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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
Aliveness is captured well in the difference between 'freedom from' and 'freedom to' (this idea courtesy of my own AT teacher) Aliveness is like the freedom TO say anything, TO move in any direction, TO entertain any idea It's an embodied responsiveness to the present moment
The felt experience of aliveness is like closing the gap between yourself and the flow of the world Your eyes are alert, you could start dancing at any moment if you wanted to and you feel connected to others It feels like you and the world are co-happening at the same time
Collapsed awareness with diminished aliveness together result in a kind of fixated torpor, a sense of stuckness that's constrained to a small space Expanded awareness with diminished aliveness is present and receptive, yet also passive and lacking in agency; it may be a trap
Expanded awareness with enhanced aliveness is like those moments of peak experience where you're fully here and fully inhabiting the world around you THIS is the state that Alexander Technique gives you I think I've focused too much on awareness, so it's time for more aliveness
@visakanv yeah I can see that being a trip actually somehow powerful yet ungrounded / without the support of (the felt sense of) being integrated with the entire world just your own separate, small bubble of energy (not meant disparagingly, just feeling out that vibe)
incidentally, aliveness is attained by NOT trying for it aliveness seems to be the natural state, which is obscured by layers of doing trying to be alive in this sense is itself a kind of doing counter-intuitively, the more you cease these doings, the more aliveness emerges
the actual felt navigation of this is sort of like noticing each time some doing part of you spins up and then gently putting it down the conditioning to strive/want to attain aliveness is incredibly strong, yet that thing is at the core of what needs to be put down, repeatedly
I also think that aliveness maps more usefully onto the AT idea of the Primary Control when the primary control is engaged, this state of aliveness seems to follow / go with and vice versa, they are the same psychophysical process hence hands-on lessons can guide you into it
it’s gonna happen https://t.co/Pt4BG4WYct
aliveness demonstrated by Marilyn Monroe https://t.co/NpS8wM0JBr
just to connect the dots over on this thread, she definitely knew about Alexander Technique https://t.co/w37Vbf6BIk
i just discovered that Marilyn Monroe had a well-worn copy of one of F. M. Alexander's books in her library might go some way to explaining the fact that she could turn her 'star quality' on and off at will (see next tweet) https://t.co/fjauUSDmD0 https://t.co/VeV5Fl0HMJ
@m_ashcroft spaciousness and passion! https://t.co/v7cNijUYmb