Bedbugs, Lead Paint, and Neck Pain: a Case Study of Alexander Technique NYC

emergencyby Dan Cayer In 7 memorable months, my family was visited by 2 of New York City’s dreaded housing plagues: lead paint and bedbugs. If you count hardhearted, greedy landlords, then we had that plague, too. Twice, we packed up all our stuff, tried to keep normalcy for Ruby, and twice we were disappointed (crushed, really) to find out that we could not live safely in the apartments we had moved into.

In the first apartment, our landlord evicted us after Ruby tested high for lead in her blood rather than deal with the lead. We were living on a month-to-month lease since things had been previously very friendly between us. He also blamed all the lead exposure on a single bookshelf we attached to a wall. In our next apartment, my wife had two allergic reactions to bug bites before we happened to catch a bedbug scampering across our bed at 3 AM. Ruby and I soon started getting bit as well. Our landlord had lied to us about bedbugs in the building – the previous tenants lasted only three months.

We weighed our strategies: court, rent strike, living in plastic biohazard suits, but ultimately, though we were deceived both times, we had little recourse but to walk and take our revenge fantasies with us.

The feelings of powerlessness, rage, and worry were having a field day on my body. I’d walk around during the day, thinking of how unfair it was and hating my landlord. It felt as if someone were drilling my head down into my body. My neck and shoulders were hardening into concrete. Adrenaline was pumping all day long; it began production early in the morning, waking me up around 4:30 or 5.

Each time I thought about the unfairness of our plight, I could feel a wave of tightening seize my body. My wife and I were paralyzed with how to proceed. How do we fight to get back our security deposit? What were our rights when we were clearly not at fault?

It wasn’t until I checked in with my body that one decision became clear. When I thought about staying and fighting and going to court, my body contracted into a fist. When I imagined just leaving – money be damned – I felt the fist relax and enjoyment seemed possible again. At that moment, and many others throughout the 7 months, my training in the Alexander Technique helped me find a place, as Rumi wrote, “Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

Steering myself over and over from the hypothetical, from rehashing the past or recounting our injustices, to the present experience of living in my mind and body was tremendously healing. It not only kept me moored to sanity (mostly), I was training for how I want to deal with hard times in my life. I don’t want to be driven mad with fear or completely lost when life becomes unstable. I want to be embodied enough to breathe and to think. In the revenge fantasies and fearful projecting into the future, I was always having to fend for myself. Coming back to my body and mind also meant returning to my family and the humor and love we still managed to improvise, picnicking on top of our plastic bins with Thai takeout. Soon, it would be time to move again and leave the plastic bags behind. By returning faithfully to the present moment, I could really leave it all behind.

This post was originally published at dancayerfluidmovement.com

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dan-Head-Shot-13.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]DAN CAYER is a nationally certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. After a serious injury left him unable to work or even carry out household tasks, he began studying the technique. His return to health, as well as his experience with the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of pain, inspired him to help others. He now teaches his innovative approach in Union Square, Carroll Gardens and in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He also teaches adults to swim with greater ease and confidence by applying Alexander principles. You can find his next workshop or schedule a private lesson at www.dancayerfluidmovement.com.[/author_info] [/author]

Why What "Feels Right" Can Be The Wrong Thing To Do

skeletonby Witold Fitz-Simon Every one of us has a "sixth sense." Unfortunately, it's nothing fancy. It's not telepathy, or the ability to see ghosts, or anything supernatural like that. It is pretty cool, in its own way, even though most of us take it completely for granted most of the time. Our sixth sense is a "feeling" sense made up of information we get from our bodies.

Kinesthesia and Proprioception

This feeling sense, called either proprioception or kinesthesia, works a little differently than our other five senses. Each of the traditional five senses, has its own sense organ: sight has the eyes, sound has the ears, etc. The feeling sense is different.

Instead of getting all its information from one source, your brain takes information from organs in different parts of your body and knits it together into one sense. It compiles information from your muscles, joints, tendons and your inner ear to give you an awareness of movement, effort and the position of your joints and limbs. This awareness, your proprioceptive sense, becomes the foundation for the way you sit, stand, walk around or work at the computer. It informs everything you do.

Why it "Feels Right"

Last week on the blog we looked at habits and how hard they are to break. In an nutshell, this is because our brains take complex behaviors and reduce all the different parts that make them up into a single behavioral chunk. This chunk then gets imprinted into our brains with a positive reinforcement mechanism that includes the chemical dopamine. The way we use our bodies, and the proprioceptive memory associated with that use, is part of that chunked behavior. As a result, it feels good or "feels right" to do the habit in a particular way.

Why "Feeling Right" Can Lead You Wrong

Just because a way of doing something has that feeling of "rightness" to it, that doesn't mean it is necessarily your best choice in any given moment. Your proprioceptive or kinesthetic sense often feeds you bad information. The sense receptors in your muscles, tendons and joints register change. If you raise your arm, for example, they tell you that the position of your arm has changed from one place to another. They tell you that the muscular effort expended by the muscles in your shoulder has changed from one amount to another, as well as the rate at which that change took place. After a while, if there is no more change happening, they reset themselves to this new state. They no longer send information to your brain.

This can lead to two problems. If you do the same thing wrong the same way over and over, after a while your proprioceptive sense will no longer register it. Say you tense your neck all the time you are sitting at your computer, your proprioceptive sense will begin to tune it out. This will begin to carry over into other activities. The misuse will get folded in with all your other behavioral patterns and will begin to feel right. You will only be reinforcing the bad habit.

This, then, leads us to the second problem. In order for your sense receptors to pick up any new information, you will have to create change. If you try and "feel out" a part of your body, perhaps to learn more about it or fix it, you will most likely be adding more effort to that place.

