I was presenting the Alexander Technique again to musicians in Bucharest this month (more of this amazing programme here). A question that came up several times after the hands-on work was,
‘How can I find this [release, poise, relaxation, ease, coordination etc] again on my own?’
The answer is simple – but not easy. Simply speaking, most people have spent years cultivating habits of reaction and tension. Unconscious though they may be, these habits are nonetheless ‘thinking’ patterns involving the whole nervous system. The answer, therefore – and I don’t mean to be glib here – is that if you thought your way into tension, you can think your way out of it. This is not easy work, but there is a roadmap for it, and this is the Alexander Technique.
The Alexander Technique is therefore not exercises, nor stretching, nor strength training, nor poses. It is how you think in relation to the stimuli around you; how you react or don’t react to the stressors that can cause mental or physical tension. It is also about how you undo a lifetime of such reactions; in short, how you climb out of the hole that you’ve dug for yourself.
In a way, the Alexander Technique is a big ask. And yet – even taking a few tentative steps down the path can result in a powerful sense of liberation from self-imposed limitations: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
To bring this point home, I recently read Mike Masterman’s account of his Alexander Technique lessons with Margaret Goldie, a first generation teacher who worked with FM Alexander. It is a salutary reminder of the importance of thinking vs feeling, and not putting the cart before the horse:
Lesson 3: Thursday 17th February 1994
“And how are you?” Miss Goldie asked as she indicated the chair with her hand. Although this seemed a relatively innocuous question I sidestepped it. I plunged headlong into the deep and told her I had been thinking about what she had been saying about the liveliness of my back, but how was I to notice the difference in my back if, as she had instructed me in my last lesson, I was not able to use my feeling sense.
This unleashed a fearsome broadside regarding the unwise course of using one’s feeling sense to verify a change. “This work is not about being made to feel good. It is serious and there are plenty of people going around feeling good who are in a terrible state. What good is that? All you are wanting is a nice pat on the back to reassure you that you are doing the right thing.
As the broadside continued I realised I was becoming more and more fixed as I stood in front of the chair. The lesson had not begun auspiciously! “But there must be some kind of feedback system through the body that will let me know when my back is released,” I ventured.
“How does your back release?” she asked.
“When my neck is free,” I replied confidently.
“And how does your neck become free?”
“With a thought.”
“Yes,” she said. “With a thought and that is what you use. I don’t know how you have managed to become so stiff and fixed. Now you can sit in the chair.”
Mike Masterman, ‘Lessons with Miss Goldie (part 2)’, STATNews pp.22-9, p.22.
To understand better the prioritization of thinking over feeling, you can read the following.
