Tara's Blog

Welcome to my random thoughts, musings and observations.  

Your comments or complaints are welcome at tara@tara-sullivan.com

 

January 23, 2012

Mom and Baby yoga- starting February 1st

September 15, 2011

Looking forward to the next round of Alexander Technique classes for mothers... we'll get started October 3.  Interested?  Drop me a line, or give a call.  Come learn practical, effective tools to feel and function better that will support all facets of your life, not just time with your baby.

September 1, 2011

Happy back-to-school, everyone... I always love this time of year.  Perhaps it's just conditioning but I always feel this is a good time to start things, even though the days are growing shorter and gradually cooler.  I'm happy to be starting up a new Alexander Technique class as well as adding two more yoga classes to my schedule.

New Alexander Technique for Moms class series starting up on September 12. 
Five Mondays from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
September 12
September 19
September 26
October 3
October 10

at Square One Yoga in Emeryville.

Starting September 6, I'll also be teaching two more yoga classes at Square One on Tuesday evenings: prenatal at 5:30 and gentle at 7pm.  Those are in addition to my other prenatal yoga classes,  mom and baby postnatal yoga, and Jivamukti on Saturday (to balance out the slow and easy vibe!).

Hope to see you there!

August 11, 2011

August 10, 2011

May 14, 2011

Hey Mamas:

Check out a new offering... coming up soon, just over a week away!

The Alexander Technique for Mothers

Reconnect with your body after birth and be with your baby without back pain.

Learn practical, awareness-based self-care tools to make your life easier and more comfortable.  The physical demands of pregnancy and childbirth combined with the rigors of new motherhood can add up to a host of imbalances, weaknesses, aches and pains.  All these factors at once make it easy for counterproductive habits to set in and for the smallest daily tasks to become uncomfortable or even cause injury.  Neck and back pain, arm, shoulder and wrist trouble, sacrum, hip and pelvis aches in some combination all seem to be part of the package that comes with a bundle of joy.

The Alexander Technique is a century-old method that teaches us how to let go of unconscious habits in order for innate coordination to emerge.  Learning to use yourself - your body and the mental processes that direct it - in a more conscious way creates a sense of ease, order, and effortlessness that is available to everyone.  Hands-on work corrects distortions and gently leads you out of your ingrained habits so that something new and unconditioned can arise.

In this introduction we will look at the challenges associated with:

nursing and bottle feeding
picking up and holding your baby
using baby carriers and slings
dealing with sleeplessness and stress

Communicate ease to your baby rather than discomfort.  Baby can sense what is going on in your body and in fact learns it.  You can transmit calm instead of overwhelm as you avoid establishing poor postural and movement habits.

Monday, May 23
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Email tara@tara-sullivan.com to register or just turn up!
$20 (suggested donation)
Berkeley Yoga Center
1250 Addison Street
You are welcome to attend with or without your baby.  You may like to bring your baby carrier and your nursing pillow (if applicable) to do some practical work.

Contact instructor Tara Sullivan at (646) 393-6696 or get more information at www.tara-sullivan.com.

9 April, 2010

I'm excited to be teaching two new Jivamukti Yoga classes in the East Bay... yes, I have relocated!  Watch out for more updates to my website *soon*.  Until then, you can find me:

Wednesdays 6-7 p.m.
Saturdays 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.

(UPDATE! October 2010: Dear Yogis, the Yoga program at Common Circle is no longer running...so I'm leaving this entry but letting you know there is no more class, sadly... why not come on over for an Alexander lesson and we'll rock some asana too?)

Common Circle Education
2130 Center Street
Berkeley, CA

Classes are all by donation; Common Circle is a cash-free studio, so don't forget to bring your plastic.

Check out their website and photos of the beautiful studio at www.commoncircle.org

3 July, 2009

I've just come back today from an Eyebody retreat with Peter Grunwald - good stuff.  This vision work has been a big part of my life for many years and I am ever fascinated with its depth and beauty.  Peter is applying the Alexander Technique principles to the process of seeing and envisioning.  Working with Peter connects me deeply, consistently, and easily with my Self in perpetually new and interesting ways.  I'm very interested in the vibratory potential of my inner workings - receiving all the various sensory inputs of life without stiffening or hardening in response. 

