The Alexander Learning Network

Sweet Gravity

2010-04-11T05:22:00.001-07:00

Every day I climb the mountain of achieving with my teeth; bite by bite, fighting to hold on. But sometimes when I'm able just to see the lightness, I let go and my falling becomes flying in God's sweet gravity.

Every Island of Tension Floats in a Sea of Ease

2009-06-19T03:53:00.000-07:00

If tension seems like the only thing you notice when you are about to move, pick a spot where you feel tension and then shift your attention to the area right underneath that spot and notice the relative ease there. Then, as you begin to move, allow your neck to be free while Noticing what happens to that area of relative ease and see if that changes the overall quality of the movement.

Just Do It?

2009-06-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

Just do it? Perhaps, but it's better to Do JUST it.

Easy Does It?

2009-06-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

Easy does it? Sure, but more importantly, easy IS it!

Don't Sweat the Big Stuff

2009-06-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

"The golfers who play the best when it matters the most are the golfers, who at those moments, can play as if it matters the least."

David Feherty
CBS Golf Commentator

How, yes; What, not so much.

2009-06-15T04:14:00.000-07:00

What you do is not nearly as important as how you do it. What you do gets things done but how you do what you do determines exactly what you'll be able to do in the future.

Tiger Woods

2008-04-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Despite how great Tiger Woods has performed over the course of his amazing career, that little white ball at his feet doesn't ask: What have you done for me LATELY? It only wants to know: What are you doing for me RIGHT NOW? And then flies and/or rolls accordingly.

Notice Now

2008-01-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

"It's not the skill, it's the will."

Herman Edwards
Head Coach New York Jets

Knowing Vs. Learning

2008-01-29T06:14:00.000-08:00

There is nothing wrong with knowing stuff as long as it doesn't stop you from observing change; as long as knowing doesn't freeze you into an assumption; as long as you realize that the actual value of what you know can only be determined by how useful that knowledge is to you in the ever-changing present. Figuring that out requires openness and openness always precedes and accompanies learning.

"A fresh attitude starts to happen when we look to see that yesterday was yesterday, and now it is gone; today is today and now it is new. It is like that; every hour every minute is changing. If we stop observing change, then we stop seeing that everything is new."

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Half-Power Thinking

2008-01-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a little trick I learned a while back from one of my students. Whenever you are having difficulty using Noticing as a tool, take the amount of effort you are using to Notice and cut it in half and see what happens. Then cut it in half again and then again until what you are doing is just a whisper of the effort you were using when you started.

The student who came up with this idea was blessed with more than her share of excess tension and this technique, which she dubbed Half-Power Thinking, was a useful way for her to trick herself out of trying too hard. Experiment with it whenever you are having trouble with any activity. Just keep cutting the effort you're using in half and see what happens. Experiment with it whenever an activity is going great. Just keep cutting the effort you're using in half and see what happens.

Play Ball

2008-01-27T15:29:00.001-08:00

"So it's one of those things you still have to understand that these players have to go out and trust their ability and that's pretty much what we're trying to focus on right now as opposed to controlling the outcome."

Joe Torre
Hall of Fame Manager
N.Y. Yankees

The Queasy Bits

2008-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:00

I had an English Alexander teacher who often talked about perservering through what she called the "queasy bits”. The "queasy bits" are those moments when you feel shaky because things are changing and you don’t really understand what's happening to you; you've done your best to apply some aspect of Alexander's discoveries but you are not sure about the results. At those moments we tend to panic and run back to our old ways of doing and feeling things because then at least we know what to expect.

The next time you apply one of Alexander's discoveries and don’t try to escape from the state of not knowing; don’t try to come up with an answer that will explain things so that everything makes comfortable sense. Instead, stick with that anxious energy and allow it to relax and soften you. Softness leads to openness and openness is the ground from which new experiences can sprout. Those uncertain "queasy bits" are usually an indication that things are changing for the better. So, when you feel a little unsure about what's going on, let the newness of that moment blossom and then see what what happens.

"Here's Lookin' at Me, Kid."

2007-10-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

Just for fun, when you use your eyes, instead of looking "at" something, let the light that bounces off of that object breeze into your eyes. Instead of thinking that the seeing is happening out there, think of the seeing as happening within you, which is, of course, where it does happen. Stop painting things with your gaze. Let the visual energy flow towards you as if the object was doing the seeing and you were the thing being seen.

Scared of the Lightness

2007-10-19T05:13:00.000-07:00

"I would say that the tendency to move out of silence is a reflex because up to now you know yourself only in perception, in connection to events and feelings. As long as you don’t really know what silence is you feel insecure in silence, because there is no place for an ego. The ego can exist only in connection to situations and so it is always eager to look for a hold. But if you are acquainted with letting go, if you stop producing and just let things come you will become completely free."

