The Buddha, F. M. Alexander, and the Art of Alexander Technique Directing

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

Every few months, I enjoy using ChatGPT, or one of the other free AI programs, to come up with the answer to an Alexander Technique question, or to imagine a meeting between F. Mathias Alexander and a famous historical character.  Over time, the results have become increasingly more interesting and sophisticated. My latest, generated near the end of 2024, was “F M Alexander meets the Buddha”. It contained a phrase by the imaginary Buddha that jumped right out at me:

When you think, think with clarity. When you feel, feel without attachment.

Let’s start with the second sentence: When you feel, feel without attachment.  In other words, be disinterested.  This is exactly the frame of mind that will make Alexander Technique directions most effective. I love the word “attachment” and the phrase “non attachment” and I’m sure I’ll be saying suggestions in my teaching like “Use that direction with no attachment to what happens next.”

But the first part of the sentence – When you think, think with clarity – can be a little tricky. Clarity is certainly a good idea when using your conscious brain to plan ahead. If your thinking isn’t clear, you’re likely to run into all sorts of problems as you go through life.

And when you are choosing an Alexander Direction, the thought should be one that is clearly helpful for you. For example: “I’m not tightening my neck” is almost always a good idea – and one that you know from your own experience will probably be useful. It’s also one you can easily test for yourself any time you want to.

But… any effort carried along with directing is bound to get in the way of the direction’s effectiveness. That’s because an Alexander direction is your conscious mind telling the rest of your nervous system what it wants right now, and then getting out of the way so the unconscious mind can do what’s it good at – taking care of all messy the details. The last thing it wants is any “help”.

Put another way, he conscious mind is great a coming up with useful ideas, but it’s the world’s worst micro-manager.

And yet it can be extraordinarily tempting to try to help. This problem was all too familiar to Alexander and many first generation teachers. Among them was Marjory Barlow, F. Matthias Alexander’s niece and a well-known teacher of the Alexander Technique.  In her book, An Examined Life, she quotes Alexander on the topic of giving directions: This (directing) is an exercise in finding out what thinking is.

She then goes on to write: If that doesn’t put it in a nutshell, I don’t know!  Because it’s so hard for us to think.  By that word we mean to send a direction, not to try and implement it, not to try to carry it out, not even a teeny weeny bit.  We’re always inclined to to think, “Oh well, just a little bit, just give it a little nudge.” and a lot of that’s not very conscious, actually, the degree to which we are helping it along, or trying to help it along, otherwise, you see, we’d stop!  But it’s a blind alley. – page 130

Marjory’s writing about the dangers of even a miniscule bit of effort inspired the title of an earlier blog: Not even a Teeny Weenie Bit. In that blog, I include quotes about this temptation by Alexander, and several other teachers, each of who address it in their own way.

To return to our AI Buddha’s statement When you think, think with clarity, we can agree it makes sense when the mind is thinking deep thoughts, planning for the future, and the like. But we have to be very cautious when applying it to using Alexander directions because it’s so easy for a little efforting to sneak in. Perhaps clarity can be thought of as being aware of the type of thinking you’re engaging in and which ones require special attention.

But for me what works best is a sort of ultra-paradoxical direction like “I’m not thinking” or “I’m not doing” (which does not at all mean stopping thinking or doing) which I think of as a kind of culling of any useless thoughts or actions you might be tempted to think or do. I think “I’m not Thinking” is also at least a partial solution to one of Alexander’s concerns – the problem of what he called “mind-wandering”, which he went on about at great length in Constructive Conscious Control.

—

If you’re not familiar with Alexander Technique directions, of more specifically the directions described above, here are some resources that I think will be useful:

A Brief History of Alexander Technique Directions

Effective way to use Alexander Technique Directions

Effective ways to use Alexander Technique Directions

The Alexander Technique direction “I’m not doing”

The Alexander Technique direction “I’m not thinking” Part 1

The Alexander Technique direction “I’m not thinking” Part 2

—

If you’re interested, here’s the full ChatGPT conversation:

