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Breaking Down the Alexander Work - Directions, Part 2

3/27/2019

I’m an Episcopalian. It means a lot to me to have this religious affiliation, but I mostly keep it to myself as a deeply private belief. One of the things I love most about the Episcopal church is the repetition of the liturgy from week to week. Before I became an Episcopalian I used to think that I would find the repetition incredibly boring, but the truth is, it’s very comforting. No matter what is going on in the world, there is a lovely set of words to return to, week after week, day after day, that don’t change. Words that provide comfort, assurance, even easing tensions and pains from daily living.

Alexander’s directions,“Let the neck be free, to let the head go forward and up, to let the back lengthen and widen,to let the knees go forward and away” can have the same effect on me as the liturgy. Because I have had much experience from the hands of Alexander teachers, all I have to do is think these words and I experience comfort, an easing of physical tension, and I sense my place in the physical world. These words bring me home to myself.

As a beginner to the technique, without a lot of experience, these words meant nothing to me. As a teacher, I often hear beginning students ask me “But how do I free my neck?”

In recent years, people have made some adaptations of Alexander's directions to be easier to understand and more accessible without a teacher. I think this is all good. I’m thankful that innovative directions exist and that people are continuing to explore new and effective ways to communicate our work.

Two ways to get out of a chair:
On the left, with the head tipped backwards and pulled down, the direction of motion is towards the floor. No wonder it's so hard to get up!

On the right, the person is directing themselves forward and up out of the chair. You can learn how to do this in an Alexander lesson.

An early adaptation of directions came from Missy Vineyard in her 1997 book “How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live.” Missy came up with the idea of negative directions. Instead of saying “let your neck be free,” the corresponding negative direction would be something like “my neck is not tense.” Negative directions work, but the very inference of the word “negative” is something I really don’t enjoy bringing to my work. I have to say that I have seldom used these in my teaching.

My colleague and friend Jennifer Roig-Francoli, who is a wonderful boundary explorer in the AT world, has created “Freedom Directions.” Instead of all of Alexander’s words, the Freedom Directions simply say this:

·      My neck is free
·      I am free
·      My breathing is free
·      My legs are free

When I use the Freedom Directions, I notice that they give me a lot of space for interpretation of the given moment. In my own teaching, I like to remind students that “directions” can also refer to mental letting go, as well as physical letting go. Often, one informs the other – but using something as simply as “I am free” allows me to let go of whatever is NOT free in my body or my mind.

If the differences between these types of directions intrigues you, there are even more variations out there. You can find links to different kinds of directions on Robert Rickover’s website, Up With Gravity.

In my teaching, I like to use directions that help students to find the ground as well as finding the way “up.” I rather enjoy asking people to direct themselves from their center of gravity, allowing Up to pass through the crown of the head at the same time as allowing Down to go down into the floor. I find this particular helpful for actors, who need to have all of themselves on the stage.

I also like to tell students that directions are what we ask ourselves to do instead – and this asking comes through thinking, not through physical pushing or doing. This kind of directing can be done with virtually anything – a mental task, or a physical one.

Mental directing of what we would like to change in our physicality is an essential part of the Alexander Technique. In any given situation, how we direct and what we direct are up to us.

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When Life Gives You Lemons, Inhibit and Direct!

3/20/2019

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My clearly stated intention last week was to write a blog post on “new explorations in Alexander Technique directions” today. Well, folks, that’s not happening. Postponed until next week. It’s already 3:45 pm, and this is the first time today I’ve had to sit down and even think about writing, never mind think about writing something that requires quoting and accuracy. Please accept my apologies and know that I will write that post, next week.

What happened today had nothing to do with my usual nemesis, procrastination. I love my inner procrastinator. I have to. She’s not going anywhere. This could have unfolded as exactly my usual situation of choice:
1) I waited until the last minute to do the research I needed,
2) I fooled around playing Words with Friends instead of sitting down to write,
3) I went outside and got lost in the garden and forgot all about it.

But it didn’t.

So what did happen?

Out on Arabia Mountain with my dear friends on Monday.

Let the record show that I did the research I needed last Friday. I wrote down websites, I re-read Missy Vinyard’s book chapter having to do with negative directions, I got started so that all I would have to do today would be to write. I knew that the next few days were packed.

