Читать книгу Think Like Da Vinci: 7 Easy Steps to Boosting Your Everyday Genius - Michael Gelb - Страница 29

My friend Michael Frederick is a theater director, acting coach, and teacher of the Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander technique, and yoga. He has been doing theme work for more than twenty-five years. He graciously agreed to share the following unedited sample from his notebook:

January 10, 1998. Theme: Contact with Material Objects

1) 7:40 a.m. Noticed the quality and sense of my feet first touching the floor. That the contact with the floor was supporting me and allowing me to continue lengthening through my body as I stood up for the first time today.

2) 8:20 a.m. As I brushed my teeth, I saw how I was holding my toothbrush too tight in my right hand and this tension spread up through my arm and shoulder causing neck tension. Then I looked in the mirror and noticed I was slumping.

3) 11:30 a.m. Holding the telephone with a vise grip and with my head cocked to the right side causing a pain in my arm and shoulder. Similar to my toothbrush observation. Holding on to objects with an over-effort … “for dear life.”

4) 4:30 p.m. While eating a sandwich in a hurry, I saw how I would gobble the food down without paying attention to what I was eating. Speed was important and this made me lose contact with the taste and even knowing exactly what the sandwich consisted of.

5) 5:30 p.m. I also noticed the sunset today and the warmth of the sun contacting my face allowed me to slow down and see what was in front of me (i.e., bringing me more into the present moment).

6) 9:30 p.m. Sorting through today’s mail. Having to take time with the junk mail (i.e., junk material objects). Felt like my life was/is taken up with sorting & filing & fixing & handling material objects. I become a “caretaker” of these objects!

7) 10:30 p.m. As I hold this pen in my hand, I’m noticing how little effort is required to actually write. The pen works very well without the extra effort of pushing.

Choose any question from the previous exercises – for example: What people, places, and activities allow me to feel most fully myself? – and hold it in your mind for a sustained period, at least ten minutes at a time. A good way to do this is to take a large sheet of paper and write the question out in big, bold letters. Then:

Find a quiet, private place and hang it on the wall in front of you.

Relax, breathe deeply, allowing extended exhalations.

Just sit with your question.

When your mind starts to wander, bring it back by reading the question again, out loud. It is particularly valuable to do this contemplation exercise before going to sleep, and again upon waking. You will find that if you practice it sincerely, your mind will “incubate” insights overnight.