Applied Alexander Technique Blog

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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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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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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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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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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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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Hello my friends,

Welcome....come on in and enjoy some of the sweet end of summer while we can. I just came back from Hawaii and have lots of good energy to share.

I woke up this morning thinking about Maui.

I woke up feeling the Island air and how soft it is. I can still feel it, caressing my skin. It is so warm that it melts me, but not so warm that it burns. It is soft, it is soothing, and I could drift away into it, into the Zone.

Melting into nothingness, feeling my body float away till there is nothing left and I’m just floating in space; that is the experience for me of sitting quietly out by the ocean’s edge.

Two days ago, I was lying under a tree on Ka’anapali beach. The breeze was warm and gentle. I drifted off to sleep, and when I woke, it was to consciousness but not to any particular sensation.

Can I do Constructive Rest while floating off in a Hawaiian breeze?
In that floating feeling, how does one find a sense of direction?

I notice that I can think very lightly up my spine, just letting it be and yet knowing it is there.

Thinking lightly down my legs, out the heels, but not pulling, not pulling at all.

I notice that my back widens out the shoulders in either direction. I send a thought going up my neck and notice my head is lightly poised on top.

It is as if I am floating in space. Nothing is pulling, yet I sense that there is a space that my body takes.

I can think in a direction in my body, in whatever position I may be.

I can think of Maui and the warm, Hawaiian air and let it fill me again, all the way here in the Mainland.

That is the skill, of thinking in the body that is taught in the Alexander Technique. Like any skill, it takes practice. This morning I can still feel Hawaii and the ocean in my body. What a good skill…it is so worth practicing…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit, or in Hawaiian, Mahalo!

Aloha,

Dana

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Hello Friends,

Continuing on a theme of amazing use of one's body, here's Fred Astaire swinging a golf club.

Look at his balance and poise! I am always stunned and enthralled by the natural alignment and grace in his spine.

One of the basic premises of the Alexander Technique is that "Use affects Function." In other words, the way we carry ourselves in activity affects how well we function, feel and perform.

Watch as Mr. Astaire dances his way through a whole sequence of perfect swings.

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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.

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Hello my friends,

One of my friends asked me how I got my dogs to let me brush their teeth.

This may not appear to have anything to do with Alexander Technique, and of course, in a direct sense, it doesn't. But I would never have had the patience to do this without the skill of patience that I acquired through my Alexander training. It helped me get my dogs trained in such a friendly way that they leap into their bed eagerly awaiting a good tooth-brushing.

A friend of mine gave me pointers. They involved not end-gaining and lots of patience.

First, I let my puppy sniff the doggy toothpaste from my finger. I bought poultry flavored dog toothpaste; that helped a lot.

He sniffed once or twice and then licked it off my finger.

That was that! I put everything away while he looked around for more.

Continue reading "How to Get Dogs to Let You Brush their Teeth." »

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Hello friends,

Remember, I promised to tell you how I might apply this thinking in the body to real life? I will tell you about my experience with the dentist....and undoing tension in my neck.

A year or two ago, I had to have a root canal and was literally getting uptight and tight-necked about it. I decided to try and apply the Alexander Technique to my thoughts about the dentist.

I started by doing the same thing I ask all my students to do: "First, we stop." Just Stop - Pause - and notice where I am and what's going on with me.

Then I began undoing the tension in my neck. You can do it along with me....we can do it, step-by-step.

Want to try? We'll start with something simple and expand to the neck.

Continue reading "A Visit to the Dentist without Pain - Neck or Otherwise" »

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Hello again...this is a nice habit we are creating. We stop and have a chat and stop to breathe for a moment or two.

I often meditate on the mental image of a rose, but even better, is to put a real rose in a glass of water and study it.

Look at it closely, till you can see the texture of the petals. Breathe in deeply; does the fragrance smell sweet? Spicy? Look at the gradations of color in the rose. How open is it?

Look at the stem and notice the leaves. Are the edges spiky or smooth? How big are the thorns? Does it have teeny-tiny little hairs that are thin thorns, or smooth skin and big, bold, honest thorns that are large enough to see before you impale yourself upon them?

Breathe in the fragrance of your rose for a minute or two. Even if you do it in your imagination, tell me, now how do you feel?

The same thing can happen with pure thought in the body. The Alexander Technique is a good way to learn this skill and apply it to benefit your well-being.

