My Personal Successes with the Alexander Technique

To me, the Alexander Technique is a huge help in overcoming life's constant challenges.  So many times in life, I have been presented with an opportunity to do something that I thought was impossible.  But, by staying open to the possibility that it might be do-able, and by applying the principles of the Alexander Technique to that end, I have witnessed seemingly miraculous transformations in my life.  Some of them may seem relatively small to the outsider, but to the person who thinks something is impossible, manifesting that thing into reality really is a miracle.

Today, I feel the need to celebrate some of my life's successes.  Why?  Because life isn't just about aiming relentlessly forward and up into the future, it's also about appreciating and feeling gratitude for what is behind us and for what we have overcome.  Our back is a very important support for our body - just as our past is a support for our present.  Another reason I'm going to look at some of my own successes today (and this really isn't about boasting or pretending I'm better than I am, trust me), is because when we're feeling down and suffering from a bout of low self-esteem (like I am today), it can be helpful to remember that we are in fact capable of fantastic things.  And, who knows, maybe the successes I've had in my life could serve to inspire you to do something that you think is impossible, too.

Some of the successes in my life that stand out for me as pretty miraculous:

Teaching in my studio

1. I remember getting off of the table during one of my first Alexander Technique lessons, awestruck, thinking, "Wow, this is one of the most beautiful professions I can imagine!  My teacher is SO lucky to be able to do this for a living.  I could NEVER do this!!"  Here I am, years later, doing exactly what he was doing that day.

Japanese temari ball

2. During my AT training to become a teacher, I walked by a display-case in the public library, and stopped in my tracks as the display captured my attention.  Inside were dozens of exquisite Japanese temari balls, which are embroidered with elaborate and colorful geometric patterns.  I was enthralled and captivated, and I remember thinking, "Oh my goodness - how amazingly beautiful these things are!  I could NEVER make those!"  But, because of my AT training, my very next thought was, "Hmmm....why not?"  So, I tracked down the person who had made them (who turned out to be the city mayor), and she offered to teach me how to make them for free.  I took a lesson from her, learned how to do it, and made several Japanese temari balls, all of which I gave away.  Here's a picture of one of them.

3. Two weeks before I was scheduled to graduate from my AT training course, I walked out of the class, ready to quit (for personal reasons).  Making the decision to leave and acting on that was as much a landmark success for me as going back the week after and finishing the course to receive my teaching certificate.  That certificate was earned "with sweat and blood", and I am SO glad that I was able to finish!

During our research study with surgeons

4. Less than two years after finishing my training, I was presented with the opportunity to design and implement a pilot study on the Alexander Technique for surgeons at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.  My habitual self wanted to scream, "What?! Are you crazy?! ME?!!  I'm just a little violinist who faints at the doctor's office and never liked science, and you want me to do what?!?!"  But I said "yes", and I did it.  The study was extremely successful, the paper from the study was presented at two national medical conferences, won a prize at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference, and was published in the top medical journal for urology in the world. Now, I am a published medical researcher, being referenced by other authors.  If that isn't miraculous....?

Carnegie Hall, NYC

5. When I was a teenage violinist, I won a competition in Scotland and part of the prize was to give a debut recital at a major concert hall in London.  I never did that recital (because I took my life in a different direction, giving up my soloist ambitions and getting married instead).  But, most musicians who aspire to be soloists dream of performing in recital at Carnegie Hall in NYC at some point.  Two years ago, I performed a piece of music composed by my husband at Carnegie Hall. One of my dreams as an AT teacher was to have another teacher backstage with me before the performance.  My friend and teacher Pedro de Alcantara graciously agreed to my whim, and we had a great time warming up before the concert, getting myself in shape for a concert of a lifetime (although I'm scheduled to do a repeat this November!).  Inhibition and Direction were invaluable aids to the success of that performance, and to preventing and overcoming performance anxiety.

