🌈 Breathwork Summit - FREE 5-day online event

🌈 Breathwork Summit - FREE 5-day online event

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www.breathworksummit.com

🌈 In this time of distancing, breathing together in community with others all over the world feels important to me. 

🌈 I just attended the keynote speech for the Breathwork Summit and did some intuitive movement while listening to the history of breathwork. It felt nourishing to move my body in a conscious way while receiving information about breathwork that spans centuries. It made me feel connected to something much, much bigger than myself. Something ancient and enduring. It gave me peace and hope. 

🌈 If this sounds fun and interesting to you, click the link above to register. It’s free. 

🌈 Wishing you a nourishing day. Stay tuned for my affordable community online offerings, starting this week. HINT: There *may* be some breath stuff!  There will *definitely* be movement. And singing. And joy. And love. 

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#alexandertechnique #breathing #breath #nervoussystem #selfregulation #movementismedicine #listentoyourbody #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🧘‍♂️ Love the Skin You’re In - Alexander Technique for Managing Anxiety

🎥 ICYMI 🎥 

🧘‍♂️ Love the Skin You’re In - Alexander Technique for Managing Anxiety

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https://youtu.be/iESkyCoxjkc

🧘‍♂️ There is a lot happening in the world right now. This is a global moment of change, uncertainty, fear, inspiration, community, healing, connection, and a great need for groundedness.  This sequence helps us to come back to the body by connecting to the skin sense. 

🧘‍♂️This floor exploration was inspired by Babette Lightner (see link below). Find an inviting space with room to make a snow angel. Lie quietly for a moment, locating yourself in the space, on the ground, and in your body. Notice your breath. What bodily sensations are you aware of?  Are you aware of your SKIN SENSE?  Your skin covers your entire surface area and is astoundingly SENSITIVE. Allow yourself to RECEIVE SENSATION through your skin. What does the air feel like against your skin?  The floor?  Your clothes?  The breath across your upper lip and chin?  

🧘‍♂️ Allow the skin-sense-curiosity to inspire MOVEMENT across the floor. Follow your inner “yum factor” - what shapes feel delicious and invite you to linger?  

🧘‍♂️ Now stand up and walk around the space. How do you feel now?  Make some sound. Sing a phrase. What feels different or interesting about singing now? 

Check out Babette’s movement work and free videos here: http://www.lightnermethod.com/

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#alexandertechnique #selfcare #lovetheskinyourein #breathe #nervoussystem #selfregulation #fightflightresponse #moveyourbody #movementismedicine #listentoyourbody #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🌱 Resilience

🌱 Resilience

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“Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.”

– Yasmin Mogahed

[image: the first snowdrops of the year]

🌱 I’ve been thinking a lot about resilience this week. I’m experiencing resilience in my friends, family, students, and colleagues in how we are connecting in this time of uncertainty and isolation.  I’m experiencing resilience in our communities in how we are offering support to each other, especially those who are more vulnerable. 

🌱 Resilience is not something I do or am by myself, alone. For me, resilience comes from acknowledging suffering and anxiety and despair, having compassion in that moment, and then allowing myself to reveal my vulnerability to another person. “I’m hurting and I need help.”  Resilience comes from recognizing someone else’s vulnerability and offering to help. “I see you and I’m here.”

🌱 When I think of resilience I think of a ball bouncing. In order for a ball to bounce and rebound upward, it needs something to rebound from. The ball needs to meet the ground in order to bounce back up. Telling someone to “stay strong” without the ground of WHAT IS, is not as supportive as helping them to get grounded so you can both bounce up - together. 

🌱 Who can you bounce with today?

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#alexandertechnique #resilience #socialdistancing #bounce #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

⛑ Extrovert S.O.S. - What does self-care look like for you?

⛑ Extrovert S.O.S. - What does self-care look like for you?

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⛑ Hi, friends. How are you doing during this time of isolation and social distancing?  I’m especially talking to you, my self-identified Extrovert lovelies.  I see you being nourished by involvement and caring and outreach and doing. You inspire me and I’m here with you. 

⛑ We are all being encouraged to practice radical self-care right now.  We are being told to take advantage of this time at home to cherish spending time with loved ones and pets and purging the cupboard under your bathroom sink (I see you, Constant Busy Bees of Productivity, and I feel you). We are being told to rest. We are being told to stay active. We are encouraged to reach out to friends and loved ones to stay connected, while at the same time making sure we take time for ourselves to recharge and recuperate. With all of these dizzying directives, it’s hard to know where to start. And it’s easy to let “self-care” add to the mounting overwhelm. 

