SPOTLIGHT | Discover the Feldenkrais Method - Awareness Through Movement Guided Practice with Nick Strauss-Klein

Experience the Feldenkrais Method directly in this Spotlight episode, and learn how this somatics practice can help you move through life with greater efficiency, enhance your thinking and problem solving abilities and support emotional regulation. Teacher Nick Strauss-Klein is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and founder of The Feldenkrais Project, a crowd-funded labor of love offering Feldenkrais study at no charge to thousands of monthly listeners all around the world.

This short Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lesson is intended to leave you experiencing the differences you'll create between the two sides of your body, which is a curious and powerful learning state that can improve both sides as your brain processes the changes. You can repeat the recording for the other side later if you wish, but it's not necessary!

Practice Guidelines: You'll need a carpeted floor or mat to lie on. The lesson begins and ends in supine, but most of it is explored in side-lying. You can pause the recording and roll to your back to rest any time. If necessary for comfort the lesson can be done in bed, but a firmer surface is better for being able to feel your body move in great detail. Once you’re lying on your chosen side you’re invited to rest your head on your arm or on a folded towel. A small firm pillow works too. It’s great to change your head support if you feel you need to as the lesson progresses.

Before you begin, please read these guidelines for other practical tips, and your responsibilities as a Feldenkrais student.

For more free lessons with Nick, check out The Feldenkrais Project. 

Enjoyed the episode?
Rate & review on Apple Podcasts
Follow on Spotify or YouTube  

Train in Energy Healing
Step into your mastery. Learn to facilitate deep, precise, and truly transformative healing experiences.
Registration now open - our next EHT-100 Training begins March 2026, live and online. Discover the training →

Find Your Energetic Blueprint
Not sure where to start? Take the quiz: What’s Your Field Type?
Reveal your strengths and learn how your energy field shapes your life and relationships.

💌  info@fielddynamicshealing.com | Website 

We’d love to hear your thoughts — reply or reach out anytime.

Thanks for tuning in and connecting to the field.

Transcript

Introduction & Guidance on Participation

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to the future of wellness, exploring self transformation and holistic healing to unlock your inner potential. Hosted by Christabel Armston and Keith Parker. Hello and welcome to this Spotlight episode. Today we are joined by Nick Strauss-Klein, founder of the Feldenkrais Project, a crowdfunded labor of love offering Feldenkrais study at no charge to thousands of monthly listeners all around the world. Thanks so much for joining us today, nick. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 0:41

So, firstly, if you could just share a brief introduction to what Feldenkrais is, it's a system of movement and awareness, education, self-education, really designed to reveal you to yourself in such a way that you can change habits, refine your behavior, improve yourself. We could call it practical neuroplasticity.

Speaker 1 1:04

Fantastic, and today we understand that you're generously sharing a guided session with us for our listeners to participate in. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about what the session is for and how people might benefit.

Speaker 2 1:17

So this is a Feldenkrais awareness through movement lesson that I call the one shoulder lesson. It's about 20 minutes long. It's done mostly in lying on your side, although you'll lie down on the floor at first. You can use a mat on the floor, you could lie in bed if you need to, and you'll want to have something for head support. A big bath towel is great because you can fold it to a precise size and it can still allow your head to move. Or maybe a firm pillow could work too.

Speaker 2 1:46

And the whole purpose of this particular lesson was to show you the power of easy movements and your own directed attention for changing your physical organization. And the way that we do that in this lesson is is kind of fun because we do it very particularly on one side of your body. Now that's perfectly safe. If you feel any concern, you could repeat the lesson and do it on the other side of your body. But what I recommend you do is, after you do the lesson, just be with the differences you feel between the two sides. Don't try to shake them off, even if the differences are kind of stark. So it gives you a chance to kind of simultaneously feel in your own self a feeling of before and after Feldenkrais study, and I think it's a fun way to get a sense of the kinds of changes that this work can evoke in you in only a short amount of time.

