Man, Know Thy Needs

April 18, 2012

By Stella Weigel

“Man, know thyself” is an old axiom, but in my opinion the more fundamental one is “Man, know thy needs.” Of course, it may be contended that he who knows himself knows his needs, and that to know one’s needs implies knowing oneself, but the contention does not apply to that great majority of human beings whose sensory appreciation is unreliable. We have seen that reliable sensory appreciation is essential to that co-ordinated psycho-physical growth and development of the individual which is fundamental to the satisfactory psycho-physical growth of the mass, and this being so, in order to secure this growth and development of the mass, it is essential to command the “means-whereby” of recognizing and supplying the real needs of the individual.

(F. M. Alexander, “Constructive
Conscious Control of the Individual”)

 

Alexander points to debauched kinesthesia as a root cause in the delusions we have about ourselves. This delusion has an impact on us as individuals, and on those around us.  As we come to know our needs (through a process of taking time to stop, observe our habits, and discover the ‘means whereby’ those habits can be altered) we improve our sensory appreciation, and so, come to know ourselves.

Recently, I completed my three year teacher training course.  The day following my graduation, I was given a beautiful bouquet containing a myriad of narcissi.  The narcissus is a flower I love, and I love that it blooms at Easter-tide.  I am enormously honoured to have written as Beret’s guest blogger while a trainee, and now, I offer this, my first blog as a qualified teacher, to Beret, as a token of my continuing gratitude to her.

Happy Easter!

Stella

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Ends and Means

February 22, 2012

In this article below, Aldous Huxley, a long time friend and pupil of FM Alexander, encapsulates the essence of Alexander’s work.  It is never about “posture;” it is not about being in a “correct position.”  It is, as FM said, learning to “face things that put us wrong and deal with them differently.”

FORWARD:  ENDS AND MEANS

Freedom is of two kinds–the freedom from unnecessary interference on the part of other people and external circumstances, and the freedom from unnecessary interference on the part of the less desirable aspects of our own selves.  The first kind of freedom is so precious that men have been ready to kill and be killed for the sake of civil and political liberty; to work like termites in the hope of achieving economic independence; and to spend untold treasures of time, thought, money and energy on the control of natural forces.  But, precious as they are, these outward freedoms are never enough.  Those who are not free from themselves can never fully enjoy the blessings of freedom from external tyrants.  A man may live, shielded from nature by an advanced technology, protected by good laws from the assaults of criminals and the encroachments of government, and preserved from want by an adequate income–yet remain in bondage to bad habits, psycho-somatic disorders and a neurosis which renders him as odious to himself as he is intolerable to others.

Aldous Huxley

Freedom from the tyrants within is one of the prime goals of all practical philosophy, all religion, all education, all applied psychology.  Unfortunately, it is a good deal easier to define an end than to devise the means whereby that end may be reached.  Thus there is a sober sublimity in the writings of Spinoza and the great Stoics; but even when it brings intellectual conviction, even when it uplifts and inspires, philosophical sublimity can never liberate the reader from the systematic oppression of his bad habits, or the caprices of a disordered autonomic nervous system.  In this respect religion does somewhat better than philosophy; but its success has been meager out of all proportion to the enormous efforts put forth in its name.  And the same is true of education.  In every Western democracy everyone goes to school.  And in every Western democracy, as Dr. James Halliday has pointed out in his Psycho-Social Medicine, the neuroses are becoming commoner and more severe.  In spite of free speech, labour-saving devices, full employment and universal education, the inward liberty of the individual seems to be steadily declining.  In recent years applied psychology has been called into existence to do the job which religion, philosophy and education have failed to do.  In some cases the new techniques work well enough; but in others they fail more or less completely, and the patient remains what he was before his treatment started–a captive at the mercy of his internal slave-drivers.

The symptoms of our disease are manifest; the would-be physicians, innumerable and remarkably ineffective.  Schoolmasters and parsons, doctors and psychologists–all view with alarm and each has his pet panacea; vegetarianism or a high protein diet; yoga or Sunday School; progressive education or good old-fashioned spanking; more science teaching in the schools or more Literae Humaniores in the Universities; more mental hospitals or more religious faith; more prayer or more Freud.  Some at least of these prescriptions are excellent, are probably indispensable.  But in the context of the actual situation of more civilized men and women, even the indispensable prescriptions will always fail to affect a complete cure.  They will fail because, without knowing it, most civilized men and women make use of their organisms in ways which positively guarantee them against the perfect functioning of the mind-body and, consequently, against internal freedom.

F.M. Alexander has devoted the greater part of a long and fruitful life to the task of showing his fellows how to maintain and, where necessary, how to restore the proper use of the self.  For the precise nature of his discover and for his method of applying it in practice, the reader is referred to the following pages and to Alexander’s own writings.  All that remains for me to say is that, if (as I am convinced) there exists a proper as opposed to an improper, anti-nature use of the self–if, as is surely obvious, habits of improper use result in impaired function–if impaired functioning leads to organic impairment–and if, finally, bodily states affect mental states–then it must follow that, unless we incorporate the teaching of proper self-use into our educational curriculum, all our schools and churches, all our books and broadcasts, all our psychiatry and medicine will go on failing, as conspicuously as they have failed in the past, to give us that internal freedom without which, however excellent our economic and political systems, we cannot hope to be either good or happy.

