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N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique Teacher - Health
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No more "auto pilot": Using Alexander Technique for Mindful Movement — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
No more "auto pilot": Using Alexander Technique for Mindful Movement I remembered reading about John Pepper , who consciously retrained his movements to overcome foot drag and tremor, and became curious about how his conscious attending to his walking, typically an unconscious and habit
Self-Care: It Feels Good and It’s Good For You! — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
I was working with a client who had originally come to study with me years ago to help her with her singing. She recently returned to lessons, this time to manage a diagnosis of bursitis in her hip joint. No longer working in music, she was now in the world of Not-For-Profits and business. She’d ha
Alexander jargon: using language in a non-habitual way — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
There are many folks who are critical of the jargon* we use in the Alexander Technique. I understand their point. Semantics (the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning) can muddy communication. Our terminology can be confusing, de-legitimizing, off putting and inaccessible. However,
From May 2006: The Alexander Technique is a vital tool for managing your stress — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
I wrote this post for National Stress Awareness Month in May of 2006. I imagine many of your are experiencing stress. The Alexander Technique is a vital tool in managing your stress. Here are the top three physical symptoms of stress, cited from this website in May 2006 : sleep disturbances
The Hidden Treasures I Found by Living The Alexander Technique — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
I was initially drawn to the Alexander Technique because of my hope of having a life in the performing arts. I wanted to be a performer, but I didn’t think I had a stand out level of talent, and I didn’t want to risk living my life forever unfulfilled. I knew the Alexander Technique was part of many
Training Teachers: Lesson/Session - The continuum of Alexander Technique — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Training Teachers: Lesson/Session - The continuum of Alexander Technique One hallmark of the Alexander Technique is that it is educational. People who study will be learning independent skills that they can use any time, any where. Autonomy and self-directed mastery are a main goal of the work. The method is a set of principles that inform skills of self-regulation, decision making and problem solving.
"I don't have time": Adapting to your student’s learning style — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
"I don't have time": Adapting to your student’s learning style "I need results. Tell me what to do." When I began my career as a new Alexander Teacher, this question used to throw me for a loop. The Alexander Technique is about doing less. It's about learning to pause, taking a thorough inventory of what you are actually doing, and finding a way to accomplish the same things in a more efficient way. It takes time to learn (hours, weeks, months, years, depending on how deeply you learn). And it takes time to apply the skills you develop (half a minute, seconds, mere moments.)
Awareness: A blessing and a curse — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Awareness: A blessing and a curse There is a saying: The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. Studying the Alexander Technique is an invitation to discover you may be doing things you aren’t aware of. Much of what is taught and learned begins with physical action. However, all of our actions and perceptions, whether intellectual, emotional or physical (or a combination of all) can be brought to a higher level of awareness and can become more accurate, including our perception of the world around us.
Resilience in the face of Change — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Resilience in the face of Change I have all this time on my hands, and I am just frittering it away. I feel like I can’t motivate myself to do anything. What’s going on? What is that familiar feeling? Something feels surreal, something feels ominous and yet in this moment, I am OK. Oh, wait. I think I’ve been here before. Today is March 17, 2020. Here in NYC we are all asked to practice physical distancing to slow down the spread of Covid-19.
Sherlock Holmes? Not quite, but Alexander teachers do detective work. — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Sherlock Holmes? Not quite, but Alexander teachers do detective work. In a recent video session with a colleague, we debriefed a series of three lessons she taught to a new student. It was hard to tell whether she was pleased overall, or disappointed. The student has a pain condition, and reported different degrees of change, relief and comfort at all three lessons. So I started asking her questions. Lots of questions. And since we were separated by distance, I had to rely more on dialogue than I might if we were together and I could see more details about her expressions and my hands could supplement that information with what I could feel.
Step 1: Exploring F. M. Alexander's 5-Step process — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Step 1: Exploring F. M. Alexander's 5-Step process “Inhibit any immediate response to the stimulus…” For our purposes, you can choose any activity you like. Alexander was particularly focused on speech and oration, his profession. He was suffering from chronic hoarseness which put his livelihood at risk. He began his exploration to solve problems with speaking, thus his stimulus was “to speak a certain sentence”.
