From Point A to Point B: Waking Up in Everyday Transitions
It is not the degree of “willing” or “trying,” but the way in which the energy is directed that is going to make the “willing” or “trying” effective. – F.M. Alexander
If you were to count the number of activities you engage in each day, I imagine the list would be pretty long. From the moment you arise in the morning until you rest your head on the pillow at night, you probably do quite a lot. Just the basic care and feeding of your body demands several actions. We do so much that we have to consciously choose "down time” to give ourselves rest.
But what about the time in between those daily tasks? What happens when you move from eating a meal to driving to work, or from arriving at your job to entering your workplace?
The transitions from Point A to Point B go by unnoticed, because we are busy getting to whatever is next. We are obsessed with a future outcome, unaware of any sense of the present moment, only interested in accomplishing whatever we tell ourselves needs to be done. F.M. Alexander called this endgaining, literally getting ahead of yourself by pushing forward no matter what.
This pushing forward shows up in the body as strain and misalignment in movement, and it’s tiring. That’s why you may feel exhausted toward the end of the day, not only because of all the activity but because you are over-efforting as you do it. If you’re not present with yourself as you work, if you’re just focused on “getting ‘er done,” you’re operating with a level of tension and mental/physical stress that will eventually catch up with you.
In Alexander lessons we slow down so that it is possible to notice this excess effort. Students are surprised to discover that most of the effort is mental, an acquired attitude about how they do what they do. But that’s the good news. If it’s an attitude or mental view you bring to performing your daily tasks, then you can change it.
This is challenging at first, because habit is strong and it can seem impossible to apply new ways of thinking to many of the actions we engage in. That’s why I often encourage people to practice during the transitions between activities. This has two main advantages:
1. The stakes are low. For example, walking from the breakfast table to the bathroom to brush your teeth is not a particularly demanding action. You can rest your attention on how you move from one room to another, simply sensing yourself walking, breathing, tasting, etc. Choose to stay present, with nothing else to do or think about for the minute or two it takes to begin brushing your teeth. This is simple, present-moment embodiment, and you don’t have to split your focus to do it.
2. You’ll notice your “pushy” habits more easily. After a few AT lessons, students often report the ways they are applying what they’ve learned, like how they sit at the computer or take a walk. They find ease and better alignment in those tasks, but then forget to apply that same awareness to the rest of their lives. This is understandable and appears to be universal: we forget to remember. So paying attention to the in-between times builds a wonderful feedback loop between mind and body, and will eventually make it possible to recognize when you are pushing too hard and causing your system undue strain in performing other tasks and under other conditions.
The Alexander thinking gained by taking lessons can be applied to everything we do. That’s one of the elements of this work that I value the most. Yet it may be even more powerful to wake up to yourself during transitions, when your mind is likely to be on what’s ahead, or daydreaming, or who knows where – anywhere but with your body in the moment.
So try this out, even if you know nothing about Alexander process. Here are some suggestions for transitions to which you can bring your full, curious attention:
· Walking from your car across a parking lot to the entrance of a building.
· Moving from one room to another in your home.
· Walking up or down stairs.
· Getting out of the shower and toweling off.
· Dressing or undressing, morning or night.
· Finishing a meal, taking your dishes into the kitchen.
· When you are done reading this and as you move to do something else.
Just do your best to stay sensually aware of each moment. Discover where you might feel ease in your movements, and where there might be a sense of rushing or pushing forward. Meet the transition with kind curiosity and see what happens the more you remember to show up for these many daily transitions.