On Saturday, I taught a full day workshop on Alexander Technique and Kodaly music analysis to cello students. Boy was that fun! Boy was that exhausting. On Sunday, I cleaned and organized my house for house guests, who arrived that evening and stayed until this morning. I love these folks, and I haven’t seen them in over a year. I wanted to really be with them, not around them while working from home. Yesterday I did go to the office while they touristed, and in the short time between clients I got two important calls as simultaneously, unexpected visitors showed up to consult with me about renting my studio space.

My guests were scheduled to leave this morning fairly early. They rolled out at noon. I had to teach an afternoon piano lesson. Instead of writing between twelve and two thirty, as I'd planned, I found myself catching up on all the other work things that had been piling up since Monday. No Words With Friends today!

Sometimes, life is just like this.

I could have spent the rest of the afternoon beating myself up. Or, trying to get the promised work done and producing an inferior product, which would have greatly upset my inner perfectionist. Fifteen years ago, I know I would have made one of those choices.

I could have chosen to be very anxious about all of this. I could have worked myself into a tizzy that would have prohibited me from getting even this post done. Believe me, I’ve done that, too.

So – I didn’t get a post done in the morning, I didn’t procrastinate, I didn’t beat myself up, I didn’t get anxious. What I did do was to accept the circumstances and realize that I am doing all I can do. I decided to take the small time I have left today and write a little more about inhibition and its relationship to direction, in order not to miss my deadline and let my subscribers down completely. This, at least, keeps my sense of integrity intact.

When circumstances are completely out of our control, we have all of the choices I mentioned above. And maybe a few more you can think of, if you take the time to pause and consider the choices in front of you. And that’s inhibition and direction in a nutshell, in the real world.

The next time something like this happens to you, I invite you to treat yourself with kindness. Do what you can. Enjoy the time you have with people you love. Know that everything else will get done in its own time (unless you procrastinate.) Oh, and laugh about it. That makes everything better, at least in my world.

Here’s to doing what we can do, staying grounded and in integrity with ourselves, and loving our lives and our friends.

Happy Spring!

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Breaking Down the Alexander Work – What is Direction? (Pt 1)

3/13/2019

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One of the things that I dislike most about the Alexander Technique is that it is simply riddled with jargon. It’s very difficult to describe in a straightforward way, particularly if one wants to quote Alexander’s own words. The jargon and special terms FM Alexander created often get in the way of people understanding easily what it’s all about. Part of my goal in this blog series has been to break down the jargon. The great news is, I’m not alone. Many other Alexander Technique teachers alive and practicing today have taken the time to try to describe Alexander’s Directions in ways that make sense to all of us. In this post, I’ll be quoting some of their work for you. No sense in re-inventing the wheel when others have said it so well.

In my last post I talked about Inhibition, the pause that allows us to see the choices available to us for action. Sometimes, as in the driving and slamming on the brakes example, the choices available to me are clear – I can respond with road rage, I can let it go, I can play with my driving after the incident to reduce the effort I’m using. But sometimes, the choices are not so clear. For example, I just spent a wonderful and amazing long weekend at the Myrtle Beach Alexander Technique and Energy Work event, hosted by AT teacher Renée Jackson. Even after the long drive home, I’ve been feeling physically and mentally stress-free.

Our view of North Myrtle Beach.

I had a full day of work yesterday, and at the end of it, I was pretty tired and noticing some returning stiffness in my shoulders. My husband came home and let me know he was upset with me about a few seemingly unimportant things that were obviously important to him. (You all know that situation.) I felt my internal stress level rising, even as I was sensing that this was less about the small things that I hadn’t done, and more about something deeper that was bothering Dave. As the stress rose, I noticed my neck stiffening in addition to my shoulders. I was breathing more shallowly. As he finished, I decided to pause before responding and see what came up for me. I realized that I was not angry with him. What I was not liking was my physical reaction to the situation. Where was all that freedom I’d been enjoying? How was I going to get that back while diffusing his anger at the same time?

When the choices are not so clear, the default decision in the AT world is to go back to Alexander’s Directions. In FM Alexander’s words, the Primary Directions are as follows:

·   Let the neck be free
·      To let the head go forward and up
·      To let the back lengthen and widen
·      To let the knees go forward and away

Ted Dimon points out that the use of the word “to” makes it clear that these four directions are linked together, given “one after the other and all together” as Alexander said. (If you are interested in seeing maps of muscles that are released in following the directions, I highly recommend Ted’s website and the explanations there.)

