The Alexander Technique: The Meeting is the Message

The Alexander Technique at your desk. One hand laid flat upon the table at all times during dinner was the dictum of a certain European family. It is perhaps a bit late to suggest that to the young lady below, unless you fancy that an embedded fork testifies to your tolerant parenting. But, away from the table, at your work desk, for instance, a flat hand on your desk, mindfully used, can change everything. Oh, aren’t we sucked in toward the computer screen and toward any of those tasks in front of us? Take a minute, borrow it from your work and reinvest it later. Place one hand flat on the desk in front of you, the other can do what it wants, conduct Tchaikovsky if there’s nobody around. Let the fingers melt away from your palm, let the whole hand receive the comfort, the support of the desk. Send the hand away from your torso without any friction on the skin in contact with the desk and without any sliding about. It’s a thought-full thing. Send your hand subtly away and notice the changes in your back and in the space between you and your work. Appreciate, cultivate, the space between you and your task. Let the space between send you back. It’s going to reorient you, establish you, and maybe even change your breathing. And all this for the loss of one minute’s work and the gain of an hour’s refreshment. Change a minute, change your day, that’s the benefit of the Alexander Technique. Now if only we could do the same for our irate young lady. I’m sure she’s a peach when not being encouraged to act like a prune. One hand on the table dear one. Ouch!