Cappuccino Moments

.A long time ago, my Alexander Technique teacher told me a story of a particularly lovely AT lesson she received in London. After this lesson, she walked to the local cafe, sat down, and ordered a cappuccino. She was in such a balanced state that she took one sip of her cappuccino, sat in the pleasant afternoon sun, paid, and left. She felt no need to finish drinking the cappuccino. She was content with things exactly as they were.

In the Alexander Technique, we cultivate skills in inhibition and direction. (If you're unfamiliar with the work, I could describe these phenomena, but any description I provide would be completely inadequate. If you've had Alexander Technique lessons, you know what I'm talking about.) By practicing these skills in an ongoing manner, we are able to bring about the conditions necessary for a balanced, content state. Sometimes this state is fleeting, sometimes it lasts longer. The important point is to practice the skills so you can bring about this state on your own (more on this in a blog post on “working on yourself,” coming soon).

I have had a few similar experiences of contentment. One was during a lesson with the teacher mentioned above, at her farm house. She worked with me for a while and at the end of the lesson I was standing in the middle of the room, and I had the sense that I could go on standing like that for a very long time. Now, I'm usually a person who is ready to move on to the next thing pretty quickly, so for me to be content to be where I am for a long time is memorable.

There are probably many names for states like this from many other bodies of work. I encourage you not to try to compare this experience to other kinds of work. It may be similar, or it may not. Let it stand on its own, in a room, for a very long time.

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