The Hand

Welcome to a "the day after" blog. Yesterday I came home at 7:00 am after a driving the entire night from Svärdsjö in Dalarna. Together with three other northeners, I have been on a five day hoof clinic with KC LaPierre and it gave lot of new input to be processed. I slept all day...

Today's post will be about our front hoof - the hand. Our hand plays a big role in our daily dialogue with the horse. We inspect the horse with our hands, we stroke it, it holds the brushes we use when grooming, it lifts the horse's legs, it holds the reins and much, much more.

I would like to hand out some tips on how we can improve our use of the hands to make the dialogue with the horse more nuanced. The hand, which I described earlier in the post The hand is dominating, occupies a large part of the brain's sensory and motoric centers. It has an amazing ability to develop fine tuned skills and sensitivity. All we need is to engage in deliberate practice.

These are three experiments for you to play with
1, Take a straw from the horse's tail or mane, put it under a page in the telephone directory. Look out in the room and let your finger cross out the page and feel hair through the paper. Add on another page, feel again. Add on another page, and another. Do this until you no longer think you can feel the hair. Then touch lightly, lightly over the paper. Can you perceive the hair?

2, Develop touch

Take an ordinary A5 envelope and hold it between your thumb and other fingers. Let the fingers "pads" rest on the envelope. Does the envelope bend? How much do you need to hold to keep to the envelope between your fingers? Can you walk with the envelope still between your fingers? Once you find a light touch you can try to replace the envelope with a paper folder, it is a bit heavier but keep your efforts as light as possible to hold the folder between the fingers.

3, Tip touch

Let the envelope rest on your fingertips, with all fingers in contact with the envelope. It can feel like it tightens in the hand. Breathe and let your fingers find their way up towards the envelope. Inhibition, to say no to any attempt to force your fingers into contact with the envelope. Direction, to know that you want your fingertips to have contact with the envelope.

Good luck!

Inhibition

The words inhibition - to say no and direction - to give yourself orders comes early on in the process of taking lessons in the Alexander Technique.

What is it that need to be inhibited, stopped?

Those that I work with first notice that they must stop the already established patterns of movement when they "do what they always do" when they carry out an every day movement. The pause is necessary to find the time to notice what happened - actually.

The second step is trickier to get and involves your own thoughts about what "needs to be happening" in order to go from sitting to standing, for example. - Yes, but I have to xxx, yyy, this or that to be able to...
There is a pre concieved idea of ​​the force needed to bring the body in motion. All such preconceptions need to be inhibited.

An additional level in which inhibition is necessary concernes distrust, selfdoubt in your own ability and what you reckon is possible.

The first, superficial level is easy to see and therefore to understand. I might for example show with my own body what is happening with my students and also show how it can be done in a different way.

Level two is slightly harder to reach. Most people I meet are active, enterprising and energetic people. They take responsibility for and initiates most of what happens in their lives. Vigorous efforts is a living for them! It is a journey in itself for them to realize that their own body can "give them what they want" if they'd only leave themselves alone.
Which almost seamlessly brings us into the last level - the confidence that what we have practised through the lessons and dealth with above really is an ability of their own.

To me it's really a magical moment when those I work with really realize that inhibition, to say no (how paradoxical it may sound) is the key ... and now I have no handy way to describe what I perceive ... allows them to be fully living in their lives. And we're not talking about a fluffypuffy life, many have been troubled by pain for years and will have to live with it for years to come but inhibition can help them live a fulfilling life together with the pain. For those who are free from pain, there might be other burdens that they have to carry with them in their lives.

The magic is that they feel they can live adequately and fully in their process, they know they have the ability to say no and, from there take a more desirable direction, for me it is a privilege to be present at the very moment they realise that all they need is to be found within themselves.

"When you look at fairy tales, it must strike you that one thing that nobody ever worries about at all is how the wish is going to be carried out."
Walter Carrington

Back part 4 stress management

Now, when I've reached the goal of my travel I'm sitting at a desk with the computer connected to a broadband with a speed that almost scares me!