ALDOUS HUXLEY

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Watching and Wondering

February 11, 2012

By Stella Weigel

I am small in physical build and height.  I have been the smallest student in my school throughout my three years of Alexander teacher training.  But until very recently, I had not considered how much my body image, perhaps thinking of myself as “small” had conditioned my habits of use and had therefore dictated many of my reactions.

Whatever our height or body shape, we are all capable of similar habits of “smallness.”  Self-suppression, fear, self-criticism, lack of self-confidence, low self-esteem, feelings of unattractiveness and of falling short of our true potential: these are all habits of diminishment, habits of making ourselves “small.”

My whole attitude reflected the image I personally had of my body because I compared myself with others.  As we start to compare ourselves with others, we subconsciously begin to make ourselves smaller in the process.  As this mental activity is subconscious, it remains completely undetected.  It is a habit of mind and body that is typically passed on through the generations by “rule.”

“We are not convinced that the rule is the best, or even that it is a good rule.  Often we know, or would know if we gave the matter a moment’s consideration, that in our own bodies the rule has not worked particularly well, but it is the rule which was taught to us, and we pass it on either by precept, or by holding up our imperfections for imitation, and then we wonder what the cause of the prevailing physical degeneration!”

                     (FM Alexander, Man’s Supreme Inheritance)

In addition, we may take on the peculiarities of a victim due to our experience and environment.  This attitude of victimhood is unhealthy, and leads to many behaviours that are harmful.  In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance lecture, Nikolaas Tinbergen said that normal children quite often show all the elements of Kanner’s syndrome (early childhood autism).  In studying the behaviour of autistic children, Tinbergen took note of the circumstances in which normal children adopted autistic behaviour.

“Such passing attacks of autistic behaviour appear in a normal child when it finds itself in a situation that creates a conflict between two incompatible motivations.  On the one hand, the situation evokes fear (a tendency to withdraw, physically and mentally), but on the other hand it also elicits social, and often exploratory behaviour –but the fear prevents the child from venturing out into the world.  And not unexpectedly, it is ‘naturally’ timid children (by nature or nurture, or both) that show this conflict behaviour more readily than more resilient, confident children.  But my point is that they all respond to the environment.

                                      (“Ethology and Stress Diseases”, 12 December 1973)

The gentle hands-on teaching of the Alexander Technique in a non-competitive, non-judgemental environment has allowed me to repeat all my mistakes and learn from them, rather than continuing with the vicious circle of not allowing myself to ever be wrong.  With improved Primary Control and greater consciousness, my head is no longer drooping toward the ground, but is now held high where it truly belongs.  I no longer need to diminish myself by reacting as I previously did because I no longer think of myself as being ‘small.’  Rather, I ask for a free neck, for my head to go forward and up, for width across the shoulders and length throughout the back. Gradually my self-esteem, self-confidence, digestion, breathing, and much else have improved and the shadow of my former self is slowly disappearing.

Our behaviour and attitude work on those around us, which is why it is of paramount importance that we stop and look at ourselves as individuals.  Conscious acknowledgement of our own habits, the necessary condition for change, impacts those around us.  Time is of the essence.  The possibility of deciding to stop and observe is available to each and every one of us, should we recognize that the “watching and wondering” to which Tinbergen refers, is our choice.

 

Guest Blogger Stella Weigel lives in London and is an Alexander Technique teacher trainee at The Constructive Teaching Centre, the world’s oldest and largest Alexander Technique training school.

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Sending Presents

December 22, 2011

By Stella Weigel

Having eaten cake which caused her to grow to a tremendous height, Alice exclaims:

‘I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; —but I must be kind to them,’ thought Alice, ‘or perhaps they won’t walk the way I want to go!  Let me see: I’ll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.’  And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.  ’They must go by the carrier,’ she thought; ‘and how funny it’ll seem, sending presents to one’s own feet!  And how odd the directions will look!

(Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll)

I recently learned at an anatomy lecture that during embryological development the skin which sits underneath the first vertebrae (atlas) redistributes to form the skin of the soles of the feet.  This helps to explain why the receptors in the soles of the feet, provide such a good feedback to orient us in space and alert us to when we are going off balance.  Raymond Dart, anatomist and anthropologist, wrote, “In the human squatting or standing (or orthograde) positions, the dominant segmental skin information concerned in human head balance is probably that coming from the sacral or hind most body segments to supplying the soles of the feet, especially the pads of the toes and heels” (An Anatomist’s Tribute to F. Matthias Alexander, 20 March 1970, reprinted in Skill and Poise).  Alexander lessons encourage us to think of our feet being in touch with the planet, the pads behind the toes and the heels going back and down.

Due to a fear of falling, our common immediate response when we feel off balance is to stiffen; if this stiffening becomes habitual, then our fear response will become more or less a constant.  The possibility of any movement will lead to a perception that we are going off balance, and the fear response is therefore heightened.  This is a vicious circle.

