Natalie Collins (Unsplash)

I love that practicing the Alexander Technique brings new information, new ways of seeing things all the time.

A recent Alexander Technique lesson I received started something like this…

Teacher – What’s happening with your foot?

Me – Oh it’s forward of the other, it’s often like that.

Teacher – What else is happening, take a look!

Me – Oh it’s becoming windswept! It’s been going that way since I broke my ankle.

Teacher – What about if you release into the windswept way it wants to go…?

Me – OH! Wow!

“If we can just let go and trust that things will work out they way they’re supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than the experience itself.” – Goldie Hawn

The release felt like my foot was softening, expanding, spacious,  opening, beautiful, limitless, effortlessly yielding and it had a ripple effect, through my whole system, opening out into the world. It sounds profound and it was.

I wouldn’t say I am a control freak where most things are concerned. Yet, with many years dancing, teaching movement & working as a Chartered Physiotherapist, I do keep falling into the trap of trying to “control” my body and wanting it to be other-than-what-it-is! I was doing that same thing with my ankle and my foot. I was releasing them the way I wanted them to go. I was trying to control them, despite all my Alexander training (habits can be so deep they go unnoticed) and despite that (mostly unconscious) effort to control them my balance was getting worse and my foot was stuck in the middle, going two ways.

So, back to the lesson …we spent it thinking about releasing into the direction that my foot, and my body wanted to go. I marvelled about how “releasing into the direction something wants to go” had such a profound effect and I knew that the same process could be applied to life. Google defines release as…

“allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free.”

It is not about collapsing, or admitting defeat but involves ceasing trying to change things in-the-moment, accepting things as they are, setting things free to be just as they are. Releasing into an unknown outcome.

I have been lovingly acknowledging and embracing my windswept foot (which probably evolved as a result of a fall and broken ankle) as being part of me. Accepting that this is how it is.

The paradox is that by witnessing it and allowing it to be, giving up the control, things have changed and my foot is already less windswept and my balance has improved.

Sometimes I come back to a thing over and over before I take a different path. I may be back here again in the future! I suspect release is rarely a one- time thing especially where habit is concerned. I do know that “releasing” can feel utterly impossible if one does not know how, and it can be challenging as well as breathtaking. The Alexander Technique is a wonderful tool to support this process.

FM Alexander described his technique as conscious control of the individual. Yes, it is about “control” but of a different kind. One where we can react differently to our patterns.

When you can’t control what’s happening, challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening. That’s where your power is! – unknown

Jane Clappison MSTAT (with gratitude to Lena Schibel-Mason MSTAT)

01759 307282

www.janeclappison.co.uk