F M Alexander meets the Buddha, by ChatGPT
Title: The Encounter
Setting: A quiet, serene garden. The air is still, and birds chirp gently in the background. The garden is peaceful, with lush greenery, and a small stone path leads to a simple stone bench where a figure sits in quiet meditation. The figure is the Buddha, radiating calm and presence. The sounds of the garden are interrupted by the entrance of F. Matthias Alexander, a middle-aged man in a suit, looking curious yet somewhat disoriented. He is carrying a notepad and a pencil.
Scene 1:
(F. Matthias Alexander approaches the bench. He hesitates, then stands in front of the Buddha, who remains motionless, eyes closed, in deep meditation. Alexander looks at the Buddha for a moment, then clears his throat.)
F. Matthias Alexander:
Excuse me… Are you… Are you the Buddha?
(The Buddha opens his eyes slowly and smiles softly, radiating calm. He nods in affirmation.)
Buddha:
Yes, I am the Buddha. And you, my friend, are not yet fully present.
F. Matthias Alexander:
Not fully present?
(Pauses, slightly puzzled)
I—well, I’m here physically, of course. But perhaps you mean something else?
Buddha:
Indeed. You are here in body, but your mind… it is elsewhere, tangled in thought. It wanders like a leaf caught in the wind.
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Nods thoughtfully, taking a step closer)
I… understand. I’ve been thinking a lot about the body lately. How we carry it, how we misuse it. I’ve been… well, observing how people move and how they strain their muscles without realizing it. I’ve spent my life studying how the body can become more free, more aligned…
(He pauses, unsure whether to continue.)
Buddha:
You seek freedom in the body. But tell me, do you seek freedom in the mind as well? For the body cannot be freed while the mind remains bound.
F. Matthias Alexander:
The mind?
(Chuckles softly, as if the thought hadn’t fully occurred to him)
Well, yes. I suppose that’s true. We… we hold our bodies in tension because we hold our thoughts in tension, don’t we? If the mind is calm, the body follows. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? There’s a kind of… natural state that we’re all born into, a sense of ease that gets lost in the noise of the world.
Buddha:
Indeed. The noise of the world is not outside—it is within. The mind clutters itself with thoughts, desires, and attachments. Only when the mind is still, can the body rest in its natural alignment.
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Excited, scribbling in his notepad)
Yes, exactly! Alignment. But what you’re describing is deeper. You’re talking about stillness of the mind. I’ve seen it in some… well, in some people, they simply are still. But others, they don’t even know it’s possible.
Buddha:
And yet, it is. Stillness is the foundation. Once the mind is at peace, the body is naturally aligned, and the spirit flows. Your work with the body, with movement—it is a key. But remember, it is not only the body that needs to be aligned, but the whole being: body, mind, and heart.
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Furrows his brow, considering this)
Body, mind, and heart.
(He pauses and looks up from his notes.)
And… how do we begin? How does one align everything?
Buddha:
The path begins with awareness. Awareness of the breath, awareness of each movement, awareness of each thought. But most importantly—awareness of what is true in each moment. When you move, move with the truth of the present moment. When you think, think with clarity. When you feel, feel without attachment.
F. Matthias Alexander:
Ahh, yes.
(He stands up straight, as if struck by an insight.)
It’s as if the mind, the body, and the emotions all need to… sync. You’re suggesting that, when we are aligned with the present moment—really present—we no longer force anything. Our bodies, our movements, are expressions of a deeper truth.
Buddha:
Precisely. When the body moves with truth, there is no strain. When the mind moves with truth, there is no confusion. When the heart moves with truth, there is no attachment. This is the path to peace.
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Looking at the Buddha in awe, his voice softens.)
I think I’ve spent my life searching for this kind of simplicity. The truth of each movement, each breath… We’ve spent too long thinking that comfort, alignment, and ease are something to be achieved, rather than something we return to.
Buddha:
We are always returning, my friend. To ourselves, to our true nature. It is not something to be found outside. It is something to be realized within.
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Smiles, feeling the weight of this truth settle in.)
Then it seems we are both teachers, after all. Perhaps you teach stillness and I teach movement, but in the end, both lead to the same place.
Buddha:
(Laughing softly)
Yes, we are both on the same path. The only difference is that you are teaching how to move with ease, while I am teaching how to rest in stillness. But in the end, it is the same—the body, the mind, and the heart all seek harmony.
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Nods with a deep sense of understanding)
Harmony. That’s what it’s all about. I think I’ve just found my next lesson.
Buddha:
And it is a lesson that you have already begun to teach. The truth is always within you. It only needs to be remembered.
Scene 2:
(The two sit in silence for a moment, the serenity of the garden surrounding them. Alexander puts his notepad aside, taking a deep breath, his body more at ease. The Buddha closes his eyes once more, returning to his state of meditation.)
F. Matthias Alexander:
(Whispering to himself, with a soft smile)
Harmony… Yes. It begins with stillness.
(The stage fades to black, leaving only the soft sounds of the garden in the background.)
End.