If you have been doing your home work from the first posting you now have familiarised yourself with your back 30 times. You have begun to explore how movement of the limbs affects the contact your back has with the surface and you have had an opportunity to recognise the feeling of your back resting on the floor even when you're upright.

Today's theme in the supine position series is the power it has on our mind. A typical day brings with it many moments and situations that increase the level of mental tension or stress. Stress (including what we may perceive as positive stress!) is always an increased strain on the body and what you've learned by lying down on the floor can now help you to reduce the effects that stress has on you.

First and foremost, stress leads to increased muscle tone, ie our muscle costume actually shrinks slightly. That shrinking affects both joint mobility and breathing. If you feel excitement or stress take hold of you, inhibit - pause and find the "floor behind your back", just allow yourself get back to your back.

Your moments on the floor has given you a great tool for self evaluation, make use of it! Lying down has presented you with the opportunity to explore how your body feels in a neutral position. Tune in where and how your body is affected by stress. If the jaws have become more tense ease off the tension by just visit them briefly in your thoughts.

We all have a uniquely positioned "stress indicator" where tension gets to us first. My spot is situated on the right side, midway between the spine and the lower part of the scapula, if I start to feel tension there I know that I am under a high mental workload.

If I visit that point often, ease the tension, I can "get through" stress without the body goes into a stress-locked position and the nice part is, as I do it consciously, it may be a pretty tough situation and never the less I feel I still have it in my hand. I can continue to act, which is much better than simply react to the challenge and immensely much better than to capitulate to it.

What I do when I feel I am under stress is that I rest "in the feel of the floor", it helps me to keep my chest open in the front and keep the shoulder blades resting on the thoracic spine. With that direction in my body I minimise the tension around the chest and my breathing is relatively undisturbed. If the breathing works oxygen reaches the brain and the mind can actively work to find a solution or an alternative course of action.

Without a functioning breathing, stress leads to a double burden, both physical (I am suffocating!) and a psychic (I can not handle this!) and the stress increases.

Even under pressure, there are choices, the better you become at maintaining a focused calmness and relaxation, the greater your chance is to see where the situation is heading, you can see the options that pop up and choose how to proceed. You can to some extent, therefore, choose the way in which the battle is being fought, or if there is a need for a conflict at all. All that is needed is perhaps a liberating laughter before continuing with the task.

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.
Natalie Goldberg

Back part 3

Alexander Technique is a gentle technique, but its purpose is, nevertheless, to make life and movement easier. With another 10-day "rest" in the back, it's time to move.

The gentle stretching that the Alexander rest gives has a purpose to restore the back and help it to return to its natural length, our back correspond to the horse's top line and in riding we seek to lenghten the horse´s top line.

How do you know that your back has regained its natural length? The check is done through movements.

Lie down on the floor with your head on the books and knees bent. Lighten your toes slightly from the surface and let one leg slide, on the heel, to stretch the leg. Pay attention to what happens in the rest of the body; does the head's contact with books change, is the lower back lifted, is it starting to tighten across the hip joint, is the breathing affected?

If you notice a change somewhere in the body, pause, inhibit, wait until tensions have released or make a decision. If there are big changes - bring the heel back towards your bum, back/torso and legs need more time to find their proper relationship.

If you can let go of the tensions, let the leg stretch and flex with the foot, ie move the feet in the ankle so the toes are pointing towards the ceiling. At first, it's good to straighten one leg at a time, observe yourself and notice what happens both in the diagonal and the lateral side of your body.

To bring the leg back to the starting position, without being tempted to lift it and thereby tighten the abdominal muscles, I recommend the following: let the leg fall out from the hip, the foot is "rolling" on the heel when the leg turns outward. Place your attention on the heel and let it slide up and in towards your bum, it'll bend the knee. At a certain point it will be natural to turn around the femur in the hip joint so that the knee is turned up toward the ceiling. If this move creates any tension, pause and inhibit before continuing.

