Intelligence in Action
How We Work
by Graeme Lynn, GCFP, CSTAT
Most people who ask me what I do have never heard of the Alexander Technique or the Feldenkrais Method, do not know what they are, or do not know how they can help them in any way. So, here’s how.
The Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method are forms of what is called somatic education, whereby you, as a person perhaps troubled by and wishing to transcend some physical limitation or other, whether it be a pain issue, inflexibility, a functional disability, a breathing difficulty, a postural problem, a performance obstacle, or other such related limitation that is not strictly organic is nature, improve yourself.
There are two ways to physically improve yourself: unconscious, that is, depending on what the medical and related fields call the vix medicae vitae, the unconscious healing power of Life; and conscious, using awareness, intelligence, and, thereby, responsible intention to be better and/or to thereby facilitate the most advantageous working of the unconscious healing power of Life.
It is possible too to be healed energetically, psychically, or spiritually: that is, through energy processes such as Reiki or therapeutic touch, acupuncture, shiatsu, and so on; through higher mind intervention such as is done in some advanced Oriental practices; or through receiving the Divine Spirit through a Spirit Transmitter such as Adi Da Samraj or Jesus. In any such processes, if the individual is not consciously (that is, with awareness, understanding, and responsibility) conducting, rather than merely passively and unconsciously receiving, such forces, it is unlikely that such healing would have lasting benefit, for then one would tend to simply re-establish the patterns of dis-ease.
The Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method are conscious methods of somatic healing or education. They depend on growing, responsible and intelligent awareness of oneself as a physical mechanism and, on that basis, a change of coordinated action.
The principles on which these methods are founded are part of the holistic paradigm, which subsumes the partial and fragmentary medical paradigm. Therefore, they conceive of the human process, and of each part of the human process, as a whole (rather than merely as a sum of parts): that is, the body as and integrated whole, the bodymind as an integrated whole, function (sensing and acting) and structure (bone and tissue) as interdependent, and every action as an integrated process of attention, intelligence, intention, respiration, and action.
The Feldenkrais Method intervenes in this human process, in order to improve it, primarily through the faculty of self-sensing – conscious, intelligent sensing of the bodily self in and through movement. Because the sensory-motor nervous system is designed as a cybernetic-like feedback circuit wherein self-sensing and movement are inextricably interactive, by consciously exploring the sensations elicited through the Method’s skillfully designed movement or manipulative sequences, the quality of movement necessarily improves, thereby obviating the presenting limitation or ameliorating the functional pattern, immediately or in time.
The Alexander Technique intervenes in this process through the faculties of attention, intelligence, and intention, especially in the context of what Alexander discovered to be the senior organizing motor function, which he called the primary control. The primary control is the dynamics and coordination of the relationship of the head with the neck and of the head-neck relationship with the back and, via the centre, with the rest of the body. (‘The rest of the body’ is the five cardinal lines that define the human structure: the primary axial line of the head, spine – including the neck, ribcage, and sacrum – and pelvis; the legs, which serve as struts; and the arms, which serve as manipulative mechanisms.) By consciously exploring, allowing, and eliciting the freedom of this senior function or core dynamic under the guidance of a skilled teacher, the body opens from the core and limitations are loosened, and then undone.
By thus improving the quality of sensing and moving consciously, both methods also positively impact the clarity and equanimity of our thinking and feeling.
This very simply describes these methods and how they work. Learning and practicing them is a more complex and challenging affair, although they are both, in essence, a very enjoyable, fundamentally effortless, and effective way of enhancing, improving, or re-establishing one’s physical health and well-being.
To schedule lessons, please contact Graeme in Toronto, Ontario, at 416-964-7026, or click to email.