Alexander Technique: Balanced Posture for Ease and Comfort

Overview

Class Central Tips

Many of us spend our days sitting at a desk, looking down at our phones, or moving in ways that cause significant discomfort for our bodies. In the Alexander Technique: Balanced Posture for Ease and Comfort, explore how this novel approach to your body’s organization and coordinated movement can help relieve pain and tension, promote calm, improve sleep, and allow you to breathe fully and easily without effort. The Alexander Technique has been taught for more than 100 years to help artists, musicians, and actors improve their craft, but this method can help anyone examine our body's natural movements and readjust based on the wears and tears of everyday life. Through verbal instructions, graphics, videos, and demonstrations, you’ll learn to better align with our body's natural movements. By the end of this course, you will be thinking of your relationship to your body and its movements in an entirely new – and more comfortable – way.

Syllabus

Looking at the Mind Body Relationship

This first module introduces the idea that habit underlies all of our movements, and habits can be unlearned and changed. We also look at accessing different parts of the brain to learn how to move in a completely different way. Finally, we look at the origins of the Alexander Technique at the turn of the 20th century.

Head-Neck-Back Relationship while Sitting

Module two offers a simple exercise to bring you into a better relationship with your body. We take a deep dive into the anatomy of sitting with ease and balance, and how your relationship to your spine governs all of your movements. This stems from balancing your head and pelvis in a more natural alignment that makes sitting easier and promotes stamina.

From Standing to Sitting

Module three discusses some of the mental roadblocks that get in the way of understanding fluid and natural movement. We look at “standing on your own two feet” in a way that promotes a springy and connected relationship to the ground, and how to use gravity to our best advantage. Additionally, we explore the idea that the head leads our lengthened spines; this idea can take us into lighter and freer movement, including something as simple as sitting down in a chair.

The Strength of the Torso

Module four continues the exploration of the lengthened spine in movement. We widen the lens to include the entire torso. We examine the torso’s anatomy and how the concept of “suspension” governs our relationship to our shoulders and the use of our arms. We learn tools to keep us from sinking into heaviness, and take us closer to an expanded sense of self.

Calming the Nervous System with Breath

This final module considers the impact of stress on our bodies, and what we can do about it. We explore an approach to breathing that can help alleviate pain and reduce anxiety, jaw tension and insomnia. We also look at how walking has changed over the years, and how we can reintroduce a spring in our steps that keep us moving proactively through life.