Beverly Atkins: Neuroplasticity Through Feldenkrais | Episode 188Beverly Atkins: Neuroplasticity Through Feldenkrais | Episode 188
Brain Shaman
Feldenkrais practitioner Beverly Atkins and host Michael Waite talk about using slow, gentle movement to reshape the brain, ease pain and shift long-held patterns. They compare daily "micro" practices and longer, more intense sessions, touching on ADHD, psychedelics, meditation and the importance of curiosity in creating lasting change.
1:32:54•23 Sept 2026
Rewiring the Brain with Gentle Movement: Beverly Atkins on Feldenkrais and Neuroplasticity
Episode Overview
- Slow, gentle and unfamiliar movements can help the nervous system let go of protective tension and reduce pain.
- Not every lesson feels dramatic; consistent daily practice builds cumulative brain and behaviour change over time.
- Different lessons and teachers suit different people and seasons of life, so it helps to stay curious rather than judge a single "dud" session.
- Short sessions can act like microdoses of neuroplastic change, while occasional longer lessons may feel more intensely transformative.
- Improving interoception and body awareness can shift emotional reactivity, making it easier to see other perspectives and respond rather than react.
“I'm finding new options, breaking old chains, teaching my brain a different way.”
What can we learn from those who have battled pain, burnout, and old self-images to build a calmer brain? This conversation between host Michael Waite and Feldenkrais practitioner Beverly Atkins offers a very practical answer: tiny, curious movements, repeated often. Beverly shares how years of stress, slumped posture and intense athletic training led to excruciating back pain that nothing seemed to touch.
Then a single Awareness Through Movement class at a health resort left her, in her words, “deeply curious, what could have possibly just happened” when she stood up with her back pain gone. That moment sent her into a four‑year Feldenkrais training and a daily practice that she credits with changing her sleep, her mood, and even her ability to listen instead of snapping in anger.
Together, they break down what the Feldenkrais Method actually is: “a movement practice to rewire your brain through slow, gentle, and novel movements.” Beverly explains why some lessons feel like "duds" while others hit like a first psychedelic trip, and why going slow and small can be far more powerful for the nervous system than big, dramatic gestures.
Michael compares his first long, one‑to‑one lesson (guided by practitioner Paul) to psychedelics and a 10‑day Vipassana retreat, describing how it shifted his sense of self from being stuck "in the corner of a spaceship wing" to feeling like "I am the spaceship." Beverly connects this to neuroplasticity, arguing that regular, shorter sessions—like the ones on her Pauseture app—act like microdoses of change, building new options over time.
For anyone working on changing ingrained habits, emotional reactions, or long‑standing pain, this episode shows how curiosity, consistent practice, and even five minutes on the floor each day can "light the flame" of a new self without relying on force or willpower alone. Could a different way of moving be the missing piece in how you change your brain?
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