Do the Right Thing

So what's the solution to this awkward situation? Change your relationship to your proprioceptive/kinesthetic sense. Rather than getting caught up in the sensations of your body, open your awareness out to include the space around you as well as the information you get about yourself. Rely on that visual and spatial awareness instead. Staying connected to your other senses and the space around you will give your system the message to be a little less compressed, a little less effortful, a little more expansive.

Better still, try taking an Alexander Technique lesson with a certified teacher. They can show you a whole new way to relate to your body that will help you identify and release your bad habits. They will show you how to repattern the way you use yourself to a more efficient and easeful standard.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/After-crop1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]WITOLD FITZ-SIMON has been a student of the Alexander Technique since 2007. He is certified to teach the Technique as a graduate of the American Center for the Alexander Technique’s 1,600-hour, three year training program. A student of yoga since 1993 and a teacher of yoga since 2000, Witold combines his extensive knowledge of the body and its use into intelligent and practical instruction designed to help his students free themselves of ineffective and damaging habits of body, mind and being. www.mindbodyandbeing.com[/author_info] [/author]

Why Are Habits So Hard To Break?

mazeby Witold Fitz-Simon A recent cover story in Scientific American revealed how the brain creates habits and why they are so hard to break. In their article, researchers Ann Gaybriel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Kyle S. Smith (Dartmouth College) outline three stages to laying down a habit:

  1. Explore a new behavior
  2. Form a habit
  3. Imprint it into the brain

Exploring New Behaviors

As you explore a new behavior, three parts of your brain—the prefrontal cortex, the striatum and the midbrain—communicate together to form positive feedback loops that help you determine whether nor not the behavior helps you achieve your goals.

Let’s take as an example, reaching down to pick up and put on your shoes. When you first learn to do this, you might make the choice, consciously or not, to counterbalance as you reach forward to pick the shoes up by allowing your head to drop back and down. To reach your shoes, you are extending your arm out quite a way beyond the stable support of your mid-line and your center of gravity, and taking the weight of your head back creates a feeling of stability. It may not be the best way to do this, but it works in the moment and, anyway, you are more concerned with getting your shoes on than you are with anything else.

The next time you put your shoes on, your brain remembers the sequence of behaviors you performed to fulfill your goal and sets up an expectation of success or failure. You put your shoes on the same way you did before. It works again. The brain makes a note that this sequence of behaviors is an effective way of achieving the goal. This process is repeated every time you put your shoes on, reinforced each time.

Forming a Habit

A habit, from the perspective of the brain, is a sequence of actions or behaviors that get lumped together into one single unit: a chunk of brain activity. When you are first exploring the action, the brain acts with deliberation. It has no expectations and needs to make conscious choices. Let’s take our example of putting on your shoes. The sequence of deliberate choices to get your shoes might look like this:

  1. You see your shoes.
  2. You reach out and down to pick them up and drop your head back to counterbalance the reach of your arm.
  3. With your head thrown off balance, your back gets stiff as you bend down to get to your shoes, so you support yourself by putting your other hand on your thigh.
  4. You sit down with a plop and slump forward to pick your shoes up and put them on.
  5. You try and stand up from your slumped position with your head back and down and need to push off the chair to get up.

As I said, these might not be the most efficient or elegant set of choices you could make, but your goal is to put your shoes on and not necessarily to bother with the details. After this has happened enough times, the process gets simplified in your brain to this:

  1. You see your shoes
  2. You put them on

Your brain takes all those different choices and lumps them together into one behavioral package.

Imprinting The Habit

Once you have repeated the behavior enough for it have become combined into one single chunk of neurological activity, the infralimbic cortex and the striatum work together to make it semi-permamanent in the brain. When you need to put your shoes on, you use the habitual chunk. As the chunk is in there semi-permanently in your behavioral repertoire, your brain won’t necessarily distinguish between your shoes and a wet towel on the bathroom floor, or anything else that you need to pick up from below your current level, so it uses the same chunk.

What Makes A Habit So Hard To Break?

Once the habit is “chunked” and imprinted like this, very little neurological activity is required to use it. In an experiment, rats were trained to run down a maze and turn left or right when they heard a particular sound to receive a reward. When they were first being trained, activity in the brain was very high. As they started to learn how to respond to the signals they were being given, brain activity got less, except for when they had to make a decision. Once they were fully trained, there was high brain activity at the beginning of the run and at the end, but while they were performing the habitual behavior, brain activity was significantly lower. To say when we do something habitually, we are doing it “without much thought” is a fair description of what is actually happening in the brain. Sometimes, when we do things habitually, we are barely conscious of them at all, let alone capable of breaking down the habit into the successive choices that make it up.

How The Alexander Technique Can Help You Break Your Habits

The Alexander Technique teaches how to think in activity, rather than be at the mercy of habitual "chunks" of behavior. It gives you a framework within which to observe the habits as they arise. It teaches you how to let go of the habitual behavior and how to replace it with deliberate, conscious alternatives. To find a certified Alexander Technique teacher near you, click here.

To read the article in Scientific American click here. (You will need to purchase a copy of the issue to read the full article.)

To read an interview with Ann Gaybriel, click here.

To read a technical article on the research, click here.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/After-crop1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]WITOLD FITZ-SIMON has been a student of the Alexander Technique since 2007. He is certified to teach the Technique as a graduate of the American Center for the Alexander Technique’s 1,600-hour, three year training program. A student of yoga since 1993 and a teacher of yoga since 2000, Witold combines his extensive knowledge of the body and its use into intelligent and practical instruction designed to help his students free themselves of ineffective and damaging habits of body, mind and being. www.mindbodyandbeing.com[/author_info] [/author]

Lessons on Marketing the Alexander Technique, Or What I Learned From Bloomberg TV

post-itBy Karen G. Krueger About a year ago, I unexpectedly was handed an opportunity to introduce the Alexander Technique to an audience that has no idea what it is, but needs it desperately: lawyers.

