Positive Resistance to Stress, with Alexander Technique

I have been experiencing a great deal of stress lately, due to certain circumstances in my life, and that leads to a sense of internal pressure to deal with all of it somehow.  I find it interesting to take a moment and observe this phenomenon in myself and how it plays out.

The Old Habitual Way: 

stressful situations lead to:

• sense of pressure from outside, "a burden/weight on my shoulders", etc.
• habitual reactions made up of a combination of fight/flight/freeze responses in mind and body
• which leads to heightened anxiety and other unpleasant feelings and emotions,such as annoyance, irritation, anger, frustration, sadness, sense of hopelessness/helplessness, etc.
• negative thinking
• strong desire to do something to get rid of these unpleasant feelings
• addictive behavior often follows, such as sugar-consumption to make myself feel better in the short term but makes me feel worse soon after
• more unpleasant feelings: back pain, brain fog, repetitive thinking, etc...
• vicious, destructive cycle

The New, Conscious Way: 

When I remember to STOP for a moment, so that I can think and apply my AT skills, I am more empowered to change how I react to stressful situations, which I often cannot change directly (for instance, sometimes the stressful situation has to do with another person's actions, or even the weather), and I have a chance to break the cycle and transform it into something positive.

stressful situations lead to:

• some, but less, of the old reactivity (or if I'm really mindful, I can skip this unpleasant part altogether!)
• recognizing that outside pressures come with an inward direction (it feels like things are pushing in towards me, trying to compress me and make me shrink)
• instead of fighting that inward force, I can notice and allow it, accept and go along with it
• this brings me inward to my heart - the seat of ego, as well as the seat of Consciousness; I realize that I can choose Consciousness, and be grateful that I have been brought back to my heart, getting in touch with my true Self again
• once I'm centered again, I see that I have a choice:  I can continue focusing on this inward direction, and/or I can re-balance myself by remembering that the inward can also shine outward
• choosing to shine out from my center, I can aim my whole self into expansion, aiming up-down, left-right, forward-back, etc. - but without losing awareness of my heart-center; ideally, I will continue to remember that inwardness and outwardness are equally necessary, and I will allow for both directions to support me as I continue on into my daily activity
• this gives me a great deal of confidence as I face outward pressures with a positive resistance
• aiming in-out brings me back to the awareness of my inner strength and helps me apply it constructively in relation to the challenges that await my response on the outside

This works SO well; I wish I could remember it every time I'm faced with stress in my life!

p.s. It can be hard to know how to aim yourself (body and mind) in space; this is what an Alexander Technique teacher is trained to help you  do.  Taking some lessons to learn these great skills is REALLY worth it!

Good Use of the Word "Throughout", with Alexander Technique

I love words.
Sometimes I also hate them, but deep down I really love them!
Here's a word I've just fallen in love with today:  "throughout".

"Throughout" is a word I use all the time, but today I've just realized that it's made up of two words: "through" and "out".  I love this word -- it's so alive and full of movement!  Realizing this has given the word deeper meaning for me, and has led me to discover a new use for it -- a way to "embody" it.

If you're interested, I'd like to show you a very useful new way to use this word in relation to your emotions.

Experiment:

• Notice how you are feeling right now, emotionally.  Happy? Sad? Empty? Joyous?  Numb? Excited? Curious? Blah? Nothing much?
• Whatever you are feeling (even if it's nothing much), decide to stop holding onto whatever it is, and see if you can let it move a bit. Let this feeling (or non-feeling) spread through your whole body-mind self. If other feelings come up, let them move through you, too.  These are just ideas - no need to do anything extraneous with your body.
• Take a moment and inhibit the habitual idea that your body has a distinct edge to it (where your skin meets the air), and imagine that you're a bit more expansive than that.
• Now imagine that these feelings are spreading a bit farther and wider than your usual idea of self...going out just beyond the edges of your physical body.  
• Now stop containing them altogether, and let the feelings move out of the usual space of yourself, into the infinite space around you.

If you've tried this exercise, you've just let yourself feel your feelings throughout your whole self.

Why is this exercise useful?  

Oh, for so many reasons!  But, most importantly, it's an effective way to help yourself stay centered and whole, especially at times when strong emotions threaten to pull you off-balance.  When we don't let our feelings move, or only allow them to move within us without having the intention to also release them out of us, they will stay stuck in us - and us in them.  Keeping emotions trapped inside of us affects our well-being in a myriad of ways, and makes life much more difficult.  This is a way of getting out of the habit of experiencing our feelings only partially and keeping them inside; a way to let ourselves feel our feelings deeply with our whole selves, and then to let go of them once we've felt them.  

