Perspective
Context is everything. Perspective can shift in a moment. This year has been full of changes for me personally and professionally.
Read morePerfection? I'd rather be content
Perfection? I'd rather be content…
Working with my private students to help them in their endeavors, manage pain or any other number of goals, and training Alexander teachers, I have encountered a lot of perfectionists over the decades.
Read moreAn Approach to Training Teachers: start with Alexander's means-whereby
An Approach to Training Teachers: start with Alexander's means-whereby
This week, a student on the ACAT training course (trainee) commented that there didn't seem to be specific instruction on the nuts and bolts of teaching: where to put hands, what to say, and the sequence in which to do things.
Within the ACAT curriculum, those types of specifics do get covered, in a fair bit of detail, as the terms progress. However, before that level of specificity is introduced, I want to give the trainee an understanding of Alexander's means-whereby for using the hands.
Read moreExplaining what we mean by "pulling in"
Here's a short video illustrating this idea.
You are lighter than you think: getting up from a chair
You are lighter than you think: getting up from a chair...One of the side benefits of being an Alexander Teacher is my constant search for novel ways to help my students relate to the skills we are teaching. It is no surprise to me that after almost 30 years of teaching, I can still find a new, simpler and more accessible way to describe a common, habit that gives my students access to an easier, less stressful way to perform a task.
Read moreEmbracing Change
Embracing Change...
Alexander Teachers could be considered “change agents” for the individual. We help our students expand ways of being in thinking, movement and behavior.
That can seem vague and hard to articulate, and many Alexander Teachers find ourselves momentarily tongue-tied when someone asks: “What is the Alexander Technique?”
Read moreThinking to muscles
Thinking to muscles:
From the archives: originally published 10/22/04
Last week, I wrenched my back lifting an air conditioner out of the window. It was a pinching, shooting pain when I moved in certain ways. I finished carrying the air conditioner into the other room to tuck it away in a closet, and then I lay down on my teaching table. I began sending my Alexander directions, and imagining the knot in my back muscle releasing and unwinding.
Read moreOrganization: start with yourself
Organization: Start with yourself
"When we have our body and mind in order, everything else will exist in the right place, in the right way. But usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves, we try to order things outside us. But it is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order. When you do things in the right way, at the right time, everything else will be organized. " -- Shunryu Suzuki (Japanese Zen Master)
Read moreRate of Change
Rate of Change (originally published 8/8/05)
When people begin studying something new (especially if it's helping them feel better), it's natural for them to want to learn all they can, right away and be a model pupil. Often, my clients get a great deal of relief when they first start to study, and because they have been in discomfort, they want to do all they can to hold onto the new state they are in.
Read moreIt's about so much more than posture...
These are my thoughts on why Alexander teaches us not to end-gain to fix localized conditions or problems, but instead apply the means-whereby that begins with the more beneficial carriage of the head in relation to the spinal column.
I have been thinking about AT as a tool for change: When you improve conditions through the head/neck/back and begin to function in a way where they are integrated, your perception of situations change as your sensory appreciation becomes more accurate and reliable. This change in perception is where AT facilitates the greatest change of use. It’s not about better body mechanics, or posture, or more refined coordination on a purely movement based, motor behavior level. It’s about totality, the constellation of perception and action relative to how we experience the world through our use, that affords us the most profound level of change, healing and transformation. We can respond more effectively and masterfully to the stimuli we meet.
7 Tips for Bringing Alexander Technique Awareness into Everyday Life
7 Tips for Bringing Alexander Technique Awareness into Everyday Life
Private lessons are a great way to understand your own habits and how Alexander Technique tools can help you find greater ease in daily activities, and specialized skills. We refer to our clients as students because we are teaching skills that offer independence outside of sessions.
Read morePrivate Lessons or Group Class? Why not both?
Private Lessons or Group Class? Why not both?
People frequently ask me which is a better way to study? Private lessons or group classes?
While private lessons are more common, and offer certain advantages, group learning dates back to Alexander's first Teacher Training Course, started in the 1930s.
Read moreAlexander Skills Sets: Easing Resistance
Alexander Skills Sets: Easing Resistance: n Alexander Technique, we seek to elicit a more even distribution of weight through bones and joints by using intention and thinking to spread tone more evenly through more of the elastic tissues (muscles and tendons) that provide postural support and movement.
Read moreBack in the Studio: Applying Alexander Technique in my return to dance
Back in the Studio: Applying Alexander Technique in my return to dance
For many years, I found myself unable to find the motivation to exercise, whether it was yoga, strength training or cardio. I had also been thinking about revisiting modern jazz dance classes, in the SImonson Technique, which I had studied in high school and college. Within the past 5 or 6 years, I had even gone online and located beginning classes. For some reason, I couldn't overcome inertia so never got to a class.
Read moreAlexander Thoughts: Change Your Inner Dialogue
Today, I was sitting at the computer playing FreeCell (a solitaire game) contemplating berating myself for procrastination.
Read moreSometimes a picture is worth a thousand words
By looking out and continuing to see what is in your field of vision, you are helping remove yourself at least one degree from "feeling out" whether you're getting it or not.
Read moreWhy shouldn’t I trust what I feel?
Alexander talked about the unreliability of our sensory feedback, particularly with regard to bodily sensation, and specifically with respect to the position we carry our heads and necks in relation to vertical.
Read moreYou are what you believe
In August of 1934, F. M. Alexander delivered a lecture at The Bedford Training College. Among many amazing things he says during this talk, there are two quotes which I find most thought-provoking and exciting:
Read moreAssembly required: Alexander Technique helps crisis management and creativity dovetail to solve a problem.
Assembly required: Alexander Technique helps crisis management and creativity dovetail to solve a problem.
Read moreStrategies for a Lie Down #2: Breathe easy
When people think of a full breath, they focus on inhaling. Without first effectively exhaling, it’s like trying to fill an already partially full tank beyond capacity…
Instead, learning to allow more volume of air to leave on the exhale sets up conditions of release and more space for fresh air to mix in with the residual levels of atmosphere in your lungs.
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