What we learned in class this week

Today in class, I had a student return after two years away. This student took Alexander Technique in their freshman year, which happened to be our first semester back in person following the quarantine. While we had AT classes, like most classes, we were masked, and of course socially distanced. This meant there was no “hands-on work,” which at that time was considered the primary and perhaps superior method of teaching and learning the Alexander Technique. (We will of course soon realize that online teaching is just as if not more effective for teaching the Alexander Technique, but that is another story) Here I had a student returning for the continuing version of the class who had never experienced the hands-on phenomenon of working with an Alexander Technique Teacher.

We divided into pairs, I working with this particular student. I placed a hand on their back and with both verbal instruction and intention, we simply invited ourselves back, and into our expansiveness.

After acknowledging the experience and sharing, I noticed the student holding on to the experience. We discussed the difference between holding the experience still to know it versus allowing the experience to continue, in movement, thus allowing oneself to also continue in movement. When we try to “know” the expansiveness of the Alexander phenomenon, we hold it still and subsequently prevent the very experience that we are trying to know and understand.

The change in the student’s thinking was palpable by the whole class. When asked to describe what changed, they responded:

“It’s a reminder to me of something I learned a bit ago, that I can either let life happen to me and I can react, or I can make choices and direct the path of my life. I can either let life happen to me or I can live my life. It is a choice and I am able to make that choice.”

Simply, clear, and enough.