Are you curious about the Alexander Technique? Are you interested in taking lessons but aren't quite sure if its the right thing for you? Do you want a firmer picture of what it is and how it can help you grow? 

If so, this new free monthly webinar is for you! You can learn from the comfort of your own home at no cost to you. Simply fill out the form below to register and receive the link to join us.  

​Saturday March 17th, 2:00pm via Zoom

​How we hold ourselves matters, but not in the way you think. True poise is a dynamic and ever-changing release of tension, not a static and uncomfortable position. The Alexander Technique is a way of learning to let go of judgmental habits imposed on the body and mind and finding our true inner-buoyancy. Join us for a 40 minute online introduction where Freedom In Motion founder and certified practitioner Jeremy Cohn will take you through basic explorations and demonstrate with one participant how the Alexander Technique can help them to revolutionize an activity from their daily life. Great for performing artists, athletes, public speakers, executives, and anyone who wants to learn how to form a stronger connection with their body.  

RSVP below to get the registration link--you will receive an email the day before the event with additional information and reminders. 

.....And with that growth you are going to notice a lot of changes in the coming months. We are shifting our focus from wellness to performance. The reason why is simple--in my three years of teaching, I have found that people get the most 'wellness' benefit not when trying to heal but when working towards the creation of something they love. By using Alexander Technique as a vehicle for this, clients are better able to get out of their own way and connect to their body in order to be a creative force instead of a conservative one. While they take their eye off of their problems, it gives them the space they need to grow--and we get to share in the joy of achieving goals and creating what the client is passionate about. This performance focus is meant to benefit performing artists, executives, public speakers, and athletes; but is just as valid for someone who wants to improve their Mario Kart time or how well they garden. We will still be seeing clients for issues such as back pain and anxiety, but will be helping them to focus on improving positive aspects in their life as the vehicle for healing. 

With this newfound focus, we are doing a lot to add value. Some of these new features include:

• A completely redesigned website with pages for the various types of goals clients might have and an in-depth exploration of process and benefit for each category. 
• Specially designed starter programs for different benefits to help clients to have a transformative experience in a short amount of time. 
• An expansion of the executive coaching and organizational consulting branches of our business.
• A new FREE introductory monthly webinar to help new clients discover how the Alexander Technique can improve their lives.
• A restructured Movement Assessment for new clients to help create custom programs for improvement. 
• Video feedback to help clients see themselves growing and changing through lessons and hold onto key insights.
• An online lesson follow ups for each session to help clients keep on track with assignments and growth. 
• Credit and debit processing via Square.
• Easier online access to forms and other resources.
• A new logo.
• Opportunities to give feedback to help us improve our processes. 

Along with this added value, you will find some practical changes--our prices will be slightly different to facilitate and reflect these new benefits, and packages will now be available in groups of 6 and 10 sessions. Current students will still be able to purchase packages at current rates until April 30th 2018. Please contact if you any questions or concerns about these changes.

Thanks and Keep Thinking Up,

Jeremy

In a previous post, I detailed how much I hated doing yoga in college and how my discovery of Alexander Technique work has transformed my relationship to the practice--in fact, it is now part of my personal morning routine. 

The key thing that made this change is that rather than compressing into poses and flows, I now know how to truly lengthen into them, so that yoga can be an experience of expansion rather than contraction.

When your teacher asked you to 'lengthen', how do you respond?

It is worth it to define some terms, as the term 'lengthening' is one that every yoga teacher uses, but can mean a variety of different things*. My experience is that most teachers actually use it to mean an engagement of the extensor muscles--essentially an arch into the back of the body (often teachers will use the term 'flat-back' the same way'. 

The idea is that this will 'draw you up' and open your front. The main issue with this is that this isn't how muscles work--they can't draw you up, they can only contract. So what feels like lengthening is actually a contraction of the muscles of the back that compromises the shape and integrity of the spine (especially loading the lower back and the lumbar curve, where most lower back injuries happen). Furthermore because of antagonistic action (nothing in your body works in isolation) the muscles of the front will also be activated by the increased pressure on the back,, resulting in an overall shortening in stature and compression throughout the body, especially in the joints of the lower body which will tighten to keep the body stable. This also contracts the three dimensional breathing surface, forcing the breath higher in the body (you will feel it in your sternum and upper chest).