⛑The reality is, “self-care” looks different for each of us.  Only YOU and YOUR SYSTEM know exactly what you need in this moment to nourish and restore you.  I am neither an Introvert nor an Extrovert, AND I am both.  For me, it feels nourishing to pause, close my eyes, and ask my system what it needs. Some moments it says, “I’m hungry!”  So I have a snack (or a piece of cake, let’s be honest). Or it says, “I’m scared!”  So I hold myself and/or call a friend for some human resonance and/or go outside and touch a tree. Or it says, “I’m tired!” So I lie down, usually with a kitty cat. 

⛑ This is what self-care looks like FOR ME.  And I recognize that it might look and feel different FOR YOU. We are all doing the best we can to hold and heal ourselves and each other and the world right now. It’s messy. I’m messy. And it’s a beautiful global community moment. And it’s scary. And sometimes I’m on the front line and sometimes I need to retreat for a bit so I can come back out to join those of you who are nourished by being IN IT. And I’m so grateful for all of it, and all of you. 

⛑ What does “self-care” look like for you in this moment?

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#alexandertechnique #selfcare #socialdistancing #touchingwithouttouching #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🤲 Alexander Technique and Active Receiving - VIDEO edition

🎥 NEW VIDEO 🎥 

🤲 Alexander Technique and Active Receiving

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https://youtu.be/fKWM38oLdNw

🤲 This video is a follow up to a blog post I created a few weeks ago. 

🤲 Today I’m asking myself, am I open to receiving?  Do I have grasping hands, or do I have receptive hands?  Do I have fixing hands, or do I have listening hands?

🤲 As an Alexander Technique teacher, these questions are important. When I use my hands to make contact with my student, I am meeting the person’s wholeness with my wholeness.  When I’m working with students online, I am receiving the other person with my whole self, not just my eyes. I can begin to expand my awareness and receptivity through my hands. 

🤲 Try this: find a place to sit quietly with yourself. Allow your hands to rest palm-up on your thighs. Place a small, pleasing object in one hand. How do you experience that object through your touch?  How does this experience impact your whole self?  Your breath?  Your voice?

🤲 Now try this: place your open palm on your chest. “Listen” with your hand, with no agenda, no need to fix or change anything. How do you experience yourself through your touch?  Sing something as you continue to “listen” through your touch. What do you notice?

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#alexandertechnique #listening #touch #activereceiving #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

💻 Online Voice and Movement Lessons (are fun!)

💻 Online Voice and Movement Lessons (are fun!)

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💻 Following my colleagues’ lead, I’ll be transition to online lessons and workshops and group classes for the next few weeks.  I’m excited to explore this new way of connecting and I’m here to help ease the transition. 

💻 This is a big change from our normal way of meeting - but fear not!  I have many years of experience with online learning and teaching for voice and movement, and new strategies are being shared daily amongst my teaching colleagues.  There are lots of options for online lessons, and we can work together to find the best fit for you.  There are also some GREAT things about online lessons that will allow you to be responsible for your own learning in a new way.  Read on!

What you’ll need:

  • Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, FaceTime (we’ll use the same platform as each other)

  • Internet connection

  • Two devices (one if you’re not singing), for example: laptop, tablet, phone, desktop - any setup that will allow me to see most of the upper half of your body, ideally all of your body if  we are doing movement work (prop your device up on some books or a pot on a shelf so you can be hands-free)

  • Spirit of adventure and curiosity!

💻 Let’s connect directly to talk about how we can continue to work together in this new way until we can meet again in person. 

💻 Keep breathing.  We can do this together.

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#alexandertechnique #onlineteaching #onlinelearning #connection #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

💃 Dancing Through Life

💃 Dancing Through Life

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💃 Movement helps me to more fully embody what I’m experiencing at any given moment. 

💃 Example from my life: When I’m feeling frustrated with an article I’m writing or a piano piece I can’t quite get my fingers around, I could:

a) bang the laptop/piano lid shut and announce to the empty house, “I QUIT!”  (Narrator: she has been known to do this)

Or...

b) Pause. Notice how I’m experiencing that emotion in my body. Is it a heaviness?  A tightness?  

And then....

c) DANCE IT. Give the emotion the recognition it’s calling out for. I let my sensation guide me to create a silly, cathartic “interpretive dance” to fully express what I’m experiencing. 

💃 What experience do you want to DANCE today?  Joy?  Fear?  Excitement?

