Awareness Through Movement

186 Pages·1980·3.144 MB·English

by  Moshe Feldenkrais

Learn how to make the most of your life,
as Yehudi Menuhin, Moshe Dayan and
Peter Brook have done.
Moshe Feldenkrais has designed his
unique and revolutionary technique for
developing the body and the mind so that
they work together in harmony.
He has taught his methods all over the world
with enormous success. They can be used
by anyone,of any age,alone or in agroup.
They are simple, painless, medically
approved, and will have astonishing effects
on your vitality, creativity and
approach to life within a very short time.
In a clear,simple and easy-to-follow text,
here are twelve key lessons selected
from those given at the Feldenkrais
Institute in America.
http://avaxho.me/blogs/ChrisRedfield
Penguin Handbooks
Awareness Through Movement
Moshe Feldenkrais has travelled around the world from
his native Israel to teach his techniques to individuals
and groups.
AWARENESS
THROUGH
MOVEMENT
Health Exercises
for Personal Growth
MOSHE FELDENKRAIS
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Ltd. Harmondsworth. Middlesex, England
Viking Penguin Inc.. 40 West 23rd Street. New York. New York 10010. U.S.A. Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria. Australia
Penguin Books Canada Limited, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada 13R IB4
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
First published in the U.S. A by Harper &' Row 1972
First published in Great Britain by Penguin Books 1980
Reprinted 1984, 1987
Copyright © Moshe Feldenkrais, 1972, 1977
All rights reserved
Reproduced, printed and bound in Great Britain by
Hazell Watson & Viney Limited,
Member of the BPCC Group,
Aylesbury, Bucks
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the
publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than
that in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
Contents
Part 1: Understanding While Doing
Preface 3
The Self-image 10
Strata of Development 25
Where to Begin and How 30
Structure and Function 40
The Direction of Progress 49
Part II: Doing to Understand: Twelve Practical Lessons
General Observations 57
Some Practical Hints 63
Lesson 1 What Is Good Posture? 66
Lesson 2 What Action Is Good? 85
Lesson 3 Some Fundamental Properties of Movement 91
Lesson 4 Differentiation of Parts and Functions
in Breathing 100
vi
Lesson 5 Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the
Extensors 109
Lesson 6 Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of
an Imaginary Clock 115
Lesson 7 The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the
Musculature 123
Lesson 8 Perfecting the Self-image 130
Lesson 9 Spatial Relationships as a Means to Coordinated
Action 139
Lesson 10 The Movement of the Eyes Organizes the Move-
ment of the Body 145
Lesson 11 Becoming Aware of Parts of Which We Are Not
Conscious with the Help of Those of Which We
Are Conscious 155
Lesson 12 Thinking and Breathing 162
Postscript 172
Illustrations follow page 108
PART ONE
Understanding
While Doing
Preface
We act in accordance with our self-image. This self-image—which,
in turn, governs our every act—is conditioned in varying degree by three
factors: heritage, education, and self-education.
The part that is inherited is the most immutable. The biological
endowment of the individual—the form and capacity of his nervous
system, his bone structure, muscles, tissue, glands, skin, senses—are all
determined by his physical heritage long before he has any established
identity. His self-image develops from his actions and reactions in the
normal course of experience.
Education determines one's language and establishes a pattern of
concepts and reactions common to a specific society. These concepts
and reactions will vary according to the environment into which a person
is born; they are not characteristic of mankind as a species, but only of
certain groups or individuals.
Education largely determines the direction of our self-education,
which is the most active element in our development and in more
frequent use socially than elements of biological origin. Our self-
education influences the manner in which external education is ac-
quired, as well as the selection of the material to be learned and the
rejection of that which we cannot assimilate. Education and self-educa-
3
4 AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT
tion occur intermittently. In the first weeks of an infant's life, education
is chiefly a matter of absorbing the environment, and self-education is
almost nonexistent; it consists only of refusal of, or resistance to, any-
thing that is organically alien and unacceptable to the infant's inherited
characteristics.
Self-education progresses as the infant organism grows and becomes
more stable. The child gradually develops individual characteristics; he
begins to choose among objects and actions in accordance with his own
nature. He no longer accepts everything that training tries to impose on
him. Imposed education and individual propensities together set the
trend for all our habitual behavior and actions.
Of the three active factors in the establishment of our self-image,
self-education alone is to some extent in our own hands. Our physical
inheritance comes to us unsolicited, education is forced upon us, and
even self-education is not entirely volitional in the early years; it is
decided by the relative strength of inherited personality, individual
characteristics, the effective working of the nervous system, and by the
severity and persistence of educational influences. Heritage makes each
one of us a unique individual in physical structure, appearance, and
actions. Education makes each of us a member of some definite human
society and seeks to make us as like every other member of that society
as possible. Society dictates our mode of dress, and thereby makes our
appearance similar to that of others. By giving us a language, it makes
us express ourselves in the same way as others. It instills a pattern of
behavior and values in us and sees to it that our self-education shall also
operate so as to make us wish to become like everyone else.
As a result, even self-education, which is the active force that makes
for individuality and extends inherited difference into the realm of
action, tends to a large extent to bring our behavior into line with that
of others. The essential flaw in education as we know it today is that it
is based on ancient and often primitive practices whose equalizing pur-
pose was neither conscious nor clear. This flaw has its advantage since,
having no defined purpose other than to mold individuals who will not
be social misfits, education does not always succeed entirely in suppress-