What fascinates me is where this skill may be applied in life. How can we use it to improve our relationships? How may it enhance the quality of our lives?

See you again tomorrow....let's see where this may go.....

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And does it make your mouth water just thinking about it?

I love smoked salmon...the good stuff; Nova. Belly lox. Put that on a freshly backed (boiled - not steamed) bagel with some good Philly and I'm in heaven. Just the thought of it makes my mouth water.

Don't get me started on the steamed, baked donuts they call bagels today. I want the real thing, dropped into a vat of boiling water, then set to rise, and baked. Hard, dense, chewy, and delicious.

But I digress.

The point is, a simple thought can cause a reaction in the body. Just mention freshly brewed coffee and I'm ready to hop over to Starbucks.

Let's talk about this some more....how about tomorrow? We'll chat over a cup o' Joe.

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Hello friends,

With all the talk about the ATEAM study about Alexander Technique and back pain, are you left behind in the dust wondering what the heck the Alexander Technique is, anyway? And how does it work and what are the principles upon which it is based?

I just knew you'd say you couldn't wait to hear more. Here is the answer for you, nice and easy and all wrapped up in a nutshell. Aren't you just a wee bit curious? Read on, and I'll speak about golfing and being centered.

I'll even tell you why learning about the principles matters. Promise!

Here are five basic principles of the Technique:

• faulty sensory awareness - this is the sense of where we are in space, called proprioception. Try looking in the mirror; are you surprised to see imbalances that you do not feel? Our inner sense can be tuned up again so it gives a truer picture.

• force of habit - you can learn to change poor postural habits to positive ones and put this force to work for you in a very good way

• the primary control – that the head-neck relationship is of primary importance in coordinating the use of the entire psycho-physical being

• inhibition – to refrain from doing. Here's an example:

the idea of sitting down often triggers an automatic response to tighten the back of the neck and retract the head. You can learn not to compress your spine by not contracting your head and neck. Are you automatically trying it as you read this? It's not easy, is it. That's faulty sensory awareness (see above).

• direction – consciously directing the body with our thought

Why does any of this matter?

Continue reading "What is the Alexander Technique?" »

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Hello friends,

Some of my friends’ children are having children of their own. I get the fringe benefit of being a distant “Auntie” and get to see many photographs that they share.

We were noticing how babies sit and how they have such naturally beautiful posture.

Don’t you love the way he's so upright? I could just sit here looking at this picture and be inspired by the human form.

My friends have been buying baby furniture and I thought back to the days before my son was born. I probably drove my family a bit nutty with my insistence on finding furniture that would support a baby’s naturally upright posture. I wouldn’t use one of the umbrella style strollers, except as necessary for travel. I wanted a flat bed for the carriage, not an umbrella cloth-backed stroller. I saw too many babies sleeping sitting up, hunched over with their heads falling forwards onto their chests.

I don’t know, but I suspect – that putting babies into unsupported furniture is not helpful, over time, in supporting their development. They are so naturally open in their bodies, and so malleable and tender. Look how they sleep; they don't need anything to be comfortable.

I haven't looked at baby strollers and carriages in recent years so I don't know what is out on the market, nor what specific brands or models to suggest to my friends for their grandchildren. But I do see that babies are still being born as wonderfully, naturally upright little people, so my thought is to look for equipment that supports that natural position.

We’re born with a natural uprightness. Here’s a reminder. Enjoy!

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Hello all my girlfriends out in the land of Shoes and High Heels!

Are high heels part of your life? Do you gaze at them wistfully, from afar? Or do you condemn them as bad horrible inventions designed by men?

How does anyone wear high heels? As an Alexander teacher, most of the time I am in stocking feet, happily letting my toes and heels move freely on the floor. Most of my (female) colleagues wear flats or a small heel; as we all know, it’s better for your back.

But where is your heart? What is your truth?
Are you like me, and do you love heels?

I just saw the new movie, Sex and the City. It was notable for the clothes but what I loved even more, were the shoes…..ahhhhhh…..the heels. How about The Devil Wears Prada? The clothes were amazing - but the symbol of the movie was those devilish, divine, delicious heels.

How then, is a girl to reconcile working barefoot and knowing about backs, and loving those shoes?

I remember trying on my first pair of heels when I was a teenager. I wobbled and nearly fell as I tried to walk; it was probably a very good imitation of a drunk. My mother was shopping with me and she tried very hard not to laugh out loud.
My balance was completely off and I could not figure out how to stand up straight and take a step.

