Body Learning Blog

The trouble is none of my pupils will believe that all they need to do is to think and that wish for the neck to be free will do the trick…We are so brutalized by our belief in doing and muscular tension.* – F. Matthias Alexander

As an Alexander Technique teacher, I’m faced with this problem everyday.

So…what’s the best way to help students learn that all they need is a light thought to “do the trick” as Alexander so nicely puts it?

I’ve found that providing an easy to understand analogy can often be helpful.  I’ll sometimes ask if they prefer an electrical engineering analogy, or a military analogy.

If they spring for electrical engineering I’ll direct their attention to a light switch in my studio.  I’ll then point out that if they want the lights turned on, or off, all they have to do if flick it in the appropriate direction.

It takes virtually no effort to do this – indeed it’s possible make a light switch that activated by pure thought using electrodes attached to your head.  Adding effort does nothing to make the on/off process more effective.

Nor does it require any understanding of the complex electro-mechanical systems that they are using by flicking the switch.  They don’t need to understand the coal or gas or nuclear power system that generates the current. And nothing of the complex nation-wide grid that ensures enough power is available here in eastern Nebraska to activate the lights. And nothing of the local transformers, residential wiring, light bulb technology etc etc that’s involved in lighting, or darkening, the room

By the same token, they do not need to understand or micro-manage all their own “sub-systems” that are affected by a simple mental direction such as “I am free.” or “My neck is free.”

In a sense, the end result is already there and just needs to be chosen – tuned into, so to speak. When the lights are out, and you want them on, that “on-ness” is built into the system and simply has to be selected to bring it into being.

Similarly, when a student is inadvertently compressing him or herself, a freer state is already available. For it to manifest, it need only be chosen.

No force, no effort, no holding onto the thought, no analyzing, no attempt to implement it by force of will.

If a student chooses the military analogy, I bring up the Allied invasion of France on D-Day, 1944.

By the first week of June 1944, Nazi Germany still controlled most of Western Europe. Allied forces, numbering 156,000, were poised to travel by ship or plane over the English Channel to attack the German army dug in at Normandy and open up a path to Berlin.

General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, was holed up in a country estate in England. He had a window of only four days of decent weather in which an invasion would be possible. When bad weather hit the channel on June 4, Eisenhower wrestled with the idea of postponing the invasion.

Weather conditions were predicted to worsen over the next two weeks and he had many thousands of personnel and tons supplies that were in his words, “hanging on the end of a limb”.

After a promising but cautious report from his meteorologist at 9:45 p.m. on June 5, Eisenhower turned to his adjutant and said “let’s go”.

Let’s go. That’s all he had to do to get the invasion started.  He didn’t need to put any effort into that command. Just “let’s go.”

And that’s how we make meaningful changes in how we function – we simply, softly, affirm the change we want.

As Alexander said: “All you need to do is the right thought…and that will do the trick!”

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*Quoted in the diary of Sir George Trevelyan, one of the students in Alexander’s first teacher training course.

Image courtesy Image courtesy of image courtesy of pixtawan FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I love this quote* by F. Matthias Alexander!

For me, it gets to the heart of a major obstacle faced by students as they begin to explore Alexander Technique directions – the strong temptation to hold on to the nice changes they experience, whether from an Alexander Technique teacher’s hands-on guidance, of from their own self-directing.

In my experience, you can reason with them until you’re blue in the face, explaining that “you can’t fix a movement” or “trying to hold on to a feeling takes you away from the thought that brought it about” etc. etc. and they’ll nod their head in accent and then continue grasping at results at the expense of process.

So…what to do?

I’ve tried all sorts of approaches. and I find one of the most effective is to teach them to deliberately “throw away” the direction I’ve just asked them to use – and see what happens.  And then to bring that direction back, continue it for a bit, and then toss it away again.  And then bring the direction back.

I usually begin in the first lesson and the particular framework I use most often in which to run these experiments is walking.  It’s an activity they’re going to be doing over the course of their day, it has a nice rhythmical quality, and especially when it’s done on creaky wooden floors can produce some nice auditory feedback.

I might start by asking a student to think something like “I am free” or “My neck is free.”  I’ll go through a little explanation that these are very soft thoughts, not something to do.  The student’s job is to think the thought lightly with absolutely no concern about what it means or how it might be implemented.

Their job is to softly think the direction and leave all the messy details up to lower level systems.  Total outsourcing – or, really, in-sourcing!

I also tell them that they will almost certainly forget the direction, probably within a second or two.  No problem. When they notice they’ve lost track of it, just gently bring it back.  Over and over again.

Then I ask them to take that thought into a little walk around my studio.  After perhaps 10-15 seconds, I ask them to keep walking, but throw the thought away.  Then, a few seconds later, I ask them to gently bring it back.

I might go through 2-3 repetitions – any more and “throwing it away” becomes a little problematical.

Almost always, when they throw the thought away, they notice that they drop down into themselves.  Often they can hear the sound of their feet arriving at the floor becoming louder. This, I point out, is a direct experience of their old habit.

Then, when they bring the thought back, they lighten up and their footfalls become softer again.

I then ask them to go through this same kind of experiment on their own, with a variety of activities, a few times each day.

Deliberately throwing their useful self-direction away, and then bringing it back has the effect of lessening their desire to hold on to it in the first place.  After all, if it’s a simple matter to bring it back, there’s really no need to try to keep it.

After awhile (maybe a week or so) most students realize they don’t actually have to throw their directions away to use their directions in a light, “forgiving-of-forgetting” kind of way.

Here’s an interview Imogen Ragone did with me as part of her series about Alexander Technique teachers’ first lessons in which I talk a little more about this process:

How have you – teacher or student – dealt with the “holding onto” problem which Alexander so nicely identifies?  I’d love to hear about your own experiences with directing.

Please leave your responses below and/or on Facebook.

*Quoted in the diary of Sir George Trevelyan, which can be found in The Philosopher’s Stone – Diaries of Lessons with F. Matthias Alexander