New York Center for the Alexander Technique

A person feels depressed. He reminds himself of all the bad luck and humiliations he has suffered in his life, and looks forward to years more of the same. What is it that makes that feeling of depression seem so solid and real?

Someone gets out of bed and his body feels heavy and sore. He thinks to himself that old age and gravity are weighing him down. Is it so certain that external factors, such as gravity and age, are causing this feeling?

Two people argue over politics. They are both convinced they are right. Where does this feeling of certainty come from? Can both people be as right as they feel?

There is a common element to all these situations – a background feeling tone that is usually unnoticed which joins a concept or image to “solidify” it and give it life and reality. This background feeling tone is something that is not recognized by our culture or by most approaches to self-improvement, whether from the “somatic” or the “psychological” angle. The Alexander Technique is a unique way of broadening and deepening our attention so that it can be attuned to the level of this background feeling. This deepened attention, in turn, gives us the freedom to not be stuck in old reactions and old self-images that hold us prisoner. What is the nature of this background feeling?

When we are born, our bodies and minds are in an open, fluid relationship between the “outside” world and what is “inside.” The spine and the postural muscles of the back support the body and are the organizational center of movement and stability, while the rest of the musculature works in coordination with the spine, at rest when not needed, and fluidly working when called upon. This pattern of fluid coordination is associated with an accurate “kinesthetic sense”, which is the internal radar that allows us to accurately monitor how our bodies move and relate to the world around us. When our kinesthetic sense is operating accurately, we are immediately alerted to excess tension, and to any departure from an open sense of general alertness, both to our “bodies” and the world around us. There is an unconscious background awareness of being securely supported by the spine, along with a sense of being, “present,” “centered,” and ready to respond with our full resources. So, at the physical level we are supported and fluid, emotionally we are secure and alert, and mentally we are ready to put ourselves into what needs to be done at the moment.

Any disturbance to this finely tuned system will lead to diminished vitality and alertness, decreased physical coordination and fluidity, and emotionally to distress and a lowered sense of well being. A rough way of getting a feel for this level of our being is to contrast your experience of being on vacation and feeling very at ease and relaxed, versus being stressed and harried by a hard day at work. When stressed, every little thing causes you to react with irritation, whereas, when more at ease, the same problem might wash over you. The difference is your underlying state of being.

How do we lose touch with this finely tuned system? As we grow up we begin to interfere with the natural, integrated pattern of spinal support. This interference starts to happen as we imitate many of the bad patterns of our parents and peers, and as we are buffeted by emotional trauma and the contradictions of our upbringing. Repeated stress and trauma gradually lead us to try to avoid or resist painful experiences. We begin to create what we call “tension,” or, more accurately, patterns of neuro-muscular activity which are unnecessary and which represent an interference with our overall design. One could call this tension a “substitute support system” or more simply a “substitute spine”, because it gradually replaces the natural support of the spine. We end up “doing” more and more as we abandon the spinal support for efforts we make to protect ourselves from painful experiences. Since this happens at such a young age, this “substitute spine” is not conscious, and it feels natural and “right.” It forms an unconscious, distorting feeling tone, which disrupts our kinesthetic sense, and we lose the clear background awareness that allows us to be attuned to ourselves and our environment. It is as if, instead of an open, panoramic, emotionally neutral field of awareness, the field splits into small, tight nodules, which are associated with various negative emotions of fear, anger, etc. Our emotional life then becomes grounded in this background of tension, and we become like the person in the example above having a bad day at work. Since this background feeling is unconscious, the feelings it supports are perceived to come from the outside world, and we feel a victim of outside forces.”

Let us take the first example I gave above – someone who feels constantly depressed. There are at least three obvious elements involved here: 1) a concept, for example, a negative self-image (“I am a loser, a failure”); 2) an emotion associated with the concept (a feeling of “depression”); and 3) a bodily reaction to the concept (typically in this case, a literal depression – a sinking of the chest and drooping of the shoulders, and diminished breathing capacity). But there is really a 4th element 4) the background feeling, the final nail in the coffin. The physical reaction to the depression is interwoven with the whole “substitute spine,” and so cannot be simply identified or “let go of” because it has become so much a part of “who we are.”