When the leg can be straightened out and the rest of the body is left undisturbed, try to straighten both legs simultaneously. When you can lie without books under your head, with your arms at your side without the shoulder blades being pulled at and lifted, when your legs can rest stretched without the torso and lower back being affected then you have regained your natural length in the back.

A word about pain. Alexander rest can be a painful experience if there is huge muscular troubles in the body. There are different types of pain, some is superficial and it's ok to stay as long as the pain is bearable.

But there is pain that is structural and in those cases you should lie down just as long as you are pain free! If it starts to get sore, stop! To get the Alexander rest to work, the situation has to be comfortable and safe. If you get in pain after only 2 minutes, stop. Next time you can lay down for 3 and so on. Respect pain signals and the minutes of relaxation will increase. I know this from experience.

This should maybe have been a part of the first posting...but better late than never. To end the rest and to come up on your feet I want you to roll over to one side. And pause. Then you can decide to come up on all four for a while or come up to a sitting position before you get up on your feet. Avoid doing movements similar to sit ups.

Now that you have 20 Alexander rests in your back, you can at any time, standing or sitting, evoke the feeling of the floor behind your back. That will help you to become aware of what goes on in your body at that moment, if your back/topline is shortened this helps the muscles in the front of the body to let go of the back - you'll spring upwards and backwards, become tall and strong at a fraction of a second.

Congratulations! You are now your best friend!

"If you do not take care of your body, where will you live?"
Peggy Ayala
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Back part 2

Lena wrote in last weeks posting about the horse's inherent asymmetry and it is something that also applies to us humans.

When you lie on your back with books under your head and on a relatively hard surface, you have every opportunity to familiarize yourself with your own asymmetry. What you should pay attention to is the weight-bearing points that are in contact with the surface; the back of the head on the books and the contact the shoulder- blades, sacrum and soles of your feet have with the surface.

If you have done your homework you've had 10 occasions to check yourself. Does your head tend to fall to one side or the other? Is one shoulder blade against the floor while the other is lifted off the surface? Are your weight more on the tip of the tailbone than on the upper part of the sacrum? Is your lower back arched in such a way that you easily can slide your hand inbetween the back and the floor? Are both the inside and the outside rim of the feet in contact with the floor? Does your feet stay on the floor or do they tend to slide off away from you? Do you have as much weight on the left and right diagonal (scapula - sacrum)?

Now I want to emphasize that perception is more important than perfection! I do not think you can be 100% equilateral, the importance of this work is to become more aware of yourself and your asymmetry. That knowledge allows you to know when you need to be more focused on the Means-Where-By so that you and the horse are properly prepared in riding different excersises.

For the next period of homework, I like to give you some tips and hints to bring the process further forward.

If the head tends to tilt to one side it is often due to the muscles on that side being more contracted. One way to help yourself to keep your head still in a neutral position is to make use of your eyes. Aim at a point midway between the knees up towards the ceiling, keep looking in that direction.

If one shoulder-blade is kept a little above the floor I have a personal favorite. Place your arms straight out sideways from the body (you will be like a cross). Be aware of that the muscles of the arms can be shortened so there may be a reason to have pillows to rest the forearm against in the beginning.

When you want to bring your arms back to rest your hands on your belly or the iliac crest it is important that you do not lift your arms off the floor but allow them to slide on the surface toward the body. Keep track of how the movment affects the shoulder, elbow and wrist, if you notice any muscle tension, pause - become active passive (inhibit) - and continue with the movement when the tension has subsided.

If you easily get your hand under your lower back I urge you not to press down the back towards the floor. It is far better to place the lower legs (calf) on a chair seat or sofa in order to free the torso completely from the weight of the leg and allow the muscles in the leg to disengage.

If your feet tend to slip away or you have an uneven contact between the inside and outside of the foot, focus on your knees, make sure they always have a direction straight up toward the ceiling.

Breath, notice your own breathing, were does the breathing become visible in you? Where is your chest influenced?

“When anything is pointed out, our only idea is to go from wrong to right; in spite of the fact that it has taken us years to get to wrong we try to get right in a moment.” F M Alexander

Flow – the absence of fear?