Spencer Mazyck invited me to be a guest on his Bloomberg Law series "Stealth Lawyer," a web-based video show featuring interviews with ex-lawyers about their new careers (sadly, no longer in production after a reorganization of Bloomberg Law). With some trepidation, I accepted. You can view the resulting interview on my website.

The response to the interview was immediate and positive, including a steady stream of new students. I would like to share with my fellow teachers some things I learned in the process:

Marketing is an Indirect Procedure

The seeds for this interview were planted long before they sprouted. Many years ago, a young lawyer named David Lat spent a short time working at the law firm where I was a partner. David went on to found an immensely successful and popular blog about lawyers and the practice of law, called "Above the Law."

Six or seven years ago, when I was beginning the process of leaving the practice of law to become an Alexander Technique teacher, another former colleague suggested I contact David, as he might be interested in writing about me on his blog. We exchanged a few e-mails, but nothing came of it.

Suddenly, a little over a year ago I got an e-mail from Spencer, saying that David had suggested me as a guest for his show. Two weeks after that e-mail arrived, the interview was making its way around the internet.

Several of my new students told me a similar story of long germination and sudden action: they had heard of the Alexander Technique in the past, but never took the step of having a lesson until seeing the interview prompted them to contact me.

The Power of the Internet

In my experience, the percentage of people responding to any introduction to our work by actually scheduling a lesson is low, so the multiplier effect of the internet's huge reach is significant. In this case, within 48 hours after the interview was posted on Bloomberg's website and circulated via "Above the Law," I had scheduled six first lessons.

And it turns out we don't need to provide "wow" moments of hands-on experience to get people interested. We should not discount the value of simply talking about the work. The important thing is to get them to come for that first lesson, to have the full hands-on experience.

Speak to Your Audience

In explaining the technique to the intended audience of lawyers, I touched on primary control, awareness, inhibition, direction, use-related pain, habitual reaction to stimuli, and good vs. bad use of the self - but I didn't use those words! I also emphasized aspects of the work that appeal to lawyers -- in particular, that it involves learning skills and using conscious thinking to solve problems.

I think this contributed to the positive response to the interview: I avoided jargon, instead speaking my audience's native language.

Be Authentic

Each person who contacted me mentioned something different in the interview that had spoken to his or her situation, needs and goals. Obviously, I hadn't actually tailored my message to their individual interests, as I would in a face-to-face conversation. Rather, I spoke from the heart about my own experience.

People recognize and respond to authenticity. We don't need to explain all the principles of the technique; we don't need to correct every possible misunderstanding about what it is; we just need to explain the value it has in our own lives and those of our students.

Each of us is a unique individual with a story about how we came to the Alexander Technique and why we decided to immerse ourselves in it. Tell that story to whomever you can, and people will find their connection to it.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Kreuger.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]KAREN G. KREUGER became a teacher of the Alexander Technique after 25 years of practicing law at two major New York law firms, receiving her teaching certificate from the American Center for the Alexander Technique in December 2010. Her students include lawyers, business executives, IT professionals and others interested in living with greater ease and skill. Find her at her website: http://kgk-llc.com. [/author_info] [/author]

Fishing For Our Body's Wisdom

Japanese-fish by Dan Cayer

I can remember trying to ‘feel’ the swampy mess of bodily sensations and emotions I felt trapped inside me. What were these squeezings in my chest and throat, this panicked gripping in my abdomen? I knew there was wisdom in the body and that if I could relate with it, I might feel less stuck in my life and more able to make decisions. Yogis and meditators had written luminously about the wisdom we have inside us.

So I sat very silently and very still. Like a fisherman with my line in the water, waiting and listening for something to surface. I sat and bent my ear low, trying to divine the meeting of every little stirring. Is this anxious squeezing in my throat related to my childhood? To creativity? Yet like a deer at the edge of a meadow, the more I approached, the more these sensations retreated or froze up.

The framework of me needing to intellectually understand physical-emotional pockets proved to be stifling. Too much to ask for. It was best to see what bubbled up on its own, bringing its unconventional intelligence to the situation at hand.

Over years, I’ve come to relax my judgments, analysis, and pressure on the body to hand over all its secrets. Now it’s more like relating joyfully with my 19 month old daughter – genuine communication that doesn’t require language or agenda. There are simply waves of presence going back and forth between us.

I see now that the bodily feelings – wise, scared, and finicky – are always transmitting. They may not meet my expectations of solving problems or telling me what I should do with some difficult choice. Nonetheless, what my body offers is beautiful, wet and real; the fish jumping into my boat before I even can prepare the line.

This post was originally published at dancayerfluidmovement.com

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dan-Head-Shot-13.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]DAN CAYER is a nationally certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. After a serious injury left him unable to work or even carry out household tasks, he began studying the technique. His return to health, as well as his experience with the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of pain, inspired him to help others. He now teaches his innovative approach in Union Square, Carroll Gardens and in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He also teaches adults to swim with greater ease and confidence by applying Alexander principles. You can find his next workshop or schedule a private lesson at www.dancayerfluidmovement.com.[/author_info] [/author]

What We're Reading: Freedom to Change by Frank Pierce Jones

jones_72by Kim Jessor and Jessica Santascoy

SANTASCOY

What book do you recommend for new students?

JESSOR

"Freedom to Change by Frank Pierce Jones," which was the first book I read when I began studying the Technique in 1977. Since then I have reread it many times, (as evidenced by my very dog eared copy!). It is a book we read and discuss in our training course, as well as one I return to as a means of clarifying my thinking and teaching.

SANTASCOY

Why do you recommend "Freedom to Change?"

