How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery

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.

I highly recommend "How You Stand. . ." for anyone interested in learning about the mind-body connection. Whether this is your first introduction to the Alexander Technique, you have taken lessons or you are an experienced Alexander Technique teacher, this book will help you further understand the fascinating link between how you think and how you live. The book is clear and descriptive, offering interesting neurological data, personal stories and numerous "do-it yourself" activities that help the reader begin (or continue) their journey of learning. It is a book to read again and again!

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.

This book came with some very high recommendations so on the one hand I was filled with a certain expectation but on the other I was a little apprehensive as often highly recommended things can end up being very disappointing. However, this book turned out to be even better than I had expected and I am thoroughly enjoying reading it. It is well thought out and easy to read, with self-observational-experiments that are enlightening and practical. The book is particularly useful for those who are already having Alexander Technique lessons as well as for those who are thinking about starting. There is no better place to start a journey of self-discovery than this book. If you have an interest in the Alexander Technique, then this is the book for you.

Clear, readable, enjoyable. This is something rare - a textbook that is hard to put down. Full of helpful drawings, personal stories. I liked it.