Here's an interesting little piece that was on NPR talking about the Alexander Technique: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105931606&sc  A shout-out to Judy Feldman for sharing it with me.

17 June, 2009

After a long hiatus from blogging, I’m going to attempt to get back on this particular horse...

Lots of movement of various sorts since my last posting!  The most recent news is that I’ve completed the month-long Jivamukti Yoga teacher training, which was quite an experience.  Sharon Gannon and David Life are extraordinary teachers with an incredible amount of depth and understanding.  I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with them.

I’m in Woodstock, New York, for the summer and will be teaching Alexander lessons both here and in New York City.  I will be presenting an introduction to the Alexander Technique at Sage (www.sagehealingcenter.org) here in Woodstock on Saturday, July 18^th.  If you’re interested in the work but not ready to commit to a series of lessons, this would be a perfect opportunity to dip your toes in and find out what it’s all about.

11 August, 2008

I meant it when I wrote it, but a quiet, productive August in Auckland was not meant to be.  For a myriad of reasons, it became clear in early July that I needed to head back to the USA to study with Sharon Gannon and David Life at their annual Wild Woodstock Intensive.  Lots of visualizing and many emails later, I now find myself spending three hours a day on my mat, cheek to jowl with about 40 other yogis, experiencing the in-depth encouraging, cajoling, exhorting, joking, singing, chortling, and occasional ranting and raving of two true revolutionaries.  I feel every day here that I am part of a very special experience.

One of my stated intentions when I embarked on this journey was further to explore the intersection of the Alexander Technique and Yoga.  I have my own experience of this that has revealed itself over the years, but aside from communicating my observations and thoughts to my students in the ordinary course of teaching, I have not accumulated those ideas in any kind of recognizable way.  So I would like to start doing so very simply.

Yesterday, David Life asked us all to sit up for meditation in a way that made us like antennae, ready to receive or to align ourselves with – and these are almost but perhaps not quite his exact words – the cosmic transmission.  In both the Alexander Technique and Yoga, the word “alignment” is thrown around a lot.  I have come to avoid the word, as for me it has taken on a two-dimensional quality.  But now I am re-framing the concept.  With what am I aligning?  For what purpose shall I align?  Two possibilities present: I can be aligned with the cosmic forces of the universe and thereby allow things to flow into and through me.  I can also be aligned with my own true nature. 

These two possibilities will sound pretty out there to many people.  But the experience of feeling “out of alignment” will surely resonate – whether it means your back feels strange and crooked or whether you just don’t feel connected with your environment and the people in it.  I believe that the first experience has everything to do with the second.  When I am connected within myself and feeling aligned, I will be able to be present with the flow of everyday life regardless of what it brings.  We seem to have within us a shock-absorbing function that, when functioning well, enables the bumps and blows of life to pass through us without having to rattle our very being.  Being aligned within myself does in fact create an inherent sense of ease and well being, laying the foundation for those qualities to extend into the world.  The Alexander Technique exists for exactly this purpose.  

4 July, 2008

I’ve been out of the country 13 times so far this year.  I had to get additional pages put in my passport, which I freely admit was oddly exciting.  But I digress.  I want to share an overview of my travel experiences partly to explain the conspicuous gap in my entries here and partly because I wish to share a bit of what I’ve been doing abroad.

 

I’ve just returned from New York, where I was part of the annual East Coast Eyebody retreat workshop, and in May I was at the same event in Guerneville, CA.  The California retreat was imbued with the unique and special allure of Guerneville (those who know Guerneville will understand) while the East Coast retreat was again in Western New Jersey at the phenomenal home of a dear friend and colleague.  The Eyebody work is as juicy and tenderizing as ever, and I, as usual, left feeling like I had shed several layers of something.  Incidentally, I’m currently editing the second edition of Peter’s book, Eyebody, which should be out in mid-August (if I stop blogging and start editing).  That project should keep me out of trouble for the next few weeks.

 

After the Eyebody retreat I was fortunate to get to join Jivamukti Yoga co-creators David Life and Sharon Gannon at a weekend retreat in the Catskills.  The location was gorgeous and I made some special connections there.  It was great to get an injection of Jivamukti beyond the daily classes I take when I visit NYC and, of course, inspiring to be with Sharon and David.  There is nothing like Jivamukti in New Zealand. 

