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.
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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...
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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yea so i think we're at limits of language. the body moved with seeming own volition but doing what *i* intended (catch the ball)
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