvements for posture and breathing. NOTE: Be sure to read the Comfort & Configuration tab.
9. Bending Sideways »
Framed with standing explorations of shifting weight, this back-lying lesson explores important and often underrepresented functions (in our self-image of movement) of bending sideways, and connects them to improving balance, and our use of the hips, spine, chest, neck, head, and functions of the legs and feet.
10. Spine Like a Chain, with a Bias »
Lying on the back, knees bent. This lesson explores the basic human function of the legs pushing the pelvis forward into the world. It creates opportunities to better sense and articulate the spine and ribs, and organize the flexor and extensor muscles, all within the frame of discovering and using your natural primary spinal bias.
11. Advanced Twisting Part 1 »
Back-lying, tilting the crossed legs to organize the flexors and extensors, and eventually using the tilted crossed legs as a constraint to help learn more suppleness of the spine, chest, shoulders, and neck.
12. Advanced Twisting Part 2 »
Prerequisite lesson: Advanced Twisting Part 1. Back-lying, using the tilted crossed legs as a constraint to help learn more suppleness and better upright organization of the spine, chest, shoulders, and neck, with awareness of and sensitivity to one's own biases.
Lessons for Learning the Limbs, from the Center
1. Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 1 »
Side-lying, improving functional relationships of the shoulders and hips through small and large movements. Constructing and improving your image of the "quadrilateral" of the torso while integrating the ribs, spine, neck, and head. Later, harnessing the suppleness of the quadrilateral to support reaching and circling the arm.
2. Connecting Shoulders and Hips Part 2 »
Side-lying, further expanding the image of the shoulders and hips toward improving major postural and gait-related organizations of the torso. This lesson uses bending and thrusting the legs from the hips along with lengthening, arcing, and circling the arms. Prerequisite linked in lesson notes.
3. Rolling to Sitting, and Beyond »
How do we get off the floor? This lesson explores the path from lying on your back to sitting up, and getting back down again, organizing the torso and limbs towards a smoother, simpler, more pleasurable transition. These movements are also powerful organizers for improving upright posture.
4. Arms Like a Skeleton, with a Bias »
Back-lying. This quiet, simple presentation of a classic Feldenkrais lesson becomes the background for a potent exploration: how does seeking and sensing our natural spinal bias – and resting our attention with it or away from it – affect how we move, feel, and function? Recorded near the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown, this lesson starts with a four-minute talk about embodied equanimity, and the particular "rabbit hole" of learning we'll be heading down together.
5. The Hip Joints: Moving Proximal Around Distal »
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, often one leg resting out to the side on a pillow. Learning to move the whole self (proximal) in relationship to a quietly resting limb (distal), often using pelvic clock movements. This reversal of the typical image we have of moving a limb creates a novel learning environment within the self, with benefits for the legs, hips, back, and our overall organization. Sitting on the floor at the beginning and end of the lesson is used to help identify some of the changes that take place.
6. Secrets of the Seated Twist »
Side-sitting, back-lying, and side-lying. Beginning and ending with classic Feldenkrais explorations of twisting while side-sitting on the floor, this lesson is designed to make side-sitting more accessible, and to free your torso and hips. Alterations – including chair-seated – are discussed, and long lying down portions of the lesson reveal how folding and arching can improve turning and twisting.
7. Floating Toward Bridging »
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, variations on lifting and lowering the pelvis, and eventually bridging the arms, to improve upright organization and balance.
8. Agile Hips, Knees, and Feet »
Back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, exploring connections between the joints of the legs, and clarifying their relationship with the abdominal muscles, pelvis, back, breath, and head. Improving leg function by developing some movements into rapid action.
9. More Precise Hips and Spine »
Back-lying, knees bent, with a floor-seated frame at the beginning and end. Preparing for and clarifying an important primary relationship in the body: arching the spine while flexing the hips.
10. Gathering the Spine, Stepping Down »
Back-lying, side-lying, and transitioning into side-lying, refining and harnessing your image of your spine's bias and action as it relates to (and powers) the stepping down of your feet. All toward reorganizing your gait.
Miscellaneous Lessons
Side Clock: Shoulders (and Intro to Hip) »
Side-lying. Starts as a "Feldenkrais basics" shoulders-and-hips lesson, then uses the image of a clock face to explore precise coordination, developing freedom and skill in the shoulders, chest, neck, and more. An emphasis on choice, imagery, principles, and improvisation creates a unique learning opportunity for your Feldenkrais study: you're invited to complete your own hip clocks.
