Attention Creates A Tension

There are certain constructs, distinctions if you like that are crucial to learning the Alexander Technique and developing Constructive Conscious Control, that are also relevant to any skilled activity. They are often not mentioned or understood poorly, in part because it takes a long time to recognise them and understand them, not just theoretically but practically in the acts of daily living. One such distinction concerns the use of the eyes and where we direct attention, as much as how we direct attention. 

Taking the importance of where we direct attention, it is worth considering Alexander’s practice in teaching. He had a roundel of stained glass in his window that he both intended and encouraged people to look at, according to Walter Carrington.* Although Walter did not have a roundel of stained glass in his window, in every lesson I ever had with him, the invitation was always made to look out his window and engage my attention with a tree or something else. It is a practice I continue with my pupils for the following reasons.

First of all a place we all go wrong, is by wanting to attend directly to ourselves when we aim to do anything. This makes us self-conscious rather than conscious or aware. It is an understandable habit, it comes from wanting to know what is going on and unless we happen to be blind, our primary way of beginning to know is to look first. If we do this though it creates the problem of knowing ourselves in attention, rather than knowing ourselves in awareness. 

What we want as American Alexander Technique Teacher Frank Peirce-Jones** pointed out is an ‘expanded' field of attention. Meaning that we need to be able to both attend to what we are doing and be aware of the use of ourselves at the same time. So a horse rider gets on much better when instead of attending to the horse or themselves they look in the direction they want to go. The horse understands this and will move freely in the desired direction of travel. Or with an actor or performer, they need to be free to attend to other performers and the audience. A self-conscious performer is no fun to watch – they lack fluency, as well as freedom. 

For people in pain short-term or chronic this distinction is of tremendous importance. For pain first arises in our awareness, then we attend to it, tighten up muscularly in the relevant area before starting to construe the implications of the pain and discomfort. Where the pain becomes chronic or lasts for a long time a person can get into the habit of looking for it, thereby continually re-creating the pain over time, further debilitating themselves, and losing confidence. It is worth always remembering that in attending directly to ourselves the ATTENTION CREATES A TENSION. 

What is required is the recognition of the fact that although it may seem like an instinct to look, it is a behaviour and if brought under conscious control, it allows for freedom of movement in thought and action to be restored. As part of this it is important not to be trying to sort oneself out directly before proceeding. What is important is in a phrase Alexander used increasingly used as he got older to ‘leave oneself’ alone, to allow oneself to begin to focus on what one wishes to do next and to create the awareness which goes with lengthening and released breathing. It is an awareness that comes from shifting the focus of attention elsewhere to the task in hand, the person we are with, the thought we need to have. This is a shifting of focus and not concentration, the importance of which I will turn to next time.

* Private communication with Walter Carrington.
** Jones, F.P. (1976) Body awareness In Action. Schocken Books: New York

Best Alexander Technique Advice Ever

Today, while swimming, I recalled the best piece of advice I have ever had from an Alexander Technique teacher. It came from Walter Carrington, who took over Alexander's teacher training course, when Alexander died in 1955. I took a small number of lessons with Walter over the years between qualifying in 1994 and when he died in 2005. In a good year, I would go down to London two or three times for lessons with Walter and other first generation teachers, most notably Peggy Williams. Both were remarkable teachers, from whom I had lessons that I remember and am still understanding to this day.

One such lesson was my very first lesson with Walter, when in the first five minutes, I learned more from his hands, about how things were supposed to work, than I had in my three-year training course. Of course, I needed those three years to understand what it was he wanted to me to know and was teaching me. 

On one visit, shortly before I was due to get married, I explained to Walter that with finances being tight, I did not expect to be in London again for eighteen months. Walter told me not worry and then told me that:

1. If I understood hands on the back of the chair, then I would learn and know pretty much everything I need to know about human mechanics and functioning.

2. That if I understood the whispered ‘ah’, I would learn and know pretty much all I would ever need to know about breathing. 

3. Finally, Walter added that I should read the books, meaning the four books Alexander wrote, and I would have all I need to know about the Alexander Technique and Conscious Control. 

At the time, being of a sceptical frame of mind, I doubted the truth of what Walter said; I thought he might just be exaggerating. Scepticism though has to be tempered with experimentation, so I followed Walter’s advice and come to see the truth of it. So now, if I was asked for advice, I would repeat what Walter told  me, namely that if you learn the set procedures which are 'hands on the back of the chair' and the whispered 'ah' and, more importantly, if you understand them, you have pretty much all you need for whatever physical activity you might be undertaking. 

