Positive Thinking – Just Say No?!
In my last couple of blogs I’ve been exploring how we use thinking and words in our Alexander Technique practice in such a way as to promote positive changes in our coordination. One of the roles of an Alexander Technique teacher is to help his/her students understand the intended meaning of these directions through hands-on guidance, as well as visual and verbal cues. Because each one of us has our own unique way interpreting different words, the teacher can also help find ways of thinking – directing – that are most helpful to each individual student.
“Negative Directions”
One approach to directing that I’ve found extremely helpful is using “Negative” or “Inhibitory” directions. These type of directions were, to my knowledge, first described by Missy Vineyard in her book, How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live. The idea with a “negative direction” is that you are telling yourself what you do not want to do. For instance a traditional Alexander direction might be to think, “I’m letting my neck be free.” The “negative” version would be something like “I’m not tightening my neck.”
Try them both out, and see if you notice a difference. You might even like to try adding “No” to the beginning, so “No, I’m not tightening my neck.” I personally find it very helpful and empowering to add the “No!” to my thinking. Who knows, maybe I’m a rebel at heart!
I don’t believe there’s just one way of thinking that’s right for everyone, but I’ve found that many of my students are more successful using the “negative” version as they seem less likely to try and free their neck by doing something with the muscles (the opposite of what’s required), and are more likely to let go of some tightening. The “I am not…” statement seems to help many of us be clearer with ourselves about what needs to happen, or rather not happen.
The Alexander Technique is basically a process of eliminating our unhelpful habits of excess tension, so we are actually learning to do less not more. F. M. Alexander, the developer of the Alexander Technique, famously said, “When you stop doing the wrong thing the right thing does itself.” It seems to me that using negative directions gets right to the heart of this principle. There’s something very powerful about saying “No” to what you don’t want, mentally telling yourself, “No, I am not [fill in the blank!]” They’re also highly adaptable, and you can come up with whatever you need given the situation and/or your particular set of habits.
Did you try out any of the ideas of ways to think I’ve suggested here? Have you come up with any negative directions of your own that you find particularly helpful? Please share your experiences in the comments below.
Hi imogen,
happy alexander days.
I think saying NO better, can be done easily by practicing fm technique.
Iam imagining the alexander teacher always says his student like,
NO No no no …..while getting up his student up from the chair.
1.The teacher remembers and says to the student ,NO This is your neck.
2. NO this head should not come this way
3. NO NO ….this torso goes up like this and widens like this.
Wait wait wait….inhibit inhibit the neck that way …no no no ,
what you are doing ?
Again he remembers his student ‘this is your neck’ , the head moves like this
one after the other all together.
The student now achieved his end.
What a beautiful no?
I liked this blog post.
Thanks! 🙂
For me this is about the whole area of stimulus and response. It reminds me of a story my AT teacher trainer used to tell about an interaction with his teacher, Marjorie Barstow. They had a lesson where she would say “Move your arm,” and my teacher would reply, “No I will not move my arm, but I will allow my neck to be free so that my head can move forward and up…[directions shortened here for brevity!] … S that I can move my arm.”
One of the things that came up in the Alexander Technique and the Performing Arts Conference in Melbourne this weekend was the idea that a direction such as “free your neck” is just another stimulus, and you still need to inhibit your instinctive response to that stimulus as all others. I think that is the value of the negative direction.
Forgot to mention… My teacher and Marjorie Barstow carried on in that vein for an entire lesson, each trying to catch the other out! What a fun way to work on the concept of inhibition. 🙂
Just realized I never replied to your comments, Jen. I love your anecdote about your teacher and Marj Barstow. I think I’ve always known on some level that “free your neck” is a stimulus – as is absolutely anything really. I have a huge tendency to tighten more when I hear the word “neck” – the negative directions have helped a lot!
Hi jennifer,
you got some interesting point, ‘let the neck be free’ is still a stimulus.
So, here you are saying the direction is the stimulus.
May be you are true, who knows?
The direction itself is a stimulus. So,
what ever you are directing our self is stimulus.
And we have to inhibit that stimulus following the means whereby.
Thanks for this interesting comment.
I’m glad my comment provoked such great thinking!