Attend to the Moment

The Alexander Technique is best understood through continued hands-on lessons and it is worthwhile to find a good teacher in your area and commit to a series of lessons!

But the principles of the Technique can be expressed and are valuable to serve readers in a meaningful way. They are not Rocket Science, they are simple and profound and I would be delighted if they became common knowledge.

I call my company Human Reaction because I believe that that is what we are, continuous reaction. When we begin to understand this and what it consists of we can discover our inherent Selves and also our greatest potential.

We are all naturally designed to be conscious, light and have ease in activity and we can in fact rediscover this. The Alexander Technique is based on two fundamental ideas; Inhibition and Direction. Inhibition, which is not the same as to be inhibited but, to FM Alexander it was the ability to voluntarily inhibit action, the ability to say no to a response. To stop. Inhibition is to stop physically and wake up in your head. And Direction is the other pillar. Direction is the non doing act of thinking. It is to consciously think directions.

Inhibition is to stop.

Direction is to think.

The directions are simple! They are what the body tend towards when it is naturally integrated and in good co-ordination. You can stick them on your fridge and on your mirrors. You can learn these words by heart and then you can learn what it is to think them.

They are as follows…

Allow your neck to be free

(The joint connecting your spine and your skull, between your ears)

So that your head can go forward and up

Allow your whole stature to lengthen and widen

Hips free

Knees forward and away

Shoulders free

Arms to lengthen to the fingertips

I struggled paying attention in my life but I have come to experience that when my body is directed through conscious guidance I am able to pay attention to whatever I so choose. And the magic is in the conscious direction of the body. It is a subtle skill and it has taken me time to learn to think these directions clearly. But I am now less subject to my own subconscious habits. Because I have learnt to stop and direct.

You can get to know these directions.

Thinking them is different from doing them!

Directional thoughts have themselves electrical agency that pave a pathway in your body. You need to trust the words. These words, these neurological directions, develop a pattern that physiologically sustains ease and coordination in activity.

Our bodies are alive and they are all patterned in a certain way. We each have our own individual use pattern. It is these patterns that we can become aware of and redirect by stopping and thinking.

They say body leads until the mind wakes up.

Practice to think.

Neck free, head forward and up

Look out

Back to lengthen and widen

Breathe

Hips free, knees forward and away

Shoulders free, arms to lengthen to the fingertips

Repeat

A free neck is the antithesis to being hypnotised or manipulated. It is worthwhile to develop an embodied capacity to sustain a free neck and I will advocate that a free neck is the best currency for paying attention.