Returning to the reason I recalled all this today in the swimming pool, well I have been working again with hands on the back of the chair and today I was applying it in the pool. My swimming was easier, faster and more powerful than usual, as I was using myself better than normal. As I still want to improve, I'll be standing putting my hands on the back of the chair again, not just to improve my swimming but to understand the needs of my pupils and help them improve the use of themselves in whatever daily round of activities they undertake and whatever outside pastimes they enjoy. 

Stand Up Straight Now!

If you felt yourself stiffen to the above command then you are almost certainly not alone. It is most people’s first and un-thought out reaction to being asked to stand up straight. The resultant posture involves a fixing and holding of the breath. It was even cultivated for a while as a healthy posture in schools and of course the classic sergeant major pose with head pulled back, chest puffed out is an exaggerated form of it. The fact that it is not healthy, in interfering with relaxed respiration and placing undue strain on the back, was missed until Alexander came along. His work was in part responsible for these sort of exercises disappearing and some of the worst exercises of army drill stopping in the early twentieth century.

However, you just cannot keep a bad idea down as it were, and nearly a century later the idea that we should practice standing up and sitting up straight, as a way of cultivating will power and control is back. It is being promoted by Professor Roy Baumeister and my attention was drawn to his work, through an interesting post on Alexander Technique teacher Jennifer Mackerras' blog.

Now the problem with simply asking someone to stand up straight is that it assumes that they know how to do it. Yet if they did, you would expect not to have to tell them, they just would stand well. It is a point made by John Dewey* in elaborating a conversation with Alexander. Alexander having pointed out to him that people, in seeking to make any change, including one as simple as changing how they stand, believe they merely have to will it and it will happen.

This for Alexander, according to Dewey, is merely a ‘superstition', a belief ‘on a par with primitive magic in its neglect of attention to the means which are involved in reaching an end.’ What is important is an ‘intelligent inquiry to discover means which will produce a desired result, and intelligent intervention to procure the means.’

Without the enquiry into how we might change how we stand, we are most likely, to quote Dewey again, to end up ‘standing differently, but only a different kind of badly.’ This Dewey expands on, to make a more general point that an act comes before the thought, that a habit must be established before we can ‘evoke a thought at will.’

These thoughts of Dewey for me, connect Alexander to George Kelly and his Psychology of Personal Constructs. Kelly was hugely influenced by Dewey and, in his insistence that ‘behaviour is the experiment’, one can see a direct link between the foregoing and his evolution of fixed role therapy. A link that is re-enforced by something else Alexander said, that Dewey reported, namely that we are not simply talking about ‘control of the body’, but the ‘control of the mind and character’. All of these rely on ‘intelligently controlled habit’ and that must be the aim of Alexander lessons or any kind of therapy, such as Personal Construct Psychology, which takes people as active creators of their own lives.

*Dewey,J. (2008) The Middle Works, 1899-1924 ,Volume 14:1922, Human Nature and Conduct . Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press p23-25

Curiosity Recaptured

A few years ago, before blogging became prominent,  Mornum Time Press published a book of short essays centred on people's experience of the Alexander Technique -AT. I am not sure whether Jerry Sontag, who edited the book, came up with the title or someone else did, but whoever it was, in choosing 'Curiosity Recaptured', they chose well. For 'Curiosity Recaptured' says something about an attitude to life and to others ,that we can consciously choose, whatever life throws at us. It allows us not just to be curious but to wonder.

I was reminded of the book today, during a conversation with an senior psychotherapist about how they see their work. They described their work with couples, as helping people to make the most conscious adult choices possible, through being curious about the other. It was a nice simple explanation of where dialogue begins, where what Kelly called sociality starts.

Sociality is something that distinguished personal construct psychology back in the 50's. Now psychologists and other psychotherapists are catching up, as they talk about theory of mind and mentalization. Their contributions are all illuminating and helpful but lack something of the clarity of Kelly was getting at. Namely, that in order to play a role with regard to somebody, it is helpful to be able to predict them by being able to 'stand in their shoes' so to speak. The extent to which we can do this helps determines the type of role that we can play.

