Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
« Alexander Seal of Approval | Main | Skill and Poise »
Emulating the child
Occasionally I jot a note into a special notebook I keep for ideas about health, posture and Alexander Technique. These are usually my own thoughts, musings or notions that come to mind and I've noted them into this book so I can remind myself at a later date. It is often by flicking through this book that I come across a notion I've jotted down at some time which I have forgotten; after such a long time it may seem a piece of nonsense now, but on the other hand it may still ring with truth.
The hardback notebook fell open at a page I hadn't seen since I wrote it a few years ago. Nothing astonishing or revelatory.....nothing I'm not fully aware of now. But I read the words as they were written down and I appreciated the reminder. I'll share it with you.
"The quality [of poise or posture] we want is of a child, who has just been told she can go out and play.....
....Up, expansive, excited, happy, loving, energised, no worries, free, enthusiastic, outgoing, gregarious, lively and just being herself."
You will have heard me often speak of the poise of a young child being the most natural and healthy quality; it's something we've all had if we've been healthy, and we should still have now if we didn't have our postural habits interfering with our muscular co-ordination. Our habits affect everything we do; characterising us with our stoop, hunched shoulders, twist or stride of walk.
We were free of any 'learnt' habits at the age of 3 or 4 years old. From that age onwards we learn new skills and develop bad postural habits with equal measure; our body does not distinguish between them. We learn.......everything.....good and bad.
Emotions affect our posture as much as anything. If we're sad or feeling low we're more likely to slump. If we hear some good news we feel great....we jump for joy. at least inside, even if we don't actually leap. A three year old child however would actually leap.
So my note that presented itself to me this morning, having haphazardly pulled the book from its shelf, was a welcome reminder. We can try all we like to improve our posture and eliminate any harmful habits we may be fortunate enough to notice and a lot of good we can do ourselves too. The Alexander Technique is a most excellent way of doing this. And if we can also find within us the emotional qualities I listed in the same note, then we'll find this also helps a great deal.
Today I shall give a little more thought to bringing about these qualities. Whether we're happy or not....we can choose to be so. Today I shall emulate those qualities I associated with a young child. (Doing so does not make us look any less of an adult...just a happy, healthy, friendly and outgoing one!)
Today is going to be a gooooood day. :-)
Ps. Apologies for the use of this photo of me aged 3 which you may have seen before, but it shows the qualities I've talked about.
