Can I stop thinking now?

I recently taught a workshop to a group of teachers. Several wanted to know what they could say or do to immediately improve the functioning of the students they taught. I gave them some ideas, but it wasn’t until I left that I realized they were looking for an action to take that would solve the problem they were experiencing so they could move on.

I wish it could be this simple. Unfortunately, in most cases, it takes time to change a habit. First, it can be difficult to call attention to a person’s habit without them feeling self conscious. Most people are sensitive to a direct observation of their use. Some might even feel mortified. Also, a habit can stem from a wish to physically cope with an emotion. That habit could be tied to fear or anger or sadness. Letting go of a habitual pattern of tension could make a person feel vulnerable.

So what can be done? Go slowly. Pause and then come back to FM Alexander’s directions again and again. Allow your neck to ease, lengthen and widen your back, allow your legs to release, notice your breathing.

When I first began studying the Alexander Technique in an effort to be able to return to the flute (I had injurred my jaw), I found I couldn’t even look at the flute without tensing. I had to retrain my thinking—which took time. I quickly realized that I wasn’t just tense when I played the flute but all the time. I began to see that I could be doing less with almost every activity in my day. I was hyper-vigilant and being so had always served me—until I couldn’t play my instrument. I learned to slow down, pause, begin again, and breathe. For someone as tense as I was, it took a very long time to trust my body to function with half of the force I was using. It took time to learn to be gentle with myself. Applying the Alexander Technique certainly isn’t this hard for everyone and I should note that I did find some immediate relief when I first began taking lessons. However, for a long time, I needed an Alexander teacher to guide me back to that state of ease… repeatedly.

After a year of private lessons and the three-year, 1600-hour Alexander Technique teacher training program, I was able to experience life differently. I could move throughout my day with more freedom. I could remember to use my thinking to affect change. Even after all that work, it didn’t become automatic. And 16 years since I graduated, it still isn’t. I cannot eradicate my habits. I will always have to use my Alexander thinking to let go of them. And that’s okay. I have tools that I can use no matter what stressful situation may come my way.

So, can I show you something right now that will stop a habit immediately? No. I’m sorry. I can, however, show you the simple steps that—if applied—will gradually improve the overall quality of a life.

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

Teaching Flute Lessons with Alexander Principles - Part 6

VII.         Breathing

A major aspect of the Alexander Technique is the study of breathing. As flutists, it is especially important to practice good use while breathing. When teaching a newer student, allow her vibrato to develop on its own. Teaching vibrato will create unnecessary tension in the throat. Extra tension in the throat will translate into more stress throughout the body. To further explore playing with less tension, have students play orchestral pieces while sitting and solo music while standing. This way, the students will have a realistic idea of how it will physically feel to breathe while playing the piece. Here is an Alexander procedure called the “Whispered Ah.” It is helpful to practice it before and after playing and at any point when you feel an increase in tension. Try standing/seated Whispered ‘Ahs’ as part of the study, notice the difference and discuss it with your students. See how little they can interfere with their breathing in either case.

The Whispered Ah

1. Spend a few minutes having an awareness of your breathing.

2. Allow your mouth to drop open so that you exhale through your mouth and let your lips come together so that you inhale through your nose.

3. Let your tongue lie easily in the bottom of your jaw with its tip against the back of your lower teeth.

4. Make a whispered “Ah” sound as you exhale.

5. See if you can interfere with your breathing as little as possible.

1. At the end of your exhalation, pause and wait for your body to tell you when it is ready to inhale.

6. Think of something humorous or pleasant to allow a smile to come behind your eyes. This will release tension and allow you to breathe fully

How to apply these procedures during lessons

1. Teach the Whispered ‘Ah’

2. Bring the flute to the mouth

Instead of playing, use the Whispered Ah. In this way, you inhibit the idea that the only response to a flute at the lips is to play. Once you have inhibited your habitual response, you can release old habits and when you do play, you will experience a new freedom.

3. Bring the flute to the mouth and use the ‘La’ articulation to begin a long tone (a tone that begins softly, increases in volume and then tapers into silence)

VIII.    Continuing Your Study/Good Use

It is helpful if children are surrounded by parents and teachers with good use, thus leading by example. If you, as a teacher, practice good use, it will surely influence your students (children and adults). Therefore, take some Alexander lessons and/or have an Alexander teacher work with a group of your students. Be sure to invite more ease into your life by practicing Constructive Rest. See how often you can come back to your sense of awareness and give yourself the gift of effortlessness. Let that feeling of lightness encompass your entire breathing, sensing being.  Your body will reward you in so many ways. Who knows? You may one day wish to become an Alexander Teacher.

