To better understand the Alexander Technique and how I work with students, it is very important to explore what it means to pause. Pausing is different than stopping in the sense that when we pause, we can allow ourselves a deeper level of consideration. Stopping is a halting position, pausing is an unfolding motion. Pausing can take place within any human activity that is being performed. Pause can happen when one is actively doing things and living life, such as; washing the dishes, walking the dog, playing a sport, dancing, making art, working on the computer, or processing through difficult emotions, etc.,. Pausing is a mindful sort of stopping that brings us more readily into the present moment so that we can feel and notice our own aliveness. The need to pause is often only motivated from some disruption in our lives and organism that leads us to the understanding that something must change. Pausing in effect is the first step towards awareness and discovery.
Often when people come for a first Alexander Technique lesson, I hear some version of, "There is something wrong with me that needs to be fixed". There is a sense of urgency to the thoughts/voice/movement of students that can be felt somatically. When students introduce themselves they spend a fair amount of time describing what parts of themselves are creating pain and are not working as they "should". Students point to different locations on their body to indicate where the "problem" is occurring, which is often separate and disjointed from the whole of themselves. Students often ask in a first lesson with full trust and total vulnerability, "How long will it take for this problem to be fixed?". I aways feel deep appreciation and humility when I'm asked this, both for the students' sincere wish to find relief, and secondly for their total confidence in me. This question also helps to share my orientation to this work, which is that I am not interested in what's "wrong", but rather what is possible for my students. In Western culture we have been conditioned to passively receive healthcare and medicine from a place of disempowerment and disembodiment. Our own depth of experience, knowledge, and power is dismissed as not belonging to us so often that it has become falsely ingrained that a person who is experiencing illness, pain, or emotional distress has less of an idea about their own bodies/minds and how they work, than the person treating them. Through lessons in the Alexander Technique, I empower my students come to the realization that they have all the answers within them that they need to heal.
As we enter into the New Year, 2025 let us explore our human birthright as a species; the ability to pause and reason, to fully inhabit and embrace our innate psycho-physical intelligence, and to fully trust ourselves against all else.
Written by Helen Turnbull,
Owner of Freedom to Move Cape Cod
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