Hilary King explains on her website that the term Directions has two meanings, which overlap:

1) Directions are mental instructions we learn to give ourselves before and during an action, in order to bring about changes in the way we use ourselves whilst performing the action.
2) The instructions that are given also indicate the “direction” in which we wish to release and lengthen muscles – for instance, allowing our knees and thighs to release out and away from our hip joints.

I agree with Hilary that this distinction is important – describing both “things to do” and an actual “direction” in which releases and length should travel.

Adrian Farrell says on his website that Alexander’s directions are “giving consent” to the body to release its habitual behavior. That’s a nice image. Without instruction from a teacher, however, these directions can be difficult both to understand and to implement. Let me try to explain what I did yesterday to follow them.

Let your neck be free:  I sat back in my comfortable chair and took a breath. I thought about releasing tension in my neck muscles, and noticed that my jaw was also tight, so I let that go on the exhale. Ah, better.

To let the head go forward and up:  This one is harder to explain. What Alexander is asking us to do is to allow our head to rest gently on top of our spines, like one of those bobble-head dolls. If my neck is free, my head can gently return to neutral, and that lovely feeling of freedom allows my head to move easily in all directions on top of the atlas, the highest vertebrae of the spine. Having had lots of hands-on work with AT teachers over the years, I know what that feels like, and I can ask myself to go there after I free my neck. Ah. So much better.

To let the back lengthen and widen: On my next breath, I can allow two things to happen – on the inhale, I can sense my back widening against the chair. As my lungs expand, so do my ribs. My shoulder blades gently take a ride toward the sides of my body. I allow this sensation of width to remain with me. As I exhale, I notice my spine lengthening from sacrum to the crown of my head. Such a lovely feeling.

To let the knees go forward and away:  This one is a little harder to experience sitting down. I imagine that my hip joints are expanding as my legs release away from my torso. I have space. My legs feel free. If I were standing, I could actually feel a change in my knees as they soften.

These basic directions are my go-to when I need some refreshing ease back in my life. Last night, a quick check-in with the primary directions allowed me to really sense my physicality. I felt the support of the ground coming up through the four legs of the chair. I turned to Dave and asked him questions, rather than responding with anger.

In recent years, people have made some adaptations of these directions to be easier to understand and more accessible without a teacher. Next week, I’ll talk about the evolution of directions in the twenty-first century.

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Breaking Down the Alexander Work – What is Inhibition?

3/5/2019

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When I first started studying Alexander Technique, I was in a lot of physical pain. My mid-back was a mess, and I often had a lot of neck pain, too, from carrying my head forward like a turtle. I can remember distinctly the first time I really started working on using the principles of the Alexander Technique. It was 1994, and I had just been to a full-day Alexander workshop given by the wonderful teacher Freyda Epstein. I walked out of there feeling great. Thanks to her fabulous hands-on work and some terrific constructive rest lying down at the end of the day, I felt about three inches taller than usual. I sat down in the driver’s seat of my car and adjusted my rear- view mirror to accommodate my new fuller stature. I had about an hour to drive home.

About a quarter of the way into the drive, I noticed something. My head had moved far away from the headrest, and my nose was now approaching the dashboard of the car. Suddenly I couldn’t see anything in my newly adjusted mirror. Just like that, my body was reverting to the position that I thought was “normal,” with my head forward and my eyes wanting to be closer to the windshield of the car. I pulled over to the side of the road in order to give myself my full attention.

What does this pre-AT photo of me from 1992 have in common with the guy on the right in the other photo?

I had learned in the workshop that day that if I tried to pull my head back, or “sit up straight”, I would be using a lot of unnecessary effort to both get there and to “keep” my body upright in that way. I had just been feeling so effortless, so light and comfortable. I wanted to get back there without forcing myself upright. I remembered that Freyda had talked about Alexandrian inhibition as a way to release my old pattern. So there on the side of the road, I asked myself to release out of my familiar way of holding my head. Once the tension was gone, I asked my head to float up and rest on top of my spine, using the idea of Directions. And what do you know, it worked! By allowing myself to simply pause and not try to “do” anything, the “right thing did itself”, as FM Alexander said in his writings. My body had enough of a remembrance of the place where Freyda’s hands had guided me over and over that day that it could return there effortlessly. I drove home, using awareness to notice when I was leaving this new place of comfort and ease and then allowing myself to pause until I released up out of my old habits. I arrived home much less tense than I could imagine from that drive.

