Alexander Technique and Focal Limb Dystonia (Musician’s Cramps)
Constructive Awareness in Relation to Musical Performance:
The Problem of Focal Limb Dystonia or Musician’s Cramps
- INTRODUCTION
- SPECIFIC REMEDY OR GENERAL RE-EDUCATION
- THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HEAD-NECK-BACK RELATIONSHIP
- OUR KINESTHETIC SENSE
- INHIBITION
- DIFFERENT, BUT TRULY DIFFERENT
- SUMMARY
- ADDENDUM
INTRODUCTION
Many musicians, both instrumentalists and vocalists, suffer from various kinds of neuro-muscular disorders, due to the unusually heavy demand that the learning of such an art makes on the psycho-physical-emotional beings that we are. To be the best, to reach the highest as many musicians aspire to be and do, requires hours and hours of dedicated daily practice. Striving for perfection can be an arduous task. This striving, this relentless repetition of the same movements, day in and day out, can lead to great discomfort and pain. These pains take many forms; neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, finger pain etc. All this can be very distressing, because pain prevents the musician from performing at his or her best. Sometimes it prevents one from playing at all. These problems are commonly known as “musician’s cramps” or, in medical terms, “focal limb dystonia”.
This essay will deal with the problem of musician’s cramps and, hopefully, will throw some light on what individuals who are experiencing such problems can do to help themselves improve their performance by learning constructive awareness or, in other words, constructive conscious control. Constructive awareness can also help those who are not experiencing such problems to improve their performance.
In 18 years of teaching constructive awareness to musicians and singers, I have heard them complain of stiff necks, shoulders, arms, wrists, fingers, back pain, fatigue, lack of control etc. complaints about having tried all kinds of specific remedies to cure these distressing conditions, but to no avail. I have witnessed in these musicians many strange ideas about how the mind-body complex functions, ideas that block their progress; that prevent them from realising their best potential and sometimes bringing their careers to a tragic halt.
All these stiff necks, shoulders etc., stem from excessive muscle-tension, which causes distressing and sometimes heartbreaking conditions such as a subtle loss of control in fast passages, “sticking fingers” on the piano keys, lack of precise control of “forks” in woodwinds, uneven or irregular trills, involuntary flexion of the bowing thumb in strings, “curling in” of fingers, shortage of breath in singing and playing wind instruments etc. Sometimes the condition can be so extreme, the fingers simply won’t do what the mind wants. The threat that these alarming states pose, to the professional musician in particular, can produce a reaction that is psychologically devastating. In desperation, the musician seeks help, either from orthodox and /or unorthodox approaches to the problem.
SPECIFIC REMEDY OR GENERAL RE-EDUCATION
What has really caused the problem? I said above that the specific problem arises as a result of excessive muscle-tension, but this itself is a symptom of misuse of the mind-body complex as a whole, which will be explained later. To find the answer, we must probe deeper than specific causes. In order to meet the rigorous psycho-physical-emotional demands of playing to a very high standard, musicians are called upon to make probably the most complicated specific movements of any human beings. To deal with a painful bowing arm for example, specific remedies are usually suggested to alleviate the specific problem.
“Don’t bow this way, but that way.”
“Hold the instrument this way or that way.”
“If that doesn’t work, try beta blockers or cortisone injections,” and so on.
Various specific exercises may be adopted, but the problem stubbornly refuses to go away.
Musicians are also required to have tremendous specific awareness of what they are doing when they are not only learning how to play, but also when they become able to play at an increasingly high standard. This intense concentration can be very tiring and can exacerbate the situation.
Another factor to consider is emotion. Most players and singers are passionate about their music. It is greatly loved. It plays a huge emotional and spiritual part in one’s life. It is an inspiring source of happiness. For this reason, when something goes wrong and threatens to end a wonderful and prosperous career, one tends to intensify one’s efforts to improve, but as a result the problem gets worse, sometimes to the point where the musician develops an anxiety neurosis about the situation. This is very sad.
The musician may indeed find help from orthodox and/or unorthodox sources, but the remedies offered are usually specific ones that deal only with symptoms that are a sign of a much deeper disturbance. For this reason, I will attempt to outline an approach to alleviating these distressing symptoms in a general way that deals with the human being as a whole.
