Why Awareness Through Movement?
“When you know what you’re doing, you can choose to do something else,” Moshe Feldenkrais famously said many times and in many ways. We develop patterns during our lifetime that define our movements from the smallest gesture to the largest full-bodied action. Every aspect of our lives—how we relate to stress, how we heal from trauma, how we feel pleasure and joy—is inflected by these patterns. This is good news, actually. Patterns are useful to us; in fact, we wouldn’t be able to function without them. But some can hold us back when we want to grow and learn.
When we practice Awareness Through Movement, we bring previously unknown habits into the light of day where we can get to know them better—which means we get to know ourselves better. What remains outside of our awareness is destined to be compulsively repeated. Once we can perceive that we are doing something a certain way, we have options to do it differently.
This all sounds very abstract, but in practice Awareness Through Movement is all about what is concrete. Sensation is the language of movement. During Awareness Through Movement we draw our attention to our bodily sensations and feel what is present for us in the moment of movement: pressures of the floor against your back as you roll, lengthening of skin and muscle as you reach an arm, spaciousness in your chest as you breath. Sensation is our only mechanism for reading our movements, and thus for truly judging what is good movement. By practicing Awareness Through Movement, we improve how we sense and we clarify what we sense. By choosing pleasant-feeling movement over strain, we bridge that daunting gap between compulsive habit and elegant, self-directed action.
For more information on Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, read this page, and browse through these articles.
About Online Feldenkrais Classes
- Online Feldenkrais classes continue in 2024 on Wednesdays or Sundays.
- All you need is an internet connection with a camera. (Use a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.)
- You don’t need to watch the screen! Feldenkrais classes are taught verbally, so your attention is on YOU.
- Never used Zoom? It’s best to download it ahead of time onto your device. This should take only a minute.
- Join us from anywhere in the world!
- In -person Feldenkrais classes are available on Sundays
Registration Options
Sundays 5:00-6:00 Pacific (with South Seattle Feldenkrais)
- Pay for 18 classes—you’re all set through January 5, 2025. $295
- Do one 6-week series at a time. Sep-Oct with Sheri Cohen; Oct-Nov with Mary Margaret Moore; Dec-Jan with Heather Emanuel. $108
- Drop-in to class for a single fee of $20
- These classes are also available in person! Yobe, 3063 Beacon Ave S., Seattle WA 98144
Wednesdays 5:30-615 pm Pacific (Sheri Cohen teaches all classes)
- Pay for 14 classes—you’re all set through December 2024. $240
Get access to audio recordings so you never miss a class.
Only want to work with the recordings? This option works for that, too. (Recommended only for experienced students.) - Drop-in to class for a single fee of $18
- These classes are online only
(Would you like to register for a series after it has begun, and receive recordings for your missed classes? You are welcome! You will not be able to register late for the series through the automated system. Please contact Sheri to get signed up.)
THERE’S MORE!
For more classes and special events, please see my Classes and Workshops page.