It is a way to embody our feelings throughout the whole self.

Yes, I do love words! :)

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

*Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Alexander Technique = Embodied Thinking put to Good Use

F.M. Alexander:  Australian genius born in 1869; discovered universal principles that guide how mind and body naturally work together as a unity to coordinate movement in a life-enhancing way; later developed a technique to teach himself and others about these principles and how to stop interfering with them for optimal health, well-being, and performance; moved to England to devote his life to this work

Technique:  a method or skill for accomplishing a desired end 

Embodied Thinking:  a way to connect the mind and body with consciousness, including the skills of kinesthesia and empathy

Good Use:  positive, constructive, serving a useful purpose, helping to improve, promoting further development or advancement of the individual


*Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Embodying Gratitude with the Alexander Technique

I'd like to share a personal observation with you today.

For many years, the practice of gratitude has been a regular part of my spiritual practice.  I have consciously incorporated this attitude into my life during periodic meditation times, by forming the general intention to be grateful throughout the day, and by looking for specific things to be grateful for.

Over the past few weeks, I've been experimenting with a different angle on gratitude:  I've been paying more attention to what the experience of gratitude actually feels like.  I'm finding the experiment to be very interesting. By shifting my focus a bit more onto my feelings, I'm discovering that my habitual way of practicing gratitude has been primarily (but not exclusively) to focus on my thought-intention, without paying too much attention to the feeling.

I'm discovering quite a few things:

• For me, gratitude has a distinct physical feel to it, and it takes on some kind of a shape.
• If gratitude has a shape, for me it's like a somewhat flattened U-shape, or a broad smile; and if it's three-dimensional (even better!), it's more like a wide cup.
• When I start to feel gratitude, I experience a shift in my head and body, as if the sides of my brain and body are lifting upwards while my middle rests downwards.
• I find this shape to be symbolic of receptivity, like a cup that needs to exist before it can be filled; and as soon as it exists it IS filled, and therefore I have something to be grateful for, deep inside of myself.
• Focusing on the intention/goal (in this case, gratitude) as a thought just isn't enough - because feeling my goal - feeling gratitude - being gratitude - is actually part of my goal.  If I am over-focused on the thought-intention, I can still feel the result (I've always been able to feel gratitude), but I'm missing so much of the goodness of the feeling if I'm not also really letting myself feel it - and enjoy it.  
• Even though mind-body unity isn't a new concept for me, somehow unity of thought-feeling is.
• Gratitude is not my default mode.  I can tell because when I stop thinking/feeling gratitude in this way, the 'up'-'cup' droops and flattens down again instantly.  
• I need to practice this thought-feeling of gratitude much more often!
• Thankfully, practicing gratitude is MUCH easier this way, and it makes me want to do more and more of this kind of practicing, because it feels great!

You might wonder, what does all of this have to do with the Alexander Technique?

Constructive, conscious control is what happens when we formulate a clear intention with our thinking, and let go of whatever we're doing that interferes with realizing that intention.  There are so many possible interferences - "doings" that we must stop - and one of these seems to be over-focusing on the thought while under-focusing on the feeling.  (Of course, the opposite is just as much a pitfall.)  Balance and unity are everything!

Try it out:

• Think of what gratitude means to you, and start to wonder what gratitude might feel like.
• Pay attention to your head and the rest of your body, either one at a time or both together.
• Allow yourself to feel any changes as you get in touch with a true sense of gratitude.
• Now let go of this feeling of gratitude, and go back to your "normal" state of being.
• Try it a few times, and maybe increase the intensity and/or duration of the gratitude state.
• As you switch back and forth between gratitude and non-gratitude, do you notice any shifts in your head? body? mood?

I would love to hear about your experiences with this, or any other thoughts or feelings about 

gratitude that you might have!

Real Change can be Effortless with Alexander Technique

I admit:  I am astonished.

Even though I'm an AT teacher and I know from experience how working on an issue indirectly (focusing primarily on the whole person instead of individual parts) can help create fundamental change...the change I just experienced in myself as I began to practice my violin this evening caught me offguard!

All my life (I've played the violin since age 4), my left hand pinky has been "weak" (well, that was my belief, anyway), which has resulted in playing with it rather flattened out on the fingerboard much of the time.  Over the years that I've been involved with AT, I've been working with changing my belief about that little finger, realizing how strong that side of my hand is, in fact. My work with this has been extremely casual, though, and I remember it mostly while teaching my students about their fingers.

