Alan Mars’s Weblog

Youtube video Alexander Technique Semi-Supine resting position  

Alan Mars- Alexander Technique since 1982

Alexander Technique in Brighton and Hove…

The semi-supine active resting position gives optimum support to your whole back – and to your spine in particular. Alexander Technique teachers recommend it as a daily practice. Do it once a day if possible for up to twenty minutes. As well as easing your posture it is particularly calming and centering. Youtube video clips, picture and written instructions are below…

Semi-supine Alexander Technique

It only requires a firm and warm surface, such as a blanket on the floor, and a few paperback books to serve as a headrest. It will help you to let go of excessive muscular tension in your body as a whole. It allows your torso to widen and your spine to release into its optimum resting length. It eases and reduces pressure on the inter-vertebral discs by placing the spine in a position of maximum mechanical support.

Most people need somewhere between 1 – 3 inches of books underneath the back of the skull. The head-rest encourages release in the muscles that join the back of the neck to the base of your skull. It should be neither too high (or your chin will compress your throat) nor too low (or your chin will stick up in the air). This gives maximum support to your spine. Your feet are flat on the floor, knees pointing up to the ceiling about shoulder-width apart and your hands can rest gently on your torso. It’s the ideal pre-cursor to some voice-work. No wonder my ex-drama students continue to practice it daily decades after being introduced to it!

Over the next ten minutes or so you will simply develop your relationship to the floor and head rest… Imagine the four ‘corners’ of your back–head, shoulders and tail bone– spreading and lengthening and widening away from each other and on to the floor. Let go of trying and forcing. Let it be effortless. Leave it up to gravity and muscular release. Look at the video several times to get a general idea of how to get into the semi-supine position. The main thing to remember about getting into the semi-supine position is to do it mindfully, quite slowly and with awareness. The same thing goes for returning to your feet again. I’ll go into a bit more detail in future postings.

http://alphainventions.com/

Sir Walter Scott on Adversity – quote

“It’s a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don’t even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don’t just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life.”  Sir Walter Scott

“Belief is a matter of customary muscle tension” F. M. Alexander

 The second quote is by F M Alexander, the originator, of the Alexander Technique. It was considered to be quite a provocative statement in the 1930s. Some people have suggested that he said it in order to shock. Walter Carrington, however, believed that he was perfectly serious about it because he, F M Alexander, equated belief with fixation. In Alexander’s experience a rigidity of mind corresponded to a rigidity of body. (Walter Carrington on the Alexander Technique in discussion with Sean Carey, 1986, p.45f)

Voice, confidence & presentation coaching with Alan Mars

I love the above quote by Sir Walter Scott – it’s so modern! As a little experiment try putting the key words into Google and see what you come up with. You might find quite a few modern versions of “ABC” out there but, to my mind, none of them quite as succinct and pithy as Sir Walter Scott’s.
Try buying into the two quotes. Decide to treat them “as if” they were true. Believe that by changing your muscular reaction to adversity you will also change, for the better, the consequences that arise from adversity.
How can you change your muscular reactions? How can you weaken the hold of a limiting belief? I’m sure there are many possibilities… including, perhaps, dipping into the preceding pages of this blog.

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

Alexander Technique photo album

Courses in London, Brighton & Hove

Memory and Centering

“If only I could remember my words then I would be composed” is a complaint that many of us could identify with.

My friend and mentor, Robin Prior, has suggested that the following is a more constructive approach “If only I could be more composed then I would remember my words.”

Have you had the experience of struggling to convey your thoughts on a subject that you know thoroughly? This could range from a total blanking of your mind to finding that you are simply not articulating your thoughts with the accustomed ease.

Adrenaline, the fight/flight hormone, tends to dampen our usual thinking and memory processes. Its job, after all, is to drive us to take physical action. Have you noticed how fast you can move when a speeding car is accelerating toward you? Logical, serial thinking is too slow in this context. It could, literally, be the death of you.

So the most important factor is to moderate your adrenaline flow and turns fear into a buzz, into a pleasant excitement. How? Please see the previous posts, Confidence Tricks 1 – 4.

