The ATM book lessons

Lessons from Moshe’s Awareness Through Movement book, which he called the “Basic Series.” While not necessarily “basic,” they do illustrate concepts he touches on again and again in his method. It is a good place to start for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of how this all works.

Although the lessons are presented as Moshe taught them, the teaching style, pacing, and language is mine.

Note: Moshe starts at lesson three because the first two are explanations of principles.

In the first lesson, you bring the arms overhead and practice lifting the right arm. It’s a study in observing excess efforting and unnecessary contractions. Then, you lift the right leg many times, then both together, noticing the timing and the use of the trunk. How you organize from the center is key to lifting the limbs. You test the same movements on the front, then the back again. Sense how different the left and right sides are.

In part two, you start to lift opposite limbs along diagonal lines. Here you explore many variations in timing and in how you mobilize different parts of your back. You observe how you activate the face, jaw, abdomen, back, and chest.

Discover how more clarity creates lighter limbs, not by adding strength but by diminishing excess effort.

For more like this, see the diagonals section.

Moshe’s comments on this lesson: Superfluous efforts shorten the body

In almost every case, excess tension remaining in the muscles causes the spine to be shortened. Unnecessary effort accompanying an action tends to shorten the body. In every action in which a degree of difficulty is anticipated, the body is drawn together as a protective device against this difficulty….As soon as a person is conscious that he is placing a strain on his powers, he makes a greater effort of the will to reinforce his body for the action, but in fact he is forcing superfluous effort on himself.

The act resulting from this attempt to reinforce the body will never be either graceful or stimulating, and will arouse no wish in the individual to repeat it. While it is possible to reach the desired aim in this tortuous fashion, the price paid for its achievement is higher than appears at first sight.

This is a slow, careful exploration of what is called “seesaw breathing,” where you alternate expanding the chest and the abdomen. You spend a long time on the back holding the breath in and seesawing, then holding it out and seesawing. Then, you lie on the front where there is a detailed look at the asymmetry of the two sides. You breathe into the right lung and then into the left abdomen, then reverse the diagonal. It’s a phenomenal shift of how the components of the breathing apparatus all contribute to easy breathing in every possible shape.

In the book, Moshe includes lying on the side, which is not in the recorded version. The variations of seesaw breathing are vast and you can explore many other lessons.

For more on seesaw breathing:

47 Breathe to free the diaphragm (slow, deconstructed version of seesaw breathing)
273 Seesaw breathing
278 Introduction to seesaw breathing and part 2, Seesaw breathing to coordinate arms
280 Abdomen and chest, part 1 and 2
267 Let go of tension for easier breathing
268 Breathing into lower belly, free the diaphragm
270 How to take a natural breath
271 Abdomen lets go
272 The liberated inhalation
485 Breathe in all directions (sitting in a chair)

A beautiful rendition of rotation and lengthening in the spine.

Here Moshe asks you again to pay attention to superfluous action that impedes easy movement. (You’ll see that’s a theme.) When you are more skilled at noticing this, you can quickly become more integrated as you let go of unnecessary effort.

I love all the variations of flexors and extensors. In this particular example, you move the triangle of the arms left and right many ways, rolling the pelvis, spine, and ribs. The resulting flexibility of the ribs allows for more freedom in the pelvis and hips. Such a yummy, yummy lesson for feeling long and tall.

Because, as Moshe says, “prolonged contraction of the flexor muscles of the abdomen increases the tonus of the extensors of the back,” when you improve the balance of the musculature in front and in back, you also improve the head in the erect standing position as well as action throughout the trunk.

For more on flexors and extensors:

76 & 77 Coordinating flexors and extensors
87 Tilt knees, rotate spine, fold chest
91 Tilt knees, roll chest and head
211 Eyes, neck, arms, triangle
3 Tilt the legs and free the neck (Esalen version)
380 Gentle twisting with flexors and extensors
43 Tilt knees, lengthen arms