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Heel Thyself

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Heel Thyself

Someone recently asked me what physical habits of posture or use I see most often, and what I teach my students in order to to address these issues. This is not easy to answer, because everyone is different. But like any Alexander teacher, I typically see a lot of locked knees, shallow breathing, head/spine misalignment, tight jaws, and generally overworked muscles accompanied by low-level anxiety. One common misunderstanding I've seen in nearly everybody involves the heels. They are the base of balance and stability, but most people don’t access this ground-level support and, in some cases, make choices that actively work against it.

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A Most Reliable Mindfulness Bell

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A Most Reliable Mindfulness Bell

Wouldn’t it be great to become more oriented toward the ease and freedom in our bodies? What if our default was to look for sensations of high functioning, or balance, or unity and connection? If awareness is always present and ready to be accessed, then recognizing and supporting ease is merely a matter of intention and practice.

Includes a Bodymind Experiment.

What You Need is Here

What You Need is Here

It can be easy to believe that growth and awakening require hard work in order to attain something. This is the conditioning we have all been subject to since birth, a continuous message about striving for "someday." Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, play fair, study hard, be thrifty and save, lean in, never give up, never say die, and you will be rewarded. Someday.

Guess what? Someday will never arrive.

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Unnecessary Roughness

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Unnecessary Roughness

Part 3

The Alexander process addresses not what we do but how we do it, and what I discovered initially was that not only did I not have awareness of how I was doing things, I literally did not know what I was doing as I did it.

It began to dawn on me that I treated myself rather harshly. They way I toweled off after a shower, brushed my teeth, styled my hair, held a glass, stirred a pot, walked down the street – I performed these routine daily tasks with a great deal of roughness. I used too much energy. I was hard on me.

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There is No Try

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There is No Try

When there is something I don't understand, if I remember to notice the tension that arises around "not knowing," I can release it before it begins to cloud my brain with panic-based messages. I feel this tension in my neck and behind my eyes; other people get upset stomachs or jaw pain or sharp headaches. I observe myself striving to understand a new way of doing something, using different controls, and in the striving, I tighten. So I let go of trying at the same time I let go of the tension in my neck. I think everyone gets anxious when they have to learn something new, even if it is something they are excited about learning.

Includes a Bodymind experiment for you to “do or do not.” But no try.

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Sweetness Within the Sorrow

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Sweetness Within the Sorrow

Like many of you, people I knew and cared about died on September 11. Yet we also came to life that day. I met neighbors I had never known and found so many sweet, authentic connections. I saw in action what we talk about when we talk about community.

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Senseless

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Senseless

Part 2

The motivation to begin Alexander lessons came primarily from my curiosity about this method I had heard about for years. The actors and dancers I knew swore by it, saying it kept them injury-free or was a huge help in recovering from the physical demands on people who use their bodies for a living. On a less intellectual level, I felt a nagging pull toward anything body-based, because I suspected that my relationship with my physical self was not what it should be or could be.

The truth is, I had almost no awareness of my body, my senses, or the way I moved through life. I was senseless.

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Taking Small Bites

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Taking Small Bites

More and more, I'm seeing that stepping back and searching for the big picture in any situation is often all that's needed. Taking the long view is called for right now, don't you think? I'm hearing some discouragement around questions of whether one's individual efforts can make a real difference. Whether in relation to socio-political chaos or about daily mindfulness practice and changing movement habits, folks are expressing doubts about the power of tiny repeatable actions. Is calling your senator effective? Can one big splashy march truly change hearts and minds? Is moving my computer monitor higher or lower really going to stop my neck pain? Is it really so bad to skip a day or two of meditation?

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On the Verge

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On the Verge

Part 1

I had my first Alexander Technique lesson 30 years ago. I arrived with a belly full of butterflies and a head full of curiosity. Even then, I was aware enough to recognize the feeling of being on the verge of something significant, the sensation of being carried along by a flow not of my own making.

First in a series of reflections on 30 years of Alexander practice.

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Taking Refuge in the Body

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Taking Refuge in the Body

The Alexander Technique is a place of refuge. “Refuge” is a Buddhist term that can mean different things to different people, but essentially it points to how the practice of present moment awareness provides a resting place, an unhooking from our conditioned way of being, a return to center, a renewal of wholeness. It’s akin to the notion of “sanctuary,” in the sense of abiding in a sacred space and being protected there. As a practitioner of Vipassana meditation, I am still at the beginning of my understanding of Refuge. As an Alexander teacher and lifelong student, I have daily experiences of what I can legitimately call “taking refuge,” and for that I feel boundlessly grateful.

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Awareness = Choice

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Awareness = Choice

Awareness = Choice. It’s an equation I have experienced many times under a variety of conditions. Until we’re aware of something, we cannot make authentic and fresh responses, but remain reactive in our fixed ideas. If I want to change a habit, I must first know it thoroughly, catch it as it arises. One of the most common habits is known as endgaining. Endgaining is an Alexander term for getting ahead of ourselves, pushing forward no matter what else might be happening in the present. Endgaining causes dysregulation in the body, is in fact dysfunctional thinking. There are many examples of endgaining in our culture: No pain, no gain. Lean in. Just do it. We are rewarded for reaching the goal, not for the way we get there.

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Care and Curiosity

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Care and Curiosity

A common question from people new to meditation is, “What am I supposed to be doing?” The best and most helpful answer I have received boils down to, “Get interested in what’s happening and be kind about it.”

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What To Do When You Feel Lost

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What To Do When You Feel Lost

Do you ever feel lost in your own life? In spite of the privilege, the accomplishments, the satisfaction in certain key relationships, people often tell me that they feel disoriented or confused about how they got to where they are or how to move forward, and what steps they should take to do so.  Although specific situations sometimes prompt this feeling, it has less to do with external circumstances and is typically more about how one relates to those circumstances.

Life: Both/And

Life: Both/And

It is so easy to get sucked into despair. Remember that life is a “both/and” proposition. Yes, we’re facing some truly urgent situations, but also – and this is both true and comforting – right now people are doing amazing, heroic, loving things that need to be acknowledged.

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The Generosity of Attention

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The Generosity of Attention

Generosity is a wonderful thing to keep in mind, because it instantly transforms the attitude and energy of any given situation. Although we typically think of financial giving when we hear this word, there are many ways to be generous. One of the most powerful ways is to give full attention to something or someone.