My feet were once the most hated (yes, hated) part of my body. They did not look good, or more importantly, feel good when I pointed them as a young dancer.
Since they wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do, I decided quite consciously to hate them. You can imagine that this didn’t work very well in terms of getting me what I wanted:
– a foot that looked long and pointed clearly in any direction
– a foot that felt good, soft, and springy that I could jump, turn, and balance on.
Needless to say, this may have contributed to all of the sprained ankles, knees, and shin splints that I experienced by the time I was 23.
I realized this morning, as I prepared to make the last video in my Mobilignment™ Series, that I had arrived at my foot. I also realized how much my feelings about my feet have changed!
The Alexander Technique is perfect for those who want to learn self-love and self-care. An Alexander teacher will not focus directly on your emotional state. You are not trying to change it at all. In my case, this was probably the only way I could have discovered a different relationship to my emotions. My relationship to myself was one of compulsive control, so if you had directly tried to pry me away from that project I would have resisted. In fact, if you knew me in those days, I probably did resist!
My feelings about myself weirdly shifted from hate to love almost instantly during my first Alexander influenced dance class. I honestly didn’t know that it was possible to send a light thought to myself, feel that good, and dance at the same time. The feeling good translated instantly into gratitude. Thank you Clare!
This is called “sending direction” in the Alexander Technique practice. You think of your own energy flowing in a direction that is in harmony with your structure, and with the force of gravity. You make friends with gravity as a springboard for your movement.
Right now you can imagine energy running down your leg and out of your toes. Self-hate, away! Like an internal massage, this movement of energy might bring about a softening of your foot where it is in contact with the floor. It might become a bit more springy. It might ease a pulling in your neck when the rest of you realizes that your foot is on the ground.
Since you are probably on your feet for much of your day, how you feel about them is profound. How they touch the floor and spring up off of it is profound. Imagine what it really means if you hate them! Or, if you just never think about them until they hurt.
So welcome to the International Month of the Foot! More to come…
Lots of love,
Clare
CONNECT WITH ME IN PERSON:
1) Free 15 minute phone consultation: (718) 243-2720
2) Private AT lessons in my Madison Square Park Studio
3) Private Mobilignment™ sessions online
INTERESTED IN WORKSHOPS, TRAININGS, OR ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE COMMUNITY PROJECTS?
Here are some of the things that my Moblignmen™t Level 1 Teachers have said during the course of our training about the benefits of this our practice:
“Practicing the “preludes” I find that that I can stop trying so hard, orient towards what is positive for me in the moment, and connect with myself without effort.”
“I feel relief at discovering what is holding me back!”
“It’s so important that I have time to integrate my emotional responses to change.”
“It’s amazing to see myself clearly without critical judgement!”
1) WORLDWIDE MOBILIGNMENT™ONLINE:
Next class Sunday, October 27
11 – 12:30 EST, $35, Register here.
2) MOBILIGNMENT™ LIVE IN NYC, WEEKLY CLASSES IN NOVEMBER & DECEMBER
Alexander Technique and Mobilignment™ at Movement Research in NYC
Gibney Dance, 280 Broadway
Wednesdays 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Click here for more info.
3) MOBILIGNMENT™ TRAINING:
Our second training is now open for registration! The training is online, January 6 – 10, 9 – 11 am. Early bird registration at $496 offers a discount of $30 and is open until November 15, 2019. Anyone who has attended classes already is welcome.
Click here for more information.
4) WORLDWIDE ALEXANDER TEACHER EXPERIMENTERS UNION:
Come explore your brilliance in the Alexander Technique Experimenters Union, where we share new, unique teaching ideas in a structured environment and give each other constructive, reliable feedback. We dare to go where no one has gone before!
We meet online every Friday from 12:00 – 1:15 EST, Go here to register and find out more about our peer-to-peer work exchange format.
Our meetings are full of support, joy, and discovery!