Form Function Flow Blog

She took what?  She took Alexander Technique Lessons.  The Alexander Technique allows one to walk with grace, dance with fluidity, speak with confidence and clarity, stand without slumping and feel comfortable on stage.  The bridal stage is BIG!  The Alexander Technique teaches you how to respond versus react. Yes, it is not called the biggest day of your life for no reason.  The pressure builds.  You’ve seen the movies, heard the stories and witnessed the bridezilla effects.  You say, well that’s not me.  I have no tendencies towards the bridezilla sorts. 

How about a small test?  Read here:  Optimizing Wedding Poise

Seriously wishing you all the best in this exciting new chapter of your life! 

Christie Johnson
Internationally Certified Alexander Technique Teacher
Optimizing Personal and Professional PerformanceFree Your Flow… www.FormFunctionFlow.com

Hats off to Obama for posting new fuel efficiency and emission standards for cars and trucks! This has been long awaited.  It makes sense. It offers improved performance and more attention to design to gain better efficiency; thus saving us more dollars and cents while helping the earth too.

I was particularly intrigued observing all the car companies enthusiasm around the announcement. Media.Ford.com says http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=27455  “Ford Motor Company is introducing a new engine technology called EcoBoost that will deliver up to 20 percent better fuel economy on half a million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles annually in North America during the next five years.” They also stated, “Direct injection coupled with turbocharging allows for the downsizing of engines that deliver improved torque and performance.”

Sign me up for better efficiency, improved torque and performance.  Can we get that for humans too?  Ah yes, that is right - there is such a thing.  It is the The Alexander Technique.  The first graduate of the Alexander Technique Marjorie Barstow, said that “The Alexander Technique is the conservation of energy for human beings.” 

Would you like to know how to conserve your energy as a human?  Think of the possibilities if you could move with less stress and wear and tear on your body.  Think Human Boost going Forward and Up with more ease and better performance.  What’s good for the auto industry in new efficiency standards can be applied to humans. Click and read this article to find out more:  Human Fuel Efficiency

BTW, I am willing to head to Washington if Obama would like to have me teach the Alexander Technique to the House and Senate to help with their human fuel efficiency in getting all the work done.  

Christie Johnson
Internationally Certified Alexander Technique Teacher
Optimizing Personal and Professional Performance  — Free Your Flow… www.FormFunctionFlow.com

In the 72 year research of 268 Harvard men there was one key point that prevailed beyond all else. Relationships matter more than anything else.  In the article “What Makes Us Happy?” in the June 2009 Atlantic Monthly, Joshua Wolf Shenk, delves through the decades of research by George Vaillant, of what happens in tracking these men for life. Reaction formation – “responding to anxiety with an opposite tendency” was a theme.  Valliant goes on to state “reaction formation allows us to care for someone else when we wish to be cared for ourselves.” But being on the defense in intimate relationships, “rarely leads to happiness for either party.”As an Alexander Technique teacher I tend to think of all things in relationship.  For me I began to understand the Technique, which is the study of human reaction to stimuli, when I applied it to my closest relationships.  I began to observe that in trying to care for someone else, I would tend to tighten my neck muscles, pulling my head back and down while shortening my entire body.  This caused me more harm than good.  When I started noticing the pattern I could choose to keep tightening or to release my neck muscles to allow my head to go forward and up versus back and down. In observing and choosing not to tighten I actually began to communicate more clearly with those dearest to me.  Responding was the new choice versus reacting. My relationships became easier; I was not on the defense.What would happen if we started a new longitudinal study teaching people some primary principles of responding versus reacting within relationships?  Would more people live with no regrets?  Would there be fewer arguments?  Could this be applied to world relationships?  I’d love to hear your thoughts…