What is the difference between sensing what is happening as you move and seeking a certain feeling? If you think of making a snow angel in heavy snow, you can imagine that your extended arms and legs will be meeting resistance. You will sense the snow against you as you try to move through it. This kind of external feedback can be very helpful for letting you know where you are in space and where your parts are in relation to each other. Lying on the floor in constructive rest with your head supported on some soft books can provide similar sensory information.
In a lot of our talk throughs, we ask you to notice the contact that you're making with the floor. It's tempting to rely on what feels normal to you as a gauge of whether or not you're doing something right, but feeling isn't always the best guide. When you practice noticing what is there without needing to change or fix it, you're practicing sensing yourself rather than seeking a certain "right" feeling. You're not looking for the correct amount of contact with the floor.
So what can you use to guide change, if not feeling? Clear intention. Your system is pretty good at carrying out what you ask it to do, so the clearer you are about what that is, the easier it will be.
Aiming my fingertips out away from me and sending my whole arm, from my back to my fingers, in a sweeping motion through the heavy snow
I spent most of last week working on a recording project with another singer. We had some difficult music to record, and a limited amount of time. After two takes, we had a short list of things that we wanted to improve. Easy, right? But the more we thought about insuring the accuracy of those spots that we wanted to improve, the worse the whole piece went.
We took a break to discuss again which moments needed to be better, and then we decided to change our intention. Instead of focusing on getting it all right, we renewed our intention of communicating the text and put our attention on connecting to each other. The piece is fun, and we had been approaching it with a heaviness that comes with trying to get it all right. Because we were clear about what we were doing, we were able to record what we wanted in the very next take.
As you continue building awareness through your practice of constructive rest, let go of getting it just right. Notice where you are without trying to fix what's there. Taking in that sensory information will help you to clarify how things are going, and changing it will come from the way that you direct your thoughts.
Alexandra & Kateri
Taking a break to frolic in the snow!
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