Introduction

FM Alexander formulated a unique approach for dealing with the way habit interferes with human potential. Speaking well on stage was Alexander’s own preoccupation, but the approach can be applied to any activity, or ‘end’. Examples range from ‘simple’ actions such as standing up from a chair or typing at a laptop, to complex activities such as playing a musical instrument or sports.

I’ve used the analogy of a skier to create a fun visual guide to Alexander’s approach (sneak preview below). I also want this to be a practical guide, and so I’ve included a detailed example of a singer using this approach to improve an aspect of her performance (all sorts of other examples could have been used instead).

A final point: you’ll need an understanding of the Alexandrian principles of Inhibition and Direction, but these are explained (with an appropriate link) in the text.

‘I see and approve the better, but follow the worse’

The English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley had lessons with FM Alexander, and it influenced his life and writings in various ways. In his novel Eyeless in Gaza (1936), there is a character called Miller, based on Alexander himself, who teaches ‘a technique for translating good intentions into acts, for being sure of doing what one knows one ought to do’. In the novel, Huxley presents the technique as a solution to the ‘video meliora proboque; deteriora sequor problem’: a quote from Ovid meaning ‘I see and approve the better, but follow the worse’.

It is precisely this problem which FM Alexander sought to overcome in relation to muscle tension he’d built up around speaking. No matter what he did, he found that he couldn’t prevent ingrained habits interfering with the use of his voice, to such an extent that his career as an actor was in jeopardy. Despite his best intentions, even the thought of speaking on stage would lead to tension and hoarseness.

Alexander describes these investigations in his book, The Use of the Self (1932). And it is here, over four pages, that he describes his plan for outwitting any habit of muscular tension which gets in the way of what we want to do.

I have included Alexander’s own words in an appendix (below), but the point of this article is to explain his ingenious process as a visual guide. The complete illustration is below (or click for A4 pdf), and I have added an examination of its four sections below that.

Enjoy!

1. The grip of habit

In The Use of the Self, FM Alexander writes that ‘Human activity is primarily a process of reacting unceasingly to stimuli received from within or without the self’.

In this case, our skier in the illustration receives a stimulus from outside the self (the ‘bang!’) to gain a particular end. However, their reaction to the stimulus involves anxiety, muscle tension and a lack of control, and so they inevitably do not achieve their end satisfactorily and instead tumble past it. Habitual reactions have taken over, and the skier is thwarted.

Example

Minnie is a soprano who wants to improve her singing at the top of her range. She sets herself the goal of singing a beautiful top C (a stimulus received from ‘within the self’), but each time she tries, her desire to ‘get it right’ brings about anxiety and muscular tension. The result of her attempts are an unpredictable, strained and unsatisfactory quality of sound.

2. Partial success

The skier has been working with the principles of the Alexander Technique. When they receive the stimulus to act this time (the ‘bang!’) they are able to inhibit their habitual reaction to it, and direct the overall quality of their coordination, or use. This process is represented by the ‘I&D’ printed on their red cap (anyone not yet familiar with inhibition and direction can read a great summary here).

However, at the ‘critical moment’ when the skier goes on to attempt to gain their end, they revert to their wrong habitual use and fail in their attempt.

Example

Minnie has been practising her singing by lying down on her back in the semi-supine position. She gives herself the aim of singing a top C – in other words, a stimulus from within the self. Lying on her back helps her notice some muscle tension building as a reaction to the stimulus to sing – in particular, she notices herself arching her back and compressing her neck. She works with inhibition and direction to reduce unnecessary tension in the face of the stimulus to sing. Everything goes well until the critical moment when she opens her mouth to release the note, at which point she reverts to her habitual use and fails in her attempt to sing her top C freely and with ease.

3. Outwitting habit

The skier has deepened their practice. As before, they begin with an overall plan to gain their end but don’t react immediately to the stimulus to do so (the ‘bang!’). Instead, they continue to inhibit and direct. Further, at the critical moment when they might have gone on to gain their end, they stop and reconsider. In doing so, they realise that they actually have three options: to gain their original end, do nothing at all, or do something entirely different such as ski along a forest trail. They then make a fresh decision to do one of the three, making sure that they continue to inhibit and direct, no matter which option they choose.

