Applied Alexander Technique Blog

Hello my friends!

It is almost spring and sunny and I am watching an amazing video that shows Roger Federer's footwork. Take a look!

What I notice is his amazing alignment and what in the Alexander world, is called "Use."

The narration describes his footwork and shows the direction of his movement in slo-mo.

You can also look at his alignment. See the perfect relationship between his head, neck and back. He is poised, aligned, and centered in all his moves.

Alexander used the word, "Use," to refer to the way we carry ourselves in every activity of life. He postulated that the basic way our head is set up on our neck, and the head and neck in relation to the back, is what he called the Primary Control for the entire, psycho-physical being.

The point, as one student of mine said, is "...making the most of the facility that one still has."

This related NY Times article on Mr. Federer states that "The argument for Federer as the greatest player in men’s tennis history starts from the ground up."

I suggest that it also starts from the head, down. Look at his head and eyes, turning and focused on the ball and also, on where he's about to go. Can you see the alignment? The head leads and the body follows.

Be well! Stop a moment during your day to say Hello! to awareness and being present in your body.

The first step is awareness....

It is a sunny day and I'm heading out to enjoy it.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Little moments of awareness add up....let's do this again soon.

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Posted In: Alexander Technique , F.M. Alexander

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Good morning friends,

It's January and many people are trying to improve their bodies and their health.

Depending on what your problem is, you may choose from a host of offerings. To lose weight, go to the gym and diet. To stop smoking, some people use patches. To cure back pain, what do you do?

The British publication, Pulse, just published a report on a study on self-care for back pain in the current issue of Family Practice. Doctors prescribed either exercise or the Alexander Technique. In the early phases, about 40% of people liked either one. As the study went on, the balance shifted to 66% of patients liking the Alexander Technique, while those who preferred exercise stayed about the same.

I suppose that leaves some people who didn't like either one, but maybe that's to be expected.

I think that having a 2/3 chance that you'll like something that's non-invasive, gentle, and empowers you to care for yourself to cure back pain, is worth checking out.

Give me a call! If you're in my area, maybe I can help. If not, I'll help you find a teacher near you.

Did you know?
A study on back pain was published in the British Medical Journal in August, 2008. It showed that people went from 21 days of pain per month to 3 days of pain, using 24 lessons in the Alexander Technique alone.

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Posted In: Alexander Technique

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"Ua ola loko i ke aloha," means Love Gives Life Within, in Hawaiian.

One of my Twitter friends posted this today. I am practicing the phrase until it flows with my breath.

A Hawaiian friend explained "aloha" to me once. It refers to love and also, to breath as spirit. I think of this as love being the breath that is within us - which is life itself - so love brings life and breath within us and it flows outward to all.

Isn't language loveliest when it IS what it means? Wouldn't that be nice if saying Chocolate would create the experience of eating it? That's what the word, Aloha, does. The breath itself - the love that is breath that is also the word - is the gift you are giving and receiving when you say, "Aloha."

I'm sure my Hawaiian friends could add much greater depth of meaning. Please give me a call and fill me in!

Ua ola loko i ke aloha, my friends.

Aloha,

Dana

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Posted In: Just Because , Life Stories , Mindfulness

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Here are some links to resources online.*

altMD.com is a search engine that makes it easy for you to learn more about alternative medicine and find the best local health and wellness specialists.

A great resource for self-improvement on the Internet.

The Reiki Alliance Information about the Usui sytem of Reiki healing

Empowerment Quest International NLP & Life Coach Training Institute Kevin Cole is committed to your long term success as an NLP Practitioner, Life Coach, and Hypnotist and Kevin will reveal everything you need to know about these tools in a warm, inviting and fun environment.

*These links are provided as a convenience. No guarantee of quality of services is offered.

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Hey friends!

Victoria Beckham decided that rather than give up her 5 inch heels to improve her posture, she could take lessons in the Alexander Technique.

It's all over the news. Marie Claire in the U.K. wrote about it today.

The Daily Mail got the word out the day before.

Walking in stilettos is all about balance, and the Alexander Technique is a great way to get there. I love my heels and will be teaching workshops on walking in stilettos, coming soon.

Stay tuned for more info!

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Posted In: Alexander Technique , Applied Alexander®

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Hello good friends,

It's so nice when you stop by and visit. Perhaps we can chat about nothing again. Isn't that how Seinfeld got started? It's a show about nothing....

Sometimes when you take a lesson, the best thing to do is just go along with whatever is happening. It's better not to think too much and let yourself experience a different way of moving. Have you ever gotten intense from trying too hard? If we play with the word, we have "in" and "tense." Put them together and maybe it's tension going inward, or inner tension. Either way, that's too much work.

I like to call my studio, the "no work, no pain school."

Sometimes it is Just Fine and in fact, preferable to lay on the table and go into the Zone. The body has a wisdom of its own. So many times what we really need is to renew the experience of letting it happen.

Sometimes, a mind is a terrible thing to use.

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Posted In: Alexander Technique , Applied Alexander® , Mindfulness

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Hello my friends,

....more about nothing....

I was just teaching a lesson and again, nothing came up in conversation.

Nothing in the body is also a space where there is the absence of ego. It is the letting go of posturing and attitude. Postural attitude is part of what lets us and also other people know "who" we are. But we are more than that; posture is the external package that we show the world. We are also Beingness itself.

Is there a connection?

Letting go of muscular tension that contracts in to the joints allows for a little space. It literally creates space in the joints so that we move with ease.

First we stop - just Pause - and allow a little space. Try it...try lying down and postulating a little space in all your joints.

Continue reading "Living in the Space of Ease" »

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Posted In: Applied Alexander® , Mindfulness

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Hello Friends,

One of my students was leaving her lesson and she looked at me and said, "I am so excited about feeling nothing."