JESSOR

It is a classic; a comprehensive, thoughtful, and clear book. It is well-written and accessible while being extremely thorough and detailed. Freedom to Change gives an introduction to and a context for so many aspects of the Technique for someone new, while remaining an essential reference for teachers. For example, I often reread the section on the reflex response, or on the center of gravity of the head. That section in particular reminds me to convey to students that it is the nature of our design, with the center of gravity forward of the spine, or what Debby Caplan calls "the elegantly unbalanced head," that facilitates the lengthening of the muscles of our spines when we are not interfering through tension.

Jones approaches the Technique from multiple angles, so it can appeal to people with different interests and perspectives; those wanting to know the history and development of the Technique, the scientifically-minded wanting to understand what he learned from his experimental studies, the educator, those who want to understand more about the relevant anatomy and physiology, the curious potential student looking to improve health, as well as the trainee seeking a more in depth understanding of the process of teaching this work.

Jones’ own story is fascinating, and chronicled in the book. A classics professor who came to the Technique in the 1930s to deal with his own fatigue and pain, he trained to teach with F. M. Alexander himself and his brother A. R. He knew the brothers well, and carried on a lengthy correspondence with FM Alexander.

Jones taught the Technique for over 30 years. During this time he learned the scientific method in order to design studies which measure and validate the effect of the Technique. Like Alexander he had great persistence to pursue his goal of precisely defining the Technique and measuring its effect, in order to bring it to the attention of the larger world. His contribution is significant and I feel it is important for students to know his work.

Jones's descriptions of his own first lessons with both F. M. and A. R. Alexander and his impressions of them bring the brothers vividly to life, as well as his accounts of his learning process. He also writes about influential people who were proponents of the Technique, such as John Dewey and Aldous Huxley, and it's fascinating to see how his work impacted their thinking.

The chapter on experimental studies is the most technical part of the book. Photographs enhance the text, showing us the multiple image photography Jones used to measure changes in movement patterns, as well as x-rays, charts, diagrams, and images of Jones teaching. He also includes the list of adjectives the subjects were asked to use to describe new kinesthetic experiences resulting from AT lessons (ex. being lighter, less familiar, higher and smoother). It is a model for how to quantify the seemingly magical experience of the Technique.

Additionally as a skilled and experienced teacher, his chapters on "The Re-education of Feeling" and "Notes on Teaching" articulate his approach with great clarity, which is illuminating for students.

SANTASCOY

How does this book speak to someone who is not yet a student of the Technique?

JESSOR

I think the book intrigues the potential Alexander student who is truly looking to change. Jones often emphasizes the pleasure in the learning. He states that the pleasure of the greater ease in movement is an immediate reward of applying the process, and says of the Technique “It brings into learning some of the pleasure and excitement which children feel when they do things for the first time-and begin to explore the world (196)."

Jones also states in the chapter "Learning how to Learn":

“Alexander’s discovery (as Dewey pointed out) is comparable to the discoveries that were made during the Renaissance and that caused men to change their ideas of external nature. When you look through a microscope or telescope for the first time you are forced, if you accept the evidence of your senses, to revise your views of the universe outside yourself. Alexander discovered a way of using his hands to give a person new experiences which force him to revise his ideas both of himself and the universe (188)."

It seems to me that sentiment might inspire someone to try to find out what the Alexander Technique is all about!

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Kim-Jessor.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]KIM JESSOR has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 30 years. Certified at ACAT under Judith Leibowitz, she is a member of ACAT's senior faculty and former director of the Teacher Certification program. Kim teaches Alexander in the Graduate Acting program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and maintains a private practice in Manhattan. She has a varied practice and specializes in working with performing artists. Kim has taught at the Mannes College of Music, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and the Miller Health Care Institute for Performing Arts Medicine. Contact Kim at kj292@nyu.edu.[/author_info] [/author]

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/santascoy.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]JESSICA SANTASCOY is an Alexander Technique teacher specializing in the change of inefficient habitual thought and movement patterns to lessen pain, stress, anxiety, and stage fright. She effectively employs a calm and gentle approach, understanding how fear and pain short circuit the body and productivity. Her clients include high level executives, software engineers, designers, and actors. Jessica graduated from the American Center for the Alexander Technique, holds a BA in Psychology, and an MA in Media Studies. She teaches in New York City and San Francisco. Connect with Jessica via email or on Twitter @jessicasuzette.[/author_info] [/author]

Could the Alexander Technique Have Prevented The Great Recession?

American_union_bankBy Karen G. Krueger

"If we understand how a person's body influences risk taking, we can learn how to better manage risk takers. We can also recognize that mistakes governments have made have contributed to massive risk taking."

These striking assertions are from a recent opinion piece in the New York Times (Sunday Week in Review, June 8, 2014) by John Coates, a research fellow at Cambridge and a former derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

I was particularly pleased to see this mainstream media piece acknowledge the unity of mind and body:

"Many neuroscientists now believe our brain is designed primarily to plan and execute movement."

"We do not process information as a computer does, dispassionately; we react to it physically."

These statements, and the neuroscience that underpins them, confirm my own experiences in learning and teaching the Alexander Technique. A century ago, F.M. Alexander used observation, reasoning and experimentation to examine and change his own stress response, and then to teach others to do the same.

The stress response that prompted Alexander's inquiry was a form of performance anxiety: he was an actor plagued by chronic hoarseness when on stage. Coates is interested in the responses of traders and investors to financial uncertainty. Unlike Alexander, Coates does not deal (at least in this article) with the possibility that individuals could change how they react to stress. Rather, he recommends that financial regulators use an understanding of human beings' automatic physical responses to novelty and uncertainty to manipulate the behavior of other players in the financial system.

Coates emphasizes the hormonal changes of the stress response: adrenaline, cortisone testosterone and dopamine all make an appearance. He also describes the related changes in heart rate, breathing and blood pressure. Oddly, he doesn't mention the most obvious physical reaction to stress: tense muscles in the neck, shoulders and back. You don't need a functional MRI or a blood test to detect that reaction to stress!