Easing the Jaw, Neck, and Shoulders »
Back-lying, briefly framed by seated explorations. Exploring and refining basic movements of the jaw, and integrating them with movements of the head, neck, and shoulders. This lesson is often helpful for reducing many types of jaw-related tension and discomfort, including some kinds of headaches, TMJ pain (temporomandibular joint), and discomfort and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and spine. The recording begins with an important discussion. NOTE: There's a recommended prerequisite in the lesson notes.
Spine and Chest Side-Bending, Lengthening Limbs »
Framed by standing explorations of how we shift weight onto one foot, this mostly back-lying lesson (often one or both knees bent) is designed to free the torso and improve awareness, suppleness, and integration of lateral movements of the spine and chest in walking. Includes explorations of sensing and initiating movement from the spine.
Breath, Belly, Back, and Hips: Connecting to the Earth (workshop lesson) »
Back-lying, mostly knees bent, framed by brief explorations in standing. Investigations of the lower torso, especially as it connects through the legs and feet to the earth. This lesson develops awareness and spaciousness of this "middle" area, and the Tanden (a concept from the martial arts, also known as the lower Dantian) is discussed and sensed. See the Context tab if you wish to go on to the next lesson in the workshop.
Fundamentals of a Healthy Back (workshop lesson) »
Back-lying, often knees bent, sometimes legs crossed, tilting. Clarifying our image of the "five curves" of the axial skeleton in action: the traditional three (lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine), plus the sacrum/tailbone and the skull. Learning to sense functions and efforts through all five curves, including breathing. See the Context tab if you wish to go on to the next lesson in the workshop.
Rolling with Length »
Back-lying with one knee standing, and front-lying. Rolling over a long, spacious, breathing side, with plenty of room to improvise.
Patrons Monthly Lessons
Rotating, Interlacing, and Integrating the Hands, into Palms Lengthening Overhead (Patrons) »
Reduce anxiety and organize your nervous system by refining simple, pleasurable actions of your hands, arms, and shoulders. Integrate them better with your head and eyes. Eventually expands into lengthening your whole self, with surprising effects on stability. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
Arms in a Hoop, with Continuous Ground Support (Patrons) »
Back-lying, feet standing. Explore turning and twisting movements of the shoulders, pelvis, head, and eyes with arms held in a loose hoop in front of you, and find a flowing sense of ground support through your feet and back. Framed by detailed experiments in standing which connect your mat learning to upright life.
Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons) »
This pair of short lessons is designed to be completed together the first time, or with a short break between them.
Lifting Like a Baby + Simultaneous Lifting (Patrons) »
Discover how baby-like games of effortlessness can make you a more poised and potent adult. Starts with explorations of how you first lifted your head while lying on your belly in your crib. Then in back-lying you'll learn to quietly, precisely lift and lower parts of your body while studying details of ground support, muscle tone, and reversibility of movement, leading to a discovery of surprising "new" baby skills at the end. Begins with a three-minute talk about the perceptual paradoxes of "effortless" movement.
Joyful Lifted Rolling (Patrons) »
Starts with an exploration of grounding in standing. Then very simple side-lying movements gradually expand toward rolling. You'll learn to extend and gather the limbs on one side of your body, then the other, as you coordinate larger rolls with increasingly skillful control of your flexors and extensors. All this creates a profoundly lighter sense of your body and mind. Starts with a two-minute talk reviewing the major principles of grounding for liftoff.
The “Morning Prayer” Lesson (Patrons) »
With the hands together like a child praying, learn to move them up and down in front of you first in lying down, then sitting, then kneeling, gradually expanding this gentle movement into a larger and larger action. Details of the scapulas, spine, atlas, tongue, eyes, and floor support are investigated. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
A Spiral of Length and Power (Patrons) »
Back-lying, one knee bent, one foot standing, learning to lift that hip and spiral out of the ground into diagonal lengthening. Clarify your hip joints and create lightness, power, and eventually the seeds of explosive athletic action as you learn to distribute muscle tone proportionately throughout your whole self. Then enjoy an unusual inchworm-like experiment. Framed by brief explorations in standing.
