Customer Reviews

Awareness Through Movement: Easy-to-Do Health Exercises to Improve Your Posture, Vision, Imagination, and Personal Awareness

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first time I read this book, it was such a daunting task I put down and saved it for a time when my intelligence was ready to 'understand' the instructions. If you're the equivilent of a college freshman in the science of movement this book will probably be something you want to save for a more advanced place in your progression. Or read it and get what you can...planning to come back to it over and over. If I hadn't seen and tried the method via videotapes and then in an actual seminar I probably wouldn't have given the book a chance at all.

That choice, however, would have been a huge mistake.

This book offers a series of "lessons" that take the human body through movements most children could do easily but had been pushed out of my movement repertoire. These are also movements most people, including my extremely strong and lean 30 year old daughter(who's a personal trainer I might add), cannot do with ease. The movement patterns provided in the book help me rollerblade without fear (well, a reasonable level of fear!) and increase the likelihood that I'll still be able to chase men when I'm old enough to know better but still too young--what's 95 anyway?-- to care. On a more serious side these strengths will be absolutely crucial if we want to be able to get into a shower or go to the restroom alone when we get older.

I've been a runner and fitness specialist for a LONG time and have worked from just about every angle in the fitness field that exists, from aerobic instruction to power lifting to yoga and the Awareness Through Movement theory was alien to anything I'd learned in the traditional "western" pursuit of fitness.

Instruction like this was not in any of my personal training courses. Though certified in anatomy and strength training for several years, this just didn't even appear on my fitness 'radar'. I wasn't used to working that hard for information. I wanted cut and dried instructions with pictures to boot. It was normal to use traditional exercise methods because they aren't very complex, are easy to teach and mistakes are fairly easy to see and correct.

Books that instruct bench presses, abdominal crunches, and squats also are easy to read and follow; unfortunately they miss the subtlties necessary to truly powerful human movement. No good athlete depends on exercises like those alone. That's where this book has helped. It has required some intense think and move sessions but all these movement lessons yield surprising results if you have the patience to stick with them. One note: you must have the patience of a baby learning to walk.

I read Feldenkrais' other books which actually gave Awareness Through Movement context and made it easier with which to work . Feldenkrais was a judo master as well as one of the earliest developers of cybernetic science and all of this shows in his book but it also means the book isn't light reading. Learning to do the method from written text will be as difficult as learning the basics of one of the martial arts.

I agree that the photos of wooden models are difficult to use, front and back are almost impossible to discern (I did some creative artwork..noses, ears, etc. once I figured out where they needed to be) and might make it difficult to understand the movement clearly. There is also no index or reference table which is a little frustrating at times.
Despite these drawbacks I wouldn't give the book to a family member unless I knew a replacement would be easy to find!

Feldenkrais was one of the century's great geniuses. Originally recognized for his nuclear physics research and for his introduction of Judo to Europe in the 30s, he developed the gentle Feldenkrais Method during the second World War in respose to his own knee problems. In Awareness Through Movement, Feldenkrais gives you a wonderful introduction to the group part of his method--Awareness Through Movement. The processes are gentle, painless and easy. The best way to use the exercises in this book is to get yourself a cassette player and to then read the instructions aloud into the cassette. Then rewind the cassette, lie down on your back, hit play and be amazed as that magnificent voice on the cassette recording shows your body how to improve more quickly than you've ever believed possible.

Moshe Feldenkrais, renaissance man, scientist, educator, wrote this book regretably in a manner more suitable for his science students. However, to be able to profit the most from these 10 fundamental Awareness Through Movement lessons is to read them out loud and transfer them to an audio-tape while your favourite relaxing music is playing in the background. Then follow these instructions - in your own voice - while being gentle with your body. Be ready to switch off your recorder after each part of an exercise and relax for 18 breaths (= 1 minute)-- or better take consideration of this fact when originally dictating the lessons to your recorder. Permit yourself to fall asleep if you feel you need to do so. Remember that your neurological system needs to be trained to accept these deeply regenerative movements and it may take some time until you feel comfortable moving in a slow and fluid manner. Gábor, Feldenkrais Movement Educator.

Contrary to the review by Mr. Deveno, this book was published during Moshe Feldenkrais' lifetime (he died in 1984) and contains the 10 lessons he felt most important to put in a book for the public. The book is the most succinct and useful of all his books in describing the background, context and application of his remarkable method for improving human functioning through exploring our use of attention to how we move. Doing the Awareness Through Movement® lessons in the book will provide a fist hand experience of the work and may lead readers to seek a teacher of the method in their area. If you can't find a practitioner, this book might be the next best thing.

i have been interested in learning about the feldenkrais method for some time. after seeing all the five star reviews for this book i thought that it would be a great introduction to the method. boy was i wrong. this is NOT a book for people who have very little or no knowledge of the feldenkrais method. i found it to be complex, technical, wordy, and in many cases more complicated than it needed to be. there are almost no pictures accompaning the text, and the few pictures that exist are of wooden manequins. don't be fooled by the glowing reviews written by people are who are practicioners of the method. if you are like me and just want a book to introduce you to the concepts then this is not the book.

