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The Meditation Routine

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The Meditation Routine

Daily meditation has been described as mental hygiene, and that’s true. Just as we brush our teeth, feed and clothe ourselves each day, sitting meditation can be part of your routine. It isn’t a matter of “finding the time” (a frequent complaint), it’s finding the best time each day. Every time we meditate we are training our minds and hearts to incline toward unity, balance, and steady calm. Even the least “successful” sit (whatever that means) trains the attention in this way. This is self-care for the soul.

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3 Steps to Trusting Yourself

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3 Steps to Trusting Yourself

It takes practice to discern wisely about what to buy, or how to meet our needs in general. We have a scarcity mentality that sometimes leads to FOMO. As modern consumers we have been programmed to react from a "Black Friday" mentality -- get it before it's gone. A lot of times we buy on impulse because of this, not from a sense of true need. So I find that a 3-step process can assist in helping to discern whether I'm following an authentic urge or a conditioned, habitual reaction: Pause, Check In, and Sense.

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Days of Awe

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Days of Awe

The 10-day period in the Jewish calendar is called the Days of Awe and starts with Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It begins with sweetness and light and ends with repentance, sacrifice, and purification.

All definitions of atonement remind us that the original English meaning was literally, "at-one-ment," the bringing together of beings who have become separated. Harmony, peace, and unity are attained. Wholeness is restored.

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Visitors with a Tale to Tell

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Visitors with a Tale to Tell

Lately I have been struggling with powerful bouts of despair and doubt, temporary but painful. While that makes me human, it doesn't need to dictate my day-to-day existence. The key is to recognize despair, negativity, fear, rage, and all these sticky heart-mind states for what they really are: visitors with a tale to tell.

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Walking Away From Pain

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Walking Away From Pain

Walking doesn't have to wear us down. Our ability to move upright on two legs is a miracle of evolution that we take for granted. What you can see and sense when you're right up on top of yourself is what connects you to the world around you -- and the universe inside, too. The key, however, is how you walk. Alexander Technique teaches how to recover that wonderful evolutionary miracle and walk well.

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Alexander Technique and Mindful Parenting

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Alexander Technique and Mindful Parenting

I've learned more from my children about applying the Alexander Technique than from any other situation in life. Mindfulness and Alexander work have made all the difference for me in becoming effective and skillful as a mother, and in sustaining me throughout its continuous challenges. I am far from a perfect parent (whatever that is), but raising children with the Alexander Technique and mindful meditation and movement practices made me a better one. It also helped me avoid unnecessary strain and injury, which is no small thing as we age.

Includes a podcast interview about parenting and the Alexander Technique.

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Choice Points on a Foggy Road

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Choice Points on a Foggy Road

Major life choices seem both inevitable – how could it have been any other way? – and random – that decision led to an outcome I could never have chosen.

We imagine that the plans we dream up and the actions we intend will bear the fruit we hope for. We can see the steps we need to take and we think by taking them we know our destination clearly.

But now the road is really foggy. The territory ahead is not what we expected it to be and the route has changed to one we’ve never travelled before.

This is not a problem — read on.

Free Breathing - Your Core Power

Free Breathing - Your Core Power

When F. M. Alexander first began sharing his newfound discoveries about human psycho-physical functioning, he traveled around his native Australia and became known as "the Breathing Man." The core of his work was free and full breathing and its relation to overall wellness, and learning the Alexander Technique remains one of the best ways to understand the anatomy and physiology of your own breathing system, and to begin to reverse some of the unconscious habits that develop , and the problems that occur as a result.

Includes a Bodymind Experiment.

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Walking the Alexander Way

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Walking the Alexander Way

Walking well means you are free to notice the power and energy you produce, and the beautiful scenery you encounter, and the other people who are out there trying to get and stay healthy, too. Applying the Alexander Technique gives you the freedom to let your legs move your torso along, to let your neck be free of tension so your head can bob along in balance as you move. It means you can breathe easily and powerfully, with awareness of your back and what is behind you. And you can be grateful for your feet, which do so much for you all day long.

Includes a podcast interview with me about AT and walking.

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Awake and Aligned the Alexander Way

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Awake and Aligned the Alexander Way

If you study and practice the Alexander Technique, it will change your life for the better.

This is a statement I can make with complete confidence and zero doubt. I can say this to absolutely everyone, no matter their condition or circumstances. With very few exceptions, there is no one who can't benefit from the principles and the process created by F. M. Alexander and developed over the past century by those who have followed his path.

That’s quite a claim. Read on.

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Are We There Yet?

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Are We There Yet?

Bringing embodied awareness to the transitions we experience — whether small everyday movements from one task to another or during larger significant life changes — can bring about deep and dynamic change. Why? Because it's the last place we show up. We are always thinking ahead, moving toward or away from something, Who brings intention to reaching for the door handle and opening the door? The point, we think, is to get to the other side of the door. The truth is, always being ahead of ourselves leads to unnecessary suffering. Luckily, we can learn that how we do what we do makes all the difference.

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Finding the Strawberry

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Finding the Strawberry

Are you waiting for things to improve so you can feel better again?

Is your jaw tight, your knuckles white, your breath held? Do your thoughts run out of control? Is your mind fuzzy and your attention worse than ever? And do you believe this will change just as soon as the pandemic is over?

This is what is known as Destination Addiction, the belief that once I arrive at some future point or state of being, then I will be okay, then I can be happy and at peace. This is what AA calls stinkin' thinkin' and it stinks because it is a lie.

The truth is, you don’t have to be dependent upon certain conditions in order to know happiness and inner peace.

Right in the Middle

Right in the Middle

The first day of Spring is traditionally about balance, as we get equal hours of day and night. It’s a great time to explore equanimity, the practice that puts you right in the middle of whatever is occurring, in a steady balanced way so that you’re not thrown off by the ups and downs of daily life.

Previously published in 2019 but more relevant than ever. Share your balance strategies for living with the coronavirus pandemic in the comments - you may help someone else.

Don't Worry, Be Mindful

Don't Worry, Be Mindful

Everyone is expressing a lot of anxiety and upset in the face of uncertainty. This is a great time to practice mindfulness and compassion. Conditions are perfect to gain clarity about the difference between concern and worry, fear and terror, self-love and selfishness. The difference is not a matter of intensity but rather the degree to which we are willing to move closer to our anxious thoughts and scary feelings and relate to them differently.

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Four Ways to Alexander Awareness

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Four Ways to Alexander Awareness

The Alexander Technique provides a skill set that can be applied in every situation. That's a pretty big claim. Every situation? Really? Yes, really, because Alexander work teaches a way of being, in the same way that practicing meditation creates new ways to be in relationship with reality. Still, that's rather vague, isn't it? How does the AT get applied? In what situations might it be most effective?

Here are four basic positions we all find ourselves in every day, and they are wonderful ways to use Alexander awareness.

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You're Soaking In It

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You're Soaking In It

Repetitive thought patterns tend to reinforce themselves, and this always shows up in the body somehow. This is good news, because it means we always have an immediate tangible way to know what’s going on in any given moment. We don’t have to unconsciously absorb the pool of greed, hatred, or delusion that may have become the mental background of everyday living.