Like all Alexander Technique teachers, I work with my students on noticing how their neuromuscular systems react to stimuli of all kinds, and using Alexander's simple process of thoughtful practice to change those reactions that interefere with efficient, healthy functioning of body and mind. My students usually begin with straightforward goals: they want to learn to sit, stand and move with better posture and less tension, so that their necks, backs or arms will stop hurting. In the process, they discover that learning to change their physical habits has broader beneficial effects, including a greater capacity to choose to remain calm and thoughtful in situations that previously provoked anxiety.

So I couldn't help wondering as I read Coates' piece what would happen if a critical mass of individual participants in the financial system were to take Alexander Technique lessons. Imagine whole trading desks of traders who were able, in the face of financial panic, to stop tensing their necks, calm down their breathing, and take time to think about how to respond. Could they avoid being swept up into the mass unreasoned reactions that Coates describes, and minimize the damage to their own health in the process?

If you are a day trader who would like to stop allowing your hormones to drive your decisions—or just an average stressed-out New Yorker who would like to feel more in control of your life—find out more about the Alexander Technique:

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Kreuger.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]KAREN G. KREUGER became a teacher of the Alexander Technique after 25 years of practicing law at two major New York law firms, receiving her teaching certificate from the American Center for the Alexander Technique in December 2010. Her students include lawyers, business executives, IT professionals and others interested in living with greater ease and skill. Find her at her website: http://kgk-llc.com. [/author_info] [/author]

 

Master Alexander Technique Teacher, Marjory Barlow (1915-2006)

marjoryby Witold Fitz-Simon Marjory Barlow was F. M. Alexander’s niece, who took lessons from him and trained under him to become an Alexander Technique teacher in 1933. She was the first person outside of F. M.’s Ashely Place Training course to start her own teacher training program. As a teacher she combines a no-nonsense, straightforward approach to the work with light-heartedness and compassion. Here she is in an interview from 1986.

http://youtu.be/SjcY9S-bwIs

For more information about this wonderful teacher, there are some great resources out there:

There are also two books:

Of the two books, I've only read "An Examined Life," which I've read twice and thoroughly recommend for both its personal perspective on Alexander's life and her inspiring exposition of his work.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/After-crop1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]WITOLD FITZ-SIMON has been a student of the Alexander Technique since 2007. He is certified to teach the Technique as a graduate of the American Center for the Alexander Technique’s 1,600-hour, three year training program. A student of yoga since 1993 and a teacher of yoga since 2000, Witold combines his extensive knowledge of the body and its use into intelligent and practical instruction designed to help his students free themselves of ineffective and damaging habits of body, mind and being. www.mindbodyandbeing.com[/author_info] [/author]

 

 

5 Reasons Why Six-Pack Abs Are A Terrible Idea

statueby Witold Fitz-Simon I’ve been noticing over the past few weeks how a few of my Facebook friends have signed up to be part of an event for the month of June: "30 Day Ab Challenge for those who need some motivation like me.” I clicked over to the event page and was surprised that 1.9 MILLION Facebook users have said they are going to take part. I work both as an Alexander Technique teacher and a Yoga teacher, so I spend a certain amount of my working week in gyms. I understand the pressure to look trim and have a slim waist, and I see the effort people put in to the goal of hard abs. I also see the harmful effects this can have on them. Tight abs can be really bad for the body, and here are five reasons why:

1. Six-pack abs contribute to bad posture and put strain on your neck

Good posture arises out of a delicate balance of forces in the body. The flexor muscles of the front of your body are there to act as a balance to the extensor muscles of your back body, which are the true “anti-gravity” muscles that hold you up off the floor. Your extensor muscles are intrinsically stronger, when taken as a whole, than your flexors. When everything is going well, the 15-or-so pounds of your head are lifted up off the top of your spine by your extensors. If they over-work and your head gets pulled back too much, your flexors are there to counter-balance. Whereas the tone of your non-fatiguable extensor muscle is continuous whenever you are upright, the tone required of your fatiguable flexor muscles to do their job, is smaller and only needed intermittently. To work your abdominals until they are so contracted that they are perpetually tight means you are setting up a constant downward pull against which your postural muscles have to work in addition to the downward pull of gravity. This means that your neck has to struggle to keep your heavy head, filled with your very important brain, upright and away from the very hard ground.

2. Six-pack abs contribute to lower back pain, rather than help it

Generally speaking, lower back pain comes from the discs and nerves of your spinal column being compressed in some way. Vertebra become displaced or crack, discs get ruptured or start to degenerate, and the nerves that come out of your spinal column in the spaces between your vertebrae are pressed on, which causes pain. Whereas, it is true that increased stability will help keep the structures of the lower back well-positioned so that the pressures and movements that are causing the struggle don’t happen, this stability needs to come from lengthening and widening, rather than adding more compression to a system that is already struggling under the effects of too much of it. The constant extra tone that hard abs have will only contribute to the problem.

3. Six-pack abs make it harder to breath

In order for your breath to flow freely, all the different parts of your breathing mechanism—diaphragm, ribs, lungs, accessory breathing muscles—need to be able to slide and glide around each other freely and with ease. Your six-pack muscles attach to the front of your ribcage. If you have developed them so that they are excessively toned all the time, this means that they are exerting a constant pull on the front of your rib cage and will prevent you from being able to breathe freely.

4. Six-pack abs make it harder to move

Moving well—with stability, balance, ease and power—comes from all the different muscles of the body being able to move freely and in coordination with each other. Those same tight abdominal muscles that are preventing you from breathing freely are also preventing all your other muscles from moving freely. Every time you reach your arm out, or take a step with one leg, or turn your torso, you will have one thick, unmoving muscle at the center of your body pulling back and restricting your movement, making every movement you do require that much more energy to execute.