Speaker 1 2:34

Wonderful. Thank you, Nick, Looking forward to the session, which will be what round about 20 minutes today.

Speaker 2 2:40

That's right.

Speaker 1 2:41

All right, look forward to that and thank you once again for the offering. Please do check out the show notes to find more information on the Feldenkrais Project.

Speaker 2 2:50

Please lie down on your back If it's comfortable. Your legs are long and a little bit apart. If you need to, your knees can be bent and standing. Bent and standing. And in studies, when they've asked people what proportion of the back of their body is actually in contact with the ground, people have answered as little as 20%, as much as 80%. If you had to put a percentage on how much of the back of yourself is actually being supported by the floor, what would that be?

Speaker 2 3:28

Right now, we could call that a quantitative observation. A qualitative quality observation would be just to notice that there's very different contacts back there. You feel along your back, from your hips to your shoulders, and just observe the places that are heaviest and the places that have a lighter or softer contact with the ground. Those are different kinds of qualities. Those are different kinds of qualities. And would you image for a moment? Please come into contact with the idea of your spine, between your shoulder blades. See what you can feel there. Is there a dancing movement of breath if you settle into that location with your attention? Maybe not, maybe so and just imagine you could carefully measure the distance between the inner border of your right shoulder blade and the right side of your spine compared to the inner border of your left shoulder blade and the left side of your spine File. That thought away for later. Bend your knees. Please Stand your feet and just think to yourself right now what's going to be the more comfortable side-lying position, and would you please roll over onto whichever side you would prefer to take a nap on if that was our task, and you may lie on your arm, if you can extend your arm straight up in line with your spine and put your ear on your upper arm, on the cylinder of your upper arm. If that works easily for you, that is welcome. If that doesn't work for you, that's fine too. Just fold up a blanket or towel to lie on. Please Draw up your knees in front of you like you really did want to take a nap here. Draw up your knees in front of you like you really did want to take a nap here.

Speaker 2 5:51

And I'm going to talk about the two sides of your body in terms of the floor side and the ceiling side. Would you take your ceiling side arm and extend it directly to the ceiling and then leave it dangling up there with the hand and wrist soft, the fingers, unexpressive, just resting. But the arm is more or less plumb with gravity. You can move it around a little bit to try to feel where is there the least effort to keep it standing, relax and breathe. Make this as comfortable as you can. We'll relate to this as our home position, but of course you'll put the arm down as often as you want to please when you're ready.

Speaker 2 6:29

From this your home position, would you simply make a small, smooth, comfortable movement of your arm backwards towards the wall and floor behind you? Now, I'd like this movement to be so small Go ahead, return home, do it slowly and smoothly many times and I'd like this movement to be so small, please, that you actually experience no stretch or strain at all. How much do you have to limit it? If it's just an idea of waving your arm backwards in the breeze, you come away from plumb with gravity a little bit. You'll feel some muscular activity, but it's all smooth and comfortable. Make it more smooth and more comfortable and if you want to just to know where it is, you can go a little further till you know you feel a stretch or even the mildest little strain. It's fine to get to those points, but then don't go there again. Now you know, yeah, interesting when we do novel movements. If there's any strain or escalation of discomfort, novelty is interpreted as a threat and then it's not learnable. Novelty, right. So that's why it's not just because I'm nice that we keep things small.

Speaker 2 7:43

Put your arm down and rest a moment. Notice it'll just take a couple of seconds to refresh things, to regulate circulation. When you feel ready, extend your arm again, go ahead backwards that little bit that was totally easy and then float through your home position and go an equal amount forwards. So you're just waving your arm at the sky. The hand is soft, the fingers are almost like dripping off the wrist. You might even, as your arm moves backwards and forwards, your wrist might even change shape passively as the weight of your hand dangles. You could let that happen, and would you begin to consciously allow your head to roll so that your ceiling side ear is always pointed at your arm? Your head rolls either on your towel or sort of rolls a little off the front of the arm. If you're lying on your arm and then a little off the back of your arm, keep your ear carefully oriented to your hand, notice your breathing and just feel what's going on through the rest of yourself and just feel what's going on through the rest of yourself. Where can you apply a little more ease, invite a little more lazy participation? Put the arm down for a moment and, with your ongoing comfortable breath, in the background of your attention, would you extend your arm again and this time, please have your head and arm go in exactly the opposite coordination. So, while your arm comes forward, it's as if your head rolls backwards. So, while your arm comes forward, it's as if your head rolls backwards. While your arm comes backwards, it's as if your head rolls forwards.

