In my life story, I didn’t spend very much time talking or singing or making sound of any kind. I was and am nurtured by the sound of silence. When I heard the phrase, ‘cat got your tongue’, I smiled but I refused to speak, so committed was I to my silence. My tongue, my throat, my rib cage, my diaphragm and my abdominal wall were the uncharted waters of my kinesthetic awareness. Oh I knew I had cages and walls, but Ididn’t know how habit and unconsciousness played such a large role in their mobility. Studying and teaching in the Alexander Technique have changed that dramatically. I assume you know all about that - the blossoming head of cauliflower and so on. But the time came in this journey to face the use of my voice and the use of my breathdirectly, specifically. Most of my work in this area has been post-certification, on my own and with wonderful teachers like Ron Dennis (introductory workshop on Breath as Postural Process), Barbara Kent (Alexander and voice classes), Glynn MacDonald (workshop on voice and the Alexander Technique), Troup Matthews (conceptual and hands-on work on the nature of the breathing with the spiral musculature) and Jessica Wolf (introductory workshop on breathing). But as you probably know the process expands as you go on. And to persevere, one needs reason. Unlike so many others in this work, I am not interested in improving my voice for dramatic, theatrical or performance activities. My reasons are for uncovering unconscious breathing patterns are these: one, to serve my vitality, two, to have more conscious control when speaking and three, to enjoy the freedom and the exuberance of playing with vocal sounds.In dealing with an activity directly and specifically, I know that it is a dangerous road, one prone to attachment to results. But if I am careful and diligent, I am rewarded with the palpable, undeniable nature of wholeness and the equally palpable and undeniable nature of freedom within that wholeness. Perhaps it is a paradox that this direct and specific focus brings me back to a process of integration.
Within my wholeness, I can experience a high degree of freedom in the moving parts. I have experienced my leg swinging, while the rest of me remains stable. I understand this experience of freedom as a balance of the structure that requires interdependence between the moving part and the stable parts. The stable parts are quite active in the work of providing a counterbalance to the movements of the leg.
When it comes to breathing there appears to be a different relationship between the moving parts and the rest of my self. It seems there is more independence than interdependence. The interdependence is certainly there, the basic definition of wholeness and all. The mechanical advantage of a lengthening spine certainly influences the mechanics of good breathing. Just look at elementary examples of use and misuse of the head and spine or the work of Raymond Dart on the spiral arrangement of our voluntary musculature (1) or the teachings of Troup Mathews concerning the relationship between breathing and the spiral musculature (2). I don’t question any of this. It is the quality of the independence that intrigues me.
Since it was many years into my Alexander journey before I began a direct inquiry into the use of my voice and breath, I had acquired habits in my torso that interfered with easeful coordination of diaphragm, ribs and abdominal wall. To undo this misuse, I had to tease the ribs away from the directions to let my torso lengthen and widen and the directions to let my torso release back and up. Perhaps it was my literal, verbal interpretation of the words torso and lengthening and widening that got in the way of experiencing the wholeness within the directions. You probably know about the one at a time and all at once phenomena. Somewhere in my thinking, I assumed that the rib cage, as part of torso, should be lengthening and widening and that lengthening and widening should be a constant. As I learned about the movement of the ribs, I use to puzzle over what lengthening and widening might mean for the whole chest if indeed the shape of the chest both expands and contracts.
One of the challenges of the Alexander professional is that we must try to prevent the experiences and skills of today becoming the inappropriate habit of tomorrow. At one point or another it seems I’ve done them all - the over straightened neck, spinal lengthening becoming spinal stretching, the torso widening becoming a fixing in the ribs, just for starters.
The Alexander Technique gives me a foundation for preventing these errors in my thinking. If only I would remember to apply them more often. But I don’t seem to be willing to do what Alexander did. I recognize the need for checks and balances to my subjective experiences. But I have such a strong need for individuality that I avoid doing everything his way. I think we each have to find what works for us as individuals. Perhaps we could call them different learning styles. My style seems to involve visual, kinesthetic and conceptual processes. If I can see it, if I can feel it, if I can understand the theory behind it, then I can go. I can play, experiment, repeat and test things out.
My checks and balances include post-graduate study, staying abreast of the recent developments in similar fields, reading and re-reading the writings of Alexander. I think engaging in a dialogue about the interpretation of FM’s writings is essential, as are expanding hands-on skills with master teachers and colleagues, and applying the AT to all aspects of life is essential.
In expanding my direct and specific learning process with voice and breathing, I am taking the post-graduate course, The Art of Breathing with Jessica Wolf. Ms. Wolf has used the knowledge and experience she had with Carl Stough to teach conscious control of the use of self in breathing. For me it is so valuable to take a direct and specific approach in an environment that uses the Alexander principles to facilitate visual, kinesthetic and conceptual experience. The Alexander principles of wholeness and conscious control are so paramount in these classes that the dangers of end-gaining for specific results are minimized. They inevitably do pop-up and then they are dismissed with a gentle laughing inhibitory conscious mind.