As Light as a Finger: Games of Weightlessness (Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by brief standing experiments. Create a lighter sense of your body and mind in the field of gravity by using a playful neurological analogy. Explore how your hips, feet, and head can become as light as a finger when you learn to lift them with evenly distributed muscle tone throughout your body. Begins with a 3-minute talk about work, effort, "weightless" movement, and proportional tone.
Hip and Shoulder Diagonals for Better Walking (Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by brief standing and walking explorations. Develop the diagonal connections across your torso and limbs through gentle movements and creative imagery. Expand the scope of your learning through references to the pelvic floor, breathing with length, and the freedom of your head.
Sliding the Sternum, Integrating the Neck, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons) »
Side-lying. Gentle movements of lifting the head and looking toward the floor are used to integrate the eyes, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, and pelvis in increasingly sophisticated movements. Later, learn to differentiate the sternum and soften the chest further by maneuvering your sternum and ribs with your fingers.
Drifting the Knees and Nose for Simpler Turns and Twists (Patrons) »
Back-lying, knees bent. Drifting the knees to ease the spine and clarify its turning and twisting functions, with gentle integration of the shoulders and head. This quiet, deceptively simple lesson is a powerful reorganizer for your nervous system, adding grace and wholeness to all your movements. Typically also eases the neck, chest, lower back, hips, and the anxiety pattern.
Dynamic Balance: Coordinates of the Head (Patrons) »
Back, front, and side-lying, framed by explorations of dynamic balance in standing. Soften your chest, integrate your head, spine, and pelvis, and improve your balance, posture, and breathing by learning to circle your head in your hands in many lying down configurations.
Breathing with Floating Ribs and Sternum (49 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by brief standing explorations. Encounter, expand, and enjoy the three dimensional movements of your floating ribs, sternum, and the rest of your chest in this detailed investigation of your profoundly adaptable breath. Discover how changes to breathing and internal spaces alter your perception of yourself and your role in the world.
Whole Body Arms (Patrons) »
Side-lying. Learn to reach, roll, twist, and circle your arms with better whole body support from your shoulders, chest, and all the rest. Framed by standing explorations designed to demonstrate how the freedom of the neck, shoulders, chest, and pelvis benefits balance.
Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 1 (Patrons) »
In this workshop Nick shares practical tips, tools, and Feldenkrais lessons to improve your balance. He dispels common misunderstandings and highlights principles of physics and learning you can sense and practice on your own.
Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 2 (Patrons) »
In this workshop Nick shares practical tips, tools, and Feldenkrais lessons to improve your balance. He dispels common misunderstandings and highlights principles of physics and learning you can sense and practice on your own. Part one of the workshop is here.
The Tongue and the Spine (Patrons) »
Chair-seated and back-lying. Dive deeper into the many connections between the eyes, jaw, tongue, neck, shoulders, spine, and breath by reviewing and expanding ATM techniques from our previous jaw lessons. See the Context notes for recommended study order for these lessons.
Softening the Jaw, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons) »
Back-lying and side-lying. Develops the simplest jaw movements we've explored by linking them to movements of the spine and shoulders, and to softening and turning the torso. Can be very helpful for TMJ difficulties. See the Context notes for recommended study order for our jaw lessons.
“Beard Pull” Pecking, with Chanukia (Patrons) »
Back-lying, exploring pecking movements to create ease, clarity, and better carriage of the head, neck, shoulders, and spine. Uses the playful image of having a chin beard that an imaginary friend gently pulls toward the ceiling. Movements from the Chanukia lesson are used to develop possibilities. A link to that prerequisite lesson is in the Comfort & Configuration tab.
Arms Like a Skeleton, Integrating the Neck, Jaw, and Eyes (Patrons) »
Back-lying. Designed to help you find new options for ease in your neck, jaw, and eyes in relationship to movements of your shoulders and chest. Great for reducing tension and improving posture, particularly carriage of the head, neck, and shoulders.
Getting Free with a Bell Hand (Patrons) »
Mostly in a "three-quarters prone" position (halfway between side-lying and front-lying). Learn to use a gently pulsing "bell hand" to calm and regulate your nervous system, and to help you organize larger, more demanding movements with greater freedom and skill. See the lesson notes for a recommended prerequisite lesson.
Making Peace: Smooth Breath, Skillful Bias, Supple Chest (Patrons) »
Back-lying. Recorded in a "Rest and Recharge" themed class, this workshop-style lesson weaves together three related ATM explorations designed to calm and restore your nervous system. Balance your breath, find and enjoy your primary spinal bias, and then unlock more suppleness in your ribs and shoulders by gently moving within unusual constraints.
