The World in a Single Breath


by Frank M. Sheldon



on the way to sassoferrato, italy. iphone photo: frank m sheldon

In the Alexander Technique, much emphasis is put on the relationship of the head and neck, and rightly so. However, when we try to apply the Alexander principles to our own heads and necks, we often stiffen when we wish to go up and collapse when we wish to release. There may be numerous reasons for this, but one now seems almost too obvious to me: being able to tell when our neck is genuinely free is extremely difficult and perhaps impossible. Yes, if during an Alexander lesson our head becomes free on our neck, we will usually notice this in some way, if only indirectly. We feel lighter, freer, and more at ease with ourselves. The experience is striking and so highly valued that it may become the reason we continue to take lessons. The point to bear in mind is that we only notice this after the fact. We can’t reverse the process. That is, any attempt at trying to retrieve the marvelous sensation of lightness and ease we had in our lesson by feeling our way back to that experience is doomed. It just doesn’t work that way.

The key, of course, is to employ the principles of the Alexander Technique that led to the results we came to value. The quality of the relationship between the head and neck to the rest of the body is indeed at the origin of much that goes right—or wrong—with how we are and how we move. Undue tension or collapse in this relationship can initiate a cascade of problems in function that can range from deficiencies in performance to a tendency toward injury and poor recovery.

Yet many of us find employing the Alexander principles difficult. We attempt to allow our necks to be free, and we direct our heads up and so on as best we can, but we often cannot tell if we are succeeding because we are not directly getting the kind of sensory feedback from our body that we are used to getting that tells us we are on the right track. It can feel like looking for something extremely important but having no idea if we are even looking in the area where it might be. If this becomes frustrating enough, the likelihood is strong that we will unwittingly add some new distortion to our attempts and then wonder why it’s not working.

Of course, many of us have benefits from lessons that do persist into the long term, but often people who’ve had much Alexander work still say they aren’t really sure if they are practicing the Technique correctly. If we take lessons in how to drive a car, we do expect one day to be able to drive on our own, so it can be disappointing if we never feel we have at least some degree of competence and know what we are about. Yet when we do try to get a firmer handle on just what it is we are supposed to put into practice, we are often cautioned against “end gaining.”

End gaining is important because it is the tendency we all have to forget where we are over our desire to just get what we want or, just as commonly, to be rid of what we don’t want. It takes us out of the present, and the present is where the only possibility of change lies. Ironically, it also obscures our vision of the ways that might lead us out of our troubles and thus bring us the end we wish, although that “end” lies in a form we couldn’t initially imagine. End gaining is one of the greatest obstacle in making the Alexander Technique our own. However, perhaps we can sometimes go so far in the direction of not wanting to end gain, that it can become just another self-defeating behavior. It can be a cover for not acknowledging that after sometimes years of lessons, we still do not feel we have a foundation from which to practice.

A student of the Alexander Technique should be able to learn enough in some finite number of lessons that they are able to practice on their own. Certainly they may continue to have lessons and classes for the same reason a professional musician may continue to work with a teacher: an outside viewpoint with guidance is an effective way to keep the edge sharp or go deeper. However, although a student may not completely master the Alexander Technique for years, if ever, they should be able to have some reliable place to begin that journey in a way that will yield value. They should be able to continue on their own if they wish. They should be able to “play.”

Not feeling they ever really got the Alexander Technique may be more common for students than we would like to admit. Because of this, I began to reexamine how best to present the work. Although classic Alexander Technique stresses the primacy of the head-neck relation in the organization of movement, I believe a case can be made that starting with trying to free the neck directly can easily devolve into what I was writing about earlier: end gaining! We try to do more when by its very nature, the Technique calls for us to do less. It was never meant to be this way, of course, but any Alexander teacher knows we must be ever vigilant about our tendency to turn the work into some misconstrued set of rules for self improvement. If we are confused just what it is that we are trying to practice, this is unfortunately more likely. We can end up layering some new imagined correction on top of ourselves while our maladaptive habits lurk safely untouched below. The results, of course, will ultimately be unsatisfactory.

Because of this, I have found that first preparing the ground may prove more fruitful than directly beginning with the head and neck. The principle is similar to the wisdom of working the soil of a garden before you plant: after all, why not just drop the seeds on the ground? The sooner you sow, the sooner you will reap, right? No. If you don’t take the trouble beforehand to get the earth into the right state for the seeds, they will not have the conditions they need to grow and thrive. I have found that creating the conditions whereby we have a direct experience of our body moving freely with our breath is conducive to bringing the principles behind the Alexander Technique into our lives in an immediate and apprehensible way. Create the optimal conditions, and the right thing will begin to do itself.

