Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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February 28, 2006
When my beautiful new tulips at work sagged, wilted and looked at the carpet within an hour of buying them, I mentioned their premature demise to my local flower seller. Here I am, helping my clients become more upright, and the tulips in front of them are giving the worst possible example of poise. But in thinking that the fault lay in the quality of flowers, my florist quickly explained why and gave me a life-saving tip....at least for the tulips.
Apparently, tulips dehydrate very quickly when out of water so their stems go limp and their heavy heads cause them to collapse. The answer is to keep them in the wrapping paper for a while, cut the stem so it has a freshly cut end because this tends to dry up so water cannot get back up the stem even though the flowers are in water. Place the trimmed tulips with the wrapping paper still on, into water and leave for 30 minutes for the water to climb back up the stem. Once the stems are firm again, we can take the paper off and they will stay standing upright for days. They will eventually do what tulips do best and that's to wander and sway a bit with the light, but at least they're not sagging!
Now my tulips give a good example of poise, and I'll enjoy having them each week from now until the end of the season.
I've had an ongoing relationship with this old chestnut for many years and photographed it on several occasions. He's like a wise old man with lots of character and wisdom and sometimes I feel that he knows better than me what's to be done and how I should respond to situations. Being quiet for a few moments and just 'being' with this tree can inspire in me a wonderful sense of calm and connection with nature. And somehow this enables me to be more sensitive to my own intuition and 'understand' myself and my surroundings better.
Photographed with my Hasselblad, tripod mounted with 80mm lens and yellow filter. Developed to compensate for the contrast and maintain detail in shadows as well as highlights.
And for some light relief.....have a pancake....or two. I can't remember when I last had one, but it's some time ago, so I'm really grateful to the calendar for reminding me. Today is the last day of Shrovetide, the three day period of confessions before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, traditionally a period of forty days of fasting before Easter. And this yummy dish is the traditioal feast on Pancake Day!
The pancake goes way back and featured in cookbooks from 1439. It's a thin, flat cake, made of batter and baked on a griddle or fried in a pan. Apparently the tradition of tossing or flipping them is almost as old: "And every man and maide doe take their turne, And tosse their Pancakes up for feare they burne." (Pasquil's Palin, 1619).
In the UK, pancake races also form an important part of the Shrove Tuesday celebrations - a fantastic opportunity for large numbers of people to race down the streets tossing pancakes.
Now, I don't hold strong religious beliefs, but I do believe in enjoying myself, as long as I don't hurt others in the process. I also believe in having something to look forward to. So tonight, we will be having a pancake or two, and today, I'll muse on what filling takes my fancy. Try Granny Menna's Pancakes and see some other recipies.
It's always good to have something to look forward to. It keeps the spirits and energy high, makes you happy....and healthy (but don't have too many...). Yum.
February 27, 2006
One of my clients said today that she hadn't realised that improving her posture would help her feel more comfortable in herself. It's great to see the benefits extending beyond the obvious. But on consideration, we can see that if we're slightly off balance, as most of us are all the time, then our subconscious reflexes are reacting to prevent us from falling over. After all, gravity is working away the whole time, so in order to avoid unnecessary strain we need to be sure we're not leaning. Being off balance is alarming, so it's no wonder that we may feel threatened...all of the time. But we can get used to such a condition so we feel it as normal. We may even believe that we're naturally of a nervous disposition, but this may not be the case. Although we feel it as such, it's not natural....at least not as nature would ideally have us. It's just that our poor posture and balance are undermining us.
But by improving our balance, we can let go of many tensions that are only there to cope with the threat of falling over. it's likely then that the general physical release as a result of this is likely to benefit our breathing, so we're getting more oxygen in and toxins out of our body to a higher level. This is will be calming and therapeutic to the point we're clearer in our skin, clearer in our thinking and feeling and looking more lively.
It is definitely comforting to be in good balance.
I've had my blog site redesigned and I'm really pleased with the way it's working. Bruce at BK Design has done a great job, and I'd strongly recommend him to anyone wanting web design.
“Talent does not determine how good you can get, only how fast you get there.” ~Dick Gabriel or was it Wallingford? Thanks Nicholas.
Tom Baker
The quality of our voice in my opinion is a vastly under-rated and under-used aspect of ourselves and I'm pleased to see that this week BBC Radio 4 gives it prominence in a two-part programme. Jan Ravens, actress and vocal chamelion will look at voice and whose voices we most like or dislike, based on 4,500 respondents to a recent Radio Times survey.