Jean Klein
The Ease of Being

A Great Cauliflower

2007-10-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Don’t put Noticing on a pedestal. Don’t make it precious and try to keep it. Begin with it but then just watch what happens to it. It is the watching not the wanting that allows it to continue. Don’t be surprised if it seems to disappear right before your eyes. It didn’t, really, you just dozed off for a second. It's easy to do. As long as you do it. And, as A.R. Alexander once said: "Be patient, stick to principle, and it will all open up like a great cauliflower."

Flow

2007-10-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

For a long time despite how much Noticing helped me in my activities, I often had the feeling that it was slowing me down. It seemed like an extra thing I had to take care of before I could get going with whatever I was trying to do. Then one day, as I was finishing up washing the dishes, I went to throw something in the garbage and an interesting thing happened: the two activities merged into a flow across time. What I mean is, because I was Noticing while doing the dishes, when the thought to throw something into the garbage occurred to me, it happened within the "envelope" of my Noticing. The two activities were not separate things each requiring its own distinct preparation. I didn't have to stop washing and then start throwing. The washing became the perfect easy preparation for the throwing because I was Noticing. Putting it into words it sounds a bit silly but the experience was very pleasant, simple and calm; there was the washing and then there was the throwing out occurring as a single easy flow with me as the common ground.

Is Noticing an Action?

2007-10-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Q:
Is Noticing an action? Does it require effort? Can you think about Noticing and not do it or does the problem always stem from doing too much?

A:
Noticing is an action that does require some effort but not that much because it is just thinking. Marjorie Barstow coined the phrase "constructive thinking" to describe the help you give yourself when you apply Alexander's discoveries. It is very possible to think about Noticing without actually doing it. Whenever you think things like "I should be Noticing more often" or "When I Noticed yesterday I felt great." you are thinking ABOUT Noticing. This is Noticing as a concept or an abstraction and it's different from Noticing as an action, the act of Noticing, which is a simple act of attention. It's similar to certain kinds of meditation. How much physical effort does it take to be aware of your breath? Not much. But the restlessness of your mind keeps taking you down other paths that lead away from attending to the simply fact of your breathing {or a mantra or a visualization etc.} Noticing, like meditating, is a thinking simplifier but one that works best in the thick of daily activity.

Most people do tend to work a little too hard sometimes. I think this is because we're so often looking for results. We Notice for the purpose of improving , which in itself is not a bad thing but a problem arises when we have a pre-conceived idea of what that improvement should feel like and then we create that feeling to confirm to ourselves that we are getting better. Unfortunately, the feeling created is just a mirage and one that's generated by the same habits of perception and movement that caused the problem in the first place so it's a case of the blind leading the blind.

The way out is to change the way you monitor your progress. Instead of asking yourself "do I feel like I'm improving?", ask yourself: "Am I Noticing right now?" If you do that over a period of time you will begin to realize that knowing you are Noticing is synonymous with knowing you are improving. You'll be developing a "sense" of how you're doing that is much more refined and immediate than a feeling. Kinesthetic feelings are not bad. They are an essential part of the way we experience things. It's only when we push them up to the front and try to use them as guides that they get in the way.

The Art of Moving

2007-10-15T07:17:00.001-07:00

"There may never be anything new to say, but there is always a new way to say it, and since, in art, the way of saying a thing becomes part of what is said, every work of art is unique and requires fresh attention."

Flannery O'Connor

Grace and Anatomy

2007-10-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how useful it is to study anatomy. If anatomical knowledge was directly connected to moving well anatomists would be the best movers. Great athletes and performers clearly "know" something about moving effectively but I'm not convinced that you can find that knowledge in an anatomy text. Good use certainly involves good mechanics but, in the final analysis, I think that ease, power and grace happen as the result of allowing your deep intelligence to respond in it's own way to the capricious spirit of the movement of this moment.

Opinion, Barking and the Truth

2007-10-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

"Human beings understand too much. But what they understand is just opinion. Like a dog barking. American dogs say:"Woof woof". Korean dogs say: "mung mung". Polish dogs say: "How how". So which dog barking is correct? That is human beings barking, not barking...Take away your opinion, then what. What is left? That is the point. Take away your opinion,your condition, situation. Then your mind is clear like space. Clear like space means clear like a mirror. A mirror reflects everything...If your mind is clear like space then you see clearly, hear clearly, smell clearly everything is clear...that is truth."

Zen Master Sung San

Ease is Movement and Movement is Ease

2007-10-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

Ease is movement and movement is ease. As long as you notice how it comes and goes like breathing, and you don't try to keep it, you can never lose it.

