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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Can
I caught myself thinking CAN'T the other day. It was an unusual experience; most foreign and rather unsettling. Thinking 'can't' is not something I do much. Usually I think 'CAN'.
Such attitude or thinking can appear during times we are 'trying' to do something new or difficult. We may experience failure at our attempts to 'get a hole in one', knock down ten pins in one, ride a hundred miles in a day or be in two places at once. In my case it is during my third month of experimenting with my violin vibrato and attempting to get smooth transitions from note to note with continuous finger-tip impulse vibrato. Learning an instrument at the age of 4 years old is quite a different thing from learning as a mature if not aged adult! The physical results of our efforts may give evidence to a 'can't do' situation. But nothing can be further from the truth.
We may not have done what we intended on that particular attempt, or even during the last ten attempts. But this does not mean that we 'cannot' do it. It's just that we ,may not have done so yet.
CAN is a word I like. It's such a good word. just three letters.....It's like .....YES.
If we're 'trying' to do something and are not achieving it, the last thing we should do is 'try harder'. Trying harder just sets up a whole lot of effort and unwanted physical tension; effort that just gets in the way of achieving our goal. Even if you're attempting to push a broken down car or pick up a heavy box, it's not a question of making more effort; it's likely that you can achieve more by improving your balance or better co-ordination of muscle use. (To get this, you may need some experience of Alexander Technique.)
So often though it's about how we are thinking. Thinking CAN, sets up a whole positive attitude about our task and our abilities. But how can you think CAN, when all your previous experiences tell you that you 'can't'? One answer is to look at HOW you are doing it. Break it down into smaller stages; do it in slow motion to observe in minutiae what you're actually doing rather than what you 'think' you're doing. This is my approach with my violin playing. By slowing the smallest sequence of notes down into slow motion so I can see what's happening and also experiment with giving my muscles the positive experience of doing the task correctly in slow motion, helps get the whole thing into the muscle memory. When the correct finger movement is in our muscle memory, we can speed it up and "Hey Presto!" we're doing what we wanted. But it's unlikely that we will achieve our aim by just 'trying harder' at doing the activity at normal speed. Indeed we're more than likely to just ingrain our faulty muscle use even more so it becomes habitual!
Sports people use Self-Administered Visuo-Motor Behavioral Rehearsal to achieve their goals. It is a tested technique that has been used for years and can be applied to almost any activity, not only sport. See yourself achieving your task, scoring the goal, raising the cup, jumping the high bar or whatever you like. In my own case, I visualise myself in minute detail playing the violin in the manner I want. I 'see' the fluid movement of my fingers, the graceful movement of my 'shifting' arm and hand, the poise, I 'hear' the sound. I visualise or rehearse the feeling I'll get when I HAVE done it. I visualise the experience I will have afterwards....feeling great.....thinking "that was easy!".
To achieve goals that at first seem 'impossible', give lots of time to 'seeing' yourself doing the thing. Also work on your technique by breaking it down into small chunks that can be worked on separately. Do them in slow motion.
If you catch yourself saying "I can't do......", put a coin in a swear box. There is one word that I would like struck out of the dictionary.... You know what one it is.
CAN. That's a far better word.
Comments
Hmm, there is something I have been struggling to do and I think I need to visualise 'CAN' because the spectre of 'CAN'T' has rather taken over! On the subject of violins though, have you come across Kato? Started as a child prodigy but has taught now for years, in Oxford as well as all over the world, and if she's never studied Alexander Technique then she must have been born to it! Her 'no bow, no violin' technique is incredible. - I just googled her and her full name is "Kato Havas". My mother studied under her, and taught me her method when I started the violin. She is the most amazing woman!
Posted by: Provincial Lady | October 29, 2008 8:16 PM
I haven't come across Kato Havas but since reading your comment, I've found some video footage of her talking on YouTube. She looks really interesting. How she talks of 'playing from the inside - out' is inspiring and I will look into her methods more. Thanks for letting me know. Best wishes, Noel
Posted by: Noel | October 30, 2008 10:57 AM
I was reminded that another small but powerful word is "let". "Can" still implies some degree of effort.
Posted by: Stella | October 30, 2008 2:00 PM
Hi Stella,
'Let' is such a good word too. Very Alexandered! I know what you mean; CAN can cause us to use unnecessary effort in an attempt to achieve something and quite right....this is to be avoided. My use of CAN is to do with belief....not effort. No one ever achieved anything by thinking they could not do it. :-) Belief does not involve effort; how we think has such an influence on how we perform. 'Trying harder' with effort is to be avoided, I agree.
Noel
Posted by: Noel | October 31, 2008 7:09 AM
Thank you Noel, I like both small words in equal measure.
Looking forward to seeing Bond, James Bond, later.
Posted by: Stella | October 31, 2008 11:23 AM