Tom Baker, ex-Doctor Who and voice in 'Little Britain' comes out favourite with his fruity and dark mellifluous tones, and Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley is described as soft and beautifully modulated with a bit of 'Posh'. Janet Street-Porter is uncompromising, Fiona Bruce is smouldering and seductive, while Stephen Fry's voice is beautiful and perfect for story-telling, Terry Wogan has depth and warmth and Ray Winstone is sexy with a lovely lived-in quality to it. The programme will show during experiments visual representation of voice patterns and how they vary from one person to another and if we imitate people, the visual display of frequencies gets close to that of the person we're copying.
Joanna Lumley.
But the sound of our voice is such a persuasive and influential tool, it can clinch a deal, sway an argument and have people drooling at our feet. I shall be interested to see if this BBC programme indicates this aspect and how much we can change or improve the quality of our own voice.
Vocal sound is not something that's a particular part of us, but more the product of our physique and how we use our 'vocal mechanism'. We can see various influences on our voice such as accents, language and characteristics we may have picked up from our parents. These are habits just as any other postural habit we may develop. In my work with the Alexander Technique, I help people such as TV or radio presenters and actors to release unwanted tensions and habits, so they can allow their voices to be free, full, resonant and expressive. But these aspects are just as important in business and social situations.
We can change how our voice sounds if we change the way we use our muscles and vocal mechanism that produces the sound. I may write a bit more on this later....
A Voice Like Honey, Part 1/2, BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 1st March, 9.00pm.
The BBC should pay me commission!
To see all the posts in this series 'A Voice Like Honey' click Here.
February 24, 2006
This was sent to me today by friend, explorer and human resource consultant Terry Tillman
of 22/7 Company. ...
A group of professionals posed the question "What does love mean?" to a group of 4-8 year-olds and the answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. They are so great....
"Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way."
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth."
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
"Love is when someone hurts you. And you get so mad but you don't yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings."
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Continue reading "Love is...."
Shizuka Arakawa
I was lucky enough last night to see Shizuka Arakawa win the Gold in the Olympics Women's Figure Skating, pushing America's Sasha Cohen into second place. What a great performance. In this photo of her during a different event, we can see how balance changes as we move. If Arakawa was static, she'd fall over. But as she's moving in a circle she leans backwards towards the centre to maintain balance. Grace and poise.
Shizuka Arakawa was probably born with skates on so it all comes naturally. But the same principles apply on two feet, whether we're running, jumping or cycling a corner. The balance changes to cope with the momentum and if turning, there's the centrifugal force. We need to be free in all our joints if we're going to be able to maintain our balance without strain in movement...or any time for that matter. This is partly why beginner ice skaters fall over so often; they stiffen up in their joints at the time they need to be free.
February 23, 2006
Snowboarder Daniela Meuli
If ever there was a moment to keep a free neck and good balance, it's on the slopes. The instinctive split second reactions required to perform at such heightened levels requires a co-ordination that is unimpaired by unnecessary tensions that can interfere with the subtlety and speed of adjustment. It's bad enough balancing on two feet on a wet floor in the supermarket, doing it here at 90mph is something else.
However, no matter what activity we undertake, and it doesn't need to be a winter Olympics record attempt, we need our own systems to be working 100%. And in order to achieve that, we need to free ourselves of unwanted habits that fix our necks, shoulders, knees and put us off balance. The unnecessary strain of tightening muscles to prevent our body from falling over when we're constantly off balance with habitual tensions, is enough to undermine our best attempts at any activity.
So If we're going to perform to our best, be it in sport, public speaking, dancing or music, it's worthwhile not only practicing the actual activity itself, but aside of that, to remove any unnecessary tensions to improve our co-ordination and balance. Only then will we be able to give of our best.
February 20, 2006
I nearly had an accident on my motorcycle this morning as I was leaving home at 6.15am. Within 100 metres of my home, a car just pulled out of a private driveway, and came side-on to within a foot of me as I passed at around 20mph. He braked sharply as I swerved and I got the impression he had as big a shock as I did. The driver presumably thought that no-one else in their right mind would be on this quiet suburban road at that time and it would be clear. But then I'm not in my right mind. After I'd passed he drove on slowly well behind me until our paths parted.
But I was shaken by this and five minutes later I was still feeling the effects including anger towards him for his 'carelessness' that had threatened my health. But then I realised as I cycled along beside Hyde Park towards my clinic at Cavendish Square, that I was hanging on to feelings that were not appropriate for where I was at that moment; I was holding onto emotions that linked to a past event, all be it five minutes ago, but were nothing to do with my current situation. At this moment, I was passing beautiful parkland and trees without any other traffic around and it was lovely and peaceful. Why should I continue to feel negativity and anger when it doesn't affect anyone else other than myself? It occurred to me ....why don't I just let these emotions go so I can get back to normal life and enjoy this moment? ...So I did.
