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Dancing with Ease

Body-Brain Balance Movement Fundamentals | Alexander Technique with Laura Donnelly

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Dancing with Ease

At all times we are in relationship with ourselves – our bodies, our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, and the results of our actions.

We can search for blueprints for how to be and how to succeed in life or we can choose to look at our lives as an adventure-filled journey to discovering who we are now and who we are becoming.

Exploration, learning, discovery – these are the things that make life interesting to me. The Alexander Technique has provided an underlying foundation I use to live more fully and easily. This blog will follow some of my explorations and share some things I’ve observed living in a state of experimentation and discovery.

A great deal has been written about the Alexander Technique, describing what it is, how it developed, and how it is used in various disciplines. My ebook Resolution of Dichotomy – the non-doing of doing the Alexander Technique includes a brief history and description of the Technique. See links and resources on the About page for more information.

 

The Cycle of Ease

Dancing with Ease Posted on September 23, 2018 by Laura DonnellySeptember 23, 2018

Watch this simple video to increase your awareness of Easiness Our mind is a muscle. Training our minds is like learning any physical skill. Therefore, shifting our awareness toward what’s going well and away from what’s going wrong requires gentle … Continue reading →

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Discovering Easiness is Easier than You Think

Dancing with Ease Posted on September 23, 2018 by Laura DonnellySeptember 23, 2018

Easiness is our natural state of being Due to stress, fatigue, injury, or fear our minds can shift to thinking repeatedly about our stress, what makes us tired, or the things that make us fearful or frustrated. Thinking and worrying … Continue reading →

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The Right Way vs. the Wrong Way to Manage Your Mind

Dancing with Ease Posted on August 13, 2018 by Laura DonnellyAugust 13, 2018

Many people are talking about mindfulness these days. The definition I like is from www.merriam-webster.com: “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations…” Learning the … Continue reading →

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You Can’t Change the Past — Oh Yes, You Can!

Read on a little before you say “Not possible!”

It’s 1975, my senior year in high school. My mom drives me to school every morning because we only have one car. I cross the street, walk across the front entry, climb three steps, approach the bank of six doors, and begin to feel nervous. Inside the front doors all the coolest guys in the school hang out in a big group.

By Js240 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19972830

I can’t get into the building without passing them. Everyday I’m sure I’m going to trip over the door jam (and sometimes, I do). I dread this entry ritual every day, but the other doors are locked, we all have to enter here and pass through the crowd. Each day, I slow down, take a deep breath and carefully step over the threshold. In my mind it is six inches high!

Fast forward 20 years to 1995–my high school reunion. We’re about to take a tour of the school. I feel the familiar nerves as we approach the front door. I remember the threshold! I look down preparing to step over the tricky thing that tripped me up so often in the past ­– and, it’s flat. Absolutely FLAT! I stare at it a minute remembering my nerves and the stumbling entries, and I wonder, “what was I thinking back then?” By this time I’d been studying Alexander Technique for about 10 years. I laugh, step through the door, and continue the tour.


Many memories of events from our past carry with them the feelings we experienced during the events. When we think about what happened in a certain way, it’s possible for us to relive the emotions from the past and bring them whole into the present moment.

Some memories are twisted and tangled and overlapped with others. Thinking of one piece of the memory can bring the whole complex of feelings from the past flooding into our bodies. If the memories are uncomfortable enough we may avoid thinking about them. However, this avoidance simply leaves the energy from the memories intact and, in effect, buried under a rock–until we mistakenly stumble and dislodge the feelings.

It can seem overwhelming when of emotions from a past event flood us with unwanted feelings. But with the Alexander Technique, we have a raft and paddle to navigate our way out of the swirling emotions.

We all have habits of movement and thought. Our habits of thinking about the past can be some of the most entrenched. Often unresolved events are like a sore tooth – every time we pass by it we must wiggle it until it hurts. The wiggling can even become unconscious and suddenly we find ourselves swamped by emotions again, remembering the details and feelings of past events.

We don’t have to stay trapped in this cycle of pain: remembering/pushing the memories down/remembering again. It’s possible to change our habits of thinking about the past in a few simple steps.

1 – Recognize when and how you think about your past  

Notice if there is a dominant emotion you have when you think about past events in your life. Is there a recurring theme to these events? Are there specific emotions associated with certain themes? Do you choose to revisit “happy” memories or “unhappy” ones?

2 – Practice no judgment

You are mining your patterns and your past for information. Anything you discover you will be able to use to change your habits so all information is good!

3 – Pick a memory

I recommend selecting a memory that has some emotional charge but not a huge amount. The larger the emotional charge the stronger your thinking pattern around that memory will be. Starting small will allow you to refine your changing the past process and you can then begin to apply this process to diffuse the energy of stronger memories.

