What Is Awareness in Feldenkrais? Why It Matters for Movement, Healing, and Wellbeing
Before You Read On, Try This
Close your eyes, take a breath, and ask yourself the following questions:
What will my next thought be?
What is my emotional state right now?
Can I name one physical sensation in my body right now?
What part of my body is moving right now?
Welcome back.
What did you notice? Could you sense your heartbeat? The passage of air in your nostrils or the rising and falling of your chest? Were you thinking about feeding the cat? A feeling of contentment or anxiety?
However you answered—congratulations. You’ve just taken the first step in understanding awareness. You don’t have to be good at it. The more often you do it, the clearer and more detailed your answers will become.
Awareness in Feldenkrais: Where It Begins
In a Feldenkrais lesson, it’s from this place of listening and attending to our thoughts, feelings, and sensations that we add movement instructions.
I believe that understanding awareness is fundamental—not only to grasping the Feldenkrais Method® but also to living a happy, balanced life with ease, comfort, and joy.
If you’re new to the method, you can start here: What is Feldenkrais?
A bold statement, I know. Hopefully, in this writing, I’ll make my case and you’ll understand why I am such an avid fan of training our awareness skills.
What Is Awareness in Feldenkrais?
In the Feldenkrais Method, awareness is the ability to notice movement, sensation, thought, and feeling in yourself—without judgment.
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais would be the first to say that the movements in his method are secondary to the process of awareness.
He named the group classes Awareness Through Movement®, making it clear that movement is the tool we use to learn how to become more aware.
How Increased Awareness Has Helped Me
For me, increased awareness has:
Helped heal injuries
Allowed me to move pain-free
Given me clarity of thought and confidence
Taught me self-discipline
Helped me understand joy and pleasure
Given me the ability to sense, adapt, and respond to my environment
More about my personal journey shortly.
The Power of Attention and Awareness
Have you ever watched Kill Bill? It’s a bit gory, but there’s a scene called “Wiggle Your Big Toe” that I often think about.
In that moment, the character uses intense focus and attention to reconnect with movement after paralysis.
I’m not suggesting that Feldenkrais lessons are about willing yourself out of paralysis. But they do involve guiding attention to specific parts of yourself—sometimes in unfamiliar or even confusing ways—in order to learn something new.
This kind of focused attention is exactly what Feldenkrais lessons develop—learning to direct awareness to specific parts of ourselves in order to create change.
I sometimes describe it to clients as “movement Sudoku.”
A Simple Awareness Exploration
Sit comfortably in a chair.
Bring your attention to the part of your spine between your shoulder blades. Can you sense that place—its shape, its position, its presence?
Now imagine gently moving that part of yourself backwards toward the chair or wall behind you.
As you do:
What happens to your shoulder blades?
Does your neck change?
Can you do it in a way that feels easy or even pleasurable?
Feldenkrais lessons are designed to challenge our ability to think, sense, move, and feel in multiple ways at once. This helps the brain become more adaptable in everyday life—whether that’s walking, climbing stairs, playing sports, or managing emotional situations.
These explorations refine not only how we move, but how we think and feel.
What Awareness Makes Possible
Like any skill, awareness improves with practice.
Over time, you may notice:
Improved focus
Greater ease in multitasking
More calm in emotionally complex situations
Less pain and more efficient movement
This is what makes the Feldenkrais Method so unique—it includes the whole person, not just the physical body.
My Personal Journey: Healing Through Awareness
For some people, reading is therapy. For others, it’s talking, art, or drama.
For me, it’s movement.
Taking time to lie or sit comfortably, guiding my attention through gentle movement, and noticing thoughts and sensations has been one of the most powerful ways I’ve found to regulate myself.
As a child, my nickname was “GO-GO,” so this kind of work suits my nature.
In 2015, I tore the major cartilage in my right knee while working as a dancer. At the same time, I went through a breakup, lost my job, and became homeless. I had hit rock bottom.
A surgeon told me I needed surgery. I was terrified, so I looked for alternatives.
That search led me to Thailand—and to the Feldenkrais Method.
At first, all I could feel was discomfort: swelling, stiffness, and pain. But through gentle lessons, I began to notice differences between my right and left sides.
My right side barely moved. My left side felt free.
Even more surprising, there were parts of my spine I couldn’t feel at all.
With this awareness, my teacher showed me how my injury had likely developed—not through one event, but through long-term patterns I had never noticed.
That realisation was humbling. But it was also empowering.
With time, patience, and gentle exploration, things began to change. I moved more easily. I felt more balanced. My confidence returned.
Eventually, I built strength again and returned to exercise.
When I went back to my surgeon six months later, he was stunned. He said if he hadn’t seen my scans, he wouldn’t have believed I’d had such an injury.
That experience changed everything for me.
Final Thoughts
Awareness is not something abstract—it is a practical skill.
You can develop it in small moments throughout your day:
How do I feel right now?
What am I sensing?
How am I moving?
Or you can explore it more deeply through a Feldenkrais lesson, or within practices like Pilates, yoga, or Tai Chi.
My biggest learning is this:
Movement alone isn’t enough.
Awareness of movement is what creates change.
This is why awareness sits at the heart of the Feldenkrais Method—not just as an idea, but as a practical way of improving how we move, feel, and live.