A pupil of one of my colleagues was once told in a lesson not to close her eyes. She said, “If I don’t close my eyes, I can’t concentrate.” My colleague said, “I don’t want you to try to concentrate.” “But,” she said, “if I don’t concentrate I can’t feel what is happening.” “I don’t want you to try and feel what is happening,” he said. “But,” she replied, “if I don’t feel, how can I relax?” “I don’t want…
One has to learn the Art of falling upwards.(Taken from “The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p34)
You cannot change and yet remain the same, though this is what most people want.Patrick MacDonald (Taken from “The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p17)
When the word “relaxation” is used to denote the letting go of excess tension, then it conveys a proper idea. For most people, however, it denotes an over-slackening of the muscles and tissues. The word ‘collapse’ could, indeed, be substituted. This is a very harmful condition and, in my opinion, far worse than the excess tension that it replaces. It is a pity that ‘relaxation’ has become so popular.Many years ago my boxing trainer delivered himself of this piece of…
Now the phrase “forward and up” has led to more confusion than any of the other ones used in teaching the Alexander Technique, and its explanation affords considerable difficulty. In the first place it must be remembered that Alexander coined the phrase in response to what he saw himself and others doing wrong. He noticed that he was pulling his head back and down, and he came to the conclusion that this was an interference with proper use. “Forward and…
The Alexander Technique does not teach position. It teaches proper co-ordination in all normal positions. If the little extension of the spine that Alexander demanded is operative then it matters little what position the body adopts. That is not to say that positions have no importance. There are some positions in which proper co-ordination is difficult or impossible. For instance, it is difficult for anyone to sit in many so-called “easy” chairs without collapsing their spines. These chairs are much…
Do not forget that right and wrong change, and should change as your body and co-ordination change. What is right for you today should be wrong for you tomorrow. Do not, therefore, try and fix a picture of a specific co-ordination in your brain as the right one; it will have to be modified, perhaps many times, over a long period…Remember, you are slowly eliminating the wrong. Finality, for most of us, and that includes me, is not in sight.Patrick…
Playing musical instruments can be a source of mal-coordination. So many piano players gain their emphasis by bringing the body downwards towards the keys. It is only the arms, hands and fingers that should travel downwards. The body should be directly upwards.Patrick MacDonald (“The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p23)
When at first you don’t succeed, never try again, at least, not in the same way. Trying almost always involves extra and excessive tension.Patrick MacDonald (“The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p1)
Alexander used to say that when Sir Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravitation, people began to think that in order to move one foot off the ground you had to shift your weight over and down on to the other. “But”, said Alexander, “I was a very ill educated man. I never heard of Sir Isaac Newton. It didn’t affect me!”Patrick MacDonald (“The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p10)
In Alexander’s sense “stopping doing” means stopping that which leads to over-activity. It does not mean collapse (relaxation), for this is a doing of a different and even more harmful kind. To gain improvement it is necessary to stop thinking in certain ways and to think differently.Patrick MacDonald (“The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p13)
It seems appropriate to say here that it is natural for our bodies to work efficiently. It is not, however, our habit, owing to the fact that consciously or unconsciously we have learnt a lot of bad habits, over many generations.Patrick MacDonald (“The Alexander Technique As I See It” – Notebook Jottings p7)
Let the neck be free. You will notice that the phrase starts with “let”. This is important. It means that the pupil should avoid stiffening the neck – not that he should do something to free it. I frequently find pupils going through all sorts of contortions in the belief that they are “freeing the neck”. They are usually, in fact, producing an extra stiffening by so doing.Patrick MacDonald (“On Giving Directions, Doing and Non-Doing” – STAT Memorial Lecture 1963)
In trying to sum up what I have said this evening, I would like to say that I consider ‘non-doing’ and ‘direction sending’ the lifeblood of the Alexander Technique, though they are not, of course, the whole of it. I think it might be useful, before I stop, to list the items that, taken together I believe make the Alexander Technique into one unlike any other:– recognition of the force of habit.– inhibition and non-doing.– recognition of faulty sensory awareness.–…