Did an alexander technique 1h 1-on-1 ama
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"What" is it? A series of "poses" to do? Meditation/awareness esque exercises? A framework for thinking about the body?
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none of these. i would say: a guidance into the physical operationalisation of neither-doing-nor-not-doing by moving your body and distracting your mind until you've *gotten* it. agree/disagree?
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I like it!
I'm cautious about the "by moving your body" part. Awareness leads - body follows.
I like the idea of distracting your mind. From that angle it's like finally allowing the functioning of a far more sophisticated system without the interference of thinking.
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Huh. I don't know the Alexander Technique stuff well, but by this description it sounds like I was fumbling through a lot of the same territory with movement-based meditation last year.
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I have no explicit movement meditation experience.
But from the Alexander Technique perspective, I might ask: "what's it like to walk without *doing* walking?"
And then: "how does one move without doing moving?"
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Yeah that's pretty much the territory you get into when you cut most of the gross (as in 'not subtle') forms of 'me'-awareness.
Awareness flows into the wider body (and environment), and there are a lot of weird behavioural tics that feel like resets of muscle memory.
When you work deliberately with the body sensations that come up in this modality of consciousness, a lot of times it feels like the body goes into autopilot.
Muscles flex and unflex unexpectedly, you do a lot of stretching and moving seemingly at random, then posture changes...
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In my experience the body only goes into autopilot because mind goes I into autopilot.
As can now attest, good AT teachers can catch you mind wandering in a second.
"Where did you go just now? You weren't here in the room"
'I... don't know. Huh."
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Sounds familiar yes. AT is at its core a way to loosen the grip of the Self that think it needs to do anything. All those behavioural ticks you mention.
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about resets - i burst out laughing, full on belly laughs, at least thrice, uncontrollably so and it felt like something being let go of, release, finally. 'oh it's not all so serious' was kinda the underlying feel
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can you say more about gross and subtle forms of me-awareness?
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There are constantly arising points of reference in consciousness; a sense of looking from, at.
This from, at gives rise to "self", e.g. reflexive thought about you. "I am so and so," for example.
The sense of looking out at the world from your eyes is another.
Pretty gross.
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