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Mark Tatlow's avatar

For starters I would suggest two words that I think could be classified as convivial tools:

”Inhibition” and ”Attention”.

For devotees of the Alexander Technique, inhibition means a moment of pausing, or inhibiting ingrained habits of thought or action. For me as a musician it has become a tool akin to the moment of reflection before initiating a musical phrase — a breathing space in which my second tool, attention, can be implemented.

To describe attention I can do no better than share this post:

https://perspecteeva.substack.com/p/the-failure-to-pause?r=ik7w5&utm_medium=ios

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl was onto something similar:

”Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Abbey von Gohren's avatar

Oh Mark I love these words! It’s really enlightening to think about it in the creative space of a musician’s life. I have never heard of the Alexander technique but I will read about it! It sounds beautifully deliberative.

Thanks for reading and offering these rich responses!

Mark Tatlow's avatar

Typically, I forgot to inhibit writing my reply! I meant to begin by thanking you for a great post, Abbey!