Freeing the Shoulders by Rolling the Arms (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, arms in a "letter T" position. Improving the function and mobility of the shoulders by connecting them more skillfully with the chest, spine, and head. Particular attention is given to the neck and to the spine between the shoulder blades.
Finding Sensations of Not Shortening (Patrons) »
Side-lying and front-lying with optional rolling, framed by brief standing explorations. Movement riddles for the chest, shoulders, neck, spine, and legs are presented in a focused context of lengthening. Uses sensory images of the five cardinal lines of the body, breathing, organizing the “core,” and expanding into the support surface to create opportunities to sense and inhibit unnecessary shortening. Begins with a summary of what we're exploring.
Improving Rotation, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often using the self-hug configuration, as well as front-lying. Learning to better sense, differentiate, and skillfully integrate turning your head, neck, shoulders, chest, spine, and pelvis. Best for experienced Felden-fans, see the Context tab for links to recommended prerequisite lessons.
Self-Hug, Embracing Our Differences (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Learning to gently roll the head, shoulders, and chest from side-to-side while skillfully differentiating other parts of the body, especially the legs and pelvis. Explore how we constantly reconfigure our internal organization in order to keep a part of our body unmoving in relationship to the outside world. NOTE: helpful photos in the Comfort & Configuration tab.
A Dynamic “Core” Lengthens the Spine (Patrons) »
(Advanced lesson. Be sure to read Comfort & Configuration notes) Back-lying, often knees bent. Using a reference image of the five lines of the body, movements of folding the legs create gentle challenges to awareness and self-regulation as you first let the pelvis move freely, then later dynamically stabilize it. While the "core" reckons with the weight of the legs, you'll explore how to maintain simplicity and length in the spine, easy fullness of breathing, and efficiency of effort.
Dynamic Balance: Stability Through Suppleness (Patrons) »
Framed by brief explorations in standing, this mostly side-lying lesson presents gently de-stabilizing movements of the head and legs to help you explore and improve your balance in a supple, whole-self way.
One Bell Hand / Two Bell Hands…and Feet (31m + 29m, Patrons) »
Named after the shape the hand makes, this pair of half-hour lessons is designed to be completed together the first time through. Reset your nervous system and learn to relate the activity and skillfulness of your hands with your whole self.
Rib Basket, Shoulder Cloak (Patrons) »
Framed by brief standing explorations of breathing and walking, this mostly back-lying lesson is designed to improve differentiation of the ribs and shoulders, and to improve their integration with functional movements of the arms, legs, hips, spine, and head. Uses a fascinating constraint of precisely relating the scapulas to the plane of the floor.
Sensing Stability: The Sacral Clock (Patrons) »
Framed with explorations of dynamic stability in standing, this back-lying lesson is a play on Moshe Feldenkrais' most famous image. Small movements in an unusual configuration of the legs create a precise, gentle challenge designed to promote new awareness and choices for our hip joints, pelvis, and lower back (along with everything else).
Side-Bending with Listening Hands, Connecting Legs and Head (Patrons) »
Side-lying. Using your own soft, listening hands to help integrate your head, hips, and legs with an increased awareness and suppleness of your ribs.
The Liminal Lesson: Transitions Between Action and Rest (Patrons) »
Mostly side-lying. Improving quality of rest and efficiency of action by clarifying the transitions between them. Get to know the actual sensations and somatic processes of preparing for action and transitioning to rest. Explored in a lesson structure designed to improve uprightness and gait.
Free While Constrained: Side-Bent, Stepping Down (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, some front-lying. Enjoy the rich internal reconfigurations and freedoms that are prompted as you learn how to use your legs and pelvis with ease while your head, spine, ribs, and shoulders are constrained in a gentle side-bent position. Themes of skeletal support and sensing your primary spinal bias are also touched on. The bias is discussed briefly after the lesson.
Free While Constrained: Quiet Head, Twisting Spine (Patrons) »
Back-lying. In this lesson you'll explore your options for moving freely while your head is constrained under the gentle weight of your hands. Among other benefits, it's designed to improve everyday movements of the carriage of the head, as well as the coordination and ease of our whole self while we orient our head one way and move our bodies another.