It is important to note that, by inviting choice at the critical moment, the power of the end to bring about habitual tension is diminished. By saying to themselves, ‘perhaps I won’t gain my end, and perhaps I will’ – and by inhibiting and directing no matter the choice they make – it becomes possible for the skier to outwit the habit which dictates that tension must always accompany their desire to gain their end.

In other words, inhibition and direction must continue throughout the process, regardless of stimuli or critical moments!

Example

Minnie is lying down again to practise her singing; this position helps her spot habitual tension more easily because overall her muscles are working less. As before, she begins with an overall aim to sing a top C. She notices any instinctive reaction to the idea of singing a high note, and successfully inhibits it. She then mentally projects directions through her whole self to improve her overall coordination. And this time, at the critical moment when she opens her mouth to sing, she stops. She makes a fresh decision either to a) sing the top C; b) do nothing at all or c) raise her hand, and continues to inhibit and direct while following through on one of the three options.

4. Habit defeated

With practice, the skier is able to not react with tension when gaining their end. They have broken the link between the gaining of an end and the habitual tension that previously accompanied it. Unnecessary tension is the enemy of the effective performance of any task, and so any steps which can be taken towards releasing habitual tension will increase the likelihood of achieving an end successfully. This is illustrated by the skier going on to cross the finish line without tension.

Freeing oneself from the habits of unnecessary tension is indeed therefore a solution to the problem identified by Aldous Huxley and referenced in my introduction: video meliora proboque; deteriora sequor, or ‘I see and approve the better, but follow the worse’. Alexander concludes:

After I had worked on this plan for a considerable time, I became free from my tendency to revert to my wrong habitual use in reciting, and the marked effect of this upon my functioning convinced me that I was at last on the right track, for once free from this tendency, I also became free from the throat and vocal trouble and from the respiratory and nasal difficulties with which I had been beset from birth.

FM Alexander (1932) The Use of the Self . Reprint. London: Gollancz, 1985. pp.47-48

Example

With practice, Minnie is able to formulate her plan to sing a top C without unnecessary tension. Moreover, through pausing and giving herself choices at the critical moment of opening her mouth to sing, over time she dissolves the tension that had become habitually associated with the gaining of her end (singing a top C). Notwithstanding other limiting factors – such as physique, current health, technique or experience – she has become better able to reduce or eliminate an important factor interfering in her potential: the harm caused by habitual muscle tension.

Appendix: FM Alexander (1932) The Use of the Self . Reprint. London: Gollancz, 1985. pp.45-48.

After making many attempts to solve this problem and gaining experience which proved to be of great value and interest to me, I finally adopted the following plan.
Supposing that the ‘end’ I decided to work for was to speak a certain sentence, I would start in the same way as before and
(1) inhibit any immediate response to the stimulus to speak the sentence,
(2) project in their sequence the directions for the primary control which I had reasoned out as being best for the purpose of bringing about the new and improved use of myself in speaking, and
(3) continue to project these directions until I believed I was sufficiently au fait with them to employ them for the purpose of gaining my end and speaking the sentence.
At this moment, the moment that had always proved critical for me because it was then that I tended to revert to my wrong habitual use, I would change my usual procedure and
(4) while still continuing to project the directions for the new use I would stop and
consciously reconsider my first decision, and ask myself ‘Shall I after all go on to gain the end I have decided upon and speak the sentence? Or shall I not? Or shall I go on to gain some other end altogether?’ — and then and there make a fresh decision,
(5) either
not to gain my original end, in which case I would continue to project the directions for maintaining the new use and not go on to speak the sentence;
or
to change my end and do something different, say, lift my hand instead of speaking the sentence, in which case I would continue to project the directions for maintaining the new use to carry out this last decision and lift my hand;
or
to go on after all and gain my original end, in which case I would continue to project the directions for maintaining the new use to speak the sentence.
It will be seen that under this new plan the change in procedure came at the critical moment when hitherto, in going on to gain my end, I had so often reverted to instinctive misdirection and my wrong habitual use. I reasoned that if I stopped at that moment and then, without ceasing to project the directions for the new use, decided afresh to what end the new use should be employed, I should by this procedure be subjecting my instinctive processes of direction to an experience contrary to any experience in which they had hitherto been drilled. Up to that time the stimulus of a decision to gain a certain end had always resulted in the same habitual activity, involving the projection of the instinctive directions for the use which I habitually employed for the gaining of that end. By this new procedure, as long as the reasoned directions for the bringing about of new conditions of use were consciously maintained, the stimulus of a decision to gain a certain end would result in an activity differing from the old habitual activity, in that the old activity could not be controlled outside the gaining of a given end, whereas the new activity could be controlled for the gaining of any end that was consciously desired.

