“Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges”; A Book Review by Diana McCullough

Amy Cuddy splashed onto the popular culture scene in 2012 when she was featured as a TED Talk lecturer. A Harvard Business School professor and psychologist, Cuddy advocates changing the way we use our bodies, which in turn changes the way we are thinking, feeling, and acting. With Harvard colleagues, Cuddy designed a series of experiments to answer this question: If nonverbal expressions of power are hardwired, and our emotions are as much a result as they are a cause of our physical expressions, then what would happen if we adopt expansive postures even when we are feeling powerless? Results from their first experiment suggested that, indeed, the body shapes the mind. Changes to a subsequent experiment measured not only the subjects’ self-reported feelings and willingness to take risks, but also measured hormonal changes. Subjects employing a Power Pose (feet apart, hands on hips, head up, eye gaze out) had increased testosterone (the assertiveness hormone), while cortisol (the stress hormone) decreased. Decades ago Frederick Matthias Alexander pre-figured Cuddy’s present day … Continue reading

Keep the Channel Open: An actor’s experience with The Alexander Technique

I have always enjoyed this quote from one of America’s most influential dancers and choreographers, Martha Graham. I believe it speaks to the spirit of all artists by encouraging us not to judge or edit our creative impulses but rather allow the art to flow through us, through our whole self, through our instrument. … Continue reading

13 Ways of Looking at Constructive Rest

Submitted by Ben Flanders http://spontaneouscoordination.drupalgardens.com/blog —  With apologies to Wallace Stevens. If you haven’t read his poem “Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird” go and do that right now. He makes ya think… http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174503 —  Constructive rest is not one thing. It can be different things to different people, and it can be different things to the same person on different days (or times of day, or moods or…well you get the idea.) Here are my humble thoughts on just a few ways to practice constructive rest. 1. Progressive Relaxation: start with the muscles around the eyes and the face, work your way down. Go as deep or shallow as you like. 2. Coordinated Breathing: rest one hand on your chest and one on your belly, notice where you tend to expand, and play with letting the movement of the breathing flow throughout your whole torso  (or chest, or ribs, or hips…) 3. Nap: Sometimes we’re just fried. Take a nap on the floor or a mat for 20 minutes. Set … Continue reading