Despite their wonderful specific skills in playing, musicians suffer from the same general lack of co-ordination in performing their everyday tasks as most other people. In other words, general use of the self, the mind-body complex, is something that we are very rarely or even never aware of. The general use of the self, however, plays a vital role in determining the quality of our specific movements. Misuse of the self occurs in all areas of human activities, such as walking, sitting, standing, eating, bending, lifting, thinking and so on. The list is endless. The vast majority of us have not noticed that the quality of our movement in these “unimportant” activities has a tremendous influence on the quality of our lives in general. The idea that the body can perform these “trivial” acts easily is a fallacy.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HEAD-NECK-BACK RELATIONSHIP
In my book “CONSTRUCTIVE AWARENESS”, I wrote:
“We use the body in ways for which it was not designed. This includes ways which use excessive muscle-tension when doing something, using muscles that are not needed for a particular task, distorting the neck, back, shoulders, hips etc., and interfering harmfully with the breathing mechanism. From misuse, muscles become stiff and shortened and the body in general, decreases in stature. This compressed state also interferes adversely with the functioning of the vital organs in the torso, because they are forced to function in cramped conditions. This leads to all kinds of maladies such as poor breathing, sluggish circulation, inadequate assimilation and elimination of food and so on.”
There are certain key elements to be noted when considering the use of the self. The main one is the integrity of the head-neck-back relationship. The poise of the head, the freedom of the neck, the posture of the spine and the function of the breath determine every attitude of the whole self. The head-neck-back relationship is the central, unifying reflex mechanism in the body. The quality of this relationship determines the quality of every movement we make, from the simplest to the most complex. When it is out of kilter, its integrity must be restored. When its balance is interfered with through habitual harmful misuse, we go through life performing beneath our best.
Good use comes from a proper consideration of the body as a mechanism. This allows it to perform freely and easily, with a strong back and suitable effort for each task, with poise and balance and appropriate muscle tension. One result of balanced use of the body is economy of movement, a saving of energy which allows us to keep our vitality. Good use does not mean relaxation as it is generally understood, because the latter leads to flaccidity in the muscles, and in the modern person, usually means an undesirable state of collapse. Balanced muscle-tension throughout the body is the ideal condition.
How do we interfere with the integrity of the head-neck-back relationship? The cause is excessive muscle-tension, which manifests as rigidity or flaccidity. These tension patterns have become established in the individual’s neuro-muscular system as powerful habits. Shortened muscles pull the skeletal frame into harmful states of imbalance that can be seen in the 1001 varieties of shapes and sizes that we see around us.
We are all aware of musicians with various signs of misuse, depending on which instrument they play; heads pulled to one side, bowed and twisted spines, narrowed shoulders, fallen chests, tilted pelvises etc., all caused by the particular way each individual uses themselves when playing their particular instrument.
How do the muscles go wrong, so to speak? The answer lies in the fact that they are intimately linked with our thoughts and emotions. Every thought we think, every emotion we feel brings a muscular reaction somewhere in the body. Positive thoughts and emotions make for more balance in the muscles, negative thoughts and emotions make for more imbalance. Fearful, anxious thoughts and emotions make the muscles more shortened, rigid and fearful. The history of the individual, as well as their way of being, is written in the muscles.
This point could not be overstated, because muscle makes up the greatest bulk of the body. It forms over 70 per cent of the body’s weight. It is incredibly strong, and equally incredibly sensitive. It also forms a huge part of the psyche. Its condition determines many of our moods. It also provides the “feel” we have for ourselves. It forms the largest part of our kinesthetic or proprioceptive sense – our feeling of one part of the body to the other and of the body to the environment. Musician’s cramps are obviously in the muscles.
How does this focal dystonia come about? To answer this we must consider – as stated earlier – specific use in relation to general use of the self, not only in practising and performing, but also in everything we do. Like the rest of us, musicians are inveterate end-gainers. This means that in learning to play the instrument, one tries too hard to complete the task in hand in order to progress to the next one. This trying, however, shows that the musician is mainly concerned with the end product – the perfecting of the music – instead of the conscious co-ordinated means of achieving that end and has no idea of what s/he is doing with the organism as a whole in the process. Attention to the co-ordinated use of the whole mechanism at the same time as giving attention to the specific task in hand is not usually considered. Many kinds of extraneous neuro-muscular patterns occur during practice and performance. For example, tensing of the jaw muscles, rapid waggling of the tongue, tightening of the lips, stiffening the neck, pulling-up of the anal muscles, fixing shoulders, holding the instrument too tightly and last but certainly not least, holding the breath. All these unnecessary reactions indicate the use of muscles that are not required in the act of playing. They are negative patterns caused by the stress induced by the attempts to master the playing of music.
