A familiar and painful emotion I feel frequently is shame.<\/p>\n
It got instilled in me early in life that I was bad. That I didn’t measure up. That I was a real rotter. I was letting everyone down. I was selfish and slovenly. <\/p>\n
I learned to talk to myself in this harsh way and to others.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, that didn’t make me popular. It seemed that most people did not enjoy it when I turned my scathing sensibility on their weak points. <\/p>\n
After a lot of age, a lot of failure, a lot of psycho-therapy and Alexander Technique, I’m starting to talk to myself in a more gentle way.<\/p>\n
I notice that some of my students beat themselves up continuously. It’s a stuck pattern of self-abuse. They don’t lack for good advice but all the imperatives they’re hearing aren’t enabling them to live on a higher plane.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Mackerras, an Alexander Technique teacher in Bristol, England, writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n \nIn my teaching room, I have a cupboard. It has two main uses. Firstly, it stows my computer away out of sight. This is its practical use. But it has a far more important function than that.<\/p>\n It stores all of my students’ sticks.<\/p>\n Sticks? I hear you ask.<\/p>\n Yes, sticks. The sticks they beat themselves up with.<\/p>\n Mental sticks<\/p>\n Obviously I don’t mean actual physical sticks. I’m talking about something far more insidious, though just as damaging. I am talking about the things that people believe about themselves and say to me during their lessons.<\/p>\n “I have such terrible posture.” A familiar and painful emotion I feel frequently is shame. It got instilled in me early in life that I was bad. That I didn’t measure up. That I was a real rotter. I was letting everyone down. I was … Continue reading
\n“I sit really badly.”
\n“My right leg is okay. But my left leg is really bad.”
\n“I know that my walking isn’t good, but there’s nothing I can do to make it better.”
\n“If my furniture at work was better, I wouldn’t have this neck pain.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"