Who doesn’t need a little help getting unstuck from 2020? So many of my friends are telling me that their bodies are just really tight and uncomfortable from being inside more than usual, from not having enough spontaneous, unpredictable, fun movement in their life.

Even though they go outside every day. Even though they do stretches and exercises, their bodies are getting tighter and painful in surprising ways from being in semi-lockdown.

All of our activities have become so deliberate and predictable. Everything we do – seeing a friend, going to the grocery store, setting aside some time for our body, has to be planned and conscious. Pre-planning and conscious choice are great, but our body also needs spontaneity and surprise. If we don’t encounter unpredictable situations we start to feel stuck in rut, a routine. We really need to play! So…

Every year I offer a special sale during the long, cold winter. I do this to encourage you to take the plunge and commit to a short course of lessons.

Have you reached the end of the rope, the end of the line, the end of 2020? Need a guide in how to create fun, unpredictable, yet healing physical practice for yourself that will affect work, play, and life in 2021 for the better?

This offer is for you – and if you sign up for it before the end of the year, you will get in under the wire because my rates are going up January 1.

Four private coaching sessions (normally $400) for $350. Click here to give yourself this gift.

Have you ever had the experience of hearing a kind word or honest affirmation from a friend and feeling your whole body melt with relief? When I’m teaching, I’m forever amazed at the relationship between kindness, curiosity, and time.

Time seems to fall right into place when we are curious. It’s not too slow, not too fast, but just right. When we rush, it’s a usually either boredom and disconnection, or fear.

Recently I had a student who is in a marching band ask for help in how to play the snare drum. All they needed was a little more time to explore how to hold the sticks more loosely, so they could play a rapid beat with less effort. We enjoyed the exploration, but it brought up alot of feelings for my student. She had literally felt hopeless about herself, frankly, because the band leader didn’t actually know how to teach her, or just wasn’t curious enough about the problem. She felt so encouraged just to find out that she was capable of learning!

Even though I have been teaching for 20 years, I am not above needing affirmation from others either. If I get even a little bit of encouragement I can last a whole year! But…why try to last a whole year? Why not put yourself in the position of getting that kind of support every month? Or even every week? Most real leaders I know get lots of help and support, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to take the risks they do.

A little kindness goes a long way – so why not have alot of it? I’ve discovered that I need about 150% more help than I thought I did! That’s why I started the Experimenters Union for Alexander Technique and other Somatics teachers.

Honest kindness and encouragement are especially important when it comes to learning and change. The honesty part is the hardest, because we have to admit we don’t know, and we have to share challenging observations with each other. We have to be honest about what we perceive about each other. Recognizing and changing harmful habits of thinking and moving is my business, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a student or colleague feel shame while learning something new. I can totally relate. I remember so well when I was the same way. Sometimes I’d cry while working with my teacher because I felt I should already have known what they were teaching me. To be revealed in not knowing something is particularly vulnerable! Yet how can we grow, adapt, and innovate without being vulnerable? Especially now, during this dreadful COVID time, when everything is changing faster than we can handle.

That’s why anyone in a leadership position – which every teacher is in – needs to have a support system that includes kindness and honest feedback. Feedback gives us the reality check that we long for – was that as weird as I thought it was? Am I doing something funny with my arm when I make that movement?

Learning something new is one of the greatest and most healing pleasures on earth. Don’t let feelings of vulnerability rob you of it! Learning something new about your own body especially is the best! If you need support for healing your relationship to your body and learning, I hope you’ll try a Mobilignment class (no two classes are alike, so no one will be any better at it than you are) or free consultation.

If you are an embodiment innovator trying to take your business online and want a rigorous yet kind facilitated mastermind experience, I hope you will book an interview to either join the January group (almost full!!) or be placed on the waiting list for the next one.

CURRENT OFFERINGS:

1) Weekly Mobilignment™ classes:
Dancers at heart of all ages and abilities – come exercise your neuro-plasticity to it’s utmost with mindful movement! Book a spot in the Monday & Wednesday Mobilignment™ class here.

2) Facilitated Mastermind for online embodiment innovators:

Do you want to jump-start your online business and learn Mobilignment™ practices in the process? My DOUBLE VALUE 6 MONTH FACILITATED MASTERMIND focusing on fluid & playful embodiment online, business clarity, and financial abundance for online educators is filling up fast. I am committed to a diversity of modalities (Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Yoga, or any Somatic practice) because I think different takes on the body-mind connection help us discover larger truths and expand our creativity in our chosen modality as well.