Seeing is Relieving (Just Notice)

2007-10-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

"Seeing our moment to moment conditioned reactions is crucial. Without that we will continue the mess we're creating. Simple awareness of what's arising makes it possible to let go. Awareness of this moment reveals what needs to be done or left alone."

Paul Baker
Zen Teacher

Kowabunga, Dude!!!!!

2007-10-10T01:33:00.000-07:00

One of the most challenging aspects of applying Alexander's discoveries is being able to let go. In order for this stuff to work, you have to be able to do what has to be done and then allow the rest to happen. For me, it's the allowing that's the hardest. After all, I am doing this to make a change, which means I have an investment in the outcome. Either I want to improve the way I'm doing something, alleviate a pain, use less effort etc., and it is this desire that can become the biggest obstacle to improving my condition.

Although the need to make a change is essential to getting me started, right off the bat that specific need has to morph into the more open-ended desire of seeing the truth of what is happening. It is this act of seeing which frees my mind and body to be better coordinated. I let go of preconceptions and simply ride the waves of what is actually happening in me as I am moving. I observe the "means whereby" instead of trying to gain an "end". I become a surfer and stop being a jet skier.

Some Antics

2007-10-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

It is impossible to KNOW anything that's new because knowing is, in truth, only KNEWING.

Now

2007-10-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

Watch how beautifully a tree moves in a breeze. It can't predict the wind so it doesn't try.

Jalma

The Easy Way Out

2007-10-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

The more I do only what needs to be done, the more doing resembles undoing and getting dissolves into letting.

Jalma

Suspended Animation

2007-10-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

Alexander chose his words with the utmost of care, so it is significant that the verb he used in his first direction was "to allow". Allowing your neck to be free presupposes that your neck's natural tendency is to be free. It follows that if you have the power to allow your neck to be free you must be the agent of it's restraint. As soon as you stop preventing the natural freedom of your neck, your head can move forward and up and your back can lengthen and widen. This is classic inhibition because the action you take is to stop doing something. You stop interfering. However, not interfering{allowing} only works because the upward release of your head and whole body is, in a sense, already happening. You don't make your neck free you simply let go into the flow of easy movement that is ready and waiting to be expressed.

When Right is Wrong

2007-10-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

If you initiate an activity by Noticing and then see what happens to your Noticing as you begin to move, you free yourself from moving according to your habit. Each habitual movement has a kind of “rule book” where "rightness" is determined by the familiarity of the feeling associated with the movement. By Noticing first and then asking yourself: "Am I Noticing right now?" you avoid falling into the trap of habit because the only way you can find your way back to your old habit is by first recreating the habitual feeling. "Am I Noticing right now?" short circuits that process. It is a completely different question than: "Does this feel right?" Asking it prevents your old habit from jumping in because it allows the brand new movement to generate it's own brand new feeling.

"You want to feel out whether you are right or not. I am giving you a conception to eradicate that. I don’t want you to care a damn if you’re right or not. Directly, you don’t care if you’re right or not, the impeding obstacle is gone."

F.M. Alexander

False Sense of Security

2007-10-04T17:45:00.001-07:00

In an unpredictable world, the familiarity of our habitual way of doing things tricks us into believing that we have some control over what is essentially uncontrollable.

End-Gaining

2007-10-03T13:20:00.001-07:00

"The{Alexander}work is hard for many people to accept because it is very indirect. You can't go for it. And we all want to go for it---to 'endgain', really. This is what F.M.{Alexander}meant by endgaining: that you go for the end without considering or taking time to allow the means to work out to the end. Which they will inevitably do if the means are right. You're bound to get there. It may take a long time, but you're bound to get there in the end."

Marjory Barlow
An Examined Life

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2007-10-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

"You say that it's really hard for you to change? Nonsense! Change comes easy to you. Too easy, in fact. You're constantly changing all the time. The problem is not that it's hard to change, the problem is that you keep changing into exactly the same thing over and over and over again."

Jalma

Just Watch What Happens

2007-10-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Has it ever happened to you that despite your best intentions, very soon after you begin to Notice the ease, somehow the ease has disappeared? Does it seem as if you can either Notice the ease or do the activity but not both at the same time; that the two are mutually exclusive.

The trick is to stop trying to hold on to the ease and simply see what happens to it. Doing this opens things up because once you stop trying so hard to keep the ease and simply see what happens to it, the ease continues. You can even say to yourself: "Let me watch how the ease disappears as I move." The fact is that ease, which seems to be so elusive, is only elusive when you're trying to catch it.

The Futility of Striving

2007-09-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

"When we understand the futility of striving, our mind is brought to a stop and all the energy used in projecting and attaining is no longer directed and we are in openness, waiting without wanting."

Jean Klein
Open to the Unknown

One-Liners

2007-09-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Your habits are what you believe is necessary in order to do an activity.