You do, of course, need to practise what you want to say. It’s important to remember that memory isn’t just psychological – it’s physiological also. So, if you are going to be addressing an audience of 200 it won’t help you if you practice your speech slumped in an easy chair with your feet up in the mantelpiece! At the very least you’ll need to practice your speech whilst standing upright. Preferably standing upright centred, with your weight nicely distributed and a good wide sense of space.

It’s nice, but not essential, if you can practice in the actual venue. If you can’t get into the venue you can always visualise, pretend, that you are practising in it.*

In summary – you link your words and thoughts with a balanced and centred physiology. You link your words and thoughts with the appropriate presentation environment – either physically or in your imagination.

This simple approach can really quieten down your cognitive processes and clear your mind for action. Not only will you be able to articulate your thoughts fluidly you may also find that you are thinking more creatively. You might… surprise yourself… and find that… you know more… than you even suspected… you knew.

* I’ll say more about visualisation and mental rehearsal in a future post.

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://thetechnique.co.uk/

The cast of final term drama students are reciting in unison. At least that is the idea. The sound is flat and ragged. Stressed or disengaged expressions are plain to see on the performers faces. Strain and slump in the postures. Tomorrow is an important evening for everyone’s future. An audience of theatrical agents. Careers could be made… or fizzle out before they start. You can almost see the thought bubbles – “Why do final rehearsals so often end up like this?”

What is happening here? Anxiety? Yes, in varying degrees from person to person. Tiredness and a feeling of not being quite equal to the task? The final term has been a long haul. Conflict of priorities? Time devoted to the ensemble piece is time subtracted from the all important solo slot. Despite the fact that the ensemble pieces are like the rich dark velvet that shows off the individual pieces of jewellery to best effect.

What to do? A good old fashioned motivational speech and then push on? It can work wonders… but not today, not now. The director decides – now is the time for pausing. For regrouping and redirecting the considerable individual and collective resources of the cast.

“Alright everyone! Take five!” A collective sigh of relief. Pursuit of other, small but important, goals ensues. A visit to the ladies or gents. A quick call on the mobile. Smokers huddle at the main entrance. Catch up on some gossip. Some are resting in the Alexander semi-supine position. Some sits and thinks. And some just sits.

We all have an actual need for distraction. A need to place attention elsewhere periodically. Too much work and not enough play etc.

“O.K. everyone, let’s get going again!”

Do they dive straight into the unison speech? No.

For the next ten minutes the students separate out into pairs. One of the students, the tester, starts to gently push the other student, the testee, who becomes wobbly and loses balance. After a short pause the testee places their hand briefly over their lower abdomen and then, returning their hand to their side, stands in a neutral posture. The tester begins to gently push again. This time the testee is stable and not only confidently balanced but looking calmer and more collected.

After swapping roles and repeating the same procedure the attitude in the cast is calmer, more powerful and motivation is high. Unison descends on the cast – the collective voice, like peeling bells, is now bright, clear and resonant.

The performance the following evening, both the ensemble and the individual pieces, is a resounding success. Students get agents and take the next step of their career.

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://thetechnique.co.uk/

Festina Lente – Hasten Slowly

A potential student approaches a famous Japanese sword master asking for instruction.

The student asks how long it will take for him to achieve mastery in swordwork…

“It will take ten years for you to become competent in the basic skills” the master replied.

“What if I study twice as hard?” the student asks eagerly.

“Then it will take you twenty years!”

“And if I study three times as hard?”

“Thirty years! A pupil in such a hurry learns slowly.”

“No! You may not call me a “Confidence Guru!” Absolutely not!” – Alan.

“But “Guru” is an extremely respectable term in media circles!” – Television producer.

“That’s as may be but my fellow regulars at the Red Lion will take the… will mock me mercilessly if they hear!” – Alan

“How about “Confidence Coach” then?” – television producer.

“Ok” sigh…

“Ok then” sigh… “Let me introduce you to the “datees” in the Green Room”

I’d been asked by a television production company to help coach some members of the public for live television. It was a dating programme. Interestingly most of the participants were in their late forties or early fifties. The usual participants were in their teens and twenties.