I freed my neck of tension then made myself think of something that brought a smile and then a laugh, (doing this alone on a motorbike is probably certifiable) and I found the negativity, anger and shaken emotions just evaporated. Within a minute I was back to my normal self.... maybe a bit mad but happy.
I'm now glad I remembered to let go of the past. It doesn't serve me, as it only holds me back. Forward and up as they say..... Must remember to laugh lots. It's a great stress buster....and keep my neck free.
Have a good day. :-)
February 17, 2006
Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in Hidden (Cache)
HIdden is a French film that casts a spell from the beginning, tightens like a vice as it progresses and doesn't release the viewer until the last scene dissolves any understanding we might have had of the plot, so we're left wondering what actually did happen.
Austrian director Michael Haneke plays visual tricks on us from the opening shot so we feel like voyeurs, and using long, still camera shots, builds unbearable tension.
Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche superbly play comfortably well off intellectuals living on the outskirts of Paris who's world is shattered by anonymously filmed video tapes that land on their doorstep. Georges' (Auteuil) past creeps back to haunt him bringing political and social undertones to underpin a family crisis and we begin to wonder whether what seems to be happening, is the case at all.
What also interested me was the parallel to everyday life and whatever we may think about something, it may not be as it seems. It all depends on our viewpoint. And I'm learning that no matter how I feel about any situation, I may be mistaken and someone else's reality may be quite different. We all interpret things in our own way. As W. Shakespeare said in Hamlet.... 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.' Anyway, Haneke creates a spacious film that allows for many interpretations and it's had me thinking about it all week! This is a brilliant film and a 'must see' for the big screen.
Michael Haneke
February 16, 2006
© George Rodger, 1949
If ever a picture demonstrated good, healthy posture it's this iconic photograph of a Nuba wrestler by George Rodger. He has just won a match and displays a wonderful quality of upright, free poise; lengthening and widening in stature yet very free and supple. Naturally he's displaying great fitness and strength, but there's also an underlying quality that has nothing to do with his muscular build. Look at his right hand and wrist to see how free and loose he is, yet his postural muscles are supporting him well; loose and tall at the same time. Great poise, superstar stature and 100% confidence. It's a quality that we are all had as young children, and he has retained it into adulthood.
Postcard available from Mike Wells, Tel. +44 (0)20-7284 3306
February 15, 2006
Dmitri Ferschtmann
While standing eating my porridge this morning at 6.10am, I had a sudden impulse to put on the radio and found that we were mid-way through a piece of wonderful and moving cello playing. I guessed it was Stephen Isserlis, whose playing I thought I knew quite well as it was so expressive. The piece was not one I recognised and the passionate performance ranged from the delicate, light and briskly playful to heart felt melancholy and deep reflection. How soulful can one get? The cello had such a rich and resonant sound, it had me transfixed.
Normally I would finish my breakfast quickly to go to my clinic, but not today. What was more important....opening and replying to emails or hearing something so beautiful that it would change my mood for the rest of my day? So I allowed myself to be 'late' according to my own crazy schedule and had the best breakfast I'd had in a long time. At the end of the piece the presenter announced that it was a performance of Erno Dohnanyi's cello concerto in D performed not by Isserlis, but by Dmitri Ferschtmann with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and conducted by Bernhard Klee. Great stuff. I think I'll buy a CD.
The beautifully paced and spacious performance gave me more space in myself this morning. I was less hurried, more intuitive and rather than robotic-ally proceeding with my self-imposed schedule, I gave myself the opportunity to have a differently paced morning. I feel easier and freer in myself...and happy. It's just good to linger sometimes and to give ourselves time to enjoy the moment. Thank you Dmitri.
February 14, 2006
My book 'Perfect Poise, Perfect Life' was republished yesterday in paperback....
Paul Kingsley
I just got back from an extended weekend in Scotland for my father's 80th Birthday. We had a great time, and it's good to see him looking so well. Now there's a man who's been using the Alexander Technique to help him in daily life for more than thirty years. He doesn't have problems as such....just that he's getting older that's all. But he's in such good shape!
Dad is high in spirits, full of the joys of playing his flute and says that although he was a professional flautist all his career with the Scottish National Orchestra (now the Royal), he's making a better sound now than he's ever done in his whole life. He says it comes from within. Firstly he needs to hear the sound in his head and imagines the most beautiful and ethereal and spirited sound, then he 'lets' it happen. Naturally, he's got a sound technique from years of experience, but he's worked on this too so he's 'doing' even less and just 'letting it happen'. It's just great to see him so happy.
Not only is he in good mental shape, he's good physically too. He's free and lengthening in stature and well balanced. There's likely to be another twenty years in him yet! Now he's talking of taking up drawing and painting more seriously.
