While I was having a shave today, I noticed that my attention was drifting. Jacek was day dreaming.
The opportunity for little work presented itself, so I decided to have a shave with care and attention. I noticed the sensation of the blade on my face, the tension in my left hand, the sound of ventilator in the bathroom, holding my breath and finally I noticed rush.
The process brought about a subtle change, apart from some useful release in my muscles, I simply started to enjoy what I was doing more: doing something with simplicity and care.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday
I went to the Mass this morning. The degree to which we are able to engage in what is going on, depends on the degree of our personal presence. Well, that seems obvious.
The open question: are there any down-to-earth, practical actions we can undertake in order to participate more deeply and fully in the Worship ?
One thing that stroke me today was how the ability to be still and do nothing, and thus refraining from reacting to whatever comes our way opens up the doors to different level of experience.
The Alexander Technique as a foundation for the religious / spiritual life is not the often discussed topic.
For me it's essential. In general, the training of the body to become a balanced, alert, tuned-in and responsive 'instrument' is sadly missing in the Church.
The open question: are there any down-to-earth, practical actions we can undertake in order to participate more deeply and fully in the Worship ?
One thing that stroke me today was how the ability to be still and do nothing, and thus refraining from reacting to whatever comes our way opens up the doors to different level of experience.
The Alexander Technique as a foundation for the religious / spiritual life is not the often discussed topic.
For me it's essential. In general, the training of the body to become a balanced, alert, tuned-in and responsive 'instrument' is sadly missing in the Church.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Standing like a tree
Last Friday I went for the private Chi Kung lesson with Master Lam. He teaches Zhan Zhuang (Standing like a tree) form of this discipline.
The exercises are static externally, but at the beginning, there's a lot going on internally. The aim is to attain the inner stillness, which is challenging as the assumed positions require a considerable strength, something that muscles initially are not able to provide.
I kept practicing it all the week and noticed that reminding myself to keep the neck free helps reducing and stopping to react to pain and tension, which are inevitable at the beginning.
I'm very keen on applying the principles of the Alexander Technique to this practice. After all, the aim is to be effortless, to apply the minimum amount of tension necessary to hold the positions. Being aware of where the holding occurs was an important point to me last week.
I'm very happy to find this style, and am planning to work on it on a daily basis. It cultivates stillness and provides continous challenge. Is there an end to this exercise ? I don't think so.
You are asked to breathe in and out through the nose, this is in tune with the Alexander Technique. The other style I do demands inhaling through the nose, but exhaling through the mouth. I find this very confusing, and am not really able to maintain it without overthinking and overdoing. I decided to let this go for a while, and concentrate solely on Zhan Zhuang. Better to do 'less', but with quality.
Chi Kung treats the person as w whole, this makes it very attractive to me. Removing the blockages of chi and making it flow smoothly in the body is one of the main principles of Chi Kung / TCM. My sense is that in a way, that's what is achieving with the Alexander Technique, but simply using different tools: stopping repeating harmful patterns using inhibition, alignining with the natural mechanical forces, maintaining coordinated and natural posture etc.
Fascinating stuff I'm looking forward to explore it more.
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It's a shame comments don't appear directly on the website. One useful comment has been made, so I decided to paste it here:
Lovely to read this - I've been thinking about 'Standing like a tree' and AT too. (I've started practising chi-gung when I was training as an AT teacher about six years ago, my teacher here is also a student of Master Lam). I am going to suggest that some of my students to practise Standing Like a Tree with me I think - there are so many useful AT ideas to apply. One I find particularly useful is 'arms connected to and supported by back' (rather than shoulders). I think this will help to strengthen the connection for them, and make the flow through from back to fingers more available, as it does for me.
I think we -AT, chi-gung, and many other modalities as well - are all trying to clear the blockages to let energy flow more freely. Apparently the Chinese say 'All disease is congetion, all health is circulation'
Sandra
July 17, 2010 10:10 PM
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Many thanks for this contribution Sandra. I'll keep what you're saying about 'the arms connected to and supported by back' in mind. I was looking for an AT teacher with some Zhan Zhuang background, so it's wonderful to meet you.
Jacek
July 17, 2010 10:59 PM
The exercises are static externally, but at the beginning, there's a lot going on internally. The aim is to attain the inner stillness, which is challenging as the assumed positions require a considerable strength, something that muscles initially are not able to provide.
I kept practicing it all the week and noticed that reminding myself to keep the neck free helps reducing and stopping to react to pain and tension, which are inevitable at the beginning.
I'm very keen on applying the principles of the Alexander Technique to this practice. After all, the aim is to be effortless, to apply the minimum amount of tension necessary to hold the positions. Being aware of where the holding occurs was an important point to me last week.
I'm very happy to find this style, and am planning to work on it on a daily basis. It cultivates stillness and provides continous challenge. Is there an end to this exercise ? I don't think so.
You are asked to breathe in and out through the nose, this is in tune with the Alexander Technique. The other style I do demands inhaling through the nose, but exhaling through the mouth. I find this very confusing, and am not really able to maintain it without overthinking and overdoing. I decided to let this go for a while, and concentrate solely on Zhan Zhuang. Better to do 'less', but with quality.
Chi Kung treats the person as w whole, this makes it very attractive to me. Removing the blockages of chi and making it flow smoothly in the body is one of the main principles of Chi Kung / TCM. My sense is that in a way, that's what is achieving with the Alexander Technique, but simply using different tools: stopping repeating harmful patterns using inhibition, alignining with the natural mechanical forces, maintaining coordinated and natural posture etc.
Fascinating stuff I'm looking forward to explore it more.
-------
It's a shame comments don't appear directly on the website. One useful comment has been made, so I decided to paste it here:
Lovely to read this - I've been thinking about 'Standing like a tree' and AT too. (I've started practising chi-gung when I was training as an AT teacher about six years ago, my teacher here is also a student of Master Lam). I am going to suggest that some of my students to practise Standing Like a Tree with me I think - there are so many useful AT ideas to apply. One I find particularly useful is 'arms connected to and supported by back' (rather than shoulders). I think this will help to strengthen the connection for them, and make the flow through from back to fingers more available, as it does for me.
I think we -AT, chi-gung, and many other modalities as well - are all trying to clear the blockages to let energy flow more freely. Apparently the Chinese say 'All disease is congetion, all health is circulation'
Sandra
July 17, 2010 10:10 PM
-------
Many thanks for this contribution Sandra. I'll keep what you're saying about 'the arms connected to and supported by back' in mind. I was looking for an AT teacher with some Zhan Zhuang background, so it's wonderful to meet you.
Jacek
July 17, 2010 10:59 PM
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