My mother-in-law has a delightful penchant for gifting novelty T-shirts. These I end up wearing to the gym mostly. One of these shirts is black with white block lettering stating: I sometimes wonder what happened to all those people I gave directions to.
Now, I am fairly confident that I have absolutely told someone to take the uptown A train when I probably should have told them to take a different line altogether, but what I like about this directions shirt is that it has this niche meaning for the Alexander Technique.
The 4th of the 5 pillars is “Sending Directions” - which can sound a little like the 10 commandments. Instead of getting a list of “thou shalt nots” though we end up with a litany, if we are using language as similar to what was originally stated by Alexander himself, that goes a little like this:
Let the neck be free
Let the neck be free so that the back and lengthen and widen
Let the neck be free so that the arms can move freely…
Let the neck be free so that the legs can move freely…
So, the first commandment of the Alexander Technique is “let the neck be free”
Directions are of the Edwardian age - they are somewhat top down - the teacher telling the student what to do - so what is it to reframe directions into something a tad more welcoming?
My teacher Chloe would use language around “what if…” What if the back of the neck could let go of the crown of the head she would ask?
When I teach, I tend toward non-directive language “inviting the neck to free up a bit” - “noticing what, if anything, shifts in response to this invitation”
In moving away from sending directions in a way that sets up a binary, that might set up internal unconscious resistance, we can offer more space.
When we were younger, perhaps there were adults telling us what to do and how to do it. This set up perhaps some foot stamping and a desire to live more freely.
Directions need not trigger old patterns, indeed we are literally working with this systematic process to notice old patterns, (Recognition of the force of habit), cease and desist from automatically performing old patterns (inhibition), allowing the present moment to be the present moment, good bad or ugly (recognition of faulty sensory awareness) and THEN (for lovers of the musical Pippin) And gentle[men] and, then: in the midst of this Pause we invite energy to move us, to sing us, to breathe us - this is not something we are doing instead of, but along with.
The Alexander Technique is not a substitute for the technique you already have. What you have learned is important, the way you are is important. AT invites a deepening of connection between the original intention, unencumbered by all that life has piled on top, and lets exploration of what serves you most gracefully to be what is experienced - first by you, then by any lucky observer of the singularity that is you.
Reframing directions as invitations takes the “right or wrong” out of it for me, and I hope that resonates with you.
I invite you to take a deep inhale and then intentionally allow for a longer exhale, at the end of whatever exhale you please - invite those muscles at the back of your neck to let go of the tops of the shoulders. Noticing what, if anything, shifts for you. This is one way to practice sending directions within the Alexander Technique.