Let go of knowing. Simply find out.

In working on yourself, "success" is usually a much bigger problem than "failure".

If you Notice before, during, and after you move the you won't get a "habit hangover".

There is only so much you can know before-hand.

When you Notice there is a shift of focus from the "what" of an activity to the "how".

Noticing allows movement to stimulate more aliveness and less resistance.

Notice gently and perhaps with a smile.

The only thing you can do is right now.

Ah, Kinesthesia!

2007-09-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Q: What do you think F.M.{Alexander} meant, by not trusting your feelings?

A: What he said was, "You can't help having them." So don't try and not have the feeling, just don't use them as a guide.

Marjory Barlow
An Examined Life

Patience

2007-09-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Over the years, perhaps the most important thing I have learned from Alexander's discoveries is the value of patience. If "end-gaining" is the quintessential dis-ease then patience is an important part of the perfect cure. Alexander's concept of inhibition is totally dependent upon your being patient as you begin your exploration of new ways of moving. Patience is also the keystone for a wide range of other disciplines from professional athletics to spiritual practices.

"Patience is a wonderful and supportive, even magical practice. It's the way to develop courage, the way to find out what life is really about...We don't have to criticize ourselves when we fail, even for a moment, because we're just completely typical human beings; the only thing that is unique about us is that we're brave enough to go into these things more deeply and explore beneath our surface reaction of trying to get solid ground under our feet."

Pema Chodron

"To hit a ball really well you have to be patient. You just have to wait and if it's fastball you have to wait very quickly.

Alex Rodriguez
Future Hall of Fame Baseball Player

Tension is a Verb

2007-09-26T05:23:00.000-07:00

Excess tension is not a noun, a thing. Excess tension is a verb, an action. Excess tension is often thought of as a blockage, like a clog in a pipe but in reality it is more like clenching a fist and holding it. Excess tens-ION is actually excess tens-ING. It's an activity that is happening in the present; an isometric exercising that can over-develop the muscles involved and cause imbalances and a loss of flexibility.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that as an ongoing physical process, tension is supported by an ongoing mental process. Those muscles etc. aren't acting on their own; they are receiving instructions that are generated by the way we use our brain. Therefore, the source of excess tension is excess thinking and the solution is to change the habitual patterns of over-thinking that lead to that over-tensing.

It's Alright To be Wrong

2007-09-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

"This work is absolutely truthful. If you think you're wrong, then do it and you will discover. We are afraid to be wrong, but by being wrong we know what to do. Accept that being wrong is your friend, not your enemy."

Marjory Barlow
An Examined Life

Alone At Last

2007-09-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

I used to think that by applying Alexander's discoveries I was getting rid of my bad habits by learning how to do things right. More and more I've come to understand that when I begin an activity by becoming a little easier and then notice how that quality of ease changes in me as I do different things, "right and wrong" never enters my head. Instead, I am engaged with how things are unfolding as I move and that engagement creates a condition where my old habits tend to forget who they belong to and leave me alone for a while.

Lost in Translation

2007-09-23T04:23:00.001-07:00

Re-establishing our capacity to move with ease is a process of letting go of the interference that obscures the underlying grace that is the foundation of all movement. Rediscovering our natural flexibility is not a process of building up but a distilling out those things we habitually create that complicate the way our intentions are translated into our actions.

Contact Improvisation

2007-09-22T05:45:00.000-07:00

Whenever we are doing something it's useful to remember that any movement we make, any activity we engage in is a collaboration between us and the environment. If we move a chair, we too are being "moved". The chair has as least as much of an affect on us as we have on it. It's not unlike a dance where one partner leads while the other follows.

What's interesting is that although we initiate this little pas de deux, the more we can let go and allow our "partner" to shape our response, the more efficient the interaction becomes.

Our objectives and the world of objects meet in a kind of contact improvisation where the beauty and effectiveness of the moving is determined by the quality of our awareness and the quality of our awareness is determined by our willingness to pay attention to what happens to ease in us as we dance.

Float and Sink

2007-09-21T10:43:00.001-07:00

The next time you think Notice or Forward and Up, experiment with the idea of gently allowing the back of your head to float while the front sinks slightly. Use just a whisper of a suggestion, ease and delicacy being the key. After playing with that for a while experiment in a similar way with your rib area always exploring with as much ease as possible. Float and Sink can also be applied to your hips but you have to reverse it
by allowing the top of your hips sink back and the bottom to float up and under. As always, these thoughts should be easy and not pushy.

Learning To Teach, Teaching To Learn

2007-09-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

"We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves."

Pema Chodron

On Effort

2007-09-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

In the following, although Master Suzuki is talking about Zen, if you substitute the word Noticing for "breathing", he could be talking about the Alexander Technique.