You can sign up for a free interview here. The November cohort is full, but there are still 3 spots open in the January one. This could be the honest yet kind and supportive encouragement that you have been longing for! We will challenge you with kindness.

3) Need to re-juvinate your bodymindsoul?
Book a private session ONLINE or IN PERSON.

4) Need to re-juvinate your body but still struggling financially during this dreadful pandema-recession? Check out my YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Exploring lower half of the body schema and squatting

Why is it that Alexander Technique seems to significantly lesson chronic pain conditions? We are finally beginning to understand the mechanisms behind this phenomena.

First, let me tell you a funny back pain story. I once saw an old friend on the street, and in the process of catching up I told my friend that I had recently completed my training as an Alexander Technique teacher. He said “Oh! I studied that! I had a series of lessons with this lady Debbie Caplan. She was such a great person but I really didn’t understand what the Alexander Technique is and I found it very confusing and really don’t think it works.”

I knew Debbie – she wrote a book about back pain in the 1980s that is still one of the most practical books on the subject, and was one of my teachers in my training. So I asked, well – why did you go to her for lessons?

“Oh I had the most dreadful back pain. I hadn’t been able to walk for almost two weeks. I think I had about 5 lessons with her.”

Wow, OK. So…what happened to your back pain?

“O yeah. Well, actually, it went away and it’s never returned, so I lost touch with her.”

So weren’t you curious about why your back pain went away, and why it never came back?

“No, I was just so happy I forgot about it completely.”

I get it. Chronic pain is horrible and scary, and we just want to get rid of it. There are many versions of this story – some where the pain relief is not as stark and clear as this, some where other problems like anxiety and balance issues resolve but the pain levels stay almost consistently the same, but the person is not tensing themselves up all over to avoid it and so their life improves. And that improvement then supports further wellness…and in time, the pain resolves.

It’s a long haul sometimes, and I think understanding can help you, the “layperson,” stick with the work during that haul when the going gets tough.

A new theoretical framework for why the Alexander Technique works like this is slowing being built up by a group of scientists who want to know the answer to this question. They have just published a paper outlining their hypothesis in Kinesiology Review.

This kind of scientific writing can be very difficult to understand, so try this simplified version that the Alexander Technique and Science group has put together for the layperson, or just keep reading because I’ll summarize the two key points regarding pain relief for you below.

1) The Alexander Technique makes postural tone more adaptable and less rigid:

Practicing the AT redistributes postural tone from the bigger, superficial muscles of the body (which are designed to facilitate movement of the body parts in space) to the deeper muscles closer to the bones that facilitate postural integrity (uprightness to the best of one’s capacity) in relationship to the pull of earth’s gravity. When this deeper postural tone kicks in, you get sensations of spreading, expansion, lightness and ease.

2) The Alexander Technique improves accuracy, completeness, and detail of your body schema (the unconscious internal representation of your own body):

Studies have shown that chronic pain literally makes the body part affected feel smaller and courser (less detailed). It could be that this fuzzing of the body schema restricts blood flow to tissues and nerves, as well as contraction of tissue that literally squeezes the nerves causing a more intractable pain cycle. A more accurate body schema also apparently creates more effective movement strategies.

Movement in general can improve body schema, but Mobilignment™ is designed specifically to expand, explore, and stretch it. When you come to a Mobilignment™ class you will first take time to experience a more voluminous hand, or foot, or hip, before going into movement activity and dancing. This gives you a larger impression of forgotten body parts and of your whole moving body in space. This in turn increases blood and oxygen that brings healing to a hurt part. It’s way more fun than pain killers!

We are still just at the beginning of understanding. There is so much more to discover, and that is the experimental spirit that fuels all my coaching and classes.

Upcoming offerings are:

1) Weekly Mobilignment™ classes:

Dancers at heart of all ages and abilities, come exercise your neuroplasticity to its utmost with mindful movement!
Book a spot in the Monday & Wednesday Mobilignment class here.

2) 6 month facilitated Mastermind for Embodiment Innovators who want to thrive online:

Do you want to jump-start your online business and learn Mobilignment™ practices in the process? Interview for a spot in the January cohort of my DOUBLE VALUE 6 MONTH FACILITATED MASTERMIND focusing on fluid & playful embodiment online, business clarity, and financial abundance for online educators.

You can sign up for a free interview here. The November cohort is full, but there are still a few spots open in the January one.

3) Need to help with moving through and injury or just want to rejuvinate your bodymindsoul?
Book a private session ONLINE or IN PERSON.

4) Need to rejuvinate but still struggling financially during this dreadful pandema-recession?
Check out my YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Much love,

Clare