Walking the Floor with Alexander – Part 2

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

If you’re experimenting with Alexander Technique directions, walking is an excellent activity to use for those experiments, and equally important, to test whether a direction is actually useful.  Hard surfaces such as wooden floors make that process far easier than, say, thick carpets, not least because they can provide auditory, as well as kinesthetic, feedback.

In Walking the Floor with Alexander, I wrote: “Floors, and more specifically how our feet arrive at them when we walk, can be a very useful “sound mirror” for observing changes in the way we use our bodies.”  In that post, I go into some detail about how to use that “mirror”.

Observing others as they walk can also help you understand the power of paradoxical Alexander Technique directions such as  “I’m not walking”.

Take a look at the video above.  Clearly, everybody in it is bending their ankle, knee and hip joints to walk.

Notice, however, that the way they are doing these bends, and how they affect the rest of their bodies, varies from person to person.  Some peoples’ feet are coming down very heavily on the ground, some quite lightly.  There are differences in the length of their strides.  Arm and torso movements vary from person to person.

And not everybody is actually walking straight forward!  Some have a habit of veering off course a little bit with each step and will have to make a course corrections from time to time.

If you watch the video at a slow speed, you can start to notice all sorts of more subtle mannerisms that vary from person to person, such as turning one foot out a bit just before it arrives at the ground. A wonderful feature of YouTube videos is that you can slow them down to as low as quarter speed. (Click on the gear icon on the bottom left of the screen, and then click on “Playback Speed)”.

If you were to ask any of the people in the video what they were doing, they would all say they are walking, despite the many differences in how they carry that out. Chances are if you were in the video, you too would say you would say you were walking.

There is the generic, general purpose, word “walking”. And there is also each person’s own version of “walking”.

A paradoxical Alexander Technique direction delivered from your conscious mind like “I’m not walking”, is really a request to the rest of your brain and nervous system to come up with a freer and more efficient version of your particular version of walking.*

You might wonder why your conscious mind can’t just do the job itself, why it needs to outsource implementation to your unconscious mind.  The answer lies in the different abilities of the two parts of your brain and nervous system.

Your conscious mind is great at coming up with new ideas, plans for the future, strategies for how to deal with other people, and the like. But due to the very limited number of thoughts it can have at any moment of time, it simply cannot orchestrate the vast number of adjustments needed to make a useful changes in how you move. If you try to make it do that, you’re likely to stiffen from the overload.

The truth is that while your conscious mind has a huge role to play in your life, it is the world’s worst micro manager!

Luckily for us all, our unconscious mind and nervous system can not only make the required adjustments, but also has our best interest at heart and makes them in the best way possible, given our current coordination. But it is important to understand that it won’t do that on it’s own initiative – we seem to be designed in a way that requires a clear request from our conscious mind in order for our unconscious mind to spring into action.**

Also, for any direction to be most effective, that clear request must not be muddied by any attempt by your conscious mind, however subtle, to “help” the unconscious mind do it’s job. Having delivered its message, it now needs to stay out of the way. Learning how to accomplish this can be one of the most challenging projects for students and, I have to say, for teachers too. Not Even a Tiny Weenie Bit goes in to this in greater detail.

There are, of course, many other paradoxical Alexander directions.  “I’m not chopping veggies”, “I’m not speaking”, “I’m not getting into a car” – the list goes on and on.  Walking just happens to be one of the best places to start, not least because it’s something you can see lots of people doing at the same time.

—

*Your unconscious mind could, in theory, decide to make things worse – after all, you only asked for something different. But in my experience that never happens.  I think the implications of that are huge.

**I’ve often wondered why that requirement is necessary.  Certainly it would be easier for us if harmful patterns of thought and movement were automatically corrected. There would certainly be no need for the Alexander Technique!  Perhaps is has to do with free will!

—

Walking the Floor with Alexander featured Ernest Tubb singing the original “Walking the Floor”. Below you you can hear Merle Haggard’s somewhat more Barkersfield sound version:

Annie Get Your Gun

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

I stumbled onto this photo of Annie Oakley and couldn’t stop thinking about the amazing ability it must take to hit a target behind you, something she did in all her performances.  As any marksman will tell you, their profession requires the ability to be completely still, without any undue tension. A little like a cat that waits for it’s prey. Easy for a cat, perhaps, but rare in human beings.