6.  I've always hated running.  I could never understand why anyone would want to run - after all, most of the people I see running around the neighborhoods look like they're about to die!  But something in me was curious enough about why so many people love running to actually try it out for myself.  I wasn't looking for a book at the library, but I found a great one on running for beginners, by accident.  I took it home and decided to follow the 13-week program.  I could barely run for 30 seconds at the outset, but at the end of the program (just a few weeks ago), I could run for an hour without stopping.  To me, this has been a major achievement, and the biggest reward has been that my faith in my own capacity for self-discipline has skyrocketed.  It really seems like I've achieved the impossible with this one!

I love running!

7.  And last (but not least) for this list today...  When my first son was about 1 year old, I accidentally found a book at the library (yes, another library-related success!) called, "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day".  I thought the title was so preposterous that I checked out the book and read it.  I decided to try out the system, and it worked....miraculously.  My first son was trained in (just over) a day, and the second one was trained in three hours.  This success doesn't have anything directly to do with AT, because I hadn't even started taking lessons yet.  But, it's a testimony to finding a system, trusting it, being open to the possibility that it could work, putting aside doubts, and following the steps, one at a time.  No end-gaining, just following the means-whereby.  The Alexander Technique just adds words and awareness to something we can all do: inhibit and direct, allowing things to happen as intended.  And it also adds in the kinesthetic experience of the teacher's hands to give us even more support and clarity of direction. It's extremely difficult to aim forward and up on our own, without the supportive and encouraging guidance of a teacher or a good system.

So, please forgive me if you find this post arrogant or boastful.  There's a wonderful quote I found today, "What others think of you is none of your business," so you are certainly free to think of me whatever you like, because that's none of my business!  The benefit to me is that I feel much better now, after remembering all of these successes and writing them down, than I did earlier this morning.  Even my headache is gone!  (Of course, that may be because of the ibuprofen... ;)

Thanks for reading!  NOW, I would LOVE to hear about YOUR successes, too!  Do you have a success you'd like to share, in which you achieved the "impossible"?  Related to the Alexander Technique or not?  Whether you choose to write about it here or not, I know you have just as many or more than I do in your own life.  It's worth thinking about and looking for them.  Even the tiniest things can be HUGE.  (There's one more success that I didn't mention, but I think might be worth mentioning, because it was a tiny-HUGE thing:  when getting ready for the surgeon study, I had to watch a video of minimally invasive surgery, and I did NOT faint!!  I had to keep telling myself, "Don't faint, Jennifer!  You need to watch this, or the study will fall apart and it will never happen and this is really important... don't faint! don't faint!  inhibit!  aim!  forward and up!!!"  Yes, you can laugh - I'm laughing, myself!  But, the important thing is:  I didn't faint.  :)

...oh, yes...and one of the best ones I really want to mention...just remembered:
I'm finally able to listen to my own music and think, "Yes, it's good enough...for me." That one is really big.  Here, have a listen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrGTRIkVKE

p.s. Read about my latest milestone related to finding my voice with AT, Sept. 6th  http://balanceandharmonyat.blogspot.com/2013/09/finding-my-voice-with-alexander.html

* Dog on Toilet image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tips for Runners, Based on the Alexander Technique

I've just returned from a wonderful week at the Annual Conference and General Meeting of AmSAT (American Society for the Alexander Technique) in Chicago.  It was intense and exhilarating, and also beautiful, so close to the shore of Lake Michigan.  I learned a great deal, came home with many new insights, and lovely new connections.  Very glad I went (as always)!

