Welcome To Alexander Technique NYC!
Sun, 8/08/10 – 15:57 | No Comment

Mark Josefsberg- Nationally Certified Alexander Technique Teacher offering Alexander Technique lessons in New York City. Fix your posture, reduce your back pain, neck pain, stress and more with the Alexander Technique.
For locations and fees please see the ‘FAQ’s’ page (on top.)

“With good humor, specificity, and charm, Mark makes a challenging technique accessible and fun!” -Kyra Sedgwick

“I really enjoyed our Alexander Technique sessions, learned a lot, felt lighter, more balanced and my neck pain is better. You have a true healing presence and great knowledge and skill.”
-Martin Ehrlich M.D., M.P.H. Medical Director, Beth Israel Continuum Center for Health and Healing.

To schedule a session call Mark: (917) 709-4648 or email: Mark@MarkJosefsberg.com

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Alexander Technique

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Incorporating The Alexander Technique
Mon, 23/08/10 – 6:20 | One Comment

picture-6“How can I incorporate the Alexander Technique into my life?” I hear this question, and versions of it, frequently at Alexander Technique lessons. It’s really a great question and gets to the heart of the matter of the benefits of the Alexander Technique.

The Alexander Technique is done as you think about it. If you’re thinking about the principles of the Alexander Technique, you’re doing the technique, or you’re practicing the technique, or you’re performing the technique, or you’re applying the technique, or you’re incorporating the Alexander Technique into your life.

As an Alexander Technique teacher I emphasize awareness of initiating movement; how you start actions like moving your hands, initiating walking, or how you start to pivot in a chair by using your hip joints. So, one way of incorporating the Alexander Technique is to give attention how you begin something. If your good use starts to deteriorate after a few hours, or a few minutes, or a few seconds, that’s alright. It’s a beginning. It’s improvement. If you’re sitting at your desk ready to begin computer work, take an extra few seconds to think about and apply some Alexander Technique principles, for instance: free your neck, let your head rotate forward and up, allow your sit bones to release down into the chair etc. Think of lifting your fingertips (using your neck, shoulders and upper arms minimally) and lightly place them on the keyboard. Don’t concern yourself with trying to do it right, because the Alexander Technique doesn’t work that way; and trying to be perfect might tighten your jaw and tense your neck.

Also, during the course of the day, there’s always time to take small breaks, even 15 seconds or less. This is a time to regroup, and incorporate the Alexander Technique again.

Another way to incorporate the Alexander Technique into your life is by applying it to simple activities you do every day, such as brushing your teeth, like the cat in the picture. My guess is that you brush you teeth while standing. Think of your feet flat on the floor, 50-50 left and right, 50-50 front and back. Let your knees be unlocked and soft.  Again, neck free, head forward and up, using only as much muscular effort as needed to raise the tooth brush, which weighs approximately… nothing. How little of your shoulder muscles need to be involved? How little arm can you use? Notice your breathing. Is it restricted or full? Notice how you brush your hair, if you’ve got some…

Reading about the technique can be very useful in utilizing the technique more frequently. I list some of my favorite Alexander Technique books here. You could also receive short posts via email when you join my enewsletter.

Additionally, there is a thin line, or no line, between when you’re doing the Alexander Technique and when you’re not. Just the simple act of being aware of your breathing, for instance, can change things for the better. Being aware of breathing usually allows it to be slower and fuller. At that moment of change, you’re employing some aspects of the technique.

There will be times when you put the Alexander Technique in the front of your consciousness; during your Alexander Technique lesson for instance. As you get more used to applying the principles when you’re giving them your full attention, they will start to be applied, to some degree, when you’re giving them less than your full attention. The Alexander Technique starts seeping into your life, possibly at moments you least expect it.

Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC

Mark@MarkJosefsberg.com

Call Mark@ 269-POSTURE

or 917.709.4648

Alexander Technique-Allow Your Neck To Be Free
Wed, 4/08/10 – 18:46 | No Comment
Alexander Technique-Allow Your Neck To Be Free

In teaching the Alexander Technique here in NYC, I often use the words ‘let’ and ‘allow’, as in ‘allow’ your neck to be free or ‘let’ your head lead your spine into length. During Alexander Technique lessons I might say ‘allow’ your entire ribcage to contract and expand as you breathe and ‘allow’ your sit bones to release down into the chair. ‘Let’ your torso gently spiral as you walk, ‘allow’ your jaw to release, and countless other examples of allowing… letting…
If we need to allow things to happen, it stands to reason that we unconsciously disallow them from happening…

Alexander Technique Back Pain, Neck Pain.
Tue, 20/07/10 – 16:02 | No Comment
Alexander Technique Back Pain, Neck Pain.

