From the category archives:

Basic Premises of the Alexander Technique

Stopping

June 1, 2011

by Stella Weigel

In Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, FM Alexander provides the following illustration:

A seven-year-old boy was given an aptitude test designed to measure “control.”  The test involves an electronic apparatus with holes varying in size.  His task was to touch the centers of the holes with a small, pencil-like, metal rod without touching sides of the holes.  If he touched the sides, an electric flash would result.  He was warned ahead of time to avoid this at all costs, and “he at once became so excited through the fear of making a mistake that his hands shook and he stiffened and tensed his whole body unduly in making the first try” (original emphasis).  Needless to say, he performed very poorly on the test.

The boy did not have a means whereby to inhibit his habitual, fearful reaction to the thought of failure.  Instead, he remained caught in the vicious circle of end gaining; having failed to avoid the flash in the first instance, he continued the test repeating the pattern.

Alexander Technique lessons can help us to learn a practical means whereby, and give us a process to inhibit our habitual fear reflexes of one sort or another which lead to disappointment and failure.  Over time, it will also lead us to an improved sensory appreciation.

First and foremost we must learn to stop.  We must learn to say “no” to whatever harmful habit is inferring with our Use.  Only then can we come back to ourselves.  From this place of inhibition, we are able to make a new, conscious choice.  This capacity to choose will allow us to change.  Developing such awareness takes time, an incredible amount of time, which is why the Alexander Technique is truly an ongoing re-education.

As a teacher-trainee, I find that “stopping” during vacation is equally as important as “stopping” during the work undertaken during term.  I now take this opportunity to marvel at the abundance of Spring blossom, reconnect with family at home and abroad, and to enjoy inordinate hours of sleep.

Stopping to observe what is happening with us right NOW is definitely worth the wait!

Guest Blogger, Stella Weigel, is an Alexander Technique student at The Constructive Teaching Centre, London, the world’s oldest and largest Alexander Technique training school.  She had Alexander Technique lessons from 2006-2009 before embarking on her training in April 2009.  She lives in the city of London.

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Alexander’s Primary Control in Action

May 26, 2011

Giraffe Birth on YouTube

It takes less than five minutes for this animal to adjust reflexively in gravity.  Notice the HEAD LEADS, then the partial or secondary patterns follow (first with the forelegs then hind legs) becoming reflexively coordinated.  The reflex travels down from the head end to the tail and co-ordinates the entire animal.  There are some Alexander Technique “teachers” who actually dispute that the primary control even exists.  This is because they are badly trained.  There is no nice way to put it.  But here is the principle of it for everyone to see for themselves.

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Pandora’s Box

March 18, 2011

During my 30 years of teaching I have often observed how disturbing it is for pupils when they come up against a totally new sensation of themselves.  They tend to feel odd, misplaced, and peculiar.  Indeed, they are often alarmed by the sensations that flood them.

Time after time they will try to edge themselves back into the twists, distortions, and holding patterns that they are familiar with.  Even though they can see for themselves in my 4 mirrors (or in my photos of them) how distorted and twisted up they are when they are left to their habits.  Sometimes I will have to remind them 20 times in less than a few minutes not to sink back into a habit.  That whole time they can plainly see that the habit is a distortion.  They would like to be free of this distortion, which is why they are coming for lessons.  But they still go to the familiar, so that they won’t feel “wrong.”

It takes a lot of humor and good will for us to take this information in stride.  I actually tell every prospective pupil, that in order to work with them I will need two things; they must have a sense of humor, and they must be a good sport.  That is because this work is an undertaking which encourages a real shift within oneself and in one’s very way of being on this planet.  It is to open up a wonderful, terrible Pandora’s Box full of personal fears, talents, doubts, and false beliefs.

So if you are taking lessons or if you think you may want to start lessons, prepare to keep a good humor and be a good sport because to change the habits of a lifetime is “mind-blowing.”  You will open a door into your very Self and discover a wealth of new possibilities.  No other discipline I know can help us to facilitate this process as effectively and reliably as the Alexander Technique.

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The Need to Be Right

March 6, 2011

By Stella Weigel

The King’s Speech, based on events from the life of King George VI of England, has taken the world of cinema by storm.  The film shows “Bertie” struggle to overcome his stammer and find his voice, in order to rally the free world to resist Nazi aggression.  The film illustrates how a “need to be right” can have crippling effects on speech and deed.

