Trust and Effecting Change with the Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique is very logical, and it is simple, and it is an excellent self-help tool for bringing about all sorts of beneficial changes in oneself.

Yet, the mind tends to create all sorts of questions and doubts and other thoughts which interfere with putting the Technique into practice, especially without a teacher.  This is why having a teacher is so very important and helpful.

AT works on a very deep level, and is incredibly subtle.  So subtle that it can almost seem magical at times.  The changes that are experienced are real and fundamental, but very often the changes occur on a minute scale, slowly and imperceptibly.  We, as a culture, are used to thinking of change as something tangible, instantaneously perceptible, something we can measure and see.  If we can't see it or feel it, we won't necessarily believe it.

Yet, AT works, and there is plenty of evidence for that.  How does it work?  Here is a partial explanation.

When we're working with a teacher who is right for us (not every teacher is right for every student), something in the teacher inspires trust from the very beginning.  Our trust in the teacher allows us to make a leap of faith--however small--to believe that if the teacher says the Technique is working, it's working.  Then, after half-an-hour to an hour lesson spent trusting and thinking along with the teacher as suggested, something in us has changed and we usually feel much better than before.

However, all too often the student will deduce from such an experience that it was the teacher that made the change (especially because the teacher normally uses his/her hands to help with the process), and completely misses and under-appreciates the essential fact that it was the student's own trust plus the student's willingness to think differently that actually made the changes.  Yes, the teacher helped guide the way, but it was the student that actually made the leap.

After taking enough lessons, and experiencing enough perceptible changes, the student may be able to make the bigger leap of faith required to take full responsibility for his own trusting and thinking.  At that point, a teacher can still be helpful, but the student has matured into the role of self-teacher.

The best teachers look forward to that point, because, ultimately, that is what we are teaching.  We are teaching the Alexander Technique, which in essence is about learning to trust and think for ourselves to effect the changes necessary for us to flow through life with simplicity and ease.

*Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do you have enough? Explorations with Alexander Technique

So much of our thinking is about not having "enough".  Believing that we don't have enough of anything is a trap that pulls us off-balance. Let's explore some questions about the idea of having "enough".

• WHAT?  Not enough of what?  Time?  Space? Money?  Love?  Sex?  Attention?  Status?  Work?  Freedom?  Happiness?  Excitement?  Health?  Peace?  "Good enough"-ness?

• WHY?  Why do you believe it isn't enough?  Why do you want more?  What's missing?  Are you missing a certain feeling that you think you don't have enough of?  

• WHO?  Enough for who?  For yourself or for someone else?  

• WHEN?  If it isn't enough right now, when will it be enough?  Are your thoughts projecting into the future, or comparing with the past?

• WHERE?  Where are your thoughts?  Where is your attention?  Is it on someone or something else, other than the center of You?  Are they pulling your mind-body off-balance, off-center?

• HOW?  How are you going to get more of whatever it is you want?  Do you have a specific plan?  

What would happen if you gave yourself the TIME and SPACE...even just a tiny little bit...........
right here...
right now...

to STOP your thinking
to STOP projecting into the future
to STOP relating things to the past
to STOP judging
to STOP wanting
to STOP defining and labeling and naming and associating thoughts with who you think you are and what you think you need

to just BE
simply BE

alive, breathing enough air to live
(yes, there is enough air, even if it doesn't feel like it!  The proof?  You're alive! :)

RIGHT NOW
HERE
I AM

if you really really really let your mind-body stop all the extra doing, all the pushing and pulling yourself off-center, out of the here and now.... what is left?

Whatever is left, is it possible that this might be "enough", right here, right now, for YOU?

...and then....
is it possible that this I AM-ness
might bring you into greater abundance
in ways you have never before imagined?

Is it possible?

Let the questions be enough.
No need for answers right here, right now......

Just open to the questions,
because the questions are enough for right here, right now.

Answers come when answers come,
and whatever comes will surely be "enough".

All in good time.
With patience, gratitude, and trust.

----

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.  What do you believe you don't have "enough" of?  What happens when you stop?

*Photo by Chuck Felix. Image courtesy of [contributor name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On Love and the Alexander Technique

In honor of Valentine's Day (yesterday), and by request of one of my students, I've decided to write about Love and the Alexander Technique.

Artwork by Paula Ziegman

To my understanding of life, there truly is nothing but Love.  It sounds so cliche, but the more I live and experience, and the more I think about it, investigate, meditate on it, and wonder, the more often I find myself choosing to believe this.  I firmly believe it is true that Love is all there is.

