The Alexander Technique walked into my life on a hike with a long time friend in 1999. Hiking behind my Jim, I noticed something new about him. He seemed to be gliding along and much less slumped than usual. I thought to myself, “I wonder what is going on with Jim? Did he finally find the woman of his dreams? Is he in love?” Curiosity got the best of me, so I finally asked him, “What’s with the pep in your step?” He responded, “I think that it is my Alexander Lessons.” Not knowing anything about them, I thought if they can add this type of quality to hiking then I would like to try them out too. Having had sciatica for two and a half years at that point, I was in definite need of more ease in my movement. I had tried everything that I knew via the Olympic ski team sports medicine group which included physical therapists, massage specialists, various machines, mobilization specialists, pain killers and cortisone injections, but my pain persisted. The next week I decided to try The Alexander Technique and learned something that absolutely no one else was offering. I learned what I was doing that was causing the pain. I was compressing and putting unnecessary muscle tension into play which irritated the sciatic nerve and caused nearly constant pain. I learned how to release the emergency alert muscle brakes of the body and have been pain free ever since. Releasing 2 and ½ years of pain in two weeks was a powerful lesson for me.

I had been a high school teacher until this point and decided that I wanted to change careers and teach The Alexander Technique to educate others on form, function and flow of human efficiency. Thus, I began my training with The Performance School of Seattle, and decided that I would like to teach people who are choosing to learn and engage with life versus those forced into a mandatory system. As the training began, I became fascinated by the variations in teaching styles as well as the learning process. Thus, I began to delve into the fine art of noticing the delicate differences and decided to open myself to further learning opportunities by taking additional lessons and workshops. This led me near and far across the United States and into Europe.

As I traveled the distances and went through various discoveries there were definitely moments of great question in my mind. The Alexander principles were part of everything and many times it seemed easier to skip certain aspects like analyzing the conditions present and just cut to the chase of end-gaining. Surprisingly to me, I noticed this most in my closest relationships with family and friends. For me, it was much easier to apply the Alexander principles to less familiar people versus long time habit formed relationships with closer individuals. Another break through came when I started to be more present in the moment and allow for the intricacies of the relationships to unfold rather than simply projecting past histories or forcing my habitual patterns of communicating. Choosing finer quality in movements finally connected into finer qualities in my personal and professional relationships. My efficiency evolved. I learned that the Alexander Technique is about choosing to engage or not engage and allowing space to open, expand and share support in the life process.

As I allowed more connection in my life and enjoyed exploring the aspects of quality I decided that I would like to apply the Alexander principles to running a marathon, as a bit of a moving dissertation to my nearly 4 year Alexander training. This was inspired by attendance at several holiday parties in December 2002, where my husband and his colleagues shared a plethora of “war stories” from running the Honolulu Marathon. The theme was that running a marathon is a masochistic ritual which requires an immense amount of training and effort. Having run track and cross country in high school, I did not have much distance built up, but thought to myself, it is really not about the distance as much as the awareness of the quality of motion while running. Thus, I decided to run The San Diego Marathon in January 2003 only a few weeks later. When I signed up I had to choose a time frame in which I thought I might finish to be placed in the starting line up. Having run a bit with my husband, I thought that I might complete it like he had, in around five hours. So I began the race with the only real clear intention being that I would just continue to analyze the conditions present as I ran and include directions modifying efficiency accordingly. As I ran, I found myself completely surprised by the whole presence of the race. I enjoyed observing all the people in motion and myself in relation to them. At mile twenty two a spectator shouted at me and said, “Come on, your supposed to look like you just ran 22 miles.” I thought to myself, “What does that look like?” and continued with my awareness and direction in my form, function and flow. Before I knew it, I was approaching the finish line and noticed my husband amongst the spectators with his camera in hand for that final moment. He was in complete shock though as he saw me and looked at his watch, “How could Christie be here in just over four hours?” He wasn’t expecting me for another hour or so. In that moment, he was so excited that the thought of taking a picture passed while I crossed the finish line. Human efficiency prevailed. I learned that a marathon did not have to be about exhausting effort. Paying attention to the means whereby worked beautifully. I was hooked on the Alexander Technique process.

Now, as I share with others the art of human efficiency with the Alexander Technique, I allow myself more efficient options and get consistently delighted by finer qualities in motion. This led me to explore the golfing machine with Cary Schoen. The combination creates an extraordinarily fine tuned opportunity in human motion. I am ever thankful to have these tools in my life. Helping executives and performers mitigate stage fright, seniors and surfers improve balance, gardeners and golfers improve range of motion, pregnant women and their partners expand their comfort, and riders and runners release muscle tension keeps me completely inspired. My biggest satisfaction in teaching is when students start the noticing process, release their brakes and start experiencing their true freedom in form, function and flow…

 

Contact Christie:

FormFunctionFlow@gmail.com

M: 951.312.2188