5. Six-pack abs limit the function of your internal organs

Your muscles and bones are not the only thing that move as you breathe and make your way through the world. Your internal organs do as well. All your internal organs function by having your various fluids move through them. Fluid goes in at one end of the organ, gets processed in some way as it moves through it, and is moved out the other end to allow more fluid to enter. The only internal organ of the body that has its own pump to do this is the heart. Whereas blood pressure is a key factor to the internal functioning of the body, it can’t do all the work on its own. Your organs are moved around and massaged by the movements of your breath and the movements that you make during your daily life. To limit those movements is to deprive your organs of some of the inner flow that they rely on to keep functioning.

I’m not saying don’t exercise. Some form of daily exercise is important to keeping healthy and happy. What I am saying is: let your exercise be balanced and mindful, so that you use yourself consciously, intelligently and discerningly. Use your body in such a way that you are contributing to your overall health and wellbeing, rather than detracting from it.

And you know what is a great way to learn how to do that? The Alexander Technique. The Alexander Technique can offer you simple and effective tools to move better, with more strength, more integration, and more ease. It will teach you to identify ways in which you create more difficulty for yourself and will show you how to make better choices in everything you do. If you’re interested in learning how to strengthen your belly without creating all the above problems for yourself, you might try dropping in on one of ACAT’s free monthly lecture/demos, or find a certified Alexander Technique teacher near you.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/After-crop1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]WITOLD FITZ-SIMON has been a student of the Alexander Technique since 2007. He is certified to teach the Technique as a graduate of the American Center for the Alexander Technique’s 1,600-hour, three year training program. A student of yoga since 1993 and a teacher of yoga since 2000, Witold combines his extensive knowledge of the body and its use into intelligent and practical instruction designed to help his students free themselves of ineffective and damaging habits of body, mind and being. www.mindbodyandbeing.com[/author_info] [/author]

Fast and Loose: Protecting Those Hip Joints

(c) 2013 Joan Arnold by Joan Arnold

Yoga Alert

Women!  Beware of yoga!  So said a November, 2013 article in the New York Times by William Broad, a science writer whose provocative articles have challenged America's current love affair with yoga.* He cited serious injuries women have sustained in extreme yoga postures, concluding that yoga's emphasis on flexibility causes severe hip joint strain among women.

Speaking as a yoga teacher and a middle-aged woman with hip joints, I know that, in the practice and teaching of yoga, generalities don't help.  Some women have loose joints, and some don’t.  Some yoga forms put practitioners into exaggerated poses, others don’t.  As a teacher of the Alexander Technique, I help people – yogic and otherwise – recover from hip replacements by helping them unravel habits developed before or after surgery, and helping them learn how to move well in their daily lives.  For prevention or rehabilitation, the most important focus is you how you move.  How you walk and sit or perform yoga postures will create strain or harmony in that crucial center of the body.  It’s all in how you do it.

Use or Genetics?

Any movement teacher worth his or her salt should know the pitfalls of stiffness and hyper-mobility.  Some of our students are tightly strung, others loosely strung.  Some are women and some are men.

One aspect of flexibility comes from muscle – muscle fibers’ resting length and the quality of the connective tissue that surrounds each fiber and muscle group.  When we stretch to become more flexible, the best approach is to do so gently, increasing that resting length gradually.  Another aspect of flexibility is inherited, determined by the length of our ligaments, the connectors binding bone to bone that stabilize the skeleton.  Once a ligament is stretched, it stays that way.  That's why we need to be clear about what we're stretching and why.  When you stretch, your primary sensation should be in the muscle, not in the joint.

Those we call double-jointed are born with longer ligaments.  The advantage is that they are naturally flexible, and yoga’s full range of postures come more easily to them.  The disadvantage is that their joints are less stable.  They need to avoid hanging on their joints – something that can feel good and stretchy – and learn how to more fully engage their muscles to stabilize this genetic laxity.  I have one yoga student, a builder who swings a hammer, lifts and climbs all day long, who is hyper-mobile.  I coach him to engage his muscles, not to hang in down dog but to lift up, fully engage the shoulders to spare his joints from the over-extension that, to him, comes naturally.

Those with shorter ligaments have the benefit of greater joint stability.  Though they’d like to be looser, initially they may hate stretching.  In the current culture of yoga, dramatic flexibility is over-emphasized, as is performance over process.  These folks may envy those flexier types, but it’s best when they work with their own body gradually, learning how to release muscles and fascia, to make fuller joint movement available.

Do you know your body type? Your muscles may be tight or loose, but it’s good to know whether your joints—your ligaments—are close-knit or loose.  A good teacher or physical therapist can tell you, but you can test yourself.  Extend one arm out in front of you.  If your elbow goes beyond straight, so it rises above the forearm, you’re on the flexible side.  If it’s hard to straighten your arm fully, your ligaments probably tend to be short.

Structure & Habit

(c) 2013 Joan Arnold

I’ve had beautiful, accomplished yoginis come to my class, dropping into their shoulder joints in down dog – adho mukha svanasana – or too low in the forward lunge Anjaneyasana, pushing down into the ribs and waist, putting pressure on the hip joints and lower back.  In down dog, I help them allow their ribs to come back and up, to spare their shoulders and hips.  In lunge, I teach them to come up from the bottom of the pelvis rather than hang on those available joints. Using the Alexander Technique’s idea of lightness at the top of the spine helps them engage their torso’s natural buoyancy.  With a gentle hands-on suggestion, I encourage them to stop pushing down and guide the pelvis to tilt up and away from the front leg.  Rather than exerting repetitive pressure and misaligning the upper thigh (the femur in the socket of the acetabulum, if you want to get technical), they can spare those delicate feminine hip joints.  The result is freedom and lightness as they breathe more fully and build strength with balance.

