Don't Just Read the Signs. Look Around. (Journeys Part 2 of 2)

Regardless as to whether or not you've traveled using the NYC subway system, you've likely followed signs in your own city's mass transit system or on the road.  These days, you may spend more time listening to your GPS.

This is Part 2 of The Posture Police journey series.  Two weeks ago, I talked about paying attention to the small journey that add up throughout the day.  Now let's take a look at the instructions we follow along our bigger daily journeys and how we might learn something new if we look beyond the signs and driving directions.

I'll tell my story and you can relate it to your own commute.  My "car" is the NYC subway system and when transferring from one train to another or looking for a station exit, I typically follow the signs and arrows in the station until I get where I'm going.  I find that these directions generally do get me where I intend to go.  Something was bugging me though at the Times Square station.

About a year ago, I noticed when I followed the signs to the line that I take from Manhattan to Brooklyn (The N train), I was lead to a long flight of stairs.  I'd start up the stairs and look over to my left and see an escalator.  If I was tired I'd wish I was on the escalator and even if I wasn't, I'd think that I could get where I was going more quickly if I could walk up the moving escalator.  The trouble is that the escalator begins at the level below where the stairs begin.

One day I decided to ignore the signs and instead of walking in the direction of the N train, I looked at the escalator and decided that it must start on the 7 train platform, which was just below me.  I took a short flight of stairs down, and sure enough, there was the bottom of the escalator.  I hopped on and rocketed up to the same place where the stairs would have taken me, but much more quickly.

I found a faster route by ignoring the signs and observing my surroundings.  Ignoring the signs felt strange.  I seemed wrong at first that I should go to the 7 train platform with no intention of boarding the train.  Changing habits often feel strange or wrong.

Maybe if everyone takes this short-cut the 7 platform will become overloaded, going against the intended flow of foot-traffic at the station, so the Metropolitan Transit Authority may be relying on passengers following the signs!

Think about signs and directions that you've followed.  Have they ever been wrong and you ended up finding your way by looking around?  Think about how you move your self around throughout the day.  We're constantly directing ourselves in space.  At the core of things, it's our intention that keeps us upright.  How clear are you about your intention to stay upright?  Might you be pulling yourself down at the same time?  Maybe you are and you don't even know it.  We create our own directional signs within ourselves that we follow unconsciously and without questions.  These are called habits.  Many habits serve us and others don't.

The Alexander Technique has helped me become aware of my habits and determine which ones I want to change or clarify - such as the intention to stay up.

Another sweet little metaphor can be extract from my subway story.  I figured out that I needed to get to the bottom of the escalator in order to ride it up.  We as humans stay upright because we interact with gravity.  In order to stay up, we must connect with that downward force and use it like a spring to rocket us up to the tops of our heads!

Core Strength

"Hey, apple, that's your stem lifting that weight, not your core."

Are you using your core muscles to do core strengthening exercises or are other muscles getting in the way?

Let's rephrase that question.  Are you allowing  your core muscles to work or are other muscles getting in the way? 

Your core muscles are really deep.  From the perspective of the Alexander Technique, we would call them "postural support" muscles.  These are muscles that you don't have a lot of direct control over in terms of using them to mover your self around.  If you're staying upright, they are working.  They could probably work better.

What's getting in the way?

Habits of overusing more exterior muscles, such as the muscles in the back of the neck, the shoulders, the armpits, and inner parts of the upper arms, and the fronts of the thighs prevent the deep core muscles from doing their job.

Those exterior muscles are better-suited for moving you around and feel strained and sore if they are working all the time to hold you up.

Why would you use those other to hold yourself up then?

Because of what we tend to do when . . .

We're sressed

We sit all day using a computer

Stand all day

Slump over a smart phone

And lot's of other stuff that I'm sure you can add to this list

Then when we go to exercise we bring those habits with us and even if you really want to strengthen your core, you may have a lot of trouble not engaging those habits and overusing those other muscles. 

We get used to our habits and it can feel like that's all we know.  That's where Alexander Technique lessons can come in really handy.  There's a teacher guiding you to feel something new.  To experience being in your body, standing, sitting, moving around, and doing the things you like to do in a way that feels different.

You'll learn to sense what you learn in lessons more and more on your own, so that when you want to strengthen your core through exercise, you know how to get out of it's way and let it work and the icing on the cake is that if you are using your body in a more natural way, you'll also strengthen your core just by going about your day.

The Shampoo Bottle that Injured a Man's Back

David worked out regularly at the gym, appeared toned and fit, and at a glance didn’t seem to have particularly poor posture.  One day David reached down in the shower to pick up a shampoo bottle and herniated a disk in his lower back.  When subjected to chronic compression of the spine, the inter-vertebral discs (the squishy disks that provide the padding and shock absorption between the vertebrae) can bulge.  Herniated disks can be quite painful. 

If David appeared to be in such good shape, how did he injure his back?  David habitually and unconsciously compressed and narrowed his lower back.  As many people do, he overused the muscles in his upper back, neck and shoulders.  Overuse in the neck/upper back/shoulder area usually results in downward compression into the lower back.  Since the habits described were unconsciously being engaged all the time, they would become exaggerated even more when he would lift weights.  To further the problem, he would build muscle in his upper body, but his lower back would remain compressed and unengaged in the activity of lifting, so instead of becoming more elastic and strong during his exercise routine, David’s back would become further compressed.  Also, the muscle weight that he was building in his upper body would intensify the compression in his lower back and in turn intensify the problem in general, even when he wasn’t working out. 

Eventually the downward pressure became so strong that the simple action of lifting a shampoo bottle was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and David suffered injury. 

He began visiting an osteopath who suggested that he take Alexander Technique lessons.  David has since learned how to undo and avoid compressing his upper back and shoulders back and down and has alleviated pressure on his lower back, which has allowed his lower back to become more elastic and strong.  In turn, his lower back better supports his upper body.  He takes what he has learned into his workout and is more aware of how his is using his whole body when working out, instead of concentrating only on a specific area in which he wants to build muscle.

The key to protecting the lower back when working out is not to try to engage the lower back muscles directly or do lower back exercises, but instead to release upper back, neck, and shoulder tension and compression, which is typically the source of a lower back problem.  People tend to throw off their balance from the top down by creating excess tension and compression that essentially makes them top heavy.  Addressing the lower back directly doesn’t solve the problem.  I just shifts the tension around.  Addressing the source (tension and pressure from above) resolves the problem.  David’s pattern of how he habitually used his body is common and often unconscious. 

Whether you are a walker, runner, golfer, swimmer, or work out at the gym, you can benefit from learning to undo your potentially harmful habitual patterns.  Not only will you avoid injury, but you’ll play/run/work out at your best!