This plain little book is full of a beautiful philosophy, whereby to know ourselves, our philosophy and approach to life, all we need to do is look at our body and how it moves. The exercises are extremely gentle but when you look in the mirror afterwards, you look calmer, softer, eyes open wider. Reading this book helped expand my understanding of the concept of our actions (down to how we pick up the paper) being WHAT we are, showing WHO we are, without needing further interpretation. I purchased the book because I was impressed with the results I'd seen in others, and I haven't been disappointed.

I would like to explain both the good reviews and the bad here. I have been interested in Feldenkrais for a few years but have no commercial interest in it. I am not a teacher or a practitioner. (But you can do internet search for a list of answers to FAQs that I have written on my webpage.)

I think the Feldenkrais method is a really interesting way to improve oneself. It challenges our assumptions about self-improvement, physical conditioning etc. and can cure many physical problems. This book is written by Moshe Feldenkrais, and is the most accessible of his books. Even so it is wordy in many places and mysteriously terse in others.

But even if it were perfectly written, I could not recommend this book as an introduction to the method. The only suitable introduction is a few one-on-one lessons from a good practitioner (see Feldenkrais dot com for a list of such people in your area ---unfortunately there arent enough practitioners around). The method is too counterintuitive to learn from a book. The bad news: one on one lessons costs serious money. Even a few lessons will set you back several hundred dollars, and if you have any kind of serious "trouble" you may need 5-10 lessons. Also most insurances wont cover it. I happen to think that the cost is well worth it.

Once you have had a few lessons there are many ways to continue your learning. (The method is all about self-awareness and hence lends itself well to self-study, provided you have occasional access to a good teacher.) Then books like this, and recorded lessons (called ATMs) are useful.

I hope this review was useful. If you start reading this book I suggest skipping the introductory 30-40 pages and start reading onwards from where Moshe starts describing the exercises. His long paragraphs that crop up in the midst of the "exercises" provide enough information about the method. Several reviewers have commented that this insertion of long paragraphs in the midst of the exercise description is pretty weird. The explanation is that during a live session these paragraphs would serve as something to listen to while you are resting. (The method encourages slow movements and frequent rests.)

This book was published after Moshe Feldrenkrais' death and is essentially a compilation of select exercises from different seminars that Moshe held over a long period of years. As a general presentation of Moshe's life-work this is not the best text ... when I was new to Awareness Through Movement I was frustrated after reading this book because I had so many unanswered questions about what each individual exercise was designed to lead me to see. But now adays there a number of good general books out there ( "Relaxercise" or Hanna's "Somatics" ). And after working through what they offer you'll appreciate the real point of this book which provides exercises that can deepen your insight into areas that you've already begun to touch

First, a disclaimer: I am not a Feldekrais advocate; I am a cynic. I have read this book-and no other books by MF. I am writing for you-the reader-as well as for me. About one year ago, after being in what I thought was terrific shape-weight, musculature, sleep, energy-I felt a spasm. I first thought it would just go away as most such stiff necks and muscle strains I have had. Not so. In the past year I have tried all my "old" methods to return to "normal" with no success. These included aerobic exercise, including simple daily walks of a about ˝ hour as well as those I previously thought I had eschewed forever: muscle relaxing pills, tranquilizer, and a determination to get about my life in spite of the pain. Real crap.

So, what is my take on MF? One reviewer had it right about the wooden dummy pictures. Whoever photographed them could have done a better job-the contrast makes it difficult to determine where all the parts are supposed to be. Reading about exercises is akin to reading mathematics formulas. MF's paragraph structure within the lesson description renders some of it difficult to follow. Other reviewers' suggestion that one can tape record the lesson instructions leaves me wondering whether someone other than a vendor would suggest such an activity. I can imagine spending 40 to 50 hours recording the instructions.

What is intriguing-but not yet proven to me-is the theoretical basis of MF's writings. Some of what follows is paraphrase; other is inference. The title is succinct. He believes that we come to comprehend our "self image" (our imagination of our skeletal structure, musculature, body organs, and their movement capabilities) through a combination of muscle movement, nerve stimulation, and awareness-read imagination. Further, as we grow, we make mistakes, stress muscles (sound familiar?) and habitualize our deformities. His solution is to reassert our ability to be aware of bodies, this through movements.

I would stress, as he does, that this is not simple. I can imagine MF instructors making a living from this method annuity. But then, I cannot imagine any endeavor worth pursuing that does not require time-consuming mastery. Here are MF's words, "This way is hard and complicated, but for every person who feels the need for change and improvement it is within the limits of practical possibility, bearing in mind that several things must be clearly understood to make the process, the acquisition of a new set of responses, not too difficult."

Last said, I am not adherent of the "long hard struggle" paradigm of life. I do believe our minds learn quickly, perhaps too quickly to give any credence to believers of "control." Clearly, MF has got something worth reading, thinking and doing here. I, for one, have decided to commit several months to learning the method and trying to rid myself of whatever bad habit caused my spasm. Is this a panacea? Get real. MF was bright, but did he have THE answer? If he was bright enough, he knew he did not and would never live so long to find out.

In sum, the book is plodding reading, gives some idea of what you will be facing, and posits more questions than answers. Good fortune.

I loved this book and have read the first part over and over again.

But if you want more than theory and want to learn some exercises of the method, this book might not be the best way to do it.

As another reviewer states, the text is complicated and the wooden mannequin photos a true mystery.

If you want to know more about the method, I would suggest buying this book for the theory and also get "Feldenkrais: The Busy Person's Guide to Easier Movement" by Frank Wildman for the exercises.