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Alexander Self-Help by Nicholas Brockbank

The Alexander Technique - Moving Through Life With Greater Ease
By Rick Brennan

The Alexander Technique and Stress - Life is Not an Emergency!
By Rick Brennan

Alexander Self-Help by Nicholas Brockbank

About the Author: Nicholas Brockbank is an Alexander Technique teacher living in West Sussex. He would like to hear from anyone keen on learning the Alexander Technique on their own. Website: www.dodman.org

Although the Alexander Technique has traditionally been passed on through the medium of touch, with the hands of the teacher guiding the student, the originator of the technique, FM Alexander, was entirely self-taught.

Yet, anyone becoming involved in Alexander work soon discovers why it is so difficult to learn alone. The problem revolves around our perceived sense of ourselves. Most of us would say we know when we are in a balanced state, and it is often a shock to be encouraged by our Alexander teacher to move in ways counter to this.

With the aid of mirrors, Alexander discovered that what he saw did not correspond with what he sensed himself doing. After much experimentation, he concluded it was necessary for him to feel wrong while knowing he was right, until he was sufficiently accustomed to the new sensation for it to no longer seem strange.

This is a simplification of the processes involved; but essentially, having a faulty sense of ourselves makes beneficial change difficult. This is especially the case when the bulk of our kinaesthetic perception takes place beneath the level of awareness. Hence the need for teachers, who satisfy the dual function of drawing attention to what we are doing while guiding us to do it differently.

The average individual is likely to have neither the inclination nor the perseverance (despite the availability of video) to emulate Alexander?s painstaking work, as outlined in The Use of the Self; but there are alternative avenues of exploration open to those wanting to change their habitual way of reacting to stimuli.

The first step is to become fully engaged not only in what we are doing but the way we are doing it. This may not seem a tall order; until we realize how often our mind is either wholly taken up with the task at hand, or is anticipating the future or reminiscing over the past, while our body operates on autopilot.

The second step is recognizing ? accurately ? what we are doing, and from that, recognizing what we are doing wrong. In Alexander?s view, we tighten our necks, and pull our heads backwards and down; which, in turn, leads to a shortening of the spine through over-exaggeration of its curves, and a narrowing of the trunk, causing a general contraction of the body. His ideal was a free neck, with the head going forwards and up, followed by a lengthening spine and a widening back.

To have an idea what he meant, it can be useful to sit somewhere, place the palm of one hand on the back of your neck (let it rest there like a poultice) and then decide to stand, while keeping your hand in place. You might stand quickly or slowly, in one movement or in stages; but pay close attention to what your hand is telling you is happening with your neck muscles.

Unless you?re markedly different from most, there?ll be a palpable degree of activity in your neck out of all proportion to what needs to be going on to keep the head supported, and way more than you would normally be aware of. You may also perceive that this neck activity pulls your head backwards and down.

Try this going from standing to sitting. Then repeat what you?ve just done, but rather than using your hand to measure the muscular activity in your neck, use your internal kinaesthetic sense. Sit or stand normally, while paying attention to your neck. You?ll probably notice nothing, or else very little, going on there.

That in itself should be enough to clarify for most of us the enormous gulf between what we are actually doing (pulling our heads backwards and down) and what we think we are doing (nothing untoward). If we run through this procedure often enough, we?ll come to recognise unnecessary activity in our necks without needing verification from our hands. It will be going on most of the time, although it will be when sitting or standing that it is most noticeable.

All that is then required is for us to stop doing this. Stopping pulling our heads backwards and down ? which is the sole criteria for it to go forwards and up ? isn?t a discipline that comes about overnight; but there?s no reason for progress to be any slower than in other areas of learning.

For a more subtle, supplementary approach, you could try placing one hand on the back of your head, and the other on your forehead, and gently rotating your head half way to where you would be able to look along the line of one shoulder, and then turning it back (switching hands if need be), so you?re doing the same on the other side.

As you do this, it is best to think of your head rotating from a spot more or less midway between your ears, which is where the skull sits and turns on the two topmost vertebrae. It also ?rocks? from this point; so, again using your hands, gently incline or nod your head an inch or two forwards (as if you were checking your shirt front) and then tilt it the same amount backwards (that first step to looking up at the stars).

Turn your head slowly back and forth, then nod and tilt it, a few times, paying as much attention as you can to allowing your hands rather than neck muscles to initiate the movement. Obviously, your neck muscles play their part, but you want the impression they are following rather than leading. Keep remembering that point between your ears.
Finally, return your head to its starting place, only this time, as you begin to apply gentle pressure with your hands to rotate towards the right or left, or to tilt forwards or backwards, use your neck muscles to resist the movement.

Don?t let this become a tug of war. A gentle inclination with the hands can be met by an equally gentle resistance. Maintain the pressure of your hands; then allow your head to be turned, or tilted, taking particular notice of what you ?do? to allow the movement that previously you had disallowed to now take place. That is the key moment, so pay attention to it.