Teaching Flute Lessons with Alexander Principles - Part 4

It is a very common habit to bring one’s head to the flute by distorting the neck. Sometimes the flutist is thinking (in tunnel vision) only about the music and playing at the appropriate time. It is easy to become anxious to play. Other times a flutist distorts his neck not in an effort to reach the flute, but because he is straining to see the music. The visual cortex is in the back of the skull. Invite the student to see the music from this point—see from the back of his head. In this way, the student inhibits his habit by thinking of something new. Ask that he let the music come to his eyes and not his head to the music.

        Standing while playing can pose several obstacles. In order to have the finest projection, the flute must face your audience. Aiming your instrument in such a way means that your head will also be poised with your face towards the audience. Your neck will be poised in a neutral, natural way. There should be a slight spiral, or rotation beginning with your shoulder girdle. This rotation accommodates expansion through the shoulder girdle. Without the spiral, the right shoulder blade will push into the ribcage. The flutist that does not allow the shoulder girdle to have its natural rotation must fight against it by tightening and holding the shoulder girdle still. This will interfere with breathing and may cause her neck, shoulders, and upper back to become sore.   

        Once the shoulder girdle is released into its own natural pattern of movement, the spine can accommodate the spiral by lengthening into a slight spiral, too. The pelvis will also turn and so your legs may need to change to a new stance. Your right leg and foot may follow the spiral to the right with the right foot slightly behind the left foot. Do not swivel your torso so far to the right that you feel your left knee twist. This is a gentle rotation that should feel easeful.

        Since your head and neck face the audience, your left leg and foot should face it as well. If your shoulder girdle, torso, and both legs were to face slightly to the right, it would be very difficult for your head and neck to face a different direction and it would require force, which is unnecessary in this case. By allowing your left leg and foot to face the audience, you establish a lengthening base of support for your head and neck to face the audience. With your right leg and foot facing slightly to the right (following the slight rotation of your shoulder girdle and torso), and your head, neck, left leg, and foot facing the audience, you will feel more easeful and open as you play.

        This spiraling technique can also be applied to sitting and playing. It may help to turn your chair a bit to the right. You may find it more comfortable to let your right heel come off the floor.

VI. Lesson Structure

A way to cut down on the risk of Repetitive Strain Injuries is to incorporate breaks into lesson time. Spend the break stretching or take a walk around the room. By including a pause into the lesson, the teacher and the student can become aware of their desire to fixate on the music and inhibit that habit in order to return to a state in which they are aware of their entire surroundings. The longer we perform a single task, the easier it is to lose our sense of awareness, and the more likely we are to rely on our habits. Hence, in addition to finding an expanded form of awareness, the teacher and student may prevent themselves from falling back into habits. By pausing, they will both feel refreshed and easeful. With their whole selves energized, they can use their directions to continue the lesson.

Halting the lesson can at times be disadvantageous. If, for instance, a teacher stops a student frequently, it may trigger the startle response, or the pattern of tension that precedes the “fight or flight” response. It can increase the student’s level of tension overall and it may increase the desire to be right (or, the fear of being wrong and therefore, the fear of playing). If you wait until the end of a piece to critique the student, the student will grow accustomed to playing straight through (which will be helpful during performances) and build confidence. This of course, will mean more work for you, the teacher. It will be a wonderful lesson in inhibition. You will need to develop your memory, have a score, or have a pen and paper nearby to mark mistakes, but in return you will have stronger players in your studio.

Obviously, each student is unique. The style of teaching you use for one student will not necessarily be appropriate for another. Just as there are benefits to pausing the student, there are advantages to allowing the student to play uninterrupted. So long as the Alexander principles are present, both you and your student will improve.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder and the Alexander Technique

Photo by Kaylah Otto on Unsplash

While the Alexander Technique is known by performing artists to relieve performance anxiety, it is also helpful in coping with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

It is because the Alexander Technique addresses stress in the mind and body that it is beneficial. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by excessive worry--to the point where a person finds it difficult to control their fears and they struggle to function. Physical symptoms like excess muscular tension accompany the mental stress.

The Alexander Technique can help distract someone with GAD with alternative thoughts to the worry spiral. Thought patterns that focus on undoing excess tension and breathing work can interrupt the cycle of worry. Gradually, the individual will be empowered to use their Alexander Technique thinking to create a sense of calm at will.

The ability to learn and implement the tools of the Alexander Technique doesn’t take long. One lesson will set the student on their way to a new way of being in the world.

