Relaxation is fundamental to this work, because so many people are restricted in their
movement and in their respiratory function by excess tension. Relaxation, however, is
only a point of departure. As the process of relaxing becomes deeper and more differentiated,
we discover that the release of tension is actually the release of energy, and it changes
not only the condition of muscles but also the way they function. When we continue to follow
the thread of unraveling tension, new functional possibilities emerge that no amount of mental
knowledge could have enabled us to imagine in advance. If we allow these new possibilities of
movement, response, and energy flow to unfold freely within the form of music, a kind of
"technique" evolves that is so unmanipulated, unconstrained, and unselfconscious,
that any understanding of technique as a system of willful controls seems suffocating by comparison.
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