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The Alexander Technique and Tai Chi Chuan
By Stacy Gehman, Seattle, WA. (StacyG@drizzle.com)
Introduction
Tai Chi Chuan is noted for its graceful beauty and subtle power. Its
practice requires an attention that is both inwardly focused and directed
outward to all that surrounds us. It is the realization of the Taoist
practice of doing through non-doing. As such, learning Tai Chi presents the
student with apparent paradox overlying paradox. Its subtlety is a promise
and a fascination.
Many of the principles of Tai Chi Chuan are similar to those of the
Alexander Technique, discovered by F.M. Alexander over 100 years ago. If the
principles of each were the same, there would, of course, be no reason to
study both of them. What is perhaps the primary difference between them is
the way in which the Alexander work individually brings students’ attention
to their habitual ways of using themselves, and teaches a process by which
any activity can be approached with conscious awareness of those habits and
the alternatives. Tai Chi presents its practitioners with fascinating
challenges in movement and attention, challenges that ask us to
fundamentally change our habitual way of being. The Alexander work is a very
powerful tool helping us to make those changes.
The Alexander work may even be more Taoist than Tai Chi. It has no form, no
exercises to do, not even a set, prescribed process. As my teacher, Marjorie
Barstow liked to say, "It’s just a little bit of nothing." However that
"nothing" is a clarity of attention that allows you to make profound changes
in the way you interact with the world - in how you do what you do, even in
what you perceive.
In the following paragraphs I will present some thoughts on a few basic Tai
Chi principles as I have grown to understand them from the perspective of
the Alexander Technique. I hope that this presentation will not be construed
as a criticism of Tai Chi, or as implying that Tai Chi has shortcomings.
What I hope is that if you find this perspective interesting, and follow up
by taking Alexander Technique lessons, that it will help you understand what
your Tai Chi instructor may have been trying to tell you all along. Tai Chi
is a subtle art, and I think we need all the help we can get in learning it.
"Let the chi rise to your head-top."
I have heard this principle expressed in various ways, for example, "move as
if suspended from above," or "imagine a string tied to the top of your
head." I think all of these are various ways of expressing a particular
experience in movement. They also point to the basic principle of movement
discovered by Alexander. In his work he noticed that we all have one habit
in common, although manifested in many different ways. In particular he
noticed that in beginning a movement, we tend to tighten our necks, which
pulls our heads down. This habit of movement is so small and so familiar
that almost no one ever notices it, although almost everyone at one time or
another complains of a tight neck. It is interesting that no one ever says
"I am tightening my neck," but instead "my neck is tight." Who do you
suppose is tightening it?
It is possible to begin to notice that habitual tightening, and to prevent
it. The experience is then often felt as if your head is being lifted or is
floating. What has really happened is that the release of tension in the
neck has allowed the head to move more freely. And since muscular tension
blocks the flow of chi, releasing tension in the neck allows "the chi to
rise to your head top." Please note carefully the order of this process.
Releasing downward pressure in our necks results in a feeling of free
movement. Attempting to achieve the same result by imagining your head to
float ,or be lifted, is really putting things in reverse order. We can only
feel something after it has happened, so attempting to imagine a feeling
only tempts us to tighten our necks in a different way to create a different
feeling. Careful observation of this relationship between your head and
body, and its redirection, is the center point of any Alexander Lesson.
Alexander realized that this relationship is the beginning of all habitual
movement, and that becoming conscious of it, and changing it by subtle
redirection, is the key to becoming more conscious in all our activities. It
is the key to releasing tension throughout our bodies - tensions that are
associated with our habitual way of moving.
"Pluck up the back and hollow the chest."
This principle of Tai Chi is sometimes expressed as "depress" or "sink" the
chest. I think what these suggestions are getting at is the almost universal
pattern of tightening the muscles of our backs to "stand up straight," which
in turn causes our chests to lift or project forward. Interestingly
Alexander approaches this pattern with the suggestion for "my back to
lengthen and widen." These directions are aimed at undoing the pattern of
over-tightened back muscles, which narrow and shorten it. The idea of
"hollowing" the chest is more subtle. A friend who has studied ancient
Chinese once explained that the character for hollow indicates something
like a hollow log. That is, our chest should be hollow from the inside, not
depressed downwards from the outside. This then is a direction that directs
our attention to an opened chest, one that is free to move to support
respiration, and to connect (and separate) our arms and legs.
A practical example.
In a sense the Tai Chi principles point to, or describe, a state of being -
i.e., how we would like to be. The Alexander work provides directions with
which we can move toward that state. In the next paragraphs I will describe
what I have observed as a fairly common problem encountered by Tai Chi
students, then the habitual way most students tend to approach improving it,
and finally how Alexander work can help unravel the puzzle.
Practicing the Tai Chi form encourages us to take a long stance, with our
legs well bent when weight is on one foot. Our legs do a lot of work. And
yet we need to remain free to move at the hip joint, so that we can turn
freely to address a different direction or move a foot. When our hips are
tight, it restricts open movement around that joint. In working to open the
hip joint, it is pretty common to see students twisting their torso in the
direction they wish to turn. The idea seems to be to "work the joint" and
hopefully thereby to loosen it up. What I have observed is that the desire
to "work hard" to loosen the hip joint in fact does the opposite - i.e. it
tightens the hip. Looking at the picture from the point of view of a
mechanical system, the only way I can work harder to push or pull my hip to
turn more, is to increase my resistance to turning - i.e. to hold on to my
hip even more tightly so that I can feel the pressure of pushing against it.
I know this is true because I have observed many people do it, including
catching myself at it many more times than I care to admit.
What is the alternative? When practicing a particular movement in the form
that requires the hips to open, when reaching what is a comfortable degree
of turning, test turning a little farther, and direct your attention to what
tightens. Then ask yourself, what has to let go in the muscles of my legs
and buttocks to allow my pelvis to turn relative to my leg? Or, where am I
holding on that is making it difficult for me to turn? Make the "testing" of
your limit of movement as delicate as possible, and your questioning of what
needs to open as wide as possible. When you realize what it is that needs to
release to allow the turning to continue, then the turning movement can
occur effortlessly. Notice that in this process you have redirected your
attention from what you feel you have to do, to what you can undo instead.
The process I describe in the previous paragraph can be a very useful tool
by itself. However if you also consider that the tightness in your hip (in
this example) does not exist in isolation, then you have a chance to find
out some very interesting things. Tai Chi (and Alexander) principles tell us
that "if one part moves, every part moves." The tightness in your hip is
really part of a pattern of use of your whole self, perhaps even having
emotional associations. Part of that pattern of use is the relationship of
your head to your body. In all this fooling around with hip joints, it is
not rare to forget the first principle, to free your neck so that your head
can move freely, relieving the downward pressure on your torso, then
amazingly to free the movement in your hips. The Alexander work is an
ordered redirection of our attention to the whole of ourselves - no matter
what the presenting cause of difficulty.
Conclusion
I hope these paragraphs have given you some ideas that you can use on your
own to begin to experiment. If you find this discussion interesting, you can
find your way to Alexander teachers all over the world by going to The
Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique. I am listed under the Alexander
Technique International (ATI) link. Also be sure to check out The
Alexander/Barstow Summer Institute for an 8-day workshop in June, where I
teach each summer, along with a number of excellent teachers. Please don’t
let the location in Crete, NE scare you. It really is a lovely, quiet place
for intensive study, and some fun too.
If you find this discussion interesting, and have observations or questions,
please feel free to email me at StacyG@drizzle.com (I’m in Seattle!). |
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