I’m lazy!

I think that I like the Alexander Technique because I’m lazy! I don’t want to use more energy than necessary. I like the idea of minimum effort for the maximum result. The Alexander Technique doesn’t guarantee us any particular result, but it does open the door to new possibilities that we didn’t even know existed with the simple decision to say “no.”
Sunday is a great day to practice saying “no.” The “no” I’m referring to is not the “No, I have no intention of washing the dishes and no one is going to convince me.” I’m talking about a pause to see what I’m doing and what I’m about to do, to say no to a stimulus to create space and time. Space and time to think about how I will respond to a stimulus instead of reacting automatically. Space to distance myself from the stimulus and time to remember myself. Time to remember my directions. Time to think that, faced with a stimulus, I want to use it to expand and not contract.
If you want to try, pause a moment to think about yourself and what you are doing in that precise moment before looking at your mobile phone when you receive a message, before opening a door, before standing up, before embrazing your dance partner, before saying something, before collapsing chest downward and head back and down, and anything else you can think of!