dog

Alexander Discovery, Alexander Technique, anxiety, attention, direction, dog, End-gaining, freedom, habit, happiness, Inhibition, intention, love, mindfulness, self-doubt, trying, wellbeing

Humans think too much

John

My last few blogs have been about the here and now and the habits that just love to hold me back from being in the here and now. You could say this is the mindfulness part of Alexander’s discovery, what makes Alexander’s discovery different to mindfulness is his discovery works on the whole psychophysical self; you can’t have one or the other. Splitting ourselves into parts, whatever the parts are, we lose the point of the self.

We are more than the sum of the parts.

What I’ve started to understand is that the less I try to do the better I can do the thing I was trying to do. Letting go of the need to achieve and I can easily achieve what ever it was doing.

When letting go using Alexanders discovery there’s more clarity of purpose, the intention I’ve written about is intense.

Alexanders discovery is about the head, neck and back relationship, how the head leads and the rest of your body follows, it’s as simple as that. Simple for fish, tigers, lions, dogs, cats, hamsters and maybe all other species to achieve naturally but for humans it seems  difficult to grasp.

Humans think too much.

For humans to move freely we need to let go of unnecessary and obstructive thoughts. In many cases it is these unnecessary and obstructive thoughts that give you pain somewhere in your body. Letting go whilst allowing your head lead so that my body can follow is a wonderful calming thought, it contains the mindfulness part ‘letting go’ with Alexanders discovery ‘head body relationship’; the psychophysical self.

Give it a go, gentle rock on your chair if you are sitting, can you notice a change in the quality of movement. Try walking allowing your head to lead. Be safe. Did you notice a quietness and a change in you movement. Perhaps you couldn’t or didn’t want to move because what I asked is so different to your normal habits. Whatever happens, it is observing what has happened psychophysically, observing without judgement.

Somethings are hard to spot by yourself even when watching yourself in a mirror or video, on many occasions it takes the trained observation senses of an Alexander Technique teacher to notice and offer  nonjudgmental observation.

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Alexander Discovery, dog, happiness

A dog with a new bone

John

Another day, another happy dog, I don’t why I started the blog this way, however I’ve been as happy as a dog with a new bone, the sense of happiness has been overwhelming, in fact I’ve been so happy I’m apparently becoming annoying with it. Smiling from ear to ear for no reason. There is a good reason for feeling ecstatic, there is really, I’ve discovered that life in this very moment isn’t that bad really, it’s fantastic.

So how have I changed?

Same job, same house etc etc, nothing physically has changed, what I have changed is how I think about things and how I respond to things.

I’ve discovered that I was putting a shield up every time I had an awkward thought, ” they won’t like that”, ‘they might disagree’. What I’ve done is to notice the shield but carry on with the action from the thought, say what I mean or do what I planned to do. What a relief, I’ve discovered that that my life is a lot easier and my shield was pointless, it was doing absolutely nothing apart from stopping me being me, now I’m happy as a dog with a new bone. The annoying thing is nobody noticed when my shield was up and nobody noticed when my shield was down.

What a lot of wasted effort!

These discoveries don’t come easy, firstly I wanted to be happy and free, I used to be like that but life just built some defences to protect me from an imaginary foe.

I needed to find a way to be happy. There’s plenty of ways out there, I chose the one that found me. It’s been very difficult process. I had a lot to discover about myself, now with this sense of happiness and compassion for others it has been well worth it. I’m getting somewhere closer to my true authenticity.

This sense of happiness comes from applying Alexanders discovery to myself, it may sound strange but if you understand the relationship between your head, neck and back; your head sits freely on your neck. Then freedom and happiness will come. I needed some help with this discovery as you may do as well. Wouldn’t you just love to have that sense of   freedom and happiness that you deserve?

If you want more details why not join up to me mailing list so you too can discover how to be the dog with a new bone!

 

 

Alexander Discovery, Alexander Technique, alpha, anxiety, direction, dog, End-gaining, freedom, happiness, mindfulness, present, self-doubt, walking, wellbeing

Dogs are a mirror of your thinking

John

You may be wondering how you can have a quiet home with dogs, it’s easy. Dogs pander for the quiet, they can sleep or rest for most of the day but they also need exercise and mental stimulation, rather like us. We need all three, sleep, exercise and mental stimulation as well. When out walking with dogs you also get the exercise and mental stimulation.

