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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.
2/ Doing comes so naturally to us that we don't know that we're doing it and we don't know how to stop. Try something for me. When you finish reading this thread, go and lie flat on your back on the ground and stay there for 10 minutes (eyes open). Your task is to notice doing.
3/ "But I'm lying on my back on the floor! What could I possibly be doing?" Just lie there. Notice tension in your body, notice the room, notice your thoughts. Every so often, you might notice a release of tension in your body. What caused it?
4/ It wasn't just the lying on the floor. At the exact moment when that release of tension happened, you stopped doing whatever it was that was causing it. Keep watching, it'll happen again. Notice the quality your mind has when it does. What's it like? Open, spacious, alert.
5/ Non-doing does not turn you into a jellyfish to be pushed around by the currents of circumstance. Peeling back the layers of doing reveals something naturally powerful and alive. It's you β more you than you ever thought possible β only its effortlessly you.
6/ Having the opportunity to learn how to bring non-doing under my conscious control is one of the most transformative gifts I've ever been given. It's a tool for un-learning, for un-holding, for un-doing all those patterns that aren't really me.
@m_ashcroft thanks for the prompt! i had a few releases of tension but the main thing is that i became aware of what i think is a buzzing layer of anxiety (at least nervous system activation) that iβm usually suppressing; this has happened several times before when i lie down to βrelaxβ
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
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
relevant deeper rabbit hole https://t.co/gvBTKCKxw0
@m_ashcroft Yeah, in my opinion, action can really be categorised into 3 types. 1. Doing 2. Choice-based inactivity (being still, sleeping, etc.), so non-doing 3. In-limbo. 3 is a byproduct of an inability to choose between #1 and #2. it comes as busywork, procrastination and anxiety, etc
@m_ashcroft 'we've been conditioned by the cult of doing' Thoroughly, through and through. Even as I write this I'm about to open my laptop to do more work. And that's just on the macro level, forget the internal, subtle non-stop doing
@m_ashcroft @nibrasibn Yea it's hiarious how i cnnot convey the experience. I wonder if that is what I was belly-laughing about... the thought was 'its not all so serious!!' maybe the 'all so serious' meant i needed to be doing and because it isnt, i dont...
@m_ashcroft @nibrasibn what's hilariously fascinating for me about this whole matter is how talking about this sounds EXACTLY like talking about enlightnement https://t.co/u8PEq65mdv
@clamia @zbingledack https://t.co/b0d7R8JxZg
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.