Reflecting on reflections…how they help us grow

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I was reading an article in the new Yoga Journal about compassion, and how we can learn to cultivate compassion by taking on the character of compassion and breathing that feeling through our bodies; and then sometime during the day consider a compassionate act you can perform; ie,  helping someone to cross the street, yielding to another car in traffic, donating to a charity – all with the feeling of compassion, not duty or obligation.

I have always felt from the eastern philosophy and from the teaching of the Dalai Lama that compassion is recognizing someone’s  suffering and that that someone else is just like you.  You experience someone else’s suffering as your own.  Their suffering is reflected back to us, they are a mirror to our own pain.  And a lot of times it is the fear we see in others that we can’t honor in ourselves; that we could be in the same situation, in the same fragile place they are now in.  Your empathy then becomes compassion, the realization of our commonality.

Consider this practice as you bring someone to mind that is suffering: (from Yoga Journa2013highland lake inn brochurel)

“Like me, this person desires happiness.

Like me, this person wants to be free from suffering

Like me, this person has experienced grief, loneliness and sorrow

Like me, this person is trying to get what he or she needs in life

Like me, this person is evolving

Imagine you are suffering the same way.  Think about how you’d feel.  Think about how much you would want to be free from suffering

Now imagine, how much less alone you would feel if someone actively felt your pain and wanted it to end.  Can you do this for the other person?  Can you actively desire that their suffering end?

Put yourself in the other person’s place, and then feel for a moment that their pain is also yours. Hold the wish that their suffering ends.

Then if possible, do something kind for them, a phone call, donation, picking up groceries; it doesn’t have to be huge.  This practice can be so transformative the it is helpful to do daily and you can see how it can affect your opinions and interactions with every person in your life.”                                            Sally Kempton/Yoga Journal

Neuroscientists now believe that the ability to feel another person’s pain as if it were your own is hardwired in us. We can use this innate ability to offer our understanding to others and also discover ourselves in a deeper way.

 

 

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A great observation of the Alexander Technique at the Montana workshop:

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Last spring when I was in Tucson I went to Gianna’s (my granddaughter) violin lesson. (she’s just beginning). She was “sawing” away at the song. Her teacher said “Operate the bow from your whole arm, not just from your elbow.” What a difference in sound. Sound went from flat to full. I took violin as a child and must have learned that because when playing her violin it was natural for me to bow with my whole arm.

I noticed Scott, also, when helping her with her lesson bowed from the elbow. When I pointed that out he immediately picked up on doing it differently – it was harder for Gianna to “get” the difference.

I would suppose a violinist who used the bow from the elbow would eventually develop an injury. In other words “tennis elbow”??

When we ask our body to perform an action w/o the full repertoire of joints and muscles and tendons intended to perform that action then we create wear and tear and eventually injury, I would guess. Very interesting.

Thank you for the class. It was enlightening. It’s very comforting being around you.

Cheryl C
Workshop participant in Montana last weekend.

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Can Alexander Yoga relieve the tensions of playing a musical instrument? Pain disappears, sound resounds!

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As a new musician of the violin/fiddle, I am so amazed when I watch musicians play…the passion, emotion, skill and poise is now so much more obvious to me.  I had no idea it was such an incredible way to be with yourself and with others.  The vibration I am feeling in my whole body helps me sense the emotion that comes from the music whether it is a classical piece or a fiddle tune.  I am happy to be alive and aware of spaces inside and outside of my body.

The other surprise to me is how much subtle tension in the head, neck and jaw affects the sound of the music…it is so revealing that the ever so small adjustments make incredible changes in how the music flows out to the ear (mine and the spaces around me). I teach Alexander Yoga and have found many of the poses we do inform my body about how balanced or imbalanced I am. I can take these relationships of balance to how I am holding my fiddle.  At first I learn about myself and my habits of tension when I am not playing my instrument; then I can recognize these same tensions when I pickup my fiddle (where I have a lot of muscle memory tension).  We start with being aware of our balance and poise in our everyday moving patterns and the yoga asanas.  This new information continues to unravel and the sound of the music becomes more and more enhanced.

If you have pain from playing a musical instrument, explore the skill of learning the Alexander Technique through Alexander Yoga;  the results are long term and sustainable because you are learning to find joy, ease and fun by releasing unneeded tension.  You will enjoy playing so much more and your audience will notice the change in the sound of the music.FiddlePlayingKaren2012

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