21 Days of Perceptual Practice

What if perception — the very way we see and experience the world — were something that we could observe and control? What if perception were a lever for creating freedom and change in daily life?

A person sitting in meditation, Brandenburg 2020
Brandenburg 2020

Over three weeks in August 2020, I sent a daily audio meditation including a practical exercise to about 50 people around the world — delivered each evening on WhatsApp.

Each recording runs around 12 minutes and is designed to be listened to while lying down, on the floor or a bed, with a book under your head and your knees bent toward the ceiling.

The audio series is a deep dive — an intensive journey of self-exploration, spread across three weeks: the first grounded in Alexander Technique and the body’s perceptual habits; the second opening outward through art, movement and the work of artists and thinkers who have inspired me; the third turning toward stillness, chance and the Buddhist tradition.

You may wish to space out your listening, taking in one audio every second day or even once a week. Find your own rhythm — pause where you need to — there is no need to rush.

· · ·
0 Introduction & Housekeeping
Alexander Technique teachers David Young and Rainer Baltscheit in Mitte, Berlin
Alexander Technique teachers David Young & Rainer Baltscheit in Mitte, Berlin 2016
1 Stopping

Exercise: To Not-Do List

The Use of the Self, F. M. Alexander, 1932

2 Habits

Exercise: Identify three habits

Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, F. M. Alexander, 1923

3 Mirror, mirror

Exercise: Look in the mirror without judging

The Alexander Technique As I See It, Patrick Macdonald, 1989

4 Relationships

Exercise: Relationship diagram

Principis Humanitas, Abhijit Naskar, 2017

5 Brain

Exercise: Relationship diagram with qualities

What is Mind?, Abhijit Naskar, 2016

6 Meditation

Exercise: Relationship diagram with the most important quality in the centre

A Push in Perception, Abhijit Naskar, 2017

7 Fun

Exercise: Ten instructions (e.g. with big love…)

Cynthia Troup, Ready, Fire, Aim — interview with Margaret Cameron and David Young, 2005

Melanie Young performing in So You Think You Can Cow
Melanie Young performing in So You Think You Can Cow, 2008
8 Cow

Exercise: Perform ‘Outside Cow 1

Margaret Cameron & David Young, So You Think You Can Cow (performance work), 2009

9 See Yourself Seeing

Exercise: Writing impulses: forest, water, wall

I Shudder To Think, Margaret Cameron, 2014

10 The Art of War

Exercise: List places where you are not expected

The Art of War, Sun Tzu, ancient Chinese text

11 Nothing

Ursula K. Le Guin (translator), Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, 1997

12 A Simple Life

Exercise: A Simple Life checklist

John Heider (translator), The Tao of Leadership, 1985

13 The Perception is the Dance

Exercise: Write choreographic instructions for how to do something you love

My Body The Buddhist, Deborah Hay, 2000

14 What if

Exercise: Choose & refine 3–10 choreographic instructions; add ‘What if’

Deborah Hay, seeing seeing seeing (solo performance work), 2009

Peter Humble filming David Young working with Deborah Hay
Peter Humble filming David Young working with Deborah Hay, Indented Head 2019
15 Why not?

Exercise: Refine, reduce, enhance and/or perform your choreography

Peter Humble & David Young, Deborah Hay: Alignment is Everywhere (short film), 2019

16 Serendipity

Exercise: What is next to your passion in the dictionary?

Silence, John Cage, 1968

17 Silence

Exercise: Six gamechangers

John Cage, 4′33″, 1952

18 Chance

Exercise: Roll the dice

John Cage, Music of Changes (solo piano), 1951

19 Concentration

Exercise: Look over, complete and/or revise all previous exercises

The Way to Ultimate Calm, Webu Sayadaw, 2001

20 Insight

Exercise: Writing reflection on the forest, water and wall visualisations

Thomas Cleary (translator), The Secret of the Golden Flower, 1991

21 Enlightenment

Exercise: Create your own 21 days

The City of the Mind, Nyanaponika Thera, 1974

21b Gratitude
Miniature Buddha statue in Sri Lanka
Miniature Buddha statue in my koti, Athdalagala Forest Monastery, Sri Lanka 2022