ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
THE MAGIC OF CONSCIOUS MOVEMENT
By Roy King

Considering the many marvelous things we do so well, from performing arts to sports to creating objects of beauty and usefulness, one might think we are in near perfect control of our bodies. But are we? How easy is it for us to relax at will? For most of us, achieving real relaxation is devilishly difficult. We regularly rely on external relief ranging from therapists to massage our muscles to drugs of dubious benefit as we try to reduce physical tension to a tolerable level.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had an internal switch to turn off excess tension? F. M. Alexander discovered just such an inner relaxation switch. The key lies in releasing the “joint” between the head and neck. Alexander found that a habitual reaction to stress - originating in infancy - to pull the head down and back causes the whole vertebrate structure to compress, creating unnecessary tension throughout the body. By learning to free the neck, allowing the head to tilt slightly forward and rise up thus relieving the downward pressure on the spine, we can dissolve debilitating stress throughout the body.

Sounds simple, yes? And it is, but simple is not always easy, especially for “doing” addicts. Our first attempt is invariably to try to push the head forward and up, creating even more stress. Alexander spent seven years struggling with this dilemma before realizing the solution lies in “non-doing,” a simple mental freeing of the neck, releasing the head to lift upward, allowing the torso to lengthen and widen. This indirect, effortless control is termed “direction.”

The direction “neck free,” as a mental command, simply instructs the muscles controlling the head to relax and release. The direction “head forward and up” occurs spontaneously and effortlessly, like an upward fountain of energy, once we can stop tightening the head down and back. Freedom to release rather that tighten in response to potentially stressful stimulus allows the whole torso to spontaneously lengthen and widen, producing a lightness and freedom of movement we had all but forgotten.

In Alexander lessons, this liberating new use of the body is first experienced lying face up on a table, out of the compressing tug of gravity. Students learn, under the guiding hands of the teacher, to move the limbs freely without tightening the neck and drawing down the head. Direction is transmitted to the student conceptually and kinesthetically, allowing the experience of release, expansion and ease of movement.

Next students learn to apply this newfound freedom to our most habitual acts, such as walking and getting in and out of a chair. Before initiating an action, we inhibit our habitual pattern of moving and free the neck allowing the upward vector of energy through the head to lead us into motion. As this new approach to being is incorporated into the student's mind-body dynamic, old stress-producing habits are replaced with an ease and simplicity in our use of our bodies. Ultimately we learn to apply the Technique to all activities, bringing this new lightness and grace to everything we do.

I find Alexander Technique particularly helpful in my practice and teaching of Yoga and Chi Gong. In Yoga, we free the neck to let the weight of the head lengthen the spine into the forward bending asanas. Even in an inverted pose like the shoulder stand, freeing the neck to allow the head to release and the torso to lengthen and widen enhances the poise of the asana. In savasana, the relaxation pose, evoking the direction lets the muscular-skeletal structure loosen, allowing the body to flow across the mat like liquid. Sitting in meditation, silently chanting a mantra or following rhythms of breath into your center, the direction spontaneously “kicks in” opening the body as the chakras blossom into realized energy.

n Chi Gong we send rhythmic waves of movement along the spine, opening the “Chi,” or subtle energy channels. New students often complain of excessive friction along the vertebra in these front to back, side to side, twisting, and rotating undulations of the torso. A simple suggestion to let the head float up like a helium balloon, allowing the back to expand upward, usually brings levity and fluidity to the movement immediately. Optimally gathering Chi requires a timeless, flowing interface with the natural landscape. Alexander consciousness lends a physical lightness to the execution of Chi Gong forms, creating a cascade of mind-body synergy.

The title of a compilation of Alexander's writings, The Resurrection of the Body , implies the spiritual dimension of awareness applied to physical use. The inner freedom and exuberance experienced in releasing our bodies from habitual patterns of constrained, painful use through an act of conscious will is as liberating to the spirit as to the body. Extending mindfulness to hitherto unknown areas of our most basic physical being and relieving stress and dis-ease is quintessential conscious liberation.

Alexander's method for learning to use the body with maximum ease and economy of energy and minimum stress and strain is equally applicable to dancing or performing music as to typing or playing ball or driving a car. Once learned and incorporated into psycho-physical use, the principles of Alexander Technique are yours for life - a life in which excess stress and its resulting legacy of pain and fatigue are exchanged for ease and facility of movement within a newly energized sense of self.

Roy King trained at the Alexander Training Institute in San Francisco , studied Hatha Yoga at the Integral Yoga Centers of NY and SF, and studied Chi Gong with Master Ma and other Chinese masters in SF. He teaches and operates the Well House Flotation Center in Alamance County (see ad page xx). Please contact Roy regarding these stress dissolving practices for physical/spiritual freedom and health at (336) 228 1888 or lightwolf@msn.com .