"run like a monkey!"

Vested Interests

This video gave me an idea for an interesting analogy. By reversing the analogies of the video, one can have some interesting insight to our society.

The compensations, cranes using fuel, and the armor caused an aha when the narrator (around 7:00) talks about how our vested interests and security will protest if we choose to feel and think . . . moving towards healing.

What does this say about society?

Body Mapping

I think that the biggest gains that I have received from this Alexander class has been Body Mapping and how thought affects one's body. These can be the same thing I guess. I think of Body Mapping more as how I think and see in my minds eye, what my body is and how it works. How thinking affects thought is more about how focused, grounded, scattered, or happy I am and how that changes how my body feels.

I got so much out of this class that it is hard to name everything. Up to this post is all that has struck me as significant or important on my Alexander Technique journey. Now this blog morphs into a more general yet personal version of People's Health. Check out the About pages on each to get the lowdown.

All out of sorts

 

As I am able to take a few moments to consider and think on my Alexander Technique journal/blog assignment, I can feel myself slowly inhabit and become aware of my body. The past month has been very challenging to say the least. I attended only one of my Alexander classes in that month and feel like I am drifting off into space when it comes to Alexander Technique and my body.

Perhaps my disconnectedness from my body comes from the fact that this past month has instilled a load of stress and tension. My awareness consists of pain, so its no wonder I have become so detached. Sometimes checking in with ones physicality is not a pleasant choice.

I am curious to find out if there are any sort of crisis applications of Alexander. Something that can be done to help out a person who is spaced out and in shock due to extreme life stressors. I need that bad sometimes and I know that I am not alone.

The key is to have time, take time, and know what to do with that time. In such extreme situations this is next to impossible. You would need some kind of wake up call to force you into awareness, presence, and a kind of peace.

All out of sorts describes this past month very well. I am just now getting a grip and able to take a look at what has happened. How does one avoid this, cutting it off before it gets so wildly out off hand?

An evening with Chris McDougall

An evening with Chris McDougall from Terra Plana on Vimeo.

Getting out of my own way

I find myself wanting to revisit an older post, "Who are we really and what are we doing?" Here is an excerpt of what was written there:

• Thoughts and actions
• both useful and not useful
• Notice choices
• Awareness of making choices 
• conscious choices
• unconscious choices 

I can't help but be reminded of Buddhism here and ask, "Who or what is it that is doing all this noticing?" Noticing choices and actions is much like mindfulness meditation. Which leads to the next point that reminds me of Buddhism. 

 "Who or what is it that is doing all this noticing?" 

• Where does mind end and body begin? 
• Are they an inseparable pair influencing and affecting each others functioning? 
• How much does my tense, crooked body affect my thoughts and decisions? 
• How are choices made if my body is overwhelmed and frozen? 
• What choices do I have and how many of these am I actually aware of?
• How much of Alexander Technique is doing and how much is non-doing? 
• What is added and what is simply left undone?
• How will I know to get out of my own way if my choices and thoughts are so conditioned by the habit patterns instilled by a culture of sensory/information overload?
• How will I know to get out of my own way if my choices and thoughts are so conditioned by a "modified startle pattern?"

egg shaped beings full of giblets and lungs

Crazy week, just like all the other weeks, only this one has wiped my discursive thought right out. Along with them thoughts go any kind of following of homework. I guess that the noticing of habits is pretty easy. I was in a few good car wrecks that have left my spine unhappy. I am constantly playing with how to have good posture. I know what I am supposed to do, I just don't or can't do it. Not sure why.

I suspect that I don't keep good posture in part due to what is being called in the Body Learning book, unreliable sensory appreciation, debauched kinaesthesia, and stuff. So my habitual misuse crates a bit of a problem as far as me correcting my posture and Use goes.

I sit a lot unfortunately, and I am sure this causes a huge part of the problem.  I have taken to sitting on an exercise ball as a chair. I googled this phenomena and found that I'm not the lone nut . . .

 

Check out these kids, they know whats up . . .

