Alexander tichnique with Amir during a game of checkers
Amir sits comfortably and upright in his chair, moves his pieces on the board without effort, alertly and easily maintaining his posture. My right hand is placed lightly in the center of his back, giving gentle support to the psychophysical experience of the game of directions. At a certain point in the game he is cornered in a complex situation in which any move he makes means the loss of a piece. When he understands the situation, he stops the flow of his game and says aloud to himself: ‘Wait a minute; let’s think.’ As he says this, he puts the elbow of his right arm on the table and leans his head on his hand. Simultaneously his back contracts and curves and his muscles harden. I suggest quietly to him, as I support his back with directions by my right hand, ‘Come on; try to think without letting your back fall. Try not to put your elbow on the table.” Without a word, Amir straightens his back subtly and his hand returns to its place. We continue by analyzing together the possible ways to continue the game. After a minute or two Amir returns to the same ‘posture of thinking.’ I repeat my request, and again he responds easily despite the energy this requires. The third time this happens Amir has already integrated the idea of a ‘new possibility of thinking’ and he adopts a new inner direction that maintains his alert and easy sitting posture, even during more complicated situations on the checkerboard which demand from him unusual intellectual and emotional effort.
The important emphases in this story are:
1. Amir’s association of thinking with a defined physical movement.
2. Amir’s ability to let go of this habit without decreasing either his ability to think as he continues playing or his pleasure in the game.
3. Blending the Alexander Technique in real time as a daily and normal activity prevents fixing harmful habits,and enables a child to acquire consciousness of the way he uses himself, to learn how to integrate new life- situations without fear, without opposition, without external disciplining, and without interfering with the flow of life.
4. Amir experienced the possibility of thinking – analyzing situations, planning a process and making decisions – without this causing loss of the natural and spontaneous movement of his body.
5. When this experience is repeated it becomes dominant in a child’s life and replaces faulty habits of use based on extra muscular effort, as well as the adoption of rigid body movements and harmful, imprecise psychophysical habits of use.Intervention of this kind by an Alexander teacher is possible only when the basic conditions are present and after the child has acquired basic knowledge of the Technique, as was the experience of Amir.
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