Fixing Sally’s Tight Tummy

I’m back writing for a bit, but there’s no guarantee I’ll stay. 

That’s an advantage of getting old - for me anyway: I stop feeling I have to do things and start doing the things I want. Which are often… well, let’s not go there.

*

As I was lying on my bed this morning, I started to reflect on my exchange with Sally (not her real name). Sally came into class yesterday all in a fluster because…

“I was trying to think of all the things you taught me and my tummy got stiff.”

Wow. Never heard that one before. Your tummy!?

“What were you thinking?” I inquired.

Then followed Sally’s long list of ideas…

“Too many,” I replied. “You can juggle three; that’s it.”

Why do I say that?

Your cognitive memory has limits.

ChatGPT: Cognitive memory refers to the mental processes and systems involved in acquiring, storing, and retrieving information in the mind.

Sally was trying to manage, I don’t know, about 10 unrelated things at the same time. She threw her whole system into chaos. As Walter Carrington once wisely commented:

“People complain that their body does not do what they tell it to do. Actually, your body does exactly what you tell it to do.”*

The latest science indicates that our cognitive memory is limited to managing 2-4 new tasks at any moment - 7-9 is now out of date.** Therefore, I told Sally to settle upon three tasks or messages.

“Three?”

“Yes Sally, three.”

“But which ones should I choose?”

Great question - I hope Alexscovery teachers reconsider this question…

--- RECONSIDERING THIS QUESTION ---

Alexander insisted on four messages or “directions”. He wrote that they be: 1. free neck; 2. head forward and up; 3. back lengthening and widening; and 4. knees forward and away. Which suspiciously looks like 7, not 4. Either way…

Too many FM !

I believe this is why Alexander started using his hands - because touch supplemented his verbal instructions and helped maintain their presence in his student’s cognitive memory. When you watch FM teach, his hands are dancing all over the place - and very quickly too. In this way, a teacher’s touch acts to maintain and amplify the effect of your cognitive messaging.**

Lest you think I disrespect the man - quite the contrary. FM laid out two clear two principles which guide my cognitive messaging experiments:

1. You must multitask messages.
FM liked to call it “thinking in activity”.
As I said, he went for 4, I go for 3. ***

2. Messages must be contiguous and causally related. 
FM liked to call it: “All together, one after the other” ****
I think of them as cascading or consequential movements.

I live by these two principles when I teach. When neuroscientists get around to it, I’m sure they will discover that these are two neuroscientifically sound insights into how our brain most effectively manages it’s movement.

*** BACK TO SALLY ***

“You want to know which three to think about Sally?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“In what situation?” I asked.

“While walking.”

“OK, what troubles you now about walking?”

“I’m always looking down.”

“Well, that’s easy. Look up!”

Which is a Yes-Plan designed to inhibit her from dropping her head and neck down.

MESSAGE ONE - look ahead while walking.

Then you must have some basic Alexander thinking, which for Sally while walking becomes:

MESSAGES TWO AND THREE: Head/spine and related hip/leg movements. Which sounds suspiciously like 4, not 2. I’m on FM’s side, I use my touch every time I explain it to Sally. Eventually, she gets it…

So Sally walked, looking much easier…

“How’s your tummy?”

“What? Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

GOOD.

NOTES

* Sorry, I don’t remember where I first read that quote from Walter because I’ve been using it for so long. Perhaps one of my erudite readers can assist?

** Lulie Westfeldt wrote in her biography that FM once came into class, looked at his hands, and claimed that his hands could do it all. Lulie claims FM remarked that he didn’t need the student to think anymore. Well, I believe that’s a kind of hearsay nonscene. Only you can neuromatically move you - at the very least, you must give consent. I’m sure FM understood that.

*** For example - people are challenged by juggling three balls, while most can quickly handle two. That’s the norm. As you increase the balls, you increase the bits of information you must keep in your cognitive memory to be successful at keeping the balls afloat, so it gradually becomes impossible.

**** “一緒、次々” is one Japanese equivalent of Alexander’s phrase “all together, one after the other”.