Shooting backwards takes things to a whole new level, one that very few people have ever achieved.

Annie Oakley was rightly famous for her shooting skills.  She joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West touring show in 1885, performing in many American cities, and in Europe before royalty and other heads of state. Audiences were astounded to see her shooting out a cigar from her husband’s hand or splitting a playing-card edge-on at 30 paces. Not to mention shooting  backwards. She even shot the ashes off a cigarette held by then prince and future kaiser Wilhelm II!  One of history’s great “what if’s” will always be how the 20th century would have played out had she missed that shot in 1890.

I think F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique would have been fascinated by her skill, for the same reason he went to see circus performers whenever they came to London because he knew he would see good “use” – to use a bit of Alexander Technique jargon.* (A trapeze artist who doesn’t have good use won’t be a trapeze artist for long.)  Sadly, she was a few decades too early for motion pictures, although although a very short low resolution Kinetoscope showing off her shooting was produced at Thomas Edison’s studio in 1894.

It turns out Annie Oakley had some interesting insights.  Many were about empowering women – in some ways she was an early feminist.  Others were perceptive observations about social norms, and in particular relationships between men and women.  And some even have an Alexandrian resonance.

Here are a few of them:

I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies.

Aim for the high mark and you will hit it. No, not the first time, not the second time and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally you’ll hit the bull’s-eye of success.

For me, sitting still is harder than any kind of work.

If love means that one person absorbs the other, then no real relationship exists any more. Love evaporates; there is nothing left to love. The integrity of self is gone.

I would like to say to every woman: ‘There is a fight for every right’.

There are always women who will take men on their own terms. If I were a man I wouldn’t bother to change while there are women like that around.

God intended women to be outside as well as men, and they do not know what they are missing when they stay cooped up in the house.

Annie Get Your Gun was the title of a Broadway musical about her life.  There were also 2 movies about her, a PBS documentary, and several books and songs.

Here’s my favorite Annie Oakley quote:

And here’s song about Annie Oakley:

* Alexander Technique teacher Hillary King has a nice definition of Alexander Technique “use”

Mind Your Mind

Body Learning Blog Posted on by


F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique, believed that if we want to improve the way we function, we need to make the best use of our ability to think.  Only then can we engage in what he called “constructive conscious control” of ourselves.  He even titled his second book Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, often referred to in the Alexander world as CCC.

His idea seems logical, simple, and straight forward.  And perhaps obvious.

Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for him to discover that lurking in the background, were a host of unexpected challenges in teaching his students how to use their thoughts in a useful way.  Many of these challenges came from their inability to think a thought without adding some habitual muscular effort. That effort almost always incorporates within itself the same habits they want to release.

Alexander, and pretty much all the “first generation” teachers he trained, spoke and wrote about this.  In an earlier blog, Not Even a Teeney Weenie Bit, I discuss it in greater detail, and you can read how they each described the problem.

But there is a even deeper and more insidious problem which Alexander saw very clearly, and which I believe is not always well understood by Alexander Technique teachers and students today. That problem he called “mind-wandering” and, to get some idea of how important it is, there is actually a section titled: “Mind-Wandering Recognized as a Shortcoming – Its Relation to Self-Preservation” in the early pages of CCC.

He writes a lot about mind wandering in that section, and throughout CCC.  Here is just one example:

The shortcoming to which the individual will awaken will be one which interferes with his immediate activities outside himself, in reading, for instance, or when he is attempting to learn something, or to learn to do something, and, as a matter of fact, the shortcoming that has been recognized as interfering more than any other in this connexion (sic) is the shortcoming concerned with his inability, as he would put it, to “keep his mind” on the particular work with which he is immediately engaged; in other words, the shortcoming which is commonly known as “mind-wandering.”

So… what is the problem posed by mind wandering?

Apart from it’s sheer waste of our mental energy, Alexander’s view of the problem is encapsulated in a phrase from the quote above: “keep his mind”. “Keeping”, is a type of concentration.  And concentration is actually a form of physical and mental tightening. And that is precisely what we don’t want, if improved functioning is our goal.