"We should try to continue our effort forever, but we should not expect to reach some stage when we will forget all about it. We should just try to keep our mind on our breathing. That is our actual practice. The effort will be more and more refined while you are sitting. At first the effort you make is quite rough and impure, but by the power of practice the effort will become purer and purer. When your effort becomes pure your mind and body become pure. This is the way we practice."

Shunru Suzuki
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

Noticing(Paying Attention)

2007-09-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Noticing is a way to quiet the part of you that interferes; the part that tries too hard, makes decisions according to habit; gets ahead of itself; the part that "end-gains". If you pay attention {Notice}, then your mind and body can undergo a transformation. When you watch what happens to your Noticing as you begin a movement, that movement unfolds in your awareness. Energy that was invested in fixed habits is freed up and re-orchestrated. Marjorie Barstow called this process a "redirection of energy". Each new circumstance is unique and so calls for unique re-direction of energy. The act of Noticing simply prevents you from interfering with what is a natural process.

For Teachers and Those Who Touch

2007-09-17T10:49:00.001-07:00

The next time you use your hands to touch something{or someone}, instead of just focusing on the affect you are having on the object or person, also notice the changes that occur within you. We tend to evaluate our efforts in terms of how successfully we are able to manipulate the external world. Our focus is outward and so we have little awareness of how that interaction is changing us.

Remember that anything you touch is touching you back. Every action you take comes back to you in the form of energy and information that can either help you or hurt you depending upon what you are paying attention to. If before beginning an activity you start by Noticing the ease in yourself, you can use the increase or lessening of that ease to determine the overall quality of that activity. That way you can see both the external and internal changes in the same frame and you'll have a better chance of finding out what your doing is actually doing to you.

Thinking Ahead

2007-09-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

"You have to look down the road but don't forget that your wheels are only underneath you."

Jalma

Effective Moving

2007-09-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Effective movement requires you to perpetually re-invent the wheel. You must know and not know how to do it simultaneously. There is no time for satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The only thing you can do is right now.

Jazz: The Refinement of Effort

2007-09-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

"I think it is terribly important that Jazz was primarily dance music so you move when you hear it. And it always moves in the direction of elegance which is the most civilized thing a human being can do. The ultra-extension, elaboration and refinement of effort is elegance. Where just doing it gives pleasure of itself. That's about as far as we can get with life."

Albert Murray

If It Ain't Broke...

2007-09-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Noticing is not a technique for fixing what you think is wrong with you but rather a way of approaching things that allows for something fresh to happen.

“If we look at life as an opportunity to embrace and heal all that has
happened to us, our attention moves away from trying to fix things and figure everything out, and towards being with ourselves as we live our everyday lives”

Watch What Happens

2007-09-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Noticing is a way of making tangible the way we interfere with our natural coordination. The act of Noticing engages the "part" of our mind that complicates activities by shifting the focus from the present moment to a past sensation or a projection of the future. The key to Noticing is always the act of letting go of preconceptions and seeing what is actually happening, not to the body, but to your thinking. You don't have to wait to interpret your body's response if you simply ask yourself "Am I Noticing right now." If you know, at this moment, whether or not you are Noticing, then you can proceed and simply watch what happens to your Noticing, not to your body.

Take It Easy, But Take It

2007-09-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

"This is too serious to get serious about."

Marjory Barstow

Balancing Act

2007-09-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

"Expansion never happens through greediness or pushing or striving. It happens through some combination of learning how to relax where you already are and, at the same time, keeping the possibility open that your capacity, my capacity, the capacity of all beings is limitless."

Pema Chodron
Comfortable With Uncertainty

The Bigger Picture

2007-09-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Alexander Technique can be thought of as a way of learning how see the bigger picture. Alexander's inhibition immediately shifts your perspective by asking you to begin by stopping. Before launching into what you're going to do, you expand your attention and include what you are not doing. It against this background of momentary stillness that we can begin to see objectively the quality of the choices we make giving us the chance to make a change that transcends expectation.

What Have I Done For Me Lately

2007-09-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about the Alexander Technique is that no matter how badly you're messing up or how long you've been messing up, by Noticing how easy your neck is right now, you get to start with a clean slate. The bad news is that no matter how great you've been doing or how long you've been doing great, right now, you have to start from scratch.

Always, Then and Now

2007-09-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Noticing{Inhibition} allows you to be guided by what you've always known but have forgotten and by what you can never know because it's always new.

Instant Gratification

2007-09-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Any time you are impatient with how much "Alexander" progress you're making, Noticing right at that moment is the best medicine because the instant you stop thinking ahead, you stop having to wait.

