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The Generosity of Attention

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” — Simone Weil

Every January for the past few years I have chosen three words or ideas to guide me through the year. For 2019 my three words are Perseverence, Play, and Generosity. These are important aspects of mindful living that I wish to understand more deeply and cultivate in the professional and personal realms. I try to remember…

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3 Ways to Breathe Free

You possess a power that gives you ease, resilience, emotional and mental clarity, postural and spiritual alignment, and improved health and wellness. You are doing it right now. Or rather, it is “doing” you.

Breathing.

Nothing amazes me more or has been more of a help in my growth and recovery, every single day of my life. Understanding the process of respiration has made me a better teacher of…

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The Dance of Dynamic Balance

Okay, here’s an easy question: how are humans able to stand on two feet without falling over? There are several complicated ways to answer this, but the simplest and most basic truth is, we balance. This ability to be bipedal is an evolutionary miracle, but it’s so automatic that we take it for granted. Until an injury or illness makes that impossible or difficult, we don’t typically appreciate…

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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. 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…

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Befriending Discomfort

Recently I have been challenged by several students to explain the value of engaging in practices they dislike, or why it matters whether certain habits are indulged in or not. And why does change take so long? How come things improve but don’t stay that way? Why so much beginning again and again?

Underlying these “why” questions is the conditioned belief that we should be able to

feel better…

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Nothing Doing

Last week Tina Fey did a satiric sketch that caused some controversy, because it appeared that she was telling people to stay home and do nothing in response to the neo-Nazi and white supremacist rallies and marches. Personally, I thought it was funny and edgy social commentary, although I agree that some of what she said was problematic. I don’t think she was seriously advising us to do nothing…

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#Alexander Technique #mindfulness #non-doing #self-care

Don't Do Something, Sit There

Don’t Do Something, Sit There

Are you sitting right now? Chances are good that you are. You might be standing and reading this on your phone or tablet, or you could be lying back on a couch or your bed. But you’re probably sitting, and if you are, let me ask you something: Did you choose the way you are sitting, the arrangement of all the body parts? For most of us, the answer is no.

Sitting is so common, and we have been…

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Four Ways to Alexander Awareness

I was just looking through some articles at The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique, a comprehensive site for all your AT needs, and I found this description of it: The Alexander Technique is a way of learning to move mindfully through life. The Alexander process shines a light on inefficient habits of movement and patterns of accumulated tension, which interfere with our innate ability to…

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Upright but not Uptight

I have been leading quite a few meditation classes lately, introducing the powerful benefits of mindfulness practice to people who, more than ever before, seem hungry and thirsty for relief. Meditation provides a practical tool for present moment awareness, which in turn cultivates resilience, a foundational component of health and wellness.

The Buddha identified four postures for meditation:…

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Freedom in the Gap

One of the key components of the Alexander Technique is learning how to pause, to wait before acting. There is a moment between stimulus and response, and in that gap is the possibility of making a fresh, perhaps different choice. When we don’t do that, we often increase our own suffering.

Here is a reflection on that from my blog Moving Into Mindfulness: The Second Arrow. See if you recognize…

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Five Limbs

Lately during sitting meditation, I often feel my jaw clenching. I notice it as I “come back” to the present moment when my mind has wandered. Frequently my wandering thoughts are future-oriented: planning strategies, reviewing a run-down of tasks to be accomplished, ruminating on what will happen, imagining conversations with people, that sort of thing. I’m beginning to think that the future…

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#mindfulness #self-care

At A Time Like This

Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing, a memory to someone, a home to a life. — Nayyirah Waheed

This is a good week to know the Alexander Technique. Reeling from the worst mass shooting in our history (not counting incidents of sanctioned genocide) and the attack on our LGTBQ brothers and sisters, we are presented with an excellent opportunity to practice mindfulness, to cultivate…

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#mindfulness #self-care

Primary Engagement

I voted today, in my state’s primary election. I’m grateful to those who came before me, who fought, suffered, and even died so that I might cast my ballot at the local fire station with my neighbors. Because it’s election season, I’m hearing a lot from a lot of people about what makes a good citizen, how to nurture an informed citizenry, and what forces are at work in our culture right now…

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Heel Thyself

Someone recently asked me what is the most frequent instruction I give my Alexander students. “That’s easy,” I replied. “I ask them to pause, and then notice.” True as this is, my friend was not satisfied. She really wanted to know what physical habits of posture or use I see most often, and what I teach my students to address these issues. This is not as easy to answer, because everyone is…

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Leaping Into Mindfulness

Please enjoy the following two-part blog post about my stay-at-home silent meditation retreat.

Part One and Part Two

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Three Words for 2016

I write another blog, Moving Into Mindfulness. Much overlap with the types of topics I write about here (or used to!).

This one is about choosing 3 words to guide me this year.

Check it out: http://movingintomindfulness.blogspot.com/

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Days of Awe

I write a companion blog to this one, Moving Into Mindfulness. It covers more than Alexander Technique and here is the latest post. Please read and enjoy!

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