Alexander writes a lot about the dangers of concentration in CCC.  Here is a particularly poignant example:

In my experience, as soon as the pupil is asked not to do anything, he will immediately show all those signs of strain and fixity of attention that he shows when he is asked to do something, and which we have learned to associate with any attempt at concentration. Point this out to the pupil, and he will answer, nine times out of ten, “I am trying to do nothing!” He actually believes that he has something to do to do nothing. To such a point can we be led by our belief in concentration!

So…how do we prevent mind wandering, and indirectly our belief in concentration?

I believe the easiest, and most effective, way to address the problem is to use an Alexander Technique self-direction tailor made for just that purpose.

(If you are not familiar with Alexander Technique directions I suggest listening to the 2 podcasts below.)

A Brief History of Alexander Technique Directions

Effective ways to use Alexander Technique Directions

The direction I have found most useful in preventing mind wandering is this: “I am not thinking”.  Technically, it’s an example of a  “paradoxical direction” – which is a specific type of “inhibitory” or “negative” direction.  And to be clear, the phrase “I am not thinking” is not at all about the usefulness of thinking in general. It’s about improving your particular way of thinking.

I see this direction as a kind of quality control process that weeds out thoughts that have no useful purpose – agonizing over past events, worrying about possible future developments, and the like – and thus improves the overall quality of our  thinking.

Which, of course, is exactly what Alexander thought would be needed to bring about improved mental and physical functioning.*

I’ve recorded an interview about what the direction “I am not thinking” means, and how to use it effectively.  It also goes in to some detail about it’s broader implications: A Simple Alexander Technique direction that can change your life (video version)  There is also a Podcast version

I would love to hear about your experiences when using that direction!

___

*Alexander used the words “physical” and “mental” only because there were no better ones available.  Again, from CCC: “I wish to make clear the sense in which I use the word psycho-physical. The term psycho-physical is used both here and throughout my works to indicate the impossibility of separating “physical” and “mental” operations in our conception of the working of the human organism. As I wrote in (my first book) “Man’s Supreme Inheritance”, ‘In my opinion the two must be considered entirely interdependent, and even more closely knit than is implied by such a phrase.” (emphasis mine) You can learn more about this here: Your Body and your Mind: More Tightly Knit than you could ever have Imagined

___

The legendary Hank Williams wrote and recorded a country song that resonates a bit with the dilemma Alexander faced:

 

A Fork in the Road

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

Suppose a man starts out to reach a certain destination and comes to a place where the road branches into two. Not knowing the way, he takes the wrong road of the two and gets lost. He asks the way of someone he meets and is told to go straight back to the crossroads and take the other road, which will lead him directly to the place he wants to reach. What should we say if we heard that the man had gone back to the crossroads as directed, but had there concluded that he knew better after all than his adviser, had taken again his old road, and again got lost, and had done this thing not once or twice, but over and over again? Still more, what should we say if we heard that he was worrying dreadfully because he kept getting lost, and seemed no nearer to getting to his destination?

One could easily imagine a minister including this little story in a sermon about why smart people make foolish decisions. It almost sounds like one of Jesus’ parables.

But in fact it was written in 1923 by F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique in a chapter titled “Incorrect Conception” in his second book, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual

Alexander was certainly not a man of the cloth, but by the time he wrote this, he had a lot of experience with students of his who behaved exactly like the man at the crossroads. As he writes a few sentences later, the crossroads story …is more or less what happens in the case of every pupil, even…those who are accounted the most intelligent, the most highly educated, the most scientifically trained…

And it’s precisely what Alexander Technique teachers come up against over and over again today.

Why is this?

Alexander’s view of the matter is that almost everybody carries around incorrect conceptions of the usefulness of his or her way of doing things – that, in Alexander’s words, …what he thinks of as a “difficulty” is not a difficulty in itself, but simply the result of “his way” of going to work.

Or, to put it another way – again in Alexander’s words – a student typically …subconsciously believes he knows more than his teacher about the things he can or cannot do.

Even, I might add, when intellectually he or she is in full agreement with the teacher.

Needless to say, this is one of the greatest challenges that Alexander Technique teachers face in helping their students change the way they do things, even simple things like standing, sitting a walking.

As Alexander famously remarked, Everyone wants to be right but no one stops to consider if their idea of right is right.

Have you had experiences with others’ incorrect perceptions and how their lives were affected?

Have you ever realized you had incorrect perceptions of your own? What was it that brought you to that realization – and what advice can you give based on your own experiences?