I would point out that this procedure is contrary, not only to any procedure in which our individual instinctive direction has been drilled, but contrary also to that in which man’s instinctive processes have been drilled continuously all through his evolutionary experience.

When I came to work on this plan, I found that this reasoning was borne out by experience. For by actually deciding, in the majority of cases, to maintain my new conditions of use either to gain some end other than the one originally decided upon, or simply to refuse to gain the original end, I obtained at last the concrete proof I was looking for, namely, that my instinctive response to the stimulus to gain my original end was not only inhibited at the start, but remained inhibited right
through, whilst my directions for the new use were being projected. And the experience I gained in maintaining the new manner of use while going on to gain some other end or refusing to gain my original end, helped me to maintain the new use on those occasions when I decided at the critical moment to go on after all and gain my original end and speak the sentence. This was further proof that I was becoming able to defeat any influence of that habitual wrong use in speaking to which my original decision to “speak the sentence” had been the stimulus, and that my conscious, reasoning direction was at last dominating the unreasoning, instinctive direction associated with my unsatisfactory habitual use of myself.
After I had worked on this plan for a considerable time, I became free from my tendency to revert to my wrong habitual use in reciting, and the marked effect of this upon my functioning convinced me that I was at last on the right track, for once free from this tendency, I also became free from the throat and vocal trouble and from the respiratory and nasal difficulties with which I had been beset from birth.

Following my success working at BBC Studios and Lloyds Banking Group, I have produced a flyer to explain the Workplace Posture Checks I am offering companies in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

If you think colleagues at your organisation would benefit from this wellbeing offer, then please contact me for further information and a quote.

You can also download a pdf of the flyer to share with the relevant decision-maker where you work.

Have you ever considered how muscle tension can accumulate over time: what you might call ‘compound tension’? Here’s a recent chart I created to express the idea:

Here are some interesting points to note:

• unnecessary muscle tension often occurs during focused activity. When our attention narrows down on something, so does our overall posture.
• unnecessary tension can ‘layer up’ (as expressed on the left) until it reaches a critical level where we experience discomfort or pain.
• we can prevent the build-up of unnecessary tension by taking breaks (as expressed on the right). In the Alexander Technique, this is termed ‘inhibition’, or pausing to prevent unnecessary patterns of tension.
• there are deliberately no scales on the chart. ‘Overall tension’ on the y-axis can accumulate in minutes, hours, days or years. And on the x-axis, an inhibitory pause could last seconds (for example, we could take a few moments to notice our breath, soften the eyes, reconnect with our support – sit bones and feet – and rebalance), or it could last much longer (such as when we lie down in a semi-supine position).
• in fact, over time, inhibition can transform into something continuous – a less reactive state where you’ve become skilled at preventing tension from interfering in your overall coordination. In other words, you can become more in tune with the interplay between yourself as a well-coordinated whole and the activity itself. You become less likely to ‘lose’ yourself in the intensity, frustration or all-consuming nature of a task – and so less likely to subject yourself to ‘cumulative tension’. This is the Alexander Technique in action.

Last week was Back Care Awareness Week, a campaign run by charity Backcare (the National Back Pain Association) to help companies better support the health and wellbeing of their staff.

It is estimated that around eight million UK adults suffer from chronic back pain, costing the economy around £10bn year.

As part of Back Care Awareness Week, this year I gave ‘posture checks’ in Bristol at both Lloyds Banking Group (Canons Way) and BBC Studios (Bridgewater House). This was the offer:

During your 15 minute session you will:-

➣ feel lighter, taller and freer in how you move;
➣ discover strategies to avoid back and neck pain;
➣ have the opportunity to book a discounted trial session at the Bristol Alexander Studio.

The feedback was extremely positive. The sessions identified a strong demand, and both events were quickly oversubscribed. I therefore hope to return and work with more people at these locations.

Last month, I was privileged to introduce the Alexander Technique on the Classical Guitar Course run by IGF (International Guitar Foundation and Festivals) at its summer school in Bath, UK. Although the course was founded in 1994, it has recently relaunched under its new course leader, renowned Colombian classical guitarist Francisco Correa. Special guests this year included Marco Tamayo, Berta Rojas, Stephen Goss and IGF CEO’s Tom Kerstens.

