Maaike Aarts: Zooming Out: The Joy of Expanded Awareness

As we all know, most people have the tendency to concentrate on something by "zooming in," excluding the awareness of the rest of themselves and the space around them. Even when our AT students have learned to inhibit and direct this can still happen; very subtly they can "zoom in" to inhibit and direct, start to focus on a detail, on a particular change, zoom in on parts that are still "tense, different or painful," or zoom in on the teacher's hands.

In this way their attention becomes like a ball in a pinball machine, shifting rapidly from detail to detail.

As teachers we can help prevent this from happening. We can teach our students how to ‘zoom out’ and show them how to observe feelings/changes/details from wholeness and spatial awareness.

This is a practical workshop in which we will explore how to tell the difference between zooming in and out.

  • We will explore this while lying down in active rest, when standing, moving our arms and while speaking.

  • We will talk about the difference between "input" and "output."

  • We will explore what language to use to incorporate a detail into one's wholeness/spatial awareness.

  • We will talk about how we can use our hands in such a way that we can help the student stay connected to wholeness.

  • And we’ll discuss the differences between observing, checking and feeling and how to explain these differences to our students.

The benefits of zooming out are big: students will experience more freedom of movement, more connection to themselves and the world, a wonderful sense of wholeness and ease, more curiosity, more eagerness to explore, less judgment and less "trying to get it right."

The workshop is suitable for everyone regardless of prior experience with the Alexander Technique. It is great to discover about zooming out when just starting taking lessons and it is also interesting for teacher trainees or experienced teachers.

Let’s have some fun by experimenting and exploring this together!

Please have space to lie down on the ground in active rest (a yoga mat and a stack of books), a chair to sit on and enough space to move your arms sideways and up.

Donate using the button below to receive the video link. Please give generously as an investment in a more inclusive Alexander Technique community. Please note, the link may take up to 48 hours to arrive.