I would love to hear from you about your experiences with preconceived notions about what is right, and what is not.

***

Off topic, but I can’t resist including this quote from Yogi Berra: When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!

And of course there is a Bluegrass song about a crucial crossroad:

(An earlier version was published as The Fork in the Road)

What are you saying when you don’t say anything at all?

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet

We humans do a lot of things while upright. This video provides a unique and clear view of a a number of people walking and then a larger group simultaneously standing for for several minutes. It’s not often that we have that kind of opportunity, especially the standing part.

I’ve found it compelling viewing from an Alexander Technique point of view. The Technique is all about learning how we manage ourselves as we move, sit or stand, and how we can bring greater ease into our life.

I’ve been watching the video with the sound muted so I could better focus on the visual.  If I see something that looks interesting, I watch that part at one quarter speed so I can catch every detail.

Many viewers have commented on Trump’s movements in this video as he attempts to stabilize himself in an upright position with nothing to hold on to.  That’s certainly interesting, but for me it’s equally fascinating to watch the very different strategies used by the other participants to stand as still as possible.  You can see multiple military and civilian stances, and when watching in slow motion, you can see just how much, or how little, each participant sways back and forth.

A lot of people have used this and other videos of Trump to express their opinions about the man and his policies.  And those opinions may well be valid.  But for me the fascination lies in seeing the variety of ways we humans move and stand – how, in other words, we function when we’re on our feet, given the external forces like gravity and support that are always operating on us.

And then there are the fascinating, and telling, little moments of adjusting and re-adjusting as when, at about 4:00, Trump places his hands in front, removes them in an odd way, and then places them back in front.

But everybody – in this video and in ordinary life – has posture and movement patterns that speak loudly about themselves.  If we fail to notice those patterns in ourselves, we run the risk of “speaking” in a way that impedes our progress through life.

We also run the risk of of creating dis-functional tension patterns that can cause movement limitations and pain.  Learning how to really see what others do can be a useful first step in identifying our own habits.

And that, in turn, can encourage us to learn how to stop doing the habits that are harmful, so that what we “say” to others, and what do to ourselves, makes our lives easier.

There and Back Again, My Journey through Neck Surgery – Part 2

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

In a previous post about my neck surgery in early March of this year, There and Back Again, My Journey through Neck Surgery, I expressed some concern about my ability to teach the Alexander Technique while my left arm was still weak and I needed to wear a neck brace which limited head and neck movement.

The surgery – a laminectomy and spinal fusion – was necessitated by exteme, partially congenital, stenosis in my upper neck that was severely constricting my spinal cord. As I wrote in the earlier post:

“I knew from talking with another teacher who had a similar operation years ago that there might be some negative judgement from other teachers, and perhaps even from my students. What good is the Technique – or me! – if this can happen to someone who has been teaching for almost 40 years?”

As it turned out, I need not have worried about my teaching ability, or negative judgements.

Because of the Covid19 pandemic, in person teaching was no longer possible and, like many other teachers now, my students are all on Zoom.  I was fortunate in that I’ve been using Zoom (and before that Skype) for a decade or so and was very comfortable working in that environment.

Indeed, I was teaching most of my students online even before my operation. They all know I’d had the surgery because I’d had to cancel their early March appointments.  But I was worried about how new students would react to my brace, which as you can see in the photo below, was hard to miss!

My strategy was to warn them ahead of time. To my amazement, not one asked about it.  And when, a few weeks ago, I stopped wearing it while teaching, not one commented on it’s absence!

The only teaching problem I had when I initially returned to teaching, was that my overall energy level was still low and I needed to be careful not to schedule too many lessens a day.  At the same time, demand for distance lessons increased dramatically and so I had to create a waiting list.

As I write this in early June, I no longer need to use a neck brace at all, and my left arm has regained much of it’s previous range of movement, although it is still weaker than my right arm.  My most pressing concern at this point is: “When will I be able to get a haircut?”  We’re still in lock down mode and so my appearance is taking a backseat to my safety.

And as for possible negative judgements from others, the response to my first blog was overwhelmingly positive and supportive.

I am, of course, still adjusting to the new reality that my vertebrae from C3 to T2 are fused and that does limit head movement, particularly sideways rotation. So I’m working on strategies to include my whole torso when appropriate.

I’ve been using my Alexander Technique knowledge from the start. And now that the brace is gone, I feel the usefulness of the Technique will become even more important. I plan to write a follow up blog describing that process.