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#alexandertechnique #dancing #pause #feeling #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🗺 You Are Here: movie Edition

🎥 NEW VIDEO 🎥 

🗺 You Are Here

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https://youtu.be/EYX_v_AQ3XY

🗺 This video is a follow up to a blog post I wrote a few weeks ago, inspired by Marjorie Barstow: 

“When I find myself pushing, I have not taken the time to see where I am before I start to move.”

🗺 Babette Lightner’s gentle locating sequence can help us to be where we are, how we are, without trying to change or fix anything:

Here I am

As I am

In the world

As it is

Supported by the planet

Floating in the universe

Awake

To my state of being

🗺 Locate yourself today. See what you find out about pushing vs being. 

(You can find the original blog post here:  http://www.alisonjanetaylor.com/blog)

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#alexandertechnique #pushing #pause #locationlocationlocation #hereandnow #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

👅 Unfurl Your Tongue

👅 Unfurl Your Tongue

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👅 The tongue: what an incredible, dexterous, expressive muscle.  There are so many communicative phrases associated with the tongue: slip of the tongue, tongue in cheek, cat got your tongue, tongue-tied ... You get it: the tongue is important to our self-expression. 

👅 Bringing awareness to the fullness of the tongue can allow emotional and articulative (word?) freedom and ease. 

👅 After some jaw awareness exploration and gentle release work (see my many jaw videos!), you can invite your tongue to the party with some easy stretches. Release the jaw from its hinge, allowing the molars to part and the lips to part. Gently unfurl the tongue outside of the mouth, like a hose rolling over a wheel. Then reel it back in slowly. Repeat this a few times, inviting ease to the jaw. Incorporate a sigh of relief or some sound. 

👅 Now sing something, preferably with text or some consonants. What feels different?

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#alexandertechnique #tongue #jaw #release #extend #stretch #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🌳 Alexander Technique and Relating to the Ground

🎥 NEW VIDEO 🎥 

🌳 Alexander Technique and Relating to the Ground

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https://youtu.be/jsKdOlcVDbA

🌳 What does it mean to you to feel “grounded”?  How do you get “grounded”?  We use this word a lot in the studio and in performance, but sometimes it can feel elusive. I *should* feel grounded but I don’t. Now what do I do?

🌳 When I feel grounded, I ...

  • Can breathe more deeply

  • Feel relaxed and open in my body

  • Feel my body

  • Can sing with freedom and ease

  • Can see and hear you more clearly

  • Can take in my surroundings

  • Feel like I have the time and space to do what I need to do 

  • Can be myself 

🌳 Try this question on: What is my relationship with the ground right now?  Am I pushing into the ground?  Am I pulling away from the ground?  Am I collapsing into the ground?  

🌳 I’m experimenting with accepting my relationship with the ground as it is in this moment, without “shoulding” all over myself (don’t you love that expression? 🤣). No matter how grounded I *feel* (see above list), I trust that the ground is supporting me At. All. Times. This is indisputable.  

🌳 This exploration was inspired by Darci Balkcom at Total Vocal Freedom for Singers. 

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#alexandertechnique #grounding #grounded #support #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🎥 ICYMI: I did a 30-Day Big Magic Challenge last year 🎥 SKIN SENSE

🎥 ICYMI: I did a 30-Day Big Magic Challenge last year 🎥

🐠 30-Day Big Magic Challenge - Day 8: Get Into Your Skin https://youtu.be/iESkyCoxjkc

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🐠 Today I’m pondering the lure of productivity, inspiration, and mobilization. Inspiration and creativity can elevate our levels of excitation. All of this energy - even the fun, healthy, exciting kind - can be depleting as we stay at a low level of excitation without resetting. We can caught up in the forward momentum and forget to pause and replenish.

🐠 This floor exercise was inspired by Babette Lightner (see link below). Find an inviting space with room to make a snow angel. Lie quietly for a moment, locating yourself in the space, on the ground, and in your body. Notice your breath. What bodily sensations are you aware of? Are you aware of your SKIN SENSE? Your skin covers your entire surface area and is astoundingly SENSITIVE. Allow yourself to RECEIVE SENSATION through your skin. What does the air feel like against your skin? The floor? Your clothes? The breath across your upper lip and chin?

🐠 Allow the skin sense curiosity to inspire MOVEMENT across the floor. Follow your inner “yum” - what shapes feel delicious and invite you to linger?

🐠 Now stand up and walk around the space. How do you feel now? Sing a phrase or vocal exercise. What feels different or interesting about singing now? What do you feel ready to do now?