There are many approaches, such as cognitive therapy, which teach people to be aware of and change their negative self-concepts. But the problem is, they leave out of account the fact that once a person has been depressed for some time, their bodies have conformed to the feeling so that has become part of their fixed, distorted background pattern of tension. This fixed pattern, in turn, reinforces, and gives “life” to, the negative image. Even if someone has success in having fewer negative thoughts, they will still suffer from the lowered vitality that has been created by years of reacting to this negative concept. This background pattern, or “substitute spine”, becomes a kind of force field, or black hole, which pulls everything into it and makes it nearly impossible to perceive anything outside of its gravitational pull. Causality is reversed – rather than seeing the depressed feelings as a result of what one is unconsciously “doing” with one’s mind and body, it is felt to be the result of objective problems with oneself or the world.

By using very precise hands on work, the Alexander Technique helps to awaken the innate support system of the spine and its postural muscles, which helps to “undo” the tension of the “substitute spine.” Every experience of freedom from the “substitute spine” leads people to have more detachment from what seemed fixed and inevitable, and makes it possible to have an experience of life without the background tension which supported the negative feelings. As one becomes more sensitive and alive, it becomes more and more possible to free oneself from the whole background feeling tone, which hitherto seemed simply to be “my life.” The kinesthetic sense is re-awakened, allowing one to re-discover the alert, alive, and emotionally neutral background feeling tone, and turn one’s attention forward to living their life, instead of backwards towards focusing on their “problems.”

This represents a truly transformative process, in which it becomes possible to transcend our culturally created, habitual sense of self, stuck in the past, and become an autonomous creator of one’s own life. We cease to identify ourselves with the fixed patterns of our background feeling tone, and realize that our real self is a fluid, evolving process to which we can attune ourselves in the moment-to-moment process of our lives.

What does it mean to “try to get something right?” Whether learning a skill, such as learning to play a musical instrument or a new sport, or trying to improve some aspect of our life such as our level of confidence, or our ability to be less stressed by life, people are used to relying on their internal feelings as criteria for evaluating their progress. If, for example, you take a golf lesson, the instructor will teach you a certain way to hold the club, a certain general posture to adopt, and you will follow the instructions using the internal feelings of your own body (along with the instructor’s feedback) to judge whether you are doing it correctly. It may seem as if you had no other choice but to do so. But what if the internal feelings in your body are deceptive and inaccurate? What if your idea of right is wrong? Then, no matter what the instructor says, you will apply the instructions inaccurately.

Now, people can usually muddle through their lessons and learn new skills to some degree, but they often find that they run up against a limit to their improvement. I have worked with many performing artists and athletes, and I have consistently found that, although they have attained a certain level of skill, they are paying a price for it in tension, pain, and stress. So if you are interested in changing at a more fundamental level, you must ask more fundamental questions and look more deeply at the problem of learning and change.

One of Alexander’s discoveries is that there is in human beings a central, organizing pattern that governs our movements and reactions. This pattern is the relationship between the head and the spine. If the head is freely poised in relationship to the spine, and the spine then can attain its full length and supportive function, then the body functions at its highest capacity and greatest skill. Conversely, anything which interferes with this pattern will lower our level of functioning and diminish our skill. At this point in the discussion, I must simply assert that this is so – to verify its truth one must take lessons in the Alexander Technique. The problem people face is that, from an early age, most people begin to interfere with the natural pattern of support of the spine. They gradually develop a whole network of compensatory patterns, which, since they were developed unconsciously and at such an early age, feel completely “natural” and “right.” This compensatory pattern becomes unconsciously identified with control, safety, and balance, and our internal feelings become distorted by this unconscious pattern. This means that we will always be reacting from within this interference pattern, and the more stress we are under, the more strength or accuracy is demanded of us, the more we will recruit this pattern. That is, the more you try to “get” something right, the more you will stimulate the incorrect pattern of reaction that “feels” right.

Is there any way out of this vicious circle? There is, but it requires attention and patience. Through lessons in the Alexander Technique, the teacher uses hands-on guidance to stimulate the biologically natural pattern of support of the spine and its postural muscles. This experience acts as a reference point, allowing the student to change their focus from “trying to be right” to “not interfering” with this new pattern of support. With time, the student’s focus is more and more identified with the new pattern, as they realize that they don’t need to react according to emotionally driven, poorly thought-out reactions, but can remain with the more open, thoughtful pattern which is generated by the natural support of the spine. This gradually leads to a different attitude towards life in general, where it becomes more important to remain calm, balanced, and alert, than reactive and driven.

Pain in the body can stem from many factors: a fall, car accident, scoliosis, and bad posture, etc.  No matter what the reasons may be for your back pain, you should know that how you move throughout the day can make a difference in how it feels and how it heals. You are most likely unaware of the forces that you are constantly setting in motion every time you move. What makes it difficult is that we are not sensitive to these unconscious choices. The choices we make unfortunately go unnoticed because they are so much a part of our everyday reactions. Every time you make a decision to move, your brain sends a signal to the muscles, which creates muscular tension that is habitual, automatic and very quickly established.  If it is an inappropriate and destructive pattern then it will cause you trouble over time.

