Stress & Mindfulness

Did you know that stress has a shape?  There is a stereotyped motor pattern associated with the stress response--it involves stiffening the neck, hunching the shoulders, compressing the head onto the spine, holding the breath, fixing the gaze.  And, unfortunately, for many of us, it has become the stereotyped shape of our everyday lives.  I help people learn to unravel the pattern of being stuck in stress.  Less deer-in-the-headlights.  More cat-on-the-prowl.

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The Alexander Technique is not Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.  It is not Meditation.  Like these modalities, however, the Alexander Technique gives us concrete procedures to help us to be more awake and aware and present in our lives.  Despite the fact that, as far as we know, F.M. Alexander had no exposure to Eastern Philosophies, he managed to create a technique based upon the premise of complete Mind-Body Unity.  It is a method of directing our thinking in order to bring about changes in the whole organism, or to use the word he favored, the Self.