As well as solo lessons, guitar ensembles, chamber groups, masterclasses and concerts, Francisco was keen to include the holistic activities of mindfulness and Alexander Technique.

Together, we devised a schedule that included a workshop presentation and one-to-one Alexander Technique sessions for participants.

The details of the workshop are below; however, before that, here’s one of the Alexander Technique one-to-one sessions I gave condensed into 16 seconds. Why? Because it’s silly and fun (courtesy of Aurora Orsini).

Alexander Technique IGF Workshop details

Here’s a brief summary of the contents of the workshop:

• lessons from athletics: can less effort achieve greater results?
• a foundation for everything: balance and ease.
• unity of self: patterns of movement, patterns of thought
• AT outcomes: movement, balance, pain reduction, emotions
• AT ‘black box’: postural tone and body schema
• two AT skills: Inhibition and Direction
• the AT ‘Ready List’: stop, see, breathe, ‘soft and tall’
• guitar specifics: Alma Sehic (2014) The Conscious Guitarist: Alexander Technique and Body Mapping for Guitarists. Doctoral thesis. University of South Carolina.
• body mapping: shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, fingers.

I have a new teaching aid: a miniature ‘push puppet’ skeleton. Left on its own, the skeleton stands very stiffly, held taut by internal elastic strings. Push the button at its base and the skeleton collapses into a heap.

But there is also a third unexpected condition. You can push the button underneath just a little and the skeleton retains its default posture with less tension.

The following illustrates what can happen:

‘Same posture, less tension’

The push puppet skeleton mirrors what can happen in humans. For example, can you remain in your current posture right now, but with less tension? Why not test out the idea by closing your eyes, releasing your breath and slowly scanning down your body to see what you’re holding on to.

A person can hold the same position either freely or with tension. In fact, if someone’s postural system is working well, they’re not really holding a position at all. They are in tune with their innate ability to release and rebalance instead of hold positions chronically.

This principle is based on research into postural muscle tone, which is the continuous, low-level muscle activity required to keep us upright in relation to gravity. According to a recent article, postural tone provides

an “adaptive frame” that readies the nervous system and body for movement. If the frame is too stiff, we must overcome our own resistance to act in the world. If the frame is too loose, we act without the necessary stability and support. The concept of “tone as readiness” was first proposed by the pioneering motor control scientist Nikolai Bernstein in 1940.

Cacciatore, Cohen & McCann, ‘Mind the Gap: The Missing Science of Posture’

‘Doing good posture’: the elastic band problem

Scientists have suggested holding a simple posture takes only 3%-5% of the maximum muscle capacity (ibid.). What therefore seems to be going wrong for a lot of people?

Often, people try to ‘do’ good posture. For example, they’ll try to pull back their shoulders and sit up straight, only to find that they’ve returned to a slump minutes or even seconds later. It’s understandably really frustrating, and so they might latch onto the idea that they need to ‘strengthen their core’ to maintain a ‘correct’ posture.

And yet what is often not considered is that muscles can be chronically tense to begin with. This means that any effort to come out of a slump is destined to fail: the shortened, tense muscles ping us back to where we began, like a stretched elastic band. This sense of fighting ourselves is called co-contraction.

It therefore becomes clear that just ‘doing something’ doesn’t really cut it.

Change and the postural system

If you sense that chronic tension or poor posture is interfering in your life, the good news is that the postural system is open to change. The process of change, however, might be one that defies your expectations.

For example, there is evidence that applying the Alexander Technique helps postural muscle tone become more adaptable and better distributed through the body. It changes the underlying patterns that support and facilitate the movements we make.

But the Alexander Technique achieves its effects through a process called inhibition: that is, pausing to prevent unnecessary tension, ‘doing less’, or even ‘non-doing’. We are all the victim of habits, and often cannot see beyond them. But getting help to stop and ‘not do the pattern’ can open up new possibilities in unexpected ways.

Indirect changes in alignment

I began this blog by suggesting that we could maintain the same position, or posture, but with less tension. While that is true, you would probably also wish to widen out your postural repertoire. Freedom from tension gives you the option of releasing into length and width, more of the time.

