Alexander Technique teacher Sandra Bain Cushman focuses on mind-body disciplines.
In an interview with Robert Rickover, Sandra says: “Because it has been around so long and is so well developed, I see the Alexander Technique as the foremost method for mindfulness in the West. Alexander puts us in touch with our natural design, our natural coordination, and our natural expression. It’s a way of paying attention to oneself as you move around in life.”
“The first relation is between the legs and the torso. Rather than thinking of your legs as pillars that hold your weight, think of your legs releasing down and away from your torso while your head releases up. If the legs are stiff, you can only get the spine to free up so much because the legs are weighting it down or they are bracing.”
“For every personal trainer out there trying to get someone to strengthen their quads, there’s an Alexander teacher trying to get someone to release their quads. Quadricep strength is not the whole recipe for coordination of the body. It needs to fit into the coordination of the whole.”
“The second relation is that of the head to the pelvis. Your head counterbalances your pelvis and vice versa. When you see the neck free, head forward and up and a little forward nod of the head. In opposition to the head is the pelvis, which tends towards the reverse nod. When we hold the pelvis rigid, we hollow the back and get a duck’s back.”
“Many people don’t sit on their pelvis, but on their lower backs. Hence, they get lower back pain. They’re slumped and sitting on the base of the spine.”
“The ribs have 80 movable structures. There’s all this flexibility. Most of us hold the ribs rigid. We need to allow their natural width, length, and depth. The ribs hold your lungs and your heart and you would not want to be squeezing that. The breath is housed in the ribs. The ribs are the keystone dimension that keeps our body alive.”
Robert: “That’s how we get air in and out.”
Susan: “Relation number four is arms out and away. We’re hunched over steering wheels and computers. We have these weird repetitive motions we make all day and we tend to have our arms lead our coordination and we lose our backs. We lose the core. We lose the head balance because we’re reaching for things.”
“Can you let your body bend before you reach? To do that before you reach, instead of half-bending, reaching, torquing myself on the way to do something else. You may notice your arms are always out ahead of you. Why are you letting your arms pull you out of shape? If there’s something in the back seat of your car, turn your whole body and then reach.”
“The fifth relation is to free the neck and allow the head to release forward and up.”
“The head connects with the spine just below the eyes. Say the letter “K” and that’s where your head balances on your spine.
“If your conception of where things are differs from reality, what will win out in your use is your conception. That will inevitably put extra strain on yourself and muscular messages get scrambled.”
