Categories
Performance & Potential

Living Consciously with the Alexander Technique

One of the chief aims of the Alexander Technique is heightened consciousness. (F.M. said of his work, “It is quickening the conscious mind.”) Consciousness in what we are doing and how we are doing it in life, unfailingly leads a person to a state of prevention of disease, mental and physical malformations, and loss of […]

Continue to Full Post...
Categories
Performance & Potential

Debauched Kinesthesia; Or, How Our Senses Deceive Us All the Time

During his career as a dramatic performer, FM Alexander struggled with vocal problems.  He had been to doctors repeatedly to no avail.  But he had a fierce determination to understand what was getting in his way and decided he would find the reason for his voice failure, no matter what. This is very rare.  When […]

Continue to Full Post...
Categories
Performance & Potential

Kinesthesia Part II: How Our Thinking Makes It So

Hamlet:  Denmark’s a prison. (…) Rosencrantz:  We think not so, my lord. Hamlet:  Why then ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare, HAMLET (II, ii) In the first article on this topic, we looked at some of what Alexander went through, and what […]

Continue to Full Post...
Categories
Performance & Potential

Kinesthesia PART III: Re-Thinking

FM Alexander figured out that our thinking shapes our feelings and our feelings shape our thinking, so if either of those two inputs is warped, both will become warped, and lead to a “debauched kinesthesia.” Most people will rely on their own kinesthetic sense as their guide in every decision in their lives, whether it […]

Continue to Full Post...
Categories
Performance & Potential

Human Excellence

“There is an ideal of excellence for any particular craft or occupation; similarly there must be an excellence that we can achieve as human beings. That is, we can live our lives as a whole in such a way that they can be judged not just as excellent in this respect or in that occupation, […]

Continue to Full Post...