Good Posture Means Wearing Your Own Hat, Not Someone Else's

In some of my recent posts, I've talked about the flip-flopping effect of slouching and then attempting to correct the slouch by pulling the shoulders back and lifting the chest.  Slouching isn't so great, but lifting the chest and pulling the shoulders back is slouching too.  It's slouching backward.  When truly standing up straight, we're neither forward nor backward.  Instead, we're balanced in the middle, comfortable and breathing effortlessly.  Recently, I ventured into to one of my favorite subway stations to try on some hats and further investigate this phenomenon.

Let's take a look at the photos below and make some sense of the title of this blog, "Good Posture Means Wearing Your Own Hat, Not Someone Else's".  

Welcome to the 23rd Street N/R stop in Manhattan, where the walls of the station are decorated with tile-composed hats similar in style to hats worn by various prominent figures (the name of the person printed below each hat).  The hats have been placed on the walls at levels that correspond to the heights of the people who would have worn them.  Here I am trying on hats.  Let's see what I discovered about my posture . . .   

Endeavoring to place my head under this hat belonging to someone shorter than I am, I tipped my head back and down and adopted a slouch.  I'm shortening myself here and clearly will not succeed in inhabiting my full height while wearing this hat.  It's also not very comfortable.  I feel compressed and lack energy.  My breathing feels shallow.

Let's find a higher hat.  How about this one?  It might be a little too high, but maybe I can fit into it if I stand up really straight!  

The problem here is that in my effort to stand up straight, as predicted, I slouch backwards and actually move farther away from the hat.  I'm lifting my chest and pulling my shoulders and head back, which leads me down in the opposite direction from the slouch, but I'm still aimed down, compressing my spine and rib cage.  I feel rigid, uncomfortable, and short of breath.

How about I put on my own hat and stand up at my own height instead of trying to fit into these other hats.  That feels better!  I'm standing much more upright than when I tried on those other two hats.  I feel relaxed, energized, and I'm breathing more fully without extra effort.

I used flip-flop between slouching forward and backward all the time and I wasn't even aware of it.  The Alexander Technique helped me figure out what it feels like to stand up at my full height . . . and wear my own hat!

If you'd like to read another Posture Police Blotter post inspired by NYC subway tile art, check out this one at

Prince Street Station

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Will New Sensor Device Help You with Your Posture?

The following article and video about LumoBack appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.  LumoBack is a new, wear-able posture-sensing device. It's promoted as a digital "Mom" reminding you to sit up straight. 

This device will remind you of how long you've been sitting, will count your steps and inform you of your sleep habits and it will tell you about how you are positioning yourself when sitting and standing.  It buzzes when your posture is off and gives you more detailed feedback on the phone app, which include illustrations of correct posture. 

All of this information could be very useful as we spend more and more time sitting and computing.  On the topic of body position, an alert may tell us that we are slouching or leaning to one side or the other and will show us a stick figure sitting up straight on our smart phone screens.  What it won't show us is how to physically sense our body position accurately.  This sense is called proprioception or kinesthesia.  There are proprioceptive nerves in our muscles that tell our brain what our body position is. 

Try this:  put your hand in back of you out of your frame of vision, but not touching any other part of your body.  Do you sense where your hand is?  That's your proprioception at work.

Proprioception is a sense that we rely on it all the time, but through repeated habits of holding ourselves a certain way, we distort this sense and train our brains to think that we're standing up straight when we're actually not. 

Imagine that you have a proprioceptive compass that likely pointed north when you were a small child and as you've become accustomed to poor postural habits, your compass stopped pointing north.  When you receive an instruction to sit up straight from Mom, from a friend, from yourself, or from a sensor device, you body responds to the idea, using a distorted compass as its guide.

The writer of the Wall Street Journal article tried out the Lumoback and reported that the device helps you know how to adjust your sitting or standing position. But it's unrealistic to constantly look at a screen to check your posture so most of the times I felt these vibrating nags, I had to guess how to improve my posture.

It is unrealistic for us to trust our own judgement regarding our body position, unless we've had some training to help us realign the compass that makes these judgements.  If people rely on old habits, they will most likely attempt to imitate the images by stiffening, which may not be any more comfortable or sustainable than slouching.  The writer also says:

I know it's good for me, but I don't necessarily enjoy it, says the writer.

Truly "good" posture should feel relaxed and comfortable.  It should feel "good" and lead to what ever you are doing feeling more enjoyable and sustainable.  If you retrain your body to sense your position accurately, improving your posture will feel like a breath of fresh air, rather than a chore.

Referring to a typical "momism", the writer goes on to say, LumoBack or no LumoBack, your mother will probably still bug you about your posture. So save her the trouble: Keep your shoulders back.

Nearly all of my students explain to me that someone has told them to keep their shoulders back.  Most people have the idea that a military sort of posture of lifting the chest and pinning the shoulders back is the proper and healthy way to sit, stand, and counteract slouching.  To combat the fear of slouching forward, most people actually end up "slouching" backward.  Most peoples' idea of how to straighten up is incorrect and leads to additional problems.

Take a look in the mirror at yourself from the side.  Hold your shoulders back will pin your shoulder blades together and down, causing tension in the upper and lower back, restricting the movement of your back ribs for breathing and also compressing the spine.  When my students stop correcting in this way, they typically report relief of pain or discomfort in their backs, that it's easier to breath, and they feel more relaxed. 

Here's an example of what I'm describing:

Here I am bending a plastic knife.  The first photo mimics what we typically call "slouching" (dropping or pulling forward and down into the chest.)  

The bottom photo mimics pulling the shoulders back.  It looks like the same image, just flipped around with the "slump" in the opposite direction.

Though I think that Lumoback may help people become more aware of their posture and of how much time they spend sitting and walking it doesn't change help people with the kinesthetic confusion that often goes hand-in-hand with years of developing poor postural habits.

The purpose of the Alexander Technique is to re-educate the body to sense itself accurately, to get rid of the kinesthetic confusion and get the sensory compass pointing north.  If used in tandem with Alexander Technique lessons, users of the Lumoback would be able to respond to the alerts from the device using an accurate sensory gauge.  They would no longer have to "guess about how to improve their posture," as the writer of the article said she had to do when using the device. 

Some of my Alexander Technique students say that they find it difficult to remember to remind themselves of what they've learned during their lessons when they are busy, especially when at work.  I may mention this device to students who feel that they need an added reminder.

Have you tried the Lumoback device?  If so, share your experience in the comments below.

The Up Side of Tension

As I was just looking through some photos I took of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge yesterday, I thought I'd write a post in support of my good friend, tension, because I get a lot of support from him/her . . . it.                     

Tension gets a bad rap.  Relaxation = good.  Tension = bad.  Tell that to this bridge!  Suspension bridges maintain their support and structure through tension and balance and so do we.  You may associate tension with stress, when in fact, it's tension that keeps us upright.  You wouldn't be sitting at your desk or standing and holding your smartphone, walking, running, jumping or doing anything at all without tension.  

