GETTING OUT OF THE WAY

I recently reconnected with a client from the 1990s and heard some of his job search horror stories. He was telling me how many of the resumes submitted online now are read only by ‘bots’ and reconstituted in a list based on preset criteria, negating fonts and non-keyword material. It’s totally impersonal, literally robotic and entirely disheartening.

I understand that this is a signature trend of the modern world, the digital world. But how can we reclaim the real, the intimate and the conscious-relating experience when everything is reduced to statistics and algorithms?

Well, let’s step back for a minute and think of the big picture. How the Universe delivers on the energy and effort we put into things is kind of an Infinite algorithm. . .and that’s out of our control too. We can only do what we do and get out of the way, and allow the Universe, like a cosmic postal service, to deliver.

Imagine if I got your mail and Sam down the street got yours — that’s what it feels like when we see others (perhaps less deserving) get the job we wanted, the results we desired. It doesn’t feel fair, right?

Why not me?!

It’s hard, I know, but it’s best to let it go, to move on, like water flowing down a mountain. Get out of the way — trust that there’s something better in the offing. For me, I seek to focus on what I do: teach people the Alexander Technique and provide healing through other modalities, just as I have for nearly 30 years.

Here’s the really important thing: ‘Getting out of the way’ is NOT a passive, giving-up gesture. It’s an act of control. (That’s what you want, right?)

It comes from becoming more aware of one’s own habits, inhibiting them, giving the nervous system specific ‘directions,’ and letting that to be enough. You can give them before, during and after every action, so FM Alexander said.

We are sooo conditioned to act and react in certain ways that it’s hard to break out of that box and search for a reality that we need, accept and trust. It’s a delicate balancing act, but puts us in a better position to see what it is when it presents itself. It’s the Universe speaking, just as we want, but we run from it.

It’s always speaking to us, but we’re looking elsewhere and listening to other things. Or maybe we’re just stubbornly holding onto whatever we have, and don’t recognize the right things when they’re right in front of us. It’s a comedy of errors, also known as humanity.

I can apply my thinking hands and help the student find directions, and it has to also be the student letting go and seeing another way of being. That’s risky — it means trusting and embracing the unknown. It’s also exciting! An adventure!

Every person can go deeper and deeper into longtime habits that are comfortable yet unfulfilling –but only by sticking with it long enough. Eventually, the transformation is very real, and very obvious.

I’m convinced that ‘getting out of the way’ is living, breathing art. It’s a doorway to a higher vibration — a long game that includes unlearning old practices and allowing new forces. And like great art, it’s baffling but beautiful and bountiful.