Guidelines for Awareness Through Movement®

“Maintain the conditions for learning and improvement is guaranteed.”  

1. Straining is counterproductive. Move within your own personal range of comfort.

2. Pain is to be avoided if at all possible. Pain is a signal that what you are doing has the potential for harm. Even if discomfort is a constant companion, you can avoid anything that would increase it.

3. Rest whenever you need to, including between each movement. The spaces between the movements are often where your attention can restore itself, and your image of the movement can be refined. You’ll be offered periodic rests during the lesson, but feel free to claim your own.

4. Create a calm, smooth pace that allows for your curiosity and patience to prevail. Mechanical, hurried repetition will only interfere with your clarity.

5. Develop a clear, kinesthetic image of the movements you make. Allow this image to refine the movement, and let your movements inform the image.

6. Focus on the quality of your movement (your contact with the ground, breathing, smoothness, curiosity) and not the quantity (how far/fast you can push yourself). The "no pain, no gain" mindset creates noise, distraction and will have you relying on and rehearsing old habits.

7. Stay connected to the ground. Do not let your movements get ahead of, or disconnect from, the emerging contact you share with the ground.

8. Pause, suspend, take time to notice. Whenever your breath is held, your eyes become fixed, and your head and neck stiffen, these are valuable clues that you are moving out of your range of skill and into willpower. Instead, pause and wait for your willpower to drain away. Create a space for a clearer image for your movement to emerge. Only then proceed.