So, what happens when we get stressed?  We end up tensing muscles that we shouldn't be tensing, muscles that are intended for movement instead of postural support.  These muscles are only supposed to work in short bursts and fatigue quickly.  This chronic tensing of muscles that shouldn't be tense all the time often feels uncomfortable and results in strain and pain.  Because of this misplaced tension, our postural muscles, the muscles that should be holding us up all of the time,lose tone.  Postural muscles work to hold us up without any conscious effort on our part.  If you have the intention to stay standing or sitting, they'll work to hold you up without you having to tighten or move them, but they don't work so well if other muscles are doing the work for them.

Then what's the problem here if it isn't tension?  The problem is balance.  Your muscle tone throughout your body gets out of balance when you react to stress by overusing muscles that shouldn't be working so hard all the time.  If you are stressed and straining at your desk all day, holding your shoulders up or pressing them down, tensing your neck, arms, and your thighs, then you will train your muscles and brain to understand that this state is normal and is how you should hold yourself up.

Alexander Technique lessons help people feel that what they are doing normally isn't necessarily natural and may be the source of discomfort and pain.  If you learn to react to stress differently and not tense your moving muscles all day, then you're postural muscles will tone up and sitting and standing can feel comfortable.  We have our own suspension system and if any area is too slack or too tense,the whole structure becomes distorted and tends to pull down and in on itself.  Return to balance and you'll expand up and out, reducing strain on any particular part.  That's the "up" side of tension. 

Good thing that bridges don't have desk jobs!

Mind or Body? Duck or Human?

Yesterday evening I was humbly enlightened by one of my children.  She and her sister presented me with two similar drawings pictured above.  When speaking of the creatures they had drawn, I described one as featuring a human head and duck body and the other as featuring a duck head and human body.  Upon receiving my description, my daughter replied, "A head

is a part of a body."  I laughed at myself and agreed with her, stating that I disagreed with my initial take on the drawings.

This conversation may come across as a debate in semantics, but I think it's much more than that.  The language we use reflects our thoughts, beliefs, and habitual ways of living. People often talk about being stuck "in their head", which keeps them from feeling present and fully embodied.  We often think of exercising our minds and bodies separately as if they were disconnected parts of us.  A split is created between mind and body that weakens our ability to accurately feel what our bodies are doing and makes us more prone to strain and injury.

It's easy to get the idea that since with your head you think, listen, see, hear, smell, taste, that the rest of you, your "body" just takes you around and gets you places and you exercise it so that it will look good.

There's a lot going on cognitively and in terms of our senses in our heads, but our heads are just as much a part of our bodies as everything below.  The more we live as a whole person, the more present we feel.  We feel more integrated and lively, less likely to strain or injure ourselves when working out, and more likely to be aware of our posture when we're tapping away on our electronic devices.

One of F.M. Alexander's books on the Alexander Technique is titled "The Use of the Self".  "Self" gets around the division unifies mind and body.  When learning the Alexander Technique, people learn to use themselves well.  Sometimes the tune of "using yourself" rings oddly to the ear, which makes sense.  It's not something often said if we think of mind and body as separate.

So here's the big question that you can feel free to answer in the comments below . . . Would you rather have a human head and duck "rest of body" or a duck head and human "rest of body".  :-)

Harmony Between the Arms and Ribs. Your Cup of Tea?

Last weekend I enjoyed a meal at Gustorganics in the West Village.  One of the highlights of the meal was the cup of Chai tea that I ordered.  The tea itself was delicious and spicy, but what captured my interested even further was the innovative tea bag and how it gave a lovely example of how the arms and ribcage can work together in harmony.

The arms are easy to forget about when they are hanging by our sides and often become tense and pull up into the shoulders and in turn the upper ribcage or we let the arms hang loosely, which is really no better, as they then drag down on the ribcage.  In either case the ribs are not allowed to move freely as they would otherwise and breathing becomes restricted.  When lifting the arms, it is common to lift the shoulders necessarily and tighten the upper back, also restricting the ribs and breathing. 

Ideally, our arms should be like wings extending like elastic from our backs as if there were a continuous sheet of muscle going from the back, along the back of the arms, all the way to the backs of the hands and the finger tips.  The arms can be lively and consciously engaged, but not stiff, even when they are simply resting at our sides.  

When we use the arms like wing-like extensions of our backs, the ribs can move more freely and expand more during breathing.  The ribs start way up at the collar-bone and most of them wrap around from the spine to the sternum.  I mention this as it is a common misconception that the ribs are only in front.

When the arms and ribcage interact in a unified, connected, elastic way, the result is a springy feeling, rather than a tight or heavy feeling.

The handles on the teabag reminded me of the arms expanding out and allowing the springy fabric of the bag to expand like the ribs.
 

Spatial Intent - Know where you are already going and then figure out where to go.

Spatial intent is different from movement.  It's not a position.  It's not posture, but it determines our posture. 

Our spatial intent is where

we are aiming ourselves and underpins everything we do.  Spatial intent is usually unconscious.

I have a background in acting and I often ask my students what their "super-objective" is at any given moment when they are walking along the sidewalk in NYC.  In acting, a character's super objective is their most basic fundamental intention that colors all other objectives and actions.  When I ask this question, common responses are:

"To get where I'm going."

"To avoid bumping into people."

These examples are objectives, but more fundamentally, a person walking along the street has the intention to stay upright and to breathe.  Many of us can take this for granted and let breathing and uprightness become relegated to background noise.  We manage and get by.  We keep breathing and we don't fall down.  Generally, though people stay upright and breathe inefficiently, with much more effort than they need.

Why?

Because even though they are managing to stay standing, sitting, or to maintain whatever position or movement they wish to maintain in the face of gravity provided by planet Earth, they are aiming themselves down.  Aiming down, diminishes our naturally ability to be springy, creates strain in the neck, back, shoulders and legs, and makes breathing more effortful.

People often search for solutions to problems such as an aching back, a sore neck, or tight shoulders and they search for the solutions outside of themselves.  They try a new exercise, they switch jobs, or they do something relaxing.  There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but they likely won't change that the person is chronically aiming themselves down in space.  

Look at the cartoon image above.  The character is eagerly looking for the right way to go, yet finds himself bewildered.  There are many directions to take, but they aren't labeled and the paths they will lead to aren't clear.  He's looking for something outside himself to point him in the right direction, but take a look at how he's standing and his body is compressed down and simple act of looking up to read the signs distorts his back.  

Perhaps if he understood where he was already going (down) and resolved that issue, he would be able to read the signs and understand where they are pointing.

When people first begin Alexander Technique lessons, they are asked to slow down their movements, do do things more deliberately, and to learn to feel through the guidance of the teacher, where their spatial intent is. They then learn to use their own thinking and internal directing to shift that intention.  

Acknowledging a downward intent and reversing it to aim yourself up is a milestone in achieving presence and clarity, feeling more confident, and releasing tension that causes strain-related pain.  

A Fun-House for Posture!

Many people these days are unhappy with their posture.  Unfortunately, posture is often thought of as a mechanical way that people hold or align themselves, which can be changed by the person holding or aligning themselves in a different way.  This reasoning ignores that posture is an effect of how we go about our lives.

