All About FLow

Some people come for lessons in the Alexander Technique because they hurt and are looking for relief. Others come because they want to become more proficient in an activity such as singing, public speaking or any sport. Either way the Alexander Technique provides a way to access a deep inner flow of energy and coordination. Of course everyday activities such as yard work, driving or household chores are enhanced as well.  During a typical lesson the student is fully clothed. The work is done standing, sitting or laying on a massage table. With a light sensitive touch I guide the student to explore a depth of support that makes excess tension unnecessary. 

The result is a wonderful feeling of ease and calm yet at the same time you feel energized and renewed. By exploring this new awareness we are less and less bound to repeat habits that have become harmful or interfere with our best coordination. Imagine being able to choose a response to life events rather than being at the mercy of how they affect us.   When we experience continuous changes in balance during activities or feel over stimulated by too much information, we can always find our way back to center. The Alexander Technique gives us a way to choose consciously how to respond to the moment. This is very empowering. The Alexander Technique is fun to learn. What’s fascinating about what you discover is….you!  

Private one-to-one lessons   

There's nothing like a little personal attention. Whether you want to understand the Alexander Technique better and how utilizing what you learn can improve your life or you want specific qigong movements to address an issue you are having I'm happy to spend time with you to share my expertise and keen observation for feedback.   

I am really enjoying teaching the Alexander Technique through the online Zoom class format. After 28 years of teaching lessons, classes and training others to become teachers of the Alexander Technique it’s new for me to not use my hands ie. touch to aid in my communication with a student. Yet, to my great delight wonderful things are happening for people who attend the online class. 

Most people taking my online class are people who have never had an Alexander lesson at all. Some are students who used to come for lessons with me regularly for months or years prior to this pandemic experience. It’s so interesting. Fact is, F.M. Alexander himself didn’t learn the ‘Alexander Technique’ by someone putting hands on him! He discovered what was possible himself by trying to resolve an on-going issue he had of losing his voice when speaking on stage.

The first time I received a non-hands-on lesson was during my training when Barbara Conable was visiting Tommy’s training. I stood in front of a mirror while she spoke to me making suggestions and speaking truths my ’system’ understood even though I was only beginning to comprehend these truths cognitively and yet remarkable things happened for me.

The first time I gave a hands-off lesson was with a student who had been coming 2x a week for about a month. This time when he arrived he went straight for the chair in the corner of the room. i knew he wanted space so I sat away from him and gave him my full attention.  

He wanted to know if this Alexander stuff was as I had had told him…”you are learning to access the inherent support within your design as a human to enable co-ordination, fluidity and spontanaity.” He asked, “is this true or am I feeling such a good and connected sense of well-being after a lesson….. ‘because of you’. He went on to express his concern that if it was because of being with me and my ‘magic hands’ that he felt so good then he was in big trouble because it meant he was becoming addicted to me. He went on to tell me how he had just entered a recovery program for drugs and alcohol only recently and he didn’t need something else to have to recover from.

Got it. Right away I said to myself - there is no way I am going to put my hands on this guy. Instead we began a conversation based solely on Alexander principles. I observed him as we spoke and watched him change. I waited quite a while until I was absolutely sure he might also notice that he had changed. When I finally asked him if he felt different now compared to when he first sat down he said, 'well, I feel as though I have had a lesson.’ (To myself I replied…phew!). Then to make it really obvious I said, ‘notice how I did not come over to touch you did I? 

I went on to reiterate, as we engaged in a conversation about fundamental truths around human design, function, consciousness and interaction we evoked an operational experience of change away from habitual patterns that was causing much of his suffering. He left feeling empowered and I was relieved that he was not attaching his addictive tendencies on me. 

And now, here I am out of necessity teaching the Alexander Technique through the non-touch, non-physical student-teacher experience via Zoom live video. I can see how the same/similar conversation is evocative of change for people, engaged in a conversation, even people new to the AT. It’s very exciting and very satisfying.

Registration for Saturdays is listed above here.

Perhaps I will see you soon,

Jamee

These days washing your hands can happen multiple times a day and certainly much more often than only one month ago. 

I’m using my hand washing time to come back to myself. What does that mean? If my focus is predominantly on worldly matters or, if my attention is on my thoughts or worries about a future I cannot predict anyway, I am not fully available to present moment information to base my reality and decisions on. That would be better.

I began my journey with the Alexander Technique nearly 30 years ago. Alexander principles play a large part in my awareness. Where am I in space? What choices do I have in this moment? Am I aware of the ground underneath me? My Alexander Technique training has taught me how gravity does not have to be oppressive. In fact gravity is my #1 support system! 

When I’m washing my hands I get a chance to slow down and step away from the agenda of ‘doing things’ throughout my day, whatever my task list is.

Because I’m instructed to wash them with hot soapy water for at least 20 seconds it gives me a break to explore sensory awareness. All of a sudden I feel like I have more time! The water feels really good while I’m getting a good lather going with the soap. The contact I feel with my two hands helps me realize where my feet are. I pause and take a breath. 

During these days of covid19 washing my hands is a way to offer service to humanity. It’s never been so clear that taking care of myself is taking care of others.

As a teacher of the Alexander Technique I have an opportunity to support others by helping them find the depth of their own support. That’s my job. And nothing about it works if I am not enabling access to the innate depth of support for myself first.  

The support I speak of is built into our natural design as humans, within the human body that enables us to be in an engaged relationship to gravity. In doing so we can all feel light on our feet no matter how much you weigh. 

The relationship we have with our self and the natural world around us is a unified field, it's designed to be one that is innately supportive while we experience continuous changes in balance, a multitude of stimuli to respond to moment by moment-- including world events. It’s a design made for developing consciousness. Imagine, I get to choose my response to world events and not only be at the effect of them.

Ok, 20 seconds are up. Washing my hands is like hitting a reset button! I’m refreshed and ready for what’s next.