Feldenkrais® Book: Which One to Read First

The Feldenkrais® book to start with, for almost everyone, is Awareness Through Movement® by Moshe Feldenkrais. It is the one that does both jobs: it explains what the method is trying to do, and it gives you lessons you can actually try. The others are worth reading, but they suit particular readers rather than every reader, and it is easy to start in the wrong place and give up.

It is fair to ask what the evidence looks like before investing your reading time. A systematic review pooling 20 randomised controlled trials called the evidence for the Feldenkrais Method® promising for functions such as balance, though the trials themselves carried a high risk of bias, and none of them recorded any harm (Hillier and Worley, 2015). That is an emerging picture rather than a settled one, and worth holding lightly.

Which Feldenkrais book suits which reader

Book	What it actually is	Who it suits
Awareness Through Movement (1972)	Essays explaining the approach, followed by written lessons to do at home	Most first time readers. The one to buy if you buy one
The Elusive Obvious (1981)	A late, readable account of the thinking behind the method	Readers who want the ideas and are not looking for exercises
Body and Mature Behaviour (1949)	The dense theoretical foundation, drawing on physics and neurology	The theoretically minded, and people who have already done lessons
The Case of Nora (1977)	A narrative account of working with one person after a stroke	Readers who learn best from a story rather than an argument

What a Feldenkrais book can teach you

Reading gives you the reasoning, and the reasoning is genuinely interesting. Feldenkrais was a physicist and engineer before he was anything else, and the method rests on an unusual idea: that a great deal of stiffness and awkward movement is learned rather than structural, and that what is learned can be relearned if you can feel it clearly enough.

That premise is much easier to accept once you have read the argument for it. If you are someone who wants to know why before you commit to doing something for six weeks, a book is a good investment.

What a book cannot do

The written lessons in Awareness Through Movement are real lessons, and they work. But they ask something awkward of you: read a paragraph, put the book down, do the movement slowly with your attention inside your body, then pick the book up and find your place again.

That last part is the problem. The whole method depends on going slowly enough to notice small differences, and stopping every thirty seconds to read the next instruction keeps pulling your attention back out. It is a bit like trying to learn a piece of music while looking up each note. Most people who stick with the method end up using guided audio for the lessons and books for the ideas.

When another format fits better

If you want to understand the philosophy and have no interest in doing lessons at home, buy the books and stop there; they stand on their own as reading. If you learn best with a person watching you, a local class or an individual session gives you feedback that neither a book nor a recording can. If you already have a movement practice you enjoy, keep it, and read the books as background rather than as a replacement.

For a short overview of what the method involves, our Feldypedia article on the Feldenkrais Method is a shorter read than any of the books. If you are weighing the method against something else you already know, our comparison of Feldenkrais and Pilates and of Feldenkrais and the Alexander Technique both go into the differences properly. And if you would rather simply try one, our somatic exercises for beginners is a gentle first lesson. The Feldy program for body awareness builds from lessons of that kind.

A note on trying the written lessons

The lessons in the books are safe for most people, but the page cannot see you. Stay well inside comfortable range, stop anything that hurts, and treat any instruction as an invitation rather than a requirement. If you have a diagnosis, a recent injury, or a joint replacement, check with your clinician before starting a new movement practice, whatever the format.

Find where to start

Reading and doing suit different people, and so do different movement methods. If you are not sure whether the Feldenkrais approach is even the right one for you, it is worth checking before you buy anything.

Not sure which movement method fits you? Take the 60 second Movement Match quiz: three questions, and an honest answer about which movement method matches how you like to learn.

Common Questions about choosing a Feldenkrais book (FAQ)

What is the best Feldenkrais book for a beginner?

Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais is the usual first choice. It explains the reasoning in plain language and then gives you written lessons to work through yourself, so you get both halves of the method rather than just the theory. Start there, and read the essays before you attempt the lessons rather than after.

Can you learn the Feldenkrais Method from a book?

You can learn the ideas from a book, and you can get a real taste of the lessons. What a book cannot do is track your pace. The lessons depend on going slowly enough to notice things, and reading a paragraph, putting the book down, moving, then picking it up again keeps interrupting exactly the attention the lesson is trying to build. Most people find guided audio easier for that reason.

What should I avoid when reading Feldenkrais books?

Avoid treating the written lessons as an exercise routine to complete. Avoid pushing into any range that hurts, since the text cannot see you and will not tell you to stop. Avoid starting with Body and Mature Behaviour if you are new, as it is a dense theoretical work and puts a lot of people off. And avoid reading several at once; one lesson practised beats three books skimmed.

How is a Feldenkrais book different from an audio lesson?

A book gives you the reasoning, which audio rarely has time for. An audio lesson gives you pacing, which a book cannot, because someone else is holding the timing while your eyes stay closed. They answer different needs. Many people read to understand why the method works the way it does, then use audio to actually do the lessons.

Which Feldenkrais book explains the theory best?

The Elusive Obvious is the most readable statement of the thinking, written late in Moshe Feldenkrais's life. Body and Mature Behaviour is the deeper and more technical work, drawing on his background in physics and engineering, and it is heavy going for a first read. If you want the ideas without the density, start with The Elusive Obvious.

Do I need to read anything before trying a lesson?

No. The method is learned by doing, and plenty of people never read a word of the literature and get a great deal from the lessons. Reading helps if you are the kind of person who works better when you understand the reasoning. If you are not, skip the books and start with a short guided lesson instead.