Posture is an attitude, a physical manifestation of how we respond to the stimuli that we encounter every day.  We respond emotionally, psychologically, and physically.  Posture is how our attitude looks from the outside and reflects how we feel on the inside.

The environments that we spend time in on a daily basis affect how we feel and in turn affect our posture.  A few years ago, I read an  article in the New York Times about a house that had been built on Long Island by an architect couple that is intended to help maintain health and feeling young.

I recommend reading the whole article, but as you are reading this blog, take a look at the headline photo and you'll get an idea as to what is meant by "tentative": uneven, sloping, bumpy floor, odd angles, and distortion of perception.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/garden/03destiny.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The architects' intention in creating this home was to create an environment that the inhabitants have a tentative relationship with.  If you are reading this from a comfy couch in your living room, you may find this concept absurd.  Why would anyone want to live in a home that is more like a fun-house than a house?

I encourage you to read the article to learn more, but I will give you my perspective on this phenomenon as an Alexander Technique instructor with insights on posture.  

As civilization has developed, in many ways humans have become more and more "comfortable" and life has become more and more predictable.  Our daily lives are likely to involve walking on many flat surfaces, hours of sitting, and navigating through environments that change infrequently.  We've invented things like traffic lights, that are useful and promote safety, but keep us less on our toes about crossing the street.  We stare at computers and make repetitive movements, tuning out our surroundings.  People send emails while walking on the sidewalk, relatively confident that they won't trip over a tree branch.  We zone out and we get lost in thought or listen to music on our drive or walk home.  The path is well-worn and we don't expect to encounter any lions.  

Sometimes our tuning out of the present moment gets us into trouble, but most of the time we get away with it.  We get away with it for the moment, but we loose receptivity to what is around us and something slowly happens to our bodies.  We physically pull into ourselves and sink down because we lack the energy that comes with alertness.  Then when we need to suddenly focus, we overreact and launch into action with too much effort.  All of this compression and tension puts a lot of strain on the body and results in what we call "poor posture", which can negatively affect health and make us look older.

Alexander Technique lessons can help people reactive the balance that they've lost in their own bodies and help them to stay alert, focused and present without strain.

Even if you've never had an Alexander Technique lesson, something can be learned from simply putting yourself in a new situation.  Take a different route home.  Make an effort to tune into what you are hearing around you as you type on your computer.  Go for a hike and notice how navigating rocks, branches, and uneven ground engages your mind and body in a way that the treadmill at the gym doesn't.  You may even experiment with rearranging your furniture at home once in awhile or if you are brave, purposely create obstacles to navigate.  If you have children, leave the toys out on the floor once in awhile and walk through them without stepping on them.  Use your creativity and challenge yourself.  You may stand up straighter, breath more easily, feel happier, and look and feel younger!

Share your experiments in the comments below!
Would you live in a house like in the New York Times article?  Make sure to read it:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/garden/03destiny.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0#

Personal Space: Posture and Presence

If you live in New York or any other large city, you likely find yourself in close quarters with many other people on a regular basis, such as on the subway during rush hour, in an elevator around lunchtime, or walking shoulder-to-shoulder along the street.

How do you define your space?  Do you practically tie yourself into a knot on the train as to avoid contact with another human or do you boldly make elbow room for yourself?  Do you smile sweetly at the person in the neighboring seat who has just fallen asleep on your shoulder or do you nudge them awake?

Our sense of how much space that we'd like to ourselves varies from person to person and culture to culture.  Were those tourists who asked you for directions the other day standing uncomfortably close to you, oblivious to your discomfort?

Moving along from rush-hour commutes and other crowded situations, you might also notice how much space you prefer to place between yourself and other person with whom you are sharing a conversation.  If you tie yourself in knots on the subway, you are likely pulling back in some way from everyday conversations.

Start to pay attention to how you use your body in different social settings.  Start with the more extreme ones that involve crowds and then begin to notice your more subtle habits related to the space between you and others.  Do you pull away?  Do you spread yourself out?  Somewhere inbetween?

If you tend to pull away from the folks on the train, watch what happens to your face during a face-to-face conversation.  You may find that you tighten your face, which may come across as reserved or guarded.  If you are tightening your face, then you are likely tightening your neck and the front of your chest.  Your breathing may become shallow and your voice tight.  If you find yourself engaging in habits like these, see if you can allow your face, eyes, chest, and the front and back of your neck to soften.  Don't let yourself sink down or loose your awareness of your feet on the floor in the process.

If you tend to strain toward other people you also can benefit from letting your eyes soften.  Allow the other person to be in your field of vision without straining toward them.  Become more aware of your back.  A simple way of beginning to increase your back-awareness is to tune in to sounds that you hear behind you.

Noticing and adjusting your habits relating to how you hold your body when you are around other people can help you release tension and compression, and improve your breathing, and posture.  You may also become more confident in social situations and find that people find you more open, engaged, and present.  With less restriction in your breathing, your voice can be richer and more resonant.  Alexander Technique lessons can further bring your awareness to your habits and help you to change them!

Please leave a comment below if you have made note of the physical habits that you have developed to define your personal space.

Connect the Dots! You're a Star!

 


Happy New Year!  In my last post, I talked about the challenge of being and feeling more integrated in your body, being able to sense your body as whole and unified as opposed to separate parts that are vaguely linked.

Today's post will walk you through a practical experiment that can help you to feel more connected throughout your body.  Changing how the parts of your body work together is just as mental as it is physical.  We use our proprioceptive sense to feel our position in space and the position of our parts relative to one another.  If you close your eyes, can you can likely touch your nose with your index finger or sense your position in space when walking through a dark room.  That's your proprioception at work as messages from nerves in your muscles are sent to your brain to tell you where you are.  We use our proprioception all the time, but it usually goes on auto-pilot and stays in the background of our awareness unless something goes wrong (like you trip, for example.)  We can turn up the volume on our proprioception just by paying attention.  It may seem like it requires a lot of concentration at first, but with practice and Alexander Technique lessons, it can become second-nature. 

Try this:  Bring your attention to your right hand.  Do you suddenly sense your right hand more clearly?  I suspect that the answer is yes. Now that we've established that you can turn your proprioceptive sense off of autopilot by bringing your awareness to a particular area of your body, go ahead and do the following experiment:

1-Stand with your arms stretched out to the sides and imagine that you are a star. (Avoid lifting your shoulders, but don't press them down or back either.)  Your head is the top point of the star, your arms the two side points, and your legs the two bottom points.  Your torso is the center of the star.  The goal here is to allow all of the points to expand away from the center.  Most people pull the points of their star into their center, which often results in back pain and shallow breathing.  

2- Bring your attention first to the center of your back and then, like playing connect the dots, draw a mental line from the center of your back along the backs of your arms to your elbows, to your wrists and out to your fingers.  