The “datees” would say a bit about their life, their loves, hates and hobbies directly to camera. We sat at a cocktail bar where everyone had to deliver a chat-up line and come up with an appropriate and, hopefully, humorous response. And, oh yes, we all had to strut our stuff down the catwalk (steady tiger!)Nerve wracking, of course, especially if you are not used to being in the limelight.

I taught the participants some basic centering techniques. I’ll say a bit more about the background to some of these techniques in the near future:

• Place your attention in your centre of gravity – just a few inches below your navel.
• Distribute your body weight evenly onto the ground
• Maintain wide vision and wide shoulders
• Balance your head easily on top of your spine

In the end we only had time to rehearse one or two things. The participants could sense the potential of the techniques however. And this seemed to really motivate them to simply have fun in front of the camera. A virtuous cycle?

Not everyone got a date. But everyone had fun. What is it about that wonderful mixture of relaxation and excitement that seems to make the world sparkle with possibility?

One woman who was really quite shy and reserved in the Green Room absolutely blossomed on camera. She demonstrated a golf swing, her hobby, to the camera and very shortly thereafter an eligible gent phoned in with a request to get know her better!

The two interviewers were impressed. How come a group of men and women in their late forties and early fifties could be such fun on camera? Why were they so much less inhibited than the usual “datees” in their teens and twenties?

The centering techniques certainly seemed to help. Is it true that wisdom that comes with increasing maturity? And, perhaps, the ability not to take yourself too seriously? If so then it’s good news for all of us!

The interviewers were also somewhat sceptical. Couldn’t these acting techniques stop people from simply being themselves?

I simply quoted Shakespeare “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”

And I might have added – we often end up playing a part that is unsatisfying and unsuitable. A part that someone else wrote for us. These centering techniques can give us the flexibility, courage and motivation to try out new behaviours. Not all of the techniques will be suitable all of the time. Some of them will be entirely suitable but may take a little time to get used to. Some of them will be absolutely bang-on or, as the old sherry advert used to say, “One instinctively knows when something is right!” and we will take to them like the proverbial duck to water.

PS I’ll be running an introduction to Confidence Tricks at the NLP One day conference on April 19th.

PPS Many of the centering techniques I teach come originally from my training in Ki-Aikido. They’ve grown and adapted with me. Here is a link for my old sparring partner Charles Harris. We did our yellow belt grading together more years ago than I care to remember. He is chief instructor now for one of the biggest Ki-Aikido clubs in London.

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://thetechnique.co.uk/

I’ve just realised that most of my Alexander Technique blog musings have been done whilst walking. I absolutely love walking. I did a Google search for quotes about walking. There’s lots! And by some really smart folks too. I find myself in exalted company!

Here are a few quotes and links that I really liked:

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast. - Harry Truman (Advice on how to live to be 80.)

Above all do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday I walk myself into state of well being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts and I know of no thought so burdensome hat one cannot walk away from it… if one keeps on walking everything will be alright. - Soren Kierkegaard

I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind works only with my legs.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau, Confessions

Meandering leads to perfection. Lao Tzu

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. – Fred Allen

He who limps is still walking. - Stanislaw J. Lec

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. - Aldous Huxley

Of all exercises walking is the best. - Thomas Jefferson

A fact bobbed up from my memory, that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad. It was a mind-altering drug we took daily. - Paul Fleischman, Seedfolks

Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility. - Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild

Our true home is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment… - Thich Nhat Hanh

Before supper take a little walk, after supper do the same. - Erasmus

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. - Paul Dudley White

The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose. - Charles Dickens

.It is solved by walking. - A Latin proverb

Our way is not soft grass, it’s a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upward, forward, toward the sun. - Ruth Westheimer

You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven today and we don’t know where the hell she is.” - Ellen Degeneres

When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather as passed into the fiber of your body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. - Raymond Inmon

Alexander Technique Brighton Hove, East Sussex, UK, Photo Album

Alan Mars- teaching Alexander Technique since 1982

In the last post I mentioned how I used to get tongue-tied or overly enthusiastic when someone asked the question “What is the Alexander Technique?”

