This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Viola da Gamba (Viol) Technique, is published in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create the accurate viol technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
This essay is outside the boundaries of what the Alexander Technique specifically teaches, but I believe what this essay is about is possibly the most universal cause of poor posture, excess physical tension, and facilitates the wearing out of the body in daily life.
The Alexander Technique in its purist form is about helping the client let go of damaging physical habits in all activities, specialized and everyday. We help the client replace these poor habits with great posture and technique, so wear and tear to the body is minimized, and the activity ceases to be hard or a strain on the body.
I believe most postural problems that lead to physical damage and the cowed posture of old age come from how most of us are raised. What do I mean?
THERE IS A NEAR UNIVERSAL BELIEF THAT CHILDREN DO NOT KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG, ARE ESSENTIALLY LITTLE PSYCHOPATHS, WHO NEED TO BE TAUGHT WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG. THAT WITHOUT THEIR PARENTS TEACHING THEM RIGHT FROM WRONG, THEY’RE AS LIKELY TO GROW UP BAD AS GOOD.
I believe it is this belief, so universally accepted unconsciously, even by Western psychiatric professionals, that determines what we convey to children. In other words, most parents believe their children don’t know right from wrong, are inherently, easily, and effortlessly capable of being bad and well as good. This is conveyed oh so deeply to the child from infancy.
In other words the child gets the message they are thoughtless amoral beings that must be taught over and over and over again right from wrong. They are not seen as beings who inherently want to offer love, but as little needy greedy bodies who are only out for themselves.
It is easy to see where this comes from. The infant has no language skills and no control over his or her body, so must be totally taken care of by the parent. By the time the child can express him or herself and get around on his or her own, the parent feels he or she can’t trust the selfish needy child and must instill right action and thought. The parent assumes the child doesn’t know what right action is, what love is, and must be shown how to offer love and gratitude.
What perpetuates this assumption that children are inherently selfish and greedy, even when they show they can express their love easily?
WHAT PARENTS ARE PASSING ONTO THEIR CHILDREN WAS DONE TO THEM BY THEIR PARENTS.
So, parents who grow up from infancy being taught they must be taught right from wrong, how to be compassionate in place of being hard-hearted, grateful in place of being selfish, feel so deeply distrusting of themselves, that they pass this on to their children. They don’t even question whether this is true or not, because it was done to them the moment they left the womb, so it must be true, must be inherently true.
What if it isn’t true?
What if each one of is inherently loving and compassionate?
Then this explains why there is so much misery and unhappiness and violence and cruelty and war in the world. What do I mean?
IF THE VAST MAJORITY OF US ARE TAUGHT FROM BIRTH THAT WE ARE AMORAL, POTENTIALLY PSYCHOPATHIC BEINGS, BY PARENTS WHO WERE TAUGHT THE SAME AND HAVE NO MEMORY OF THIS, AND WE ARE INHERENTLY BEINGS OF LOVE AND COMPASSION, THEN NO WONDER MOST OF US FIND CRUEL HUMOR FUNNY, NO WONDER WE’RE CONFLICTED, AND NO WONDER WE CONFUSE CRUELTY FOR LOVE.
NO WONDER WE DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH FAMILY MEMBERS BEING CRUEL TO EACH OTHER. NO WONDER THERE IS SO MUCH CRIMINALITY AND MURDER AND SADISTIC BEHAVIOR AND WAR IN THE WORLD.
What does this have to do with the Alexander Technique and posture?
All psychological conflicts manifest physically. This means if you unconsciously or consciously believe you aren’t a good person, when you are, then this internal conflict will damage your body with excess tension and poor posture and illness over time.
The Alexander Technique does not deal with the reasons for how badly we unconsciously or consciously damage our bodies over time. It is an amazingly effective technique for giving us conscious control over our bodies, so that we can stop damaging our bodies, if we apply the loving principles of the technique.
But I have to ask myself, what if a client came to realize he or she was an inherently loving, kind, and compassionate being, and did not need to ride herd on him or herself to make sure they weren’t effortlessly or inherently cruel?
Then, as an Alexander Technique teacher, I’d have to only tweak the client’s posture and technique in specialized and everyday activities, and not have to counter believed lies the individual lives by and struggles nonstop against.
You may want to take a look at Banished Knowledge: Facing Childhood Injuries by Alice Miller.
