Your study guide for ATM lessons

Source

Synopsis

Lying on your stomach with your head held fixed, use the tilting of your legs to rotate the spine. As the ATM progresses, the rotation involves more of the spine.

Lesson Outline

Key movements of this ATM are:

  • Reference move: Lying on your stomach, forehead resting on your hands, knees bent, leaning one foot against the other, tilt your feet to the right.
  • Face left and tilt feet to the right; then face right and tilt your feet to the right.
  • Face left and place hands on top of your head, glue your ankles and knees together, then tilt your legs to the right.
  • Do the movement again but this time facing right and with hands interlaced in the non-habitual way.
  • Rest
  • Redo the reference move and see if it is easier.
  • Mentally recall the movements above and then imagine doing them with the legs tilting to the left.
  • Moshe directs the student’s attention to observing the movement throughout their body, e.g. of their elbows, ribs, breath, and the twist of each vertebra.
  • Moshe discusses how to change behavioral patterns and the need for paying close attention. “Our nervous system is so constructed that habits are preserved and seek to perpetuate themselves. It is easier to stop a habit by means of a sudden traumatic shock than to change it gradually. This is a functional difficulty and that is why it is important to pay close attention to every improvement and to assimilate it after every series of movements.”
  • Moshe also discusses one of the effects of the ATM as an improved awareness of your self-image.

Related ATMs

Resources

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Share Your Insights (ideas, principles, strategies, experiences, …)

  • In normal life, your feet are constrained (held fixed on the ground) and your head and spine are free to move. In this ATM, the situation is reversed, i.e. your head is held fixed and the movement of the feet causes the spine to rotate up to the head. Holding the head still and tilting the legs to the right creates the same rotation in the spine as occurs when the feet were held still and the head is rotated to the right. This allows the student to experience the movement of turning in a non-habitual way.–  yedwab Sep 5, 2010
  • With each variation, Moshe invites more rotation of the spine. At first, it is simply the weight of the legs rotating the spine. Then, the hands on top of the head increase the rotation. As Moshe says, “This position is intended to let the frame formed by your arms exert gentle but continuous pressure to the left side of your face thereby gradually increasing the angle at which your head is turned sideways.” Finally, the ankles and knees are glued together. This causes the tilting legs to have more weight and thus cause more rotation of the spine. – yedwab Sep 11, 2010

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