Photo: Charlotte Holtzermann
Practice Pages: Yoga Therapy
Observing Habits and Affecting Change Through Conscious Direction
THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE provides teachings to allow people to listen to the body’s habits in movement and posture and reorganizing our internal coordination. Like yogis entering a pose with specific actions such as anchoring the legs, Alexander students watch themselves stand, sit, breathe, walk and speak. In this work, one imagines and thinks directions to one’s neck, head and back.
Every year, a group of teachers and students come together in a retreat to practice finding balance in each moment and movement through the Alexander Technique. Attending this particular workshop was a return to teachers who had trained me to be an Alexander teacher from 1987 – 90. I came to the annual Serra Retreat Alexander Residential Workshop in Malibu with a sore left foot, strained and sprained from a fall in 2006 as well as a sore right groin. These conditions were diagnosed as plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis and arthritis of the hip.
It had become challenging to lead classes with a limp so I arrived in search of therapy. I had patterns of overuse from thirty years of driving a car to teach various classes; the pony express pattern of freelance work. I knew my Alexander teachers would be able to identify some habits of strain and help lead me out of six months of increasing pain.
In our group of thirty, I felt santosha, contentment. In our first circle, Phyllis Gingess, a health educator from Houston sat next to me. She wore a brace on her lower leg to support an arch in order to let a tendon heal. She wanted to avoid a complicated surgery. Her condition was a possible progression of mine. “This week was a giant time for me,” she said later. “I moved from feeling restricted to being adaptive.”
In a 7:15 A.M. class with Meade Andrews called “Wake up with Awareness,” I found a way out of chronic morning ache – moving to music with others and using direction. Alexander Technique involves giving oneself directions the way a rider guides a horse. Giving directions means saying to oneself in movement: “I am allowing my neck to be free so that my head can move forward and up, allowing my body to lengthen and widen.” These are the core ideas in this work which is taught with a teacher’s hands guiding the neck, head, back and limbs. In Meade’s class, I remembered to move mindfully rather than hurriedly. Hurry had become my habit, in the first hour of the day while rushing to drive to class and arrive on time.
During hands-on turns standing and walking with instructors, the Serra room buzzed of alert people moving fluidly through space. It was enlivening to watch teachers converse with students while adjusting a neck, head, the back and shoulders. I was absorbed watching, mirroring, retraining and reclaiming this subtle method of teaching movement.
When Michael Gelb, author of How to Think Like da Vinci, spoke about Alexander Technique founder F.M. Alexander, he noted that Alexander struggled with habitual hoarseness in performance which doctors were unable to diagnose or treat. Alexander studied himself in three-way mirrors to observe how he moved his head, neck and back as an orator on stage. This is the origin of his work: the head, neck and back relationship, which he called the primary action. Upon observation, Alexander realized that he was pulling his head back and down and compressing his larynx; this habit caused his hoarseness. Our habitual patterns can be detrimental, according to his work. If we move with direction, we can change our habits towards better balance, which he discussed in his books, The Universal Constant in Living and Constructive Conscious Control.
Did my heel heal during this workshop? Yes. My teachers’ hands and words helped me remember how to let my torso come up and off my legs, away from the strain. The pain in my heel shrinks every day with continued attention through Alexander lessons and acupuncture treatments. The Alexander principle of observing habits to find balance inspires me to drive less, swim more and bike to work.
F.M. Alexander’s basic ideas from Michael Gelb’s Body Learning:
- Use affects function; the way we use our bodies defines our structure and functioning.
- We are integrated, whole beings functioning on three primary levels of emotional, mental and physical potential. The human organism is an indivisible unity.
- The balancing reflex of our head, neck and back relationship governs the coordination of our whole body.
- Humans are prone to faulty, sensory perception.
- Stopping habitual response to a stimulus offers us options for changing our patterns of posture and movement.
The Serra Retreat Alexander Residential Workshop will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary December 28, 2009 through January 2, 2010. For more information contact Michael Frederick (310) 880 – 7700 or visit: alextechworkshops-international.com.
Charlotte Holtzermann, MFA, MAmsat, teaches at SMC and LMU and works with individuals and small groups in Alexander Technique, Aquarobics and swimming, Chi Gong and Hatha Yoga. charlotteholtz@yahoo.com.
By Charlotte Holtzermann, MFA, MAmsat
