I had a few minutes between teaching pupils and I decided I would sort out some knitting wool that had been stored in a bag for some time. When I opened the bag, there was a very large muddle in the middle, where several balls of wool had become tangled up together.

So I decided to sit in the very welcome Spring sunshine, in order to disentangle them. It was a slow job and an unexpected but good learning process.

At the times when I was tempted to end-gain and rush, I usually pulled the wool too hard and made the knots tighter. This made the job more difficult and slowed me down.

When I included more of my Alexander Technique awareness, I stopped, or ‘inhibited’ that urge to rush and used my hands more gently and freely – and the wool was far easier to loosen, so that I could better undo the knots.

The whole process was an interesting little exercise in inhibition and in achieving my goal more successfully when I maintained my awareness of the means whereby I was performing the activity – rather than focussing on time issues and trying to speed up getting to the end.

By not rushing, I did the job more quickly!