Week 8 | SB Teaching

Week 8

NOTES ON MIO MORALES APPROACH TO LEARNING THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

"The Alexander Technique was created by Alexander solely through imagination, experimentation and observation. In the beginning, “hands-on” was not part of either his learning or his teaching process. In fact, for the first 17 years of his own work as a teacher, Alexander did not use his hands. He taught his students using verbal directions and guided them towards the kind of self-observation he had used to teach himself. Hands-on guidance came later as a way of trying to shortcut the process.”

“ ... although “hands-on” is a powerful way to transmit information which seems to jumpstart the learning process, in the long run, it has side-effects that ultimately impede students ability to do it for themselves which causes many to quit studying A.T. before they really “get it”.

“When I thought about what originally attracted me to Alexander’s work, I realised I had always been fascinated that his discoveries had grown out of his “self-experiments”. “Alexander “was able to solve his vocal problems simply by observing the effect different ways of thinking had on his body.”

'3EasyQuestionsTM' is my approach to teaching constructive conscious control.
It is based on the fact that when a person directs their attention to places of relative ease

in their body, the head/neck reflex is gently facilitated.

When exploring the possibility of easier movement, after inhibiting, in the gap between stimulus and response, instead of traditional orders or directing, you quickly assess these three things about yourself in sequence:

Where you're currently noticing places of relative ease?
What effect noticing that ease is having on your general use?
How that general use is changing as you begin to move?

This gentle, but focused curiosity about the ease you're currently experiencing shifts your attention in a way that circumvents your usual habit patterns. It facilitates your Primary Control which reorganises your movement on the fly, allowing you to move outside of your habit with increased ease.

As a form of Constructive Thinking, ‘3EasyQuestions’ allows the actual direction to come from the natural adaptive response of your nervous system. You make a conscious choice to direct your attention to ease and then stand back and notice what happens. This prevents you from imposing a habitual, feeling based concept of forward, up, head, neck or body upon the process.

‘3EasyQuestions’ is a new take on conscious control that is so easy to implement it can be taught to a brand new student in a first lesson.

However, in the hands of a teacher, it also becomes a potent self-healing tool that reveals and erodes deep habitual patterns that tend to be imperceptible and impenetrable."

(Excerpt taken from the teachings of Mio Morales)

CONSTRUCTIVE THINKING

The only time you ever have to use Constructive Thinking is right now. You don’t have to make a commitment to do so “from now on” or every time you drive to work etc. None of that. JUST RIGHT NOW! Also, it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since the last time; a minute, a week, a year…truly, they’re all the same.The one and only thing you ever have to do is to take this precise moment to simply ask yourself: ”Am I Noticing Ease right now?” That question can start an incredible cascade of change in you that leads to some of the amazing benefits that Alexander discovered. Also, this can make your Alexander life a lot easier because it takes all the pressure off, not to mention removing the guilt.
There is no pressure to use your Constructive Thinking all the time, all you have to do is use it now. And it doesn’t matter that you completely forgot to Notice Ease when you did your audition yesterday, all you have to do is to do it now.
This eliminates all the “woulda, coulda, shouldas” even if one second after you start paying attention you've stopped paying attention without realising it. But the moment you do realise it, even if it’s a day, a week, a month or even a year later, all you have to do is to ask yourself: “Am I noticing Ease RIGHT NOW?“ Then, you’re as good as gold because just asking the question gets things started again. (It's kinda like asking: "Am I thinking of yellow?") And anytime you’re Noticing Ease - neither the Future nor the Past can put the squeeze on you. It's instant forgiveness... Perfect perfection...
t's freedom to change!

(Excerpt taken from the teachings of Mio Morales

STALKING THE ELUSIVE EASE

“Has it ever happened to you that despite your best intentions, a split second after you've done some Constructive Thinking, somehow that lovely liquidy Ease has ceased to flow? How come it always seems like you have to choose between being a dutiful Alexander Means Whereby Stander and really giving that activity the attention it truly deserves (demands)?

WELL...Here's a little habit hack for you...

Pull Ease down off that pedestal and instead of worshipping it, watch it closely and see what happens to it as you begin to move because...

Ease is not a noun...It's not a thing...It's a verb...It's not a snapshot...It's a movie!
When you feel Ease what you are actually feeling is the process of your body EASING.

What your kinaesthetic sense is picking up is the change from a state of less ease to one of greater ease.

And when I manage to consider Ease this way, something in my experience begins to shift big time.

The idea of trying to hold on to something that needs to be in motion finally seems so silly...that I stop trying!

I finally stop trying to hold on to something that only comes into existence... when I'm letting go.

And...the great great thing about this is that whenever I simply observe what happens to the ease as I move...that's wht allows the ease to continue.

That innocent act of pure observation itself is the thing that actually causes the change to happen in the first place and then it is the very thing that allows it to continue.

Which leads me to believe...that ease...which always seems to be so elusive...in truth...is only elusive...when we're trying to catch it!

(Excerpt taken from the teaching of Mio Morales)

F.M. ALEXANDER - TEACHING APHORISMS

“This work is an exercise in finding out what thinking is”

“Now you’re doing yourself harm because you’ve developed habits in the way you use your body which are actually destroying it.”

"When people are wrong, the thing that is right is bound to be wrong to them.”

"You can't do something you don't know, if you keep on doing what you know.”

"Everyone wants to be right, but no one stops to consider if their idea of right is right.”

"Change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life.”

"You are not here to do exercises, or to learn to do something right, but to get able to meet a stimulus that always puts you wrong and to learn to deal with it.”

"As soon as people come with the idea of unlearning instead of learning, you have them in the frame of mind you want.”

"When anything is pointed out, our only idea is to go from wrong to right in spite of the fact that it has taken us years to get wrong: We try to get right in a moment.”

"You get away from your old preconceived ideas because you are getting away from your old habits.”

"Doing in your case is so 'overdoing' that you are practically paralysing the parts you want to work.”

"Everyone is always teaching one what to do, leaving us still doing things we shouldn't do.”

"Prevent the things you have been doing and you are half way home.”

"All that I am trying to give you is a new experience.”

"You translate everything, whether physical or mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.”

"To know when we are wrong is all that we shall ever know in this world.”

“We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains.”

“You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you do know.”

“It is not the degree of ‘willing’ or ‘trying’, but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the ‘willing’ or ‘trying’ effective.”