My friend, Amy Flynn, wrote a story with many meanings, about a little daffodil named Dinky. This story resonated with me and Amy kindly gave me permission to tell you about it here. I’ll give you a little peek into the story and why I liked it, with full credits to Amy Flynn © 2008.

Once upon a time there was a daffodil named Dinky. Dinky grew in the shade of an oak tree, quite apart from his daffodil friends. He felt lonely and unhappy and wished to be growing with them under the bright sun over in the meadow instead of alone under the shadow of a great, big tree.

The oak tree tried to help Dinky understand why he was in a better position than his daffodil friends. Dinky was just a young daffodil, though and it was very hard for him to see beyond his current situation. It was dark and it was cool under the oak tree.

All of the other daffodils bloomed in the sunshine, soaking up the rays.

Today I'm just sharing a poem. This came to me on my one and only visit to Esalen Institute. Four hours in the hot tub under the stars melted my edges and I felt one with the Universe. The stars agreed.

Starsong at Esalen

The stars are singing
There are so many
And they are so close
Because they want me
To hear them singing

"We are all connected
We are starlight and lovelight
We are all the same

"All of us are stars
Singing in the same sky
With our light and our love
Reaching between to connect us all

"Sometimes we forget we are stars
We forget to let our light shine

"We are here to remember
To learn to shine in this form
In this life"

They are singing tonight
Loudly enough to wake a human
Out of slumber
Into stardom.

©2009 all rights reserved by Dana Ben-Yehuda

They interviewed Dr. Donald B. Levy, of Harvard's Osher Clinic. They also met with and took a lesson from Kitty Breen and recorded some of the lesson for this broadcast. Ms. Breen is an AmSAT Certified Alexander Teacher in Cambridge, MA.

Dr. Levy is the Medical Director of the Osher Clinical Center For Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies. He speaks about back pain and Alexander Technique, and refers to results from a study that was published in the British Medical Journal. Dr. Levy speaks clearly about what the Technique is, and what it is not. I was impressed!

I’ve heard it and think it’s very good. If you have anyone in your life who might find the Technique useful, this is a nice way for them to find out about it, and the piece is brief; only 4 minutes, 25 seconds.

The piece originally aired on WMBR's Soundtrack Science show on Monday, April 6 from 4-5pm EDT (1-2 pm, PDT). It is posted here, with permission.

Click on this link to hear the broadcast. You will have the option to listen online, or to save the file on your computer.

It is also available in WMBR's archives. To listen via WMBR, click on this link to their main page. Scroll down the page to the link for Sound Track Science, Monday April 6 broadcast. The link offers the option to either listen online, or download the MP3 file of the broadcast.

Please let me know what you think of this!

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Here are two different types of offerings coming up for musicians.

1) Alexander Technique Workshop for instrumentalists and vocalists
(limited to SJSU Dept. of Music students)

Please feel free to bring your instrument!

Where: San Jose State University, Department of Music

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009, 5:00 - 7:00 pm.

Fee: $15

Please sign up in the department office.

2) Workshop Week at the Mountain View Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA).

Upcoming: Week of May 27 - 30, 2009

And recently: Week of March 10 - 14, 2009

These classes are for current students of music at CSMA. There will be two classes for children, 8 - 12, and one class for adults & teens, in each week.

Give me a call at 650-964-4308 if you are interested in setting up a talk or demonstration for your group.

Recent Events

April 19, 2009: Introduction to the Alexander Technique, for Harpers Hall in Saratoga, CA.

October 4 - 12, 2008 was the Fifth Annual International Alexander Awareness Week

Teachers from Alexander Societies in 15 countries offered demonstrations, workshops, and talks to increase the public awareness of the Alexander Technique.

Monday, October 6, 2008, Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Introductory talk followed by hands-on experience for faculty and staff at the Mountain View Community School of Music and Arts.

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.

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!

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."

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.

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 the mouth of a child....truth.

Here's a video from The Alexander Educational Center (TAEC).

Find out what the training course is like, but more importantly, get a sense of the scope of the work. This is where I did the bulk of my training, and also have worked assisting in teacher-training. I highly recommend it!

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.

Thanks so much for stopping by on Valentine's Day. I thought it would be nice to post some news of the heart. Or in this case, the heart, the brain, and the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama and Stanford University are working together to research the connection between compassion and the brain.

