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Switch Off to show you care about Climate Change
27 March 8.30pm

Challenge your habits and turn off all electrics that are not essential for one hour. No lights, no TV, no music, no computer.... Have fun and create a different sort of evening for yourself, along with hundreds of people around the world that are joining this WWF campaign. Draw attention to the issues involved with adapting to climate change and think about what life may be like without our familiar appliances available to us if there are power shortages in the future.

So why am I mentioning this here on my Alexander Technique Blog?

I aim to run my Alexander Technique teaching practise in an environmentally aware way and work towards being as energy efficient as I can, so this falls naturally into my field of awareness.

Also, in Alexander lessons, we are always learning how to let go of habits that don't serve us and in many ways we all need to do exactly this - let go of many of our habits - in order to reduce our carbon footprints and energy consumption. How often do we leave the tap running, the lights on, or the the TV constantly on, just by habit, even though we are not even using them? What a waste of these valuable resources!

We can inhibit, stop these habits and make simple but important changes in our lives that will help conserve  our fragile environment.

As the WWF says - Be Bright, Turn Off the Light!

Further info about WWF Earth Hour:

http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/about_earth_hour/

Alexander Technique Workshop 20 March

I am pleased to say the fees and donations from this Workshop totalled  £150, all of which was donated  to the UNICEF Haiti Earthquake Children's Emergency Appeal

The workshop fees were added to by Gift Aid.

Haiti was decimated by the recent earthquake and it is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, so every pound donated for the Workshop, went towards UNICEF's ongoing recovery programme in Haiti.

Saturday 20th March ~10.00am - 12.30pm

A Half Price follow-up lesson was available to participants

Dilys Carrington, one of the senior teachers of the Alexander Technique who had lessons and had trained with F M Alexander himself, died peacefully at her home on the 22nd September 2009.

Dilys Jones was born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire and later read Mathematics and Psychology at the University of London. For a short period, she was F M Alexander's secretary at Ashley Place, where Alexander ran his teacher training course and his private teaching practice. Later, Dilys worked as secretary at the Physical Society.

Dilys began taking lessons with FM Alexander in 1938. In 1940 she married Walter Carrington who had graduated from Alexander's Teacher Training Course in 1939. They had three children.

Dilys also started to train as a teacher with F M Alexander, shortly before his death in 1955. She then completed her training with Walter Carrington. Together, they developed and ran the Constructive Teaching Centre, which is still running today and is the oldest Alexander Technique Teacher Training Course.

Throughout her teaching career, Dilys was an active and influential member of STAT, the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique and was a member of the STAT Council for a number of years.

Dilys Carrington will be missed by many people.

Dates for your diary

Please note that Hilary King will not be teaching in Stoke Newington

Friday 19th June - Monday 13th July

ICE (In Case of Emergency)

This is not about the Alexander Technique but is an idea that all of us would be wise to take note of and act upon.

The ambulance service is promoting the ICE ( In Case of Emergency ) campaign.

ICE was conceived by a paramedic, who realised that in an emergency he usually had access to a patient's mobile phone but had no idea which people in the phone's address book would be the ones he needed to contact.

The paramedic realised that it would be good if there was a nationally recognised scheme set up, which the emergency services could use to contact next of kin and other appropriate people quickly, so he created ICE (In Case of Emergency). 

He proposed that we should all list our important contact names under ICE in our mobiles. If there's more than one contact, just list them as ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc. 

It's a really simple idea to implement and could perhaps save lives and reduce distress, so find your mobile and enter your nearest and dearest under ICE, now.

For further info visit BBC NEWS ICE CAMPAIGN - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4746789.stm

There will be a free 3 day interactive festival, to launch The Big Draw 2008, at the Wellcome Trust's exhibition 'Skeletons: London's Buried Bones' .

You can join leading artists and scientists who will be drawing, studying and reflecting on the skeletons, examining what it means to be human. the programme is packed full with numerous performances, workshops and talks on topics such as art and the brain, bodymaps, cartoons....