I thought I'd jot down and share with you some of the main points I received from Malcolm Balk during a private lesson focused on running.  Malcolm is an AT teacher who specializes in running and exercise.  I'm pretty new to running, myself (I'm just about to begin Week 10 of a 13-week beginner's program - hurray!), so the pointers were very timely and welcome.  Here they are:

Malcolm Balk, center

• Cadence, cadence, cadence! Run a bit faster, to a count of 3, with the beat falling on the up-kick of the heel, not when the foot lands down on the ground.
• There is a bouncing up off of the ground as the reflex brings the foot up, not a pushing off of the ground.  Thinking differently about this can make a huge difference, and everything lightens up.
• Think of lifting the feet up off of the ground quickly, as if you were running on very hot sand.
• Make "circles" with your feet.  (This makes me think of PigPen from Charlie Brown...)
• Of course, the legs don't ever straighten as they do in walking; they always remain with the knees and ankles and hip joints free.
• Knees aim forward, leading.
• The foot touches the ground pretty much flat - neither heel nor ball of the foot lands first.
• Blink and look out in front of you as you run.  See where you're going!
• Arms are not held tightly (no fists), at a slight angle to the body, with the elbows bent slightly out away from the body; hands slightly in towards the midline.  More ease in the arms and upper chest.  Less work!
• Coordinate the breathing with your steps, to a count of IN-2-3; OUT-2; IN-2-3; OUT-2.

Of course, these tips will be most helpful when combined with the general, basic foundation provided by the  Alexander Technique, which helps to coordinate the whole body-mind into a forward and up direction, for fluid, easy movement.

Malcolm has a great book in print, called Master the Art of Running, which teaches running from an Alexander Technique perspective. 

If you're a runner, I'd love to hear whether you find these tips helpful.  Happy running!

Taking Life Seriously...or Not!...with Alexander Technique

THE F.M. ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE, LIFE AND DEATH:

"TOO SERIOUS TO BE SERIOUS ABOUT."

~ A PLAY ~

This is a seriously not-so-serious "real-life", "real-time" application of the Alexander Technique.
Shall we play?  :)

FIRST, I STOP.  NOTICE. OBSERVE WHAT IS HERE IN THIS PRESENT MOMENT....

I am realizing that yesterday was an interesting day for me.  I remember that I wrote a "serious" blogpost about death in the morning, and in the afternoon I started thinking seriously about my habit of taking life "too seriously"!  I remember my initial reactions to the idea: first, agreement to the idea, then gratitude for becoming aware of it (again).

I now realize that my next reaction was to take the idea of being too serious really seriously, and I immediately proceeded to DO SOMETHING about it!  I decided to investigate and figure out how to stop taking life so seriously. (I realize you might be laughing by this point - please be my guest! Oh, and you can also laugh at my picture. ;)

I thought about it a lot, and I asked other people for their thoughts on the topic, and for any suggestions for how to take life less seriously.  A few suggestions were helpful, but most of them weren't really, even though they were fun at the time.  I certainly didn't find myself taking life less seriously just from thinking about it!

Today, I notice that the idea is still very present in my mind, and I am obviously continuing to think about it.  But I notice that I'm thinking about it differently now.  Interestingly, I find myself questioning the initial assumption that it is true that I take life too seriously.  "Is that true?" I ask myself (ala the inquiry work of Byron Katie).  But I stop myself when I realize that I'm starting to take myself too seriously in that direction....so I simply....

OPEN UP TO WONDERING...

As I notice that I am questioning, wondering, and doubting, I open up to the possibility that maybe it's not absolutely true.  (What?! Could it be?!  Could I actually be in balance, at least some of the time?!!?)  In fact, I find plenty of examples in my day-to-day life of not taking things seriously at all.  And I have certainly been reproached many many times for not taking things seriously "enough"!

What does it mean, anyway, to take life too seriously?

Ok, I'm getting the idea....  I'm still taking this topic too seriously.  Time to stop again!
I'm starting to drop the thought, drop the questioning, and I'm getting seriously tired of thinking about it...

ENOUGH REACTING, ME!  

(Aha!!  Here comes the famous Alexander "NO"!  I was wondering how long it was going to take before my application of the Technique was going to become more apparent! :)

NO! NO MORE REACTING!

I refuse to react any more to the idea that I take life too seriously!  SO THERE!  HA!!

