Breath, Emptiness and Happiness: More Work with the Whispered Ah
When we were first taught the Whispered Ah, part of the procedure (or game) will have been a ‘smile behind the eyes’ or ‘happy thoughts’. British people are mostly rather resistant to the notion of producing happy thoughts on cue, and FM doubtless knew this, so it must have had value for him to require it of his pupils. We will be looking at how memory and thought changes the experience of facial posture and breath, and how these three are connected.
The Whispered Ah brings many students (including teachers) to the coal-face of psychophysical unity. It is a gentle and powerful tool for dissolving the habitual shell of armor that limits change. Resistance to releasing the breath is closely bound up with the experience of vulnerability, and one of the beauties of teaching the Technique is that it is an invitation and never an imposition. (To paraphrase Frank Pierce Jones, change will come at the pace that the organism can assimilate it, and no faster.) We will therefore look not at what we ought to be doing in this procedure, but rather, at some directions in which the Whispered Ah is leading us.
This four-hour workshop will include:
- an overview of the component elements of the Whispered Ah and their sequence
- a few pitfalls to look out for in students and ourselves
- some hands-on experience of the physical structures that are involved
- freedom from gasping, mouth-breathing and the reduction of undue residual volume in the lungs
- bringing the Whispered Ah into movement and other procedures
There will also be some flexibility in the schedule to work with any particular questions on breath and the Whispered Ah that participants wish to bring.
Date & time: Saturday 23 June, 10 am — 2 pm.
Fee: £50.00.
Location: The Alexander Technique Centre, 13 The Boulevard, Imperial Wharf, London SW3 2UB, United Kingdom
To book your place at this workshop, email the Constructive Teaching Centre by clicking here.