Change

Boost your Life, Creativity & Spirituality with some F.M. Alexander Technique

Public Talk

Life

Have you ever caught yourself by the thought „you are what you think?“ That you mechanically react the way it is expected from you, even that inside of you a tiny rebellious voice says „i don’t want to be like that?“

We create ourselves with every thought we have, every day again, we practice being ourselves, like we practise nothing else. The moment we realise that our thoughts create ourselves we discover a powerful, life changing technique to create the personality we WANT.

Creativity

F.M. Alexander Technique is about Awareness and Change, some very important ingredients of creativity. Just think of Madonna the musician she is famous for having reinvented her self over and over again, but she still remains Madonna. By changing, reinventing, seeking, we usually get lost only to find something new. Creativity can’t really grow out of habitual, fear powered behaviour.

Spirituality & Awareness

A calm, empty Mind is what we are looking for when meditating. I wouldn’t say you arrive immediately in the state of being monks achieve after 30 years of practicing, but you might come the closest, in the shortest time to an empty mind when lying on the floor practicing F.M. Alexander Technique.
Focusing on the directions – Neck is free, head is going forward and up, the shoulders widen, the back is long… might be an equivalent to counting the breath, while lying on the floor is making sure your mind doesn’t follow the sensations of your body’s pain and needs in a sitting position.

How does it work?

I am a certified teacher for F. M. AlexanderTechnique as well and can reassure you the F.M. Alexander Technique can change your life, it definitely can change your habits and how you react to them.

Let’s ask Wikipedia what F.M. Alexander Technique is:

“Lessons in the Alexander technique, named after Frederick Matthias Alexander, teach people how to stop using unnecessary levels of muscular and mental tension during their everyday activities. It is an educational process rather than a relaxation technique or form of exercise…”

This post is not a definition of Alexander Technique, rather the way of how i implemented AlexanderTechnique in my life and it helped me to overcome behaviour like being ridiculous shy, hot tempered and lost in my mind. Please read careful, i did not say getting rid of being shy but overcome a behaviour, what makes a big difference.

The one or other teacher won’t agree with my sight of the technique and that is fine for me. If you read the texts of F.M. Alexander you might probably discover the same results as i did or not. The usual Alexander lesson teaches you a lot about your body and the way you are using your body and why not to trust sensory feelings.

The Main Principles of the F.M. Alexander Technique are:

  • Constructive Conscious Control
  • End-gaining
  • Inhibition
  • Primary control
  • Directions
  • Psycho-physical unity

All teachers I ever met taught me F.M. Alexander Technique and it’s principles related to how we use our body. Our use of the body as i understand it, is a reaction on our emotions and the other way around.

The usual storyline might be:
Stimulus -> Emotion  (habitual, based on experience)  -> Reaction (habitual behavior or posture)

During the process of learning …
Stimulus -> Emotion -> Inhibition (Stop, inhibit habitual behaviour) -> Directions -> Conscious Behavior

that would lead at one point possibly to:
Stimulus -> Inhibition -> Directions -> Conscious Behavior -> Emotion

Have i lost you? Don’t worry what sounds very complex, is something you experience every day – just not consciously and that is what makes the difference – Inhibition and consciousness.

Let’s say, I had to hold a public speech, that is what usually would have happened:
stimulus (talk in public) -> emotion (feeling anxious, i could fail, was never really good with this) -> reaction (sweating, being nervous, feeling very tensed, need a wee every 2 minutes, very quiet, squeaky voice ….)

With a lot of practicing, this is what happens now in such a situation is:
Stimulus (talk in public) -> Emotion (feeling anxious) -> Inhibition -> Directions (of the body: neck is free, head is going up …, of the mind: go) -> Conscious Behavior (walking upright, with a free neck and breathing in and out, a loosened throat, leading to a relaxed voice and body reaction) => new experience replaces the habitual reaction: emotional and physically.

That is nothing you can only read about, you have to go out and do it. But if you decide to take some Alexander lessons don’t allow the teacher to restrict YOUR possibilties just because his might be restricted. Use everything you learn in a wider context. Know that a free neck is a new physical behavior you consciously choose, it is part of directions which help you to change your habitual behavior if it is about posture, or emotions or even self-belief.

You yourself can change the way you use your body, more important you can change the way you react whenever you want it – how amazing is that!

If you discover how much of not only your body, but your emotional and spiritual behavior is habitually related or better rooted and you practice the principles of the F.M. Alexander Technique in their wider understanding you get the chance to react in the way you want to react, not the way you used to react and become the person you are, rather than the person you are made. If you wonder how and where to start, the short cut is always a good teacher, but if you just lie down on the floor with a book under your head, the knees bend and go through the directions as written down by F.M. Alexander you will realise without much effort an impressive change of your body and mind. (I mean getting spiritual by just lounging on the floor, how easy is that?)

Links i bookmarked once about posture and emotions:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3041688/body-week/the-surprising-and-powerful-links-between-posture-and-mood
http://www.coachkeats.com/?p=739

And in the end no one said it better than Charlie Brown:
peanuts20posture320260