11.08.10

Small Changes in My Life

Posted in health at 12:33 pm by JohnB

The Alexander Method uses a set of simple phrases, something like a mantra, to help remind students of what they are trying to achieve (everyone studying the AM is called a “student” – even if they’ve been teaching it for years).

  • Let your neck be free
  • Let your head move forward and up
  • Let your back lengthen and widen

One might be tempted to shorten it to “free your neck; move your head forward and up; stretch your back” but that would be missing the most crucial, and hardest, part of AM – the part that says “Let your…“.  This is because you really don’t do anything in AM, you undo it – let your body return to its natural state: long, expansive and open. This sort of change is like not thinking about kangaroos – once you get the idea in your head, its really hard to not do it. So it is with your body – once you get in the habit of moving in certain ways, and of holding tension in particular places – it is very hard to change.

The Alexander teacher assists the process in two ways: first some movement therapy for about half an hour and then some massage-type therapy on a massage table. The movement therapy consists of mostly  just talking the student through a series of simple movements – with a few hands-on reminders of where the student is holding tension or habitually using their body in a less-than-optimal way. The simple movements tend to be the ones we do every day: standing up, sitting down, squatting and walking – but with more conscious intention and external feedback than we usually bring to our movements. All this mental work to rethink the core of our own movement takes its toll – it is hard work! But worth it.

I have a lesson scheduled today with my AM teacher, Amira, and expect it to be quietly intense. – like a hard workout that you don’t realize is hard until you feel it in your muscles the next day. I’m looking forward to it – no one ever said change would be easy…

11.18.07

Faulty Sensory Awareness – Water Never Lies

Posted in health at 11:16 am by JohnB

I’m learning how to use my body, with the help of Amira, my Alexander teacher. The Alexander Technique has a number of techniques for reminding us that (a) we are usually working harder than we need to and (b) what we think we are doing is not always what we are actually doing. This latter aspect is known as “Faulty Sensory Awareness” because, although we may think we are standing up straight, any observer (or ourself looking in a mirror) can tell that we’re leaning one way or the other.

This became very clear to me last week as I was swimming laps. When kicking a length on my back, I tend to believe I’m looking straight up at the sky. Although I don’t really need my goggles in this position I usually have them on anyway – I can see the beautiful sky better. A side benefit of wearing the goggles is that, if I splash, I don’t get water in my eye.  Last week I happened to be kicking on my back with my goggles off and noticed that my left eye was getting a bit of water in it, while my right eye was dry. Just to verify, I made sure that it happened in both directions down the lane – that it wasn’t due to my neighbor’s wake in the next lane. Nope. Unless the pool was tilted, it was me.

Although I thought my nose was pointed straight up, and it certainly felt “normal”, the water was telling me that I was ever so slightly tilted to the left!

So, if you’ve ever wondered about whether your body could work better than it does, give Amira (or any Alexander teacher) a try. As I always say: “She hasn’t killed me yet!”. (BTW: that is an inside joke with Amira – she wouldn’t allow that quote on her website so I had to come up with a different one)