In the meantime, I’m grateful the operation was a success, and that a major part of my recovery is over.

The Veep’s Speech

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

 

You may remember The King’s Speech, a 2010 movie about King George VI who, after his brother abdicated the throne in 1936, needed to be able to speak effectively in public despite the stammer he had since childhood. He enlisted the help of Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist who was a great help to the King. The two men became friends and later, when Britain declared War on Germany in 1939, he relied on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast.

Vice President Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic nominee for President, also overcame stuttering to a large extent, in his case by working on his own. In 2020 he talked about King George’s experiences, and his own, at a town hall event during the New Hampshire primary, which you can see in the clip above.

When I saw the movie it occurred to me that when the King reached out for help, a different advisor with different contacts might well have suggested F. Matthias Alexander.  Alexander, who was also from Australia, was living and teaching in London and was known for helping people with breathing and speaking issues, and had quite a few clients among the “right people”.

The Alexander Technique, which he developed, could have taken quite a different path had that happened!*

Like a lot of people, I didn’t know that Biden had a stuttering issue and I owe it to Monika Gross, an Alexander Technique teacher in North Carolina, for bringing it to my attention with her posts on the Alexander Technique Forum.

Here’s a little about what she said:

Interesting – and extremely moving – testimonial by VP Joe Biden about his personal experience as a stutterer, at a February 2020 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Town Hall. FM had a whole chapter in The Use of the Self about a case study of a client who was a stutterer. Wonderful to think that around 1955, at the same time FM was at the end of his life in London, in Wilmington, Delaware, young Joey Biden was using a mirror and self-observation to develop constructive conscious control of his manner of use.

The chapter is titled “The Stutterer” and while it contains some valuable insights,** I’m not sure I’d give it to someone not already a bit familiar with the Alexander Technique.  For me, Alexander comes across as being the expert that the reader (presumably someone who stutters) should submit him or herself to.

On the other hand, I’m pretty sure Biden could get some very useful help from an Alexander teacher – who I think could make his “anti-stuttering” strategies more fluid, and less likely to seem like cognitive issues.

***

* You can read more about these parallels in The King’s Speech and The Alexander Technique…Is there a link between Lionel Logue and FM Alexander?

**For example that stuttering involves “many other parts of (the) body besides…tongue and lips” and that the most effective process of stopping it requires making changes in how the whole body functions.

There and Back Again – My Alexander Technique Journey through Neck Surgery

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

It was a Monday evening in mid-February of 2020.  Our four year old grandson had just spent a couple of days with us, and my wife Anne was relaxing after the excitement and extra activity.

A couple of days earlier, I had noticed some unusual neck pain and a bit of weakness in my left arm, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it.  That evening, the weakness had become more pronounced to the point where I could barely lift it. I did a little research online and soon realized this could be serious.  I told Anne we needed to go to the Emergency Room.

The ER doctor quickly determined that there were two quite different probable causes – a stroke or a pinched nerve. He had ruled out a heart attack with an EKG, and a major stroke with a CT scan, but I would need several MRIs to determine if there had been a minor stoke and to see what was going on in my neck and rotator cuff. I also needed an ultrasound to make sure it wasn’t a less likely heart condition. He scheduled these for the next morning and I was admitted to the hospital late that night.

Things moved quickly on Tuesday. I had the tests and that afternoon met with a neurosurgeon who strongly recommended laminectomy and spinal fusion. There was severe, partially congenital, stenosis in my upper neck that was severely constricting my spinal cord. It already presented a serious risk and would almost certainly get worse over time. He didn’t sugar coat the situation, saying it was major surgery, would last about 3 hours, and that I should expect a good deal of pain and discomfort for some time. Full recovery would take a year and I’d need to use a neck brace for a couple of months.

Ms Maisie and me, wearing our collars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was resistant at first, but Anne and I did some research and soon realized he was absolutely correct in his assessment, given the extreme degree of spinal cord restriction.  Two weeks later I had the operation, followed by three days recovery in the hospital. As I write this it has been 6 weeks since the surgery.

On the plus side, my recovery has gone very smoothly and I’m now quite active, taking 3 or 4 long walks each day and doing a great many activities around the house. My left arm seems to be slowing returning to  normal. The pain turned out to be far less than I expected, and after a week or so at home I no longer needed any medications.  I did use ice packs a lot for a couple of weeks, but that, too, has become  unnecessary.

