P36...”Some people think that by `stopping' you have to freeze, but you don't. There is a subtle difference between freezing and what we want by being alive.”
P37...”Everybody needs to learn to think in this new way- it is new to everybody.”
P40...”Don't just wait for the panic to happen, rather ask for something else before it gets to that stage. It is a brain thought, a decision, a choice. You can choose for something else to happen- no, you can't make it happen.”
P40...”Regarding decisions and choice: `Brain activity should not involve muscle activity. Often it does, but it need not.'"
P41...”It is no good at all to have Alexander work unless you `stop'. Unless you `stop' the work is of no value.”
P42...”No, you don't know. You might be right now- but even if you are, it won't be right next moment. The right of a few minutes ago is not right now.”
P46...”You're a discoverer- you don't know.”
P47...”If you worry; you use up all your energy to do the worrying and you have none left in reserve to think clearly and deal with the problem quietly- and there to realize that the perceived problem was not actually a problem at all.”
P47...”I think that at LR (Carrington training centre) they `do' too much...Because teachers qualified from there come to me for lessons and they're all doing to much.”
P48...”No- you don't know (whether you are quiet or not). You cannot go for the end of quietness directly-rather you can only intend it and reflect over time(with hindsight) as to whether it's come about. This is what FM meant by `not going for the end directly'- by `not seeking a result directly.' “
P49...”You don't have to `do' anything about it.”
P53...”Look at animals- they move beautifully, but they don't know they're doing it.”
P53...”Well you see, if you're quiet and really `stop'- as none of us ever do- then you are doing nothing. In particular, you're not doing the wrong thing, so that the right thing does itself. So the head-neck back is secondary- it comes out of the `stopping'. You don't need to know it, but it's useful to understand it. The practice is in the `stopping'- the theory flows from your understanding and gleaning of truths which emerge out of the practice. You see animals move beautifully, but they don't know what they're doing or how they're doing it. So once you `stop', then you may begin to do less with your neck muscles and then the head may proceed forward and up of itself- it is so.”
P55...”Now your head grows out of your body and your knees go forward, away from the body- don't pull them into your body.”
P60...”Don't cover yourself in glory because you think you've got it right.”
P61...”You come to this lesson to learn how to `stop'. The lesson doesn't end when we finish- rather, it begins as you walk out the door.”
P64...”I just want to open your eyes a bit to what you're entering into- the responsibilities.”
P64...”The Technique is about `non-doing'- learning not to `do'.”
P65...”Don't even think of being taken out of the chair.”
P68...”I do not want you to `do' anything to think. You do not have to `do' anything. Do not make muscle tension to think. It's about consent and choice. Just register the decision that you want to be quiet and then let it go. That (the mere act of registering) is all that is necessary- nothing more.”
P69...”Brain thought does not require `doing'.”
P73...”Allow your brain to stop and keep stopping- keep that, even while we go into movement.”
P75...”And still while you're standing, don't even think that you're standing.”
P75...”You don't know- you're a discoverer.”
P82...”Don't worry about those little set-backs. It doesn't matter if you think you've gone wrong. Just stop. Allow yourself to get it wrong. There's always a next time in which you needn't go wrong. It's when you try to hold onto those setbacks and make a meal Out of them that they do you harm. Just let them go, and carry on being quiet.”
P92...”Don't look for results.”
P97...”If you fix on anything , you've lost it. It's a continual process- a process of continual growing and change.”
P114...”It's no good you thinking of `doing' anything- you don't know.”
P117...”The work is about `not-doing', and people don't seem to understand this- they are always asking what can they do.”
P119...”`Stopping' is everything: Then nature can do its thing in the way only it knows how- which you don't know.”
P129...”Now if something happens which you do not intend, don't fuss about it- don't let it bother you or put you off. Don't react to it-you just carry on with your `stopping'.”
P133...”Any doing is an overdoing.”
P133...”None of us know what `stopping' really is, but we can explore the possibility of it.”
P134...”You don't know what `right' is. Don't try to be right.
P145...”...each time it is a discovery- you're not trying to `do' anything or reproduce an experience you've had. You don't know what it is for your knees to go forward- you're discovering it anew each time.”
P147...”The problem is that we think we have to `do' so much to `stop'. It is not a `doing' stopping- rather a decision at brain- thought level.”
Miss Goldie with F. Matthias Alexander