I have asked rooms full of people, who have all had experience of the Alexander Technique, whether they can tell right at that very moment whether their necks are free and barely a hand goes up. Even from the beginning, however, almost everyone can become aware to some extent of the way their body moves as the air goes in and out of their lungs. You can try this now. When I work on this in a class or private lesson, I might begin by suggesting that you first notice whether your body moves in some way with your breath. Then locate the strongest place where you feel your body moves, i.e., where the movement of the breath seems to be centered. Now, point to this area. It may be your upper chest or your belly. Perhaps your ribs or back. Rather than analyze the significance of differences of perception, just continue to follow the movement as best you can. Take it easy. Don’t push, don’t rush. Are you perceiving it accurately? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter. The point is not getting an accurate reading, but to find a fresh place to begin.

After you have followed the movement for a while, look just below the area you first noticed. Find the boundary where the movement seems to stop. Or does it stop? Is there any movement either down, or back, or to your sides beyond where it first seemed to end? Follow the movement as far as you can. You may notice as you look for movement, that your breath spontaneously becomes deeper. You may notice movement associated with the diaphragm descending and the lower ribs widening. There may be a sense of release going all the way to the bowl of the pelvis or into your back and seat. Maybe even all the way to your feet.

The act itself of giving attention in this way without struggling for results seems to indirectly engender a freeing up of the breath. This really does not have to be so difficult. I was looking for a simpler and more effective way to begin, after all. Breath wants to be free. It functions best that way and, importantly, has great influence over how the rest of us functions. If the breath is free, the rest of us will tend to be free, or at least have support in moving in that direction.

One point that must be reemphasized as it always seems to be the first one lost: don’t follow the air as it goes into your lungs, follow the way your body moves with the breath. They are not the same. Never force your breath or anything connected with it. Allow yourself to become available for the breath to move through you. Let the breath breathe you.

As you follow your body moving with the breath and compare how it is now from when you started, you may find that more of you is moving than at the beginning. This is good. Why? It means that you are getting out of your own way and, literally so: the diaphragm is becoming free to descend because at least some of the tension you hold in your lower torso has spontaneously released. Also, the ribs are more free to expand because your unconscious holding of them has lessened. That leaves more room for air to simply enter the lungs with no effort. The systems are becoming more in harmony with their proper functioning.

Nice, but is this really so important?

Leave your neck free...
to allow your head to go forward and up...
and your back to lengthen and widen...
and your knees to go forward and away...

These, of course, are the basic directions from F. M. Alexander himself. Anyone can read them, but integrating them into our actions and perhaps even into our very being is another matter. Over years of teaching, I have noticed that the freer the breath is in an individual, the freer everything else will be, including—Yes!—the head and neck. My experience is that by first working with allowing the body to freely move with the breath, we indirectly get to a place where we can become available to these directions without turning them into something they were never intended to be, that is, more attempts at improvement that are inevitably misguided because we are still enthralled by our habits.

When our breath is free, we are more likely to be in a responsive state rather than a reactive one. Although the words are often used interchangeably, a look at their origins led me to believe they are not the same at all. When we react, some stock behavior is thrust forward as if by itself because it was used before in a situation that seemed similar. This is dictated by old habits and carries a price. To “respond,” on the other hand, indicates a measure of conscious choice and an immediate connection to a present larger than our small cares and worries. When our breath is effortlessly free and deep, regardless of the circumstances, we are more available to whatever action is most fitting to each unique moment. In musicians, for instance, even with my poor hearing, I can often detect a qualitative difference in tone and timing when the player becomes relatively free. It is as if the music suddenly has an added dimension. It as if the music can breathe.

Obviously, to have any hope of success with what I have described so far, we first need to be able to direct our own attention even if only to a small degree. Unlike how we usually look at attention, what is important is not only what we give it to, but the quality of how we place it. Ultimately, it needs to be voluntarily as an inclusive affirmation: we choose to be aware of the moment we find ourselves occupying. We move out of our own closed space into a larger world. We notice our surroundings and our fellow inhabitants. As our field of awareness grows, so do our choices. What we need will come to us because we now have room for what we need. Our body being free to move with our breath seems to me to be inseparable from this state, and is potentially available to anyone who wishes. It is a good place to begin, because this is also where true freedom, learning and creativity reside.

. . . . . . .

These words I wrote now seem almost too important to me, and perhaps they are if they remain only words. The way they will come to life is for us to bring them into play. This can happen in our smallest moments, and in these moments, anyone has a chance. Indeed, our whole world can change in a single breath.

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While flying to Italy for the last course in Guitar Craft*, I began writing this on an iPhone. I completed a rough draft in Sassoferrato during the project and posted it on a bulletin board there. The above represents a more considered second draft. I’m aware that this short article leaves out much, and perhaps I’ll expand on it another day.

Feel free to link to this article as this will remain its address. You may also quote brief excerpts. Please do not repost the article without my permission, which I will usually be happy to give.

© 2010 Frank M. Sheldon

* Guitar Craft, which has had a significant role in my life for almost twenty-five years, has formally ceased to exist, yet remains active in essence and manifesting again under other banners.