Of course, it’ll always be difficult to describe an activity, any activity, that has such a large sensory component. So I promised to put up some photos, with comments, so you can at least get a fly on the wall perspective of what a typical Alexander Technique lesson might look like.

As a general rule, Alexander Technique teachers tend to work from the core of the body — neck, head and back – out towards the extremities ie the arms and legs. The major muscles that move the limbs, however, have their origins in the torso. So working with the neck, head back relationship automatically influences the movement of the arms and legs. The converse is also true – working with the arms and legs will reinforce release and expansion through the neck, head and back.

Having said that “any way in is a way in” as the late, and great, Walter Carrington used to say. Alexander Technique Brighton BN1

“Allow your neck to be free”

“Allow your neck to be free in such a way that your head can go forwards & upwards”

“Allow your neck to be free & your head to go forwards & upwards so that your back can lengthen & widen”

In practice most Alexander Technique teachers do not recite these directions parrot-fashion. The words and language tend to be naturalistic and tailored to fit the individual.

Arms & Legs- Although there are specific directions for the arms & legs often the teacher will ask the pupil to continue focussing on their neck, head and back relationship as they work with the arms and the legs.

Legs

Chair-work

It isn’t just about moving in and out of a chair. It’s a convenient way of learning to move easily and efficiently. A convenient method that can be transferred into all sorts of everyday movements and activities. It’s a great method of learning to suspend habitual muscular and even emotional responses. My own favourite fields of application have been in playing the harp, singing and the martial arts. Here is a picture taken in an Aikido & Alexander technique class several years ago. I’m the one being thrown through the air! Apparently Alexander Technique can be applied at high speed.

Miscellaneous photos

It’s difficult to really capture the living, dynamic quality of an Alexander Technique lesson on a photograph. Young children often embody that Alexander quality unconsciously. Here is a photo of one of my daughters quite literally going forwards and upwards several years ago!

Thanks to that most talented photographer Lisa Rastl (lisa.rastl@gmx.net) and, of course, to Lena for being such a responsive model. And to that fine Alexander Technique teacher Harriet Anderson for turning her Alexander studio into a photographic studio for a few hours. Thanks also to pupils from previous courses for modeling. Thanks to Camilla Mars and to Clara Miriam.

Alan Mars

Alexander Technique Brighton & Hove,

26 Ventnor Villas

Hove

BN3 3DE

01273 747 289 or 07930 323 057

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/contact.htm

http://alphainventions.com/

“everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Albert Einstien excerpted from wikipedia

It’s the story of a wise man who realised that he was, unconsciously, throwing a spanner in his own works. Through observation and reasoning he stopped throwing the spanner and consequently freed up the functioning of his voice, breathing and general well-being.

Soon Alexander was inundated with actors and singers wanting lessons. Alexander found it difficult to pass on his insights verbally. He developed a method of gentle manual guidance and verbal coaching and gave his pupils an experience of using their voice in an easier, more efficient and poised way.

It became clear to Alexander that his approach could have a beneficial effect not just on the voice but on all-round functioning and well being. In today’s post I will focus on background and history. I my next post I will focus on what actually happens during an individual, hands-on Alexander Technique lesson.

“It has helped me to undo knots, unblock energy and deal with almost paralysing stage fright.”

William Hurt, actor from STAT website

Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869 – 1955) was an actor who suffered from career threatening vocal and breathing difficulties. He specialised in a one-man show, in large provincial theatres, requiring a spirited and powerful delivery. A popular actor, Alexander could be on stage six evenings per week plus several matinees. This took its toll in the form of hoarseness, an audible rasping inhalation between phrases and an inflammation of his throat. The whole symptom picture was known as “clergyman’s sore throat”.

Medical interventions were largely fruitless so Alexander pursued his own approach. He concluded that his symptoms were less to do with over-use and more a case of misuse.

To aid his self-study Alexander set up a three-way system of mirrors in which could observe himself while reciting. This painstaking period of self observation stretched out over several years.

At first Alexander noticed nothing unusual in his manner of reciting. Gradually he became aware of a tendency to stiffen his neck, pull his head back and compress his larynx when he anticipated reciting a difficult passage. This pattern was associated with effortful inhalation. If the initial contraction was strong enough it could effect the whole balance of his system from head to toe.

