Is Presence Hiding in Your Jaw? The Connection You Didn’t Know You Blocked | Tommy Thompson Class 32
❝ Where do you speak from when you really want to be heard? ❞
Is it memory? Habit? Thought? Or can you meet someone from right here, right now—with the whole of your being?
On December 5, 2024, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Tommy Thompson led a class in the Alexander Technique teacher training course that was anything but ordinary. This class wasn’t about fixing bodies or correcting postures. It was about something deeper: the practice of Presence.
When Tommy teaches, he’s not just offering instruction. He brings himself, fully. And this class was a living exploration of how Presence isn’t just a concept.—it’s a way of being, a foundation for healing, connection, and real transformation.
Key Objectives of the Class:
- To cultivate speaking and acting from the present moment
- To rediscover the self through kinesthetic awareness and sensory experience
- To reframe healing as allowing, not fixing
- To explore how facial expressions, breath, and connection shape the body
This blog series is based on Tommy Thompson’s Alexander Technique classes. Each post follows the flow and insights of the class to expand both self-awareness and practical consciousness applicable to everyday life.
New here?
If you’re new to the Alexander Technique, you can start with the resources below.
Alexander Technique Class Flow at a Glance
1. The Opening Question
❝ Can you be with someone—truly with them—without leaving yourself behind? ❞
We think we’re listening.
We think we’re present.
But most of the time, we’re speaking from memory, responding from habit, or trying to get it “right.”
Tommy Thompson doesn’t teach from that place. He asks something radically different:
Can you speak, touch, and connect from the person you are in this exact moment—not the one you’ve rehearsed, protected, or projected?
In this Alexander Technique class, Tommy challenged trainees not to deliver knowledge, but to arrive as themselves. That’s where Presence begins—not as a technique, but as a lived truth.
Tommy’s Word
“You’re speaking from where you are, not from where you’ve been.”
To speak from where you are means no longer responding from past experiences or prepared scripts, but entering into relationship with your body and mind in this moment. That is the real beginning of Presence, and it is the true class Tommy aimed to share.
2. Core Learnings from This Class
In this moment from Tommy Thompson’s class, trainees explore how jaw tension affects breath and coordination. The work invites a subtle release through an inner smile and awareness.
Watch how softening the jaw allows the breath and spine to reorganize naturally.
Is Presence Hiding in Your Jaw? | Alexander TechniqueClass 32 · December 5, 2024 · Boston, MA
Core Concepts
- Presence precedes technique.
→ Before we teach, guide, or touch, we must arrive. In the Alexander Technique, being fully present is not preparation—it is the work itself. - Connection begins with attention, not action.
→ True touch isn’t mechanical. It’s a form of relationship. Tommy reminded us that when the hand moves with Presence, we’re not fixing—we’re meeting. - The face reflects the whole.
→ The habitual expressions we carry don’t just show what we feel—they shape how we move, breathe, and hurt. - Self-discovery requires disruption of the familiar.
→ Our most ingrained patterns are invisible to us until Presence reveals them. That’s why Alexander Technique asks us not just to notice movement, but to question identity through movement. - Healing happens when we stop trying to fix.
→ As Tommy says, “Give the organism a little bit of space… it starts to move the way it’s designed to move.” That shift—from control to allowance—is the beginning of wellness.
Five Key Messages
- Speak from where you are, not from where you’ve been.
→ Connection grows in the soil of real-time awareness. - We are not working on a shoulder—we are meeting a person.
→ In every touch, the whole self is present. - You are not your habit.
→ What feels “natural” may just be what’s familiar. - A quiet smile can unlock the jaw.
→ Subtle shifts in inner tone can lead to profound physical release. - Healing begins with attention, not correction.
→ The body responds to awareness more than to force.
Essential Terms
- Presence
A state of being in real-time awareness with oneself and others. Not a technique, but the condition in which technique becomes meaningful. - Connection
A relational state that emerges from mutual awareness. In Tommy’s teaching, connection happens when we meet the whole person through presence—not just their body. - Kinesthetic Sense
The internal sense of movement, position, and relational orientation—not through sight or sound, but through felt awareness. - Whispered ‘Ah’
A subtle yet profound Alexander Technique practice integrating breath, cranial nerves, facial softness, and internal release. - Habitual Patterning
Repetitive, unconscious ways of moving, responding, and holding the self—often mistaken for identity. - Touch
More than physical contact, it is a way of sensing and acknowledging presence. In Tommy’s words, “my hands connect with him, not on him.”
3. Tommy’s Insights
In Tommy’s words during class, there are not only the core principles of the Alexander Technique, but also practical wisdom that can be applied directly to daily life. His words go beyond simple advice about movement and prompt us to deeply consider how we choose to exist.“When you speak to them, you want to speak from where you are together. You’re speaking from where you are—not from where you’ve been.”
→ True communication in the Alexander Technique begins not from memory or explanation, but from a living awareness shared in real time.
“I’m not really working with his shoulders. I’m working with the person.”
→ This work is never about fixing parts; it’s about entering into relationship with the person as a whole embodied presence.
“It’s not just placement we’re working with… It’s more than placement—it’s connection.”
→ The hands may follow technique, but what heals and informs is the conscious quality of attention behind the touch.
“So for me, the work was about making peace with myself so that I could be at peace with myself and with others. That’s what I needed to do to make a more appropriate discovery about who Tommy was.”
