The Uncomfortable Party

You’ve arrived at a party. It could be a cocktail party hosted by a friend or the office holiday party. Wherever you are, you don’t see anyone you know. The event is crowded and slightly warm. People are smiling at you and you’re smiling back. You’d prefer to leave, but you must stay for the sake of your friend/department/job. What should you do?

Alexander Technique to the rescue!

First, notice if your neck could release any tension. Once your neck is no longer so tight, you might notice a change in your breathing. This is a good sign! It means that something in your body has let go and created space where before there was compression. Next, let your head nod gently at the tip of your spine. Think of your spine lengthening like a string of pearls. Allow your knees to unlock and your feet to feel the support of the floor beneath them. Notice that you can even breathe into your back. The room is full of motion and sound but you are centered. Your inner poise presents as confidence. If you feel discomfort creeping in later, all you have to do is take a moment to return to these directions. Now you are ready to introduce yourself to the nearest group and enjoy a beverage and an appetizer.

Have a wonderful time!

Photo by Alasdair Elmes on Unsplash

The Position of Mechanical Advantage

The Position of Mechanical Advantage is a term F.M. Alexander used to describe a way of organizing your body so that you are ready and able to change direction at a moment’s notice. It is actually not a static position, but a way to be relaxed and poised as you respond to a stimulus.

For example, you can use the Position of Mechanical Advantage when you are moving in and out of a chair. Imagine you are halfway towards sitting and your phone rings. It’s across the room and now you have the option to pause and then return to standing in order to move toward your phone. You were able to do this because you were balanced. Without the POMA, you might have plopped into the chair and then used smaller muscles (like your neck) to quickly pull yourself back up to standing. There isn’t anything wrong with this, yet, life might be a whole lot more comfortable if you don’t use more force than is required. The POMA helps you do that.

By letting your legs bear the weight of your body, your upper body lightens. When your feet are slightly wider apart, making full contact with the floor, you will be in balance. The POMA gives you the gift of being able to change your mind.

Athletes of every sport use it and most of them have probably never heard of the Alexander Technique. How is this possible?

F. M. Alexander didn’t create the POMA, he just gave it a name. The POMA comes naturally to us all. It’s how we first began to stand and learn to be upright. It helped us prepare to walk. What was an ideal way for us to move then is still good for us today!

Here’s how to use the POMA:

1. Notice your breathing and let your feet sense the floor.

2. Pause and do nothing but notice where you are in space and the tension you are currently using to remain standing. Can you do less?

3. When you are ready, move your feet so they are slightly wider than hip-width apart.

4. Pause and notice what’s changed--if anything.

5. Allow your knees to bend slightly as your tailbone points behind you and your nose drops slightly.

6. Breathe into your back and try moving forward, backward, and side to side. Try bending your knees more and then less. Do you find that it’s easier to move this way?

It may feel strange if this is not how you usually move. It may help to look in a mirror since sometimes we are not moving the way we think we are. It’s most useful to learn this from an Alexander teacher. The POMA can improve your life.

Sitting in School

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

When my daughter was in first grade, her teacher told me she wasn’t paying attention. My sweet girl who had gotten in trouble once during Kindergarten was now regularly getting in trouble for being inattentive. She had a wonderful teacher who liked her very much but she still struggled. There were many probable causes for her distraction:

• First Grade was more serious than Kindergarten and class sizes had increased

• There was less free time and more time spent sitting in chairs and on the floor learning lessons

• Recess was 15 minutes

• My daughter was small for her age and therefore her feet didn’t touch the floor when she sat in her chair

I could not do much about most of the things on that list, but I could help with the chair! I sent her to school with a yoga block and a sitting disk.

My daughter sat on the disk and put her feet on the yoga block. Within a day her teacher noticed a difference. Was she attentive all the time? Of course not, but there was an improvement. My daughter appreciated the change, too.

What happened?

Since her feet couldn’t reach the floor when she sat in her chair, she felt ungrounded. She did not have stability and she was constantly fighting the sensation sliding down in her seat. That alone would make it difficult to concentrate!

The sitting disk is an air-filled cushion that allows for mobility while sitting on a flat surface or chair. The disk helped my daughter get vestibular input by balancing and rebalancing in her seat. Even though she needed to remain seated for long stretches of time, she could still have a small amount of movement on the disk. The ability to move was subtle enough to not be a distraction to her teacher or her peers. We talk about this in the Alexander Technique: Having openness and freedom in your joints so that you move slightly even in stillness. We call it the “standing dance.” In this case it was a sitting dance.

The nice thing about the sitting disk was that my daughter could take it to the floor with her when the teacher was reading or teaching a lesson while the class sat on the rug. This is something Alexander teachers fret over--children sitting on the floor while the teacher sits in a chair or stands to use the board. This is because it can be difficult to have poise while sitting on the floor. Children will  kneel to combat slouching but the teacher will ask them to sit “criss-cross-applesauce” so that the students behind them can see. So the students’ backs grow more rounded the longer they sit and their necks shorten as they look up from their hunched positions. A sitting disk raises their hips and gives them the support they need to have a lengthened posture for the duration of their time on the floor. Enabling them to maintain the length of their spines will allow them to breathe and move and be more open to learning.

It would be better if children were allowed to move more in school. Until that happens, they can use a sitting disk and study the Alexander Technique.

Is your child having difficulty sitting in school? Is desk too big or too small? Does the chair slant back? Is the seat curved and slippery? Is the chair connected to the desk? Is your left-handed child sitting in a right-handed desk? Is your child straining to see the board? There might be a simple solution. An Alexander lesson can be a helpful and quick way to solve your child’s discomfort.