 

Since leaving New York, I have been so missing yoga classes that earlier this year I completed Samadhi Yoga’s teacher training in Sydney.  I chose Samadhi because the director and a few of the teachers there are Jivamukti-trained, and I am consistently impressed that Sharon and David seem to turn out the highest quality teachers.  The course was “deliberately eclectic” and I both learned a lot and connected with many like-minded yogis from across the ditch.  As a result, you can catch me teaching yoga at The Yoga Ground on Thursday nights www.yogaground.co.nz.

 

For many years now I’ve followed the New York musician’s schedule and spent August in Europe, but this year I’m staying put to enjoy the New Zealand winter.  I plan to take advantage of the short and rainy days by growing my Alexander teaching practice, developing some collaborative projects, and perhaps finding new opportunities to teach the Alexander Technique within my community.

 

On the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, I sat next to a nice young man, a medical student from New York on his way to Sydney to visit friends.  As we chatted he shared that he was in fact a Juilliard-trained singer and brightened when he heard that I was an Alexander teacher!  In New York I always enjoyed the experience of people smiling upon finding out that I am an Alexander teacher, but in New Zealand that seldom happens.  Alexander lessons can be such a delightful and profound experience that there’s no missing the light that switches on in those who have had a taste.

 

6 March, 2008

Here’s an interesting article that reminds me of some of my own experiences with the Alexander Technique. 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12mimic.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

 

Years ago, I took a year-long group class in the Alexander Technique.  Some classes my teacher would put her hands on me and help me to alter my coordination for the better.  With the lightest touch and a few words she would somehow get me to let go of overworking muscles that I didn’t even know existed and find a state of equilibrium.  I experienced that as some sort of miracle.  I didn’t understand exactly what was happening at the time, but I knew it helped me to feel better, think more clearly, feel more emotionally balanced, and somehow feel like I was plugged in. 

 

So, all of that may sounds strange to anyone who hasn’t had an Alexander lesson (and strangely familiar to those who have), but experiences more or less like mine are a hallmark of the Alexander Technique.  But what the above article reminds me of is perhaps even stranger: even in classes when my teacher didn’t put her hands on me, my back pain would ease and I would feel lighter and easier just from being in the room.  On days when time didn’t allow for all of us to work with her directly I still left class feeling better, clearer, lighter than when I arrived.  For years this puzzled me. 

 

I know now that how I am affects my students nearly as much as what I do.  At the university where I used to teach, my students would regularly tell me that they would feel gradually easier and more comfortable in themselves right from the beginning of our lesson while we talked about reading assignments or attended to scheduling issues.  We are picking up all sorts of information about each other’s internal state all the time, whether we are aware of it or not and when I consciously use myself well that will influence those around me. 

 

So this NY Times article is talking largely about obvious external movements, but the same goes for our internal state.  Everyone has experienced being around someone confused or angry and becoming confused or angry themselves.  Being around stressed-out people tends to stress us out.  However, we can engage our brains and stick to our own sensibility rather than just being mindlessly dragged into the coordination of those we encounter.  That way I can choose to accept the uplifting of my teacher while consciously declining to be pulled down by those who would unwittingly do so - and in my choosing, each of us can benefit.

 

26 February, 2008

Alicia, we don't even have to speak.  Just email me.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=264&objectid=10494293

 

12 February, 2008

 

An open letter to Alicia Keys, after watching the Grammy’s

 

http://www.tara-sullivan.com/l?lnum=56807

 

Alicia Keys, Alicia Keys, you are so talented Alicia Keys.  You’re beautiful, you’re musical, you play piano and I really like that, Alicia, since most of your young, torch-song singing colleagues aren’t necessarily musicians.  You, you’ve got something different.  You’ve got a different sensibility, and I like it.  I like your style.

 

And that, Alicia Keys, is why I am worried about you.  You looked beautiful at the Grammy’s (wow, what a gown, huh?), and you really pulled off that cheesy number with Frank – well done, by the way, you really sold it to me and I’m not usually into things like that – but I can hear the strain in your voice, Alicia.  When the camera showed you from the side, oh, Alicia, that’s when I really started to worry.  At the beginning it was just you pulling your head back and down, which really you don’t want to do if you want to have a voice left in a few more years, but by the end the muscles in your neck were popping out and you were absolutely squeezing the air out, weren’t you Alicia?  I mean, when you pull your whole torso downwards as you sing a phrase I can only assume you’re working it, girl, to get that sound out by any means necessary.  You know what I mean.

