When you’re doing something difficult like playing music and you’re getting tighter than you’d like to, what’s happening to your “sense of space” in that moment? Are you getting tunnel vision? Or are you in a more spacious mode of being?
Usually, when things get tough, our sense of space gets smaller and this causes our body to get tighter. But this doesn’t help us because that tightness acts like a drag on your body and interferes with your ability to play well.
Opening up your awareness by paying attention to a larger sense of space – even when doing something difficult and under pressure – can make a HUGE difference to your well-being and quality of performance. Instead of having a tight, narrow focus, you want an “open focus.”
Day 22 of 100 Days of Soulforce:
– What is the difference between a tight, narrow focus, and “open focus”?
– When this difference really matters
– The connection between muscle tension and your kind of focus
– “Threading a needle,” a guided exploration for balancing “focal attention” and “peripheral awareness”
– “Tapping your feet,” a different guided exploration for the same purposes
– Taking “open focus” into a daily activity
– When this difference really matters
– The connection between muscle tension and your kind of focus
– “Threading a needle,” a guided exploration for balancing “focal attention” and “peripheral awareness”
– “Tapping your feet,” a different guided exploration for the same purposes
– Taking “open focus” into a daily activity
Subscribe to my blog or this YouTube channel to stay tuned!
What’s “100 Days of Soulforce”? I’m embarking on a mission to spread the word about Soulforce Performing Arts because I believe it is a needed message for artists of all kinds in our times. To that end, I’m making 100 videos over the coming 100 days (or so) to explain all the different angles and ideas, and to hopefully spark inspiration in you! Each video will have inspirational and practical ideas for you to bring more Soulforce to your life as a performing artist.
These ideas are a part of my upcoming book: “Soulforce Performance Arts: Redefining Artistic Performance, Practice, and Pedagogy in a World That’s Lost Its Mind.” Subscribers to my newsletter will get early access and special perks. 🙂
Joseph Arnold Violinist, Alexander Technique teacher, Founder of the Soulforce Arts Academy — Sign up for my bodacious mailing list and blog!
