Diving for Light, Day 20 - Doing Something While Doing Nothing

If love is truly a verb,
if help is a verb,
if forgiveness is a verb,
if kindness is a verb,
then you can do something about it.
 - Betty Eadie

“I’m so tired of doing nothing.” I’ve heard quite a number of people say this over the last few weeks.  That’s not been my experience, though. I’m still teaching 10 piano lessons a week, and that feels like something. Add in several hours in the garden on nice days plus cooking 3 meals a day and, to me that seems like plenty. It takes me a couple of hours a day to write these blogs, edit and set them up for publishing. I still have Alexander Technique students online. In fact, I’m having a hard time figuring out where my days are going without the regular structure and rhythm I’ve created for my life. I have the feeling I’ll just about figure out a new structure that I like and then we’ll be headed back out of the house. 
 
I am ready to put the writing down again for a little while. I have said what I feel I have to offer to you around surviving COVID-19. I hope that I have persuaded you that doing some inner work during this quiet time will help us all create a new outer world when it is over. We’re going to need every ounce of positive light, energy, and creativity to rebuild our lives around this virus and move forward. We’re going to experience frequent pauses until a vaccine is created. And that’s good. We can watch the earth recover. We can make a new commitment to taking care of her as well as of ourselves, if we choose to speak up and do so. 

Constructive rest on the belly helps to open up the lungs.

By using the tools of Alexander Technique, we can help our bodies stay grounded, focused and open to whatever comes our way. We can allow ourselves to have freedom in our necks and heads that spreads quietly through the entire body. We can free ourselves from the physical collapse that trauma brings. 

Alexander Teachers can help doctors and nurses to heal when the crisis is past. We can help recovering COVID-19 patients learn to breathe fully again. Coming back into our body changes everything for the better.

The four key verbs in today’s quote are love, help, forgiveness, and kindness. We’re going to need all of them going forward. Which one is your superpower? Which one are you going to “do something about?” Can you start that now?

I have given you tastes of what the Alexander Technique work is like through the exercises attached to each of these blogs. Today I’ve indexed them by type so you can find them all in one, quick place. Each has a link back to the original blog post where it appears at the end. 

Oddly enough, I saw this on the internet after I wrote the blog post yesterday!

If you’re interested in exploring more about the Alexander Technique, I am available for online lessons. The great thing about those is that it doesn’t matter where you live. You don’t have to commute to my office in Atlanta traffic, either. Send me an email and let me know if you’re interested so we can talk about your needs and set something up on Zoom.
 
If you’ve enjoyed this series, I’d love to hear from you. It’s an odd feeling sending your thoughts out into the ether without knowing what people’s reactions to it are. I greatly appreciate comments on my website, likes on the posts, and those of you who send me personal notes of thanks. And if you disagree with me, it's good to hear that, too.
 
When there’s something new to add, I’ll write a post. In the meanwhile, enjoy the spring. Above all, be well.
 
Robbin

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Exercise recap:
Now that we are at the end of the series, here’s an index of all the Alexander Technique inspired exercises we covered over the last 20 weekdays. I’ve put them into categories by type of activity, and each one has a hyperlink to the blog where it originally appeared.
 
Classic Alexander Technique Non-Activities:
Constructive Rest
Free Your Neck
 “Do Less”
 
Awareness
Early Morning Awareness
Staying with your Feelings
Circuit of Support
Finding Ground
Awareness in Activity
Allowing Vulnerability, listen to your heartbeat
The CyCle

​Pause (Inhibition):
Practice the Pause
Ball Games
 
Direction:
Choose Your Response
Think UP!
From Seed to Plant
 
Grounding
Finding Ground
Constructive Rest
Allowing Vulnerability, listen to your heartbeat
 
Self-Care
The CyCle
Letter to Yourself
Radical Self Care
“Do Less”
Brushing Your Aura
 
Emotional Support
Make a gratitude list
Radical Self Care
Brushing Your Aura
From Seed to Plant
Staying with your Feelings
Letter to Yourself