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Less Effort, More Ease

When you re-train yourself to use the minimum amount of effort that is necessary in an activity, you experience the activity and yourself as much easier than before.

Even something as simple as doing the dishes can be done with bunched up muscles, raised shoulders and tight legs or softer musculature, free joints, and balanced mobility. The former contributes to a state of being that is rushed and tense; the latter to a state of ease and spaciousness.

Next time you notice yourself using more effort than needed for the task at hand, pause for a second and send some messages from your brain through your nervous system to your musculo-skeletal system: I’d like my neck/head relationship to be easy and balanced. I’d like to use just the right amount of muscle tone for this activity, and notice how that makes my joints move freer. I’d like to invite a state of non-hurry into my being.

Notice that your invitations to yourself are clear intentions to un-do excess action or effort, not pushy demands.

Gentle clear intentions always work best.

Feeling Integrated

One great effect from Alexander lessons is the experience of feeling integrated. When we say we feel integrated, what do we mean? We can describe it as the opposite from feeling scattered or disconnected with ourselves. Rather, we feel “rightness” or fullness, a sense of presence. We feel connected to our Selves in a deeper way than normal.

In lessons, the teacher is guiding or facilitating a coordination or equilibrium between the postural state, movement, breath and attention. Perhaps more, perhaps less, depending on where the student is in her study.

But how can an Alexander student bring this about on his own?

We have access to our experience of our selves in every moment. We can choose to pay attention to particular aspects, like our sense of balance, or our sense of weightedness, or if our skin feels warm or cool or enjoys the soft cotton of our shirt. These are examples of sensation that are often outside our usual perception. Sometimes the sensations are pleasant, and feeling them brings a more integrated quality to us. If they are unpleasant, our Alexander practice can influence them.

If for instance, I bring awareness to my sense of balance, and I notice a tiny falling backward in my chair, which causes me to tighten my back muscles, I can re-direct myself up and slightly forward, until I notice that I am balanced over my central axis (just in front of my spine, from the pelvis to the skull) with my head floating delicately. I may then notice that I can allow a lively ease of my musculature and a little more spaciousness to my breath.

When we bring  awareness to any of the vast possibilities of sensation, we often discover we have a choice. Being a little curious about what is happening within us helps with the process of deepening awareness and sensory perception. Being gentle and inviting rather than pushing or trying hard to change something helps allow changes to take effect.

On Directing

Directing—sending a clear message or instruction from your brain to other parts of yourself—is a skill that you can practice and improve. When you say directions to yourself, you say them in your mind with the clear intention that they will take effect. You don’t have to do anything, but you do have to allow a change to happen.

Even if you don’t feel a change happening, the practice is to continue to send gentle clear intentions, from your brain to your nervous system. If you continue to think clearly of what you want to happen, and send that intention to other parts of yourself, you will notice changes.

If you feel something unfamiliar, odd or strange, the practice is to continue to send gentle clear intentions.

If you feel a change that feels good, that’s great. Continue to send gentle clear intentions.

As you practice and your skill increases, you may notice that as you begin your directions, a release and re-organization occur just from “neck free.”

You can say the classic Alexander directions, “Let my neck be free, to let my head go forward and up, to let my back lengthen and widen, to let my knees go forward and away.” Or you can say other directions, like “I’d like to let my skull balance delicately as my whole three-dimensional torso has mobility and spaciousness and I feel my feet widening into to ground.” Or simply, “I wish for more ease.”

One Minute Practice for Sensory Awareness

Take a moment to notice your senses.

First, bring your sense of sight into your awareness. Let your eyes soften as you look away from the screen and see around the room or outside. Notice something you haven’t seen before. Observe the particularities.

Now tune into your sense of hearing. Allow the sounds around you to come to the forefront of your consciousness. Notice sounds that are usually out of your awareness. Perhaps close your eyes for a moment and let your hearing be the main thing.

Now turn to your sense of touch. Allow sight and sound to drift out of the forefront of your awareness and attend to what the clothes on your body feel like. What about the air touching your skin? Your fingers on the mouse? Your feet in your shoes on the floor?

If you like, add smell and taste in this mindful way.

Now you will add your kinesthetic and proprioceptive senses, your sense of where you are in space and what you feel within your own body. As you notice if you are balancing easily and what your muscles and joints feel like, invite a little space into your head/neck joint and into your spine. Allow your bones to hold you up as you continue to release unnecessary effort in your muscles.

As you go back to your day with a bit more conscious awareness of your self in your environment, continue to let yourself use less effort. Enjoy the sense of a little more ease.

One Minute Practice for Easy Breath

Bring your breath into your awareness and just notice your breathing pattern. Notice if your ribs move, or feel constricted. Notice if you are breathing through your nose or mouth. What does it feel like in your chest? Your back? Your belly? Your jaw?

Now, as you slowly blow out, extend your exhale slightly as you continue to let your head float upwards. Allow the breath to return in through your nose. Just let the rebound of the breath fill you up—you don’t have to do anything to pull it in.
Repeat a few times, extending your exhale a bit more and noticing that your inhale may become fuller.
Allow your ribs to move easily in a three-dimensional way in your torso. Your ribs naturally move outward in your back as well as to the front. Your ribs also move to the side, all the way up to the underarm area. Allow your back and sides to be included in the rib mobility. Feel the support that gives your torso to balance with less muscular effort.