Bertie’s father has the highest expectations of his son, as does an entire nation.  Lionel Logue, an expert in speech disorders, encouragers Bertie.  He is able, with some pushing, prodding, and a little manipulation, to help Bertie break through some of the habitual defences that he has used to suppress himself, and suppress his voice.  When Bertie starts to own his authority as a man, he starts to become the leader that his country needs.

Alexander understood that the “need to be right” was a root cause in many of our troubles.  In fact in many ways, Bertie is no different from Alexander’s golfer who cannot keep his eye on the ball, or the stutterer (both found in The Use of the Self), or you, or I.

The pupil attempts to please the teacher, and becomes, therefore, nearly un-teachable.  The teacher is not able to provide an improved “means whereby.”  And the pupil tries harder and harder to correct himself, “to be right.”  This circle of failure leads to a loss of self-confidence and to a renewed fear of always being “wrong.”

Alexander Technique lessons encourage us to go out of our comfort zone and be willing to be “wrong.”  We will most certainly be wrong, since from the outset we have faulty habitual use, and faulty kinaesthesia.  The lessons help us tolerate being wrong, as we stop, reconsider and perhaps choose a new direction governed not by habit, or how others think we ought to be, but how we wish to be.

Guest Blogger, Stella Weigel, is an Alexander Technique student at The Constructive Teaching Centre, London, the world’s oldest and largest Alexander Technique training school.  She had Alexander Technique lessons from 2006-2009 before embarking on her training in April 2009.  She lives in the city of London.

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No Easy Fix: Part IV

February 21, 2011

In his book The Use of the Self[1] Alexander writes, “Everyone will agree that for accuracy and efficiency in diagnosis, the medical man needs to possess not only a high standard of sensory observation and awareness, but also the ability to link phenomena together, to form sound judgments and to take a wide outlook, especially in the presence of unfamiliar conditions.

“It has never been recognized in medical practice that sensory appreciation, the human compass, has become more and more unreliable with the advance of civilization, and that in proportion there has come about, a growing misdirection of the use of the human being.”

 Alexander goes on to say that all medical students should be taught his technique so they may direct the use of themselves consciously for their own benefit.  But also their lessons would enable them to spot poor general use in their patients, yielding greater diagnostic skills and also aid in prevention of further deterioration. Then if a specific part needed to be treated directly, the doctor would be doing so within the unity of the entire organism.

This of course flies in the face of our beloved idea of separation of the self into various parts.  This old concept is at the root of many of our erroneous ideas about well-being, health, and functioning in general.  It pulls us apart and creates false compartments, so that our various ailments are labeled as physical’ or ‘mental,’ or ‘emotional.’  How did we get this idea?

Here is my hypothesis.  In the caves some 60,000 years ago, when life expectancy was perhaps 30 at most, people died of wounds and infections or in childbirth (if no animal ate you).  I doubt they died of diabetes and heart trouble due to eating fatty fast foods, pizza pie with too much salt, coffee, donuts, and drinking at the Pub.  They didn’t take street drugs, they didn’t stay up all night watching TV or going online surfing for porn sites and they didn’t grow old.  When they had an illness, someone in the clan knew some herb, root or berry to deal with the condition as best they could.  They didn’t get ulcers from overwork at the office, and they were so close to nature and so free from our sorts of pressures that I doubt that they had faulty use of themselves.  In the case of Cavemen, I bet the quick fix was just fine.

So why aren’t we able to see that this idea of separation of self is limited, irrelevant, and misleading?  Perhaps as Alexander thought, we have developed too rapidly and have not been able to keep up with the speed of all these changes.  Certainly most people believe that their lives have become too complex, too stressed, that they “must run faster and faster to stay in the very same place” (as The Red Queen said to Alice).

We are being pulled apart by so many aspects of modern life.  We must “specialize,” we have more and more deadlines and time pressures.  All these factors (and many more) influence our perception of life and ourselves.

This is a very interesting chapter in a very wonderful book. I urge my readers to pick it up and read for themselves the story of how FM came to his discoveries and “faced a difficulty that always put him wrong, and dealt with it differently.”

[1] See chapter V Diagnosis and Medical Training

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