Tag: Alexander Technique

Mind-Body Connection, Pt. 4 – Merely Present

I am a dreamer.

Far worse when I was young when just about everything jolted me or made me fearful. To counterbalance, I developed a strong imagination. My mother told me that I never needed entertaining; that hours spent with clay, comics, TV or outside activities largely kept me engaged.

But my dreaming nature created a mind that easily left the room. In short, being truly present, controlling or crawling out of that dream state, was an issue that followed me through adolescence and well into my adult years.

Live performance can be a lightning bolt to our attention or “presentness.” I think that’s why I developed a love-hate relationship of performing live. A huge adrenaline rush, which is suppressed to stop shaky hands, and the inevitable feeling that an invisible glue has been poured over my fingers seems to be the norm. Plus, it always sounds better in the safe confines of rehearsal.

At least, that’s how I used to feel.

All aspects of living, including music making, are so much more in accord with one another these days. This is not to say things are in a state of perfection, but rather there seems to be a reckoning and reconciliation of all the disparate and contrary impulses that often haunt we creative types.

I attribute this largely to age. Besides the back issues, acid reflux, the perpetually high triglycerides and a host of health related hassles, experience brings a mellowing to all things.

But more important is feeling present to my life.

Robert Fripp has this to say:

"During the first week, some of you may have heard me banging on about being present. If we are not present, we are not. Nothing happens. But, problematically, nothing-happening generates a stream of inevitable consequences and repercussions which are, strictly, unnecessary; but accumulate alongside the necessary repercussions from our proper activities, and act to weigh us down. Becoming present is the beginning, and very simple beginning-to-begin is to bring part of our attention inside the right hand, or another limb: a touch inside. We experience the distinct quality of being alive, directly and immediately. One characteristic of this experience is that it takes place in the moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but this particular now. From here, everything else follows. Otherwise, we are subject to the vagaries of weather. A key point, easily overlooked, is that to bring our attention within the hand requires both choice and decision. This engages the will, whatever we might understand by that. But, for now, good to have the information. What follows? We choose to become present, again. When our practice is more established, becoming-present we find something-already-waiting-for-us. We have become more substantial, better able to act on the promptings of what we see and feel to be the right course of action. Being more-fully who-we-are enables us to be more-fully with others, and working with others is necessary for us to become more-fully who-we-are. At a certain point, a group emerges from within a team, and in a group something becomes possible that, otherwise, would remain highly unlikely."

And I may add, “Amen.”

Mind-Body Connection, Pt. 1: To Begin Again

We begin again, constantly.~ Robert Fripp

Pain is a powerful motivation.

The pain I am experiencing is causing me to re-evaluate many things. Pain areas, specifically my back, are causing me some alarm. Each movement, even remotely involving bending forward, or a wrong twist at the hips, is carefully considered because any wrong turn could send electric-like shocks through my back that cause subsequent immobility.

Back issues, specifically those debilitating lower back lightning bolts, were first experienced my freshman year of college. Bending over to reach some socks, my lower back froze up and to the floor I went. Try as I did, the floor was where I stayed until those muscles relaxed. Young and invincible, how could this happen?

As if that weren’t enough, a new malady has arisen in the past year.

Now there is mysterious shaking of my right arm as it relates to guitar playing. Simply plucking a string with finger or plectrum now produces an tremulous wobble.  The guitar has been a part of my life, both professional and personal, for over four decades. How can I overcome this devastating new obstacle before it becomes debilitating?

Luckily, I’m a pragmatic optimist living in a time when help is easily available. First was to seek pain relief without pills. Pills are not a cure, nor do they explain cause. They only dull mind, body and connection to life itself.

Enter massage therapy.

" It's a cleansing process. It really is. And if you can let go of being self-conscious, it can be a very freeing and emotional relieving space and time for that person."

Traci Levine is a Licensed Massage Therapist who works at The Folded Leaf, a place where yoga, massage and other wondrous mind-body activities abound.

My first massage was revelatory. I had no idea how much tension had come to “rest” in my back. The release of this tension and pain was a bit beyond description. For example, Traci worked on my Teres Major and Minor – muscles more-or-less near your shoulder blade. As she worked out the knots of tension, it felt like my muscles were on fire-not quite pain, but not really pleasure either.

When she first started, I wasn’t wholly convinced that this was going to be beneficial, let alone a lofty “transformative.” Somewhere, I let go and let her hands guide me where she wanted me to go. I lost track of time, place and person.

The after-effect was immediate and powerful: my muscles did not exist, bones felt like air, and it was difficult to re-inhabit my own body. I.e., walking was awkward. “Drink plenty of water, ” was her admonition. My muscles had been in a state of tension for so long that the release was substantial and real as I was sore for about three days.

It turns out, like most disciplines or professions, there’s a lot more involved than anyone might think. I interviewed Ms. Levine in January of 2014.

Then, the proverbial apple fell upon my head: with aging taken into the equation, what if I was the cause of my own problems?

This is a mind-body issue. I am operating on old habits, automatic behavior, not at all mindful of my own body. I do virtually no bodily maintenance (stretching, exercise) and am, in effect, absent. If we have no attention or focus in our lives, then things just happen to us. We effect no change. We are absent.

What? How could we not know our own bodies?

It turns out we know very little about ourselves; including our minds.

Next: Alexander Technique.

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