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1/ This is a thread on things I've written about Alexander Technique. I will expand it as I write more things. https://t.co/hq7gk6EBmB
1/ Refering to "when you stop doing the wrong things, the right thing does itself." What does this mean? Here's an example: allowing yourself to walk without imposing your idea of what walking is like. Some people might recognise what follows as Alexander Technique. (thread) https://t.co/LZKA1v0D7P
Alexander Technique is not about posture. Alexander Technique is not about posture. Call it wu-wei. Call it non-doing. Call it cultivating spontaneity. It's about learning how to unlearn and then to explore the space you discover beyond that unlearning.
1/ The story of how F.M. Alexander discovered the principles named after him give a good introduction into what Alexander Technique is all about. This thread starts with biography and ends with the transcendence of the Self. I hope it's illuminating. Do ask me questions!
I made a video on using expanded awareness to manage chronic pain. Pretty amateur video but hopefully of value. https://t.co/ljMwQ4uBwS
6/ Thread on expanded awareness (twitterified version of the article I shared in tweet 3 of this thread) https://t.co/xC364lSdPK
7/ Thread on shared attention spaces. https://t.co/ZJCmb38NYZ
1/ I've become fascinated by the experience of what I call "shared attention spaces". This is where people all have their attention on the same thing and it feels like they're having a shared experience. We can explore what they feel like when their spell gets broken.
8/ Thread on non-doing vs doing nothing. https://t.co/5wmA4PHF1i
1/ Non-doing is not the same as doing nothing, because doing nothing is still doing. They're the same thing. Non-doing is neither of these: non-doing is the absence of doing. This distinction is as crucial as it is subtle. We've been conditioned by the cult of doing.
9/ This thread from @nosilverv is 100% worthy of honorary inclusion here. https://t.co/ln1WBqAZar
10/ Christopher Reeve transforming from Clark Kent ("doing") to Superman ("non-doing). https://t.co/rrF7bag6RW
This clip of Christopher Reeve transforming from Clark Kent into Superman is an amazing example of Alexander Technique and non-doing. Seriously, watch it. He doesn't haul himself up, he floats up to his full height effortlessly. How? https://t.co/zyWcITJnzg 1/
11/ Patterns of habitual muscular tension are identical with your sense of self. Let go of one and you let go of the other. https://t.co/4jaDTaXxI3
1/ Your sense of self and how you hold yourself physically are the same thing. They change with each other. If you're like most people, you're holding in your belly right now. What happens if you let go? How are you different, now? Let's play with this. (thread)
12/ My difficulties with the question "What is Alexander Technique?" https://t.co/w9ceHH82qS
One of my most dreaded moments is when someone innocently asks "so what is Alexander Technique?" If I don't want to go into it, I mumble something about posture, because that's easy and tends to shut down the conversation. I feel bad because it's not true, but it suffices. 1/
13/ Some really interesting socratic questioning with @SeanMombo exploring expanded awareness. https://t.co/tLKkOnwtUF
14/ Another honorary inclusion from @SeanMombo who is definitely getting it. https://t.co/JHxZtI6KuT
15/ How to fall asleep - stop doing awake. https://t.co/n2AdrwchOh
You can't 'do' falling asleep. Any form of doing will keep you awake. Instead, stop 'doing awake' and trust your system to do the rest on its own. I made a short video on this for my new Alexander Technique newsletter, Expanding Awareness. Enjoy! https://t.co/cOTqaZDHZo
16/ I launched Expanding Awareness as a hub for my Alexander Technique explorations. You can subscribe to the newsletter or just read the back catalogue as it grows here. https://t.co/eL4NJQNUn0
I'm thrilled to share the launch of Expanding Awareness, a newsletter where I will go deep into Alexander Technique. The idea is to 'work with the garage door' as I explore AT's principles, how it relates to other fields, and how to teach it online. https://t.co/Iol9o85q7O
17/ @xuenay's experience with 'stop doing awake' to fall asleep and the importance of intention and non-attachment. https://t.co/TgfXmYM59F
1] Thanks to @xuenay for sharing his experience using my 'stop doing awake' approach to fall asleep. What I love is the focus on having a clear intention. This is an important part of Alexander Technique, from which I derived the approach. This is worth digging into. (thread) https://t.co/sfLKX4F9oJ
18/ Learning how not to respond to stimuli. https://t.co/KxC5gJUcoM
1] A crucial skill in life is learning how not to respond to stimuli. In a minute I'm going to ask you to pick a colour. (Stimulus) . Are you already thinking about colours? (Response). I said "in a minute". Notice, without judgement, how you responded. Let's do it again.