Dogs pick on our moods and habits and try to do something about it to mimic or please us, they can’t vocalise so it’s normally something physical. If you can’t settle then you may find your dog running around or misbehaving, remember they are doing something that they believe you want, shouting at them could also be a greater stimulus to continue what they are doing. You are getting excited and angry by their behaviour and they think you want more of the same.

Remember, dogs are a mirror of your thinking.

The best action to quieten down you dogs is to be calm yourself, this could be a problem if you don’t know how to calm down. If your head is full of stuff that you need to do, you have things to worry about and now I’ve asked you to calm down for the dogs sake, probably the last thing on your mind and being calm is just impossible.

Your dog probably treats you as an alpha member of their pack even if there is the two of you. As you are the boss they will do as you say even if you don’t verbalise it, they just want to please and be a member of your pack.

Unfortunately the onus is on you and your family to have a happy well behaved dog. Have well defined boundaries, which of course, they will try to break. You just have to reassert the boundaries when they are broken, over and over again, just like with children.

Be a calming effect on your dog, here’s some tips.

Know where you are in time and space

  1.  Check out what you are thinking, if it’s worrying about something in the future or in the past, change your thought to being here at this very moment. Admire a  painting, a view, your dog, anything, the choice in yours, stay with those thought of wonder. Here’s some more ideas.
  2. Check out how you are standing or sitting, raise your awareness of your head, neck, back, shoulders arms, legs and feet. Notice any pain you have, do you notice anything else? Be inquisitive about how you move.
  3. revisit 1 and then 2, keep going around these two points over and over again and you may start to notice yourself quietening down, your breathing may soften, your dog should sense your quiet and settle down as well.

Repeat these points when you have a moment or if you notice being stressed, you’ll find that with practice these thoughts will only take a moment, nobody will notice and you will be back on track.

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Alexander Discovery, Alexander Technique, alpha, dog, End-gaining, happiness, Inhibition, intention, mindfulness

Who’s the alpha dog now?

John

I live in the Forest of Dean, if I didn’t have my dogs if would be unlikely I would see as much as the forest is I do now. I just love getting out walking, it’s a time and place I can reset my thinking. My dogs make all this possible, time to be with myself and of course my dogs, without them it would be unlikely that my life would not so content.

My dogs make life enjoyable, they worry when I’m down and are joyful when I’m happy. As with all dogs, they want to be a member of a pack, they always strive to be the alpha male or female, the secret is to know that but not allow them to gain the alpha status, I’m the alpha male in my house and my wife the alpha female. My dogs know it and we know it.

Years ago, when I was new to having dogs, we allowed one to become alpha, I didn’t know any difference, he was sometimes indifferent to things what we wanted him to do, we thought it was just want dogs do. I’d heard of the alpha status, i thought I was the alpha but I didn’t tell the dog.

Things rolled along as they do, until we introduced a puppy to the house, our dog saw a   puppy from another male, he used his alpha status, when the opportunity arose he tried to kill the puppy. We stopped him.

I never blamed him for this act, he was only maintaining his status and he didn’t approve of the new puppy from another pack. We spoke to couple gamekeepers and they said that it was because he knew he was alpha in the household and we were below his status.

I became the alpha as did my wife, and life is now content with my dogs. We sometimes have the dogs staying with us, they have to join the pack, some are difficult, they come with the view that as they are alpha over the humans at home, they can assume the role here. They are wrong. It takes a few hours to a few days depending who they are for them to recognise their status in my pack, once they are there they become content and listen to the humans in the house and to our second in command, our senior dog. He does a lot of work in maintaining his role as right hand dog. He copies my style of management, free and easy but within the rules, he’s quick to remind his juniors if they step out of line as I am with him.

All this is done with love and compassion, a quiet authority with authenticity. Dogs love a quiet authentic authority, they love pack rules that are consistent  and consciously applied.

Dogs are extremely good at reading the thoughts and emotions of humans, we’ve developed this skill with our dogs have over many centuries that humans and dogs have lived and worked together.

Maybe you could give it a try and develop a quiet contented household with dogs.

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