Maximizing Our Personal Energy

All living things need energy to function; the ability to find, store and utilize energy is an essential survival skill.  But the fundamental importance of energy extends well beyond the bare minimum of survival itself.  The manner in which energy is used plays a major role in shaping the quality of life of each plant and animal.  Put another way, the energy efficiency of each living organism largely determines the well being and effectiveness of that organism.  Because of [...]

By |2023-12-01T21:27:15-04:007/20/2022|Categories: Alexander Technique|0 Comments

Our Posture Paints Our Feelings

Happy or Sad?  Our posture paints a portrait. People are fascinating creatures, and I spend a lot of time observing them on my walks around New York City.  But it isn't really the people I'm observing so much as how their posture paints their feelings.  Often, I'll pass someone and think, "I know just how that person feels right now."  Although it's dicey to imagine I can grasp the mood of a total stranger by glancing at their movement [...]

By |2023-12-25T12:55:22-04:005/04/2022|Categories: Alexander Technique|0 Comments

Improve Your Posture to Improve Your Breathing

The Covid-19 pandemic is once again leading to soaring numbers of infections and deaths worldwide.  Since Covid-19 attacks our ability to breathe, this crisis demands that we learn what breathing is and explore the intimate connection between breathing and posture.  Understanding this connection should allow us to improve the quality of our posture and our breathing simultaneously.  With our well being hanging in the balance, the Alexander Technique is the perfect vehicle to embark on this important effort.  The [...]

By |2023-12-01T20:38:56-04:0011/30/2020|Categories: Alexander Technique|0 Comments

Preventing Pandemic Posture Problems

The Poor Posture Epidemic Meets the covid-19 Pandemic The covid-19 pandemic is severely testing our society. Those who remain healthy and employed -- and can work from home -- are lucky indeed.  However, growing numbers of these fortunate people suffer from needless pain, strain and tension induced by their own poor posture. Poor posture was already at epidemic levels before the pandemic began.  Yet covid-19 "shelter-in-place" orders have amplified our society's preexisting posture problems.  Many office workers have been [...]

By |2023-12-01T20:55:09-04:005/14/2020|Categories: Alexander Technique|0 Comments

Habits, Feelings and the Alexander Technique

People studying the Alexander Technique learn a lot about their own habits.  This occurs because habits are the primary obstacle standing between how Alexander students are and how they want to be.  How do AT students want to be?  Many people take AT lessons to improve their posture.  Others want to reduce back, neck and shoulder pain while preventing future injuries.  Another group seeks to move more easily, conserving their personal energy.  Still others want to better manage [...]

By |2023-12-23T22:16:48-04:006/22/2019|Categories: Alexander Technique|0 Comments

All About Squatting

Judy Stern in Conversation with Tim Tucker This is an interview I conducted of Senior Alexander Teacher Judy Stern about one of the most important and misunderstood parts of the human movement repertoire, squatting.  The interview took place in August 2017. Tim Tucker:  Judy, what is squatting?  How would you define it? Judy Stern:  The first question you’re asking is the most straightforward one, but as usual the answer isn’t quite so straightforward.  I would say it’s a way [...]

Body and mind, together at last

I'm currently re-reading Dr. Oliver Sacks's famous book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat."  Chapter 3, "The Disembodied Lady," tells the fascinating tale of a woman who lost her ability to sense her own body.  Christina went overnight from a state of vigorous health and youthful activity to one in which she could not function at all.  Without her 6th sense (her proprioception as Charles Sherrington named it in the 1890s), Christina could not even [...]

Heads up on Renaissance art

The Alexander Technique has helped many people to move and breathe more easily, to stop pain and to heal injuries. To obtain these benefits, Alexander practitioners must pay special attention to the relationship of the head, neck and back. F.M. Alexander's discovery F.M. Alexander discovered that keeping the neck free of undue tension is a fundamental component of human well being. He discovered this after losing his voice while reciting on stage. Observing himself carefully, Alexander noticed that [...]

Working mindfully

Recently, I spent nearly three weeks at the Village Zendo’s summer meditation retreat. While on retreat, my day started around 4:30am and ended around 10pm with lots of meditation, working on the cleaning crew and, when we were not in silence, intense group discussions. During one such discussion, a longtime practitioner commented on our demanding retreat schedule, saying “If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it.” Working hard... or hardly working? That comment made me think about [...]

Freedom and the Alexander Technique

Today, the United States celebrates the 241st anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Our Declaration famously asserted that people are endowed "with certain unalienable Rights, [and] that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  Because the 13 colonies were being denied those rights, the colonies declared themselves to be "Free and Independent States." Although we remain free and independent as a country today, Americans are deeply divided in their opinions and priorities.  Politicians, [...]

Go to Top