Step 4 and 5: F. M. Alexander's 5-Step Process — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
STEP 4 and STEP 5 There are some subtle distinctions within Step 4, which leads into Step 5. What does it mean to make a fresh decisions even if you end up carrying out your original action? This is more about your attitude and how it will influence your physicality, than it is about discrete motor action. In steps 1 through 3, you have taken the time to allow a deeply ingrained pattern of action to pause and recede; and you have promoted a more refined, poised, efficient state of being. We typically assess the quality of balance, posture and movement to recognize the new, more beneficial set up. Now, you are reintroducing the original activity, minus the full impact of your habit. You may do ultimately perform the original task but you will do it differently.
Step 3: F. M. Alexander's 5-Step Process — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Step 3: F. M. Alexander's 5-Step Process "continue to project these directions until I believed I was sufficiently au fait with them to employ them for the purpose of gaining my end" Step 3 arose from Alexander's observation that as soon as he turned his efforts to his original task, the changes from step 2 evaporated and he performed the task in the same habitual way. This step is about shifting priorities. From a nervous system point of view, the original pattern to perform the task was triggered just by thinking about it. When I think about lifting my arm, neurotransmitters begin to signal certain muscles to contract, others to release. It's like a custom, shortcut program in my "movement software". Hit the "lift arm button" and the complex sequence starts to happen.
Seeking Enlightenment?: The Alexander Technique may help you get there, faster — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Seeking Enlightenment?: The Alexander Technique may help you get there, faster Many years ago, I was teaching a first lesson to a young woman. Her first statement was “I am an Evangelical Christian.” Her first question was “Does the Alexander Technique promote any religious or spiritual ideology that will conflict with my beliefs?” I told her no, because the Alexander Technique is not a philosophy or a religion. It fails a key element of cults, in that Alexander Technique promotes the individual learning a process for assessing and revising belief systems through self-exploration. F. M. Alexander implored the teachers he trained to teach and innovate based on their own lived experience, not to copy him.
Anatomy of the head and top of the spine — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Anatomy of the head and top of the spine In this video blog, I show you where the head rests on the top of the spine. Having a more detailed understanding can facilitate your self-work and what you are exploring in lessons with your teacher. I am currently offering video sessions until it is safe for us to meet in person.
How are you doing?: Looking at how Allostatic Overload is Impacting Our Well-being — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
How are you doing?: Looking at how Allostatic Overload is Impacting Our Well-being When I began my Alexander Technique teaching practice in 1989, my focus was on performing artists and helping people improve their posture and live with less pain. Fast forward to 2020, when the Covid-19 Pandemic upended a way of life, and - perhaps for the first time- people who historically weren't so vulnerable to the ebbs and flows of resources and economies, found themselves part of the global trauma.
Language matters: defining terms — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Language matters: defining terms was working with a colleague who has been teaching over video. She said one her students didn’t know what she was asking when she said “Release.” Release seems like a straight forward and simple word, but in our work as Alexander Teachers, it has layers of meaning. The dictionary.com definitions of “release” that are most applicable to Alexander Technique are: Verb (used with object), release, released, releasing: to free from confinement, bondage, obligation, pain, etc. to free from anything that restrains, fastens, etc.
The Power of a Hug: Why Alexander hands-on work may be good for your health — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
The Power of a Hug: Why Alexander hands-on work may be good for your health I ran into a college classmate the other day, who I had not seen in close to 40 years, although we “see” each other on Facebook. She lives in another state, so it was an extreme coincidence that she was crossing a busy intersection in Manhattan just as I was crossing the other direction. We both went in for a mutual embrace in the middle of the crosswalk, at which point I joined her to double back and walk a bit, so we could catch up. We were not that close during my short time at the same college, and don’t know each other that well, but I know she is a kind-hearted, loving person and the immediate availability, as well as the warmth of her embrace definitely lifted my mood.
Step 2: Exploring F. M. Alexander's 5-Step Process — N. Brooke Lieb, Alexander Technique & Crystal Healing
Step 2: Exploring F. M. Alexander's 5-Step Process "Project in their sequence the directions for the primary control which I had reasoned out as being best for the purpose of bringing about the new and improved use of myself..." Alexander applied this to speaking, I will continue to apply this to reaching to lift my cup. You can apply this to any activity you choose. In practice, this part is the same regardless of your stimulus, although you may develop your own specific directions that assist with particular activities. For instance, I think more detailed directions when I am preparing for a fine motor task, like typing, than I do when I am walking.