The goals include taking this to the next step to gain understanding in ways that can reduce childhood bullying and recidivism. Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, has a project called Operation Respect, with the goal of ending bullying.

On a day that is about love, isn't it nice to know that some people are putting their money where their hearts are?

Media/journalists: Dana Ben-Yehuda is the Media Spokesperson for the American Society for the Alexander Technique. Contact her at dbenyehuda(at)comcast(dot)net

Wishing you a happy day!

Dana

Bottom Line's Daily Health News
February 8, 2009

In This Issue...

100-Year-Old Solution to Back Pain

Alexander Technique Body Movement Method Works Better than Other Therapies for Back Pain, Even a Year Later

Special from Bottom Line's Daily Health News
February 9, 2009

If you suffer from chronic back pain, you may want to consider a century-old, non-invasive, drug-free treatment method called the Alexander technique, which reeducates people on how to support and move their bodies. Recently an English study involving 579 patients with back pain put the Alexander technique to the test and demonstrated that it was effective and provided sustainable relief.

THE STUDY

Researchers established four groups of patients -- one took six Alexander technique lessons... another took 24 lessons... a third group had massage therapy only... and the fourth group had what the study team called "normal care." (Normal care was defined as care that would be offered by a general practitioner, and could include pain medications, non-mandatory referral to physiotherapy, etc.) All four groups were further divided in half, with one half walking briskly for 30 minutes a day and the others not exercising at all. Participants answered questionnaires about pain and function improvement at three months and one year. Results: The two Alexander technique groups reported significantly reduced back pain and improved functioning, including after 12 months, while there was little change in the massage and normal care groups. Among those who took just six lessons but who also did brisk walking, improvement was almost as great as those who took 24 lessons but did not exercise.

To find out more about the Alexander technique, I called Hope Gillerman, who has taught classes at physical rehabilitation centers and had a private practice in New York City for more than 25 years. Methods like acupuncture can offer immediate pain relief, notes Gillerman, but people with back pain also need a long-term, self-healing regimen -- and that is what the Alexander technique is. Most back pain comes from incorrect posture, poor body mechanics and excessive muscle tension, which increases when people are fatigued, angry, upset or in one position for a long time. Under duress, tension automatically builds in the back of the neck and the shoulders, pulling the heavy head downward into the spine, which causes compression. The fact that the pain becomes chronic further exacerbates all of these problems, Gillerman points out... since pain is upsetting and stops people from doing things and moving as they normally would, people develop more harmful habits. The Alexander technique can be effective because it addresses and helps to correct not only the cause of the injury, but also those harmful habits brought on by the pain.

HOW IT WORKS

At the heart of the Alexander technique is learning to keep the spine erect and properly supported. Gillerman explains that most people are unstable and "collapsed" through their torso, and hold and move their limbs in a rigid and stiff pattern. Without proper muscular support, the spine compresses, harming joints and tissues.

Here are three ways Gillerman helps her students envision what to do...

Here's news about MRI scans and low back pain.

Tara Parker-Pope reported on interesting information about low back pain, X-rays and MRIs. In her article, she reports that many people who have back pain undergo diagnostic tests that are not helpful. Sometimes, as a result of these tests, people undergo treatment that may not be necessary. It can be expensive as well as painful.

Ms. Parker-Pope cites a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. This study showed that 2 out of 3 people scanned with MRI showed evidence of disk problems. It concluded: Given the high prevalence of these findings and of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with low back pain may frequently be coincidental. Indeed; the people scanned were not in pain.

Ms. Parker-Pope also writes about another study, this one, published in The Lancet.

The report states in part: “Analysis of results from the 6 included studies shows that lumbar imaging for low back pain without features suggestive of a serious underlying condition does not, on average, improve clinical outcomes. This finding particularly applies to patients with acute or subacute, non-specific low back pain evaluated in primary care settings.”

At the same time, most people suffer with back pain at some point in time. According to Tara Parker-Pope’s article, that number is roughly two-thirds of us.

What is a person to do?

A study published in the British Medical Journal on Aug. 19, 2008, shows 86% reduction in number of days in pain per month following 24 lessons in the Alexander Technique. Patients went from 21 days of pain per month down to 3 days of pain.

Check it out: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/aug19_2/a884