SO....I asked my class yesterday, "What is Love?  What does it mean to you?"  We discussed the meaning of Love, and many wonderful ideas came up:  selflessness, acceptance, mutual understanding, connection, loving thy neighbor as thyself, comfort, safety, happiness, motivation, freedom........

What does this have to do with Alexander Technique?  Everything.

To me, the Alexander Technique is all about making connections and joining things together that seem separate, and giving things that seem stuck and frozen space to move.  Yes, it's about the dynamic relationships between head, neck, torso...limbs, bones, muscles, fluids.....everything that can be thought of as parts of the physical body.  But, even more than that, it's about realizing that the mind is making those connections, and therefore connecting the mind and body....and the Consciousness that is realizing those connections.  What is that Consciousness that connects and joins and realizes?  Nothing other than Love, I believe.

I sometimes ask myself, "What am I teaching?"  I believe that, through the use of the Alexander Technique, I am teaching people to realize, to know, to be, to LOVE....themselves....in relation to everything within and around them.

We are making these connections all the time without being aware of it.  We are loving, joining, becoming one with everything that comes into our awareness, without being aware of it.  To wake up and realize that is what we are doing is the purpose of the Alexander Technique, for me.  To realize that we are already loving, already whole, already free.

Once we realize this and stop trying to DO all these things (trying to love, trying to be yourself, trying to be free, etc.), the obstacles that seem to be in the way of the specific things we want to achieve start to fall away.  The arm starts to move, the legs start to release, the music starts to flow, the work starts to become easy.  We start to enjoy life, right now.  Because we begin to be aware that we LOVE it.

One student yesterday said that he was at a loss for words when asked what Love is.  This is how I feel right now, as I do my best to write about my experience and vision...and as I find myself starting to try to do the integrating of my experience with my use of words....I realize that it would be best for me to stop and bring this post to a close.

I love you, dear Reader, whoever you are.
You and I are different, yet we are the same.
We are connected parts of One Infinite Whole.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for being, and thank you for the Love that you Are.

Your comments are very welcome.

*heart artwork by Paula Ziegman

Teaching about Infinitude and Humility, using the Alexander Technique

This morning, I've been thinking a bit about what I'm teaching my AT class these days.  I must say, the more I think about the topic of direction, the more in awe I am of the topic and the fact that I have the opportunity to teach people about this.

Sometimes, it feels incredibly silly to be teaching people about where up, down, left, and right are!


But that's only for a split second when I lose sight of the incredible meaning beyond those words.


Life is lived at the center.  Each one of us exists right Here, at the perfect Center of Everything.  There is Infinitude extending from us in all directions, equally.


Yes, this is a belief.  I believe (with as strong a certitude as I can imagine at this moment) that this is true.

We cannot live without beliefs.  The problem comes in not recognizing that a belief is a belief, and that it is always possible that we might be wrong.....about anything.  Yes, anything.  (And I might be wrong about that!)

What an incredible relief to find the inner humility to recognize that I might be wrong!  You might be wrong.  Everyone in this universe might also be wrong.

This way of thinking is incredibly disconcerting to some, and not everyone is willing to make the stretch to allow doubt to enter into the mind.

But to me, Infinitude would not be Infinitude if it did not also include doubt.  And I would not be fully human if I did not have the humility to see that I may not know, and I might be wrong...about anything!

Yes, I am incredibly, awe-fully grateful to be able to think in this way, because I find it liberating.  I am free to believe what I wish to believe.  I am free to be humble and admit that I may be wrong.  I am free to see that my beliefs might be limited.  And I am free to teach this way of thinking because I teach the Alexander Technique, which - to me - is all about finding a way to be free in all circumstances, in mind, body, and soul.  The Spirit of the Technique is Freedom itself.  And this Spirit is found everywhere, in everything, in everyone.  It cannot be limited, because it is Infinite.  It is the Center that is found Here, everywhere.

When I think and teach about where 'up' and 'down' are, I am simply reminding people of what they already know.  Who doesn't know that they are Here?  Who doesn't know that there is always more?

I am very grateful to be able to help people remember these simple truths and to put them into practical application in their daily lives.  To me, there is nothing more important to do in this world.

