Wednesday, February 24, 2010

An Alexander Student's Story - Part IV

Here's what Leela feels the Alexander Technique has done for her. I haven't included her whole list, but I think this will give you an idea -

1.My muscles DO obey instructions from my brain.
2. Practising the AT allows me to do everything I want to do or have to do such as lift buckets and move furniture, but in a way that the body was designed by nature to do. Now every mundane activity is an adventure for me because I am learning to do it in a new and more efficient way.
3. It's all about stopping and "coming back to quiet" before doing anything, taking time to think before I make a conscious choice to react or NOT to react. This has greatly curbed my native impulsiveness and improved my interaction with other people.
4. The AT is an ongoing process. It is not confined within a time frame. It is not like putting in one's sentence in the gym for an hour each day, and then forgetting about fitness till the next day! I have the rest of my life to practise what I have learned and gradually allow my life (and my mind) to evolve and improve instead of looking for immediate results.
As I said, this is just a selection of the ways in which Leela feels the Alexander Technique has helped her. And she ends -
AT has been like giving myself a gift. At long last I am learning to focus on myself in a way that is good and right. After a lifetime of doing everything fast, of racing against against everyone and with myself, I am learning that the sky will not fall down if I stop and think before I act or speak or do ...
"Ask not that your load be lighter; ask rather that your back be stronger," I read recently. To which I'd like to add," Absolutely! But also learn the Alexander Technique!"
I enjoyed reading her account tremendously because it gave me another view, so to speak. Some of the experiences she had are fairly common, but there were others which are uniquely hers, born out of her life, and the kind of person she is. Not to speak of that fascinating dream she had, which seemed to mirror the process she was going through!
That's why I always ask people to start a journal when they start their lessons - it gives a record of their unique journey, and it shows them that things have indeed been changing and developing in them.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

An Alexander Student's Story - Part III

Here's the dream that Leela had -
In my dream, I am trapped in a very small space and unable to move. It is a narrow passage where the ceiling is so low that I have to bend double and cannot straighten up even though my back aches abominably; or I am climbing up a steep staircase or hill with a heavy load on my back; or I am trapped in a car and the lock is stuck; or I'm in a cramped elevator which is stuck and I am unable to get out.

At this point I always get up with that familiar back ache and I am unable to sleep again. Perhaps it is my body's way of signalling that I have been is the same position for too long and that it's time to turn and give my back a rest. This fact alone I have found interesting enough, but something even more interesting happened.

One night when I was about half way through my classes I had that dream. This time I was a tourist trapped in a dark underground cave along with a lot of other people with no way out. I was hemmed in by a crowd of people and the hard stone walls of the cave and my back was giving out. This is the point where normally I would have woken up in agony. This time though, I did not wake up at all. Still in the dream, one of my fellow tourists pointed to a wide, bright and airy passage that none of us had observed. We all made our way to that passage in a nice orderly sort of way and were able to get out into the open air where the sun was shining and and the sky was blue and everything was right with the world.

That was the first time I slept right through the night and woke up at a normal time without any back pain at all.
While I was asleep, had my brain sent directions to my muscles to release? Had they obeyed? I will never know.
I'm going to devote one more post to this. I'd like to include a random selection of the benefits that Leela feels she got from her lessons.
What struck me is that she got something out of the Alexander Technique that transformed her life without making any dramatic external changes. There's something magical about that!