4 – Be kind to yourself

This is a new way of looking at and thinking about the past. It may feel strange or uncomfortable. You may not be successful at first and may need to practice. Don’t decide you can’t do it, or that you’re wrong, or that it’s hard. Just go on to step 5!

5 – Practice, Practice, Practice

  • Before you think about your memory, ask yourself: How easy is my neck?
  • Then ask: What’s changing?
    • Usually an energetic shift happens – it might be a deeper breath, a feeling of space inside you, or your shoulders might drop.
  • Think about your memory, ask yourself: What’s happening to the changing as I think about …. ?
    • Did the changing continue changing or did it stop?
  • Remember: Step 2 – Practice no judgment!
  • If the changing stopped
    • Start again by asking yourself: How easy is my neck?
    • Continue through the process
  • If the changing continued
    • Take a look at how you feel about your memory
    • Does it have the old familiar quality or a different one?
  • Note your observations and repeat as needed

When we ask How easy is my neck? We open a place in our neuro-physical mechanism for easiness to expand. In this expanded space of easiness our bodies are able to find their true balance and our thinking can move smoothly without bumps. As we pay attention to what happens to this easiness by asking: Am I getting easier or less easy? we are able to see when our thinking has changed and is taking us in a different direction.

Ultimately, we want to notice what we are thinking about past events in our lives and how that thinking influences what we remember and how we feel. If I trip, fall, and skin my knee, I have a scab. That series of events happened and no matter what I do now that doesn’t change.

But the emotions around that event, remembering the physical sensation of tripping, the flash of fear of starting to fall, bracing for landing, and even echoes of the injury can be relived every time I remember the event or see the spot where I tripped. If I unconsciously think about that event I can recreate the emotions and physical sensations over and over. If I’m able to see that spot and pause before I travel all the way down the path of remembered injury, I have the option to notice easiness in me. I can ask: Is this thinking making me easier or less easy? At this moment I can choose a different path.

Remember: 2 – Practice no judgment! All information is good!

We want to know what happens when we think X and what happens when we think Y. When you discover the results of your thoughts you will be able to use this information and the process of observing your easiness to change your thinking habits. You will be able to stop unconsciously bringing the past alive in the present moment.

You can change the energy of your past, one step at a time!


March 14, 2018 by Laura Donnelly Posted in Uncategorized 3 Replies

A little Ease for my friends Enmeshed in Grading

Dancing with Ease Posted on May 11, 2017 by Laura DonnellyMay 11, 2017

For many involved in formal education the end of the school term is here along with the pressure to complete the dreaded “final grades.” Having returned to my normal “learning all the time” and “test by practical application” schedule, I’ve … Continue reading →

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When Something Outside Us Breaks Our Habits

Dancing with Ease Posted on March 19, 2017 by Laura DonnellyMarch 12, 2018

Today I was talking with a friend about unraveling patterns and she lamented that she needed a few new routines to help her focus and create more order in her life.   My friend resigned from a job she’d had for 23 years about 10 … Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alexander Technique, Change, Habits | 2 Replies

Breaking Habits or Unwinding Patterns

Dancing with Ease Posted on March 18, 2017 by Laura DonnellyMarch 18, 2017

How often have you identified a “bad” habit, something you wanted to stop doing? Almost everyone has started a new year with a list of resolutions, many of which are aimed at changing something that had been identified as undesirable. How … Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alexander Technique, Change, Habit | 2 Replies

The Dance of Life

Dancing with Ease Posted on March 17, 2017 by Laura DonnellyMarch 17, 2017

One of many things I love about dance is that it surprises me. The same is true of life. When you dance, things don’t stay the same. Dance is a balance of movement and stillness, changing weight from one body … Continue reading →

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How Gratefulness Promotes Ease

Dancing with Ease Posted on March 16, 2017 by Laura DonnellyMarch 10, 2018

This post was published on bebee.com a personal branding site. I didn’t want to just copy and paste it here so am trying to link out to it. The post focuses on how understanding how we feel determines the way our … Continue reading →

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Applying the Alexander Technique

Dancing with Ease Posted on March 15, 2017 by Laura DonnellyMarch 15, 2017

Our bodies are amazing systems designed to function optimally. Our desire for specific outcomes often leads us to use our logical, thinking brains in ways that interfere with our natural easy movement. (Perfectionism is one way of thinking that seriously … Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alexander Technique, Ease, Experiment | 2 Replies

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Recent Blog Posts

  • The Cycle of Ease
  • Discovering Easiness is Easier than You Think
  • The Right Way vs. the Wrong Way to Manage Your Mind
  • You Can’t Change the Past — Oh Yes, You Can!
  • A little Ease for my friends Enmeshed in Grading

Laura Donnelly
Dancing with Ease

Laura@dancingwithease.com
DancingWithEase.com

Online workshops and classes anywhere English is spoken and there’s an internet connection.

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