"Intelligence is the whole, and intellect is the whore of intelligence – the computer, the fitting game: If this is so, then this is so – all this figuring out by which many people replace seeing and hearing what’s going on. Because if you are busy with your computer, your energy goes into your thinking, and you don’t see and hear any more"
Frederick S. Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim
Friday, January 28, 2005
Ergonomics
"I am continually being asked, both by friends and unknown correspondents, for my opinion concerning the correct type of chair, stool, desk or table to be used in order to prevent the bad habits which these pieces of furniture are supposed to have caused in schools. In my replies I have tried to demonstrate that the problem is being attacked from the wrong standpoint.
Suppose, for example, that there is an ideal chair, some wonderful arrangement of perfect angles, hollows and supports that will almost magically rectify or prevent every fault in the child's physical mechanism ... how is it possible for this ideal chair to be miraculously adaptable to every age and type of child?
No, what we need to do is not to educate our school furniture, but to educate our children. Give a child the ability to adapt himself within reasonable limits to his environment, and he will not suffer discomfort, nor develop bad physical habits, whatever chair or form you give him to sit upon"
F.M.Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, Ed.Mouritz pg 93
Actually the "ideal chair" has already been invented, it is the stool. But what they are actually looking for, without recognising it, is a chair to collapse comfortably.
"When people are wrong, the thing which is right is bound to be wrong to them"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms.
Suppose, for example, that there is an ideal chair, some wonderful arrangement of perfect angles, hollows and supports that will almost magically rectify or prevent every fault in the child's physical mechanism ... how is it possible for this ideal chair to be miraculously adaptable to every age and type of child?
No, what we need to do is not to educate our school furniture, but to educate our children. Give a child the ability to adapt himself within reasonable limits to his environment, and he will not suffer discomfort, nor develop bad physical habits, whatever chair or form you give him to sit upon"
F.M.Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, Ed.Mouritz pg 93
Actually the "ideal chair" has already been invented, it is the stool. But what they are actually looking for, without recognising it, is a chair to collapse comfortably.
"When people are wrong, the thing which is right is bound to be wrong to them"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms.
Monday, January 24, 2005
The body is fluid
"The conventional idea can be stated thus: the body is a fixed frame which is activated by the brain so as to bring about movements of its parts. Now this is only part of the picture; the other part is that the body is continuosly activated by sets of impulses, which determine the tone and thus the manner of its behaviour, i.e. the body is fluid"
P.Macdonald, The Alexander Technique as I see it, pg 63
The conventional idea is that the body is formed by several PARTS, the trunk, the head and the limbs. Those parts are articulated by joints, which make movement possible.
There are several aproaches like "Body mapping" (an aproach within the Alexander Technique), "Feldenkrais", etc., which are based on the hypothesis that bad-coordination is a consequence of a faulty sense of the own body, and that through guided experimentation involving simple movements, that sense can be restored.
That is only part of the picture, like Macdonald says. The other part of the picture is that the body is a fluid WHOLE:
Movement is carried out not only through the visible "active parts", but also through a subtle coordinated, silent action of the rest of the body, which provides support for those active parts and overall balance.
For example in walking, the visible "active part" is the advancing foot, while the other foot must simultaneously take over the support of the body's weight.
P.Macdonald, The Alexander Technique as I see it, pg 63
The conventional idea is that the body is formed by several PARTS, the trunk, the head and the limbs. Those parts are articulated by joints, which make movement possible.
There are several aproaches like "Body mapping" (an aproach within the Alexander Technique), "Feldenkrais", etc., which are based on the hypothesis that bad-coordination is a consequence of a faulty sense of the own body, and that through guided experimentation involving simple movements, that sense can be restored.
That is only part of the picture, like Macdonald says. The other part of the picture is that the body is a fluid WHOLE:
Movement is carried out not only through the visible "active parts", but also through a subtle coordinated, silent action of the rest of the body, which provides support for those active parts and overall balance.
For example in walking, the visible "active part" is the advancing foot, while the other foot must simultaneously take over the support of the body's weight.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
On end-gaining
It is our "End-gainer", the one who does the "end-gaining".
Besides making use of our *old* habits, it is constantly creating *new* ones, with two purposes:
1) To strive for the security of the known.
2) To free our mind from thinking, in order to have more time for its favorite past time, mind-wandering.
Besides making use of our *old* habits, it is constantly creating *new* ones, with two purposes:
1) To strive for the security of the known.
2) To free our mind from thinking, in order to have more time for its favorite past time, mind-wandering.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
On tension
"Tension" is produced by the simultaneous exertion of two opposing forces, for example by trying to extend and flex the arm at the same time.
But whenever you feel tensing, you feel only one of them. You take sides with one, as if the other were not-you!!
It is no wonder then, that when you relax this tension (the habitual response), you collapse. You kill your energy, instead of using it.
But whenever you feel tensing, you feel only one of them. You take sides with one, as if the other were not-you!!
It is no wonder then, that when you relax this tension (the habitual response), you collapse. You kill your energy, instead of using it.
On posture
Whenever you find your self tensing in a fixed posture, for example you might bend the torso to wash your hands on a lavatory, and your kinesthetic sense sends you information that you are pulling your head backward. In this situation, you may be tempted to "do" the opposite thing to correct your posture, i.e. your "position", by moving your head forward.
There are a good number of reasons to "inhibit" such response.
"The opposite of wrong is wrong"
Noam Renen, Use your brain
When you attempt to correct your posture by changing your posture, it means that you are reacting according to the conception that "there is such thing as a right position". Moreover, your sensory appreciation of your own posture is wrong, so the outcome cannot possibly be right.
