Michael Gelb's talk at the Malibu workshop

Michael Gelb gave animated and inspiring talks every day during the Malibu workshop I attended in December.   Here are some of his key points. 

Qi is the formless fire of life.   Alexander Technique is qi gong.  Alexander Technique is the missing link for self knowledge.  Alexander Technique is a strategy for outwitting habit.  Working with a teacher helps us prevent doing the old habit.

In Michael Gelb’s first book,  Body Learning; an Introduction to the Alexander Technique, he lists seven basic ideas, which he says form the core of Alexander’s teachings.  These are:

Use and functioning – the way you use yourself affects the way you function

The whole person – mind-body unity, see yourself as whole

Primary Control – the first thing to attend to is the alignment of the head and neck

Unreliable sensory appreciation – (aka debauched kinaesthesia) – what we think we are doing is not what we’re really doing

Inhibition –noticing the space between stimulus and response is the first step in gaining control over our habits; abandoning what we were going to do

Direction – reinforcing the natural alignment of your body

Ends and means – focus on the means whereby rather than going straight for the end result; this allows you to consider yourself in the attainment of a goal