 

Maybe secretly you’re relieved to be called out.  Maybe you’d like some help, some support?  I’m here for you, Alicia Keys.  I know it’s hard, you’re so successful and so young and so talented, and everyone just assumes you must know what you’re doing.  Otherwise, how would you get such a great gig at the Grammy’s?  But maybe it’s time to pursue a bit of professional development, Alicia.  You just say the word and I’m there.  We’ll have a few weeks of lessons and you’ll be on the path to a lifetime of strain-free singing.  Cuz I couldn’t help but notice that by the second song you sang you were sounding like you needed a rest.  A long rest.  So whaddya say?  Can we work together, Alicia?

 

 

11 February, 2008

 

I have been thinking about stress lately, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.  Stress sometimes seems to be the primary theme of modern life – how to avoid it, how to deal with it, how to mitigate it, what effects it has on our well-being, and the rest.  It seems to me lately that there are two types of stress: the regular, day-to-day stress of life and sudden, crisis-type stress.  Neither is enjoyable.  Both are inevitable.

 

Since moving from Manhattan, I have to admit that the amount of day-to-day stress I encounter has dropped at least 90 percent.  The noise, the crowds, the traffic, the hassle, and the extremes of temperature (which cause one to be extremely hot or extremely cold at some point nearly every day of the year) are not to be found in Auckland.  Although my New Yorker friends may snicker, there are stressors here and I can imagine that Aucklanders who haven’t endured life in a Big City experience even more of them than I do. 

 

One source of stress in my life, for example, is that I frequently get lost while driving, often to time-sensitive appointments, and it can be quite stressful.  When I use the Alexander Technique in such situations, I am able to stay present with myself, rather than completely losing it.  We are often unaware of the habitual reactions we have to stress – like stiffening or contracting – and by becoming aware of a reaction we can choose whether to react in that way or not.  If I start to stiffen my neck and restrict my breathing not only will it not help me find my way but it will ensure that I arrive in a terrible state.  By choosing not to react I can both help myself in the stressful moment and ensure that I don’t have to recover later.

 

It is by reacting counter-productively to the everyday stresses of life that we create strain.  I mean everyday events like getting lost or stuck in traffic, only the way we react matters.  I think of the long, congested commutes I used to have to Long Island University three days a week.  Sharing the ride with colleagues, it was always interesting to see how different people reacted to the same traffic; some were utterly circumspect and took advantage of the time in the car to chat and enjoy while others experienced the crawling highway as the seventh circle of hell and chose to spend the time railing against it.  I will freely admit that at different times I made different choices – and as a result experienced not only the ride itself but the rest of my day as either more delightful or less.

 

The crisis-type stress is a very different challenge, it seems to me.  When we have a shock of some sort, some sort of bad news, or a frightening life event, almost by definition we lose our orientation.  I’ve just been musing about ways to handle this – is it possible to lessen the effect the shock has on us by practicing being connected to ourselves while life is easy?  If we’re generally centered in life, will a blow knock us off center a bit less?  Or is the only possibility to wait until the shock has ended and then re-orient from there?  Are there ways to practice being buoyant and therefore more shock-resistant?  Or is the crisis-type stress actually the same as the daily stress, only exponentially more potent?  Maybe ordinary day-to-day stress is a practice run for the big things?  I think the Alexander Technique does in fact prepare the mind and body to handle crisis and that it enables us to heal faster and more completely.  It occurs to me that being mentally and physically strong and flexible and having a means-whereby to go through life could only help in times of crisis. 

 

 

3 January, 2008

 

I really enjoy going to natural history museums.  At the Museum of Natural History in New York I was fascinated by an exhibit last year in which they made a walking dinosaur skeleton.  The researchers had determined the muscular structure of the animal based on what they knew – its skeleton, something about the environment in which it lived, what it probably ate - and out of that made a clever model of how this dinosaur would have moved.  Seeing it move definitely made dinosaurs seem more real to me.

 

I was at Auckland Museum this week, where they have a wonderful display of native bird skeletons.  In New Zealand, because there are no natural predators, there has evolved an amazing array of flightless birds, both in existence and extinct.  Part of what I love about seeing the skeletons of birds and dinosaurs is the similarity – birds are often considered to be the closest relatives to dinosaurs. 