Speaker 2 9:50

You can make that as large as pleases your comfort and curiosity. This is an oppositional movement. It may be much smaller. That reflects wisdom. Yeah, if you choose to make this smaller because it's more difficult, that's just a very smart idea. That's not any any way giving up on yourself. It's wonderful. Yeah, there's a moment in the middle. Can you coordinate the timing so that if we took a snapshot of you right in the middle of this, we wouldn't know that they were oppositional? The ear and the hand pass each other in the middle when you're fully on your side, and just feel.

Speaker 2 10:27

Now that you understand the movement, we can really get into the directions that make it Feldenkrais class. Would you just feel around yourself for what all is involved in this curious coordination? Reduce the effort in your neck, feel the interesting movement in your throat and maybe you can come in awareness of your collarbones, your sternum what about the spine between the shoulder blades? How is it relating to that shoulder blade? And put your arm down and rest it the undifferentiated way, in other words, link your head and ear to your hand. Try that again. How is that now? Link your head and ear to your hand. Try that again. How is that now? And would you lull your head back a little extra so that you can follow this moving hand with your eyes, actually open your eyes and gaze at your arm as it goes behind you as far as you really feel no strain or stretch, and as far in front of you as you enjoy. Make sure you can always see it. Let your head roll, let your eyes follow your hand, breathe and invite the feelings throughout yourself to assist this. Can you sense your weight shifting? How could you use the floor? Give yourself more to the floor to roll a little bit. Maybe some of you find that the knees or the hips are involved somehow. All right, and rest your arm and remember what we just did and listen very carefully.

Speaker 2 12:44

This is one of those great feldenkrais moments where I'm going to give you an instruction and I fully expect you to make a big mess, get really confused and have to restart clearly a few times. When you're ready, you're going to do the same exact thing, except you'll be watching the hand, but your head will be rolling in the opposite direction. To the best of your ability, go ahead, extend your arm to the ceiling, imagine gluing your eyes to your hand. You're going to see it. So find a starting position where you can see it. And now, very carefully, carefully. Can you train yourself to take the arm backward while your head rolls forward, and then the arm forward while your head rolls backwards, and along that whole time you try to see it. Maybe it sneaks out of range here and there. You could reduce the range a little further and increase the comfort and coordination.

Speaker 2 13:39

When you inevitably find that something isn't where you intend, often your eyeballs just come back to the middle, look at your hand, rest and breathe, clarify your intention and then watch your hand while you take it in the opposite direction of your head. Isn't that a funny feeling. Could you do something for your breath to make it a little nicer and wrestle with all this interesting coordination. It'll help, right? We're a bit acclimated to holding our breath when there's a difficulty. Dodge that. See if you can actually fully enjoy your breath and slowly engage with this curiosity and then just simply look at your hand, follow it, all parts moving together in the most harmonious way. Lean the arm backwards, see how far do you go. Is that changing from the beginning Without any increase in strain or effort? I wonder if it's further. Yeah, interesting. Good Rest your arm. Rest here on your side. And good, rest your arm. Rest here on your side.

Speaker 2 15:04

Bring your ceiling side leg into your awareness. Feel the weight of your feet nuzzled together. Think of the weight of the arch of the ceiling side foot sort of nuzzled into the arch of the floor foot and leaving the floor side leg quietly resting right where it is. Could you find a way to roll your body back a little bit so that you separate your knees smoothly and quietly? See if you can lift that top knee away from the bottom knee smoothly and quietly. See if you can lift that top knee away from the bottom knee, but I want you to do it as if you're just the laziest person in the world and you don't want to do any work to accomplish this. This is the anti-clam shell, okay.