Breathe normally and just notice your sensations again. Notice the specifics and also observe if there a difference in your overall state of being.

Falling and Up-righting

We humans are always falling and up-righting ourselves.
Gravity makes us fall, and ideally we capture the force of our falling and our innate up-righting system kicks in and sends us back upwards.

But lack of awareness and habits lead us to falling backwards. When we fall even slightly backwards, we add muscular holding to stay upright. When we lean back in chairs or stand with our weight on our heels, our bodies respond by adding muscular effort. Although this extra effort is small, it causes an ongoing tightness and compression of the spine that is outside our conscious awareness. Eventually these holding habits feel normal to us and usually we don’t bother about them until we feel pain or discomfort.

In the Alexander Technique, we bring into awareness our good falling, straight down through the bones, or even slightly forward, which activates our plantar muscles, then up the powerful leg muscles, up to the deep muscles of the spine and up to an easy head balance. These are our innate postural reflexes that work best when interfered with least.

We learn to un-do the excess effort, and to balance and re-balance rather than fixing ourselves into one “right position.” In sitting, standing and moving we begin to restore the poise we were born to experience.

One Minute Practice for Easing Jaw Tension

Bring your awareness to your face as you read this. Can you allow the muscles to soften? As you think to yourself that you’d like to soften your eyes, you don’t need to do anything. Just the intention will be enough for your nervous system to make a change.

Now think to yourself that you’d like to allow the cheek muscles to un-do whatever tension is held in them.

Bringing your attention to your jaw, think of letting the jaw rest easily. There is no need to hold it up toward your face. Let your lips rest together as you allow your teeth to slightly separate and the jaw to release muscular tension. Notice that your jaw muscles go way up toward your ears and think of allowing space in the temporo-mandibular joints (TMJ’s) near your ears.

You’d like to let your tongue rest easily in your mouth. Notice that the base of your tongue is way back toward the throat. Visualize, imagine or sense the throat having plenty of room. Allow your awareness to come into the layers of your neck muscles. Your neck goes from the base of the skull at the top all the way to the collarbones at the bottom. The muscles are varied, larger and smaller, some go on a diagonal, some go almost straight up and down. There are ligaments, tendons and tissues as well as muscle. Invite all of this to un-do any excess tension.

Now allow your breath to release with an soft Aah sound as you let your jaw to hinge open from that joint near your ears. Let the breath rebound in. Repeat a few times as you notice the ease of movement and sense of internal space just through your clear intention.

One Minute Practice for Inner Spaciousness

Whatever you are doing right now, pause and take a snapshot of your physical, mental, and emotional state, including your breath. Don’t try to change anything. Just notice what is happening within you.

Now notice the weight and form of your body. Begin to allow yourself to de-compress by letting your musculature lighten and lengthen. Bring attention to your head/neck joint—way up high, almost between the ears—and think about allowing this joint to have a little more space. Think about your head balancing easily and delicately. You do not have to hold your head up with your neck muscles if you allow your skull to balance. Allow your spine to gently follow your head upwards, as if you had something heavy resting on you that was just removed.

You may shift in your chair as you allow your bones to move and release away from one another in response. Allow a little more fullness into your back and sides, and under your arms, letting your ribs move with breath. As you observe your breath, invite a long, soft exhale, so that your lungs are emptied of most of the air. Allow your breath to return easily, filling your whole torso. If you notice any areas in your body where your breathing seems limited or impeded, think about softening there, releasing whatever holding you may unconsciously be doing.

Bring your awareness to your skin. See if you can notice the sensations of your clothes touching you, and the air around you. Allow just a little more sensation of aliveness. Let your eyes take in your environment. Look away from the computer for a few seconds and allow something into your vision that you haven’t noticed before.

As you come back, notice again your easy breathing and think of allowing a bit more room for all that’s inside you—your organs, fluids, veins, nerves, tendons, connective tissue. Has your mental state shifted? Does your emotional state feel a bit easier? Allow this soft, enjoyable expansion to influence your whole self as you go about the rest of your day.

One Minute Practice for Working Well at Your Computer

First, bring your whole body into awareness. Sit on the chair so that you notice the weight on your seat bones, you can let your feet lie flat on the floor, and let your torso balance in neutral over the top of your hips. As you let your hands rest palms up on your thighs, let your hands open and soften. Allow your head to float on top of your long, relaxed neck.

Bring your attention to the head/neck joint—way up high, almost between the ears—and think about allowing this joint to have a little more space. Think about your head balancing easily and delicately. You do not have to hold your head up with your neck muscles if you allow your skull to balance.

Now bring your attention to your breath. Just allow your ribs to move as you breathe—in a three dimensional direction—so that your back ribs have as much mobility as your front ribs.

Next, notice that your skeleton is holding you up, and that you can let your muscles rest in neutral. Allow your arm, shoulder, leg and buttock muscles to rest as you let your bones support you in gravity.

As you bring your hands up to the keyboard, experiment with how little effort is needed. Continue to let your head float gently as you begin working again.