Pushing "C"(Inhibition)

2007-09-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

"Between each thought there is a resting place. If you studied an electro-encephalograph you'd see that the mind has resting places. In order for us to perceive something clearly, it is important to return to our resting place; not to carry over an idea from the past or an idea about the future. It's somewhat like a calculator. You put in one plus two and you get three. Then you put in two plus two and you'll get seven unless you push "C" for clear, between the two calculations. So it's very important to push "C" or you're going to carry over the last calculation into the present one. So let go of any ideas; just push "C". The point is to return to your center and listen, trust, have faith, have courage. Push C."

Barbara Rhodes
Zen Teacher

Can't Get There From Here

2007-09-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

When you are looking for a new way to get somewhere, unless you're lost, you're going the wrong way.

Welcoming the Unknown

2007-09-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

"The attempt to bring about change involving growth development and progressive improvement in the use and functioning of the human organism, calls necessarily for the acceptance, yes, the welcoming of the unknown in sensory experience, and this 'unknown' cannot be associated with the sensory experiences that have hitherto 'felt right'."

F.M. Alexander

Just Taking Note

2007-09-02T09:45:00.002-07:00

“What is essential here is to become more acquainted with your intimate nature, your sensations, your body tensions, feelings and desires, without making any judgement. In innocent looking we are completely outside what we observe. In other words we just take note, and just taking note has it’s own taste.”

Jean Klein
The Ease of Being

-----

Let The Sun Shine In

2007-09-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

Instead of touching
Be touched
Instead of hearing a bell
Be rung
Instead of breathing
Be breathed
Seeing is not believing
It's receiving

Jalma

Flow

2007-08-31T18:01:00.002-07:00

Noticing before, during, and after moving encourages a sense of flow in the movement. When a substance like water flows, it behaves in two pretty interesting ways: it will take on the shape of whatever vessel it encounters and it will seek it's own level.

Flow in movement is similar. A flowing movement adapts itself both to the requirements of the activity and the mechanical potential of the body. It utilizes energy more efficiently and takes advantage of the intrinsic strength and flexibilty of the body.

One of the most interesting characteristics of flow in movement is that you can experience it in an ultra-sensory way; i.e., you can "feel" it without using your normal senses. It's an intuition about the quality of your moving that "precedes" the movement itself.

As strange as it may sound, you can "know" what a movement will be like before you do it. It's a little like looking down the road when you're driving except that there's no gap between what you see ahead and what later happens: they both occupy the same moment in time; they both happen in the now. Freaky! N'est Pas?

Forecast

2007-08-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Do not think
The Moon appears when the clouds are gone.
All the time it has been there in the sky
so perfectly clear.

Zenkei Shibayama
Zen Comments on the Mumonkan

From a Distance

2007-08-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Movement is about change. In order to change you have to let go of one movement to make room for the next. This is the key to moving easily. It allows change to evolve smoothly. When you're Noticing you can watch the way a movement evolves as if from a "distance". That "distance" allows us to observe without getting in the way. We get in our own way when have an agenda about how we think the movement is supposed to feel. If we are constantly checking to see if the movement is feeling how we think it should feel, we interfere with the movement.

As we move it is natural to experience changes in the way our body feels. Some of those sensations are more pleasant than others. Some sensations are familiar; some are not. The key is not to take those sensations too seriously. As the movement passes through you, let the sensations pass through you as well, without your evaluating them. Instead, ask yourself: "Am I Noticing right now?" That way you stop evaluating how you are doing in terms of your old idea of how you think it should feel; you keep track of how you're doing from a "distance" by knowing whether or not you are Noticing.

Noticing allows you to evaluate the movement objectively by focusing on the process instead of the results. This frees you from your old habits and gets you out of your own way allowing your whole self to function as it was designed to

Let It Roll

2007-08-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Feel your feelings without trying to figure them out. The way it feels to do something is constantly changing. It's as if your sensations are on an assembly line that never stops. There is an aliveness to this kind of experience that is one of the most wonderful things in life. We constantly release what we're currently feeling in order to make space for the next experience. The problem that arises is that usually we won't let go of what we're feeling . We stop the flow of experience in order to evaluate and analyze what we're feeling in order to make sure we're having the feeling we think we're supposed to be having. Whenever this happens the freshness of life diminishes and we're stuck trying to be right.

Notice Now

2007-08-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Pale sunlight,
pale the wall.

Love moves away.
The light changes.

I need more grace
than I thought.

Rumi

The Gift of Awareness

2007-08-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't it be wonderful to love what you're doing no matter what you are doing?