Overall, the result is lowered mobility, relaxation, and ease (those tricky balancing poses become much harder). It also greatly increases the risk of injury--studies show that the spine can function quite well departing from a neutral stance when truly lengthened, but when compression is present movements like flexion and twists can lead to breakdown in ligaments, soft tissues, nerve irritation, and muscle strain. I think this is partially behind the phenomenon of yoga injury--though yoga done well can have wonderful rehabilitative effects on the body, done without proper form it is as dangerous as any more 'high-impact' physical activities. 

So how can we practice with true length? Here are a couple of ideas that can help:

• The first part of the process is to resist the urge to pull into the back and have 'good' posture. This will inevitably lead to over-contraction. True lengthening is by definition a release, not a contraction.
• The head and its balance on the neck is an essential macro-control point on the poise of the whole body. Try to be conscious of whether your head is collapsing back on your neck (typical of misunderstood yoga 'lenthening') or whether it might be collapsing forward from the base of your neck (the true place your head rests on your spine is approx. between your ears). Picture the neck gently releasing, the head floating forward and up, and the whole body following the head into gentle length, keeping a sense of opposition through your heels so you don't lean too far forward (you can see my 2 part blog on the process of directing the neck and head if you want to learn more about this). As you flow into different poses, picture the head floating into length to lead the movement, and let your body follow it. 
• Be aware of the weight in your feet. In a 'neutral' posture, you  should feel weight in your heels, the big-toe ball side of your foot, and to a lesser extent in the outside of the ball of your foot. If there is too much in the heel, that might be a sign that you are arching back. Some poses are actually meant to unbalance us intentionally to make other muscles engage, so be aware that this might shift with your flow, but many others you should feel the weight continuously distributed through your feet this way, even if your spine is out of neutral above it (yoga uses a beautiful series of counterbalances to achieve this--this support is what allows us to balance in strange and unusual ways without excess compression).

In writing this, it is plain to me that this is the first exploration in a series on yoga, but it is none-the-less the most important and basic topic. If you can release into length while practicing yoga, you will find new levels of joy in your practice.

If you are a yoga teacher, studio owner, or practitioner who has an interest in exploring how The Alexander Technique can help your students and personal practice, please contact me at freedominmotionat@gmail.com. 

​*It is VERY worth noting that this blog is a generalization drawn from nearly a decade of attending group yoga classes about the instructions received most commonly from teachers--I am aware that the best teachers have a grasp of these important distinctions. However, it is a pervasive enough pattern in yoga culture that it is worth discussing. This idea of 'good posture' is intrinsic in many aspects of our society and doubly so in fitness culture. Perhaps it is an argument for smaller classes where more attention can be given to student's individual 'Use' as even great teachers can have problems conveying this idea in large groups. 

It has long been an axiom that the most common fear is public speaking. This fear is pretty rational--we are social animals, and when we speak in front of a group, whether it is in a business setting or for personal reasons, we are exposing ourselves and our place in society. Your body can be a key tool for helping you to reduce this fear and communicate your message with ownership and ease. 

As a response to our fear, and to try and seem authoritative, most of us try to assume an air of confidence when we speak in public--this is a trap. When we assume an artificial confidence, we end up arching our chest and straining our voice, all of which conveys discomfort rather than competence (See my blog on 'Body Branding' for more on this. Remember that ease=expertise). Moreover, it has a distancing effect--we might be impressed by a 'confident' speaker, but we don't like them: their tension unconsciously transfers to us, and we feel a need to try and be perfect in the same way (unsuccessfully) by mirroring them. As a result, everyone is busy trying to impress each other and there is no sense of listening in the room. Instead of trying to be confident and creating an image of perfection try a radically easier tactic--share one of your imperfections early on in your presentation. This doesn't have to be a deep dark secret or a major flummox but a small mistake--mispronouncing a word, sharing a feeling you have in the moment, calmly admitting nerves. When I give big presentations or workshops, I actually plan a couple of these in the first couple of minutes--I find that once I give up the goal of perfection, I relax and so does everybody I am speaking to. It is important that when you do so, accept it without judgement--don't correct yourself with tension or apologize. Just admit your humanity and move on. Doing so changes the paradigm of the communication--it makes clear you are willing to share vulnerable parts of yourself, that you aren't here to judge, and will make you instantly more likeable. You can bring your body language in line with this by allowing a slight rounding in your back--this conveys that you aren't trying to 'put something on' or defend but are interested in open communication.