For example, below is a student I worked with for the first time for only 15 minutes. You can see that he is enjoying being taller and more released, and he would be able to rediscover it more often with further work.

The changes in alignment such as the above are indirect: they are not the result of someone voluntarily holding a position, but rather the result of being guided beyond habits of tension.

Conclusion

So, indeed, our postural system is able to change but perhaps not in the way you might imagine. Reducing unnecessary tension, rather than introducing more tension into an already tense system, is a good starting point.

It’s counter-intuitive, but then so is the idea that a simple push puppet could release some of its tension and yet maintain the same posture.

In the summer of 2023 I introduced the Alexander Technique to around 20 classical musicians in Bucharest. None of them had experienced the Alexander Technique before, and as well as giving workshops, I made time to provide some hands-on work.

For their interest, I took ‘before and after’ photos. Pretty obviously, the ‘before’ condition was before they had experienced any hands-on work. The ‘after’ condition was after only around 15 minutes hands-on (I had limited time, though they had additional hands-on work on subsequent days).

I’ve included some of the ‘before and after’ photos below, with a little bit of commentary. Visible changes don’t by any means tell us everything. For example, a change in alignment doesn’t necessarily demonstrate a change in tension. However, the feel under the teacher’s hands is very different when someone has let go of tension, and the snapshots do indeed show a general direction of travel.

The snapshots are interesting, fun and intriguing and most definitely not scientific. Permission to use the images was given in all cases.

I’ve blogged about my previous work with musicians in Romania here (includes testimonials) and here (more snapshots).

Two new eye-catching tips for learning the Alexander Technique have just been published. You can read them here:

They are part of a self-help guide for patients, published for Sustainable Healthcare Day which this year fell on April 6th 2023.

The guide was published by the Integrated Healthcare Collaborative (IHC), which is a collection of professional associations within complementary, traditional and natural healthcare. Other members of the collaborative include Chinese medicine and acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, shiatsu and herbal medicine.

The IHC works to increase access to these therapies and to promote greater integration with conventional Western medicine.

To access the full self-help guide visit the IHC website, and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Earlier this year, I blogged about a new video by Laura Try which is probably the best 10-minute video for newcomers to the Alexander Technique. It’s astonishingly clear and authentic too because it shows her own first experience of the Technique.

I’m now asking whether an article I wrote last month is the best written introduction to the Alexander Technique.

I’m only slightly pulling your collective legs because it’s surprisingly difficult to write well about the Alexander Technique. The article I’ve written is for newcomers, but brings together information about the Technique which, thanks to the latest research, would not have been possible even five years ago.

It’s the best modern introduction to the Alexander Technique I’ve come across.

The article covers the following topics:-

⬗ Why might you try the Alexander Technique?
⬗ Challenging beliefs about posture
⬗ The Alexander Technique as a preventive solution
⬗ Emotional and Psychological benefits of the Alexander Technique
⬗ Origins of the Alexander Technique
⬗ What to expect in an Alexander Technique lesson
⬗ A modern scientific theory for the Alexander Technique
⬗ Further information and finding a teacher

It begins,

Those that have come across the Alexander Technique often say it’s ‘something to do with posture’. However, it’s actually something deeper: a pro-active way of dealing with the stresses and strains of everyday life.
So why might you try the Alexander Technique? Its effects can be both transformational and empowering. Studies show that it impacts on everything from back pain and muscle tension to freer movement, improved mood, confidence, performance and (yes) posture.

I wrote the article for the National Centre for Integrative Medicine (NCIM) and you can read it here:

Alexander Technique: ‘giving nature her opportunity’

Sparks is a new hub of ‘sustainability, creativity and education’ which has been set up in the old Marks & Spencer in Broadmead shopping centre, Bristol.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to introduce the Alexander Technique to members of the public passing through this space, thanks to the brilliant support of Mila Plants.

The event was a real success. I gave around 10 minutes of free hands-on Alexander Technique work to 16 people of all ages and backgrounds. Some had musculoskeletal issues, and some didn’t, but all of them said it was a positive experience. Many of them looked quite different walking away, even after that short intervention.

From my perspective, it’s really exciting to be able to bring the Alexander Technique to a wider audience. Certain groups have often heard of it (musicians, actors and those with back pain) but many more haven’t.

Most of the people I worked with on Sunday had never come across the Alexander Technique. There’s a lot of work to do to make it better known.