“It is not possible, of course, to give here all the detailed instructions that would meet every case, because these instructions naturally vary according to the tendencies and peculiarities of the particular pupil. An experienced teacher, however, should be able to supply these instructions in the practical application of the technique to meet the needs of the individual case. We must learn in this connexion to differentiate between the variations of a teacher’s art and the principles of the teaching technique which is being employed.”
FM Alexander (3)
I believe that Alexander wanted teachers of his work to think for themselves, to bring to their conscious control the habits that limit them. I believe that he recognized the teacher’s effectiveness was directly related to the teacher’s ability to recognize their own habits and to be in a process of monitoring and changing those habits. Recognizing habits is especially difficult the more sophisticated one gets. We need checks and balances to clarify and refine our sensory appreciation of what we so often call ‘good use’.
“I had yet to meet a physiologist or anatomist whose use of himself could be described as anything but harmful, and for that reason I had long since decided that a knowledge of anatomy or physiology or both does not, and cannot, help a person to rid himself of a harmful manner of use, or indeed to know whether someone else’s manner of use is harmful or the reverse.”
FM Alexander (4)
I feel quite dismayed by this statement. My need for this kind of knowledge is so paramount and my manner of use improves dramatically when I understand the anatomy and physiology of being and moving. But I’ve come to think that for Alexander, it was an intellectual position that was part of his “teacher’s art”. Perhaps, it was his way of keeping the teaching focused on a correct mental attitude and means-whereby. By not including the knowledge of specialists, I think Alexander missed a great opportunity for checks and balances - a mirror to see if his teacher’s art slipped into teacher’s habits.
When Alexander wrote his anatomical description of breathing, I believe he underplayed the diaphragm. He mentions the lateral movement of the ribs over and over again, but rarely described the role of the diaphragm.
“It must be remembered that in all these contractions and expansions, the floor of the cavity (diaphragm) plays its part, moving upwards or downwards in sympathy with the particular adjustment of the bony thorax.”
FM Alexander (5)
Today the common understanding is that the diaphragm is “considered as the basic muscle of respiration as it increases by itself all three diameters of the thoracic cavity.” (6) From what I have gathered, Carl Stough was a specialist in understanding the diaphragm in breathing, speaking and singing. Mr. Alexander listed a very thorough list of breathing faults (7) that hold up extremely well in my book, but that don’t fully explain all the problems that interfere with the diaphragm. Mr. Stough’s work has elucidated those breathing faults that interfere with this basic muscle of breathing.
By learning about the experiences and knowledge of this specialist, I have more useful information regarding the anatomy and physiology of breathing, and I have expanded my teacher’s art by learning about his techniques as a facilitator of improved breathing coordination. I know that by taking this specialist’s knowledge, I will inevitably return the inherent wholeness, because I am on an Alexander path and not a Stough path.
I love applying Alexander principles to new and useful information. Judy Leibowitz, one of my teacher-trainers at ACAT, said over and over again. “You can’t change what you don’t know.” It’s not easy to know about the diaphragm. The light is not so good inside the rib cage and we can’t feel it directly (at least most of us can’t). It takes a while to learn to see/feel/hear what is or isn’t happening inside where the diaphragm lives. So in the “Art of Breathing” with the help of Ms. Wolf’s teaching I have been able to ‘see’ a bit more clearly the movement of the diaphragm and understand its role in coordination with the movements of the abdomen and the movements of the ribs. With this kind of awareness, I can apply my teacher’s art to identify those habits or movements that interfere with the role of the diaphragm.
I may not be able to teach my students to inhibit misuse of their diaphragm, but I am able to bring awareness to the misuse in all those other parts, including the misuse of the self as a whole. So in bringing to my conscious control this incredible coordination of breathing movements that is ongoing throughout life, in silence and in song, in all manners of use, I am forging ahead. For me teaching and applying the principles of the Alexander Technique is a journey of expanding awareness and it seems there is no end.
1. Raymond A. Dart, Skill and Poise, Chapter 3, “Voluntary Musculature of the Human Body: the Double-Spiral Arrangement” pp. 57–72
2. Troup Matthews, "Blessed Helicity: The Implications of Spiral Musculature for the Alexander Technique"
3. F. Matthias Alexander, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, footnote on page 170 Centerline Press edition, 1985, end of Part I, Chapter III.
4. F. Matthias Alexander, The Universal Constant in Living, pp 134–135
5. F. Matthias Alexander, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, Centerline Press edition, 1985, pp 200–201
6. Reference Material for “Breath as Postural Process” from Ron Dennis, May 24, 1991 Workshop, Kapandji's Physiology of the Joints, Vol. III, p. 146
7. F. Matthias Alexander, Man’s Supreme Inheritance, Fourth Edition 1957, Part III, The Theory and Practice of A New Method of Respiratory Re-Education, pp 195–197
The Alexander Technique of Syracuse
Kathryn Miranda
Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique
Checks and Balances - Learning More about Breathing
by Kathryn Miranda
December 17, 2002
Alexander Technique of Syracuse, Kathryn Miranda, Director. kathy@alexandertechniquesyracuse.com or 315-412-4829
