Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1. The basics of fundamental movement.

Chapter 1. Introduction, aims, and a tropical tale.

Chapter 2. Movement is the fundamental property of life

Chapter 3. The fundamentals of structure.

Chapter 4. The fundamentals of awareness and thinking.

Chapter 5. The autonomic nervous system (ANS). Why we need to work from quiet presence.

Chapter 6. Finding the intrinsic movements of natural breathing and walking, with Central Pattern Generators (CPGs).

Part 2. Linking brain and body with explorations of physical integration

Chapter 7. The Initial Alexander technique, and a new model of postural alignment.

Chapter 8. Single leg balance.

Chapter 9. Spatial relationships and use of the upper body and arms

Chapter 10. Toned sitting: integrating the core muscles.

Chapter 11. Walking as you've never walked before.

Chapter 12. Alexander's biomechanics for expansion of the upper body

Chapter 13. Elasticity and alignment with gravity in sit to stand.

Chapter 14. Freeing the neck, and Alexander's primary directions.

Part 3. Living in a flow of dynamic balance.

Chapter 15. catching a ball - inhibition in action

Chapter 16. New models of coordination and learning.

Chapter 17. Embodied speaking.

Chapter 18. Relating and attuning to people for putting hands on others.

About the Author

Penelope Easten was born in Wales, & studied Biological Sciences at Cambridge University, England. She abandoned a PhD to train in Alexander technique, qualifying in 1989. After training she studied with Miss Goldie, then 86, who stripped away everything she had learnt, and rebuilt it as she saw the technique should be. Since then, Penelope has sought to understand the differences of her approach, and the historical reasons for them. She has been teaching these differences to the Alexander profession internationally since 2004; her booklet "My lessons with Miss Goldie" has sold worldwide.

Penelope's first love was dance, and she is passionate about teaching people to move better in the activities in their lives, to rediscover ease and strength they thought they'd lost, and how to self-manage their physical problems. Having been twice disabled with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, much of her real learning has been through self-discovery, and teaching this is at the core of her work. She is always open to new methods and theories to weave into her work, and explores many avenues, such as vinni yoga, belly dance, chi gong, and natural vision improvement methods. In particular, she has studied Philip Shepherd's "The Embodied Present Process" and Jeando Masoero's Initial Alexander technique.

In her private practice now in the West of Ireland she works with individuals and groups, both with more classic Alexander work, and in activities such as playing music, housework, yoga, sport, or wearing heels! She plans to open a training course in 2021.

Contact Penelope through her website www.alexandertechniqueinfo.org