🐠 Check out Babette’s movement work and free videos here: http://www.lightnermethod.com/

#alexandertechnique #bigmagic #selfcare #creativity #inspiration #breath #selfreflection #choice #unlearning #nervoussystem #selfregulation #fightflightresponse #moveyourbody #movementismedicine #listentoyourbody

🗺 You Are Here

🗺 You Are Here

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🗺 When I read this quote today, I said, “Oof!” out loud. Marj’s words really resonate with me today.  Lately I’ve been pushing. I’ve been caught up in the alluring swirl of busyness and productivity. I’m realizing that I can be grounded as a wise old oak tree in my teaching, but in my daily life I can be pushing and striving and rushing and and and ...

🗺 Try this: before you open that new email or flip the page in your score, give yourself a pause. Where are you?  Are you with your reaction to seeing that person’s name in your inbox?  Are you with that tough passage of sixteenth notes that have been driving you bonkers for the past week?  What would happen if you took a pause to really notice where you are, without trying to change it?  

🗺 I’m rushing. My breath is high and my chest feels constructed. My throat feels tight. My tongue is pressing into the roof of my mouth. My shoulders are up around my ears. Hmm, that’s interesting. Noticing these things, now I feel like I can breathe more deeply. My shoulders have unclenched. I can feel my bum on the chair. I am here. Hmm, this email doesn’t feel as urgent now. These sixteenth notes don’t seem as daunting. 

🗺 Locate yourself today. See what you find out about pushing vs being. 

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#alexandertechnique #pushing #pause #locationlocationlocation #hereandnow #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🤲 Active Receiving

🤲 Active Receiving 

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🤲 Today I’m asking myself, am I open to receiving?  Do I have grasping hands, or do I have receptive hands?  Do I have fixing hands, or do I have listening hands?

🤲 As an Alexander Technique teacher, these questions are important. When I use my hands to make contact with my student, I am meeting the person’s wholeness with my wholeness.  

🤲 Try this: find a place to sit quietly with yourself. Allow your hands to rest palm-up on your thighs. Place a small, pleasing object in one hand. How do you experience that object through your touch?  How does this experience impact your whole self?  Your breath?  Your voice?

🤲 Now try this: place your open palm on your chest. “Listen” with your hand, with no agenda, no need to fix or change anything. How do you experience yourself through your touch?  Sing something as you continue to “listen” through your touch. What do you notice?

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#alexandertechnique #listening #touch #activereceiving #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🪑 Alexander Technique and Constructive Sitting

🎥 NEW VIDEO ALERT 🎥 

🪑 Alexander Technique and Constructive Sitting

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https://youtu.be/ifS6ltAVM-A

🪑 I recently posted a blog about Constructive Sitting and the response was so great that I made a video to accompany it. Read the original post below and see what comes up for you as you experiment with movement and sitting. 

🪑  Sitting is Movement

🪑 My teacher Susan Sinclair recently said something that blew my mind: “Sitting is movement.”

                         🧠 💥 

🪑 I often think of sitting as a static or fixed position. I can allow my coordination to organize and free itself in order to move freely to a seated position - ah!  So lovely and free!  And then I lock into sitting and forget my whole self!  Can you relate to this in any way?

🪑 Susan reminded me that sitting is actually an activity that includes dynamic inner movement, and subtle or larger outer movements (i.e.: when at the piano or computer).  Your system is constantly balancing and coordinating itself - you are ALWAYS in movement, even in “positions.”

🪑 Try this experiment (inspired by Susan): move freely for 5 minutes. Move in any way your system craves - just move. Then come to a chair.  Sit for 5 minutes.  Can you still sense the echo of your outer movement in your body now that you are sitting?  

To explore Susan Sinclair’s Alexander Technique work, visit www.sinclairstudio.com. 

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#alexandertechnique #balance #coordination #innermovement #activesitting #sitting #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🎨 30 Day Big Magic Challenge - Creating the space to create

🎥 ICYMI: I did a 30-day CREATIVITY challenge last year 🎥 

🎨 30 Day Big Magic Challenge - Creating the space to create

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https://youtu.be/0yXMrwz1JGg

🎨 Day 1 - In today’s fast-paced atmosphere of productivity, it can be challenging to find the time to connect with yourself. Especially this time of year, when we get busy with new routines and projects. It feels energizing and exciting now, but it’s also easy to burn out if we don’t take the time to check in now and then. 

