Category Archives: Classes

A great observation of the Alexander Technique at the Montana workshop:

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Last spring when I was in Tucson I went to Gianna’s (my granddaughter) violin lesson. (she’s just beginning). She was “sawing” away at the song. Her teacher said “Operate the bow from your whole arm, not just from your elbow.” What a difference in sound. Sound went from flat to full. I took violin as a child and must have learned that because when playing her violin it was natural for me to bow with my whole arm.

I noticed Scott, also, when helping her with her lesson bowed from the elbow. When I pointed that out he immediately picked up on doing it differently – it was harder for Gianna to “get” the difference.

I would suppose a violinist who used the bow from the elbow would eventually develop an injury. In other words “tennis elbow”??

When we ask our body to perform an action w/o the full repertoire of joints and muscles and tendons intended to perform that action then we create wear and tear and eventually injury, I would guess. Very interesting.

Thank you for the class. It was enlightening. It’s very comforting being around you.

Cheryl C
Workshop participant in Montana last weekend.

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What is proprioception and is it the same as kinesthetic awareness, what???

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The dictionary says proprioception is:

proprioception
 (prpr–-spshn)
The unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself. In humans, these stimuli are detected by nerves within the body itself, as well as by the semicircular canals of the inner ear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception
 
 
kinesthesia
kin•es•the•sia (ˌkɪn əsˈθi ʒə, -ʒi ə, ˌkaɪ nəs-)
The sensation in the body of the movement of muscles, tendons, and joints
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kinesthesia
 

Why would we want to be more aware of our perception of movement and spatial orientation? Because of the sense of effort that we habitually have decided is needed to do certain tasks, lifting an object, holding our coffee cup, knitting, playing golf, even standing or sitting we sometimes do with lots of tension and stress in our joints.

By educating your sensory awareness ( a combination of balance, spatial orientation, and sensations of movement in our muscles, tendons and joints), we can move in our life and do what we do with more ease in our joints, muscles and skeleton. By becoming aware of what habits may have caused chronic pain,  we can start changing where we over tense ourselves; the results will be sustainable and long term, because we are changing OURSELVES by OUR OWN awareness, which deepens and deepens as we remove the layers of habitual tension and stress.

The proprioceptive sense can be sharpened through study of many disciplines. Examples are the Feldenkrais method[26] and the Alexander Technique.  Juggling trains reaction time, spatial location, and efficient movement.  Standing on a wobble board or balance board is often used to retrain or increase proprioception abilities, particularly as physical therapy for ankle or knee injuries. Slacklining is another method to increase proprioception. more…

Interested….come have an introduction in how to sharpen your proprioceptive sense…we may juggle, do some yoga, crawl, walk, stand, and movement that you are finding challenging or painful!!

What is Alexander Yoga?

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MelindaThe Alexander Technique is a method of learning how you move when you do anything that involves “moving” (i.e walking, running, sitting, lifting, eating, knitting, golfing, swimming, sweeping and on and on…).  You learn where you are over tensing or over contracting your muscles and therefore your joints and creating stiffness and pain.  However, we build habits over our lifetimes and even though we have been “over tensing” (I think of the steering wheel or the broom, or the coffee cup!); we may not know it because it has been come habitual and not in our sensory awareness.  And now we have stiffness, pain and sometimes arthritis in our wrists, fingers, spine and we don’t relate it back to our “over tensing” of our muscles and our joints.

When we learn the Alexander Technique princpals of how to bring our habits into our sensory awareness and change them; we create much more ease in our arms, wrists, spine, hips, neck and shoulders, etc.  We learn we can drive without over gripping the steering wheel, pick up a cup without grabbing it with a death grip and still get the task accomplished! And we keep arthritis and chronic pain away!

Yoga is movement also, so with Alexander Yoga, you get both.  The principles of the Alexander Technique come behind the yoga movements or postures and voila, a much deeper awareness and much more flexibility and strength is available.  You don’t hurt yourself because you learn about YOU!!  Your awareness of yourself is carried out into your everyday activities and is more sustainable and long term because it is an investment and education in YOU!

Come try a class this summer; Mondays 5:30 pm; Wednesday mornings 11 am (July 15-August 28) – first class is free for new students.