Applied Alexander Technique Blog

"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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