Rising to higher demands
Of the many possible experiences in ongoing Alexander Technique lessons is that of rising to a demand with an elastic and curious response. We begin with the familiar activity of sitting and standing, and in that activity refine intention and attention, learn to interfere less, allow more. Then we proceed to more demanding activities.
All aspects of self are inseparable and integrated. If we can allow an easier means of moving from sitting to standing, we can allow a new means of learning. We learn to dynamically allow new solutions, and to welcome support beyond our own habitual response.
Life, of course, has bigger ideas than sitting and standing. Challenges sneak or spring upon us. The plot shifts without our prior approval.
Our outcomes are not guaranteed. None of us are invincible, and we all eventually sleep the endless sleep. In the interim, we can allow time, welcome new demands, spring to the challenge and rise from a chair with surprising ease.
the demands of living: crisis-tunity
Life is unpredictable. All aspects of living shift constantly in patterns frequently beyond our perception. Our only effective skill is in making choices where we can, and relinquishing control where our choice is not an option.
Our instrument of response for the whirls and lurches of life can be refined, polished, shifted and explored. Since the instrument of self integrates all aspects of being (physiological, emotional, sensory, psychological) in a continuum of signals and responses, a change in any part of the system is a change to the entire. We can rise to the challenge of increased demand with a more elastic response. We can use challenge to become ever more refined in our tools of intention and attention. We can welcome challenge as reason to learn and grow.
Essential to effective response to crisis is a happy curiosity: what new skills in elastic response can I learn in this difficult situation? Can I broaden my attention, allow the ground to support me as I spring up, quiet my mental chatter, see the lovely and endlessly complex world outside myself? Can I allow the micro-moment of a new response, over and over again?
Hands-on Alexander lessons can provide a supported experience of happy curiosity as a means of change. It’s not about “getting it right”. It’s about allowing, repeatedly, something new.
The adventure continues