She first mentioned it when she was lying on the table. As I worked with her leg, she said, "I feel nothing." A smile crept over her face and curled up the corners of her lips. "I feel nothing!"

It wasn't the absence of pain or tension.
It was the positive sense of...nothing!

Have you ever had that feeling?

To me, it is a special moment when everything dissolves. The sense of confinement that is embodied in flesh itself disappears. It is like weightlessness or floating. There is no boundary between the parts; I sense the whole. That "Nothing" is the best stuff of all.

After she left, I realized that the space of nothing is also the space of possibility.

How does that tie in when I feel nothing, after the pain of ending a relationship, after the anger has gone... Suddenly there is nothing and it's kind of peaceful and it's also the space of possibility.

This is not about the hole that's left in my heart by the empty room, it's about the whole that is created by nothing.
It is the place where anything is possible.

One of my dance teachers, Tandy Beal, once shared a dance that she choreographed. It was called, "The Place Where Canaries Are Born."

Where does one create?

Out of nothing!

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Posted In: Applied Alexander® , Mindfulness

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Hello Friends,

The other day I came across is a list of “8 Rules to Produce Happiness.” It was posted on Twitter and I really liked it. I re-tweeted it and said, “Attitude matters!”

It does….it is the strongest tool we have for dealing with the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” that Life throws our way. The whole world seems topsy-turvy lately and sometimes it gets to me. Sound familiar?

This morning, I was really down. This afternoon I am perfectly content to chip away at the long To Do list in front of me, happy as a clam. What the heck happened?

It was my attitude. I only noticed that it had shifted when the noise from leaf blower in the neighborhood failed to annoy me. It was just soothing background noise.

I don’t recall the moment when it shifted, but I do remember noticing that I was down and figuring that I’d better do something about it.

Continue reading "On the Road to Happiness" »

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Posted In: Applied Alexander® , Life Stories , Mindfulness

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Hello my friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. I'd like to go back to the discussion that was the reason for this blog. What is this stuff, anyway? Why do we talk about the "Alexander Technique?"

Lately, it seems to me that it would be better go back to what Mr. Alexander used to say. He called it, "the Work."

If you've ever taken lessons and then tried to describe the Alexander Technique, you understand the challenge that this represents.

There’s the conventional description of how it helps people undo postural patterns that are often at the root of pain.

Then there are the deeper ramifications of the work. That's where this blog, Applied Alexander Technique®, comes into play for me.

F.M. (Alexander) said that we are psycho-physical beings.

If so, then perhaps we need an entirely new, synthesized language to begin to truly discuss this in holistic terms of the Self.

The aspect of this work that attracts me most deeply is that it is not only about body mechanics. The Alexander Technique is a skill to UNdo habit patterns that have put us wrong, over time. That is as true for habitual reactions to emotional stimuli as it is for physical patterns in how we move our bodies in daily life.

Physically, the premise is that the way we carry ourselves, affects how we function. Absolutely true! For instance, in dance, good posture in activity gives balance, ease, and poise. In terms of the how-it's-done, the Technique is incredibly gentle. Instead of pulling on some body part that is tight and off-center to make it go in the right direction, we UNdo the reason it's tight in the first place.

Once upon a time, we were born with bodies that worked and were balanced. We ran and played and walked upright because that is how children are born and grow.

That open, upright posture is still within us and it can be reawakened.

On an internal level, I also believe and sense that this work helps to open the flow of Chi and wake up our Consciousness.

That's where the real challenges lie...the development of human potential....that is truly, the Work.

Give me a call sometime!

Dana

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Posted In: Alexander Technique , Applied Alexander® , F.M. Alexander

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Hello my friends!

Today was the day for all things green and growing. I wanted to plant the pineapple, but before taking that on, I decided to patch the big bare spot on the far end of the lawn.

I'm sure you know how one good thing leads to another.... While I was hunkered down patching the open spot, I started looking more closely at the rest of the lawn. I discovered that it's true; what you look for, you shall find. I looked and I found...more bare patches! In the end, I patched almost half the lawn. It was a beautiful day and I didn't mind, not really.

When I came inside I looked carefully at the pineapple. It was green and alive, but the roots seemed to have plateaued in their growth. It was time.

I planted it in a flower pot in regular potting mix and set it back in its spot on the kitchen counter.

I am sure it would prefer the iron rich, red dirt of Maui. The best I could do was black potting soil with those little bits of white, spongy fake rock mixed in it, in a dark red pot.

All it needs to do is root and grow and be alive a month from now and I'll be happy to feed it a cup of liquid fertilizer, per the instructions. I wonder what type it really needs....or does it matter, given that the true need, the warm Hawaiian sun, is absent?

Somehow my little crown of pineapple heaven keeps on going and growing. It is the Energizer Bunny of pineapple. I swear the leaves are greener this evening, just since planting it this afternoon. Whenever I see it, I smile.

We are far from Maui but it is growing where it is planted.

There's a lesson for me.

Aloha,

Dana

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Posted In: Just Because , Life Stories

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Aloha, my friends!

I promised to let you know how my pineapple crown does.

You may recall the instructions. They said to pull off the bottom inch or so of leaves from around the crown, let it dry on the counter for 2-3 days, and at long last, to put the crown in 1 1/2" of water.

Two days after being in water, I thought it was going to die. The remaining outer leaves started turning brown and soggy. A few fell off. I was worried about writing to you.

I kept adding a little water to the dish and kept it out of the sun but in a bright spot on the kitchen counter.

Several days later, I ventured to lift it out of the water and see what was going on.

Roots! But quelle surprise! It is growing roots, but not out the bottom!

Continue reading "Roots! Or, A Pineapple's Story" »

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Posted In: Alexander Technique , Just Because , Life Stories

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