Athletes talk about flow and how to achieve it. To be in the flow is desireable since it gives a feeling of enhanced presens in both the moment and movement.

In the Alexander Technique we make references to something we call the startle pattern or fear reflex which is an involuntary movement in the body caused by something that either scare or surprise us.

The reaction is similar to the one you would experience if you took a shower and the water turns out to be cold as ice. You'd pull your head down and raise your shoulders at the same time, bring your arms to your side, gasp and hold your breath for a split second. Your entire body thightens and your thought process is blocked.

This fear reaction is often seen in riders, it can be triggered by almost anything. Anxiety for what the horse might do, the hight of a fence, speed of gate, fear of failing as a rider - simply anything that frightens us. In that moment of tension we are unable to move, think and act. We are incapacitated for a split second and that brings us away from the moment and movement. When the tension releases we find ourselves in a situation we have to deal with. We have become followers instead of leaders.

When I became a mother Sean Scary and Fanny Fear entered my life and also my life with horses. I've had to work with the effect fear had on me. In my case it took a while just to grasp that I was actually scared. I had to acknowledge my fear to be able to get conscious control over the thought mechanisms that created anxiety in me and that was through the use of inhibition and direction.

With our new horse fear was a fact again, the knowledge I had in horsemanship was not enough to handle her forceful and vigourous gestures. Ed's visit in August was an absolute must in order to give me knowledge and confidence to overcome my fear and to continue to work our young horse.

So now, when I find myself capable of handling the rope halter and lead rope without having to look at it, when I've become better at positioning my body in regard to her body, when my feet are moving instead of being paralysed by fear we are making progress.