3- Bring your attention to the middle of your upper back and mentally connect the dots from your back up your neck to the joint where your head meets your neck (feel where that is with your hand - it may be higher than you think) and then to the top of your head.  

4-Draw two more mental lines from your lower back down along the backs of your legs to your knees, to your ankles, to your heels.

5-Now put your arms down at your sides and repeat the three steps.  You can still imagine that you are a star, but now the side points are folded.

Make sure that you are just thinking about drawing the lines by bringing your attention to each area of your body.  Do not use muscular effort.  Don't hold your breath.  If you start to feel stiff and your breathing becomes shallow, stop and restart.  Make sure that you are really only thinking the directions.  If you are confused, bring your attention back to your right hand and notice how just bringing attention there increases sensation and apply that to the star directions.

Speaking of directions, what you are experimenting with is what F.M. Alexander called directing.  The word in this context has the double meaning of giving yourself mental directions and for the directions to go in a particular direction - from the center of the body out away from the spine.

The aim of this "connect the dots" exploration is to encourage the body to be more open and integrated, to simultaneously encourage the head/neck and limbs to release habitual tensions and pulls and to encourage them to integrate and work together.

During Alexander Technique lessons, students learn how to clearly sense and direct their bodies so that they can sit, stand, walk, and do everything that they do in a more fluid, integrated way.  Benefits are a sense of feeling both calm and energized, freer breathing, and reduced pain related to strain.  People also often feel more confident and engaged with the world.

If you did the exploration above, I encourage you to share how it went in the comments below!

Assembling the Mind/Body Puzzle - Part 1

The Alexander Technique demonstrates that the way the body optimally supports itself is clear, simple, and elegant. To many new students, the concepts make sense intellectually and sound simple, but can feel kinesthetically overwhelmed or at first. This is a normal beginning to the process of being and feeling more integrated and whole in your body.

A comment that I hear frequently is something like "there are so many things to be aware of and think about." That is usually true, but it is not because good posture and coordination is complicated. People learn and develop habits that cause them to perceive their bodies as pieces, parts, or sections that are disconnected from one another. When they begin studying the Alexander Technique and heighten their physical awareness, they will at first sense the pieces as separate. It might be difficult to focus on more than one area at a time. They may wonder if they will always have to be aware of their head, neck, back, arms, legs, hands, and feet. It may seem overwhelming.
 
This sense of keeping track of all of the pieces is temporary. With persistence, the pieces start to come together and feel integrate and the whole body feels like one piece.
 
Try this: Bring your attention to your left foot, right hand and the top of your head all at the same time. Do you find that challenging? Do you feel like you have to concentrate very hard and bounce your attention around from place to place? Can you keep your attention in all three places at once.
 
When I first began taking Alexander Technique lessons, I felt like I had to concentrate a lot and I had trouble focusing on my whole body and the same time and paying attention to whatever I was doing. My experience evolved and I soon sensed my body more fully without having to consciously concentrate on it and I could still focus on whatever activity I was doing without loosing my sense of my body. I had to go through the phase of identifying putting together the pieces. Think of your body like a big puzzle and you have to account for each piece before you get the whole picture, but once you have the whole picture, it's yours!
 
Students who have the most success are those who embrace the process, look at it with wonder, and laugh at themselves when they aren't sure which way is up, literally.
 
The benefits? You'll have more energy, feel more relaxed, have an easier time concentration, deal with stress more constructively, and be less susceptible to straining your muscles.
 
Read next week's post for some simple suggestions that will help you to fill in the gaps in your mind/body puzzle and to sense your body in a more whole,integrated way.

Image by Petr Kratochvil: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=19960&picture=hands-holding-jigsaw

Put on your thinking cap and "do"!

It's a pretty amazing thing when you think of how many words make up a language and therefore how much common ground there must be to communicate and to comprehend.  I order a small coffee with soy milk and I receive a small coffee with soy milk (most of the time).  Pretty amazing.  Also, pretty simple and not too hard to mess up.  Nonetheless, what we hear passes through a filter of what we already understand, which leaves a lot left up to interpretation.

For example, on Saturday, I visited a local cafe in my neighborhood in Brooklyn.  I asked for soy milk in my coffee.  They were out of soy milk, which they generally have in stock.  The woman behind the counter asked another employee to go and purchase some soy milk.  I didn't mind waiting.  He came back five minutes later with two quarts of Lactaid and was promptly sent back to the grocery store to return them.  He thought that "soy" was a brand like "Lactaid" is a brand and that they were essentially the same thing.  My initial thought was, "Does this guy actually not know that "soy" is a bean?", and then realized that if someone had never made any effort to limit dairy intake, that they may not even be aware of what the non-dairy options are.  Long story short, I bought the coffee and added my own soy milk at home.

If you've been following this blog, you've noticed that I encourage people to expand or change their concept of what "good posture" means.  In today's blog, I'd like to work on expanding the understanding of the following two words: "thinking" and "doing".

Before reading any further, write down five words that you associate with the action of "thinking" and five words that you associate with the action of "doing".  The words can be verbs, nouns, adjectives . . . any part of speech that you'd like, so long as they are associations that you make with those actions.  Don't think to hard about it.  Write down what pops into mind.  We'll come back to these list in a moment

If you've taken Alexander Technique lessons or read about the technique, you have likely heard ideas like:

"Think, don't do" or to aim for "Non-doing" 

I've said these words myself and stand by them. 

Last week I came across a tweet by Marie Forleo, a business coach who I follow on Twitter.  Here's what she tweeted:

"Clarity comes from engagement, not thought. Take action now, you’ll find your truth."

I equally agree with Marie's statement.  I see the two ideas as similar and complimentary.  The first statement refers to avoiding "doing" too much in your body. Often when I ask a new student to stop tightening their neck, for example, they react by tightening it more.  The reason for this is that people are so accustomed to being asked to do something that they want to do the right thing and find the right position.  Asking someone to "think" instead of "do" is encouraging them to use their thought to release over-tense areas and to consciously bring their bodies out of collapse and into expansion.  

The thinking involved here is different from the thinking involved in making a grocery list or doing a math problem.  It's conscious embodied thought that increases our kinesthetic awareness.  Our minds affect our bodies constantly, but we are often unaware of the connection.  This process makes the connection conscious.  At the beginning of a series of lessons, students sometimes find it challenging to learn to consciously think in a way affects their bodies.  Why?  Because they've separated their idea of mind and body and have limited their understanding of "thinking" to activities like math and grocery lists (ie. strategizing, planning and such).  

Looking at Marie's tweet, I understand that the type of "thinking" that she refers to as the strategizing, planning, and day-dreaming kind.  People can get stuck in their heads in this way and spend all of their time considering how to go about taking action, yet never actually do it.  I agree with Marie's advice to "do" as opposed to "think".  In the context of learning to change habits through the Alexander Technique, I agree with learning to "think" rather than "do".  Same words with different meanings in different contexts.