(c) 2013 Joan Arnold

As teachers, we can determine how a student's habits and genetics interact and what each one needs to learn.  Though awareness is considered a priority in yoga, "listening to your own body” may mean that you indulge your preferences and perpetuate unconscious habits that do not further your practice.  An insightful teacher can suggest shifts that initially may feel unfamiliar or wrong, but can lead you toward a deeper understanding of your body’s unique needs and a more intelligent practice of the subtle, complex art we call yoga.

* The first, an excerpt from Broad’s book "The Science of Yoga," was a sensational New York Times magazine cover story in January, 2012, entitled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. That piece highlighted the prevalence and seriousness of yoga injuries, and has sparked an ongoing and worthy conversation. Here are two among many responses:

"How Yoga Can Free Your Body" by Joan Arnold "Does Yoga Kill?" by Timothy McCall

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Drawings ©2013 by Joan Arnold, used with kind permission

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Joan.Arnold.png[/author_image] [author_info]JOAN ARNOLD has been a movement educator for over 30 years, teaching dance, exercise, yoga and Alexander Technique.  She has a private practice in NYC, Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley and has been quoted as an expert in Fit Yoga, O magazine and Timothy McCall’s 2007 book, Yoga as Medicine.  Her articles on health, education and bodywork have appeared in national magazines and online in Elephant Journal.  Joan teaches at Jaya Yoga Center in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  In July 2014, she returns to Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health to reprise her week-long workshop on Yoga & the Alexander Technique. [/author_info] [/author]

 

What We’re Reading: Body Learning by Michael Gelb

GelbBy Daniel Singer and Jessica Santascoy Daniel Singer, an Alexander Technique teacher at the American Center for the Alexander Technique with over 30 years of experience, tells us why he recommends Michael Gelb’s "Body Learning," and gives us a couple of questions from the book to ask yourself about habits.

SANTASCOY

Which book on the Alexander Technique do you recommend for new students?

SINGER

The book that consistently meets my need for clear presentation of the Alexander Technique (AT) and that I recommend is "Body Learning" by Michael Gelb. The book is a valuable resource for people taking AT lessons, those who want to take lessons, and interested readers who like ideas as the basis for practical change.

SANTASCOY

Why do you recommend Body Learning?

SINGER

Body Learning lays out the Alexander Technique principles in a lively context that I find particularly enriching for a new student. The book sticks closely to almost all of the original ideas presented by F.M. While exceedingly careful not to water-down or dumb-down any important concepts or history for the convenience of the reader, Michael Gelb does a superb job of presenting concepts fairly succinctly and completely. He doesn’t insulate the reader from details about the ideas. Yet, he doesn’t overburden the reader, either. He takes them into the history of the Alexander Technique quite fully in a way that might bring some gravitas and intellectual interest to the reader.

The book is an overview and somewhat of a practical guide for the person interested in answering the question “What is the Alexander Technique and how can it help me?” The book helps answer that question, by anchoring the student in concepts such as Use and Functioning, The Whole Person, Primary Control, Unreliable Sensory Appreciation, Inhibition, Direction, Ends and Means.

Peppered with invaluable photos such as the Nuba tribespeople, the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, cats, and a student learning to write hunched over a desk, the book speaks to the holism and humanism of the AT work, by way of multiple, visual examples. At the same time, the photos sustain curiosity and illustrate concepts.

Michael provides "Checkpoints" at the end of every chapter, encouraging the reader to apply AT ideas to everyday life:

"Are you aware of your habits of moving, thinking and feeling? Try listing three habits of body use, thought, or emotion. (34)"

"Do you ever catch yourself responding habitually but find that you can't seem to change? (67)"

While presenting the intellectual and practical basis for Alexander’s unique ideas, Michael brings in personal anecdotes and stories by other teachers, which students can often relate to. He discusses matters such as "Learning How to Learn” and “What can I do myself” at the end of the book, just enough to inform and tantalize a reader about the importance of linking any interest in these ideas with Alexander lessons.

SANTASCOY

How have your students used to Body Learning to enhance lessons?

SINGER

A few months ago, upon my recommendation, a new AT student of mine (a graduate student in History), who obviously likes to read, got hold of Body Learning and read it. When she came in for her lesson the next week, she was surprisingly burning with interest to understand inhibition more deeply. She really got that fire more from Michael, than from me. His presentation simply clicked for her with additional “umpf." I had explained inhibition and referenced it in each lesson, repeatedly. But somehow Michael’s chapter on inhibition got to her in a way that I could not.

Presenting ideas is not always simple if they are to be presented with a reference to history and supporting evidence, and I am eternally grateful to Michael Gelb for having taken on that task and accomplishing it in a concise way. Bravo, Michael.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Daniel-Singer.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]DANIEL SINGER has over 30 years of experience teaching the Alexander Technique and is a senior teacher at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT). Graduating from the State University of New York at Buffalo, he then certified to teach the Alexander Technique and pursued post-graduate Alexander studies in London. Daniel teaches at Michael Howard Studios and is author of the book "The Sacred Portable Now" and co-producer of “The Back Alive Advantage” a self-lesson CD based on the principles of the Alexander Technique. Daniel has a private teaching practice in Manhattan. Connect with Daniel via email DSingerNY@aol.com or by phone at (917) 326-0493. [/author_info] [/author]

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/santascoy.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]JESSICA SANTASCOY is an Alexander Technique teacher specializing in the change of inefficient habitual thought and movement patterns to lessen pain, stress, anxiety, and stage fright. She effectively employs a calm and gentle approach, understanding how fear and pain short circuit the body and productivity. Her clients include high level executives, software engineers, designers, and actors. Jessica graduated from the American Center for the Alexander Technique, holds a BA in Psychology, and an MA in Media Studies. She teaches in New York City and San Francisco. Connect with Jessica via email or on Twitter @jessicasuzette.[/author_info] [/author]

Engaging With Play: How Games Can Enhance Your Teaching Practice

children-playing-661064-mby Anastasia Pridlides I attended the "games teachers play" free member event on April 28th ready for fun. I had been looking forward to this event from the moment it went on the calendar, not only because I really enjoy playing, but also because I love working with groups. I'm always looking for new things to put in my group teaching toolbox. We attendees had a fantastic time as Brooke Lieb, Luke Mess and Mark Josephsburg for shared their teaching games with us. Here are some of the things that I took away from the workshop.

