All You Want is the Absence of What You Have

How can you want nothing?

Isn’t that an oxymoron?

But many of us think this way. When you are trying to study in a noisy room, all you want is the absence of noise. You want nothing, see?

Most of life’s difficulty in the domain of human behaviour results from additional behaviours that are unnecessary and harmful.

This “wanting nothing” – it turns out – is the essence of implementing Alexander’s Discovery, something FM loosely referred to as “inhibition”. You identify an observable behaviour that is causing your particular suffering, then set about replacing it with constructive behaviour. There’s no cookie-cutter exercises – you need a besoke solution crafted for each individual.

This separates Alexander’s work from most “body” methods and elevates it into a psychological self-development platform. You are not learning how to do new things; you are learning how to live your life without the garbage from your past. It does not involve “change” as commonly understood. You don’t “change” your Self; you just stop being shitty. 

You reveal a Self that was always, already there.

At a workshop in Lincoln, USA, a British teacher trained in Alexander’s teaching style couldn’t stand watching Marj’s lesson any longer. Marjorie Barstow (1899-1995) – Alexander’s first graduate teacher - kept talking about moving your head, moving your whole body, so you can do what you want to do. And so the British teacher finally blurted out:

“Why don’t you teach inhibition?”

With a twinkle in her eye, Marj replied:

“Inhibition is all I teach. Inhibition is the activity by which your old habit cannot take place.”

“But,” fought back the teacher, “first you have to stop doing what you are doing, don’t you?”

Marj patiently answered:

“Well, if I move my head forward and up, haven’t I already inhibited it going back and down?”

Silence.

Like me, the teacher was profoundly moved by the simplicity of Marj’s reply. 

Marj went on to ask:

“Why make it two steps?”

A group of Alexscovery teachers could spend days debating that question, but only complicated replies can refute the practical, common-sense wisdom of Marj’s teaching technology.

Readers who are not that familiar with Alexander’s Discovery may be a little mystified by all this Zen-like talk. So let me leave you with a final pithy piece of wisdom from my precious teacher: 

“All you want is a little bit of nothing. But the trouble with all you people, is that you all want ‘something’. And that ‘something’ is your tension.”

Soon I was going to learn how much Marj’s way of teaching would impact my Profession…

You can go deeper into exploring these questions by participating in my ThinkingBody video series. Click on the link below to learn more and gain access:

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/store/TGFBWut4

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