According to ExpertVillage: “Cassie Naumann developed the styles of Lyenger, Ashtanga, Viny, and Hatha Yoga.”
Wow! One girl did all that? Sweet!
Cassie is adorable! She’s so fun to write about. Man, at times like this I wish I was not a member of the Alexander Technique teaching priesthood. Then I could really write what I wanted and not care about how my words reflected on my profession. I could just pour out my heart. I could be free. I could soar like a bird on the wings of desire. I could shoot like a rocket into the ozone of purple prose. I could explode my feelings all over my blog like a Fourth of July firecracker.
Anyway, I could watch Cassie Naumann all day and nod my head at her every point because of the pretty way she says things. Yet, because I am a devoted servant of the truth, I must reluctantly disagree with some of her postural prescriptions.
How I long to have coffee with her and discuss some of these weighty issues at greater depth. And to teach her Alexander Technique? That would be very heaven!
Cassie talks about stretching at the office and how this will improve posture. But nobody can stretch for long. To stretch, you normally have to use intention and when that intention goes away, so does the stretch and any postural benefit.
It’s hard to stretch and to work at the same time.
I admit that I stretch myself morally all the time to reach for the supernal gates of righteousness, but that’s a matter for another blog post.
Cassie talks about keeping your hips directly over your shoulders. Normally confined to the rigors of Talmudic thinking, my mind boggles at this image. I’ve not seen many office workers performing such gymnastics on the job.
If she means you should keep your shoulders over your hips, then that is going to lead to increased body tension as you try to align yourself. And the harder you try to align yourself, the more body tension you’ll develop, which will lead to deformed posture in the long run (even if in the short run, it makes you straighter and taller).
Cassie says “you should make sure your legs are at 90 degrees” when you’re sitting down. Again, trying to get yourself in some particular alignment will lead to fixing and tensing and tightening, which will further degrade your posture (as the primary cause of bad posture in my view is unnecessary body tension).
Ms. Naumann advises that your chair be at the right height so that you are not too low or too high. Hmm. As long as your feet can reach the ground comfortably and your hips are not below your knees, I’m not sure there is any right height for your chair.
Cassie says: “You want to keep your pelvis tucked in and your abs pulled in.”
Well, try that. It feels yucky. It constricts your breathing and your freedom of movement by increasing your body tension and compression. In the short term, it appears to improve your posture. In the long term, it makes it worse.
While viewing my first Cassie Naumann video brought on feelings of infatuation, even though I had no idea of her religious beliefs, watching this next neck stretch video propelled me into the murky deep waters of true love.
Cassie is hypnotic. I don’t believe her neck stretch video will do anything for your posture, but its very existence strengthens my belief in an all-powerful, all-beneficent deity running the universe.