19/ Let's have a video session! https://t.co/XS3Ek2R8FP
1] I am offering exploratory 1:1 Alexander Technique video sessions with anyone interested. If that's you, then please fill in the form here: https://t.co/a6TpjQ997w This is part of my ongoing journey to figure out the best ways to teach this stuff online.
20/ The bind at the core of all this. https://t.co/hXIW9DzOHh
I find myself in a bind. I am at my best when I play, yet I can't force myself to play. The more I try to force play the further I move away from it. I may develop elaborate tricks to delude myself into thinking I'm playing, but deep down I see through it and life feels wasted.
21/ Serious vs sincere. https://t.co/DEyKs0PeKl
1] There is a huge difference between being *serious* and being *sincere*. Alan Watts touches ever so gently on this when he talks about Waking Up, as in this video. What it comes down to is how you play the game of your life (and it is a game). https://t.co/dFb3OPERVw
22/ The sensational introduction to Alexander Technique article from @reasonisfun https://t.co/yycrtRYU8A
📃 NEW: Introduction to Alexander Technique – It's Not Posture https://t.co/jR2Pj2AG4S Explaining these key ideas: 👁 Awareness ☯️ Non-doing ⏯ Inhibition ⛹️♂️ Intentions Big thanks to @m_ashcroft 🙌 (whose pinned tweets you should read if you haven't already!)
23/ Alexander Technique teachers can get into your head the way meditation teachers can't. https://t.co/f4q1m3Jjn9
1] When we sit in meditation, it's up to us to notice when we've drifted off. There's no teacher in our heads to bring us back. In Alexander Technique sessions, the teacher is able to catch when a student's attention drifts - in the moment when it happens "Where did you go?"
24] Thread exploring different ways into the direct experiencing of expanded awareness. https://t.co/Dgf9CCGvRv
1] I have the week off work so I have arranged about 15 1:1 Zoom sessions with curious folks. The key thing I need people to *get* early on is what expanded awareness is like. It doesn't need to be strong, but there has to be a sense of "oh yeah, *that*." So here's a thread.
25] Thread on 'quality of intention'. "Just do it" vs "thinking about it" https://t.co/801sR2cVUh
1] Play a game with me. While reading this , open and close your hand a few times. Do this a few times as you read this sentence. Notice how you aren't using words in your head to think "open... close... open.... close". You 'just open' and 'just close' your hand.
26] Using sounds to expand your awareness. Notice the furthest away sound you can hear. https://t.co/aKBfggIEv5
1] Sounds are a great way to expand your awareness. Right now, notice the furthest away sound you can hear. Get a sense for its direction. Then just realise that there are equivalent points at the same distance in the opposite direction and above your head. Notice them too.
27] A planetary metaphor for accessing your body's natural 'anti-gravity' system. https://t.co/8oRPXBHst2
1] Your body has a natural anti-gravity system. It naturally wants to be light and floaty. The problem is that we have lost touch with it. When we catch ourselves slumped, we use additional muscles to haul ourselves up. This is not the anti-gravity system. Thread 🧵⬇️
28] Reflections from doing 14 Zoom calls in 5 days. https://t.co/tIeDVwKupX
1] I had this week off work, so like any normal human I decided to fill it with experimental 1:1 Alexander Technique intro Zoom calls. I just completed the last one, so here is a thread of reflections. It started with a tweet... https://t.co/XS3Ek2R8FP
29] How to be Superman https://t.co/CHwj9bM38U
1] A while back I shared a clip of Christopher Reeve transforming from Clark Kent into Superman. It struck a chord with many people so I wrote an article to go deeper. This is so meaningful to me in ways that are hard to express, but I'll try. Thread 🧵 https://t.co/1KvB9lHmGA
30] Really fun podcast with @ReachChristofer https://t.co/jGXbHoi5Sr
31] Equally fun podcast with @AllanGSteele! https://t.co/kXmD0ZwqRD
Thanks to @AllanGSteele for inviting me onto his podcast! We had a fantastic conversation about Alexander Technique, which you can listen to here. Also this was the first time I'd ever been a guest on a podcast, so please be nice! https://t.co/5gXFEf7TEt
32] Get the monkey mind to shut up by choosing the present moment, over and over. https://t.co/XrFgLKks1X
1] I have come to learn that it is entirely possible to 100% switch off the monkey mind. Not just 'notice and not identify with it', but actively get it to shut up. This can be done by choosing, repeatedly, to pay attention to the present moment — all of it, in its entirety.
