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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago

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

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6/27/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

When stuck in trying to dance mode, you probably know that thinking about how to dance isn't helping you and you should 'just dance'. You might tell yourself to "get out of your head". Not only does that not help at all, but it actively makes things worse.

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6/27/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

It's just like the effect of 'choking' in a sports context. The more you try to get yourself to get out of your head and back into 'the zone' the more the zone eludes you. That's because the part of you that is trying to fix the problem is the part that's causing the problem.

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6/27/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

The way out of this trap, annoyingly, is not to try to get out of it. That will sound annoyingly vague and unhelpful, but really, since what you want to avoid is 'trying to fix', anything that looks like 'trying to fix' is the wrong move. What you want is to 'just notice'.

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6/27/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

If you can 'just' notice the part of your mind — 'The Tryer' — that tries to get itself to stop thinking AND not do anything about then you interrupt the vicious cycle that you're trapped in. Doing this over and over then allows something else to actually dance, effortlessly.

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6/27/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

There's a more polished version of this idea in this essay here, as well as a bunch more if you're interested https://t.co/axc4CmgSp6

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6/27/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

https://t.co/u8HwVIN5P9

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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• over 5 years ago

Meta] If you've come across this thread in isolation and want to go deeper then you might be interested in my 'thread of threads' on the topic. https://t.co/pppidMHSzH

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7/2/2021
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Michael Ashcroft@m_ashcroft• about 4 years ago
Replying to @m_ashcroft

Meta] Also, if you want to dive much deeper into this stuff, I have built what I believe is the only asynchronous online course that explores Alexander Technique from a first principles perspective. You can find out more and stay up to date by going here: https://t.co/GHzsyr4ILq

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7/13/2021