Michael Ashcroft
Explaining Alexander Technique to software developers
Just like computer programs, it seems humans have functions. When functions run, the world can get less vivid while reducing your agency.
I'm going to explain a human phenomenon that Alexander Technique plays with, using an idea from computer science: functions. I'm not a developer, so
Unscrunch yourself
As a little experiment, I'd like you to 'scrunch' yourself.
Consciously tighten a bunch of muscles in your face, neck, shoulders, back, wherever, and hold for a couple of moments. Get a sense of what you're doing to add all this tension to your
Couldness as a way into aliveness
In a recent YouTube video talking about his experience exploring Alexander Technique, Tasshin came up with the term couldness as a way of capturing a way into a particular way of being that my own Alexander Technique teacher calls 'aliveness'.
Don't crash into the tree!
I recently came across the concept of target fixation on a walk around Wikipedia.
Target fixation is an attentional phenomenon observed in humans in which an individual becomes so focused on an observed object (be it a target or hazard) that they inadvertently increase their risk of colliding with the
To rush is to try to compress time
I'm fascinated by the felt experience of rushing, because It seems that rushing
can be a sneaky two for the price of one type of deal; we may mean one thing by
it, but we usually get something extra as well, something that's easy to miss.
How to dance without trying to dance
There’s a particular way of being we inhabit when dancing. Dancing is a kind of availability, a capacity to respond to the invitations of each moment in a receptive, fluid and open way.
When dancing without a partner, say in a club or at a concert, the music is
Disengaging your parking brake
A few years ago — during a road trip from Boston, MA, to Burlington, VT — I
noticed the engine of my hire car was working quite hard and the steering was
heavy.
When I stopped at a farm to investigate, and to sample some maple syrup and
cheese, I realised that
Non-doing or non-forcing?
I want to unpick a challenge that was presented to me: why do I say non-doing, which can confuse people, instead of something more clear like non-forcing?
Non-doing or non-forcing?
Indeed, Alan Watts himself preferred the term forcing in translating the ‘wei’ in ‘wu-wei’:
“Wu-wei is the principle of not
Non-judgemental awareness is curative
This is one of the lessons from my Fundamentals of Alexander Technique course
[https://expandingawareness.org/courses/], which I'm reproducing here because
it's something I want to be able to link to on the public web.
There are times in life where we catch ourselves ‘doing’
Activism is a societal awareness trigger
I’ve wanted to explore the intersection of awareness and society for a long
time. I have a hunch that there’s a rich and valuable line of inquiry here, and
it seems that the best way to mine it is to simply start digging, so here we go.
First,
The journey back to conscious naturalness
What does it mean to be truly natural, to have that quality of spontaneity we
had as children? Most of us have lost access to that state and would like to
have it once again, but there is no turning back now. We can only go forwards
and find it
Student experience: Kofi Baah
Notes from Michael
While I can say many things about Alexander Technique that I think will be
helpful, I think it's often more accessible to hear experiences from students
who are earlier on their own journeys.
Kofi Baah [https://twitter.com/k3baah] kindly shared this great post in
Unleashing the right hemisphere
I'm working my way through The Master And His Emissary, written by Iain
McGilchrist, which I expect one day will be considered one of the most important
books of all time.
You may know that the brain is lateralised into two hemispheres, left and right.
This has unfortunately
Notice your 'getting ready' habit
I don’t mean preparation, like for a public lecture or test. I mean the moment
by moment experience of bracing yourself for the next moment. Yes, I’ll explain.
There’s a very common experience in Alexander Technique lessons, particularly
for beginners, where the student ‘gets ready’ to receive
A single integrated field of awareness
I’ve started re-reading one of the best Alexander Technique books out there:
Freedom to Change by Frank Pierce Jones. When I have a reading list, this book
will be on it.
I want to share a few really interesting excerpts from the opening chapters with
some commentary.
> “It
How to be natural on camera by expanding awareness
I’m currently part way through a project to ‘make 100 YouTube videos’, the idea being to get comfortable on camera and to eventually become some sort of YouTube influencer guy. Or something.
Most of these videos have involved me screaming into the void, but this one struck a chord
Could online teaching be superior?
I’m re-reading one of Alexander’s later books at the moment: The Use of the Self.
He notes in the introduction that many people write to him complaining that they can’t ‘do it themselves’ by reading his books. Let me give you a sense of his not great
Public speaking with the Alexander Technique
Let’s talk about one of the most tangible benefits I’ve seen from applying my
Alexander Technique skills: dramatically improved public speaking ability.
I used to be absolutely terrified of public speaking or of ‘performing’ in any
way. I would get huge stage fright, feel intensely uncomfortable, visibly shake
Learning to say no: experiments in inhibition
Consent lies at the heart of Alexander Technique. I mean two things by this.
One person giving permission to participate in some activity. This kind of
consent is vital not just when teaching Alexander Technique, but in all domains
of life.
The experience of giving consent to respond to stimuli.
Unleash your supercomputer
New metaphor: Alexander Technique is the art of unleashing the power of the
supercomputer within you.
In A Pattern Recognition Theory Of Mind
[https://fortelabs.co/blog/a-pattern-recognition-theory-of-mind/] (paywall),
Tiago discusses the key ideas in Ray Kurzweil’s book, “How To Create A Mind”.
There’s a good intro here
Getting unstuck - physically and philosophically - with Alexander Technique
I want to open with a quote from Frank Pierce Jones regarding John Dewey, who was an early proponent of Alexander Technique:
(John) Dewey considered that the Alexander Technique provided a demonstration of the unity of body and mind. With progress as a pupil, he reported an improvement in his
Awareness is a User Interface
In What is the Alexander Technique?
[https://expandingawareness.org/blog/what-is-the-alexander-technique/] I defined
awareness as "the space that attention can move around within; the capacity,
moment by moment, to be able to notice things that could be noticed."
Let’s play a game.
First, please look at this
What is the Alexander Technique?
You’re probably familiar with this well-known, yet misattributed, quote from Viktor Frankl:
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
Not Viktor Frankl
But… how?
At its heart, Alexander