I didn't work much on this issue because I never really expected to be able to play the violin with a rounded pinky--that was just beyond my reach, I thought; I didn't even bother trying to change that.  Playing that way would be an "ideal" dream for me which I did not hope to ever achieve.  It actually wasn't very important to me, either, because the results I've always gotten with a flattened pinky have been just fine for me--very much "good enough".

SO, imagine my surprise as I began to play the violin this evening (at 11:00pm, tired...) and I suddenly notice that my pinky is strong and rounded.  In disbelief, I test it out in different positions, playing different types of music...and lo and behold...I can keep it that way!  I am almost in shock -- I had to come here right away to write about it.

I have NOT worked on this issue.  I have rarely given it any thought, although I have been aware of the flattened pinky as a generally undesirable condition.

How and why has it changed, without working on it at all in the "usual" way?  How can it be that such a fundamental "problem" has changed from one hour to the next (I did play the violin a bit this afternoon and I didn't notice anything different), without any conscious will to change?

Fantastic.  This was entirely unexpected.

This really makes me wonder what other seemingly miraculous changes might be in store for me in the future!  I am in awe of the Mysterious workings of Life....Life's Wonder...and so grateful!

If you are a student or teacher of the Alexander Technique, have you had a similar experience you might like to share?  Something that bothered you that was suddenly changed one day, without any conscious effort on your part to make it different?  I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Morning Moment

Good morning, world

I close my eyes
waiting, I breathe
slowly

today, I would like to love whatever I come into contact with
loving the keyboard now...and the air...and my thoughts...even the chaos within...

aiming for Peace
stopping, waiting

non-expectation

quiet

just Being
I am not the Doer

let come what may
I will still be Here
watching, listening, touching

Living

An Introductory Alexander Technique Class for Musical Pre-Teens and Teens

Today, I taught an introductory AT class to approximately 45 young musicians, ages 11-17.  I decided to start the class with a rather crass definition of the Technique:

"The Alexander Technique is a way of observing yourself and your environment so that you can have better control over getting what you want."


I took a quick poll; not a single student didn't want to be in control, and everyone except one girl said that they typically want something, so I think everyone could relate to that definition.  Since I was asked today how I taught the rest of the 55-minute class based on that definition of the Technique, I thought I'd share a brief overview of the class here, for anyone who might be interested.


I decided to base the class loosely on these words: WHAT, WHO, WHY, WHERE, WHEN, and HOW.  We never really got to "why", "when", and "how", but we have two more class periods to delve into those!

My basic questions were:

- WHAT is music?
- WHO makes music? WHO are you? (My favorite response: "An Awesome Thing...")
- WHAT are you in connection with now?
- WHERE are you?  WHERE do you make music?

After much interesting discussion, we played some games, first seated and then moving around the room, to explore our sense of space--personal and in relation to objects and other people, and including the directions of space.  Then, we discussed the exercises and related them to performance, for instance: how can you think differently if you're on stage in an orchestra, feeling cramped and claustrophobic?  Maybe it could help to expand your sense of personal space to the edges of the room and beyond, even into infinitude...

Next, we did an exploration in which the class was divided into two groups: the "performer" group and the "audience" group, with the performers in the middle of the room, and the audience in a large circle around them, at the edges of the room.  I led them through two elaborately-constructed imaginary scenarios, simply put: (1) very critical and hateful audience; and (2) loving, approving audience.  How did they feel?  As expected, most students much preferred the second scenario, but I was admittedly surprised that there were about five students who preferred the first scenario.  They felt that they "performed" better under adverse circumstances, when they had to "work harder", it "mattered more", and they had "something to prove".  Most students felt more tension and "performed" worse when the audience was very critical, and they felt their bodies relax and "perform" better when they felt loved and accepted by their audience.

The main point of the "performer/audience" exercise was to show the students that--no matter which scenario they preferred--they were responding physically with either more tension or freedom in their bodies, depending exclusively on their thoughts.  There were real effects that were created ONLY by their own imaginations.  "What you think is what you get"; which means, in effect, that through your thinking, you can have constructive conscious control over yourself and your performance.

By making good use of your thinking, you can have better control...and you're more likely to get what you want.

I'm looking forward to the next three days, in which the group will be split up into three smaller sections.  Their third class will be on Friday, when all 45 get together again.  What an adventure!

I'd love to hear your reactions to this post.  If you're an AT teacher reading this, do you have any other games you like to play with this age group to illustrate any AT concepts?