So, how do I walk in heels today? How do I dance in them is more to the point; I have been ballroom dancing for nearly 16 years and I am ever so comfortable in my 3-inch heels.

Continue reading "High Heels and the Alexander Technique Teacher" »

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Hi there! So nice of you to drop by again. It’s spring and I was just walking my dogs.

Do you have dogs to walk? If not, how do you take little mental health breaks during your day?

Sometimes when we walk, I meet a neighbor. Other times, I just look at what comes to my eyes and think of Thich Nhat Hahn’s walking meditation.

Today, I looked at the yellow and pink snapdragons by my front door and noticed how relaxing it is just to pause and really examine the details of a flower. I remember feeling that way on a vacation at The Mauian, a hideaway in Maui, when a gecko walked up the glass walls of a phone booth as I was inside. You can lose your worries watching sticky little footpads inching up.

Of course, my eyes were open looking at the gecko and at the same time I had a feeling of relaxation.

Some people close their eyes when they try to relax. What do you do? Closing the eyes may be an unconscious association with a certain amount of tension in the body and eyes being open, and relaxation with closing the eyes for sleeping or meditating. I realized meditation is also possible with eyes open, as with looking closely at flowers.

Once in a while during my Alexander training, the Director would put a flower in the middle of the floor. We’d all sit in a circle and look at it. The instructions were to just notice the flower.

Continue reading "Walking the Dogs" »

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Hi Friends,

Welcome back. Yesterday we were talking about being Creatures of Habit and I promised to tell you about me.

I remember being horrified to realize that I was contracting my neck severely, every time I moved, and then to discover that I could not control this behavior. Try it again; try not pulling your head back into your neck as you get up. (And try not to achieve this through the unfair and unproductive means of stiffening your neck like a block of wood. Try to simply not do something you usually do!)

F.M. Alexander noticed habits of his own that he determined were at the root cause of losing his voice and thereby, threatening to ruin his career as an actor. He discovered a pattern of compression along the spine and through his joints, all the way to gripping the floor with his feet. He was tightening his throat and neck and throwing his head back and his chest out.

Have you ever tried to change a habit and then noticed just how tenacious they can be? F.M. (as he was known) discovered this difficulty. He reasoned that these patterns of contraction and compression were connected with the difficulties he was having with his voice. He tried telling himself not to do them, but when he’d begin to actually speak, he discovered that he reverted right back to his old habits.

Sound familiar?

Continue reading "Creatures of Habit, Part Two" »

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We are creatures of habit, or so they say. But are we really? Are you willing to admit to it?

I do. I readily admit to being a creature of habit, and I propose that habits are good - as long as they’re the ones we want.

If you agree with me, then it’s also true that good habits are a matter of consciousness and choosing the habitual ways in which we live our lives.

My first (habitual) reaction to the idea of habits was to think of them as bad things: “He smokes like a chimney.” “She eats when she’s stressed.” “I’m always late to appointments.”

Then I thought further and came up with many good habits that we’re all supposed to cultivate, like flossing your teeth and exercising and getting enough sleep.

One way to think of habits is as a reaction to a stimulus that occurs without our thinking about it. Smokers may react to the stimulus of finishing dinner by wanting a cigarette. That’s their habit. Some people react to any bad news by becoming alarmed; other people are more sanguine and take it in stride. We have habits of mental and also physical reaction and they happen coincidentally. How do you react to the alarm clock in the morning? Can you say that it’s entirely mental, or do you also react physically? How about habits of fear, or anger? Do you know someone who reacts to a request defensively, with fear, or aggressively, with anger? How about people you like; do they react with a smile?

We can cultivate happy habits like growing beautiful roses, and we can pluck unwanted habits like dandelions in the lawn. They may come back, but if we keep removing them eventually the lawn will be clear and green.
(Ha! I can hear you laughing about the dandelions from here! Do they ever give up?)

Continue reading "Creatures of Habit" »

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It’s spring and allergies are in bloom right along with all the pretty flowers. Do you sneeze, or do your eyes get a little red?
Allergy season can be miserable for many of us, but for people with asthma, it can be a real nightmare.

Sloan Miller writes about how tension is part of her life as an asthmatic, and how the Alexander Technique has helped her release tension associated with asthma.