Teaching Flute Lessons with Alexander Principles - Part 2

II.             Finding Balance

1.  Back and Down                              2.  Over-straightened                     3.  Balanced

To begin to improve the daily use of your body, you must understand how your body works against gravity. When your whole self is poised and easeful, your body will naturally spring up against gravity. You will know your entire system is easeful when your neck is relaxed, your head moves forward and up, and your back is widening. This is the opposite of a collapsed head, neck, and torso that appear to be defeated by gravity, or what Alexander teachers call being “back and down.”

Here are three examples of head/neck/back relationships while in an upright position. (View from left to right.) 1. The first image is of a head back and down. As you can see, the spine would become compressed in this position and breathing would be taxing. People who appear this way may be tired and feel that collapsing as pictured will be restful. The extra effort needed to breathe and move in this state would make playing the flute a difficult endeavor. 2. The second image is of a head over-straightening. People sometimes pull their spines into this position in an effort to have “good posture.” The spine is not allowed to have its cervical curve and it would take extra tension to maintain this arrangement. Once again, breathing and moving would require excess tension. The extra tension travels into the shoulders, arms, and fingers making technical passages a nightmare. 3. The third image is of a balanced head. Keep in mind that this is not a position to be held, but a free neck where the head can constantly balance and re-balance as you move. Just as a tall building is designed to move, so should you. As you are “standing still,” you can let your whole self be free so that your body moves slightly in what Alexander teachers call the “standing dance.” Your head/neck/back relationship is just a part of that dance. When your head is balanced on your torso, you can breathe and move with freedom. FM Alexander called this head/neck/back relationship Primary Control. Primary Control is the body’s basic, innate mechanism for support and poise. It ensures that your limbs can move freely with minimal effort and without compromising your free neck, balanced head, and lengthening spine.

III.           Constructive Rest

Constructive Rest Position

This is one variation of the Constructive Rest, or Semi-Supine position. Lie on the floor with a comfortable number of paperback books under your head. Your head and neck should feel balanced and free, just as in the previous diagram. Allow your knees to be bent with your feet to be as close to your torso as is comfortable, and placed wider than your pelvis. Allow your body to expand onto the floor. Let your hands rest on your abdomen so that you can feel your breathing. Your neck can be easy so that your head can balance on the books with minimal effort. Your spine can maintain its curves and therefore certain places on your back may not touch the floor. Allow your spine to lengthen within its curves. Remember that these directions are not orders that you must follow, but wishes. There is nothing for you to do but be aware and see if you can inhibit and gradually direct yourself to release any unnecessary tension. Continually ask yourself if you can do less. Later, when you are upright, see if you can use awareness, inhibition, and direction to rediscover this feeling of ease in your joints.

For example, if you become aware of tension in your neck, inhibit the desire to move it around, pull it to each side and crack it. Say “no” to all of the old habits and instead, pause. Think of your Alexander directions: Neck to be free, head balancing, spine to lengthen, legs releasing, and shoulders widening. Have the wish for your neck to be soft. Begin again with awareness and repeat the whole process.

Constructive Rest shows us that there is another state in which to live besides awake and tense or asleep. Since we are lying down, we are not struggling with gravity and can release more muscle tension than we would be able to while standing or sitting. Practicing Constructive Rest regularly (for 15 minutes a day) can teach you how to become aware of excess tension and let it go while being in a prone position and consequently, you will begin to do less while upright.

IV.    Dancing with Gravity

Tripod of Balance

When you stand, think of the bottom of your feet expanding. Consider the “Tripod of Balance,” or the ball of the great toe, the ball of the small toe, and the heel. Sensing these points can help you feel more contact with the floor. Once you have that connection, you can have lightness and ease of movement throughout your body.

When we have a good connection with the ground, we have the ability to move up internally in opposition. Once we have awareness and have inhibited doing anything, we can think our directions. The neck can be soft so that the head can balance delicately at the tip of the spine and the spine can lengthen so that the knees can release forward and the shoulder girdle is supported by our sense of “up.” Think of how a fountain works: energy is drawn up from its strongly connected base and the water moves up from its center and then cascades down on the outer circumference. Our bodies work in a similar way. The strong connection of your feet to the ground allows your legs to move up from your ankles and your spine moves up all the way to its uppermost point, the atlanto occipital joint, where your head also releases up and your outer musculature can release, allowing your spine and legs to bear your weight. Therefore, your arms can be light since your shoulder girdle is not responsible for keeping you upright. So there is an upwards and a downwards flow throughout your body. To find the feeling of lightness within your shoulder girdle, try the following procedure.

Pearl Ausubel’s Arm Procedure

Pearl Ausubel was a teacher at the American Center for the Alexander Technique. She developed the following procedure for her musician students to help them learn to release excess tension in their arms.

1.     Stand with your neck free so that your head can be balanced at the tip of your spine and your torso can lengthen and widen and your legs can release away from your torso and your shoulders can widen.

2.     Let the fingers of your right hand lengthen towards the floor.

3.     Allow the thumb of your right hand to lead your palm to face away from your body.

4.     Let your fingertips lead your straight arm away from your torso, out to your side in a lengthening arc until your arm is perpendicular to your body. Be sure that your torso is not compromised by the movement.

5.     Feel your feet release into the floor as your head releases towards the ceiling and your arm lengthens away from your body.

6.     Allow your thumb to lead your palm to face the floor.

7.     Let your fingertips lead your straight arm in a lengthening arc back to your side.

8.     Notice the difference between your arms and your shoulders.

9.     Repeat with the left arm.

I will add more of the paper soon. Stay tuned!