Instead, I realize that I AM FREE (Thanking God!!  Saved from my over-thinking-over-serious mind at last, by the BIGGER MIND riding in galantly on a beautiful white horse!! I'm SAVED!!  HALLELUJAH!!!  Do you hear the rising chorus, by the way?)

ok, I seem to be on a roll. Let's continue on, rolling on down this lovely green hill, shall we?
So, what's next?

Alexander Technique classical directions, here we come!!

Because I'm now aware again that I am in fact free, I choose to think: "MY NECK IS FREE!"

(uh-oh, danger...Mr. Serious Doubt asks:  

Sure, but is it seriously free, or is this just a joke, or is it only partially true, or not really, 

or is it only a sort-of self-delusion trap, 

because all the muscles can't really be free

in other words....is it really truly free? )

My utterly not-serious (yet very serious) response: 

Do I really CARE?  NO!  I am now CAREFREE!!  HA!!

I'm just happy because I am able to think this lovely thought, and I know that thinking it and loving the thought and being open to the possibility that it might be true is fantastic and feels great, and I can actually believe in it because I've worked it out with beautiful logic plenty of times before, to good results, for both myself and my students...  Therefore, I'm going to leave this doubt aside and continue on my merry way in good faith!)

YES!!!  (That's the not-so-famous Alexander "YES", by the way)  

ONWARDS! NO MORE HESITATION!  AIM!

THE NECK IS FREE

THE HEAD AIMS FORWARD AND UP

THE TORSO LENGTHENS AND WIDENS, EXPANDS....

(ETC. ETC. ETC. ad infinitum)

drumroll....
taking a bow....
laughing and saying THANK YOU for Being Here Now
smiling

NOW, REPEAT!
(but only if you're serious about it...
because if you're not, just go ahead and enjoy your free, expansive Self however you wish!
Bye!)

p.s. Comments welcome, as always!  Seriously!  I mean it!  ;)

*stopsign image courtesy of [image creator name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net, by artur84

Alexander Technique Used as a Tool to Prepare for Death

There are times in life when we are called upon to do something which seems terrifying and impossible.  On the outside, we may not always have a choice about what happens to us, but on the inside we always have a choice about how we respond.  The Alexander Technique gives us a way to stop and choose how to react to the stimuli we are presented with; we can choose the habitual and familiar, or we can choose to move forward and up into the Unknown.  From this place of freedom of choice, we can learn to choose whether to let Principle or feelings be our guide,  and we can learn how to move forward in a new and more positive way.


As a performing musician, I am quite familiar with the feelings of dread and anxiety that can accompany the prospect of exposing my innermost Self in front of an audience, facing unknown and unpredictable outcomes.  Thankfully, I have been able to overcome those horribly uncomfortable feelings many times, turning them into positive excitement and successful performances, and the more I practice facing and accepting the fears, the better I get at doing this.  The Alexander Technique has helped me immensely with this, and it has brought me great joy - both during and after performances. (See my blogpost on performance anxiety here:  http://balanceandharmonyat.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-manage-performance-anxiety-with.html)

When I was a beginning Alexander Teacher with very little experience, I was presented with multiple opportunities which elicited a similar fear response, and I was also able to overcome them to good advantage.  Some of those moments felt like being thrown off of a cliff and being asked to fly with wings I was unaware that I had.  Or being thrown into a pool of water at the deep end, unaware that something in me already knew how to swim.

I sometimes look at life and see it as a school for learning how to accomplish or manifest into reality what seems to be utterly impossible.  I see the Alexander Technique as a tool for learning this extremely valuable skill in a very conscious way.  It is a tool for bravery - for helping us move through the inevitable hellish moments of life with greater ease and grace.  I am so grateful when I look back and see that every single time life has confronted me with a stimulus to learn something the "hard" way (through difficulty, suffering, and fear), something in me has in fact carried me through to the other side, and I have emerged from the trial with a deeper understanding and greater strength.

Learning to trust that "something" that carries us through - it doesn't really matter so much what we call it - is where the real work and art of living takes place.  As it is said, "Living is not for the faint of heart"!

