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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Vineyard, founder and director of the Alexander Technique School of New England, presents a thorough introduction and guide to the posture and movement method that's been used for more than a century to improve performance, reduce chronic pain and heal injuries. In this volume, "the first authoritative, comprehensive and all-new guide" to the technique in 20 years, Vineyard shows readers how understanding and improving habits of movement like "head-neck coordination" and even sitting "help you achieve self-mastery," here defined as the "self-understanding" and "bodily control" needed to "identify and release our harmful reactions to pain, fear, and anxiety." The upshot: a healthier, more resilient mind and body. Through numerous case studies and a handful of exercises, Vineyard teaches self-awareness and the primary Alexander Technique skills: conscious inhibition-"quieting your inner conversation"-and "directing," a heightened sense of space and the body's place in it. Vineyard details the internal processes which govern movement, and the factors that lead to "maladaptive change in muscle activity"; she also has tips for troubleshooting common problems like pain and weakness. Those already familiar with the Alexander Technique or other mind-body methods will get the most out of this book, though newcomers will find it a sound introduction; unfortunately, all readers will lose patience with Vineyard's case study overkill.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
The Alexander Technique (AT) is a remarkably simple but powerful method for learning to skillfully control how your brain and body interact, allowing you to better coordinate your movements while increasing the accuracy of your mind’s thoughts and perceptions. Now, in How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live, leading Alexander Technique master teacher Missy Vineyard sheds a completely fresh light on this revolutionary method and, in the process, offers path-breaking insight into the mind-body connection. Vineyard thoroughly explains and teaches the central skills of the AT through simple self-experiments, and she offers engaging stories of students in their lessons to show its effective application across a range of disciplines, including the performing arts, athletics, health, psychology, and education. How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live introduces us to a world within ourselves that we know surprisingly little about--and thereby helps us to understand why we often cannot do what we should be able to do, why we harm ourselves with chronic tension and anxiety, and why our thoughts often seem beyond our control. Vineyard is also the first AT teacher to draw on cutting-edge research in neuroscience and to synthesize those findings with AT theories and techniques. She fully illuminates the benefits to be reaped by mastery of the Alexander Technique, which include: Release from acute or chronic physical pain Enhanced mental attention and focus Reduced anxiety Improved balance and coordination Relief from tension and stress Increased ease and efficiency performing precise movement skills
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I really love this book,
By
This review is from: How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery (Paperback)
My wife told me many times in the past that my way of walking looks strange. When I asked her why she could not tell me.Using the described method of "Conscious Inhibition" I told myself "I am not walking" when I was walking. When I was doing that something really strange happened. My shoulders dropped and relaxed and somehow my legs were swinging much more from the knees than before. This spontaneous new way of walking is so much more effortless than my stiff legged habitual way of walking. Why I was walking so stiff legged previously was unknown to me and that an other way of walking existed never entered my mind. Exited about the effects of "Conscious Inhibition" I was using it next in my yoga practice. When I was practicing forward bending I told myself "I am not forward bending". Again something strange happened. My lower back softened up and I effortlessly obtained a deeper stretch than ever before. And best of all it did not feel like I was stretching instead it felt I was simply moving slowly and freely. I am exited about Alexander Technique and will continue to explore it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews) 74 of 76 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh and Comprehensive,
By Clifford M. Taylor - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery (Paperback)
As a long term student of the Alexander Technique I have read all of F.M. Alexander's books and innumerable contemporary texts on the subject. This book is a refreshing approach even for the skilled teacher or student. The book is a meaty 322 pages and yet the chapters are short enough to maintain interest and they often segue into the next chapter subject. Although the experiential quality of the Alexander Technique is impossible to adequately define, Missy Vineyard does a superb job describing what it is about and how it works. She does this by imparting her own experience, the latest findings related to neuroscience, and with stories about the challenges and successes of her students. Naturally she elaborates on the principles of inhibition and direction, but she also presents several unique and useful approaches. Missy explains the effectiveness of the prone position and how, unlike semi-supine, it is not weight-bearing on the spine. She describes how we can become trapped in habitual experiences that are injurious and establishes four sensory error categories. She talks about how to avoid triggering the four expressions of fear produced by the amygdala in the brain - attack, withdraw, freeze, and submit. Missy spends considerable effort clarifying the mysterious aspect of the principle of non-doing. She effectively communicates just how to think of not doing something while you are doing it in order to alter the faulty behavioral loop that keeps one tense without knowing it. She elucidates an idea of the "Helper" inside us that can take over after we get out of our own way and quit end-gaining.Perhaps most innovative of all, Missy shares her concept of how to use the prefrontal cortex, or the "attic" as she calls it. She submits that this place is like an observation deck from which inhibition and direction can be most effective. From the attic one can send an "output" thought signal that is directive in nature instead of relying on an "input" feeling signal from the body after it has already occurred. To direct, we should send a signal (a thought) rather than focus attention on a result (a feeling). Missy elaborates on how to distinguish between deciding to do an action versus framing an intention to move in one's mind. She coins the term "bodily sensation" as an inclusive definition for kinesthesia, proprioception, and interoception. She suggests modifying F.M. Alexander's initial direction of, "Let the neck be free ..." to "I want NOT to tighten my neck ..." claiming that it is more effective to begin with a self-instruction that is inhibitory. In addition, the book includes some easy-to-follow self-experiments to practice inhibiting and directing and some wonderful neck and back extender muscle exercises. Throughout the book there is an occasional word here and there that is bolded and can be looked up in a handy glossary in the back. There is also a nifty index. 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
How You Stand Is A Good Intro to the Alexander Technique,
By Heidi Schuller - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery (Paperback)
As a student of the Alexander technique, I highly recommend this new book on the subject. There are many excellent, detailed illustrations that make this book user friendly and a stand out among books on this topic. Also, there are plenty of self-experiments suggested throughout the book that make it a fine book for beginning students as well as a great review for experienced students.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book on the technique I have read,
By Nazir Dossani - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery (Paperback)
I was introduced to the Alexander technique by a friend about 15 years ago following a car injury in which I suffered a herniated disc, severe pain in the arm and significant loss of muscle strength. I contemplated surgery which most of the doctors were recommending but decided to opt for less intrusive approaches including physical therapy and lessons in the Alexander technique.Over the last 15 years I have had numerous lessons and profited immensely from the wisdom of two highly talented instructors. I have also read about a dozen books. This one is the most practical and clearly written one. The author communicates effectively by using lots of real life examples and suggests exercises which, while time consuming, are extremely useful. Like other teachers she makes it clear that the technique is not a substitute for medical advice. But my own experience suggests that it can complement such advice along with other approaches including meditation, tai chi, yoga and others. In that sense the basic tools--inhibition, direction, lengthening of back and neck--can form the core of a holistic approach that can include many of these other approaches. There is nothing in the technique that conflicts with any of these. Indeed most of the ideas, once explained by a good teacher seem to be just applied common sense. The trick, of course, is in disciplining yourself to practice and training the mind to affect the body before it gets stiff and makes you uncomfortable. This book is the perfect handbook to help anyone who has some basic knowledge of the Technique become much more effective in using it. Ideally, it should be accompanied by occasional lessons from a skilled instructor |
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