Play around with this for a while, stopping and starting, noticing the difference between what you do muscularly to resist the urging of your hands and what you do ? or rather, don?t do ? to go along with it.

Now take your hands off your head, but pretend they are still there, trying to turn or tilt it. Initially, deny them the possibility. Let?s call that fixidity. Then, do whatever you did before that allowed your hands to turn or tilt your head, but this time without them being there and without your turning or tilting it yourself. Call that poise. For as long as you choose poise ? which is simply the absence of fixidity ? you can be reasonably confident your head will be balanced rather than pressing down on the top of your spine. Whatever it may feel like ? and it may feel no different to the way it usually does ? this will affect you beneficially.
I suggest you work on the assumption that when you?re not consciously engaged in choosing poise you?ll almost certainly be subconsciously ensuring its opposite; that fixidity is your default mode for most of the hours of the day; and that when you?re doing anything remotely stressful you?ll be hard pressed to undo this. That way you won?t be too disappointed.

Another ploy utilizes the procedure Alexander devised for encouraging new messages to be sent from the brain to the muscles without relying on the kinaesthetic sense. To understand how this works, it is important to differentiate between actual and imagined movement. Raising an arm and moving it about in space before letting it hang by your side again is not the same as imagining yourself doing this, without moving your arm at all.
If we consider the key Alexander concept of wanting to free the neck for the head to go forwards and up, there is a crucial point to bear in mind, which is that you cannot carry these instructions out directly, since the only way for the head to go forwards and up is for the neck to stop pulling it backwards and down. To the extent you know you are doing this ? assuming you have been paying attention ? you will already have stopped.

However, imagining your head going forwards and up (which is done in exactly the same way as you might imagine moving an arm in space) is an acceptable alternative, circumventing any desire you may have to make it happen, at the same time as acting, through the process of placing your intention on the area in question, as a counter influence on your hidden desire to carry on pulling it backwards and down. If you are in any doubt what forwards and up means, you could try tightening your neck, verifying that the result is your head being pulled backwards and down, and then letting it go again.

These simple steps – becoming aware, stopping pulling your head backwards and down, choosing poise rather than fixidity, imagining your head going forwards and up – can have a powerful effect. Not least of their power, though, comes from the concurrent need to remain in, and pay attention to, the present moment. It sounds clichéd, but probably the most profoundly beneficial self-help procedure any of us could undertake is simply to be where we are.

Once there, I suspect our minds and bodies would naturally gravitate towards that point of balance that it is the main purpose of the Alexander Technique to reintroduce to our lives.

The Alexander Technique - Moving Through Life With Greater Ease
By Rick Brennan

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The Alexander Technique is a profound method of releasing unwanted muscular tension throughout the body that many of us have accumulated over the years. This excessive muscular tension often starts in childhood and, if left unchecked, can give rise later in life to a whole range of common ailments such as arthritis, neck and back pain, migraine, hypertension, sciatica, insomnia and even depression. Vast amounts of money are being spent on the treatment of these illnesses, yet the number of patients carries on increasing. By learning the Alexander Technique, however, many people could be helped to understand the causes of their problems and, through the Technique, be taught how they can help themselves, so that their aches and pains would diminish or are avoided altogether.

The Technique was devised over a hundred years ago by Frederick Alexander - an Australian actor who kept on loosing his voice while performing. Alexander was determined to find a solution to his curious problem and this took him on a journey of self-discovery that, not only gave him the solution to his voice problem, but he was also able to cure himself of asthma of which he had suffered from birth. It has been claimed that Alexander's research was one of the greatest discoveries of the twentieth century.

The Alexander Technique can help us to become more aware of balance, posture and co-ordination while performing everyday actions. As children, our posture and ease of movement are a joy to watch, but as we start to tense our muscles in reaction to many of life's worries and concerns, our posture deteriorates into what can often borders on deformity. Yet this is not the case with people outside the western civilisation who retain their natural upright posture throughout most of their lives

We have a series of reflexes throughout the body that support us against the force of gravity and naturally co-ordinate our movements. Unfortunately because of the way we use our body many of us interfere with these natural reflexes to such an extent that many adults often hold four or five times more tension in their bodies than is really necessary. In fact, without realising it, many of us make life much harder for ourselves than it really needs to be. Our shoulders become permanently hunched, our necks become stiffer and stiffer, and we sit either slumped or holding ourselves in a very rigid. It may not be until years later that we will start to suffer from aches and pains or restricted movement. The reasons for many of these problems can be found when we consider our posture and the way we use our body while performing even the simplest of tasks: pain is simply the body's warning system trying to tell us that something is going wrong. The Alexander Technique can show you the underlying cause of your problem, enabling you to eliminate the tension which is responsible for poor posture, tiredness, general stiffness and a variety of aches and pains – conditions that we so often mistakenly put down to the ageing process.

