Posts by Ethan Kind
Double Bass – Weaponized as a Choice (Musicians)(Psychology)(Pain)(Strain)(Injuries)(Posture)(Alexander Technique)
This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Double Bass 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 bass 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)
There has been a lot in the news lately about weaponizing different departments of the US government or the law. This is not a political essay.
What does weaponizing something politically or legally mean? It means you take the law or government that was originally set up for the good of people, and you use it to attack/remove others who don’t believe what you believe.
This is not about the above. It is an essay about how we could take the Alexander Technique and psychotherapy and weaponize them against our own selves.
Ideally we go to an Alexander Technique teacher to help us heal/transform poor body posture and technique in everyday and specialized activities, so that we stop damaging our bodies.
We go to a psychologist to deal with psychological and emotional problems that are arising because of past conflict, trauma, beliefs we’re holding onto that are destructive, and/or suppressed psychological and emotional conflicts caused by beliefs that don’t serve us anymore.
CAN PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE BE WEAPONIZED?
You would think not, BUT THEY CAN.
Let me show you how.
Let me start with psychology. Ideally you go to a psychologist to end/heal psychological/emotional pain, after you finally admit to yourself you’re in trouble and want to stop hurting, but can’t do it by yourself.
Through talking to a therapist you discover how your parents and their beliefs about you that they passed onto you, that were not loving, have helped make you a mess. They didn’t know what they were doing, and you didn’t know what you were doing.
The therapist helps you see you grew up with a whole slew of Catch 22s, a whole slew of conflicting beliefs that have caused you to be incredibly mean to yourself.
Ideally, becoming aware of your source of unhappiness leads you to a place where you can see why you’re in emotional trouble, and this awareness of why you’re in pain, gives you the awareness and tools from the therapist to get out of trouble, to choose to live by what works for you.
This would be the the ideal result.
But what if you choose a less than ideal result.
YOU ARE NOW AWARE OF HOW YOUR PARENTS MESSED YOU UP, AND YOU GET TO BE PERMANENTLY DAMAGED GOODS. PSYCHOTHERAPY HAS MADE YOU CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF WHY YOU’RE PERMANENTLY DAMAGED.
THIS IS THE WEAPONIZING OF PSYCHOLOGY, IF YOU STOP AT THIS POINT OF BEING THE PERMANENTLY DAMAGED VICTIM OF BAD PARENTS.
Let’s take a look at how the Alexander Technique can be weaponized.
You go to the Alexander Technique teacher to deal with severe physical pain when you play the piano or you run.
The Alexander Technique teacher shows you through a series of sessions how to run or play the piano with great released posture and great technique, so that you stop damaging your skeletal joints and musculature.
You are shown how to play the piano or run with such great body balance and a released technique that works, that running or piano playing cease to be hard, so you now can play or run pain free.
The Alexander Technique has really made a difference, and so you begin to see the Alexander Technique teacher less frequently, or you stop your lessons altogether.
And low and behold, you start hurting again when you run or play.
If you choose to weaponize the technique, you can say all of the poor posture and technique your coach or music teacher taught you that was destroying your body is so ingrained, that the Alexander Technique cannot save you from your past.
WHAT I HAVE JUST WRITTEN ABOUT HERE IS HOW A PSYCHOLOGIST OR AN ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHER CAN BE MADE TO BE INEFFECTUAL, BECAUSE A PERSON HAS CHOSEN TO TAKE A PAST HISTORY OF POOR PARENTS AND POOR MUSIC TEACHERS OR COACHES, COME TO A CONCLUSION WHO CAN’T WALK AWAY FROM THE PAST TO A PRESENT THAT WORKS.
This is the weaponizing of the Alexander Technique and psychology, making you very conscious of how you were messed up by others.
NOW YOU CLEARLY KNOW WHY YOU’RE IN EMOTIONAL OR PHYSICAL TROUBLE, AND THESE THERAPIES AREN’T SAVING YOU, AND YOU GET TO BE A VICTIM.
What if you took the knowledge/awareness that the psychologist or the Alexander Technique teacher gave you and chose to let go of/ walk away from/ forgive your past teachers and save and forgive yourself with the wisdom of these two great healing modalities?