Alexander Technique Lesson-Stopping
Alexander Technique Inhibition
Got an extra third of a second or so? You could use it well by doing nothing. Not doing anything. Not doing the thing you were going to do, and instead doing something different. Or not that either. Your choice. It’s your choice, if you stop your habitual, automatic response and choose. Mind the gap.
The thing you want to do is to pause; chill, think. You’re in control. You may want to stay back, notice, observe. On the ‘body side’ of things, see what could be freer. Possibly your neck, your shoulders, your lower back? Just let go. How? By using your mind; your thinking, to send messages to the muscles to let go of excess tension. It’s no big deal. We do it all the time. That’s how we raise and lower our arms. This is very down to earth. Really ordinary if we could stay out of the way. Just pause to stop the stopping of the flow as we pause to stop the stopping of full, natural breathing.
If you don’t stop, your habit continues. Inhibition can give you a chance to do something other than reacting in your ingrained way. Reacting to what? Anything. Inhibition is more than just stopping or pausing, however. Pausing implies stopping for a short period of time, and then resuming. With truer inhibition though, something is going on during the gap. We’re minding the gap. We don’t want to just freeze, waiting to continue. We want to truly stop, do some nothing, possibly reset and then move on potentially in a new way. Inhibition can lead to new possibilities and freedom.
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
917.709.4648
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[...] in the early stages of Alexander Technique lessons, I might ask a student to ‘do nothing’ while they’re lying on the massage table, or to ‘let go’ as I move their arm. [...]
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