Alexander Technique is not about gaining particular goals

The Alexander Technique is not about getting out of pain, or any other particular ends one might want. It’s more about broad, general improvement, which leads to particular problems being solved in the process.

What can I do to be saved?

Frank Pierce Jones was one of FM Alexander’s students, and a brilliant writer on his technique. Indeed, his book Freedom to Change has my favourite opening of any book about the Alexander Technique:

What can I do to be saved? This is an old question, and there has never been a shortage of answers… meditate; join a group; relax (”you must relax”); scream; have an orgasm; take off your clothes; lie on a bed and kick…

One of the things Frank gets at here is the sheer force of desire that people have to find help getting free from the particular circumstances they are suffering from.

And when people go looking for answers, they will find many quick fixes being offered. But as my teachers in the ITM say, “change happens from the inside out”—from your thinking, your ideas and concepts—which flow out to your outward behaviour; your movements. Change cannot happen from the outside in. We can’t start with the quick fixes and “life hacks” and get the kind constructive general improvements that the ITM Alexander Technique talks about.

It is almost paradoxical, but this process of change necessitates letting go of the desire to achieve the particular outcomes we want. This may sound woo-woo, but it is totally practical and demonstrable. As a student, I personally have seen this principle play out in Alexander lessons countless times, to my continuing amazement.

The Monkey Trap

Frank Jones shares a funny image to portray this difficulty we all face.

It is said that a simple way to trap a monkey is to present him with a nut in a bottle. The monkey puts his paw through the bottle’s narrow mouth, grasps the nut, then cannot withdraw his paw.

Frank uses this image to describe people’s attachment to their desired outcome (the particular nut they want). So, what could the monkey do? It will be more fun if you think of a few solutions now yourself!

Although it’s a funny image, it also always makes me a little sad, because as he says next

Most people are caught in monkey traps of unconscious habit.

And I think that was true for me. When I started Alexander Technique lessons, my teacher worked to help me very gently disconnect from a desire I had to get rid of my shoulder pain, which had gotten quite severe. With my focus now free from the attachment to the one particular outcome I wanted, I started getting lots of other positive outcomes. A general sense of freedom of movement as I sat at the computer, or as I played guitar, or as I stood with a pint in my hand chatting with my friends.

And then I was suddenly free from pain as well! I was astounded. My teacher and I had totally put our attention elsewhere - not on the pain at all, not on my shoulders at all.

And then… I got very much re-attached to the idea of being out of pain! Now I had proof that Alexander Technique can get you out of pain. “This is the real deal!” And guess what? By focusing again on the outcome I wanted, rather than the means-whereby that outcome (and many other positive outcomes) could be achieved, I was thinking (and therefore acting) in my old way, and I was in pain again.

Many (or possibly all) Alexander students go through this cycle. Detach from the thing you really really badly want, get great diverse unexpected results, get excited, get re-attached, get terrible results, stubbornly stay attached, finally detach again, get great results again, and so on.

Freedom from pain may not be achievable

The whole reason I started Alexander Technique was to get out of pain. Given my experiences, I believe there is a relationship between how I think and move, and the appearance of pain, but I also likely have some structural problems in my shoulders, which may also be a source of pain. If this is the case, my growing ability to direct my movements well won’t have the power to eliminate it entirely, and I will have to seek other approaches too.

For Don Weed, the creator of the ITM approach to Alexander Technique, he had been in several car accidents, which resulted in quite a lot of pain, despite his mastery of his thinking and movement, and despite chiropractic help as well. What was remarkable was, the way he learnt to respond to that pain was with a level of reasoned constructive thinking and movement that most people don’t even know is possible.

Escape from the Monkey Trap

Don used to ask students in class how they would solve the monkey trap problem. Diverse, entertaining answers abound: break the glass jar, turn the jar upside down and shake it.

But the answer he paid special attention to was “Why not leave that particular nut in the jar?”. Isn’t that a bit of a paradigm shift? There are loads of other delicious nuts to enjoy!

It’s hard to say this to people who are in “trapped” in a sense. They can’t imagine another way. A lot of the time, the ITM teacher’s use of hands on the student will help them to make the leap - to see as I did that there is more outside of their narrowed field of vision, if they will loosen their grip on their old way of doing things. It’s not so much a physical thing, as a way of introducing new ideas to the student. Because as Alexander says in Man’s Supreme Inheritance (1918)

The preconceptions and habits of thought with regard to the uses of the muscular mechanisms are the first if not the only stumbling-blocks to the teaching of conscious control.

In fact, the importance of the use of hands in helping students to overcome this “rigidity of thought” means that in most cases, ITM advocates against online classes in Alexander Technique. I think part of Alexander Technique’s unique value is in the interplay between the teacher and student interacting on the physical plane with “hands-on work” and on the mental plane through reason and reasoning.

The Freedom to Change

This brings us back to Frank Pierce Jones one last time and the idea he named his book after; The Freedom to Change. This is the freedom Frank felt he had acquired—through the Alexander Technique—the freedom to change his response to any particular circumstance in his life.

A necessary part of acquiring this freedom is letting go of attachment from particular outcomes. With a teacher’s help, students see what a burden this attachment is and the freedom to be gained in letting go. This means that even in pain, or whatever other circumstance, we have the freedom to choose a different response.

So, if you do have a particular problem you want to overcome, Alexander Technique might help you to overcome it. Much more importantly, if you engage with the ideas with an open mind, it will certainly help you to find greater and ever greater freedom to choose your response.

Workshop in Berlin

If you happen to be reading from Berlin, I am organising an event for my teacher Stefan Welsch to teach interested persons the ITM approach to the work.

Stefan is a senior teacher, with over 30 years experience. Having had lessons with him, and seen others have his lessons, I think he's amazing.

It's on the 30th November and 1st December 2024

You can find the details below, but also, just reach out to me if you want more information :)

Tickets at Eventbrite