Freedom to Be
The Alexander Technique (AT) affords us the opportunity to live and move from “a place of possibility” [1] - to inhabit a way of being in the world which is not attached to the person we learnt to be while growing up. It teaches us to become aware of ourselves in movement, to see where habitual tightening and over-tensioning in our body-mind is reducing our capacity to live and respond to life with ease and flexibility. In a workshop last year using the Neutral Mask (from the world of actors) and the mirror, long-experienced AT Teachers enabled me to become aware of the reality of one of my deeply embodied habits. As I stood in front of the mirror with the mask on what I saw in myself was a deep sadness, which I saw created a slight dropping along my front body and tightening into my centre. I cannot say exactly where or what this sadness relates to but rather that as soon as I saw the masks lying on the table at the beginning of the session this is what I saw. With the