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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Good day or bad day, progress is helpful

I've often heard it said during Alexander Technique lessons that they don't think today is a good day for them to have a session because they won't be very good at it. They may be feeling rather stiff for some reason or they are tired or too stressed. They don't think that they will be able to be as free and loose as they could be or that they are out of practice.

It's an interesting point of view and understandable in some ways, as we like to be good at something, and don't wish to demonstrate either to ourselves or others that we are not at our best and less than a shining example of excellence. But on the other hand we can clearly see that under such circumstances, today could be an ideal day for a session, to help restore some more balance and equilibrium into our life, to calm us down and make life better.

Much as we may wish to be perfect, none of us are likely to reach perfection. I certainly won't. As I have written a book titled 'Perfect Poise, Perfect Life', you would be excused for questioning my view. But I see perfection as something to work towards, even if it is unlikely to be attained. The Alexander Technique helps make life better than it would be without it. Things are either better or worse, not perfect or imperfect. There is an infinite range of in between levels that we moving through, forwards or backwards. Backwards isn't normally helpful except to observe what happens and see how we can improve. Forwards is enhancement, even on minuscule levels.

No matter how bad we may feel, improvement is a forward enhancement of our situation. Even if we are handicapped in some way, it is quite likely that we can make life better by improving balance and poise so we can use what we do have, better.

I was doing some decorating over the weekend, thinking it's a small job and I can rattle it off in a day, or so I thought a week ago when I started it, and four days later of weekend work, we finally got it done last night, or almost. Gone are the days of zapping a task and completing a full decoration in a 10 hour whirlwind. Age progresses. In hind sight we should have got someone to do it for us, but on the other hand, I got the experience and joy of satisfactorily completing it and now it looks great. So I'm feeling a bit stiff after using muscles that don't normally get used so much. And the Alexander Technique comes in pretty handy to make life better. I make myself freer by 'thinking' my neck and shoulders to free up and to release my legs as I walk. The sense of stiffness is evaporating, but still there. And the extra work I'm doing on myself will make the sessions I give today even better. So we can work at making a situation better than it would be without it. If someone comes in with a blinding hang-over, we work at making it a better day than it would otherwise have been.

Progress on a good day is great. Progress on a bad day is.......great. On the not-so-good-day, we make it better and on the feeling-great-day, we make it better still. The good days are enhanced by the work done on the not-so-good-days. This approach applies to anything, including my violin playing. Sometimes I feel that I can't play a single note in tune and it sounds like a tortured cat, but on other days, I can pick the instrument up and it feels like it's coming on wonderfully.

All progress, even from a difficult beginning and on a terrible day can be helpful. If we are applying ourselves, thinking about what we do, changing 'what is' towards what we envisage, it is all helpful progress. However it must be said that mindless repetition or practice when we are not performing well only ingrains the bad co-ordination. So we must take care. But if we are mindful of what we do, and actually think our way forward, we can make helpful progress.

Progress on a bad day, is just as helpful and rewarding as on a good day, and will contribute to our overall situation or performance in the longer term.

Have a good day.

:-)

Posted by Noël on October 23, 2006 8:24 AM | Permalink