One of the most common examples of the consequences of poor posture or stress is back pain. Eighty per cent of all people living in our western civilisation will suffer from disabling lower back pain at some point in their lives. In the United States one hundred million visits are made to chiropractors and in the UK sixty million working days are lost each year because of back trouble, and these figures are doubling every ten years. Throughout the western world the statistics reveal that back pain is not confined only to the United States and the UK, but seems to be on the increase in most developed countries, yet no one seems to have any clear answers or solutions to the problem. Although vast sums of money are being spent on treatment of the pain, there is little research into why back pain is so prevalent in our society and yet comparatively rare in some under-developed countries. An increasing number of doctors, back specialists and orthopaedic surgeons are now advising people to try the Alexander Technique as they can see beneficial results when nothing else has helped. Many people carry on for years with unnecessary pain, not realising that anything can be done for them. We do, however, need to face up to the fact that we have to take responsibility for our ailments and not expect other people to have all the answers.

The Alexander Technique is usually taught on a one-to-one basis and the teacher will help you to be aware and let go of muscle tension that is at the root of your problem. This will be done with verbal instructions and with help from his, or her, hands. There is no manipulation and no need to remove any clothing. You will also be taught new ways of sitting, standing and walking that will put less pressure on the joints and muscles. By learn new ways of moving while performing everyday tasks which cause far less strain on the body, you will be putting far less strain on your body thus making it work more efficiently. In fact, many people who practice the Technique experience a general feeling of lightness throughout their bodies and even describe the sensation as 'walking on air' or moving with no effort. Since our physical state directly affects our mental and emotional well-being, people often say that they feel much calmer and happier even after just a few Alexander lessons, often resulting in less domestic tension and a greater ability to cope with life in general. Many people say that the Technique has not only helped them to be free from pain, but they say that they look and feel 10 years younger - something I am sure everyone would like to achieve!

Richard Brennan is the author of several books on the Alexander Technique: he is also the director of the Alexander teacher training college, Ireland. He is the Irish national contact for Alexander Technique International (ATI) and co-founder of the Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers. (ISSAT) Further information at http://www.alexander.ie

The Alexander Technique and Stress - Life is Not an Emergency!
By Rick Brennan

Do you suffer from backache, neckache, headaches or migraine, insomnia, breathlessness, worry, anxiety fatigue or just fell tense for much of the time? If so, you may well be suffering from stress without realising it. As the pace of life increases, stress is affecting more and more people throughout the world Stress may be caused by overworking, looking after sick relatives or simply having too much to do in too little time. It can affect us physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually.

Stress affects us physically by causing our whole system to be constantly on 'red alert', ageing us before our time. It can cause a variety of aches and pains and can even contribute to stress-related illnesses such as cancer, strokes and heart problems which can threaten life itself. It affects us mentally by causing mental blocks, poor concentration or an over-stimulation of our mind until eventually we have little or no control over persistent unwanted thoughts. It can cause anxiety worry or depression which, in extreme cases, may permeate our whole existence until life is hardly worth living.

Stress can affect us emotionally, because we can lose our temper over minor incidences and cause us to react irrationally which may damage relationships with our family or friends. It can even affect us spiritually, because it prevents us from being in contact with the peace and tranquillity that should be the very essence and foundation of our life - and worst of all, stress can cause us lose our sense of humour and even our interest in finding the craic!

At first, we may actively enjoy the buzz of the adrenalin as it rushes around our body when we take on an exciting new challenge, but long term stress can rob us of everything that is important. It can take away our good health and replace it with a whole range of other stress related disorders until eventually we are unable to relax. They are many ways of reducing stress, but one of the safest, yet most effective ways is by learning the Alexander Technique.

The Alexander Technique is a method of self-awareness on many levels. It is very simple and can be understood by anyone, yet at the same time it is very profound; It is a way of improving balance, posture and co-ordination and this in turn will help to release unconscious tension that many of us hold. The human body is, an amazing instrument, but most of us unconsciously interfere with its natural working and this can lead to many health problems which could have been avoided. The release of muscular tension can dramatically help or prevent backache, arthritis, insomnia, as well as a whole range of other physical aches and pains that are so common in our society today. By learning to use this Technique you will become more aware of how you sit, stand and move, and this will help you to reduce the strain placed upon the body. As these tensions are released, so are many of the thoughts that hold us back from being who we truly are. Many people also find that their confidence and self esteem naturally grow, and with it a natural spontaneity, a greater contentment and a deeper love of life.

By releasing unwanted muscle tension, you will achieve a greater ease of movement, feel calmer and gain a greater control over your own life. So, if you feel you are under continual pressure, for whatever reason, do yourself and your family a favour - get rid of stress before it gets rid of you!

Richard Brennan is the author of several books on the Alexander Technique: he is also the director of the Alexander teacher training college, Ireland. He is the Irish national contact for Alexander Technique International (ATI) and co-founder of the Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers. (ISSAT) Further information at http://www.alexander.ie

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