(2021-09-19) Ashcroft How To Be Superman

Michael Ashcroft: How to be Superman. Both Christopher Reeve and Keanu Reeves studied something called Alexander Technique. This is how Clark Kent becomes Superman and how Mr Anderson becomes The One.

Although many people who have heard of Alexander Technique think it’s just about improving posture and reducing back pain, it goes so much deeper than that. At its core, Alexander Technique is about learning to decondition yourself from habitual patterns, to unlearn ways of thinking and being that no longer serve you. To be without trying.

beginner’s luck

But then you try to do it again, you start to care about getting it right, and the part of you that thinks starts interfering

The same problem shows up in other places in life too. Notice how when you try to think, you tense your eyes and furrow your brow – but none of that helps with thinking. When you try to listen, you tense around your ears, cock your head and move a bit closer. None of that helps with listening

Alexander Technique contradicts our society’s cult of trying.

“When you stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing does itself.”

Viktor Frankl said it well: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

Alexander Technique gives us the tools to notice, expand, and ultimately live in that space between stimulus and response. It unlocks our growth and our freedom.