The Blind Leading The Blind

2007-08-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

"It seems strange to me that although man has thought it necessary in the course of his development in civilization to cultivate the potentialities of what he calls 'mind', 'soul' and 'body', he has not so far seen the need for maintaining in satisfactory condition the functioning of the sensory processes through which these potentialities manifest themselves. As a result, the functioning of his sensory processes has become so unsatisfactory that the use of his mechanisms is constantly misdirected in his efforts to 'do', and when he tries to put right the results of this misdirection, he has no other criterion for self-critism to guide him in these attempts but that of the untrustworthy sensory processes which originally led him into error."

F.M. Alexander
The Use of the Self

The Use of the Self

2007-08-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

"As flying is the essential thing for a bird to be a bird, to study the self is the essential thing for us human beings to be human. A human being is a living being that needs to study the self to become the self."

Reverend Shohaku Okumura

Don't Take My Word For It

2007-08-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

"I don't want you to believe a word I say. I want you to listen to what I say, endeavour to put into practice what I'm teaching you,and you're going to be the judge of whether I'm talking through my hat or not."

Marjory Barlow
An Examined Life

Far Too Many Birds With One Stone

2007-08-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Noticing/Inhibtion is the remedy for trying to lead your life with a death grip on the fast forward button.

Now Flowing Into Now

2007-08-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Noticing/Inhibition induces a kind of profound relaxation that is a wonderful balance of activity and stillness where the fulfillment of one activity becomes the exact preparation needed for the next, gracefully allowing the present to extend into the future as a deeply satisfying flow.

Quick Things Come To Those Who Wait

2007-08-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

If you want to move fast, first you have to take your time.

Noticing/Inhibtion

2007-08-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Noticing can be thought of as an attitude towards things. It is an approach which encourages the impartial observation of the choices you make as you are making them. It's also a strategy for making positive changes but one that brings into question who {or what} the agent of change actually is. In some ways Noticing seems passive but the positive change it induces can be deep and far-reaching. It is a form of non-doing that allows things to be done "through" you. It is an act of willingness that helps to dissolve willfulness.

Unthinkable

2007-08-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

In many ways the changes that occur when you apply Alexander's discoveries are unthinkable. When you experiment with Noticing, Inhibition, allowing your neck to be free, moving your head delicately etc. there is no way to predict exactly what is going to change or how. Fortunately, we don't need to know what's going to happen in order for the results to be valuable. It's enough just let our desire to improve transform into the desire to know what's going on

Bumper Sticker 2

2007-08-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

YOU'RE SMARTER WHEN YOU THINK!

Bumper Sticker 1

2007-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

IT'S EASIER WHEN YOU THINK!

"Do you keep this going all the time?"

2007-08-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

"People ask me, "Do you keep this going all the time?" and I say "As well as I am able, that's what I aim to do." And they say, "Well how do you know?" and I say "I know when I go wrong. I feel it the minute I go wrong." So if i'm not feeling that I'm going wrong, I know I'm all right. It's not knowing the right, which is changing all the time, but being able to detect when I deviate. Volition always has an element of the habitual and familiar about it. Inhibition is almost the neural equivalent of saying,"I don't know." We're all afraid of not knowing. It's our only security."

Marjory Barlow
An Examined Life

Inhibition

2007-08-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

"Good things come to those who wait."
Proverb

"First things first."
A.A.

Marj

2007-08-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

I had the great privilege to study with Marjorie Barstow from 1973-1994. The power, depth and subtlety of her teaching changed my life. Here are some examples of the things she said to students while working with them.

It's so simple it's shocking.

All you want is a little bit of nothing--but the trouble with all you people is that you all want something. And that something is your habit.

You don't want to reproduce the feeling but the mental process.

Inhibition is the activity by which the old habit cannot take place.

You stopped that constructive thinking that wouldn't have allowed
the habit to take place.

Learn to laugh at yourselves: you always move better with a smile.

When I find myself pushing, I have not taken the time to see where I am before I start to move.

If you memorise your feeling you'll never change.

You have to do the brainwork.

You'd better talk about a 'preventing',
because if you talk about a 'keeping', you will stiffen.

Pupil: "My feelings are confused."
Marj: "So long as your thinking isn't confused, you're OK."

Pupil: "I move my head but I'm not sure."
Marj: "You're never sure. You move your head and you see what happens."

You are not supposed to expect something--
you are supposed to be experimenting.

The longer I teach, the more I realize how very simple Alexander’s work actually is. Its simplicity and subtleness seem almost beyond comprehension. Strangely the learning process seems to go on forever.

Noticing

2007-08-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Noticing is a process that can circumvent our habits and uncover our natural sense of ease. When our habits dominate they can seem so natural natural but that naturalness is just a form of over-doing that we have become accustomed to. Moving with ease is not something that you do as much as it is something that happens when you stop over-doing. It's something that's available to us any time we are willing to exchange "know-how" for "learn-how".

