The classic text on the relationship between movement, learning, and health—from the scientist and martial artist whose revolutionary exercise therapy techniques promote health, vitality, and lasting pain relief. The two main strands of the Feldenkrais Method—Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration—are now known by many around the world for reducing pain and anxiety, cultivating vitality, and improving performance. The Elusive Obvious presents a thorough explanation of the Moshe Feldenkrais’ revolutionary exercise therapy system, revealing how the solutions to many of our problems are hidden in plain sight. Hailed as one Moshe Feldenkrais’ most accessible texts on the body and healthy functioning, this beautiful new edition is ready to be treasured by an emerging generation of somatic practitioners, movement teachers, performing artists, and anyone interested in self-improvement and healing.

A thorough study of the Feldenkrais Method, a leading form of exercise therapy designed to improve your mental and physical well-being through mindful movement An educational system of neuromuscular re-education known for its gentle approach, the Feldenkrais Method has been shown to dramatically improve individual functioning by increasing self-awareness and facilitating new patterns of thinking, moving, and feeling. Intended for those who need to improve their movement repertoire for professional reasons—dancers, musicians, martial artists, gymnasts, and athletes—a well as those wishing to reduce pain or limitations in movement, Feldenkrais is based on the idea that learning to move better can improve anyone’s overall health on many levels. Using Moshe Feldenkrais’s own words, Embodied Wisdom clearly explains the basic principles underpinning his techniques, Awareness Through Movement (ATM) and Functional Integration (FI). These thoughtful articles and lively, sometimes humorous interviews explore a diverse range of subjects: the importance of bodily expression, the primacy of hearing, the mind-body connection, martial arts, sleep and consciousness, movement and its effect on the mind. Embodied Wisdom gives readers the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the scientific and spiritual principles behind the Method and offers sound strategies for incorporating it into their lives.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Body Awareness as Healing Therapy: The Case of Nora is Moshe Feldenkrais' classic study of his work with Nora, a woman who has suffered a severe stroke and lost her neuromuscular coordination, including the ability to read and write. Feldenkrais uses rational and intuitive approaches to help his student relearn basic motor skills. One can observe here the groundwork of Feldenkrais' extraordinary insights which became known as the Feldenkrais Method. We follow his detailed descriptions of the trial and error process which led him to see the ingredients that were needed to help Nora reshape her attention, perception, imagination and cognition.

The Feldenkrais Method is a presentation of the system of Functional Integration devised by the Israeli scientist Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. This system is a way of handling the body by communicating specific sensations to the central nervous system in order to improve the functions of the motor-system. Functional Integration is unique in that it evokes changes in the human brain at a level heretofore thought unachievable by any known educational technique.