33] I'm making a course that replicates and enhances my intro Zoom calls. https://t.co/4D7l9iCy3A
🚨 Future course alert 🚨 Over the last few months I've been playing with different ways to teach Alexander Technique online. I'm now ready to make a course. I enjoy building in public, so I want to share the process I'll go through to do this, starting with this thread. 👇👇
34] Nullius in verba https://t.co/F0dZJ3jnu6
1] Have you heard the Latin phrase "nullius in verba"? It means "take nobody's word for it" and it's the motto of the Royal Society, the UK's national science academy — and my first employer. It's also the philosophy of my upcoming Alexander Technique course. Why? 👇👇
35] Course approach: lifetime access and continual enhancement with new models to help students learn and get out of the 'traps' that are an inherent part of the learning process. https://t.co/LjoXQdvBeN
1] Unfortunate fact: Alexander Technique lessons wear off. Your first lesson is amazing. You have a sense of ease and aliveness, this new way of being seems so simple, and you take it with you for a few hours. Then it goes away. You try to get it back – and get stuck. 👇👇
36] Building my course out loud - follow in real time. https://t.co/u0ITsQrzNC
You can follow along as I build my Alexander Technique course out loud! I'll update this thread after each working session with something interesting that came up. Expect a fun combination of @RoamResearch and expanded awareness. https://t.co/dYltgnjH1K
37] Pre-launched the course https://t.co/XrFNd4B9vB
Today I pre-launched my upcoming Alexander Technique course to my Expanding Awareness newsletter. I'm thrilled to share that I just sold out the 50 spaces I made available. I'm so grateful. This is huge. Let's ride this wave and build something amazing. https://t.co/mxl4c40NLq
38] AT session at The Stoa! https://t.co/PPXjtrvFI9
39] Recording from the session at The Stoa and a thread on using expanded awareness to manage anxiety. https://t.co/Tk96qe1D8K
1] Let me tell you how can manage anxiety by taking conscious control of your awareness. Two weeks ago I did a session at The Stoa and, being perfectly honest, I was very nervous in the hours before it started. Here's a thread on how I managed it 👇 https://t.co/ZHhSZr3N2o
40] It feels important that I include this here. https://t.co/uYDH4x9VgA
Sometimes I feel strange about the fact that Alexander Technique has become somewhat memetic around here. I know that will put some people off and I'd hate for a fundamentally non-coercive practice to *feel* coercive. I'm here to talk about it, I'm not here to convert anyone.
41] Chat with @uberstuber! https://t.co/JqcjOW8Ilq
42] A little thread on being 'given' unconscious habits from society and the importance of being able to see them and make new choices instead. Triggered by a great article from @p_millerd https://t.co/SE23zoUMDm
This is an excellent exploration of non-doing in the context of modern culture. The only thing I'll add is that it is possible (desirable, even) to have goals and pursue them in a non-doing way. Here's an extract from "Freedom to Change", a well-known AT book: (and thread👇) https://t.co/nVXo42SHpj https://t.co/pEUqGuoDtK
43] Boris Johnson 'doing' getting his temperature read https://t.co/Iw8N4zezU4
I just saw this photo of Boris Johnson getting his temperature read using a non-contact temperature scanner. It's a great example of unnecessary 'doing' and shows the kind of thing that Alexander Technique can undo. (more below) Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Image https://t.co/ae39cn3xGW
44] Michael feeling pleased with himself thread https://t.co/SiRQBlsRXp
Self-congratulatory thread, but whatever. Many/most of you will know that I am building an Alexander Technique course. This is entirely online and entirely asynchronous. To my knowledge, this has never been done. No one is doing this. Many would consider it impossible. But...
45] This feels like it belongs here. Psychophysical unity in action https://t.co/PRD42Ez9Fo
Yesterday I made a video about my experience with burnout and shared it here. Immediately afterwards I felt pretty bad. Not in a regretful or shameful way, but in a tired and emotionally low way. This is the "vulnerability hangover', it happens to me a lot, and it's fine...