→ In the Alexander process, transformation unfolds when one no longer tries to correct the self, but allows space for honest discovery.
“Kinesthesis is a sense perception that is proprioceptive… gives you information not about your environment, but about where you are in relationship to it.”
→ Kinesthetic awareness reveals internal organization—not as abstract theory, but as felt orientation within gravity and context.
“I ask them what their experience is. Not what they’re feeling, but what they’re experiencing, what they’re sensing—because feeling is a little bit subjective.”
→ Asking for sensory experience over emotional description grounds the learning in embodied reality rather than narrative.
“If you give the organism a little bit of space, a little bit of direction, it starts to move the way it’s designed to move.”
→ The nervous system reorganizes naturally when the interference of control is replaced by awareness and gentle invitation.
4. Practical Tips for Everyday Life
What’s the Goal?
To bring Presence into everyday life—so that movement, breath, and relationships become spaces of natural freedom.
This is not about controlling posture. It’s about restoring your ability to sense, respond, and relate.
How to Practice
- Soften the face.
Let the eyes and jaw release tension. Invite a subtle inner smile—not for others, but to change your inner tone. This shifts how you breathe and perceive. - Feel the ground.
Whether sitting, walking, or waiting—notice how your body meets the floor or chair. Don’t force grounding. Just let the contact register. - Speak from now.
Before responding, take a breath. Let your words come from how you are now—not from habit or performance.
What You’ll Notice
- Your jaw releases with ease.
- You listen more than react.
- Movement feels lighter, more intuitive.
- Conversations deepen.
- You stop fixing—and start sensing.
As Tommy says, “Give the organism a little bit of space… it starts to move the way it’s designed to move.”
That space starts not in the studio—but in your moment-to-moment awareness.
5. Closing the Class
Key Takeaways
- Presence is the condition for change.
When you begin from presence, every movement becomes a dialogue—not a correction. - You are not your habit.
What feels familiar isn’t always truthful. The body tells a more immediate story. - Healing doesn’t come from doing more—but from allowing more.
The more you allow space, the more your system reorients toward its natural design.
Core Insights
As Tommy reminded the class, “You’re not just applying a principle—you’re discovering how to live inside your own experience.”
This is the heart of the Alexander Technique: It’s not a posture method. It’s not about being right. It’s a process of realignment with how you were meant to be—before the layers of defense, habit, and control set in.
True wellness emerges not from control, but from permission.
Permission to feel. To sense. To be.
Tommy didn’t teach us how to “do” better.
He asked us to be with ourselves more honestly, so that we could meet others—not with instruction, but with presence.
A Final Invitation
In every class, Tommy teaches less about bodies and more about being. And perhaps that’s why it changes people.
So before you adjust your posture, change your breath, or help someone else—
ask the question again:
Where are you right now?
6. One Key Practice
Let your jaw release forward and down—from the temporomandibular joint—as you whisper “Ah.”
That’s it. No fixing. Begin with a quiet smile. Let the jaw drop by allowing, not effort. Whisper “Ah.” Let the air go. Let your lips close and the next breath come. Don’t try to change your body—notice how it responds when you stop managing it.
As Tommy says: “Once the smile is there, think of allowing the jaw to come forward and down. Then: whisper ‘Ah.’ When you run out of air, allow your mouth to close… Let the lips close naturally.”
7. Three Questions to Ask Yourself
- Where in my body do I feel most present right now?
→ Not what’s tense or painful—but what’s available. What part of me is already here? - Am I speaking from where I am—or from where I’ve been?
→ Before you explain, pause. Is your voice coming from your present experience or from habit? - What happens when I stop trying to fix something?
→ In this moment, without changing anything—what shifts when I just notice?
8. For Those Who Wish to Learn More
Recommended Book
Touching Presence: Reflections for Teachers and Students of the Alexander Technique – Tommy Thompson
This collection of reflections captures Tommy’s unique approach to the Alexander Technique: grounded in presence, relational by nature, and always embodied. More than a manual, it is a book you return to again and again—not to memorize, but to remember yourself. In these pages, Tommy doesn’t just teach theory; he shares how to meet another human being with attention, honesty, and space.
If this class helped you feel something real, this book will help you understand why.
Official Website of Tommy Thompson
www.easeofbeing.com
This is the official website personally managed by Tommy Thompson, offering a wide range of resources and programs to deepen your understanding and practice of the Alexander Technique:
- Private session reservations and inquiries
- Workshop and seminar schedules
- Overview of international teacher training programs
- Essays and articles on the Alexander Technique
9. Next Class Sneak Peek
The next class invites you to shift from doing to allowing.
Through subtle table work, the body resets not by effort, but by activating slow-twitch muscles—supporting natural balance.
During the sit-to-stand process, trainees become aware of habitual patterns and how the head-body relationship shapes movement.
Tommy guides not through correction, but through the presence in his hands—offering a direct experience of being.
In Class 32, we’ll explore:
- How quiet attention supports natural movement
- What “non-doing” really feels like
- Why presence transforms coordination
10. Join the Alexander Technique Journey
Did this class leave a small resonance within you? Feel free to quietly hold it in your heart or share it in just a sentence or two. The comments are always open. Your one simple word may leave a gentle ripple in this ongoing journey.The journey of Resonance Flow continues across social media as well. Let’s continue this journey together.
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