That, friends, is what the pause Alexander called “inhibition” is all about when we talk about changing physical habits. It’s important to communicate to you that the pause can also be a mental activity related to our emotions and reactions to stimuli of thought. I’ll give you another example that comes from driving.

Bruce Fertman once said to me that “your car can be your best Alexander Teacher.” I believe that’s true, and I’ve had a lot of experience playing with that idea. Driving back and forth to Philadelphia for Alexander training back then, and now driving in notorious Atlanta traffic every day, I know that I can respond in one of several ways to the stress of being behind the wheel. Road rage is a great example. When I drive, I like to give myself enough space between my bumper and the car in front of me so I can react to whatever happens and respond without slamming on my brakes. It drives me crazy when a car from a neighboring lane decides to pull in front of me and close in that gap I’ve worked hard to create. My instant reaction is often to slam on my brakes, and my body goes into adrenalin production in overdrive. Even if nothing serious happens, my body gets pretty stressed and riled up. Worse, my response to that reaction is often to get angry. Really angry. I forget I have a choice, and I yell. I call the other driver “stupid” and a variety of adjectives I don’t wish to put into print. Occasionally there’s a finger in the air, or flashing brights, or all manner of emotional response. I know I’m not the only person who has these feelings and responses – I see them (and worse) playing out every day on the highway in Atlanta traffic.

Time out for a bit of discussion on the difference between reaction and response. Reaction comes from our limbic, animal brain. The tiger is coming down the road, we produce adrenalin, we run. We get cut off in traffic, we produce adrenalin, we slam on the brakes. We are wired to keep ourselves safe and alive. We don’t have a lot of choice in this once the limbic brain takes over. BUT – we do have a choice to notice this reaction and how it feels inside ourselves – to pause, and then to choose a response that feels appropriate to the situation.

So, in that moment of pausing after slamming those brakes on, I have a mental, emotional choice in front of me. I can choose to respond in anger, with road rage. Sometimes that feels pretty good. Sometimes that’s extremely dangerous to the cars around me. Sometimes it’s downright inappropriate to the situation. (Our responses are always on a continuum – there’s the full range of that one.) On the other hand, I could choose to ignore what that person did and just let it go. I could choose to consider that perhaps they are late for work and anxious. Or on their way to visit a relative who was rushed to the hospital. Or just oblivious because they are driving distractedly. Many choices present themselves, and in the pause, I get to see them, experience the continuum, and then decide how or if I want to respond. It’s amazing how much we can consider in the split second of pausing.

When I really check in with myself in the pause, I can notice my reaction to something mental may also affect me physically. I often find that when I get angry on the road, I am gripping the steering wheel for all I’m worth. Sometimes I enjoy playing with how little effort it actually takes me to hold and turn the wheel. When this situation arises, that is often my response – can I let go of all that tension and see how little work I can make this drive? It’s amazing how that game affects my thinking and my body, too.

I hope this gives you a sense of what Alexandrian Inhibition is all about. Simply put, it’s the pause that allows us to see a range of choices in any given situation. It’s not how we resolve the situation – the actual response we choose comes under my next topic, which will be Directions. It’s hard to write about one without the other, but the pause is what comes after our physical or mental innate reaction to a stimulus. It’s what we can allow ourselves to experience before deciding on a response to a situation – a moment of freedom where many choices are possible and judgement is suspended.

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Robbin Marcus

A new 21 weekday blog series on Slow Forward - gentleness with myself - will begin on Monday, February 5, 2023
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An occasional post from me, about stuff that interests me.

2023 blog series:
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Breaking Down the Alexander Work - Directions, Part 2

When Life Gives You Lemons, Inhibit and Direct!

Breaking Down the Alexander Work – What is Direction? (Pt 1)

Breaking Down the Alexander Work – What is Inhibition?

Robbin Marcus

2019 blog series: Exploring the Power of Habit

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