I've gone from reacting to her behaviour (read: follow her whims) to make her follow my descisions. She still argues but since I'm no longer afraid I can sense her reactions before they take place. I'm in the moment and movement - I'm in a flow!


~~~~~~~~
and then a mail was passed forward from an AT collegue of mine

--- But the articles from this blog (The quest for Equipoise) of two Swedish ladies are just brilliant. It's all about Classical horse riding and Alexander Technique (AT). And I think they have a lot to do with what we do at KaizenTao from a different perspective, especially what Thong has been teaching us the "magic" works.

You'll find jewels every where. Thanks for your post of a skeleton photo from that blog site a while back. That led me to the discovery of this treasure place.

Mitchell Wu

As you can imagine my smile reached all the way to the ears! Thanks for your support Mitchell!

The shortest way to yes can be no.

If I compare Alexander Technique (AT) with learning to play the guitar it’s easy to learn some common chords and then you can happily play the accompaniment at a party or a bonfire at the beach. If you want to deepen your knowledge and improve your technique, you’ll find that there is something to learn from this day on and all of a sudden playing guitar has become a way of life.

The same goes for AT. There is a basic level that in many ways is about the mundane and physical. How you sit, stand and walk, a technique for improving posture. As we sit, stand and walk a great deal during a normal day that knowledge is useful for everyday health and wellbeing.

If you decide to go ahead with AT, you can explore what is needed to move and how much tension that is really necessary to make the moves. Then there is an equally interesting aspect of how different stimuli (sensory input) affects the body physically without it showing outwards. How is the level of stress affecting tension in the body? Nervousness? Fear? The sight of the one that you like or hate? AT helps you discover how your body reacts to different stimuli and it can open up for a chance to choose what to do with these initial reactions.

On both these levels you train your perception and inhibition and direction are your tools in learning. As the nervous system is equipped with the ability to automate processes, it is sometimes necessary to actively say no (inhibit) to make room for an active yes (direction).

There are studies showing that the nervous system is prepared to get into action about 10 seconds before we ourselves become aware of what we intend to do. 10 seconds ... in neuroscience that is one (if not two!) eternities.

It is of great importance to realise that even if the nervous system and thus the body "is ready to do what we’ve always done”, there is a moment, a few milliseconds, where we are offered the opportunity to actually say no to whatever the nervous system have prepared itself (and us ) for. The opening allows us to choose a new way of acting, a way that better lead us to where we want to go, a reaction that brings us closer to our goal.

If we refrain from or miss our chance to say no (inhibit) the stone is put in motion, and like a band of crackers nerve impulse after nerve impulse is fired until the automatic reaction is completed. During that journey we have few if any means to stop the process.

Imagine a man who has a habit of betting on the racetrack. He comes to the junction at Solvalla. If he takes advantage of the opening to actively say no to the reaction his nervous system offers as he drives past the junction, he’ll come home with all his money. If he misses the moment and makes the turn, he will go all the way and bet on horses til his wallet is empty.

What do you need to prevent from happening to make way for the things you want to happen?

Changing reflection to proaction

Since I have been busy sitting on stands this week I've had plenty of time to think about life, learning and coincidences.

In everyday life we often talk about thought and action, in that order - that thought precedes action. And then there is the concept of reflection, that usually comes after a performed action. Quite frequently the reflection is coloured by remorse.

Many of us are caught in the chain of action-reaction and reflection. We react to something with an action, which we on reflection later on, regret. The Alexander Technique is striving to change that pattern to a thought-proaction pattern instead. That is to say that we have thought through what we want to do and how we would do it before we take action (means where by).

To assist us in the process, we have the ability to say no (inhibition) and to give directions. Reflections is still present but instead of being coloured with remorse, self-loathing, devaluation of ourselves, we change it to the observation, analysis and ideas of improvement.

It is thought that gives us a plan for our action, reflection allows us to evaluate the outcome. This in turn leads to experience, it sharpens our intuition and suddenly we are in the viewer's (and even our own!) eyes "skilled".

What is required of you if you want to switch from a reactive pattern of behavior to proactive? Well, it requires curiosity, the courage to be be- or reginner, preparedness to practice and it is also beneficial to have easy access to a good laughter.

The answer to Ed's question is that two out of hundred horse owners have a functioning leadership in relation to their horse. Are you one of those two? I'm working towards that in "my group of one hundred" we shall be three ...

Three pair of words to devote your life to

This is a description of three pair of words which play an important role in the Alexander Technique.

First out is inhibition and direction.
Inhibition, to cancel something, can also be summarized in the word no. Direction is what you consciously choose to do instead. For riders, the ability to inhibit is crucial. In practical terms this means that if you give the horse an aid you sit quietly and inhibit all impulses to do anything further and wait for the horse's response.

If you work the horse from the ground and would like to make a "join-up” inhibition is necessary. It is when you remain silent and still you give the horse space to make a choice - join up or await. And the horse's response will determine your next move - not your own impatience or desire for a specific outcome.

And that automatically leads to the next pair of words; means-where-by and end gaining. Our proverb "the end justifies the means" sums it up pretty well. What do you do to achieve your goal? Is the goal primary and how it is reached secondary? Do you make your horse sacrifice himself, his health, his life for you to reach your goals? Or do you let your horse have a say and take account of it? Are you taking account of yourself?

But, as it is said in Alice in Wonderland, if you don’t know where you are going you can go either way…So a goal give our directions something to aim for.

And finally, use and function. How you use your body affects how well it can function. Muscles that works tense up, tense muscles become tight muscles and that means that all blood vessels inside the muscle is squeezed together. If you constantly have high muscle tension in your body the circulatory systems within will have a hard time working properly and that means that oxygen, nutrients and waste products have difficulty travelling inside you.

For the rider the high muscle tension affects your ability to be flexible and pliable on the horse. Tense muscles will lead to less mobility in the joints and that is detrimental because it is through having access to freely moving joints we absorb the horse's movements.

Now you have a task to train you in all three word pairs.
Take a pen and paper. Grasp the pen, as if you were to start writing,
say NO to the impulse and
check whether or not you have leaned into the paper by rounding your back, check how hard you hold the pen.
Now straighten your back, keep a certain distance to the mission. How hard do you need to hold the pen to keep in place? How light can you hold it between your fingers and still be able to write? A light touch generates less tension which in turn leaves freedom for movement in the joints.

Take that light touch and straight back with you to your next ride and see what happens...