Not surprisingly, there is some reduction in my ability to move my head in relation to my torso. Because I’m still wearing a neck brace, it’s too early for me to fully assess just how much that reduction is. But already I am pleasantly surprised at how little my overall functioning seems to have changed.

I attribute a lot of the speedy and easy recovery to the skill of my surgeon, Dr Andrew Livingston, who is generally regarded as one of the best in the area, as well as his team, and my friend and neighbor, Dr. Ken Gross, an excellent anesthesiologist who volunteered to assist in the operation.

I also believe my Alexander Technique training contributed a great deal as well.

And that takes me to the downside of the experience. The neck, and how it is managed, holds a very special place in Alexander Technique thinking.  For structural reasons, the fusion needed to encompass C3 to T2 which meant that 5 of the 7 vertebrae in my neck are no longer mobile.

Having a “free neck” means something quite different from what it did before!  I even wondered for a while if I could still be an effective Alexander teacher.

I knew from talking with another teacher who had a similar operation years ago that there might be some negative judgement from other teachers, and perhaps even from my students.  What good is the Technique – or  me! – if this can happen to  someone who has been teaching for almost 40 years?

These are the sorts of questions I’ll be writing about in future blogs, along with my ongoing recovery and teaching experiences. I’m doing this partly for my own benefit, but also in the hope that my story may be helpful to other Alexander Technique teachers and to AT students.

In the meantime, your comments, suggestions and questions are most welcome.  Please post them below and/or on Facebook.

 

 

 

Gravity’s Sad Story – Part 2

Body Learning Blog Posted on by

Eight years ago I managed to arrange an interview with Gravity, Gravity’s Sad Story, during which he expressed a great deal of unhappiness about his negative image in the popular imagination, and the blame he so unfairly receives.

I thought about that interview while reading an Alexander Technique blog post, Using Knees as a form of Humiliation, by Maciej Kowalczyk. I’ve very much enjoyed reading Maciej’s blogs – more at The Room of Attempts –  and I like like most of this one as well. Maciej brings a fresh Alexander Technique perspective into his writing.

But two sentences in the blog jumped out at me: “When I’m just thinking about standing, it is a source of pride. We are able to resist the force of gravity, we can overcome space, it is our strength.”

I just knew I needed to share that with Gravity.

He agreed to another short interview, again using an avitar to convey his words, and here’s a portion of our talk:

Me: Gravity is good to talk to you again after all these years.  Before we talk about the quote, I wonder how you felt about the attention you got when the movie Gravity came out, not long after we spoke before?

Gravity: Yes I enjoyed that movie a lot!  It got a lot of things right and for that I was gratified.

Me: So… Gravity, what do you think of the quote?

Gravity: (Audible sigh) Well it illustrates what I been complaining about – the idea that humans think they need to resist my force, not cooperate with it. That it’s a question of strength, not intelligence.

This is a little harsh and overstated – and I’m saying it to make a point: If just being upright for extended periods was something to be proud of, than a garden gnome would get first prize!

Me: But Gravity, we are living, dynamic creatures so surely the comparison is not fair.

Gravity:  Of course, of course.  My point is that objects don’t resist me and they do just fine.  And humans can do just fine too if they let go of any idea of overcoming me. It’s my job to be helpful, not a challenge.

Me: I assume you’re referring to your gentle downward pull on our heads’ center of gravity – the “forward” of “forward and up” so to speak?

Gravity: Yes that certainly. But more generally that there is any reason at all to resist, or counter, my force.  My job is provide a constant pull down towards the center of the earth.  My friend the “strong force” has the job of keeping you on the earth’s surface.  It provides an upward force (by the way, the “up” of “forward and up” in your Alexander Technique jargon) thus making it totally unnecessary for you to do any resisting in order to get my beneficial effects.

Like the other primary and secondary forces, I’m here to help, not hinder.  My job is to keep you tethered to your earth, and I act on your structure in a way that allows you to be easily upright and balanced. Not to mention keeping your atmosphere from floating away and lots, lots more.

Me: So really then you just wish we had a little more respect?  And understanding?

Gravity: Yes, exactly.

Me: Well you’ve certainly my respect.  Thank you for taking this time to chat.

***

A lot more information about just how gravity and the other fundamental forces act on us can be found here: Gravity, Support and Freedom