The whole point is that, from a practical point of view, certain things have got to happen and certain things mustn’t happen. And really it’s much more important to see that the wrong thing doesn’t happen than to see that the right thing happens. We’re such creatures of habit that if the wrong thing is allowed to happen, a wrong habit is readily established. People make the mistake of believing that if they carry out an action somehow or another…
So, at the outset, never mind what we do want. Everybody thinks that what we do want is what matters, but of course it isn’t. The thing that matters is what we don’t want. If we can be clear about what we don’t want, what mustn’t take place, then we can watch out and at the very first signs that it is going wrong, we can quickly intervene and, hopefully, stop it. But people’s minds don’t work in that way.Walter…
And we must always keep in mind that what distinguishes the Technique from other disciplines is that it’s a re-educational process. The pupil has to become aware of what it is that he or she is doing, and find out what’s wrong in order not to carry on doing it…Really, this is the magical thing about the Technique if it’s properly taught. The teacher doesn’t merely point out to someone what’s wrong, but instead shows them how to prevent it…
All I want you to do is to give certain directions for me, and then inhibit the tremendous effort you are making to be right.FM Alexander (“Articles and Lectures” – Teaching Aphorisms p204)
I think that a major difficulty is that the problem lies much further back than most people including a lot of Alexander teachers imagine. Everyone nowadays thinks that what they are doing is inhibiting getting in or out of chairs, but that’s not what it’s about at all. Instead, what has to take place is inhibiting the response to the first reaction to get out of the chair. That is the essence of the Technique.”Marjory Barlow (“Alexander Technique: the Ground…
Boiled down, it all comes to inhibiting a particular reaction to a given stimulus. But no one will see it that way. They will see it as getting in and out of a chair the right way. It is nothing of the kind. It is that a pupil decides what he will or will not consent to do. They may teach you anatomy and physiology till they are black in the face – you will still have this to face:…
You are not here to do exercises or to learn to do something right, but to get able to meet a stimulus that always puts you wrong and to learn to deal with it.FM Alexander (“Articles and Lectures” – Teaching Aphorisms p203)
“Boiled down, it all comes to inhibiting a particular reaction to a given stimulus. But no one will see it that way. They will see it as getting in and out of a chair the right way. It is nothing of the kind. It is that a pupil decides what he will or will not consent to do. They may teach you anatomy and physiology till they are black in the face – you will still have this to face:…
I always say to people, “Think about time. Realize how much time is a personal thing, how much time is an individual possession.” Often we say, “Oh, I haven’t got time to do this or that,” but you’re the only person who can give yourself time. Nobody else can give you time. You’ve got to take the time. You’ve got to be prepared to take the time it takes. Time is something that is extraordinarily elastic. In some desperate moments…
Then first thing in the morning when you wake up, don’t leap out of bed otherwise it will be 11 o’clock before you even think about freeing your neck. Stay there for a while with the knees drawn up and give your orders. Then get out of bed slowly – don’t rush it. It’s not good for you to go from lying on your back for hours and then to spring out of bed. Then you can work out the…
“Under the ordinary teaching methods, the pupil gets 19 wrong to 1 right experience. It ought to be the other way round.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p196) An Unstructured Group of Quotes Related to Learning AT MB: There’s a ‘still point’ as Elliot would say, where, I don’t say it’s unaffected, but it’s not pushed off its perch – you’re able to keep something going whatever happens to you outwardly. And that’s the secret of life really….
Alexander’s technique of inhibition must also be described. When Alexander first discovered the new head, neck and back pattern and tried to maintain it in speaking, he found he could not do so. After much reasoning and experimentation, he finally reached the conclusion that there was an inseparable fusion between the idea of speaking and the body pattern always used in speaking. If he was to get rid of the old body pattern that had caused his voice trouble and…
“I ask you to do nothing, but you act as if I had asked you to do. I have got to train you to act according to your decision where the habits of life are concerned.”F.M. Alexander (Articles and Lectures, Teaching Aphorisms – p196) An Unstructured Group of Quotes Related to Learning AT FPJ: When I knew F. M., he had very little to say about “directive orders” or “thinking.” I assumed that he was satisfied that I knew how…
There’s a cartoon you may have seen which features two men standing before a large sign that reads, ‘Stop and Think’. One of the men says to the other, “It sort of makes you stop and think, doesn’t it.” Some of us stop and think on a regular basis. A golfer, before teeing off, will compose themselves, take some time, and when ready will then complete their stroke. A diver will step to the edge of the platform, and then…