One aspect that may not be obvious to people who don’t have asthma is that panic is also a part of the cycle. Sloan found that her Alexander lesson was helpful to create “a completely relaxed and conscious state” for her.

Read Sloane’s article here.

Sloane found this benefit in her first lesson and decided to continue. As she said, "resting takes practice." It’s not uncommon for people to notice significant changes after one or two lessons. Getting those changes to last typically requires a series of lessons. It’s like learning anything; if you practice it for some time, it starts to “stick.”

Continue reading "Asthma and Alexander Technique" »

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Will Rogers said, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

Maybe you’re wondering how on earth what the most popular and highest paid actor in Hollywood in the 1930’s said could possible coincide with helping your stiff neck or tight shoulders.

Well, pull up a chair and let’s explore the idea.

Mr. Rogers said to stop digging.
He didn’t say to start something else.
The first thing to do is to stop.

I’m always telling my students, “First, we stop,” and I mean that literally.

Whatever is going on, IS, but while it’s obvious that it’s not anything less, what’s not always obvious is that it isn’t anything more.

If your neck is stiff and you come in to see me, I may suggest that you let it be what it is. I’ll say, “Let’s not add to it. Just don’t make it worse.”

Try it. Are your shoulders hiked up around your ears?
Try leaving them there and just noticing them.
What happens when you do? Do they start to release on their own?

When you stop digging the hole, it’s still there. Now you can observe it and perhaps some creative idea will percolate up on how to turn it to advantage.

Continue reading "Will Rogers and a New Perspective." »

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A very dear friend recently brought my attention to an article about chronic pain, and a possible connection with the Alexander Technique.

Here’s the article:

Chronic Pain Harms Brain's Wiring Friday, Feb. 8, 2008 (HealthDay News)

The article discusses a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, February 6, 2008 issue. The idea is that being in chronic pain causes the neurons in your brain to fire continuously, and that in turn could cause permanent changes that are damaging to your brain. The researchers’ theory is that chronic pain causes changes in the brain. Those changes could be the connection between pain, depression and other difficulties.

Pain can be increased dramatically by our own response to it. The biological pain level can be multiplied by a factor of ten due to our own reaction, fear and tightening up. Most of us tighten up in response to pain, but that can make pain ten times worse. Therefore, by learning to loosen up we may reduce or eliminate the effect of the multiple.

If the study is basically correct and chronic pain harms the brain’s wiring, then techniques that interrupt the chronic pain cycle may help your brain as well as unhooking you from the pain cycle.

Continue reading "Chronic Pain: Breaking the Cycle" »

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Posted In: Applied Alexander® , Pain Management

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When you are centered and grounded in your body you are centered and grounded in your Self.

Do you want to try and prove it to yourself?

Try slumping in your chair. Let your chin come rest on your chest, if your neck will stretch that far. Let your arms fall into your lap. Let your back collapse.

Now try and sing The Star Spangled Banner in a bright and sprightly voice. It doesn’t work very easily.

It is hard to be up when you’re down.

And it’s hard to be down when you’re up.

One of the things I tell all my students is, “Wherever you are, you’re Up!”
That’s because in Alexander terms, “Up” means up the spine and out the top of the head. Therefore, “Up” is a relative term to you, wherever you are. And given that, then truly wherever you are there is an Up and it is within you!

We literally cannot separate mind from body, and mood and mind and spirit are intertwined.

Think about someone who is happy. What do you see? Are they smiling? Are the corners of their mouth turning up? I bet they are not frowning and tears are not rolling down their face. It seems simplistic, but it’s very true. We read people by their expression and also by their body language, and we do it all the time.

Continue reading "Wherever You Are, You’re Up!" »

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Welcome to my blog! I am so glad you dropped in for a visit.

Please pull up a chair and get a cup of tea – or coffee - and let’s have a chat.

I hope you have already heard about the Alexander Technique. * This blog is for another purpose than providing information. I will probably still do some explaining, as many visitors may not have previous experience of the Technique, but what I really want to do is to talk about the Alexander Technique and Life. That means applying the principles of the Technique in other ways than we do in lessons. I like to call it, “Applied Alexander®.”

In lessons I look at the way a person moves; how they walk, sit, stand, and use a computer or perhaps, a musical instrument. We look at waking up a body sense that has gone dormant, and training ourselves to think in the body.

And in another way, we can look at the way our minds move, at the way our emotions flow through us.

Continue reading "Welcome to Applied Alexander®" »

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