The point is here emphasised that these harmful muscle-tension patterns occur below the level of the conscious mind. We have no awareness of them during the act of playing, whether in practising or performing. We may become aware of them in hindsight when somebody points them out to us, but as soon as we start to play again, they will re-appear. We become so engrossed in the music that it draws us out of ourselves and we are completely oblivious to the reports that the muscles are constantly sending to the brain.
An interesting phenomenon occurs here. In many cases, as one strives to master a particularly difficult passage, certain extraneous patterns of tension mentioned earlier, such as fixing the jaw muscles, are subconsciously adopted, and like the movements required to master the passage, are repeated over and over to the point where the smooth execution of it cannot be successfully carried out without the adoption of these unnecessary tensions. They become an unavoidable part of the neuro-muscular response to the wish to execute the passage as efficiently and with as much expression as possible. Like the appropriate patterns required just to play, they become entrenched in the neuro-muscular system. If the musician were prevented from adopting these patterns, s/he would be unable to play the passage successfully! Why? Because this would upset her “feel”. It would not feel “right”. But – as I will deal with later – our feeling of being “right” is usually “wrong”. To play in a certain way, with one’s own particular patterns of misuse, executed with unremitting repetition, means the same neurons firing in the brain, the same messages being sent down the same nerve pathways, resulting in the same muscular reactions, appropriate and extraneous, that result in the same movements. This is the neuro-physiological fact of a habit.
This relentless repetition of unnecessary tension patterns causes the fatigue that many musicians complain about. One cannot afford extraneous movements; they use up precious energy. Economy of movement is highly desirable. The expending of too much energy occurs also in the everyday acts that we perform in life, but due to the demand made in striving for perfection in playing, the musician actually compounds them, pushes them deeper and deeper into the nervous system, with the result that one gets trapped in a bubble of habit that is very difficult to burst.
The musician’s ability to execute specific movements, to use his or herself in a specific way in order to produce beautiful music is certainly something to be admired and appreciated by other people, but too often it is achieved at the expense of general co-ordination.
So how do we deal effectively with those problems mentioned earlier, those of lack of control in fast passages, “sticking fingers” on the piano keys, lack of precise control of “forks” in woodwinds, uneven or irregular trills, involuntary flexion of the bowing thumb in strings, “curling in” of fingers, shortage of breath in singing and playing wind instruments etc? To answer, I could quote much from medical books, such as “the site of lesion is probably the basal ganglia”, or “the cause is Task-Specific Unco-ordination in musicians”, or “Segmental Dystonia” and so on. But these diagnoses very rarely deal with the problem of general misuse of the mind-body complex. Conscious co-ordinated use of the self as a whole, is the missing link. It is also the blind spot of most medical professionals.
Constructive conscious control is not a therapy, but a re-education of the self. I will attempt to outline as simply as possible some of the complex activity that occurs in the neuro-muscular system and a few of the reasons why it can go wrong.
The brain and the muscles are intimately connected via the nervous system. The brain’s preoccupation with muscle is well documented. Is there a nerve pathway from the brain that does not lead, directly or indirectly to muscle? A constant flow of commands from the brain goes to the muscles and a constant flow of feedback from the muscles goes to the brain, it is obviously important that this constant flow of information is accurate. But the relentless repetition involved in making specific movements, especially those executed with the intense concentration and strong resolve used in practising for perfection – and not forgetting the extraneous use of muscles not needed for the performance of these movements – causes malfunctioning in the system. One of these malfunctions occurs in the muscle spindles that send feedback to the brain. They become fatigued, become fed-up with the relentless repetition and they switch off, either partially or completely. This leads to a lack of control of certain parts such as the fingers, because the brain no longer knows where they are. Accurate communication is lost. A professional pianist told me that he eventually experienced a lack of control in some of his fingers. They simply would not do what he wanted. He could not feel them anymore.
