[Music] [Music] thank you it was the spring of 2016 and my future as a professional bass player was in jeopardy after weeks of rigorous practice in preparation for a couple auditions that had opened up in South Florida I began feeling pain in my left arm and even a loss of feeling in the fingers of my left hand I had been playing professionally for many years and yet had never experienced an issue quite like this before so I took some time off and attempted to play it again however my symptoms quickly returned could this be tendonitis carpal tunnel why need surgery or an injection to fix this problem then I had a thought how would surgery help me in the future sure it might provide relief now but what about down the road I needed to get to the root of the problem and the problem was being caused by something that I was doing enter the Alexander Technique I had heard about the Alexander Technique for some time but had never really experienced it before so I went to the library and I took out a book indirect procedures the author was adamant from the beginning that the best way to learn and experience the technique was through lessons with a trained teacher not just from reading a book so I went online and I searched Alexander Technique South Florida my search connected me with a teacher right down the road in Boca Raton and a few days later I had my first lesson it all started in the early 1890s when Australian actor Frederick Matthias Alexander developed vocal problems that led to hoarseness on stage and threatened his career doctors and vocal coaches were of no help so Alexander in a stroke of genius sought to examine himself with mirror to study what he was doing to cause his problems Alexander observed that he had a tendency to pull his head back and down before he spoke he became aware that when he inhibited this habit and instead allowed his head or rather directed his head to move forward and up so that it was resting on the top of his spine he could do anything without hurting himself whether it be walking talking sitting standing you name it in the process of saving his career Alexander developed a technique that he would teach to others in England and the United States that would later grow into a network of teachers worldwide so Alexander's most important discovery or one of his most important discoveries has to do with this question right here and when I had my early lessons I discovered the answer this question was a very profound thing so I'm gonna ask you that where does your head connect to your body there's a relationship between our head and our neck that Alexander discovered is very important so in a moment I'm gonna ask you all to close your eyes and with your fingers on either sides of your head to point where you believe your head and your neck meet okay go ahead close your eyes and where does your head connect to your body go ahead and open your eyes right here this is your op sip Atal joint to feel this go ahead and take your fingers and put them inside the holes of your ears and imagine that as though there's a little axle running through your skull there experiment with moving from this joint nod yes and no and I wonder I ask you what do you notice about this is this how you normally use your head Alexander discovered there is a crucial relationship between our head and our neck that creates changes throughout our entire body he dubbed this relationship our primary control from here the rest of our body is able to organize itself and allow for easy and fluid movement and anything we do compromising your primary control can lead to negative effects throughout your entire body take a look at the effects of text neck this has been in modern times has been increasingly reported on in the media this is the if this is how much weight your neck has to carry depending on the angle of your head none of us in this room would walk around with a 60 pound weight on our head all day yet we allow our daily lives to get in the way of our primary control and the effects of a positive primary control are is just as profound as the effects of a negative primary control so more about this relationship in a bit but while I'd like to chat about now is our kinesthetic sense it's the way in which we can learn to undo movement hat patterns and thought patterns that are not serving us we're not given a manual at birth of how our bodies work and most of us are generally born into the same body yet we're not given any training on really how to use it properly the Alexander Technique is a process that teaches us to use our bodies and how to think in our bodies and learn to let go of unhelpful movement patterns and thought patterns that aren't serving us and allow for the possibility of more healthy and coordinated movement in anything we do and the things that we do don't just have to do with what we do physically if this includes our mentality about these activities that we do our thinking about around them the emotional quality that these actions and things that we do and how they affect our bodies what we do with Alexander is we use our sixth sense believe it or not folks there's a sixth sense out there it's called proprioception this is scientifically proven you can google it and proprioception otherwise known as our kinesthetic sense is the body's ability to sense its muscles in movement and in position by coming by becoming aware of what we are doing we can help bring about positive changes in our use so what is this Cameron's probably thinking really kinesthetic sense I have no idea what you're talking about go ahead and close your eyes and take your fingers and touch them to your nose you can even try and make it difficult for yourself you know trace a crazy line and and still yet you still manage to touch your nose every time without the aid of your sense of sight you do this because your sense of your kinesthetic sense or proprioception allows you to sense your muscles where they are and you know you can almost see your hand even though your eyes are closed so in Alexander it's all about tapping into our sixth sense our kinesthetic sense so before I finish today I'd love for us all to share a kinesthetic moment together so if you would sit up toward the edge of your chairs those of you looking on at home you can do this as well so toward the edge of your chairs and just breathe remember that's a process that we do all the time we breathe and just become aware of where you are what you see what do you hear what you smell now we're gonna dig a little deeper and dive into our kinesthetic sense become aware of your right arm sense it in position and together let's all slowly raise our arm into the air and as you do this pay attention to the sensation of bringing your arm into the air as you reach the top you can then slowly bring it back down again and again pay attention to sense the sensation of your arm moving compare your right side and your left side what do you notice which arm would you rather have and if you feel like doing it on the left side as well go for it which arm would you rather be using during the day we often tend to lead very unconscious lives stuck in our heads or in our phones Alexander teaches us to become more present in our lives he teaches us that everything is connected in an organised whole I've learned that the issues I was experiencing with my left arm we're not separate from the rest of my body if I wanted to bring about positive changes in my use I had to work on my whole self not just my left arm what has resulted and since like taking lessons two years ago has been number one a saving of my career but also a new path in life one that acknowledges that there is a well-defined way to do everything and that the way you do anything is the way you do everything thank you [Applause]