A former teacher of mine and the Director of the American Center for the Alexander Technique, Brooke Lieb, wrote an incredible article about using the Alexander Technique to stop anxiety. Here is an exercise from her article:

How to Release Muscle Tension with Direct Intention

1. Notice a topic you may be concerned about, or worrying over. (There are plenty of issues facing us, such as the state of today's economy.)

2. Write down the thoughts of concern or worry you are experiencing.

3. Which ones are based on current facts/circumstances? Which ones are based on what might or might not happen?

4. Now, take a moment to think of allowing your shoulders and jaw to release some tension. Notice what that is like.

5. Now, think about something you are concerned or worried about.

6. Return to releasing your jaw and shoulders. You may have noticed that they tensed again when you put your attention on your concerns.

7. Continue to move back and forth between actively releasing tension in shoulder and jaw, and thinking about things that worry you.

I would be interested to know if you found this activity to be helpful. Please feel free to share other ways in which you manage stress.

Teaching Flute Lessons with Alexander Principles - Part 3

V. Finding Freedom & Direction in Your Students

It is very useful to have mirrors in your studio. Doing so will allow you to observe your student from all angles. Rather than asking about pain or tiredness, ask the student what she noticed or felt while playing. Remain as objective as possible to allow the student to be nonjudgmental, too. Have the student put her instrument down and begin anew. Look for ways to hold the flute using the natural hand patterns of the student.       

Be sure that the student isn’t using unnecessary tension. Here are some examples of common tension patterns in flutists:

                    -jamming the flute against chin

                    -not using all of the joints in the fingers

                    -bending the right hand thumb in and laying it lengthwise against the flute

                    -shortening the spine (or lifting the sternum and arching the lower back)

                    -locking the knees

                    -hanging on the instrument

                    -holding the left arm (or the right arm) against the ribcage

                    -hanging on a hip joint (weight set on one leg, with the weight-bearing hip

jutting out)

                    -gripping in the feet and ankles so that the feet aren’t grounded

If you observe one of these habits in a student, notice how these tension patterns affect the body as a whole. For instance, locking the knees will also cause the ankles and hips to tighten and the spine to shorten. It is not necessary to correct these issues. You need not discuss it in depth with the student. As long as you are aware and can lead the student through the process of inhibition: pause and do something else instead of playing.

For example, you notice when you ask your student to sight-read that he hunches over the stand to look at the music more closely. As you become aware of your student’s habit, your own head/neck/back relationship has become compressed. You could allow the situation to continue and risk straining yourselves, or you could take a five minute break and think of the Alexander directions. Upon returning to the sight-reading task, you notice that you are both breathing freely and your bodies are whole, enlivened systems.

Field Example:

                    -During a lesson with a student (age seven), I spent much of the time bringing the flute headjoint towards her and then taking it away. I did this to make her conscious of her habit to bring her head and neck toward the flute. While she was not doing anything wrong, it was unnecessary and took extra energy. I have this habit, too, so I brought humor into the situation. I said that neither of us want to look like ET when we play and that we should remind each other when we see this pattern. We would use the code word “oooouch” (said in my best ET voice).

It later became clear that the student could not comfortably hold the assembled flute. It may be a year or two before she will grow into it, so I lent her my fife. Now she can hold her instrument easily, she doesn’t have to put it together, and it can take a beating and still function. It is important to know when the Alexander work is not enough. It is possible to simply have an unworkable situation. However, it is through the Technique that you can become aware of the difference between a difficult situation and an unworkable one. With the Alexander Technique, you can have options for managing an array of situations.

Your First Lesson

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

What will happen during your first lesson?

You will arrive wearing comfortable clothing so you are able to move freely. I will spend the first part of the lesson finding out more about you. What made you decide to take a lesson? What do you hope to achieve by taking lessons? What are your concerns? What questions do you have about the Technique?

I will use both verbal communication and hands-on direction to guide you through a variety of everyday activities (like sitting, breathing, talking, and walking). You can let me know if you are uncomfortable with any of my methods so I can stop and try a different approach. As you move through these familiar patterns of movement, you may become aware of excess tension. Together, we will find options for movement that do not involve strain. Activities specific to your lifestyle will also be explored during your lesson.

Future lessons will focus on some of the same activities, and likely something new.  There will always be time for different activities that you wish to consider. You could spend a few weeks learning to possess more ease in your body and mind, or a lifetime. It is important to me that your lessons remain interesting and fun.

The Alexander Technique is non-manipulative. It is not painful because the teacher’s hands are always gentle. Most people report feeling more relaxed and more comfortable in their bodies by the end of the first lesson.