The Alexander Technique can have a huge, positive impact on pain, and I know this from personal experience. The Alexander Technique got me out of the severe neck pain I was in, and now I see the same results over and over as I teach Alexander Technique lessons in NYC to people suffering from back pain, neck and shoulder pain, hand pain. We don’t realize that we’re causing our own pain by the way we use our bodies (poor posture, added stress). The good news is that the Alexander Technique shows us a way out from this pain. It puts us back in control…

Alexander Technique Posture Directions
Sat, 10/07/10 – 15:25 | No Comment
Alexander Technique Posture Directions

Alexander Technique Directions
I wish to free my neck … so that
My head can move forward and up…so that
My torso can lengthen and widen and…
My legs can move away from my torso and…
My shoulders can release out the sides.
Alexander Technique directions act as verbal, or neuro-linguistc cues. They tell us where we want to go, which is often upward, outward, into expansion. Up, down, and out. Head up, feet or sit bones down, shoulders out, legs away…

Correct Posture and Choice
Sun, 27/06/10 – 7:23 | One Comment
Correct Posture and Choice

“A correct position or posture indicates a fixed position, and a person held to a fixed position cannot grow, as we understand growth. The correct position today cannot be the correct position a week later for any person who is advancing in the work of reeducation and coordination.

F.M. Alexander- Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual

During Alexander Technique lessons, people frequently sit up straight or move their head around and ask: is this right?” I answer differently in different situations, but the real answer might be: No. I don’t say that because the…

Over Learning The Alexander Technique
Thu, 17/06/10 – 3:17 | No Comment
Over Learning The Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique has been described as a reeducation technique or psycho-physical reeducation. It is also a technique to be overlearned, and not only because you learn it over other things (bad habits of either movement or stillness), but when it comes to the Alexander Technique we need to be overeducated; we need to overlearn it so that we can use it under duress, much like a musician practices over and over to be able to execute music under stress…

Alexander Technique Slumping, Shlumping
Thu, 3/06/10 – 23:51 | 2 Comments
Alexander Technique Slumping, Shlumping

On my subway ride to teach some Alexander Technique lessons at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in Mahattan, I noticed a man who could not have been more stooped over. As an Alexander Technique teacher I was particularly aware of how he was seated, reading the paper, his head not very far from his knees. His face was quite tense, and had a scowl I suspected was habitual. He seemed to ‘have the weight of the world on his shoulders…

Your Back Pain Is Killing Me! Alexander Technique.
Sat, 15/05/10 – 17:09 | 3 Comments
Your Back Pain Is Killing Me! Alexander Technique.

…the Alexander Technique ‘inhabits’ your body through the cultivation of awareness. We realize, through Alexander Technique lessons, that we have control over this tension. I didn’t know that I had control over my overly-tensed painful neck until I started working with an Alexander Technique teacher. I just thought: my neck is tense and it hurts. I didn’t know…

Alexander Technique Posture Habits
Tue, 30/03/10 – 18:18 | No Comment
Alexander Technique Posture Habits

Many Alexander Technique teachers are slumpers, or former slumpers. My name is Mark and I’m a slumper. Slumping was my habit before I became an Alexander Technique teacher, and it will be my habit forever. Although …

How Not to Improve Posture
Fri, 19/02/10 – 5:10 | 2 Comments
How Not to Improve Posture

The Alexander Technique offers a different kind of posture training, a different kind of posture.You can apply the Alexander Technique to any situation. You can be more easeful, with less tension and compression. You will look like you have better posture.

Alexander Technique and Posture
Fri, 12/02/10 – 3:31 | One Comment
Alexander Technique and Posture

One of the problems of trying to achieve ‘good posture’, or ‘perfect posture’ is that these terms imply rigidity. Some Alexander Technique teachers attempt to avoid the word posture altogether, calling it the ‘P’ word.
One could learn to have ‘good posture’ in a few minutes, especially if you think of military posture. Military posture is standing up as straight as possible, with your stomach in, chest out, chin tucked in, shoulders back…