🎨 In Elizabeth Gilbert’s book “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear,” she outlines some important points about cultivating the time and space to allow creativity the opportunity to THRIVE. I was so inspired by Gilbert’s work that I created a daily appointment in my calendar called “🧚‍♀️Big Magic Hour.🧚‍♀️”  During this time, I silence my phone and close my laptop, and I devote this hour to listening for  INSPIRATION. I ask, “Hey, Inspiration, what would you have me do today?”  I give myself permission to fully surrender to creativity during this time. Sometimes I fill the whole hour; sometimes just 10 minutes. Sometimes I draw, sing, lie on the floor, breathe, move, or journal. 

🎨 The important thing is that I keep this appointment with myself every day, and I don’t punish myself if I don’t fill the whole hour. I’ve come to look forward to this time. It no longer feels like an obligation to practice - it feels like a gift I’m giving myself each day. And I always feel more energized and ready to teach/work/plan afterwards.  

🎨 Will you join me in this 30 Day Big Magic Challenge?

You can buy Elizabeth Gilbert’s book here: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/

Listen to her Big Magic Lessons podcast here: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/magic-lessons/

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#alexandertechnique #bigmagic #BigMagicChallenge #selfcare #creativity #inspiration #sing #singer #voice #voiceteacher #breath #selfreflection #unlearning #slowdown

🤷‍♀️ Don’t Shrug it off!

🎥 ICYMI 🎥 

🤷‍♀️ Alexander Technique for Freeing the Neck and Shoulders through Intentional Movement

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https://youtu.be/xqXwJ_Eqovo

🤷‍♀️ Often when we experience neck and shoulder pain, we try to address it DIRECTLY by squeezing or rolling the shoulders or trying to stretch the neck with head rolls, not realizing that the discomfort we are experiencing could be the result of an unhelpful coordination or “stuckness” throughout the whole stature. 

🤷‍♀️ This movement exploration addresses stuckness INDIRECTLY by engaging your whole self -  imagination and physicality - to discover how INTENTION can free up blocked areas to allow ease and freedom throughout your whole coordinated being.  

🤷‍♀️ Experiment: What is it like to BREATHE with these movements?  What is it like to make SOUND as you allow your attention and intention to guide your movements?  What INFORMATION does this experiment give you about what is necessary for free and easy breathing/singing?

🤷‍♀️ Thank you to Babette Lightner and Caren Bayer for their experimentation with pinky-directed movement, spirals, and structural anatomy.  Learn more about their work by following the links in the comments below. 

Babette Lightner - http://www.lightnermethod.com/

Caren Bayer - http://carenbayer.com/carenbayer/

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#alexandertechnique #spirals #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🦉 Alexander Technique and the Wisdom of Experience

🦉 Alexander Technique and the Wisdom of Experience

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🦉 Telling is not teaching. I heard this phrase from a teacher once and it really  resonated with me. As a learner, I want to be engaged in a process of discovery and exploration. Don’t just tell me the how and the why - show me. Lead me. Guide me. Immerse me in the how and why. Ignite my curiosity.  From this place of curiosity, awareness, and engagement, I am positively primed for skill acquisition and new knowledge. 

🦉 F. M. Alexander developed his approach through many hours of trial and error and observation. He had some hypotheses around what was happening with his voice loss and breathing difficulties, but it was only through experimentation that he could deduce what he was up to while reciting, and how to start to change his patterns.  He developed his THEORY through EXPERIENCE - not the other way around. 

🦉 There is great wisdom in experiential learning. You bring the wisdom of your experience into every lesson and performance. Every student that walks to into your studio brings the wisdom of their experience to their time with you. There is the possibility for a beautiful alchemy of co-creation in every lesson, if we as teachers can be open to the lived experience in our students and in ourselves. 

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#alexandertechnique #experientiallearning #trustyourself #curiosity #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork

🦩The Jaw: Alexander Technique for Indirect Release

🎥 NEW VIDEO 🎥 

🦩The Jaw: Alexander Technique for Indirect Release

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https://youtu.be/HbMxwNBFIPg

🦩 Through simple mapping of some key areas, we can bring ease and support to the jaw with whole-self awareness. 

🦩 Does your current shape (how you’re sitting/standing) affect your jaw?  Consider how the orientation of your head on top of your spine impacts the movement of your jaw.  How free are your arms right now?  

🦩 Create some singing and movement experiments by exploring these key areas, and notice what happens in your jaw. What did you find out about your whole-self coordination and your jaw?

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#alexandertechnique #jaw #tension #freedom #shoulders #neck #wholeness #singing #voice #singer #voiceteacher #movement #movementteacher #voicework #bodywork