"There is no such thing as a right position, but there is such thing as a right direction" F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms
In the example above, instead of moving the head forward, the whole back should be "directed" (NOT moved!) backwards, that is the meaning of the information conveyed by the kinsethetic sense.
By such indirect procedure, you may find your knees freeing, flexing, so that you lower the hips, the torso is directed backward and the head ... forward!!
"The movement, if any, is, in an experienced pupil, so small as to be hardly a movement at all"
P.Macdonald, The Alexander Technique as I see it.
There are a good number of reasons to "inhibit" such response.
"The opposite of wrong is wrong"
Noam Renen, Use your brain
When you attempt to correct your posture by changing your posture, it means that you are reacting according to the conception that "there is such thing as a right position". Moreover, your sensory appreciation of your own posture is wrong, so the outcome cannot possibly be right.
"There is no such thing as a right position, but there is such thing as a right direction" F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms
In the example above, instead of moving the head forward, the whole back should be "directed" (NOT moved!) backwards, that is the meaning of the information conveyed by the kinsethetic sense.
By such indirect procedure, you may find your knees freeing, flexing, so that you lower the hips, the torso is directed backward and the head ... forward!!
"The movement, if any, is, in an experienced pupil, so small as to be hardly a movement at all"
P.Macdonald, The Alexander Technique as I see it.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Stretch reflex
When a muscle is stretched, so is the muscle spindle ( the stretch proprioceptors), which send signals to the spine, where those signals trigger the stretch reflex (also called the myotatic reflex) which attempts to resist the change in muscle length by causing the muscle to contract.
It seems likely that in "non-doing", this mechanism is being used to our own advantage, if we "allow it to happen".
It seems likely that in "non-doing", this mechanism is being used to our own advantage, if we "allow it to happen".
Directions
"Directions", are in a way, the kinesthetic sense of lack of tension.
"You can´t tell a person what to do because the thing you have to do is a sensation"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms
Therefore you cannot "produce the directions" directly. If you don't refrain nor overdo yourself, that will "produce the directions".
"How can an order be anything but doing -- but not doing as you understand doing"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms
"You can´t tell a person what to do because the thing you have to do is a sensation"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms
Therefore you cannot "produce the directions" directly. If you don't refrain nor overdo yourself, that will "produce the directions".
"How can an order be anything but doing -- but not doing as you understand doing"
F.M.Alexander, Teaching Aphorisms
Yoga, Tai Chi, etc.
"The performances of the Yogis certainly do not command my admiration, and the well known system of breathing practiced and taught by them, is in my opinion, not only wrong and essentially crude, but I consider that it tends to exaggerate those very defects from which we suffer in this twentieth century"
F. M. Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, pg 35.
F. M. Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, pg 35.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Focusing
I have started the Focusing training course two years ago.
Focusing is a technique developed by E.Gendlin, with sources in the Humanist Psychology of C.Rogers and A.Maslow.
Kevin McEvenue deals, in his article "Focusing and the Alexander Technique"
( available online at http://www.alexandertechnique.com/articles/focusing/)
and a more extensive one "Exchange" magazine, Vol 10 N 1, February 2002.
(available online at http://www.ati-net.com/ati-artl.htm)
with his own aproach, that brings together both techniques.
Focusing is a technique developed by E.Gendlin, with sources in the Humanist Psychology of C.Rogers and A.Maslow.
Kevin McEvenue deals, in his article "Focusing and the Alexander Technique"
( available online at http://www.alexandertechnique.com/articles/focusing/)
and a more extensive one "Exchange" magazine, Vol 10 N 1, February 2002.
(available online at http://www.ati-net.com/ati-artl.htm)
with his own aproach, that brings together both techniques.
Monday, January 03, 2005
On walking
There are some specific instructions on walking in F.M.Alexander's book "Man's Supreme Inheritance", Part II, Notes and Instances, pag 172:
"The whole physiology of walking ... it is really resolved into the primary movements of allowing the body to incline forward from the ankle on which the weight is supported and then preventing oneself from falling by allowing the weight to be taken in turn by the foot which has been advanced"
and in "Together we walk", W.L.White (in Curiosity Recaptured, ed J.Sontag). But I didn't find them useful.
There are two issues to consider, the physical and the psychological.
The physical issue is rather simple. We aren't going to teach our legs how to walk, that is inborn. Just don't interfere with it. Keep the body coordinated, which in short means that the head should not lag behind or advance ahead of the feet. Let your neck (and your legs) to be free.
The psychological issue, which is mostly ignored in Alexander Technique, seems to me more relevant. It refers to motivation, to enjoying the physical activity, the view, etc.
Many times, walking is a means to an end, i.e. we are going somewhere, to do something. Then it is mainly how we feel about that "something", what affects our walking.
"The whole physiology of walking ... it is really resolved into the primary movements of allowing the body to incline forward from the ankle on which the weight is supported and then preventing oneself from falling by allowing the weight to be taken in turn by the foot which has been advanced"
and in "Together we walk", W.L.White (in Curiosity Recaptured, ed J.Sontag). But I didn't find them useful.
There are two issues to consider, the physical and the psychological.
The physical issue is rather simple. We aren't going to teach our legs how to walk, that is inborn. Just don't interfere with it. Keep the body coordinated, which in short means that the head should not lag behind or advance ahead of the feet. Let your neck (and your legs) to be free.
The psychological issue, which is mostly ignored in Alexander Technique, seems to me more relevant. It refers to motivation, to enjoying the physical activity, the view, etc.
Many times, walking is a means to an end, i.e. we are going somewhere, to do something. Then it is mainly how we feel about that "something", what affects our walking.
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