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Alexander Technique tip from a Card Shark — 8 Comments

  1. I really like this, Robert. My trainer Don Weed talks about the danger of feelings, good and bad. In fact, the phrase he uses is “results are no criterion for success.” in other words, don’t assume failure just because the results are poorer than you expect, and don’t assume success just because the results are great.
    Also, I have long believed that Kenny Rogers, and that song in particular, has a lot of Alexander Technique related wisdom to impart. You could just say of beliefs we hold: you gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em…
    Great stuff. 🙂

  2. I’ve definitely had plenty of experience trying to “feel out” what’s going on, or trying to recreate the “feeling” in an Alexander lesson – unfortunately I’ve learned the hard way that it doesn’t work (and not to say I don’t still slip into this sometimes – the “feeling” can be so seductive, you might say). But you’re spot on that it’s the thinking that’s important – the process that creates the “feeling” rather than the feeling itself. A dangerous trap indeed…

  3. Thanks Imogen. A colleague once said that your feelings (physical sensations) are really yesterday’s news – what caused them has come and gone. That doesn’t mean they can’t be very useful, but probably not the best guide for how to direct yourself at that moment.

  4. This is what I think of as the Alexander trap – such an important point to keep in mind for ourselves and our students. It’s spot on, not just during AT lessons, but as a general principle of life, and if we could remind ourselves of it more often, we wouldn’t be carried away by ‘success’, or depressed by ‘failure’.
    And that takes me to the thought that it’s a constant process – there’s no end, it’s a chain of ups and downs and perhaps a few flats in between, and we’re in the middle of it, directing away!

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