'Enoughly' as you garden....

Nice bit of balanced fork going on here....although it doesn't have to be over the
 shoulder - just your arm by your side is good, too....

Today I gardened - or rather, set to with the wheeled strimmer to clear more untamed land of docks and tussocky 'elephant grass'. (A wheeled strimmer is like a rotary mower but with cord that spins at the front rather than a rotating blade underneath. It has big wheels to make it easier to traverse rough ground - my land tests this notion strongly!!!)

I also used garden tools: fork, spade, rake etc, that I carried from shed to land and back again - and also the wheel-barrow.

It often dawns on me how much I am blessed to gain from my knowledge as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, and maybe this is obvious to you, but in case not, I share it with you now. When these tools are carried around the garden/land, I could 'Lift Them', 'Carry Them', or I can just take them with me as I go. (Capitals there intended to indicate Effort - lower case to indicate ease.) The former method includes lifting the shoulders, bending at the elbows, probably leaning backwards from the waist to attempt (unwisely) to counterbalance the weight of the tools, and finds these tools to be twice the weight they need be. Instead, 'the taking of them with me' means I find the centre of gravity of each tool - not necessarily half-way down the handle, but it'll be somewhere. Then I simply wrap my fingers loosely around the handle at that point, and walk. And it comes with me. No need to risk lifting the shoulders, tightening in the arms, or having my balance interrupted by an out-of-balance spade or rake.

No, this is 'Lifting and Pushing The Barrow'....note bent elbows...

The same goes for the wheelbarrow - I can Lift It Up And Push, or I can 'enoughly' have my hands around the handles, let my arms be long, and walk. And again the barrow will go before me just because it has to, not because I Push It. And this way more than goes for the heavy strimmer  as well, Encouraging it to do its stuff amongst the holes, boulders, and mole-hilled rough grass could be 'shove', 'push', 'heave'....well, it is a bit of that, in honesty; this is pretty rough stuff, but the effort is nothing like it could be, because I can free my body of that struggle, remain as tall as I can as I move myself through the grass, and the strimmer just goes before me doing its stuff. I just have to up my intention for my movement over the land to happen, and up it even more when I get to a tussock.

Yes, this is walking and it comes too....

So, new word of the day is "Enoughly' - sort of 'loosely', 'gently', and 'appropriately' all rolled in to one.

Enjoy your enoughly gardening through the use of balanced garden tools, and the having of more energy at the end of it! Time for a nice cup of tea!