Arms Like a Skeleton, Freeing the Shoulders and Neck (Patrons) »
Back-lying, side-lying, transitioning. This detailed exploration starts simply then dives deep into variations designed to help you get to know your scapulas and improve their relationship with your spine, chest, pelvis, neck, and head.
Dynamic Diagonal Lengthening (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, small side-to-side rolls, often one hand connected to the opposite knee. This lesson uses subtle weight-shifting to help you effortlessly lengthen your spine and limbs, free your ribs, and improve diagonal relationships among the five lines of the body.
Side-lying Twist, and Rolling Recap (Patrons) »
Back-lying, side-lying, transitioning, and eventually circling the arm. Recorded as the third in a series (see the Related Lessons tab). With plenty of room for improvisation, this lesson builds on recent classes and discussions with students about encountering difficulty in Feldenkrais study. Starts and ends with three-minute talks.
Rolling and Hips Like a Baby (Patrons) »
Back-lying. Free your hips, shoulders, chest, and back as you explore rolling and weight shifting. Designed to help you add suppleness to your movements, expand your mental image of rolling in internal and external ways, and peek into the developmental neurological value of rolling and the substantial improvements available to most adults.
Freeing the Neck with Crawling and Rolling (Patrons) »
Front-lying, back-lying, transitioning. Improving integration of the head, neck, shoulders, and chest through explorations of crawling movements and improvisations toward rolling.
Buttocks Organizing the Spine (Patrons) »
Mostly front-lying. Exploring and integrating contractions of the buttocks with different movements and configurations of the axis (pelvis, spine, and head).
Moving Your Head and Legs Backward (Patrons) »
Mostly front-lying, frequently one knee pulled up your mat. A sophisticated exploration of primary arching organizations in combination with twisting and pushing off the ground, from head to toes. Begins with a brief "ATM rules" reminder about taking care of yourself in challenging lessons. The lesson begins in back-lying at around the three-minute mark.
Freeing Your Breath and Spine: the full-length edit (Patrons) »
Various positions, first half back-lying. Experiments with the verticality and 360 possibilities of the breath mechanism, leading it toward greater freedom and adaptability. Along the way, imaging and prompting a more supple, supportive spine. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.” TIMESTAMPS: • 0:00 Lesson: Freeing Your Breath and Spine • 37:00 Discussion: effects of coughing, and the problem with breathing any "right" way • 39:00 Additional ATM explorations
Reaching, Twisting, and Gazing Smoothly (Patrons) »
Side-lying, learning to reach, turn, twist, and roll effortlessly by improving integration of the rotation functions of the axis (head, spine, and pelvis) with movements of the hands, arms, shoulders, chest, breath...and eyes! The Curiosities tab has notes from an introductory discussion with the students before this lesson was recorded.
Effortless Arms and Shoulders (Patrons) »
Side-lying, arm extended toward the ceiling. Sensing, organizing, and expanding effortless movements of the arm and shoulder by integrating them with the whole self, with particular attention to imagery of lengthening the torso. Learning to sense the gravitational plumb line and its neuromusculoskeletal relationship with ease and effort. The recording picks up during a brief discussion. Lesson begins around 2:00.
Advanced Folding (Patrons) »
Back-lying, knees bent, drawing the head, elbows, and knees toward each other in different combinations, followed by more advanced variations. Improve the folding and unfolding of the body through refining coordination of the flexor muscles with the simultaneously lengthening extensors. Includes detailed work with the hips and eventually lengthening the hamstrings while flexing elsewhere. (A prerequisite lesson may be recommended; see Comfort & Configuration in the lesson notes.)
Stepping Down, with a Bias (Patrons) »
This mostly side-lying lesson explores the relationship of our natural spinal bias with our uprightness. It's designed to help us clarify and harness the fine movements and wonderful sensitivity and power available throughout our spine as we step down. "Stepping down" is how we organize ourselves to deliver force through our legs as we stand, balance, walk, and move in all upright activities.
Walking with Your Sternum (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often knees bent. Learning how preparatory movements for taking a step involve the whole self, by sensing and exploring movements of the sternum, both as a reference and a challenge to expand the self-image of walking. Lengthening and sweeping the arms in many directions encourages suppleness of the chest and awareness of the sternum, and helps integrate them with movements of the pelvis, hips, and walking.
Nodding into Lengthening the Heels (Patrons) »
Back-lying, often one or both knees bent, exploring relationships of "nodding" parts of ourselves in the sagittal (up/down) plane, including head, pelvis, one foot, and two feet, to better organize the full unfolding of the legs and send our heels into the world, a function essential for clear skeletal support while standing or walking.