Another reason why things go wrong is the blocking of nerves by over-tensed muscles. As a result of habitual misuse, muscles become bunched-up and shortened. The stiffness brought about in them causes them to impinge on the nerves. Tight muscles in the neck and shoulders for example, prevent the passing on of messages to the muscles that control the fingers, causing distressing tingling and chronic pain. The sciatic nerve, on its journey from the spine to the leg, is literally wrapped in the gluteal muscles of the buttocks, and when trapped can cause excruciating pain.
Another important factor to be considered is the influence of the legs on the rest of the body. The body is designed to stand on two legs. The almost universal habit of standing with most of the body’s weight on one leg causes lateral twisting of the spine, all the way up to the head. The spine develops an S-curve that can cause severe back pain. This habit also causes great pressure on the hip joints and is one of the reasons why problems in them are so common. The power of unco-ordinated habits is here underlined. If you bought your body from a good engineer who had designed it with loving care and meticulous accuracy, and you then suffered discomfort and pain in it, you would take it back and complain; ask for your money back. The engineer, however, would inspect it, recognise the unbalanced stresses in it, and say, “Well, what do you expect? You’ve been doing things like standing habitually with most of your weight on one leg for 20 years, distorting the mechanism all over the place! It’s your problem mate, you’ve been misusing it!”
OUR KINESTHETIC SENSE
Let’s return to a consideration of sensory appreciation, particularly our kinesthetic sense. This sense gives us the “feel” of what we are and what we do. In playing music, we develop a “feel” for it. Usually, if the actual physical act of playing feels right, then we feel better emotionally. But too often this feeling of right is only right in the sense of feeling familiar. Without realising it, our familiar patterns of misuse are part of this feeling of being “right”. We are usually unaware that we have, during playing, adopted extraneous and harmful muscle-tension. In the majority of cases, our feeling of being “right” is actually “wrong”. Our kinesthetic sense can actually be extremely faulty and may become even more so as we strive to meet the demands made on us in practising for perfection. General misuse and consequent mal-functioning of the mind-body complex affects our ability to register sensations and experiences. For example, a particular stimulus brings a reaction that registers quite differently in one’s senses from that which has actually taken place. Ask a person to sit down and in doing so she will, among other things, stiffen and shorten the neck muscles. When this and other things are pointed out to her, she expresses surprise – sometimes even to the point of denying that she did so.
A further example. I gave a lecture at a university of music in Berlin, and after explaining the principles of constructive conscious control, I asked for a volunteer to come up and I would demonstrate how one could change by applying it in practice. A young man came forward, and after a few minutes of gentle coaxing from my hands, as well as some thinking on his part, many of his harmful, habitual patterns of misuse had changed considerably for the better. In comparison to the slumped attitude that he usually adopted, he was standing easily erect and was much closer to being in a state of balance. I then asked him to sit down and he emphatically, but with good humour, said “No!” I asked him why not and he replied “I don’t know where my body is anymore!”
How does the musician, whether having problems or not, go about changing the negative habits that constantly impede progress in the search for improvement? The answer lies in learning how to come to a full STOP, how to inhibit one’s habitual reaction to the stimulus to do anything, whether in playing the instrument or lifting a cup.
INHIBITION
Before going into inhibition, let’s consider what happens when we react to the stimulus of the wish to do something. The thought or the wish arises in the mind, the brain reacts to this thought, neurons fire and conduct the messages to the nerves, the nerves pass them to the muscles and the muscles react. An amazingly intricate series of electro-chemical events occur in response to the thought, a series of events of such anatomical and physiological complexity that they still defy scientific description. What we tend to forget here is that the movement was initiated by a thought, a wish to do something. We become so used to the “mundane” everyday movements we make that we take them for granted. As a child said to me during a guitar lesson, “But I’m not thinking about it, I’m just doing it!” We do not, however, do anything without thinking of it first.
Inhibition is not used here in the sense of suppression; for example “inhibiting one’s feelings.” Inhibition is a vital function of the nervous system. It is co-equal with excitation. If one thinks of making a movement, the excitatory neurons are activated and the movement is carried out. If, however, one thinks of making a movement and then refuses to react, the inhibitory neurons are activated and the movement is not carried out. This means that the habitual messages sent to the muscles are stopped at source and one then has a chance to react in a new way to the stimulus of wishing to do.
