WEEKLY STUDY TEXTS Weeks 1 - 10
Week 7
TRYING
"He liked the feeling of lightness and tried to recapture it and hold on to it. This didn’t work as “it” could only be obtained by not trying for it.”
(Frank Pierce Jones)
“Tennis player - W.H. Austin was playing so badly at Wimbledon he decided not to try to win the set – as soon as he made that decision his game improved back up to his usual high standard. So ... he decided yes I will try to win this set after all, and immediately reverted to the poorer standard that had caused him to decide not to try!"
(FM Alexander - The Universal Constant in Living P81 footnote)
“Trying using this form of concentrating brings together “I must “and “I can’t” which creates conflict. “
(F.M.Alexander)
BEWARE OF SO CALLED CONCENTRATION!
This advice is so pertinent to the whole principle that it is worthwhile to elaborate it. Ask anyone you know to concentrate his mind on a subject – anything will do - a place, a person or a thing. If your friend is willing to play the game and earnestly endeavours to concentrate his mind, he will probably knit his forehead, tense his muscles, clench his hands, and either close his eyes or stare fixedly at some point in the room. As a result his mind is very fully occupied with this unusual condition of the body, which can only be maintained through repeated orders from the objective mind. In short your friend, though he may not know it, is not using his mind for the concentration of the subject you have given him to concentrate upon, but for the consideration of an unusual bodily condition which he calls concentration. I do not believe in any concentration which calls for effort. It is the wish, the conscious desire to do a thing, which results in adequate performance.
Briefly, our application of the word “concentration” denotes conflict which is a morbid condition and a form of illness; singleness of purpose is quite another thing.”
(Extract from the book 'Man's Supreme Inheritance' by F.M.Alexander)