 

My study of anatomy is a big help when I’m looking at skeletons.  We are all amazingly similar – bird, dinosaur, human, whatever – in terms of our bone structures.  What I know about human structure and function informs my understanding of the other skeletons I look at.  For example, it’s fascinating to see the variation in pelvic bones and what that means in terms of uprightness and how a creature would be oriented in the world.  I’ve also noted the similarities in chimpanzee and monkey scapulae to human ones and seen how, to my eyes, anyway, it’s only the muscular development that makes us well-suited to swinging from trees or not.

 

I’m intrigued that animals never seem to use themselves inefficiently.  I’ve never seen an awkward animal, or, as some people would say, an animal with bad posture.  So many humans, on the other hand, move in such inefficient and counterproductive ways and thus cause themselves an inordinate amount of suffering, pain, disease, and difficulty.

 

My understanding is that only humans have a neocortex, the “higher” part of the brain that processes conscious thought and reason.  As an Alexander teacher, I know that it is possible to use our human ability to consciously think and reason to think our way out of the counterproductive habits that cause so many of our problems.  I wonder whether animals don’t appear to suffer from use-related problems because they lack neocortexes.  Interesting that possibly what makes us humans different from other creatures also causes much of our suffering.  I guess the good news is that the same tool can either get us into trouble or get us out.  As my friend Michael says, “We’re either digging the hole or digging our way out of the hole.”

 

 

 

6 December, 2007

Here’s an interesting article about the latest in medical vocal chord procedures.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/health/04voca.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

The vocal cords, of course, and the rest of the vocal mechanism, are completely dependent on how we are using the rest of ourselves.  To put it very plainly: what I do with my whole body, every part, affects how my voice functions.  This includes how I stand, how I sit, how I walk, how I breathe, even how I chew and swallow.

 

It’s interesting to me that modern medicine finds ways to treat symptoms for which a cause hasn’t always been established.  In the instance in this article that didn’t involve surgery side-effects, my guess would be that the doctors looked only at the vocal cords themselves in their hunt for a cause – in fact, that has been my experience in years of both being a singer and working with singers.  If they back up a bit and look at the whole person the cause might be evident.

 

Try this: as you sit in front of the computer, tense up your neck, shoulders, arms, then speak, or sing something.  Now stop tensing up and speak or sing again – notice the difference in the sound and feel of your voice.  This is an exceedingly simplistic example of the “indirect” ways that we affect our voices.  (The quotes are because, as you’ve just experienced, the effect is actually very direct.  But usually we don’t think that our arms could possibly have anything to do with the voice, right?)

 

The first person mentioned in this article suffered from a slipped disc – more on that another day.  But am compelled to say that his slipped disc being, “a result, most likely, of hauling 75-pound bags of equipment for a youth baseball league,” reminds me of the importance of learning how to use ourselves constructively.

29 November, 2007
Here in the Southern Hemisphere the end of the school year is approaching and therefore the beginning of summer vacation, and in both hemispheres the holiday season is upon us.  I heard a piece on the radio the other day about how students can best prepare for their exams.  The basic suggestions were the old chestnuts to take it easy, study methodically, get enough rest and take care of yourself in the days before the exam.  This sounds very similar to the advice dispensed annually about how best to “survive” the holidays, although it seems that this time of year is when we are all least likely to take care of ourselves but instead focus on doing things and, well, surviving.

My friend Sean was telling me the other day how, when he was driving an airport limousine service, he arrived at his Alexander Technique class totally fixated on whether his phone was about to ring with another job.  He apologized to the teacher, telling her, “I’m sorry, I can’t really be attentive to the class because I’m concerned about getting a call to go pick someone up.”  But as they talked about it, he realized that the situation he found himself in was a perfect opportunity to apply what he was learning: to be present with whatever is, and to exercise his ability to choose his response, rather than react mindlessly. 

 I am reminded of F.M. Alexander’s ideas about not end-gaining and having a means-whereby.  Rather than fixating on the end result, which will get you nowhere, a constructive approach involves making a plan and completing the steps one after another.  More important still is the quality of thinking and being that goes into the process.  This, I believe, is learning to live consciously, rather than just survive.