I'll Never Let Me Go

2007-08-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

"Even though we can't possibly hold on to anything, clinging remains one of our strongest habits. Useless though it may be, we devote much of our energy to grasping at that which is elusive and impermanent."

Pema Chodron
No Time To Lose

Unity

2007-08-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

The true beauty of Non-Endgaining is the unifying affect it has on your life. By Noticing before, during and after doing something the focus shifts away from just "getting things done" to include what is happening to you as you do things. Although you may do a thousand different things during the day they all have one thing in common: YOU. Noticing allows you to see the relationship between what you are doing and what's happening to you as you do it making it possible for any activity to improve the quality of every other activity you do.

Less is More

2007-08-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

"You're all so complicated, why can't you be simple?"

F.M. Alexander

Keeping It Simple

2007-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

Notice

Move

Leave Yourself Alone

See What happens

The Garden of Easin'

2007-08-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

In the garden of gentle sanity
May you be bombarded
By coconuts of wakefulness.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

You Will Miss the Whisper If You're Waiting for a Shout.

2007-08-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

The purpose of Noticing is not to break habits. Trying to break a habit is like trying to pry open a clenched fist with your free hand. Even if you manage to do it, you've wasted a lot of energy and your fist is likely to clench back up as soon as you're not looking. Noticing is a quiet kind of attentive openness that encourages our natural openness so that it can expand. That expanded non-judgmental state gives you insight into how it's the process of trying itself that creates our bad habits. But that insight doesn't usually arrive as a resounding revelation. It's more like a gentle release. Like a whisper escaping from inside a soap bubble with a tiny POP!

Sense and Nonsense

2007-08-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

"It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them so you think you see them. This is how your "seeing" is made. This is the function you have given your body's eyes.It is
not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions."

A Course in Miracles

The Devil You Know

2007-08-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

Our habits of movement are a form of conditioning. Although, we possess a built-in intelligence that always provides precise information about the easiest way to do things, that information cannot pierce the clouds of expectation that obscure our view
of how to proceed. We move according to our habits because there a sense of safety in recognizing familiar feelings and we have come to believe that familiarity is a surer basis for success than is openness.

Position vs. Direction

2007-08-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

It's not a question of a right position, it's a question of a right direction. It's not so much where you are but which way you're pointing.

Another Way of Knowing

2007-08-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

There is a way of knowing how you are doing that doesn't depend entirely on kinesthetic verification. Noticing is a way of monitoring yourself by paying attention to the content of your thinking and letting the feeling component of the experience move into the background.

Just Click Your Heels

2007-08-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

We are usually secretly {or not so secretly} trying to get somewhere, but the instant we stop trying, we're there.

That Swing

2007-07-31T15:39:00.001-07:00

There is information {guidance} that precedes normal sensation and ends up being much more useful. It is an energy sense, a feeling of ebb and flow that you can experience a split second before you feel a kinesthetic change. Musicians who play music in which rhythm is the most essential aspect call this feeling of flow the "groove" or "being in the pocket" Athletes call it "being in the zone" or "playing out of your head". Duke Ellington was referring to it when he wrote: "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing." "That Swing" is the flow of life energy and ease that characterizes any high-quality performance. It is that especially valuable content that transcends all style and form.

Notice Now

2007-07-30T14:00:00.001-07:00

"Every time you're willing to acknowledge your thoughts and come back to the freshness of the present moment, you're sowing seeds of wakefulness for your own future. You're cultivating innate fundamental wakefulness by aspiring to let go of the habitual way and do something different."

Pema Chodron
Comfortable with Uncertainty

All The World's A Stage

2007-07-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

"Tensions and limitations always come from a lack of trust in yourself: either you are over-anxious to communicate or to present an image, or you want to convince an audience of something about yourself. Even the experienced actor often limitis himself by relying too much on what he knows works and is effective, and this in itself is a lack of freedom."

Cicely Berry
Voice and the Actor

Polemics

2007-07-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Noticing allows you to know how you are doing without judging. There is no good or bad, familiar or unfamiliar, improving or not improving, there is only Noticing or not Noticing. If you are Noticing , then you're fine. If you're not, and if asking the question hasn't already gotten you to Notice, you can then choose to do so if you want. Noticing works like a compass that points true North. Whenever you want to know if you are going in the right direction just Notice and you can save yourself the trouble of having to go all the way up to the Arctic Circle just to see if that's where the North Pole is.

Less Is All

2007-07-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

"When things are going poorly, do less. When things are going well, do less."

Marjory Barlow

Notice Now

2007-07-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Sense and Nonsense

2007-07-25T20:01:00.000-07:00

"It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them so you think you see them. This is how your "seeing" is made. This is the function you have given your body's eyes. It is
not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions."

A Course in Miracles