If you are interested in the Alexander Technique, then you are likely to be interested in finding out more about how your body works - how well do you understand your own mind and body? This is a chance to take a close-up look at ourselves in a wonderfully creative way.

Enjoy the event - it sounds fascinating and fun!

Venue: Wellcome Trust, Euston Road

Date:    26-28 September

Free

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/events/The-Big-Draw-2008-National-Launch/index.htm

'Skeletons - London's Buried Bones'

If you are interested in how your body works plus how your posture, the way you use yourself and live your life, can leave it's mark on the structure of your bones, you may want to visit the              'Skeletons: London's Buried Bones' Exhibition that has just opened at the Wellcome Collection.

The skeletons on display are from the Museum of London's collection of 17,000 skeletons that have come from people who lived and worked in the London area over the last 16 centuries.

This exhibition looks at the events and health hazards of the day, that affected people's lives and their skeletons. There will also be a day of activities for all ages and a public debate about why the dead are useful to study.

Perhaps seeing the wear and tear on all those bones, may encourage us to be more aware of our own body use, right now, so that we change some of our unhelpful and even damaging habits and learn to do as much as possible to look after our own skeletons!
 
Venue: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road

Date:   23 July - 28 September

Info:     http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/exhibitions/skeletons/index.htm




  

The revised date for introducing the new Match Day Parking Scheme is August 2008

Please note there will be new parking regulations for Zone M. Saturday afternoons will be free parking whilst on weekdays, permits are only required until 5.30 each evening.


CPZ times for Zone M:

Monday - Friday ~ 8.30 am - 5.30 pm
Saturdays          ~  8.30 am - 1.30 pm


Arsenal Match Days:

Weekdays          ~ 5.30 pm - 8.30 pm
Saturdays          ~ 1.30 pm - 4.30 pm
Sun/Bank Hols.  ~ 12 noon - 4.30 pm


Please check out Arsenal Home Match dates, before you park, particularly if you are attending an Alexander Technique Course or Workshop at the weekend.

Look out for Boundary Signs as you enter the area, as these will show the next match dates, a couple of days in advance.  You can also visit www.arsenal.com for fixture dates.

Of course, you can always help the environment and leave your car at home.......

Ellen Graubart a local artist who, incidentally, is familiar with the Alexander Technique, held a solo exhibition which was well worth going to see. You can read about Graubart and see some of her work if you visit the URL below. I'll let the photos of the paintings speak for themselves but will add that they are even better in reality. It was an exciting and vibrant exhibition.

 Art exhibitions are a time when many people end up with back ache, because they are standing for long periods without being aware of the way they are using their bodies. Looking up above eye level to see a painting, without awareness, can contribute to the problem if we contract our neck and the muscles in our lower back. This can create problems such as a hollow back, putting pressure onto the lumbar vertebrae and discs, which causes discomfort and even back pain.

So take yourself to art exhibitions and remember all you have learned in Alexander lessons; be aware of your use, look after your neck and back so that you remain freely poised and pain-free.



Sailing 2 - Ellen Graubart



http://www.millineryworks.co.uk/

Do you want to know more about the process of climate change, written in easy to understand language? The BBC have created some graphics, based on scientific research, that do just that.

Compare the levels of climate change it's predicted we'll create through our present greedy consumption of fossil fuels, with the lower levels we could bring about with more sustainable lifestyles: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/climate.stm

In the Alexander Technique we aim to improve our individual use and the means-whereby we gain our own immediate, personal ends, so that we look after our health and wellbeing. This attitude of mind can be expanded, to develop awareness of our use in relation to the world's shrinking resources and of our impact on the environment.

In order to gain the end that most of us agree that we want, ie a world in which we do not contribute to global warming, we need to address our increasing mis-use of these natural resources. The means-whereby most of us are living now, seems to be having a negative impact on the environment. We can all make conscious choices to live more sustainably, inhibit our unthinking and wasteful habits and bring about changes to improve the situation.

For ideas about how you can make positive changes and live more sustainably, visit: http://www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/