Connecting the Legs and Chest (Patrons) »
Mostly side-lying, exploring relationships of the head, spine, chest, and pelvis with a riddle: how do we actually lengthen a leg? Designed to bring awareness and improvement to an action we need for every step we take in the world, this lesson uses breath, foundation forces, and "hinging" at the feet and knees to connect our image of leg lengthening with our whole self, especially the chest.
Basic Arching and Folding (Patrons) »
Front-lying, improving the organization of the extensor muscles of the back and distributing their efforts. Learning to lift the head and one arm – and later, one leg – away from the ground together. Integrating the eyes with these arching movements. Alternates with back-lying, knees bent, feet standing, basic folding (flexion) movements, as the brain is always coordinating the major flexors and extensors of the body with each other.
Folding, Arching, and Rolling (Patrons) »
Mostly side-lying. Refining our awareness and skill for the many ways we can gather the front of the body together (folding) and also lengthen it (arching), including very fine work with the spine, sternum (breastbone), and shoulders. Integration of breathing with these ideas. Experiments at the end of the lesson turn these primary functions into rolling.
Patrons Monthly Short Lessons
Breathing for Liftoff (35m + 25m, Patrons) »
This pair of short lessons is designed to be completed together the first time, or with a short break between them.
Integrating the Feet, Torso, Head, and Breath: Connecting to the Earth (44 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, framed by standing. Refine your connection with the ground and use it to improve your posture, breathing, and action. Lengthen your feet and heels, differentiate your toes and ankles, and integrate your feet with your hips, diaphragm, spine, ribs, shoulders, head, and eyes. This lesson points at powerful primitive biological organizations of flexion, extension, and uprightness.
Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 1 (35 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying. Refine your pelvic floor sensitivity, awareness, and control by learning how distinct, gentle contractions of the front and back of the pelvic floor are neurologically connected to movements of the pelvis, spine, hands, and lips. A brief chair-seated beginning helps you identify the four skeletal landmarks of the diamond-shaped pelvic floor.
Differentiating the Pelvic Floor Part 2 (25 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, then chair-seated. Refine your pelvic floor sensitivity, awareness, and control by learning how the two sides of the pelvic floor can be differentiated. Link gentle contractions to side-bending movements of the legs, pelvis, spine, and head. Later, generate unusual sensory distinctions by sitting and moving on a towel "saddle" to further clarify the pelvic floor. Part 1 is a prerequisite for this lesson.
Pelvic Floor Connections (37 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying. Discover the "non-Kegel"! Gentle, gradual contractions and releases of the pelvic floor – connected with the breath, belly, back, and various ways of tipping the pelvis and knees – help you find more detailed awareness and control.
Two Sitbones, Two Sides of the Pelvic Floor (31 min, Patrons) »
Chair-seated. Get to know your sitbones (illustration in the Curiosities tab), then sense that you have two diaphragms, and discover more awareness and control of your pelvic floor through gentle weight shifting experiments.
Calming the Nervous System, Integrating the Hands and Eyes (37m, Patrons) »
Back-lying, using a "bell hand" movement to differentiate and integrate the hands, eyes, and breath. This lesson is a powerful tool for self-regulation and reorganization, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and shifting us away from "fight or flight" and toward "rest and digest". Begins with a 2-minute introduction to this lesson’s particular bell hand movement (see photos below the lesson notes).
The Power of One Foot (22 or 36 min, Patrons) »
A "short version" stopping point is noted in the middle. Back-lying, one knee bent, framed with brief walking explorations. This potently asymmetrical lesson dives deeply into the common ATM lesson ingredient of pushing one foot into the floor. Intended to inspire improvisation after studying, this lesson asks: can you learn how to improve how you’re feeling and functioning even with short or very simple ATM explorations? How about one-sided, or self-led?
Side Clock: Hips (42m, Patrons) »
Side-lying. Uses the image of a clock face on your mat to explore precise movement coordination, developing freedom and skill in the hips, lower back, chest, and more, with nudges toward improvisation. A companion lesson to "Side Clock: Shoulders (and Intro to Hip)". It's recommended to enjoy that lesson first, then experiment with your own improvisations as recommended, THEN try this lesson – though this lesson can be studied on its own.
