Aphoristically speaking... by Richard Albert

In teaching his technique, F.M. Alexander often spoke in aphorisms. The power of these pithy statements is to bypass the superficial, interfering, know-it-all part of the brain, thereby allowing something deeper to be awakened. Here are some of the aphorisms which I love to use in my practice teaching the Alexander Technique. Most are F.M. Alexander’s or inspired by him, some are borrowed from others (whom I have tried to acknowledge), and some are my own.

The Alexander Technique teaches us not ‘relaxation’ but ‘poise’, the appropriate degree of effort for any activity.

Poise is more effective than strength, and more sustainable.

We translate everything, whether physical or mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.

‘Trying’ only emphasizes the thing we know already.

If at first you do not succeed, do not try again in the same way.

Exercise ? Fine. Exercises ? Never !

Stretching is necessary only until one has learned how not to hold tension.

Question: But surely you want to be fit? Answer: Fit for what ? (George Bernard Shaw)

What we do is less important than how we do it.

The question is more important than the answer.

The best use of the Ego mind is asking a better question.

Deep inside, we already know the answers, but for rediscovering that place where the answers are known, we need the right questions.

It is by preventing wrong habits that we allow the "right" to manifest.

Everyone is always teaching us what to do, while leaving us still doing the things we should not do. Stop the things that are wrong first.

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more to take away. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

You can’t do something you don’t know if you keep on doing what you do know.

Being aware of and preventing habits that are harmful is more effective than trying to do the right thing.

The power to prevent habits that are harmful, this I call ‘Wont’power’.

Won’tpower is far more effective than Willpower. (Yogananda)

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Newton’s third law of motion)

For every doing there is an equal and opposite resistance.

The desire to be right is the main obstacle to being right.

Getting it right is none of your business.

You all want to know if you’re right, to feel out whether you are right or not. I want you not to care a damn if you’re right or not.

Directly you don’t care if you’re right or not, the impeding obstacle is gone.

The Alexander Technique is the art of getting out of one’s own way.

We can throw away the habit of a lifetime if we use our brains.

The Alexander Technique is a way of using the conscious mind.

Don’t just do something; stand there ! And think.

A conclusion is what you get when you stop thinking. (Albert Einstein)

The mind is like a mansion with many rooms. Typically, we pass our lives in one room, in the basement.

The next step in human evolution, if there is to be a next step, will be deciding to use the conscious mind.

One single truly conscious thought has the power of many thousands of mechanical thoughts.

The amount of time required for change depends upon the type of thought employed.

The mechanical mind speaks two languages called Past and Future. The conscious mind speaks three languages, Past and Future and Present. The body speaks only the language called Present.

Every single thing we are doing in this (Alexander) Work is exactly what is being done in Nature when the conditions are right, the difference being that we are learning to do it consciously.

The experience we need is to be found in the process of getting it. As soon as we have something, we must give it up. Getting it, not having it, is what we need.

The journey is far more important than the destination; in truth, the destination is the journey.

Life is what happens while we are busy making plans. (John Lennon)

The Alexander Technique is a method of gathering and directing a certain innate inner force called attention; this enables us to improve the quality of self observation, which leads to better self awareness. Then, we are better able first to observe and then to drop those harmful habits which block us from being as Nature intended.

For further information, please contact:

Richard Albert

telephone: 613-315-5730 email: alextech@magma.ca web site: www.magma.ca/~alextech