Self Possession, Freedom and Ease

I believe that many of us have had the experience of being in a conversation or social situation in which we lacked self-possession. When after it was over we thought to ourselves, darn it! Why didn’t I think to say this…or that…. Why didn’t I make this point? I should have said….

So what has really happened there and how can the Alexander Technique bring us back to a state of self-possession, and help us to think on our feet?

We were in a moment where we were unable to think clearly. We had the information but we were too boggled or too hung up or tongue tied to make our point. In hindsight we believe we missed a chance to contribute to the situation. We fumbled and we fear we missed a chance to make our point. This sort of thing, when it happens repeatedly, can lead to the loss of a job, or to the undermining of our faith in ourselves, or it can simply give others a misleading impression of what sort of person we are. In any case, it is not a good habit because it makes life harder not easier.

How we apply the technique in such a situation is to stop and observe what we are doing to ourselves, so-called Physically I mean, though it is the entire person really. Is your neck free? Is your head able to allow itself to float easily up off your spine? Is your torso allowing itself to lengthen and widen? If we use the Alexander Technique to develop the capacity to stop and think we are really learning to connect with ourselves.

What we are doing here is learning to be less flustered. In purely social situations we can become less shy and more easy going and actually happier to be meeting new people. But in every case this leads us to a greater sense of self-possession and freedom and ease within ourselves. Can you start to understand how all these things contribute to a happier person?