Here's how these two ideas fit together.  If you can "think" (aka consciously affect) your body in order to free yourself of mind/body habits that are holding you back, you'll be able to get out of your head and gracefully and pointedly spring into action while employing neither too much nor to little effort. 

Now take a look at the words that you associated with "thinking" and "doing".  Have you now broadened your concept of these two actions? 

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com   

Ten Reasons for which I am Grateful for the Alexander Technique

Inspired by the Thanksgiving Holiday last week, I've mused on how I've used the Alexander Technique to change my life.  

 

Ten Reasons for which I am Grateful for the Alexander Technique

1. I'm not half bad a ping pong.

Last year, I picked up a paddle at a holiday party and to my surprise, I really held my own.  I hadn't practiced in many years and had never considered myself particularly skilled at ping pong or anything that involved hitting or kicking a ball or birdie, but I surprised myself at my adept hand-eye coordination.  My improved overall coordination allow me to calmly focus specifically on the ball and to simultaneously be aware of the space around me.  I could clearly sense where the ball was going and respond appropriately without over or under reacting and knowing where the ball and paddle were at all times.  It was a cool feeling - like I actually had more time to strategize my next move.

2. I don't fall when the subway jerks forward as I'm sitting.

I feel relaxed, energized and aware of where my whole body is at once.  When I sit, I fold instead of plop and keep my weight over my feet.  This makes it easy to decide halfway down that I'm going to pause or stand back up instead of coming crashing down on the lap of the person in the next seat.

3. Public speaking no longer terrifies me.

This may sound odd because I'm a trained actor, but I have been terrified of public speaking for most of my life.  I've taken on a roll for AmSAT (The American Society of the Alexander Technique)over the past two years, which has required me to speak on a microphone (yikes) in front of an auditorium full of people (gulp).  I've surprised myself and actually found these occasions quite enjoyable.  I realized that what would help me most would be to be open and receptive to the audience as opposed to fearing them and trying to shut them out.  When I allow fear to set in, I a create a wall of tension in myself, which leaves me short of breath, and then in turn, more anxious and vocally stifled.  As for the microphone, I used to hate to hear my own voice emerging from speakers.  The voice coming out of the speakers now sounds less foreign.  

4. I successfully lifted a bowl of hot chocolate with one hand.

If you've taken lessons with me, it's likely that you've heard this story. Prior to becoming an Alexander Technique teacher, at a time when I was taking regular lessons, I discovered something.  I was doing a lot of the work of my hands, arms, back and legs with my shoulders.  When I'd lift something, I would automatically lift and tighten my shoulder before even using my hand.  As a result of this habit, my hands and wrists were weak.  This issue became especially evident to me when I would lift a bowl of hot chocolate into a microwave on a high shelf.  (I was living in France at the time where the custom is to prepare hot chocolate and cafe au lait in bowls).  I was not able to lift the bowl into the microwave with one hand.  I was lifting with my shoulder and at a certain height in the lifting, the shoulder couldn't do the work anymore.  This realization was discouraging to me, but was an encouragement to keep on with my Alexander Technique lessons.  One day I found myself lifting the bowl one-handed.  What a triumph!   

5. I stopped worrying so much about germs.

I used to be what one might call a hypochondriac.  I may not be totally over it, but the Alexander Technique has helped immensely.  I used to be so afraid of contacting the world for fear that it would infect me, that I would pull into myself to "get away from it".  One thing that I'd do was to walk on the sides of my feet when I was barefoot.  I thought that if less of my feet touched the floor that I was less likely to pick up germs from it.  As I started to feel my body expand when I began taking Alexander Technique lessons, I quite quickly realized that my pulling into myself was likely causing me health problems.  It was restricting my breathing and resulting in a large amount of strain and tension in my body.  Realizing that my response to fearing germs may be making me more succeptible to them, I quickly changed my habits.  The first thing that I changes=d was to let my feet completely contact the floor.

6. I don't crash into door frames (as much)and my jeans don't look strange.

I grew four inches in one year at the age of 13.  I had scoliosis, which worsened significantly during the growth spurt and I found myself wearing a back brace for a good portion of each day for five years.  Moving into adulthood, I realized that I hadn't really grown into my body.  I was 5'8",but used my body as if I were 5'2".  This was always most clear to me when one of my shoulders would crash into a door frame and I knew that I must be much broader than I perceived I was.  I also used to take off my jeans at the end of the day and be totally baffled at how low the indentations were from my knees.  It didn't feel like my knees were actually that low.  I had a false sense of the length of my thighs and the height of my knees - and indication that I was using way to much effort in my thighs to walk instead of efforlessly allowing my knees to bend.  Now that I let my knees bend with less effort, I accurately sense their location.

7. I no longer cringe when I see myself on video.

Like with the microphone example, I'm generally not surprised by what I see and hear when I watch myself on video.  How I sense myself isn't so different from how I view myself from an outside perspective.  This was not always the case!

8.  I feel angry.

Or rather, I allow myself to feel angry.  I used to shut down feelings of anger by tensing my upper body.  I've learned to feel anger and other emotions more completely throughout my whole body as opposed to shutting them down with tension.

9.  It's fun.

Not much more to say than that.  The Alexander Technique helps me sense everything that I'm doing more clearly and to be more present and engaged in the world.  It continues to be a source of exploration and discovery.  A great Alexander lesson almost always involves laughter.

10. Oh, yeah, I stand up straighter. 

And a by-product of all of this is that I don't slump and my scoliosis is hardly visible now.  Sitting and standing up straight is the most comfortable position to be in and doesn't feel stiff or rigid.
Posture is a result of how a person goes about their life, acting and reacting and involves the coordination of the whole body, mind, and how one focuses and interacts in the world.

If you've benefited from the Alexander Technique, please feel free to add what you are grateful for in the comments below!

  
Image couresy of http://www.squidoo.com/thanksgivingimages

Alexander Technique for All Ages: Aunt Myrtle's story

Alexander Technique for All Ages:  Aunt Myrtle's story 

Check out this short animated video about The Alexander Technique.  In it, you'll learn of the benefits of AT and the problems that it helps to resolve.  Throughout the video, you'll follow the story of a young adult who just can't figure out how to sit, stand, or move about life comfortably and longs for the natural way that he used his body as a young child.  Thinking that he's doomed to progressively compress and slump his body as he ages, like his dear Aunt Myrtle, he finally realizes that he can get back into the driver's seat of his own body and reclaim the natural good use of his body that he enjoyed as a kid.  

As it turns out, hunching and slumping are habits that tend to worsen as we age, as opposed to an inevitable state that a person get into as they get older.  

Light bulb goes off for our young hero!  He takes Alexander Technique lessons and changes his habits!  He's no longer compressing his body!  He has better posture and simultaneously feels more comfortable!  He can now sit, stand, move, and age gracefully!  Yay for the young hero and yay for The Alexander Technique!

