Originally posted on Blogger...
My latest YouTube video has been published.
This is a shortened version of what I said.
I discovered on the Kindle edition of my book that I can see which bits have been highlighted by the readers, so I thought I’d tell you what the highlights are and give you some context. This one is quoting FM Alexander himself:
"People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures."
If you’ve read my book you’ll know I do a lot of people-watching while I’m commuting. Today, on the underground, I saw a woman reading, curved down into her newspaper with a frowny face. And every time the train stopped she quickly looked up and urgently looked out of the window to check which station she was at. The fourth time, she looked out in a panicky way; I said “Green Park” and she grabbed her bag and scurried off the train. I’m fairly sure she would have missed her stop if I hadn’t helped. So - her habit of frowning to read; burying her head in the newspaper; narrowing her focus, nearly caused her to miss her stop. It really is possible to read effortlessly whilst staying aware of your surroundings. Curving your neck, frowning and concentrating don’t actually help you read! My lady on the train today could have read her newspaper with more open focus. Her journey – today - may not have been important, but on other occasions she might have missed her stop on her way to a job interview. Or a first date. Most of my clients first come to me for physical reasons – they want to improve their posture or get rid of their back pain, but one of the benefits they get is more open focus. Our habits affect our lives. Our habits affect our futures. When we’re “doing” our habits, we’re not in charge of ourselves – our habits are in charge. We’re not making choices, we’re relying on our habits to decide things, or achieve things. This Alexander/Mindfulness thing shows us what our habits are, and that we can choose not to indulge them. It shows how to be more conscious, more mindful, more open-focused. Once we’re making conscious choices we are in charge of ourselves and our lives once again. FM Alexander said – and I quoted this in my book but it has not been highlighted – “For in the mind of man lies the secret of his ability to resist, to conquer and finally to govern the circumstances of his life.” Try it! Your posture will improve too. 😊
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