46] Thread riffing on @jongold's experience of AT while playing music https://t.co/BCU0iPl8Q3
This makes me very happy to read! Here are a few thoughts about why this works. 1) The expansive awareness while playing music make it possible for you to notice what's going on in the wider space: what other musicians are doing, how the audience are responding https://t.co/TCbp5K6oRN
47] Creating an oasis at Expanding Awareness inspired by ideas from the Zettelkasten https://t.co/mkMZalCR5S
48] Dance without trying to dance https://t.co/w2Dfg8a02U
In my experience there are two ways of being when we dance. 1. An almost sacred, effortless, graceful flow that seems to dance itself as you watch. 2. Lots of overthinking, trying, internal commentary. Awkward. Trying. So let's talk about how to dance without trying to dance. https://t.co/vWOUB6wKGl
49] Application of inhibition to allow muscle release during a big stretch https://t.co/sVg9iw6FAo
I had a moment in physiotherapy today where I surprised my trainer by doing something that he'd never seen before. I went from poor mobility to "meeting the standards" in just a few rounds of the stretch. I did this (left to right, basically) through Alexander Technique... https://t.co/g1lCkvBzS7
50] Ongoing thread of course testimonials https://t.co/sfDlzRIeYC
51] Defence against the dark arts? https://t.co/8YKYcT6t7w
I'm creating a new supplemental section for my Alexander Technique course on communication/social/speaking Basically how to use all this awareness stuff in real life when talking to people in different settings. One thing I'm toying with adding is 'awareness counter-measures'
52] Playlist of relevant videos over on YouTube https://t.co/AxfN41LmNW
I made a little playlist on YouTube for all stuff that is about or adjacent to Alexander Technique ideas. For some reason I've not given much thought to playlists, but actually as I get into the 'dozens of videos' range it's just a polite thing to do. https://t.co/YadSFych1P
53] Thread on Alexander Technique as a method for global unfixatedness https://t.co/Ox48jxCXsP
The more I think about it, the more I believe that Alexander Technique is, at its core, about consciously cultivating a state in which you can remain 'unfixated'. This means the ability to step out of anything that might get you stuck in one single way of being. Take posture...
54] Anatomy of the head / spine joint (atlanto-occipital joint) https://t.co/EngFhMWlJe
The skull meets the spine at the atlanto-occipital (AO) joint. If you put your fingers in the indentation behind your earlobes so they're horizontal and imagine a line connecting them, the AO joint is on this line. Nod gently and you should be able to feel the articulation.
55] Starting to explore the intersection of Alexander Technique and society through the lens of activism https://t.co/IFCjMovfaG
I've been thinking about the societal implications of Alexander Technique style 'expanded awareness'. One area that comes to mind is the role of activism as a kind of societal awareness trigger, whereby the role of the activist is to expand society's awareness of an issue.
56] Awareness is the capacity to notice that which could be noticed Expanded awareness means to be able to notice more things Collapsed awareness means to be unable to notice things — and not even to be aware of that condition or the loss of agency https://t.co/kRl8JwcvSr
I often describe awareness as "the capacity to notice things that could be noticed" it's actually really common for people to unconsciously cut things out of their awareness such that they *couldn't* notice them to expand awareness, then, means to be able to notice more things
57] Talking about subvisualisation https://t.co/31G9TSJLVu
This is a good question, since I use the term 'check that you could notice' a lot when I teach. One (that has become a bit of a meme) is "if there were an aircraft going overhead, check that you could notice it". Importantly, 'check you could notice it' ≠ 'visualise it' https://t.co/dFpzUbcdHk
58] starting to talk about 'aliveness' https://t.co/xZBLLUO6Ja
I talk a lot about awareness, particularly the fact that it can be expanded or collapsed But awareness is just one side of what might be a 2x2, where the other axis is 'aliveness' What I want to teach encompasses both 'expanded awareness' and 'enhanced aliveness' together
59] metaphors to think about aliveness https://t.co/L0zsWIBgiN
I want to riff a little more on what I mean by 'aliveness' and try to hint at some of the felt sense of what it's like, at least for me the absence of aliveness is a kind of 'distance' between me and the vividness of real world increasing aliveness closes that gap towards zero https://t.co/FLyefzQEBh
60] Piece in Every - "You can only respond to what you notice" https://t.co/1yWEPPbxCs
61] Unscrunching https://t.co/gvBTKCKxw0
62] I have been bad at updating this meta thread, but: functions in computer science to explain what Alexander Technique gets at https://t.co/5pSOp08tRe
I'm going to try to explain Alexander Technique using an idea from computer science: functions I am not a dev so forgive any mistakes a function is a separate chunk of reusable code that is called from the main program, does something, then the main program continues
63] Starting to articulate 'increasing couldness in a bigger space' (better words needed) aka aliveness https://t.co/SBXq4GWEko
let's play an awareness game there seems to be a common phenomenon for many people, whereby only part of the world around you seems 'interactive' it's as though the space near you seems 'real', like you can actually interact with stuff in it, but further away is 'theoretical'