He's such an inspiration to me....always happy and full of joy of being in the moment, while also looking forward too to doing new things. I really must go and see him more often. He's just great.
February 9, 2006
As a youngster I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, and I won every school and regional race going. I was tops. It occurred to me at the grand and insightful old age of 13 that the looser my legs were, the quicker they might move. I imagined my hips and knees having ball bearings soaked in lubricating oil. And as magic, the looser I thought them, the freer they became. I also thought that they might go faster if I told them to; by not trying harder physically, but by simply thinking. This worked too. It’s only now that I realise that my creative thoughts had many parallels to the Alexander Technique, a method that can help anybody else do the same thing.
It just doesn’t make sense to be stiffening our legs, hips and knees when we’re trying to move them, as the stiffening acts like a brake. Would you apply the brake on a bicycle at the same time as trying to pedal fast? So why do it now? Well, the answer is that we’re human and we get into habits. If it’s our habit to tighten, then that’s what we need to overcome.
The great thing is that no matter how we are at the present moment, we can actually make life better than we’re currently experiencing it. We may be stiff from over exercising, or by injury, bruising, or we may have a more serious mobility problem. But no matter what condition we’re in, it’s possible to get our body working better.
Continue reading "Stiff hips and legs"
February 8, 2006
When I take photographs of trees and lanscapes, I seek to create a sense of nostalgia and romanticism in the image. I develop and print using traditional darkroom techniques and endeavour to show a rich range of grey-tones that adds to the sense of atmosphere.
February 6, 2006
Being a Scot, I've always enjoyed a good bowl of porridge for breakfast and no time more than the present in these cold winter mornings. It's full of healthy fibre, wonderfully sustaining, low in colesterol, low GI and induces a lovely sense of euphoric hapiness! What a great way to start the day. Good organic oats are best and Jordan's are amongst the finest, and if you can dare make it with rice milk, you can enjoy a creamy and vegetarian version of porridge that's slightly sweet, and if seasoned with a little salt in the traditional Scottish manner makes it totally superb.
But I was heartily amused and interested today to discover that the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championships are enjoying their thirteenth year in Carrbridge, Inverness-shire. The Championships only commence when the entrants have firstly enjoyed a 'wee dram' of whisky on the bridge and then the The Badenoch & Strathspey Pipe Band View image lead the procession of judges and competitors to their marks. Check out a traditional recipe.
Apparently the porridge should always be stirred in a clock-wise direction using only the right hand in order not to evoke the 'Devil'. Only a spurtle should be used, which is a wooden stirring stick without a moulded or flat end, hence the name of the Championships. Old customs also dictate that it should be eaten whilst standing and with a bone spoon. So there we are! Haven't got one of those, but I do stand, usually because I'm in a hurry.
2005 Winner Lynn Benge stirring her winning bowl of porridge.
February 3, 2006
Maxim Vengerov
Two weeks ago I went to the Barbican concert hall, London, to hear the young virtuoso violinist Maxim Vengerov playing Shostakovitch's 1st viiolin concerto to a full house and it was truly fantastic. My only regret was that from where we were sitting, the angle of view was such I could not see Vengerov easily as he was concealed slightly by Rostropovitch who was conducting the LSO. I so wished to be closer....but never mind I thought, it's great to hear a wonderful live performance.
Last night I was at the Wigmore Hall to hear violinist Nikolaj Znaider playing Beethoven, Debussy, Schoenberg and Franck sonatas and superb he was, and generously played two encores at the end. I could see him easily and thoroughly enjoyed his performance and thought what a great start to 2006 to see two world class violinists in a fortnight!
Niklaj Znaider
...And then I noticed the person who was sitting directly in front of me in the next row and thought him vaguely familiar. It was Maxim Vengerov with his girlfriend who'd come to hear Znaider. This time he was so close I could have whispered in his ear or counted every hair on the back of his neck. He might not have liked that though.... Now I could see both performers without even turning my head! He too seemed to really enjoy the performance, applauded enthusiastically and afterwards went behind stage to meet his virtuoso colleague.
It's amazing how the world works.... One just never knows what's going to happen. What you think is what you get, right enough. That was a great evening on several levels that I won't forget in a hurry.
February 1, 2006
"The Technique, which seemed at first inexhaustibly mysterious, turned out to be an accessible and most enjoyable discipline to learn and to practice.
I have found in the ensuing years, great benefits in my day-to-day living.
By balancing and neutralizing tensions, I've learned to relieve as well as avoid the aches and pains caused by the thousands of natural shocks that flesh is heir to."
Kevin Kline, Actor