Say you have a pain in your lower back and you are sitting and standing in a way that compresses the area where you experience the pain. At this time you may not even feel that you are compressing your spine, and even if you do feel the compression you may not see another possibility or strategy of how to improve the way you sit and stand. The possibility of your seeing how you may have brought about the injury through years of bad physical habits may seem rather theoretical at first. You may not have considered the fact that there is more than one way to go about sitting and standing. But let us just say you do know that changes need to be made.  Your instinct will be to start to make a change in your seated position once you are in the chair, right? That may seem obvious in most people’s minds, but by then it is too late in the sequence to make an appropriate change. If you want to change an inappropriate way of sitting you need to start at the moment the thought occurs to you to sit. The first step is to see that once you think of sitting or standing or walking, the brain is setting up a programmed response.

In most people’s minds the process goes like this:

You decide to sit, the brain tells the usual muscles to work in the way they have always done, which is: sitting as you know it. And you sit. You see you are slumping and you try to sit up straight by stiffening and holding yourself up.

After lessons with an Alexander Technique teacher:

You decide to sit, and at this moment in time you are still standing. However, since you are schooled in the Alexander Technique you will see how you have already in your mind “sat down.”  Even before you have bent your knees to sit, your brain sent a quick message to the body to respond habitually by hunkering downward towards the chair, thus compressing your back. This is a pattern shared by most people. A trained Alexander teacher can see and feel these small compressive patterns before they have gone very deep and she will have given you the tools to stop and choose a better response.

From an Alexander technique point of view this is the “Aha” moment, or the moment of choice. Remember, you are still standing, there is still time to change this pattern to a more reasoned one. From your Alexander technique lessons you will know that this habitual pattern leads to a deeper compression as you get lower to the chair. Most importantly you will see this habitual pattern before it goes too far, – “Aha. “  You will be able to bring about corrections  which leads to a better way of sitting, thus giving the area around your injury the space and possibility for healing.

“If you would become educated, first know thyself”

The Alexander Technique is concerned with the way your head and your spine work together to support you, and how certain learned patterns get in the way of functioning at your best.

Why do Alexander Technique teachers spend so much time talking about the relationship between the head and the spine? The reason is, the head and the spine are integral to the support system of the body, and the head, which sits on top of the spine, weighs about 10 to 15 pounds.  This is the weight of a bowling ball, and in most people this weight is directed down into the spine. This downward directed head sabotages the deep postural muscles in the back and around the spine and makes them inefficient. This leads to the spine compressing in an unhealthy manner, which the body’s design can’t sustain. And we wonder why we have a back problem!? In other words the deep postural muscles in the back which are meant to buoy us up in the field of gravity, are not working, because the downward directed force of the head is reinforcing a collapsing of the torso. This breakdown of the support of the spine leads to a segmenting of the different parts of the spine, and to inappropriate structures like the shoulders, ribs, and even the jaw trying to take over the role of support.

Since a bowling ball weighs about the same as the head, just imagine a bowling ball sitting on the top of your spine, while muscles in the neck and shoulder area are overworking, pulling the weight of the head downward.

You may be asking yourself, why don’t I feel this downward compression if it is creating so much strain? Why doesn’t my sensory perception (your body’s feeling sense) tell me that I am doing something wrong? From a very young age we start to form bad postural habits, which as we get older become more firmly established. This happens gradually and under the radar, so to speak. Our friends, parents, and idols are no better examples from which we could learn to see these patterns. As human beings we are wonderful at adapting and since these habits happen automatically without our conscious choice they go unnoticed.

In a well-organized individual the muscles in the neck and torso are being used with the appropriate amount of force to support the weight of the head on the spine. This allows for compression and extension of the spine, while maintaining a free and flowing functioning. Alexander Technique lessons restore the balance of the head on the spine. This has a positive effect throughout the person, correcting bad posture, but equally if not more important, creating a sense of well-being and energy. Why is this effect so global you may be wondering? When the postural muscles along the spine are working well the whole system is buoyed up, taking the pressure off the organs, rib cage, and the joints. This support improves our breathing, our circulation, our nervous system, and our ability to relate to the world in a more open way.  Conversely, when the postural muscles of the back fail to support us according to their design, we suffer from neck pain, shoulder pain, fatigue, and a general sense of strain.

As I hope you can see lessons in the Alexander Technique open up the possibility of change at a very fundamental level.