Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE

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Spliffs and Alexander Technique

"Is it OK for me to smoke a few spliffs of dope to help me relax, or will they interfere with my Alexander lessons?", asked my young client today. Nice question....I haven't been asked that one before.

Naturally it's good to 'relax' and to loosen up; almost anything that helps us do that is probably a good thing..... Having a 'smoke' may help us feel happy, relaxed calm and chilled out. Great! However there are a number of considerations to this. Firstly I cannot 'recommend' my client to smoke dope.... "Excuse me, your Honour, but Noel Kingsley said it was good for me!" I cannot recommend anything illegal. Secondly, there are health risks that I won't even bother going into; the issue of drugs is high enough profile for us all to know there are dangers to one's health.

But most importantly from a postural point of view, we don't really want ALL of our muscles to be so relaxed that we flop around....cool as that may be. In this respect, smoking dope could interfere with our ability to improve our poise. Muscles are there for a reason and that's to work; to support us and move us around. And although many people may say that their Alexander Technique lessons help them feel relaxed and floppy, these Alexander pupils are also 'going up' to their full height and stature. Indeed the sessions are energising so all our muscles work together in a co-ordinated way....free of habit.

Also, using the Alexander Technique involves us thinking for ourselves in the way we're shown in our Alexander session, so we can consciously free our neck, send our head upwards, lengthen and widen in our back, by thinking. If we're at all spaced out, we can't think clearly so it won't work. Another consideration is that if we rely on a stimulus to help us achieve the looseness, we won't be able to do it without the stimulus so we could become reliant on the dope in our own variation of the Alexander Technique. Dope assisted AT doesn't work! The whole point of the Alexander Technique is to enable us to free up and become expansive without external assistance. We have lessons to learn how to use the technique for ourselves so we're self-sufficient.

On the other hand, something like a glass of wine (one, not six!) can help us relax a little and enable us to release unnecessary tensions a little more easily. I remember one very well respected Alexander Technique teacher talking to me at an afternoon party. Someone interrupted us to ask him, as he stood there sipping his glass of wine, "Aren't you teaching this afternoon?" And he replied, "Yes! And a damn good lesson it's going to be too!"

So if alcohol can help us 'relax', surely it's OK to use dope too? Well the simple answer to that is that alcohol is legal if you're aged 18 or over, but Marijuana is not legal for anyone. So how can I recommend it? The best approach to take is one of moderation in all things. Yes, let's enjoy ourselves, have a glass of wine and just make sure that if we're doing something important like....improving our posture, we don't over do it. A little may help but more than a little may be disadvantageous. Just don't make a habit of it so that you can't achieve what you want without it!

Usually I recommend the approach to exercise or practice in any activity 'Little and often' brings the best results. In the case of stimulants I'd say "Little and not often", may be OK.... Don't overdo it and don't break the law. Sorry, am I boring?

Have a good weekend.

:-)

Posted by Noël on July 18, 2008 2:53 PM | Permalink