The practice of being confronted with the seemingly impossible, facing the fear, and making conscious, principled choices about how to deal with the stimulus, is a practice that it would be better not to ignore, although most people do, most of the time.  F.M. Alexander said, "Anyone can do what I did, if they do what I did.  But nobody wants the discipline."  The first part of that quote used to be the more important part for me, because I wanted very much to know what he did, and how to do it; now I find myself even more interested in the second part.  The practice of increasing our conscious awareness and making principled choices in the face of fear and discomfort is the most difficult, but the most important, discipline.

We don't have to engage in this kind of self-discipline.  But, I personally choose to do so (at least, in general and in theory, when I'm conscious of the choice), because I know that someday I will be confronted with what seems to be the most impossible thing and the greatest Unknown: my own death.  And I do believe that the death of this body I inhabit is inevitable!  I don't know with absolute certainty what will happen when it dies, but it is possible that the prospect of no longer existing in material form (or otherwise? can I really know with absolute certainty? can anyone?) may fill me with the greatest fear response I have ever before experienced.  What if that moment suddenly presents me with the opportunity for a performance of a lifetime?  What if I will be called upon again to do something that seems utterly impossible, and more difficult than everything that has come before?

I would like to have a peaceful, positive experience of death when the time comes. To me, one way  to increase the odds of having that experience (not necessarily the only way or the only right way) could be to see this lifetime as a rehearsal, a learning, a preparation for that moment.  People say, "Life is not a rehearsal," but it is possible that this really means: learn how to perform Life well NOW, so that when death comes, it's just another moment to enjoy.  The rehearsal is the performance, and the performance is the rehearsal.

In any case, when death comes, I would like to be prepared as much as possible; I would like to have my "trust muscles" so strong by then, that I won't hesitate to fly off the cliff or dive off the diving board, into the vast, beautiful, heavenly Unknown.  And since I don't know when that moment will come, I am preparing in earnest.  I don't want to fall off the cliff to my destruction, and I don't want to drown.  I want to rise above my fear, and overcome the challenge.

For this reason, I am grateful for every opportunity life offers me to practice dying (living) well, no matter how difficult, seemingly impossible, or painful.

"Those who die before dying do not die when they die." - German proverb

I would love to hear your responses to this blogpost.  I welcome your comments!

Alexander Technique 13 Steps for Self-Help

Some reminders for myself and other Alexander Technique students:

1. I ask, "Where am I?" and realize that this is a simple question, referring to here in space, right now.  I know where up is (where is the sky?), and where down is (where is the earth?), as well as forward, backward, and all other vectors in relation to this human being that I am.

2. I recognize the force of habit.  Yes, I am exerting more effort than is necessary for the simple task of being here, doing nothing.

3. Right now, I choose to STOP making the usual excess effort to be here now.  I am making the firm decision, right now, to STOP doing what is unnecessary, what is unhelpful and inappropriate in this moment.

4. I give myself time to continue stopping, inhibiting my unhelpful, habitual reactions.

5. I allow all feelings, all thoughts, and I continue to inhibit my unhelpful reactions to them.

6. I remember that I am free.  I allow my neck to be free.

7.  I allow my head to aim forward and up, away from the spine.

8.  I allow my torso to lengthen and widen.

9.  I allow my knees to aim forward and away from the torso.

10.  I allow myself to fall out of wrongdoing, trusting the earth beneath me and the air around me to support me, and above all, my own innate wisdom.

11. I allow myself to feel gratitude, love, and peace.

12.  I continue onwards with my work, and I smile, trusting.

13. Go back to Step 1 if desired and repeat, without expecting to feel any results right away.

If you have taken yourself through these 13 steps, dear Reader, I would love to hear about your experience.  I hope you find this helpful, too, like I do!

Trust and Effecting Change with the Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique is very logical, and it is simple, and it is an excellent self-help tool for bringing about all sorts of beneficial changes in oneself.

