Thirty two years ago, I remember sitting on my apartment floor, with crossed legs, and closed my eyes attempting to meditate. It was painful. Not only was my back pained from the 30 degree S-curve scoliosis making the act of just sitting difficult, it was distracting me from the task at hand, which was to turn inwards. I felt what many years later, when I got closer to clarity, I understood to be a kind of static, like being in-between stations on a radio. Now, after thirty two years of struggling through meditating, and much bodywork, my spine is straight and channel is clear!
My channel, my mind and my body however, was not clear then. I was not receiving messages from within or without, without distortion and interference. This too was painful to sit through; there was a kind of neurological agitation and discomfort in even trying to tune into my Self. I persevered obviously, and while getting a lot of bodywork, energy work in the 1990’s and 2000’s, gradually, I was able to sit with my Self and focus inwardly, more easily.
Emptying out and undoing the distortion in my spinal pattern and overall body pattern, improved the ‘radio channel’, and it’s clarity. Our brains are sender/receivers in an bio-electro-magnetic body. The bodywork cleared the static, by way of releasing the mental habits which had twisted my body that was deeply stored in the body’s tissues. I was no longer holding old beliefs and traumatized feelings trapped in those eddies of energy, which freed up the body-mind to perceive what is, before me, now, in the moment, truly.
I invite you to my class this fall, “Beginner Meditation class — Discover the Calm Within”. Allow yourself to let go of any intimidation or by what you might think of people who say they do; if you’ve never done it, now is a good time to be curious and to answer that question!
I write these blogs to educate and share my experience professionally, as I have healed myself personally. I have my personal experience that informs my understanding of others, as we are all entrained by family, culture, schools, society and the time in which we live. We can choose to loosen those ties and see who and what we are without all the pain — it’s a choice or a choice by default.
There are about six patterns that I find repeated in postural habits, where a person leads from or recedes from, or a combination thereof. We really are not as different, as our illusion of separation tells us; like the Alexander term, ‘faulty sensory appreciation’, we are not where we think we are. That begs the question, ‘Well, where am I’?! Studying one’s Self, and living an ‘examined life’, is enriching to the soul.
Employing the principles of the Technique is a tool to interrupt habits, and assumptions and restore the natural frequency of an open mind and free body — tuning the dial to your station. It’s a process. The simultaneous practice of meditation with the Alexander Technique principles benefits unity, and expedites opening and epiphanies!
I have been practicing this particular meditation, for thirteen years which I want to share with you in this class, now. Bringing hands-on adjustments before and during the second of the three parts of the meditation, will allow a more aware and easeful sit. In a community of three to six people, you will experience heightened awareness and more connection to your Self and thereby, others. I look forward to helping you on the road to freedom!
