During a Feldenkrais Method group class, you won't see much resembling “;exercise.”; There is no repetition of movements, no competition or emphasis on “;fitness”; at all.

Rarely will anyone break a sweat. “;Do it in a lazy way,”; instructed Eve Strauss during an Awareness Through Movement class last week at the Manoa Dance Studio, “;Let it be easy.”;

While “;lazy”; and “;easy”; are rarely heard in other movement classes, they are near and dear to the Feldenkrais Method. “;We are investigating options for moving, like a baby does. We are watching the effects of each movement on the whole organism. How do you breathe when you're in this position? Is it the same on the right and left side of your body?”;

A concern with symmetry is integral to Feldenkrais. Special attention is paid to the diagonals of the body. Many lessons involve movements that clarify a connection between the right shoulder and left hip, and vice versa. Likewise with the right side of the ribcage and the left ankle.

Improvements are said to come from clarifying these subtle but important correspondences, what Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais called “;the elusive obvious.”;

Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, overcame a traumatic knee injury by applying his consolidated knowledge of biomechanics, physics, developmental psychology and the human brain.

His method uses slow, gentle movements that give students new choices in how they move. When he brought his method from Israel to the United States in the 1970s, actors, musicians, athletes and those recovering from injuries endorsed its benefits, ranging from subtle improvements in performance to dramatic recoveries from injury.

Strauss, a Guild Certified Feldnkrais practitioner, leads group lessons and private sessions built around Feldenkrais' wide-ranging teachings. “;Science is corroborating things that Moshe was saying a half-century ago,”; she said, in reference to recent research into neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to continue forging neural pathways throughout the aging process. “;The changes achieved through his methods aim to reduce wasted energy, improve coordination and restore a dignified sense of body awareness to anyone wishing to overcome an injury, or simply learn to use this remarkable tool of the body in new ways.”;

Devi Krieg, a dental hygienist, attends Strauss' group classes. “;My job has an obvious correlation to tension patterns, because of repetitive movements and postures. I can't get my mind around how Feldenkrais works, but it has helped with my migraines and my awareness of the habitual movements that are the signature of my job.”;

Strauss tells her students to maintain a “;diffused”; awareness of their bodies, to let go of hyperfocus on areas of pain or stiffness.

Strauss asks them to think about resistance in their movements. “;When we take a stance of resistance, we set ourselves up for muscle strain. Pain is sometimes a symptom of excessive resistance in one area. We can learn to do the opposite, to set ourselves up for ease.”;

Another of her students, Emily Jones, says the method has definitely brought her relief. “;Feldenkrais has helped me release and relax through chronic pain and access new ways to improve my body—ways I'd never thought possible when I tried other methods.”;

  The learning process can go on for days after a group class or a private Functional Integration session, during which practitioner and student focus on exercises tailored to particular areas of concern.

Tyler Bishton, also a Guild Certified Feldenkrais practitioner, recently began a practice focusing on FI techniques. “;A lot of professions, especially in the healing modalities, deal with movement, just as many in the chef profession deal with food,”; Bishton said. “;But Feldenkrais is like the private chef of the healing arts. The techniques help students reorganize their bodies through the medium of the nervous system. It helps them learn to change and enhance their habits of movement.”;

Bishton was drawn to the work of Feldenkrais as a teenager, when he was studying juggling. “;I was able to see how to become more holistically integrated throughout my body during the act of juggling, and I quickly went from juggling four balls strugglingly to juggling nine balls gracefully.”;

He recognized in Feldenkrais some of the primary components of other healing methods that interested him, and chose to pursue Feldenkrais in tandem with his massage training.

“;Feldenkrais encompasses the theoretical framework of so many other modalities, and transcends them by translating awareness into actual functional change,”; he said.

“;It's vast.”;