To effect real, fundamental change in our harmful, habitual patterns of reacting to stimuli, one can adopt the following procedure. As I said earlier, the poise of the head, the freedom of the neck, the posture of the spine, and the function of the breath determine every attitude of the whole organism. The head-neck-back relationship is the central, unifying, reflex mechanism in the body. In our end-gaining efforts to do anything, we habitually upset the integrity of this central mechanism of control. We are not usually aware in our daily doing, as well as our daily practising with the instrument that the neck is habitually stiffened, the head is pulled back and down into the shoulders and the back is shortened and narrowed. To prevent these harmful reactions, we must inhibit them, stop them at source. Why? Because we have thought ourselves into them – and we can think ourselves out of them. We can think of not stiffening the neck, the head to go forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen and the neuro-muscular system will respond. In this way, we will become conscious of what we are doing to ourselves as a whole, instead of falling into our subconscious, energy-sapping, habitual muscle-tension patterns.
DIFFERENT, BUT THE SAME
Inhibition in the sense meant here is fundamental to the process of change; it is the gateway to change. By using it, we can take a step into the unknown; we can learn to practise and perform in a new way. Inhibition is an indirect method of change. What does this mean?
We will firstly consider what happens when we attempt to change directly some aspect of ourselves, some habitual way of being and doing. Take, for example, the person who slumps badly while standing. If it is pointed out to him that he slumps, he will immediately pull himself up to an erect situation and attempt to improve his way of standing directly. Within a short time, however, he will be back to the old habit of slumping, because it is so powerful and its influence irresistible. The person who slumps all the time actually believes that the reason s/he does so is simply that s/he is omitting or forgetting to stand upright in a strong, graceful manner. This belief is a delusion. Similarly, if you are having chronic problems in moving your bowing arm, then to change it directly results in the adoption of a different kind of badly. No fundamental change will have taken place. If the psycho-physical organism – beginning with the head-neck-back relationship – is not changed as a whole, you will still be trapped inside your bubble of habit. Inhibition is the process that allows us to change our subconscious negative habits into conscious positive ones.
To come to a full stop before doing anything affords us the opportunity – through our wonderful power of thinking – to integrate the psycho-physical-emotional self as a whole. Inhibition gives us that space, that tick of time to allow reason and judgement about what we wish to do to come in. We can then use it as a springboard to energise ourselves by thinking of not stiffening the neck, allowing the head to go forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen and in this way, change the whole self for the better.
A word of caution. I have witnessed in some musicians a fear of such fundamental change. The reason for being anxious about adopting constructive awareness is that initially one’s playing may deteriorate a little. Why? The reason is that the feeling of being “right”, which is so important to the musician, is upset. To give attention to the head-neck-back relationship, as well as other parts of the body, at the same time as playing the instrument is extremely difficult. It can make one feel totally “wrong”. But if we keep in mind that our kinesthetic sense needs re-educating, we can move from the known to the unknown, and in this way our feeling of “right” will get closer to actually being “right”. A consequent improvement in one’s playing will occur.
The pressures on the professional musician are here appreciated. Very often in the music business, when problems arise, the musician requires a quick fix and feels unable to take on the task of learning constructive awareness. The quick fix is sought because it relieves anxieties in the short term. This is understandable when one has to earn a living as a professional. Quick fixes, however, do not deal with the problems in the long term.
DIFFERENT, BUT TRULY DIFFERENT
This hiccup where one’s playing initially deteriorates, does not happen to every musician. Most of them experience an immediate improvement in the quality of their playing, as well as in everything else they do. For example, a young student of 20 came to see me in despair, because the pains in his arms were so severe that he could no longer play his cello and a promising career as a professional was in jeopardy. He was having cortisone injections in his forearms. He took on the discipline of becoming conscious of what he was doing to himself and learned how to change his harmful habitual way of being and playing. Within a few lessons he was delighted to report that he was able to practise for 4 hours per day. He continued to improve to the point where he became conscious of himself as an integrated whole; where he could prevent any negative habits of misuse from creeping back in again; where he could take responsibility for himself – not rely on specific remedies – and use constructive conscious control, not only in his playing but also in his everyday life.
