With the second Alexander Technique skill of directing, you take advantage of the fact that your brain is able to rewire and change. This is called brain plasticity.
When you direct, you send constructive conscious messages from your brain to your body to learn how to sit and stand soft and tall, and to free up movement and breathing.
By thinking your directions, you’re thinking differently, enabling you to reprogram your brain and create new, healthier habits of coordination that, with frequent practice, can eventually become automatic.
Let’s come back to the story of the car.
Suppose you want to go for a drive.
Before driving away, you practice the skill of stopping:
you pause for a moment so that you can prevent driving with unwanted habits.
Next, you tune into all-inclusive awareness so that you become aware of your whole body, the space around you and the car.
But you don’t want to stand still and do nothing!
After you’ve said ‘no’ to what you don’t want, there needs to come a ‘yes’ to what you dó want.
You need something that energizes you, shows you the way; a plan, a wish to go somewhere.
This is exactly what the skill of directing will give you;
it will help you fill up your tank with gas, drive away in any direction, turn the steering wheel with ease, and go faster or slower as you please 🙂 !
Let me give you another metaphor.
Imagine you want to start growing vegetables in your garden, but your garden has grown full of weeds and there is nowhere to plant your veggies.
The skill of stopping will help you release your garden of unwanted weeds so that the ground is clear.
After that, the skill of directing will help you plant the seeds and water them so that the seeds can grow into beautiful, tasty veggies.
This is why the skill of stopping needs to come before directing;
you cannot plant your veggies in a garden full of weeds, and you cannot drive away while the handbrake is still on.
In a way, directing is not something new: your brain is already sending messages to your body and organizing your coordination and behavior all the time, but then without you realizing it.
Let me give you a few examples.
Suppose your habit is to collapse.
This means that your brain is sending messages to your body to go downwards, forwards, and inwards. Otherwise, it wouldn’t happen, right?
Or, suppose you have the habit of lifting your shoulders while working at the computer.
Without you realizing it, your brain is unconsciously sending messages to your shoulder muscles to shorten and pull up.
So...without realizing it or wanting to, you unconsciously use the habitual neurological highways that lie ready in your brain to move, stand, sit, think and respond in a certain unique way.
We all have a specific stride, way of speaking, way of responding, don’t we?
When you think the AT directions, your brain also sends messages to your body, but then consciously and constructively.
In this way, with repetition, you can rewire your brain and nervous system and create new, healthier ways of moving, thinking, and responding;
new neurological pathways connecting your brain and your body.
You think your directions to aim a movement, or to aim your body towards expansion.
Let me give you three examples;
1. While standing, you can direct yourself to lengthen, widen, and expand upwards from the ground.
2. While walking, you can direct yourself to move forwards from your expanding back...
3. While working at the computer, you can direct your neck to soften and lengthen upwards, to avoid craning your neck forwards.
You can also use the skill of directing to bring more ease to a slump or an awkward, uncomfortable position.
For example, when you’re sick or very tired and don’t want to get out of your slumped position, you can use your directing skills to enhance your breathing and feel easier while slumped.
Or suppose you’re a surgeon and you have to maintain an uncomfortable position in the operating room.
Or suppose you need to retrieve something that fell behind the closet just out of reach; you can use your directing skills to enhance your coordination, improve your position, and prevent pain.
There are 5 other reasons why you would think your directions.
Firstly, to become more aware of the areas for which they’re meant; for instance, the neck, the head, the back, and shoulders.
By thinking your directions, you will discover if you’re habitually holding too much unnecessary tension in these areas.
The second aim is to encourage lengthening in your muscles: when you direct, muscles stop shortening unnecessarily.
And when the unnecessary contraction is released, muscles are able to return to a more lengthened state, which in turn will greatly improve your overall muscle tone, posture, and coordination.
Thirdly, when you think your directions, a snowball effect of improved coordination, ease and free movement will flow through your body, making it easier to throw a ball, run, jump, walk, bike, do yoga... You name it.
Fourthly, you can think your directions to enhance mental strength.
For example, if you are a musician, instead of worrying about your performance before going on stage, thinking your directions at that moment will greatly help you to release performance anxiety, boost your coordination and go for it!
And finally, when you direct, you start to have a bit more conscious control over your bodies’ muscle tone and energy levels:
Suppose you’re a tennis player, and you need to give a lot of power. You can use your directions to fire yourself up and give it all you’ve got from expansion and free breathing.
Or imagine you’re tired and feel a bit low, but you still need to work; you can lie down in active rest and think your directions to energize yourself. (By the way, this is what I intended to do in the audio guide lying down in active rest ‘short version’. )
Or suppose you’re almost going to bed. Then you can consciously choose to think your directions to let yourself release towards the ground while still lengthening and widening. (This is what I intended to do in the audio guides preparing for sleep in this app.)
When you just start to learn to direct yourself, in the beginning you might not notice much. This is logical because it takes some lessons to create new brain-body connections.
But with regular short repetition moments, you will start to feel the directions happening in your body. This is a wonderful feeling that’s hard to describe to a newbie.
To me, it feels like a wonderful release, length, connection, or energy flow, and often a warm sensation in my body.
If you’ve never had Alexander Technique lessons before, I really hope you’ll find yourself a certified Alexander Technique teacher.
Practicing directing with the help of this app is much easier if you have had multiple physical experiences of it.
Also once you’ve stopped having lessons, it’s great to take a refresher lesson once in a while.
It helps to stay inspired, discover new things, and keep your daily practice going :-).
Now that you have an idea of what directing is, let’s go over the primary and secondary directions in the next audio guide.
We’ll also discuss the 5 pitfalls of directing.
This app will help you apply the Alexander Technique between lessons.
So, choose any activity from the many audio guides in this app to practice directing and enjoy some flow, balance & ease whenever you like!