Process-Orientation
Your brain makes you stressed, not your body. Still, it's not enough to talk about "mental health". And I am not a bodyworker when I seemingly work on your body. I find it most fascinating that F.M. Alexander discovered a way to integrate body and mind in its depths to get an outcome of ease and balance. The methods he used were indirect. I love how the technique is challenging us in our incredibly ungrounded and unbalanced culture, but it is still suitable and not foreign for our understanding.
Pain is often the first feedback of imbalance in the system. This is not soon enough. We can do so much better if the knowledge becomes available to us. However, I’m also convinced that even if gaining the knowledge, we cannot make better health happen. Make release happen.. make happiness happen.. make mindfulness happen..
If you fix directly this something that needs to be fixed, you’ll probably end up with another issue in another area. Your body will stay in conflict with your mind. This is why everything purely physical or purely mental is just a part of the story. Alexander called it Psychophysical Unity - the principle underlying his work. There’s also the social part that can never be omitted, so shall we broaden it to psycho-socio-physical, bio-psycho-social or whatever term suits us..
In my work I’m not looking for fancy terms but the actual practical work we can do to bring about unity, integrity, homeostasis, centeredness. The more you get to know the vital center of yourself in practice, the more you recognize moments that you're out of it.
Time To Pause
So maybe it is time to stop reading wise words about living healthy, being present and mindful. It’s time to stop thinking about becoming better and changing your habits for the better. Time to stop talking about change (which is often the same old in a new package). Alexander called it inhibition, but it’s not a verb. It’s a state of being.
Instead, it’s time to finally come to what is already there. Experientially. And no, you don’t need to be advanced in spiritual practices for that. You don’t need any big lifestyle changes or new practices. No change, no improvement, no bettering yourself. No deep breaths or crystals or candles. What’s even more - you get to keep all your already existing practices, disciplines and methods. If you enjoy them.
Observation
The Alexander Technique is not about what you’re doing, but how you’re doing it. So it doesn’t contradict anything, but might add value and ease to the way you’re doing things.
Instead of solutions to your issues, what you need is little undisturbed time to learn about your reactions to the stimuli of life. Nothing else. Starting with observation. When you observe, you learn about your reactions not for the sake of improvement or change, but to stay with the reality.
In my case, this has been the starting point towards acceptance, self-love, peace of mind, healing and creativity, joy and vitality.
This moment of non-judgemental observation is where the muscles are able to release. Physical pain is able to lessen, movements can be more fluid and natural. Body and mind are able to connect. Feelings of ease and calm are taking over both body and mind. You will discover what it means to function from a more integrated place through repeated experience of letting go of the excess. In the end one will need the discipline of practice as with anything else, but the core of the practice stays as simple as that.