No small wonder then that having developed a habitual fear reflex, I also developed a fear of heights; due to habitual stiffening, my feet were, quite literally, never on the ground.  I also sat in chairs that were too big for me, which caused me to stiffen as much I could.  As an undergraduate I avoided the paternoster lift at all costs, preferring to walk up twelve flights of stairs in order to reach the teaching rooms.

Dart continues, “Man is the creature of fear!  In other words, he is the most fearful (in every sense of that word) just as he can and has become the most fearless of all animals.  This is because he has become the most nearly tip-toed of all the two-footed, or bipedal creatures.  His walking is a constant precarious process of saving himself from falling.  So the primary fear to overcome is his fear of falling.”

The Alexander Technique teaches us to release and soften rather than to stiffen when being taken off balance, to experiment rather than to control, and to be aware that we do indeed possess a choice, either to topple over in a stiffening response
to gravity or to stand in dynamic equilibrium and stability, with gravity as our friend.

Alice sent presents to her feet.  But F.M. Alexander sent presents to us all.  He handed down the directions that help us experience standing on our feet as a pleasure, moving with them as a joy. Take a moment to think of your feet softening, spreading and enjoy being on the ground.  It is a kindness to yourself.

Merry Christmas!

Guest Blogger Stella Weigel lives in London and is an Alexander Technique teacher trainee at The Constructive Teaching Centre, the world’s oldest and largest Alexander Technique training school.

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How a Thought Translates Into an Activity, Part III: Realizing One’s Full Potential

September 17, 2011

In the last post, we looked at different examples of singing, in order to gain a clear idea of Ease in singing.  Here I will continue to outline how I work on singing, using the work of both FM Alexander and Manual Garcia, bringing the idea of Ease into the practice of Ease.

First off, what I do not do: I do not teach by imitation.  Telling a student to copy the teacher, or an accomplished performer is classic End-Gaining, and not a process of discovery whereby the student finds his true voice and ultimately becomes independent of the teacher.  This approach also presumes that the student is able to copy the teacher with freedom and ease.  Now if this were so, why is the pupil there taking a lesson in the first place?  The pupil could just get a record of say, Ivogun, listen and copy it.  Also, this approach does not ask the pupil to stop and think.  It treats the pupil like a trained seal and is insulting to even a limited intelligence.  What is learning if it tries to bypass thinking?

When I work with a singer, I must give him an actual, visceral feeling and the experience of Ease in singing by bombarding him with sensation until insight appears.  I see to it that the breath is not hurried, noisy or shallow, or that the face, hands, throat, entire spine, shoulders do
not betray any strain or tension whatsoever.  There is to be no forcing allowed into the process. We go very slowly in all of this. The rush and hurry in the study of everything is a big part of why we fail.

I use 4 mirrors and sometimes a DAT recorder and headphones so the pupil hears himself as we work.  Yes, it is very confrontational.

At this point I will ask the singer simply to intone of a series of legato vowels on one note (AH AE EE OH OO).  The note is one that the singer first chooses to hum, somewhere in the low to medium range; something he thinks is easy.  If I hear strain because the pitch is too low or a bit too high, then I will suggest another pitch.

The new coordination will feel very strange and unreliable to the pupil.  It will feel quite unusual and odd because it will feel like there is too small an effort for “singing as he knew it.”  It will be lighter and easier.  He may hear it and feel this sound is not “important” or “rich” enough. I help him STOP this thinking.  Meanwhile with my hands on, I constantly reinforce the directions for the new and more logical (FM says “reasoned out”) means whereby the breath, voice and thinking of the pupil can come together in a new and more efficient manner of use.  We may hear damage due to past “lessons” he has in his voice, for example, a wobble.  The student may have to accept this for awhile as the repair work is being done on his coordination.  Remember, the muscles have to learn a new way to interact as they stretch and contract.  It takes time.

Using a metronome to keep a nice, slow and steady tempo, I give very simple scales, ones that the pupil has not likely sung before.  I take great care to help the pupil set up positions of mechanical advantage from which to vocalize.  I will frequently bring him into “monkey” or have him put “hands on back of the chair.”  All of this helps direct the intention towards setting up the conditions for a new and improved way of singing.

We work in this slow, methodical way without singing any music more complicated than these simple, very slow short scales on easy vowels, until the pupil is able to stop any undue vocal efforts and of egoism, of wanting to be right and impressive.  This is where all of our strained efforts in life actually come from: ego and fear of failure.

Keep in mind, we get what we practice.  If we are not well directed in our thinking we will probably get a mess.  If we are lucid and clear headed as we work toward a goal, we have a great chance of success.

As a teacher, I am being paid to direct my pupil’s thinking and his studies towards efficiency, ease, and pleasure in achievement.  This leads him to experience greater satisfaction, self worth, and happiness.  It is amazing how quickly the progress is made, even though we are going slowly.  One will hear the notes improve within minutes as the vocal faults melt away.  One might think scales are boring.  They are not.  They help us make great progress almost immediately.  That is very, very exciting.

Part I

Part II

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