At a very simple level, this occurs every day while driving or walking along the pavement. Sometimes it goes wrong, as today when I encountered someone walking towards me. We both did that dance that sometimes occurs, with each person trying to step one way and then the other. In this case, our anticipations went astray, we both went the same way and collided. Thankfully this is rare, particularly when driving!

In work and at home we play more complex roles and have to navigate not just relationships with one other, but amongst groups. We need to make sense not just of the individual people involved but of the multiple relationships that exist between people, as well as the relationships horizontal and vertical that exist between the group and the outside world.

Personal Construct Psychology - PCP has some lovely ways of working with these that have been developed by Harry Proctor in the form of Perceiver Element Grids, PEG’s for short. I have used them with both therapy clients and pupils to help them think about the various relationships in their families and most importantly, help them suspend, a PCP word, or inhibit an AT word, old constructs, a PCP word, or conceptions, an AT word.

Whichever words one chooses, whatever theory one starts with, both refer to the same ability of stopping, looking and beginning to see the situation a fresh - as I blogged about last week. It is always a matter of finding our sense of wonder, our sense of curiosity, possibility, no matter what assails, no matter how troublesome a situation or a relationship is. As it is the freshness of being present, that presents the future with new horizons, new vistas, ways forward, whether together or apart.

Stopping, Looking and Seeing

Today I start with a quote from the opening paragraph of art historian John Berger's, 'The Art of Seeing' – something I wish I had written as it expresses beautifully, something fundamental, not just about the work that I do, but about life and what it is to be in the world.

 'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.'

This quote resonates with me so much, because when I am working I often make a distinction between looking and seeing, listen and hearing, feeling and touching, and for that matter feeling and being touched. Of these, I place the most emphasis on vision, as when we begin to allow ourselves to stop look and see, our relationship with all our senses changes, improves. We experience the world differently, we see the world differently, we hear the world differently and we can touch and be touched by it differently.

Use in effecting function, as Alexander noted affects ourselves, how we see our possibilities, whether we have can have hope. Hope in our darkest hours is a light that can lead us onwards, finding a way to a new future. We do not have to ‘paint ourselves into a corner’ as George Kelly observed and to free ourselves we need not just words but the ability to see a situation differently, to see the alternatives. Only then do we have a choice where we can weigh up the implications before committing ourselves to action.

Stopping which I blogged about last week, involves a commitment to look at a situation, to see it, to become focussed. The experience of which, is a coherence not just towards the situation but within ourselves, as it includes us, as we release, lengthen and widen, breathe, prepare. This reflects the fact that most of our experience is both pre and non verbal – words giving the handles that allow for patterns and sequences to be identified, thought about, and communicated to others.

Stopping also allows us to look at others, be with them, be alongside them and I will be blogging more about this aspect of my work in coming weeks. For the use of the eyes and the facial muscles involves our earliest habits, habits that link us to others in an inter-personal world, an inter-personal world that is sometimes hidden, but always there. This world, the world of love and attachments is the source of our deepest anguish, profoundest sadness, as well as moments of immense joy, happiness. It is a world to be understood, that in our being with others, we can take a conscious stance towards.

Which brings me back as always to the Primary Control its importance in organising not just ourselves but our experience of the world, whether we want to better understand others, perform better or simply free ourselves from aches and pains that interfere with everyday living. The Primary Control is the means through which conscious control can become established and constructive – it is what makes Alexander’s work unique and it is freely available to anybody who knows how to stop, look, listen, become aware of themselves and allow themselves to begin to see and hear the rhythms and patterns of their lives, their worlds.

Stopping

This week has been a reminder of the need to stop. Stop or stopping carries a very particular meaning in Alexander Technique, one beyond its normal connotation, that to those that who have not applied the technique for themselves, may well be misunderstood. The importance of stop or inhibition is something one returns to, not just in daily life for oneself but with pupils. Who when they come in with a particular complaint have often forgotten the need to stop. 

Stopping in Alexander terms does not mean collapsing or slumping on the sofa to watch TV. It is an active pause, active in the sense that one chooses not do certain things, not go about things in a particular manner or way. Alexander talked about ‘stopping doing the wrong thing and letting the right thing do itself’. 

