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Alexander Technique habits of mind . . . something worth thinking about to bring more ease to your life.

Contact Judy RePattern2Learn@gmail.com 712-464-8727 to call or text It's easy to subscribe to these newsletters! Just click on the "Blog" link in the menu bar on the top right and follow the directions. Then you get them as soon as they are published. Revised Piano Group Start Dates We're starting a week earlier! First lessons will be September 8 and 10—the week of Labor Day. Level 1 begins September 14. Piano Class Weeks 1 Sept 8 & 10 2 Sept 14,

These four words summarize my teaching of the Alexander Technique. Of course, it’s much more complicated once we get into the details! As we begin with non-judgmental awareness, we look at how the body actually moves. What are the habits? We look at posture, standing, sitting, bending, reaching, walking. What we look at first depends on the reason someone comes for a lesson. Sometimes it’s looking at how a musician plays. Other times it’s how an athlete moves. Most often th

I can't lie . . . I wish I could come up with a graphic like this one. Thanks to the folks at Pittsburgh Alexander Technique for sharing it on Facebook! Better Posture??? Most people think of posture when they consider the Alexander Technique (AT). In reality, it may start with posture, but it's so much more. This chart is a good list to begin with. Why start with posture? Good question. AT is about conscious control, so we need to begin somewhere. Posture is easier to contro

Because it's fun! But that's not the only reason. First, there's the timing. The brain runs on rhythm. The connections between the front, middle, and back parts of the brain happen in time. If they are slow, thinking and problem solving are slow. When they speed up, thinking and problem solving do, too. Second, it's a group having fun. Community motivates, and so does enjoyment. There are joy hormones being created, and that encourages people to push themselves to stick with

It's not unusual among Alexander Technique teachers to talk about what brought us to the Technique. So here goes . . . About 23 years ago my spinal cord was compressed just below the waist so that I lost function from the waist down. I can say with certainty that learning to walk at age 2 is much easier than as a middle-aged adult. Well . . . that only indirectly brought me to AT. I was an elementary music specialist back then, singing for 6 hours a day, and the changes to my

Contact Judy RePattern2Learn@gmail.com 712-464-8727 to call or text Early Childhood Classes begin October 6 & 10 Tuesdays and Saturdays 9:30 am Making Music Together (ages 18 mo to 3 with baby siblings hanging out with us) 10:30 am Music on My Own (ages 3-5 with parents welcome but not required) Family Music Night will be Friday, November 20 6 pm at the Rec. Reserve a spot here, and I'll send more info in September. Register here. News about the Baby class at t

In a few months, it will be a full three years since I graduated and qualified to be an Alexander Technique teacher. And what a lot I've learned since then! Breaking it down The Alexander Technique begins with awareness, works out body mechanics then explores more easeful ways of moving. Along the way we visit stopping and directing. It becomes the thinking process that underpins all other activities. The Technique is taught in private lessons

Wouldn't easier be nice?

FREE PIANO AVAILABLE Spring and Summer Session piano lessons. Stress Awareness month. Movement class for Moms and Grandmas. Summer Intensive info.

Days, weeks, months . . . who decides what the focus will be? I don't usually pay much attention, but stress awareness hits close to home for me. Stress is everywhere. The hustle, the rush, the push to get things done. The constant workload of his and hers businesses in the family. The multi-tasking we all feel the need to do. The bragging we hear when friends / family / colleagues trumpet their accomplishments, and we run to keep up. We start our children young. Try out each

Most folks I know have a whirlwind life. Kids to care for and transport as their interests grow and change. Jobs and families to balance. Fitness to attain or maintain. Travel for work. Just keeping up with work. Everyone is running to or from somewhere. It's the way of the world. I was listening to a book while driving to work (always multi-tasking . . .). It's called Do/Pause by Robert Poynton. This is a refresher for me; I read the book last summer and fell in love with t

Spring and summer schedule Summer Intensive Move Easy for Moms in May

Stopping is the hard part. The rest is easy, though it takes concentration. The next part is direction, as in giving directions. What we're actually after is coordination: the way the body wants to work, unhindered by our habits and compensations. That means antagonistic action in the muscles—opposition. Muscles work in groups, and those groups need balance. Contract and release. Simply put: for every down there's an up. To begin, think your feet into the floor. Let the heel

It's my morning without teaching, so I generally line up some work on the home front. Today my goal was the garden, which is crying out for tidying. To keep me working longer, I like to listen to podcasts, so I chose a conversation between a historian and lawyer. They both write daily newsletters and have several books between them. In addition there are families and homes to maintain. Everyone expected a lively discussion of historical context for current events, but do you

The Alexander Technique is many things: improved mechanics for more coordinated movement, better posture, less muscle tension, perhaps less pain or at least a way to modulate the pain. The early teachers who worked with FM Alexander talked about operating from a sense of calm that began with muscles and skeleton, but went all the way to the nervous system, including the breath. Miss Goldie, one of Alexander's long-time assistants, called it "coming to quiet". I have fond memo

July seems like a long time ago! School has begun, and summer has faded into the distant past. After spending many hours with about a dozen children in June and July, I'm now wondering how they are faring in school. But first it's worth noting the initial accomplishments they made from the work they did this summer. They were many and amazing! Mostly we moved: some exercises were for reflex intervention, bouncing balls and passing or tossing sandbags helped eye tracking, tim

Imagine, if you will, watering your garden with a tangled hose. Yes, it's possible to attach it to the water source, and it's possible for water to travel through the hose and come out at the other end…eventually. But how long will it take? Will the plants be properly watered? Maybe increasing the pressure and water flow would be helpful. Surely putting more water through the hose will cause some of the tangles to work themselves out. Perhaps, but still the twists and bends w

When our timing is off, we can feel it. The sluggishness, tiredness, slowness. Or the out-of-control hyperactivity of body or mind.

Today I planned my Summer Intensive to help people who have ADHD. It will run June 9 through August 2 and consists of 2-3 weekly lessons, totaling at least 18 for the summer. The idea is that with this intense work, a child will be set up for a more productive school year. Here's the web link for more information. Contact me to get the process started. So what happens in a session? The short answer is "lots of movement!". The long answer . . . building timing building coo