Applied Alexander Technique Blog

Hello friends,

Lately, I am reading a new book: Forgive for Good, by Dr. Fred Luskin, and enjoying it very much.

It's all about forgiveness, and that necessarily includes looking at grievances that we can learn to forgive.

Dr. Luskin talks about how much mindspace we give to grievances in our lives. He uses the example of a flight controller's screen that shows planes flying around as dark spots on the screen. They are an analogy for the dark feelings we get when we harbor grievances. Dr. Luskin goes on to say that dwelling on wrongs that have been done to us is like making those planes stay in the air forever, circling round and round. They are a corollary to how much mindspace we give our grievances. He suggests letting the planes land...

I tried it and what I noticed when my planes of dark feelings landed, is that what I was left looking at was the sky. Clear, blue sky (and my imagination added just a few, small puffy white clouds.) The sky was wide open and all things were possible. I felt sunny inside.

Reading this book is causing an attitudinal shift in me. It is making me wake up and look for the sky instead of the dark planes in my life. I'm learning to let the planes settle and focus on the sky.

I started thinking about applying the principle of dark planes to pain. Pain is like dark planes that become the focus of our attention, to the exclusion of the sky. Often times when various places hurt, we ignore everything else and our entire awareness may become focused on pain.

I think that this is one of the ways Alexander Technique helps with pain. In the practice, we stop focusing on the dark planes that are our aches and pains and let ourselves notice the whole and flow with it. So, my friends, let your mind wander a bit. Let it wander up and down your back and out your shoulders, and on to the world beyond. Try a lesson if you're curious; it is easier to learn this skill with a teacher.

Good morning, my friends!

Here's some news!

The April, 2009 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine is available today, March 17th.

It has a very nice article about back pain and the Alexander Technique, titled A Dramatic Cure for Back Pain. I am very happy to have been interviewed during the writing process even though not quoted, and I hope you enjoy the article!

The article discusses the study on back pain and Alexander Technique that was published in the British Medical Journal on August 19, 2008.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please share this with everyone!

Making the Crooked Straight
- by Simona Fuma – reprinted with permission

They're the words a girl loves to hear: "Have you gotten taller?" "You've lost weight!" Such were the unsolicited comments I received when I visited the United States from my home in Israel recently, where, for the last three months, I had been practicing the Alexander Technique (AT)—a movement re-education program that involves hands-on adjustments to improve posture and coordination.

While yoga, Pilates and other posture-enhancing methods have swept the U.S. in recent years, AT has enjoyed a thriving presence under the radar. Its hubs include London, New York, San Francisco and Israel, which boasts one of the highest numbers of AT teachers per capita (300). Stateside, there are an estimated 800 certified teachers and tens of thousands of students.

Oscar-winning actress Hillary Swank was one of those students while preparing for her 2001 role as an 18th-century French countess in The Affair of the Necklace. "Jean Louis [her AT instructor] taught me that an aristocrat didn't just sit down in a chair," Swank famously told the The New York Times. "She floated down. And she floated up and down stairs. She certainly didn't climb them, for that implies effort." AT also counts Lady Judi Dench, Paul McCartney and Sting among its famous fans.

According to Dana Ben-Yehuda, media spokesperson for the American Society of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT)—and, perhaps fittingly, the daughter of an Israeli father—in the U.S. the Alexander Technique is popular among two categories of people. "Singers, actors and musicians use the technique to enhance their performances," she explains. In fact, the father of AT, Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869-1955), was an Australian actor who developed the method to help him overcome chronic laryngitis.

The other category comprises people who are in pain and looking to AT for relief. After all, most health experts agree that good posture and proper muscle relaxation go a long way toward preventing back pain, the fifth most frequent reason for all physician visits in the U.S.

Dr. Howard L. Rosner, medical director of The Pain Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, says that the number one complaint of the patients he sees is lower back pain, and he recommends the Alexander Technique, along with other forms of physical therapy, to treat muscular-skeletal pain. "The Alexander Technique can retrain people to use their bodies more constructively," he says. "It can impact neck pain, low back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome."

Continue reading " Alexander Technique - Making the Crooked Straight " »

Hi there!

It's so nice to see you again!

The Applied Alexander® blog is all the Alexander Technique (AT, for short), life musings and interesting tidbits, and an exploration of how AT is relevant to the entire mind-body continuum.

Today's post is about the Technique, from a different point of view.

Dr. Craig Bowron only had one lesson from my colleague, Lauren Hill. He did the best one-lesson job I have ever heard of communicating clearly about the way it feels.

He was interviewed on Twin Cities Live, KSTP Channel 5 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Here's what he had to say:

Thanks so much for stopping by; come back again soon.

Hello friends,

My Tweeting friend, MaAnna Stephenson, sent this note. “Aristotle stated all things fell to Earth because all was made of earthly substances and were attracted to their natural home.”

It made me wonder; does this mean that what we call death is really just that our spirit is attracted to its natural home and falls up?

I wonder; where does this thought lead you?

Love to hear from you....

From my friend, Eleanor, comes a link to this video and a message: "It would be great if everybody can pass this around. Open your eyes and open your heart and listen carefully what she has got to say."

From the mouth of a child....truth.