 

and here are some models in case you have to be thought of as "normal" at the office or where ever . . .

An interesting article on why not to use a stability ball for an office chair, and interesting comments as to why you should. Interesting debate that has me asking, which chair company these authors are getting kick downs from, I am still all for it.

http://www.ergoweb.com/news/detail.cfm?id=1091

Links

http://freestylemind.com/exercise-ball-office-chair

http://sammamishreview.com/2009/10/27/new-%E2%80%98chairs%E2%80%99-help-carson-students-focus-on-work

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-reasons-to-use-an-exercise-ball-as-your-chair.html

http://fitnessblog.projo.com/2008/08/in-my-last-blog.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/exercise-ball-office-chair.html

Expereince Yourself as a Whole Person

Whenever someone asks me to experience myself as a whole person, I immediately take a deep breath . . . all the way to my finger tips, and down to the tips of my toes. I breath into my body as if it were a balloon. Eventually this breathing flips over to breathing in through my fingers and toes and into my center.

This is usually enough to relax any tension, but if tension remains, I breath into it. That is my experience of my self as a whole person, physically speaking. There are other aspects of my whole person hood that come into the picture, but that is a whole other exercise.

Star Wars and the Alexander Technique

I just couldn't resist posting this.

Recieving support from the ground, marshmallow feet, barefoot running, and stuff

I hate running!!! Yet, the greatest discovery so far this week for me has been barefoot running. I have never in my life been motivated to run, but I have tried  this barefoot running and am pretty hooked. It is slow going for sure at first, but it confirms so many other things that I have been learning in my life, Alexander Technique being one of them.

Of course I am just beginig to learn about both of these ways of living and moving, and they seem to compliment each other beautifully. I find that with just a little bit of barefoot running, one's alignment begins to fix itself immediately. Pretty amazing!

I ran for about ten minutes one day, and a little less the next day, and have taken off a day to let my feet recover. My hips, spine, hands and feet have woken right up and have been sore in ways that I have never been sore. It seems to be a combo of my feet waking up and moving all around,  all the sensors on my feet sending new sensations and connections to new places all over my body, and the actual technique and structure that your body begins to take by running barefoot on a hard surface. It is nearly completely backwards from running in shoes.

As per barefoot running as related to Alexander Technique, the running starts turning your feet in to what we learned is a more helpful alignment, which continues its way up the skeleton, adjusting hips and things along the way. It definitely throws a wrench into your usual habit patterns, parking places, weight distributions and stuff like that.

So I am now even more aware of my parking places, weight distribution, habit patterns, tensions and collapses, and am hot in pursuit of chasing them out of my structure/posture. I love the idea of a relaxed posture and to receive support from the ground. It ain't happening yet! My days are to distracted and filled with busy madness. It comes Wednesday and I just now begin to think seriously about my homework and I remember how simple it really is and how much it could help me to chill. One of these days!

One last thought while reviewing class notes, "I wonder what is meant by communicating with your body to release tension."

Here's another barefoot running video:



and here is a video of a guy barefoot running, and everything else through the wilds!

Who are we really and what are we doing?

• Thoughts and actions
• both useful and not useful
• Notice choices
• Awareness of making choices 
• conscious choices
• unconscious choices 

I can't help but be reminded of Buddhism here and ask, "Who or what is it that is doing all this noticing?" Noticing choices and actions is much like mindfulness meditation. Which leads to the next point that reminds me of Buddhism. 


What is a useful and/or a not useful thought or action? It would seem that the act of becoming conscious makes everything useful for one reason or other. I wonder if Alexander had any insight to share on these questions. Did he have any eastern influences on his research?

Now as I get carried off into thinking and all in the head kinds of reflection, I can't help but think of the first exercise we did where we experimented with how our thoughts affect how we feel. The thoughts one dwells on and holds in mind certainly affect how the body feels. 


How does our state of being (grounded or not, unhurried or not, peaceful or not, balanced or not) ripple out through our bodies and touch those who are around us? Does it leave a lasting impression on our environment? 


Who are we really and what are we doing?

~~~