I was heavily involved with getting this video made on behalf of The American Society for the Alexander Technique and have been hearing/reading questions and comments over the past month since its release.  One question that has come up is, "What about Aunt Myrtle?"  We see that that hero escapes her fate of hunching over during old-age, but what about Aunt Myrtle herself?  Is she too old to get back into the driver's seat of her own body?  The Posture Police caught up with Aunt Myrtle, who has been taking Alexander Technique lessons on the advice of her enthusiastic nephew and asked her about her experience.
(Aunt Myrtle is a fictional character.)

Posture Police:  Posture Police here.  Aunt Myrtle, may I ask you a few questions?

Aunt Myrtle:  Was I driving too fast?

Posture Police:  No, not at all.  I just have a few questions regarding how you've improved your posture.

Aunt Myrtle:  I've been taking Alexander Technique lessons for several months now.

Posture Police:  How did you find out about The Alexander Technique?

Aunt Myrtle:  From my nephew.  He's been raving about it for a couple of years now and suggested I take lessons since I'm always complaining about being hunched over.  At first I laughed and said that there was no way I could learn a new way to hold my body at the age of eighty.  He insisted that he thought I could if I stuck with lessons for awhile and remembered to practice on my own.  

Posture Police:  So did you take lessons then?

Aunt Myrtle:  Well, no.  When he said I'd have to practice, I got discouraged.  I don't like doing exercises.

Posture Police:  So, how did you change your mind?

Aunt Myrtle:  Well, he brought it up again a few months later and I told him that I doubted that I'd keep up with the exercises.  Apparently I had misunderstood what he'd meant by "practice".  He then went on to say that there aren't any exercises.  

Posture Police:  Aha!  

Aunt Myrtle:  He said that the only "homework" I'd have would be to lie down for 15-minutes each day and I could certainly manage that.  Otherwise, I'm to remember to apply what I'd learned as I go about my day.  I don't have to stop what I'm doing to practice.

Posture Police:  How convenient!

Aunt Myrtle:  Oh, it is.  It takes some focus to remember at first, but the more I do it, the more it's like second-nature and I don't have to remind myself so much.  It's fun and helps keep my mind sharp and I'm less tired.  I feel like I'm floating when I leave my weekly lessons.  I used to feel like a ton of bricks.

Posture Police:  Can you maintain that floating feeling?

Aunt Myrtle:  Not at first, but after a few lessons, I started to be able to.  All of my friends have noticed the difference in my posture and want to know what my secret is.  They all say that I look younger.  I'm still a bit hunched, but my teacher says that even if I don't come up fully straight, that I can still feel more relaxed and expansive, as she says, even being a little bent over.  The technique is more about allowing your body to take up all of its space than to make yourself have perfect posture.

Posture Police:  So, "perfect posture" might be a result of Alexander lessons, but not necessarily for everyone and that's okay?

Aunt Myrtle:  Yes, that's right.  I'm happy that I look better, but even happier that I feel better and I'd rather keep feeling better than standing up straighter.  I used to think that standing up straight was something that I had to strain to do, but now I realize that I stand up straightest when I don't try so hard.  It's really more of a matter of using your thinking to affect your body than to maneuver yourself into a position.

Posture Police:  Well, thank you Aunt Myrtle!  There you have it folks.  Aunt Myrtle, back in the driver's seat of her body at age eighty!

Kinesthetic Confusion in Brooklyn

New York City Subway Stairs from Dean Peterson on Vimeo.

You're trudging your way up the subway stairs after a long day, thinking about what you're going to pick up on the way home for dinner as you . . . oops, trip on one of the steps.  You regain your footing and continue up the stairs to the sidewalk without thinking twice.  Has this ever been you?  Hold that thought.

A few weeks ago, I was discussing the concept of proprioception in a small group class that I teach.  "Proprioception" is essentially akin to "kinesthesia" and is a sense.  We're all familiar with sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, all relating to how we take in sensory input from outside of ourselves.  Proprioception is how the body senses itself. 

Here are two examples of proprioception that you can try right now. 

Put your left hand behind your back.  Do you know that it's still there?  That's your proprioception at work.

Close your eyes.  Can you touch your nose without looking?  Again, your proprioception.

Proprioceptive nerves reside in your muscles and send signals to your brain explaining where you are in space, where the parts of your body are relative to one another, and how much effort you need to do things.

Write the words "heavy" on a big box and ask friend to lift it.  If they swing the box up high very quickly and loose their balance, you will have tricked their proprioception.

The thing is though, is that most of us are constantly tricking our proprioception without really knowing it.  We compress ourselves, tense, and strain and we may or may not be aware that something is awry.  We may experience pain, but not know exactly why.  We become helpless in the face our own habits because by habitually holding our bodies and moving in inefficient, straining ways, we've become kinesthetically "blind" to them.  Studying the Alexander Technique is like putting glasses on your proprioceptive sense, but even better because the clarity that is gained is through awareness and change.

In my group class, we were looking at ways in which our proprioception might be "off", like a compass that isn't pointing north.  For example, if you were to guess what part of your face the bottom of the back of your head (where your head meets your neck in the back) lines up with, what would you guess?  Most people guess their chin.  The bottom of the back of the head is actually much higher and lines up with the cheekbones, just below the eyes.  F.M. Alexander called this phenomenon "debauched kinesthesia" at the turn of the 20th Century.  I like to call it "kinesthetic confusion". 

What does it mean if you think that your head (meaning your skull) reaches all the way down to chin-level in the back?  It means that you are likely tightening your neck.  The area of the back of the neck that goes from your cheekbones to your chin is being "labeled" by your brain as part of your head.  Because of this kinesthetic "mislabeling", you are probably locking your head and neck together, which starts a downward chain reaction of compression through the whole body all the way to your feet. 

A funny example of my own kinesthetic confusion is that I used to tense and narrow my shoulders so much that I had no idea how broad they were and was constantly colliding into door frames.  Ouch!

As we were going through a variety of examples of kinesthetic confusion in my class, one of my students mentioned a news report on a particular subway station in Brooklyn that has gain attention for its stairs and the tendency for people to trip on them.  Check out the video above and see how many trips were captured over the period of one hour.  According to the article accompanying the video, "one of the stairs leading to [the subway station] . . . is a 'fraction of an inch' taller than the others. This causes a great deal of stumbles, trips and falls."

You can probably figure out why someone would be likely to trip on a step that is slightly taller that the steps leading up to it.  You'd become used to the height of the steps and without even thinking about it would expect to bend your knee and raise your foot the same amount to reach the next one.  This is proprioception at work and a great example of how our proprioceptive/kinesthetic awareness is "on" all the time and goes on auto-pilot - a good thing, since we wouldn't want to have to be thinking about exactly how much to bend each knee and lift each food every time you took a step.

