Tuesday, June 16, 2009

AT junkie

What fascinates me about the Alexander Technique is - well, there are heaps of things, but what caught my attention immediately when I first came across it, was this thing about not using effort. That really grabbed me, because I'm incorrigibly lazy. All the usual rhetoric about hard work, determination, knowing what you want and going for it, leaves me cold. But I'd reconciled myself to some form of the daily grind, mainly because I didn't know there was an alternative. So the minute I came across something that insisted that you've to put in less, not more effort, I said to myself, ' Hey, that's for me!'
Anything that tells me not to work hard gets my vote everytime!
The other thing about it that I really like - this took me some time, because I had to understand a bit about it first - is the fact that it can be used in anything that you do. It doesn't ask for an hour, or two hours, of your exclusive attention. You can use it in your daily life, your routine chores. You can use it for simple acts like sitting, standing, walking, talking, breathing. But it doesn't prohibit you from doing anything else. So you can continue with your Yoga, or your daily walk or jog, and the probability is that it will make these activities even more pleasureable and effective. And then again, you can also use it in complex activities like playing a game or a musical instrument, in singing, dancing and theatre. Not only does it prevent damage,but it also improves performance in a very subtle and powerful way.
It's the subtlety that's fascinating. Lots of other disciplines give power. But that subtle shift, that transforms life radically, yet leaves you asking,'Did that really happen, or did I imagine it?' - that's what got me hooked.

2 comments:

Leela Krishnamohan said...

I too love the fact that the Alexander Technique lets me do everything i want to do and what's more it teaches me to do that in the way the body was originally designed to do. I never tire of the high i feel doing every little thing in the Alexanderly way right from getting out of bed and brushing teeth to driving or cutting vegetables or swimming.

Leela Krishnamohan said...

i am an end-gainer. I really need to unlearn goal oriented-ness and learn to live in the moment and enjoy that moment and forget aboutthe result. i did not even know that it could be done. i am the kind of person who plans not only my day but my WEEK, and when i finish my list for the day and have time left over(because of course i have been racing with the clock) i start on the next day's list! i have been running a mad race against myself and everybody else and realise how stressful it's been. Time to stop and take that moment to return to myself and do things differently as the AT is teaching me to do.