One great tip for managing yourself physically when you speak is to be cognizant of where the weight is on your feet--if all of your weight is in your heels, that might mean you are unconsciously pulling back from your audience which will have a distancing effect as well as potentially causing tension in your throat and neck while you speak. Conversely, if your weight is all in your toes it might mean  you are 'pushing' into your audience, which might cause them to unconsciously recoil. Try to feel your weight in both your heels and toes, have a stance where your feet are approx. under your armpits, and let your knees and ankles gently release, allowing a slow easy sway from your legs up. 

On this same theme, try not to be a 'space creeper' and wander around aimlessly during your presentation--instead, allow movement to happen when you are connecting to a specific person, or perhaps at transition points in your speech. 

One thing that can get a public speaker in trouble is talking to the whole group as if they are an amorphous blob rather than a collection of individuals. This tends to make us use excess effort, push harder than we need to, lose focus, become intimidated, and miss important chances to make your words feel intimate and personal. An effective tactic I use is rather than talking to the group as a whole or talking over their heads, I let myself connect with one individual at a time while keeping the rest of the group in 'soft focus', switching every few sentences. I usually pick people in the middle of the group, occasionally speaking to someone in the back or front, to create the illusion that I am speaking to the whole group and so that people don't feel left out. This helps quite a bit with nerves, as I am much better at connecting person to person as opposed to trying to be an 'orator', and this unconsciously makes the whole group feel more connected to me. 

Many of us get concerned people won't be able to hear us when we speak and work hard to project our sound. As such, we sometimes will push our voice with a lot of tension forward into the crowd, making ourselves hard to listen to, causing vocal loss, and locking up our bodies with the effort of trying to be heard. Instead of trying to push your voice forward, imagine it filling the space behind you, above you, and to your sides as well. The result will be that you won't strain as much, your breathing will be deeper, and you will be able to reach more people with less effort. 

One common trap is 'talking with your hands' to try to emphasize your points. Gesture, if properly harnessed, can be a powerful communicative tool, but instead we often end up moving our hands unspecifically, resulting in creating physical static that muddles our message. Instead of trying to control your hands (by putting them in your pockets, making fists, holding the lecturn, etc.), focus your attention on your breath as you inhale and exhale. Allow enough time for the breath to come in, which will allow your audience to process what you are saying before you continue on (another important aspect of public speaking). Notice the poise and movement of your spine. Without trying, the movement of your hands and arms will start to become synchronized and in harmony with your speech--you just have to take your eyes off the ball. 

When I first started doing public programs, I was disconcerted to look into the group and see some people frowning at me while I spoke. Others seemed very engaged, but these individuals seemed to hate what I was doing. Sometimes, it would throw me, and I would start to become nervous or speak with less ease. 

It was a shock that after my workshops or talks, these would be the people who would come up to me and want to do more work or tell me that what I had said had a profound impact on them.

The reason for this paradox comes from neuroscience--when we engage our conscious, thinking minds the muscles of the face as well as the eyes engage with it, pulling the lips into a frown and furrowing the brow. So this expression I was seeing was not one of dislike, but of deep processing (yawning can also actually be a sign of this). Once I realized this, I was much less likely to be thrown by audience reactions, and was able to be more detached from what I saw when I spoke. This is not to say that your audience should always be frowning--it is important to give them cognitive breaks where they don't have to process anything: this can be done by creating light buffer material between serious points, or by changing up your tone and delivery. In the end, you can never really know how you are impacting people while you speak, so letting go of trying to judge your own performance is an essential skill, or else you will become reactive rather than responsive and connected. 

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