What games can accomplish in a group setting

Ice Breaking

Asking a group of strangers to explore their sometimes personal habits together can be kind of intense. One of the best group class experiences I had as a student of the Technique was in a class where all of the participants really gelled. The level of comfort that we developed with one another created a supportive and relaxed learning environment and that enhanced my learning exponentially. Ice Breaker games are a great way to energize your group, to encourage them to tune in to one another and to build a group rapport.

Loosening up

We have all had those moments where we have gotten very serious about our selves and our process as we are learning. I know that in me an overly serious or inwardly focused mindset usually leads to end gaining and when that happens lightening up is exactly what I need. Sometimes a laugh or a smile is just the thing to encourage an "up" in the system.

Skill application

Games can be a really fun way to explore applying the Alexander Technique in an activity. It can help get your students out of their sitting and standing routine and help to bridge the gap between their lessons and their application of the Technique to their everyday life.

Alternative way of exploring abstract concepts

Concepts like inhibition, or faulty kinesthesia can be challenging ideas when they are new. Games that explore or incorporate these concepts can reinforce your students learning process by giving them opportunities to engage them experientially in a variety of different ways.

Incorporating games into your own teaching practice

The first question to ask oneself when planning games for your classes is "what do you find fun and engaging?" If you as the teacher pick something that you find stimulating, your students will pick up on the tone that you are setting for the activity. For instance, I love playing with balls and anything that involves lots of movement. I have a variety of go-to games that are either variations on catch or that encourage my students to move through space in new ways.

Next, decide what it is that you wish the purpose of your game to be in the context of your class. The purpose of an ice breaker game is to build a group dynamic and get your students more comfortable with one another. For that purpose, a game where everyone is standing in a circle and paying attention to the group as a whole, rather than one that breaks people into teams or pairs, might be a better choice. I like games that are forms of catch, whether you are using an actual ball or sending words or energy around the circle. Any name game where the participants get to say the names of others in the group can also help your group class get to know one another.

If however, you are looking for a game that explores a concept, the concept itself is your starting point. Do you want to explore inhibition? Then create a playful activity where taking a moment to a moment to pause or to not respond to a stimulus in an integral part of the game. What is it like to choose not to catch the ball, or not to run when you are tagged? Is faulty kinesthesia the concept you are interested in? How can you demonstrate that what we think we are doing isn't always what we are actually doing in a way that encourages your students to laugh at the discrepancy and be excited to find other places that don't match up? Can you ask them to close their eyes and move a certain way and then open them to see where they actually end up?

I've always thought of games as primarily being a group teaching tool, but these same concepts can be adapted for private lessons as well. I hope this gives you something to think about the next time that you are planning your classes. Do you have a favorite game that you like to teach in your classes, or a favorite game that you like play as a student? Then join the conversation and post it in the comments! I would love to hear about your ideas and experiences.

We have one more free member event coming up this season. Join us at ACAT on May 19th for “The Teacher’s Process, the Student’s Process: The Delicate Interplay of a Lesson” with Brooke Lieb. This workshop is perfect for Teaching Members who would like to get a taste of what it's like to be a trainee again and for Associate Members who are interested in learning more about how one learns to teach this work.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Anastasia.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]ANASTASIA PRIDLIDES teaches Alexander Technique, Bellydance and Yoga in New York City.  Studying the Alexander Technique has been a deeply transformative and life changing process for her. Every day she wakes up excited to know that her job is share it with others. You can find her at movementhealingarts.com[/author_info] [/author]

Welcome to the New ACAT Blog!

By Witold Fitz-Simon In 2012, when ACAT launched its new website, I was in my 6th term in the teacher training program. I thought the one element the new site was lacking was a blog to act as an online meeting place for the organization, a place where the many voices of its diverse and fascinating member could be heard. I’m excited to announce the launch of the new blog! I’ve been writing blogs for many years in my other life as a yoga teacher at yogaartandscience.com and mindbodyandbeing.com. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m thrilled to have the privilege of applying my skills as editor and blogger for ACAT.

Along with all the content you would expect from a blog for an organization such as ACAT—including announcements and reviews of upcoming events—we have other great content coming up, including:

  • Items of interest to students and teachers of the Alexander Technique drawn from the media and the culture at large
  • How-tos to engage students and non-Alexander Technique people, giving them a sense of the scope of the work and how they can apply it directly to their own lives
  • Our current librarian and 8th-term teacher trainee, Jessica Santascoy, will be giving us a peak into the amazing resources ACAT has to offer its members
  • Director of the teacher-training program, Brooke Lieb, will be offering us her insights into principles of the Technique and their application

I hope you enjoy the offerings we have in store over the coming weeks. I invite you to participate with us in this by commenting often, or by sending questions about the blog and the Alexander Technique to me, at witoldfs@gmail.com. And if you would like to contribute to the blog, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.acatnyc.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/After-crop1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]WITOLD FITZ-SIMON has been a student of the Alexander Technique since 2007. He is certified to teach the Technique as a graduate of the American Center for the Alexander Technique’s 1,600-hour, three year training program. A student of yoga since 1993 and a teacher of yoga since 2000, Witold combines his extensive knowledge of the body and its use into intelligent and practical instruction designed to help his students free themselves of ineffective and damaging habits of body, mind and being. www.mindbodyandbeing.com[/author_info] [/author]