Holding Your Breath, in Awareness (15 or 39 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying and some front-lying. Relaxing the nervous system by exhaling through consonants, then bringing awareness to what actually happens when we hold and release the breath, so we can become freer and more spontaneously adaptive to life's different breathing situations. The first 15 minutes can be a standalone lesson.
The One Shoulder Lesson (19 min, Patrons) »
Side-lying. A brief, asymmetrical exploration of movements of one arm and shoulder in relationship with the whole self, intended to leave you curious about and learning from the differences created between the two sides of your body.
Refining the Shoulders and Hips (45 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, sometimes knees bent. Explore small, precise movements of the shoulders and hips, and the fine relationships between them, with an intention toward reducing unnecessary efforts in the torso and improving walking.
Lifting and Pressing (38 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, some front-lying. Relating to the support surface with simple, potent movements designed to promote whole-self awareness and distributed, lengthening efforts as we physically connect to our world.
Your Naturally Asymmetrical Spine (35 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, learning to sense the relationship of movements of the arms in the plane of the floor with movements along the side aspects of the spine, and eventually to initiate them from there. Discover essential differences between one side of the spine and the other (which I call the primary spinal bias), and how those differences are part of every action we take.
Easing the Jaw and Neck: the short edit (28 min, Patrons) »
Back-lying, briefly framed by seated explorations. Exploring and refining basic movements of the jaw, and integrating them with movements of the head and neck. This lesson is often helpful for reducing many types of jaw-related tension and discomfort, including some kinds of headaches, TMJ pain (temporomandibular joint), and discomfort and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and spine. Prerequisites! See the lesson notes.
Lengthening the Arms, Freeing the Scapulas (33m, Patrons) »
Back-lying, knees bent, arms often resting loosely upwards on the floor, and in self-hug position at other times. Lengthening the arms, differentiating the head, and expanding the mobility and self-image of the shoulder blades (scapulas).
Finding and Using Your Spinal Bias to Step Down (33 min, Patrons) »
Framed by brief explorations in standing, this mostly side-lying lesson helps you discover your primary spinal bias. You’ll explore how a refined awareness and conscious use of your spine’s natural bias can improve how you send your foot out into the world in all upright activities.
Supple Ankles, Shifting Pelvis (32 min, Patrons) »
Framed by explorations in standing, this mostly back-lying lesson explores how improvements in the sensitivity and function of the ankles and feet relate to movements of shifting and turning the hip joints, pelvis, spine, and chest.
Lessons from Awareness Through Movement
What Is Good Posture? (Patrons) »
Standing, chair-seated, and transitioning between. Experience for yourself Moshe Feldenkrais's three-part answer to his lesson title: 1) Good posture is synonymous with the greatest potential for action. 2) Whether we're standing, sitting, or anywhere in between, in good posture our bones (not our muscles) must continuously counteract gravity, leaving our musculature free for action. 3) Posture improves spontaneously when we eliminate superfluous efforts in the sit-stand-sit transition, as we become more sensitive to the physics and neurology of that function. A 5-minute talk begins the recording. Demonstrations and principles are in the Clarifications and Curiosities tabs.
Talk: What Action Is Good? »
This is the only one of the 12 lessons in Moshe Feldenkrais’s seminal book Awareness Through Movement that's a lecture, not a movement lesson. As Nick summarizes and explains it, you’ll learn about continual refinement, “reversible” action, finding ease in strenuous actions, sensing skeletal mechanics and shearing forces, proportional use of musculature, the effects of self-limiting labels, and what Nick calls the “positive snowball effect” of longterm Feldenkrais study.
Some Fundamental Properties of Movement (Patrons) »
Lying on the back and later on the front with the limbs in a large letter X shape, learning to lengthen and lift the limbs by organizing from the torso, discovering a pressing foundation, and inhibiting unnecessary shortening and tightening responses related to anticipated difficulty.
Differentiation of Parts and Functions in Breathing (Patrons) »
Various positions, about half back-lying. Experiments designed to help you differentiate the various mechanisms of breathing, and to learn a fuller, more adaptable use of the diaphragm and ALL the ribs and surfaces of the torso. Uses what the Feldenkrais community calls “paradoxical breathing.”
Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors (Patrons) »
Lying on the back, knees bent, one or both feet standing, variations on tilting crossed legs and "triangle" arms/shoulders in order to twist and untwist the torso, learning more awareness, control, and coordination of the major flexors (folding muscles) and extensors (arching muscles).
Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of an Imaginary Clock (Patrons) »
Lying on the back, mostly knees bent, feet standing, using the image of a clock painted on the back of the pelvis as a guide for building awareness and refining control of the pelvis, and relating it to movements of the head.
The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature (Patrons) »
Lying on the belly, knees bent, soles of feet oriented toward the ceiling, learning to tilt the feet to the side in order to integrate the pelvis, the length of the spine, and the ribs and shoulders with various configurations of the head and neck. Also, late in the lesson, discovering the potency of imagined movements.
Perfecting the Self-Image (Patrons) »
Seated, back-lying, and eventually transitioning between, all while holding one foot in two hands. This lesson clarifies how our attention and sensory motor imagination can be consciously harnessed to improve our self-image, options, and behavior, since – as Moshe writes – "We act in accordance with our self-image."
Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated Action (Patrons) »
Floor-seated, with back-lying rests. Guided asymmetrical attention and imagination tasks are applied to symmetrical movements, powerfully demonstrating your nervous system's ability to change and improve your body, movement, and awareness based simply on what you pay attention to. See the Curiosities tab for a post-lesson discussion.
The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Movement of the Body (Patrons) »
Standing, then mostly side-sitting on the floor, with rests lying on the back. Discovering how improving the smooth tracking of the eyes in various turning motions can improve the whole self.
“Generalize Your Skills” (Patrons) »
Front-lying. Become more skillful in everyday and high-performance actions by expanding your perception of the diagonals of the back of your body, with the help of an imaginary ball gradually rolling over you. Begins with a 5-minute talk about principles at work in this lesson.
Thinking and Breathing (Patrons) »
Back-lying and seated, improving awareness and use of the whole breathing apparatus by directing attention to specific anatomy while experimenting with "stepped" breathing and different body configurations. Starts with an essential anatomy lesson that cultivates concepts and imagery used throughout the ATM lesson. Illustrations are below the lesson notes.
Legacy and Alternate Lessons
Improving Pelvic Floor Control and Ease (Patrons) »
Mostly back-lying, framed by chair-seated. Begins with identifying the four skeletal landmarks of the diamond-shaped pelvic floor. Discover more pelvic floor awareness, control, and ease by learning how contractions of the anus, urethra, and other parts of pelvic floor are connected to movements of the pelvis, spine, and legs. May be very helpful if you have concerns about continence, digestion and elimination, or sexual function, and also typically benefits breath, balance, and walking.
Workshop: Stretch Without Strain (Patrons) »
This full workshop recording presents two short talks and two lessons on the theme of Stretch without Strain. Patrons can listen to the full, uninterrupted workshop on this page. All users can access the separate, edited tracks in our Getting Oriented collection.
Workshop: Access Your Axis (Patrons) »
This full workshop recording presents two short talks and two related lessons on the theme of Access Your Axis. Patrons can listen to the full, uninterrupted workshop on this page. All users can access the separate, edited tracks in our Getting Oriented collection.
Workshop: TCF 10 Year Celebration (Patrons) »
A public workshop celebrating 10 years of Nick's Twin Cities Feldenkrais classes at the St. Paul JCC, suitable for newcomers and long-timers alike. The first of the three lesson recordings is only available here.
Workshop: Spinal Support and a Powerful Pelvis (Patrons) »
This full workshop recording presents two short talks and two lessons on the theme of Stretch without Strain. Patrons can listen to the full, uninterrupted workshop on this page. All users can access the separate, edited tracks in our Getting Oriented collection.
Folding, Foundation, and Length (Patrons) »
Lying on the back, holding the head and knees in different combinations, improving the forward folding of the body through building awareness of the use of the ground (foundation) and aspects of lengthening. Relating the ankles, lower back, and head.
Periscope 2 (Patrons) »
Side-lying, using the arm like a periscope to improve the use of the shoulder, and learn about and integrate the function of the whole shoulder structure with the neck, chest, spine, pelvis, and legs. Also develops relationships with the eyes.
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I love this new search. The choices of duration, challenge, position enable me to specify-for myself-what I want to do with myself today.
Hi Nick,
Having done a search, is it possible to “save” the result?
We haven’t considered that feature, but we do have something coming out for all our Members and Patrons very soon that should help: the ability to mark lessons as “saved” or “favorites”. [UPDATE: Done! Check out My Journey.]