In my experience, many people are sceptical of the ability of thinking to alter the negative muscle-tension patterns that the self adopts in life. They are sceptical of the power of inhibition to effect real change in the neuro-muscular system. Why? Because we cannot feel all the complex activity that occurs in the nervous system brought about by inhibiting a response to a stimulus. Curiously though, if I give an explanation – like the one given earlier – about the activity that occurs in the nervous system as a result of wishing to do something, they will readily accept that it all occurs beneath our conscious awareness. They will accept that the only awareness one has is a feeling of effort in the parts that are doing the action. They see that to “simply” waggle a finger is a result of thinking. It takes a while, however, for some to accept, that in terms of the nervous system, inhibition is as much an act of volition as excitation. In other words, non-doing is as much an act of volition as doing.
SUMMARY
To conclude, I would say that the problem of musician’s cramps – focal limb dystonia – can be tackled successfully, not by seeking specific cures for specific problems, but by adopting a holistic approach of re-education in the use of the psycho-physical-emotional-spiritual self.
During all those hours, days and years of relentless repetition in your daily practice, what have you been doing? You were using your intelligence to learn a great art. You were laying down lines of communication in the nervous system that brought about the complex, skilful movements needed to produce beautiful music. Unfortunately, in other parts of the organism, you may have been laying down unnecessary lines of communication, which produced deep harmful patterns of tension that constantly interfere with your playing and the quality of your living.
Constructive conscious control in the use of the self can help to eliminate any problems you may have. If you adopt it, you will be using your intelligence to lay down new lines of communication in the nervous system, which will break up those harmful neuro-muscular habits that interfere with the quality of your playing. To learn to play the instrument that plays the instrument is also a great art. Constructive awareness can bring us closer to the freedom, grace, poise and joyful expression that we had as children and can bring such qualities back into the music that we so dearly love to play.
ADDENDUM
On page 7, I wrote “To effect real fundamental change in our harmful, habitual patterns of reacting to stimuli, one can adopt the following procedure.” I would point out, however, that the procedure is given purely for the purpose of illustration. It is almost impossible for the individual to learn constructive conscious control without the aid of a professional teacher, because the kinesthetic sense cannot be trusted. A few quotations regarding this point, from my book “CONTRUCTIVE AWARENESS” are listed below.
“On paper this process seems simple. But if you try it by yourself you will find it impossible to perform without reverting to your old habit of stiffening your neck and pulling your head back and down into your shoulders. For the vast majority of people, this conscious process of inhibition and direction is impossible without the help of a competent teacher to guide them.
“It is first and foremost a mental process, which involves taking a step into the unknown.”
“Even the supposedly simple act of sitting down in an unfamiliar but co-ordinated way (as the pupil has been carefully guided into by the teacher with consent) causes fear and anxiety in many people – often to the extent that they cannot move at all – because the new situation feels entirely wrong. The pupil’s intellectual grasp of what is to be done in order to execute the new co-ordinated movement is of no avail. Only when the pupil is guided by the teacher, only when the act is repeated often enough does the pupil’s fear begin to subside and the intellectual ‘knowledge’ of the new movement become real knowledge gained through experience.”
“At this point, you may object that to pay attention at the same time to all the details mentioned above would be impossible. Indeed few, if any, individuals can learn the process of constructive awareness without the help of a competent teacher. The guiding thoughts or directions – for example, ‘the head to go forward and up’ – are particularly difficult to understand and can only be fully explained by the teacher through practical demonstration in the one-to-one situation of a lesson. The process can, however, be learned with time, just as one needs time to learn how to play a musical instrument, or tennis, or whatever.”
“The ‘means’ or the ‘how’ of doing must be found in order to develop and maintain reliable sensory awareness. We should recognise that until new and correct experiences have been established, through the indirect process of inhibition and direction of the mind-body-complex, it will be impossible to perform any new act satisfactorily. Recognising this vital connection marks the point of departure between methods of teaching on a conscious basis and those on a subconscious basis. We must learn to inhibit our habitual reaction to the wish to perform an act – to refuse to ‘do’ anything when a stimulus comes to us, until reason and judgement have entered in – and then give attention to the new, guiding, conscious directions to the organism, through the integrity of the head-neck-back relationship. These new directions are absolutely necessary for the improvement of our psycho-physical use in performing the act.”
“Please note that constructive awareness cannot be imparted through the written or spoken word. It must be experienced.”
If the contents of this essay stir your curiosity and interest, it is recommended that you undertake a series of lessons from a qualified teacher of the Alexander Technique.
This article was first published in Rock ‘N’ Ruminations by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here: FREE DOWNLOAD