Yet, the mind tends to create all sorts of questions and doubts and other thoughts which interfere with putting the Technique into practice, especially without a teacher.  This is why having a teacher is so very important and helpful.

AT works on a very deep level, and is incredibly subtle.  So subtle that it can almost seem magical at times.  The changes that are experienced are real and fundamental, but very often the changes occur on a minute scale, slowly and imperceptibly.  We, as a culture, are used to thinking of change as something tangible, instantaneously perceptible, something we can measure and see.  If we can't see it or feel it, we won't necessarily believe it.

Yet, AT works, and there is plenty of evidence for that.  How does it work?  Here is a partial explanation.

When we're working with a teacher who is right for us (not every teacher is right for every student), something in the teacher inspires trust from the very beginning.  Our trust in the teacher allows us to make a leap of faith--however small--to believe that if the teacher says the Technique is working, it's working.  Then, after half-an-hour to an hour lesson spent trusting and thinking along with the teacher as suggested, something in us has changed and we usually feel much better than before.

However, all too often the student will deduce from such an experience that it was the teacher that made the change (especially because the teacher normally uses his/her hands to help with the process), and completely misses and under-appreciates the essential fact that it was the student's own trust plus the student's willingness to think differently that actually made the changes.  Yes, the teacher helped guide the way, but it was the student that actually made the leap.

After taking enough lessons, and experiencing enough perceptible changes, the student may be able to make the bigger leap of faith required to take full responsibility for his own trusting and thinking.  At that point, a teacher can still be helpful, but the student has matured into the role of self-teacher.

The best teachers look forward to that point, because, ultimately, that is what we are teaching.  We are teaching the Alexander Technique, which in essence is about learning to trust and think for ourselves to effect the changes necessary for us to flow through life with simplicity and ease.

*Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do you have enough? Explorations with Alexander Technique

So much of our thinking is about not having "enough".  Believing that we don't have enough of anything is a trap that pulls us off-balance. Let's explore some questions about the idea of having "enough".

• WHAT?  Not enough of what?  Time?  Space? Money?  Love?  Sex?  Attention?  Status?  Work?  Freedom?  Happiness?  Excitement?  Health?  Peace?  "Good enough"-ness?

• WHY?  Why do you believe it isn't enough?  Why do you want more?  What's missing?  Are you missing a certain feeling that you think you don't have enough of?  

• WHO?  Enough for who?  For yourself or for someone else?  

• WHEN?  If it isn't enough right now, when will it be enough?  Are your thoughts projecting into the future, or comparing with the past?

• WHERE?  Where are your thoughts?  Where is your attention?  Is it on someone or something else, other than the center of You?  Are they pulling your mind-body off-balance, off-center?

• HOW?  How are you going to get more of whatever it is you want?  Do you have a specific plan?  

What would happen if you gave yourself the TIME and SPACE...even just a tiny little bit...........
right here...
right now...

to STOP your thinking
to STOP projecting into the future
to STOP relating things to the past
to STOP judging
to STOP wanting
to STOP defining and labeling and naming and associating thoughts with who you think you are and what you think you need

to just BE
simply BE

alive, breathing enough air to live
(yes, there is enough air, even if it doesn't feel like it!  The proof?  You're alive! :)

RIGHT NOW
HERE
I AM

if you really really really let your mind-body stop all the extra doing, all the pushing and pulling yourself off-center, out of the here and now.... what is left?

Whatever is left, is it possible that this might be "enough", right here, right now, for YOU?

...and then....
is it possible that this I AM-ness
might bring you into greater abundance
in ways you have never before imagined?

Is it possible?

Let the questions be enough.
No need for answers right here, right now......

Just open to the questions,
because the questions are enough for right here, right now.

Answers come when answers come,
and whatever comes will surely be "enough".

All in good time.
With patience, gratitude, and trust.

----

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.  What do you believe you don't have "enough" of?  What happens when you stop?

*Photo by Chuck Felix. Image courtesy of [contributor name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net