A bit like “Simon says”, Awareness Through Movement ® classes involve participants responding to verbally posed questions and instructions about movement. Intended to be taken lightly, with an aspect of fun, keys to Awareness Through Movement ® include staying within ease, low effort, not pushing and paying attention to yourself. Not trying to compete with others or yourself is also a novel concept to embrace!
Quality of movement is what is important. How you approach the process is more important than the specific movement itself. Do you really care if you can tie yourself into a knot or roll in a certain way?
How do you deal with challenge and difficulties? What habits do you automatically engage – breath holding? Jaw clenching? Giving up? Do these habits occur just in movement challenges, or do you go to them in other challenges in life?
You will be asked to attend to yourself in likely unfamiliar ways, noticing and comparing parts of yourself. Often you won’t be able to come up with a conscious answer. That’s all good – your subconscious can work it out for you. Just asking the question sparks brain activity!
No need to study anatomy before coming to class, the point is to become more familiar with yourself – adding to your self-image – so that you can have more choice and input in how you move. Before you know it you’ll be noticing all sorts of things about yourself and how you move that you’ve never even thought about!
What do you need? A sense of humour and willingness to see the light side are a definite plus! 3 towels, clean (non-stinky) clothes in which you can move – no skirts, dresses or tight jeans you can’t bend in, clean socks, and a playful curiosity.