Alexander Technique Inhibition
Got an extra third of a second or so? You could use it well by doing nothing. Not doing anything. Not doing the thing you were going to do, and instead doing something different. Or not that either. Your choice. It’s your choice, if you stop your habitual, automatic response. Mind the gap. Inhibit, in the Alexander Technique sense of the word.
The Alexander Technique helps us pause, think, hold back for better control. Stay back, notice, observe. On the ‘body side’ of things, see what could be freer. Possibly your neck, your shoulders, your lower back? Let go by using your mind; your thinking, to send messages to the muscles to let go of excess tension. It’s no big deal. We do it all the time. Just pause to stop the stopping of the flow, and pause to stop the stopping of full, natural breathing.
If you don’t stop, your habit continues. Inhibition, in the Alexander Technique sense of the word, can give you a chance to do something other than reacting in your ingrained way. Reacting to what? Anything.
Inhibition is more than just stopping or pausing, however. Pausing implies stopping for a short period of time, and then resuming. With truer inhibition though, something is going on during the gap. We’re minding the gap. We don’t want to just freeze, waiting to continue. We want to truly stop, do some nothing, reset, re-direct and then move in a new way. Inhibition can lead to new possibilities and freedom. Inhibition is the pause that refreshes, Alexander Technique style.
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
Any thoughts about the Alexander Technique use of inhibition?
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[…] obviously I’m obsessing and getting worked up for nothing. Such a waste of energy, no? Time to inhibit and redirect (in Alexander terms) right? I will try not to […]