So, how can we avoid trips or at least trip more gracefully and not totally wipe out.  If you're walking up the stairs and you are already in a state of kinesthetic confusion just in relation to how you are holding your own body, your ability to adjust gracefully to something unexpected (ie. an unusually high step on a flight of stairs or an unexpected step on what you thought was even ground) is impaired.  Not only do people tend to tighten and compress their bodies habitually, but people tend to consciously disconnect from their bodies.  This is often referred to as not being "in the moment".  You might not be able to be aware of your feet on the ground, the stair in front of you, and your thoughts about what to pick up for dinner in a way that you can react quickly to the unexpectedly high stair.  Kinesthetic confusion is a psycho-physical phenomenon (relating to mind and body).

The kinesthetically confusing subway station is 36th Street Station in Brooklyn, a station that I pass through nearly every day to change trains, so I'm not so familiar with the stairs that lead to the street! 

Check out the video and feel free to leave comments about your own experiences of kinesthetic confusion.

Physical, Mental, Emotional, & Spiritual - Are they they same? How do they relate to posture?

With Autumn arriving in two days, I'm officially closing my summer series, "Sleeping on Sandwiches" and looking ahead to how this blog will evolve.  I began The Posture Police as an exploration of the concept of posture.  What do people think posture is?  What does it mean to have good posture?  Is it just about how you stand and sit or is it something deeper and relevant to everything we do and how we approach life?  

A common theme among my posts in this recent summer series is the concept of "attitude".  An attitude can be physical, emotional, and mental and these three parts of ourselves are not so much parts, but instead ways that we divide ideas that we have about ourselves that may in fact distance us from understanding ourselves as unified, whole, beings.  People talk about exercised their bodies and minds separately, feeling emotions, and nurturing their spirits.  These terms can be useful, but they are labels that we create to describe perspectives of essentially the same thing.

Here's an example.  Let's take multiple looks at this one activity:

I go for a run every morning.

Here's what the person who runs every day might say about the experience:

It feel energized.
I feel more alert and focused
I  feel calm for the rest of the day and free from anxiety and worry.
I feel connected to the universe.

The four comments above could be described as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual respectively and they are all talking about the same activity.  The common thread is that each comment about the experience of running is just that, an experience, a feeling.  Regardless of how each feeling could be categorized, each one is nonetheless a feeling, a felt, physical experience.  Based on those felt experiences every morning, the person moves through the rest of the day with an attitude that is informed by the feelings that they derive from running.  They'd likely approach the day with a different attitude if they sluggishly crawled out of bed and downed a cup of coffee or spent the morning stuck in traffic.

Here's a different activity that might at first glance be considered less physical than the previous on.  Instead of calling it "more mental" or "less "physical", let's call it "less athletic".

I sit at a desk for eight hours per day looking at a computer screen.

I feel slumped.
I feel in a fog.
I feel stressed and anxious.
I feel disconnected from the world.

Again, the descriptions of this activity area all felt, physical experience that could be categorized as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  Though moving much less compared to when running, a person's body is just as present when sitting and just as (or perhaps more) susceptible to injury (like lower back pain).  

These two examples demonstrate that we divide ourselves when we call certain activities "physical" and certain activities "mental".  The same could be said for "emotional" and "spiritual".  Within activities, we then divide our experiences of them into different categories, thus furthering this notion of dividing ourselves.

Circling back around to the word "attitude".  Our attitudes are reflected in our emotions, our reactions, and how we react to perhaps the most constant stimulus around . . . gravity . . . and how we react to gravity is how we hold ourselves, how we sit and how we stand, which is often called posture.  One way to think about posture is your general attitude in life and how you react with that attitude to gravity, a force that pulls down.  The design of our bodies should counteract gravity in a way that leads us to feel springy, but many of us work against ourselves and give into gravity instead of working with it.  

What is your postural attitude?  Does it change?  Are you generally allowing yourself to spring up or are you pulling yourself down?

Time Travel with the Posture Police II - Alexander Technique Trivia

If you are an Alexander Technique history buff or want to be one, you could win a complimentary or discounted Alexander Technique lesson!

Take a trip back in time and answer these three questions!  The FIRST person to answer all three questions correctly will win one complimentary private lesson with me at my studio in the Flatiron District.  The next nine correct answers will all win $20 off of their next lesson.  You may find some answers or clues on my website:  lindsaynewitter.com  

Post your answers in the comments field below or send them to me in an email (lindsay.n@gmail.com).  Please include your email address so that I can contact you. 

(Any discount obtained from this contest is not valid in conjunction with any other discount.)

Question 1

During what year was FM (Frederick Matthias) Alexander born?

Question 2

What problem did FM Alexander encounter that led him on his path of self-discovery?

Question 3

FM Alexander taught some prominent figures of his time.  All of the following people except for one took Alexander Technique lessons with him.  Which one did NOT take lessons with Alexander?

a) George Bernard Shaw

b) Moshe Feldenkrais

c) Aldous Huxley

d) Sigmund Freud

e) John Dewey

The winners will be contacted Tuesday, November 1, 2011. 

At the beginning of the year, I took this blog on a trip back in time to take a look at me from ages 18 months to 18 years.  Check that one out if you haven't:  http://posturepolice.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

Posture Tips for Dummies: Don't stand like this!

Walking along Lexington Avenue on Tuesday evening, I passed by three ladies in cocktail dresses.  I tried to issue these fashionistas a warning, but they were unresponsive.  They were so nonchalant and all "whatever" that I don't even think they realized I was speaking to them.  I was concerned that they would suffer from herniated disks before even reaching their dinner destination or if they did manage to get there, they were asking for trouble down the road.  After several failed attempts at alerting them to their problematic posture, I stepped back and paused for a moment.  Something wasn't quite right.  The had appeared to have mastered the art of blasé so effectively that they hadn't moved for two solid minutes.  Then I noticed the glass in front of them and discovered that I was talking to a trio of dummies.  I guess I sound like the dummy in this situation, but they just looked so real.  I mean EVERYONE stands like this.  It's become completely normal to be totally slumped and like you know, "casual".  See how the mannequins' necks look like they are sagging down, their shoulders and upper backs rounded and stiff, their lower backs arched and their pelvis' thrust forward?  Apparently if you want to look good in these very expensive clothes, you have to slump and hang back.  It has become fashionable and sexy to slump!  And it's not just a physical thing, but an attitude is certainly being conveyed here - passivity, detachment, apathy.  Posture and how we use our bodies is intimately linked to what we think and our attitude.  So what's the big deal?  Aside from the negative social ramifications of people aspiring to detach themselves, there's some very concrete physical danger here.  Slumping down creates compression in the spine and can cause all sorts of trouble such as back pain, sciatica, and herniated disks. 
So why did I mistake these folks for real people?  Because so many real people stand like this!  And not just fashionistas!  Spend hours in front of a computer and it's easy to become slumped and detached from the world beyond your screen.  The slumping becomes so habitual that we forget how to stand upright without straining.  The Alexander Technique helps you to discover what's gone wrong and to allow for change so that you can stand up straight efficiently, without an unnecessary and uncomfortable effort.  Rediscover how to naturally stand, sit, walk, move and do "like whatever" you do.  Time to get up from my computer and take a walk!