The Alexander Technique Solution ~ Part I

When a student is first setting out to learn the Alexander Technique to effect positive change, it can sometimes seem quite difficult and confusing, because many of the teacher's instructions go against our lifelong habits and common culture.

Last week, I told my new class at the University of Cincinnati that one of the first steps in the Technique is also one of the most difficult...perhaps the most difficult.  This step consists of not trying to change something directly as soon as we notice something that we don't like. 

The Habit:

- to try to change something we don't like in a direct and immediate way (example:  trying to relax tight shoulders and neck)

- to try to fix something now

- to try hard to get something we think we don't have

- to believe that we are wrong and need to do something right away in order to be right

etc., etc.

The Solution ~ Part I:

- once we notice something we don't like/don't want, we can choose to do something different:  stop interfering with it

(example: I notice that my shoulders are tight again, and I pause for a moment before doing anything about it)

- refuse to do give consent to the usual, which is The Habit 

(example: I do not try to fix the tightness in my shoulders or make it go away)

- observe what is actually happening in the present moment, without judgment

(example: I observe the tightness without judgment, then I open up my awareness, expanding my field of attention to include other things I might not have noticed before.  Perhaps I notice that my knees are locked and my arms are being held stiffly.  Maybe my breathing is constricted)

- in this way, I give myself an opportunity to come to know The Habit (myself) more intimately.  (What is The Habit?  Me - who else?)

How can I fix something if I don't really understand it?  I need more information.  I haven't been able to "cure" myself of tight shoulders before....so let me observe and gather more information.  If I immediately dive into making the shoulders "relax" in the usual way, tomorrow they will be tight again, and nothing will have changed.  I am a scientist, and I become my own experiment.  I am both subject and object.

One of my students commented in his journal that he had always been taught to "change everything that's wrong with me", and that it was nice to hear that there was another option.

Paradoxically, real and lasting change can only begin to come about once we stop trying so hard to get it.

*Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Right Action with Alexander Technique

I want to remember:

- STOP
- ASK
- LISTEN
- ACT





Stop
Pause for a moment internally (while engaged in external activity, or stopping external activity) to notice what is

Ask
Wonder:
"What is really wanted right now, on the deepest level?"
"What is right for me at this moment?"
"What would be the best thing for me to do right now?"

Listen
Wait for a clear answer which is free from doubt

Act
Do what is right for me in this present moment, which may be to refrain from further action



Image courtesy of hinnamsaysui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Simple Way to Uplift Your Mood with Alexander Technique

So often, we are down and don't even know it.  But what to do when we're down and know it?

The heart of the difficulty lies in the will, since the part that is down doesn't even want to be up; after all, its very identity is wrapped up in being the 'down-ness' that it is.  Why would the down want to be other than what it is?

So when you notice the 'down-ness', just let it be what it is.  Let the 'down-ness' be down.
After all, it is (you are) free to be down!

You are also free to think.
You can think: "I am free to be down," because, "I am free."
And you can feel it, live it, embody the 'down-ness', and bring it to life.

The wonderful thing is:  as soon as you notice that part of you is aiming down, the not-down part of you (which is the greater, higher, conscious part of you doing the noticing) is already raising it up, just by raising your awareness of it.  Simply bringing it up to your attention begins the transformation; as soon as you add this 'up'-ness to it, the 'down-ness' will be less down.

***KEY:  Can you become curious about whether the down can be transformed into up?***

You can influence your mood/state by literally lifting up your thoughts about the physical body.  Here is one easy way:

• The visual system lies on a horizontal plane inside of the head:  light enters the eyes and travels through nerves to the visual cortex, a part of the brain in the back of the head.  Usually we have this horizontal plane mapped (we imagine it to be) lower in the head than it really is.  Can you imagine that this horizontal visual plane is being lifted higher in your head, up to where it belongs?
• What we see at eye level and below is only HALF of the picture.  Can you become aware of all the space above eye level, too?

Using our awareness of the visual system to bring us 'up' out of 'down-ness' can be very effective.
We just need to open up our minds and try it!

By paying attention to your visual system with these simple cues, you CAN...
...have a higher vision for your life!
...set your sights higher!
...see the big picture!
...begin to uplift your vision and your whole self to a higher purpose!

You may not feel like you're down at the moment, but you can still benefit from increased 'up-ness' by trying out these directions.  Let me know what happens, if you do!


*photo of depressed woman by tokyoboy, Image courtesy of [image creator name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
*photo of happy girl, Image courtesy of [image creator name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net