I can't make it, I have rehearsal. Remember those days? A year ago we couldn't conceive of it, seemed like the most unimaginable idea. Not only did we need to pivot instantly, to online classrooms, but also to rehearsal and performances created together while apart. It seemed inconceivable, many said impossible, and since Alexander teaches how to embrace the unknown - a spirit of 'we're artists, we'll figure it out' emerged, and we did. And we are continuing to evolve and across the globe performers are making art. If you've been missing it, the creativity of the rehearsal room. Come join me ..read more

All the time, students talk to me about how exhausted they are and how no matter how hard they try to get caught up on sleep, rarely do they feel rested. "All I want to do is nap, and after I nap I feel groggier." "I know I need to just push through and work harder, but I'm unable to maintain the energy that I used to have and I feel old before my time." "I'm too busy to take a break, if I stop I'll collapse" The human system (and how we react to life's demands) is far more complex than a light switch operating between two extremes of on and off. This article - The 7 types of rest that every p ..read more

Once a student came to me and she was struggling with back pain. She said, I don't understand what's wrong since I work really hard on my posture. She worked by day as a counselor and was either at a desk taking notes on a computer, or seated in an armchair with a client. For fun she'd go on long hikes with her dogs, she loved being outdoors. But she associated sitting still with back pain. She told me she tried yoga and physical therapy, massage and acupuncture but that she still couldn't figure out how to sit in a chair without hurting after a few minutes. When we worked together and I put m ..read more

In between lessons with a teacher, it is very useful to keep up with the practice on your own. You can remind yourself of what you learned by refreshing the thoughts that helped bring your system into balance. It's not the same experience as working with hands-on guidance but it does make the lessons more effective and students tend to progress more quickly. Self-practice of Alexander Technique looks at various procedures and very simple activities. These are not considered exercises, which are typically done with a lot of effort and little awareness but quite the opposite. We're practicing: l ..read more

Catchy title. I picked this book up at my local library this week. It has been out for a little while so though not new, it is new to me and its wisdom is worth sharing. Especially if you're the type of person who bristles at ideas of self-help or thinks mind-body unity is an esoteric concept. The full title is ,The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Cou,nterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life. The author Mark Manson has become a prolific blogger continuing to investigate and explore how to best navigate life. His attention grabbing delivery offers some familiar advice in a refreshingly ..read more

We are living in the information age. Since the advent of the internet we have gained access to a virtually infinite trove of information, and with smartphones becoming ubiquitous we have access to this information nearly all the time. As a result, we’re using our own skills of retention and recall much less. Pretty much everyone over 30 remembers having to retain information- and realizes how quickly that skill is fading- in a generation or two we’ll become more and more dependent upon our ‘external brains’. We run the risk of losing skills we’ve spent all of human evolution developing. But ..read more

It feels a little antithetical to extol the virtues of analog while using my laptop, but analog blogging is beyond my scope a this point so please guide me if you have any suggestions! It also feels hypocritical since, full disclosure, I was a quick convert to digital organization diving in as fast as I could. I stopped wearing a watch once I was carrying my flip phone everywhere, and tossed my alarm clock. This I was grateful for since I always had a contentious relationship to my alarm, and the variety of ring tones to choose from seemed to open up a world of exciting possibilities. But rec ..read more

Near the end of the recent documentary about Mr. Rogers, "Won't You Be My Neighbor" - there was moment he said "I don't think anyone can grow unless he really is accepted as he is". This resonated very strongly with me and relates to a concept I work to impress upon my students. Life a process of moving forward through time. We are shaped by circumstances and experiences and our reactions to them. We are the sum of all our experiences and greater than the sum of our parts. We are all uniquely flawed, striving, struggling and figuring it out as we go. Learning is entwined with living if you're ..read more

This post is prompted by a year of teaching some incredible, curious, devoted and generally stressed-out teenagers and young adults. It was somewhat eye-opening. Over the term as the weeks went on I realized it was more and more of them. I was a bit of a worrier when I was their age, so I empathize and recognize how Alexander can help. But there is and was definitely something else at play. It's a very different world now. Everything is amped up and intensified, including teen angst. Part of what Alexander Technique teaches is non-judgemental observation to improve awareness of how you get in ..read more

Happy New Year - 2018 is here! In recent years, I have been enjoying welcoming the New Year like a reset button. It's an opportunity to reinvest in myself in a way that will be helpful, productive, kind and ideally refreshing. An annual check-in to reflect back and look ahead, marked by a one-second holiday teeming with hope for the future. There's a natural lull marked by the equinox and shortest-days of the year give us a permission to pause and restore. The cold days of winter (at least in my neck of woods) encourage us further to listen to the quiet inside that says 'it's OK to stop now ..read more