Alexander Technique: Witnessing Our Life
Saturday April 10, 2010 • Filed in: Alexander Technique | Writing
small falls where the bears play. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
From an email1 to someone knowledgeable about the Alexander Technique, I wrote:
“If we notice without reacting—what I sometimes call ‘witnessing—things will eventually shift to more ease and balance on their own. Direction can be an essential part of that, but only as long as it is not turned into an imposition. To me, this is completely different from the good advice of not trying to correct based on (possibly) faulty kinesthetic perception. Instead, by noticing, we are giving the nervous system information it needs to readjust by itself. I don't believe that is End Gaining.”
A little more about some of these Alexander concepts as I understand them…
Our habits want to dominate everything we do. They are like an overly helpful person. When we try to practice the principles of the Alexander Technique, our habits will attempt to steal our practice and replacing it with a changeling of their own, that is, a counterfeit version of the Alexander Technique. Our good intentions are hijacked! The way to escape this deception is by having a clear sense of Alexander’s principle of Inhibition or “leaving yourself alone” as being primary. However, while leaving ourselves alone is indeed the essence of the Alexander Technique, that does not mean we should lock ourselves up in a small room fabricated from a limited understanding of this vital concept. We all wish shelter from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” but we will never find it in a fixed abode.
1 slightly edited for clarity
2 “Witness” is derived from the Old English of “wit” meaning “the seat of consciousness.”