Catching Yourself Doing The Alexander Technique
Many times people say to me 'I did ok this week, Alexander Techniquewise, but I caught myself a few times.' There can be a negative connotation to 'catching oneself ', but there doesn't have to be. In fact catching yourself slumping or sitting up rigidly straight is really a positive thing. It's at those moments where you can employ the principles of the Alexander Technique and make positive changes. As you catch yourself, you're becoming aware; you're waking up. Additionally...
Alexander Technique And Driving
When you learn to drive you are taught to grip the steering wheel at ten and two, unless you're thinking of a digital clock; then it gets confusing. If you weren't taught by an Alexander Technique teacher, you likely weren't taught how to grip the steering wheel, how little muscular effort is needed, or how to stop gripping in other parts of your body while driving. I observed that for highway driving I could get away with keeping my hands comfortably lower; perhaps around 4:35, give or take a few minutes. I also noticed, whenever I became aware, I could release tension in my hands. Once I released that extra effort I was able to notice tension elsewhere, including my jaw and my neck, and release that unneeded tension too. Moving up and away from my hands...
How Does The Alexander Technique Work?
Yesterday a student told me that he thought it 'took energy' to sit or stand using the principles of the Alexander Technique. If he just sat the way he always sat, he said, it took very little effort and felt comfortable. I can't disagree that it is comfortable to sit, stand, move and walk in our habitual way. A lot of our habits, though comfortable, aren't beneficial for us. Slumping is one of those habits, and slumping also takes energy because...
Alexander Technique And The Nobel Prize
In 1973, Nicholas Tinbergen and two others won the Nobel prize for Physiology-Medicine. He dedicated a good portion of his acceptance speech to F.M. Alexander, the Alexander Technique and it's benefits. He was an Alexander Technique student, as was his wife and daughter. They all took Alexander Technique lessons with different Alexander Technique teachers. What follows is the beginning of the portion of the speech relating to the Alexander Technique: …My second example of the usefulness of an ethological approach to Medicine has quite a different history. It concerns the work of a very remarkable man, the late F. M. Alexander. His research started some fifty years before the revival of Ethology for which we are now being honoured, yet his procedure was very similar to modern observational methods, and we believe that his achievements and those of his pupils deserve close attention...
Alexander Technique And Bike Riding
Alexander Technique in New York City is a challenge. Applying the Alexander Technique to bike riding in New York City is a bigger challenge! For my first bike (bicycle) ride I chose to be near NYC. This was my first ride in quite a few years. It's funny how once you've learned this skill, it stays with you forever. It's kind of like riding a bike...anyway it was great to be riding again; supplying my own power, the wind rustling through where my hair used to be...
Alexander Technique NYC
It's hard to know how fast and crazy everything around a large city can be, until you leave it. I think it's comparable to people at the beginning of Alexander Technique lessons not realizing how much they're tensing themselves, until they release that tension... It also made me realize that I want to take some of that calm energy back with me as I teach my Alexander Technique lessons in NYC.