Of course to stop doing the wrong things, you have to know what you do not want and in Alexander terms this is very easy to specify. You need to stop doing anything that fixes or interferes with your breathing. You need to become aware of the micro-acts, preparations and attitudes that leave you holding your breath, shortening in stature, tightening in the neck. Becoming aware can be a difficult process. It helps if you have developed a physical skill in the past but you still need to know what to become aware of and avoid looking for it. 

Looking for it is where most pupils go wrong when they start lessons, they start to attend to themselves directly rather than looking and seeing what’s around them or looking to see where they want to go or what they need to focus on. Indeed if they start to concentrate, and you can try this at home by concentrating on something in the room, they fix and hold their breath. Focus is different from concentration, it involves maintaining a balance between foveal and peripheral vision and not a narrowing of attention to a particular point. Focus involves attention that is directed away from the self and allows for consciousness of the self to emerge. This is a pre-requisite of conscious control. 

Focus is a solution for mind-wandering, it is also a solution for anxiety providing one knows how to get there and getting there involves stop. In this respect it is somewhat like meditation or the mindfulness techniques that are becoming popular, it is also somewhat different in that Alexander Technique highlights what Alexander called the Primary Control, which is the relationship between the head, the neck and the torso. If we get this relationship right, our breathing will ease and deepen, we will relax without collapsing, we will lengthen and gain an improvement in our posture. Most of all we will be at our most resourceful for action, as we feel energised and light. 

All this comes from stopping shortening and tightening into action, from knowing that we do not want to tighten our necks, pull our heads back, pull our heads down, shorten our spine and various other simple things. In Alexander though when we think of stopping these things we turn what we do not want into something positive. So we think of our necks being free, our heads going forward and up, our backs lengthening. In the first place all these guiding order or directions as Alexander talked about are inhibitory, they are about stopping something and as you do, the right thing does begin to happen, your neck does free, your head does go forward and up, you do lengthen and you can begin to see and focus on what needs to happen, on what you need to do, on what you want to occur. Stopping is the beginning of action, as well as the end. Stopping is the way we begin again, when life assails us and we need to find freedom, freedom in thought, freedom in action. 

Freedom For Living

A New Year and a new beginning, and the New Year resolution for this blog is to find video clips of people, other than Fred Astaire, who have what, Alexander would have called good use. So expect clips of various actor’s and sports people who have had Alexander Lessons such as Judi Dench, William Hurt, Helena Bonham Carter, Sebastian Coe, Greg Chappell and Mathew Pinsent. Today, there is a clip great Don Bradman, someone who never had Alexander lessons but whose use, Alexander very much admired. He like Astaire, in his chosen field exemplifies good use through his own technique.

Good use, or if you like, good co-ordination in physical activities, is always founded on the principles of poise and balance, which no particular method, technique or activity has a patent on. Alexander himself worked out the principles in his chosen field of using his voice as an actor. What makes him different from people who have worked out the principles with regard to dance, rowing, horse riding, fencing or martial arts, was his realisation that it was possible to be aware of his use in everything he did and to gain a conscious control of himself.

Alexander writings about conscious control are somewhat inaccessible to a modern audience for example, when he writes about conscious control as being ‘Man’s Supreme Inheritance’ – the title of his first book. Yet, in his last book ‘The Universal Constant in Living’, another somewhat inaccessible title, Alexander writes about his work as a practical method for changing behaviour and concludes about the importance of having ‘freedom in thought and action.’

‘Freedom in thought and action’ implies poise, balance and true relaxation, not the state of collapse that people often mistake for relaxation. ‘Freedom in thought and action’ also implies the ability to choose how we go about doing things, the attitudes we take to situations, events, others and ourselves. These are all deeply important if conscious control is to be achieved in its fullest sense. The freedom each person seeks for the most part depends on what is important to them and their individual life histories. For people who seek mastery of a particular activity like the sportsmen and actors named above, it is about both a freedom that helps prevent injury and improves performance.

For my pupils this week, it has been the ability to put one’s own coat on, or to run for the bus without pain injury, simple things yes, but simple things that if you cannot do, leave you with a reducing quality of life and often a narrowing sphere of activity and enjoyment. With other pupils and clients it is a freedom from past behaviours and habits formed in their earliest years, that stop them from being free to be themselves with others. Freedom is always important. The freedom to be, is what makes life worth living and allows people to transcend the most difficult of situations and circumstances – Alexander Technique and PCP are both different ways for seeking the same path and end of a better life, squarely and fairly faced.