Alexander brought about a complete change in his way of breathing, using his voice and in his general day to day functioning. It wasn’t all plain sailing – there were several blind alleys.

The method he settled on revolved around three main principles

Direction
Sensory Appreciation
Pausing

Direction. Alexander noticed that pulling his head back and down was linked with his voice problems. So he tried physically altering the position of his head by putting it “forwards and upwards”. This didn’t help. The mirrors showed that instead of putting his head forwards and upwards he was either pulling it back and down, as before, or that he was pulling his head forwards and downwards – a different kind of badly.

Pre-school children, unconsciously, have this quality that Alexander Technique teachers call “direction” – easy, upright, open, poised in stillness and activity. As adults we can consciously develop ease and poise in our daily activities. It doesn’t come from exhortations to “Sit up straight!” or “Stand up straight!” and the increasing strain and, eventually, deeper slumping that this causes.

Alexander repeated the directions “Neck to be free”; “Head to go forwards and upwards” and “Back to lengthen and widen” silently to himself without trying to physically impose them and without even caring whether they took seed or not. But gradually his mirrors demonstrated that they were beginning to take seed and slowly grow. And not just in his neck, head and back but through his entire frame.

Sensory Appreciation. Alexander realised that his habits (neck stiffening, pulling his head back and down, shortening and narrowing his back) felt, if not exactly right, then at least so overwhelmingly familiar that he tended to revert to them at the critical moment of actually reciting. Change doesn’t always feel right. What we sense physically can be unreliable. A little girl with an extremely twisted stance was brought to see Alexander. Alexander, using his expert touch, gently brought her into relative balance and symmetry. The result? She complained to her mother “The nasty man’s twisted me all up!” We need a little time and tolerance tolerance to get used to new, unfamiliar, but ultimately healthier conditions.

Pausing. When Alexander eventually noticed his habit – neck stiffening, pulling his head back, shortening his spine and narrowing his back – he wasn’t surprised that it took him so long to observe them. They were small, subtle habits. Tiny tensions. Like water dripping onto granite, year after year, we don’t notice the build-up, until the pain or stress makes us take notice. And even then we only notice the effects, not the causes.

Alexander continually brought himself up to the point of reciting. Up to the point of almost stiffening his neck and pulling his head back. And then, so to speak, he would step back, be still and refresh his directions “Neck… head… back”

And so Alexander navigated himself into that little known area that lies between stimulus and response. He found that he was able to maintain a more poised use of himself whilst reciting. He recited without stiffening his neck, pulling his head back and down and without shortening and narrowing his back. Without hoarseness. Without audibly rasping his breath in.

And so he returned to the stage, briefly, before embarking on a career of teaching what he called “The work”. Until his death in 1955 he continually developed this method of gentle manual guidance and verbal coaching and gave his pupils a way to improve their functioning throughout the range of their day to day activities. “The work” brought him to London in 1904 where he taught the top people from theatre and the arts. People from all walks of life (including politics, science, medicine, the aristocracy) were drawn to the work which made such a significant difference, mentally and physically to their daily lives.

Alexander used observation and reasoning and through this gained a new experience of using himself in daily life. We do it the other way round. We get an experience directly from the hands of an Alexander Technique teacher and understanding slowly follows.

So what does a contemporary Alexander Technique lesson actually look like and sound like? This, with accompanying photographs, will be the subject of my next post.

“I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.”

John Cleese, comedian and actor (taken from www.alexandertechnique.com)

This post was a potted history of the Alexander Technique. If it has been too simple for you or if it’s simply whetted your curiosity please follow these links for more.

Or follow this link to Amazon for some Alexander Technique book reviews.

Or read the excellent “Freedom to Change” by Frank Pierce Jones available from the equally excellent Mouritz site and look at the review

For further information about courses and individual sessions with me, Alan Mars, in Brighton & Hove:

Alan Mars

Alexander Technique Brighton & Hove,

26 Ventnor Villas

Hove

BN3 3DE

01273 747 289 or 07930 323 057

alan.mars@yahoo.co.uk

http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/contact.htm