Speaker 2 15:51

So instead of working hard to lift the weight of the leg, instead of firing off all those abductor muscles on the outside of your thigh, extend your arm to the ceiling. Think of a hinge between your feet. Take your arm, head and eyes backwards. Allow it to invite your pelvis along and see if, just passively, your knee could come away from your other knee. Or if just you have to coordinate a moment where you consciously lift it right. Go ahead, try that a few times.

Speaker 2 16:25

See if, with the engine of your sweeping arm, you could learn to let your whole body pleasantly, without strain, lift Without even stretch. What's the timing and proportion of the rolling backwards hinging between the feet? The feet stay in contact. There's weight between them throughout. See if you can lead your ceiling knee a little away from your floor knee as lazily as possible. Isn't that nicer when all of you helps? Yeah, and you can be the scientist if you want. Be kind to yourself, but for just a moment, put your arm down, lie on your side, don't roll your pelvis at all, and just lift your knee a tiny bit. Is it heavier? And now? Is it actually heavier, or is it a matter of how you regulate and coordinate yourself? Good, and now just rest a moment here as we are.

Speaker 2 17:20

One last little exploration I'd like you to extend your arm to the ceiling and listen and imagine for just a moment. Could you put together sweeping the arm a little bit forward, while still finding resources to help you separate that top knee from the bottom knee? So, in other words, in terms of your lower body, it does very similarly to what we did before. Something is going to help you roll your hips back and lighten your knee hinging between your feet, but at the same time as that, I'd love to see if you could take your arm forward and in fact, could you even take your arm and roll your head a little bit forwards and still find a way. Maybe the knee just gets slightly lighter, maybe it doesn't lift very much, and would we overwhelm you completely if we asked you to breathe? It'll help. It'll help because there's some beautiful things that your torso, your spine, the big muscles that twist and extend and flex the body they're all coordinating to figure this out. It's like a riddle, yeah, and riddles that are solved with force aren't a lot of fun. Riddles that are solved with force aren't a lot of fun. Good, let it be. Lie on your side and extend your arm to the ceiling and sweep it backwards to invite yourself into rolling and resting all the way on your back. Let your legs go long, rest on your back. It's nice again to check in after working very asymmetrically, to check in after working very asymmetrically, to check in with what you've created in yourself.

Speaker 2 19:06

One of the basic things that I keep returning to after nearly 20 years of Feldenkrais practice. It's become more and more important to me in recent years. Symmetry is overrated. Right, we have aesthetic ideals, we have artistic ideals and, in fact, our nervous system is really interested in symmetry because it sends up flags when we feel things really lopsided, which is great for learning. But when we have an expectation of symmetry, we're likely to be shooting on symmetry. We're likely to be shoulding on ourselves. Right, we're likely to be telling ourselves that something should be one way, when, in fact, our best bet is just to observe what is and start from there.

Speaker 2 19:52

What is right now may be very interesting between the sides and, in fact, what is right now?

Speaker 2 20:09

If you find that there's a mild or even a striking difference between the sides, your nervous system is taking that asymmetry and chewing on it and figuring out what to do with it, figuring out what's meaningful about those differences. There are things on the side that maybe you feel like we worked with less, that might be more valuable than things you discovered on the side with the moving limbs. Your brain knows about that, knows how to discriminate and make choices based on what's comfortable and usable. So we're going to do something rare but a part of the Feldenkrais method. We're going to leave this lesson as it is and invite you to quietly come into the break and if you happen to feel very lopsided right now, that should slow you down. Please make time for yourself to process as you come gently to roll to your side and go ahead and come to sit and come to stand. I'd like you to really leave time for the sensations that are there and come to stand and to make great episodes like this one.

Speaker 1 21:39

Learn more about field dynamics and why we think the future of wellness matters. Check us out at energyfielddynamicscom. See you next time.