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almost entirely unthinking and stereotyped as part of a larger ideomotor act. This is where
the process of stopping (inhibition) becomes of paramount importance, where we must
inhibit the impulse to act habitually and take time to think about how to approach an
activity intelligently based on our knowledge of the system and how it works, breaking the
activity down into discrete steps that are not associated with the nished act.
The means-whereby principle of F.M. Alexander refers to the practice of breaking down a
motor act into its constituent parts. It is both a theoretical and practical response to the
problem ofroutine habit as the primary conductor of human action and conduct. The
practice facilitates the students advancement from a subconscious to a conscious plane of
control. It overrides rigid behavioral habits by replacing these with conscious attention to
oneself in activity. Thedevelopment of conscious attention invites the cultivation of exible
habits, or habits that are consciously programmed into the system by vital thought in order
to intelligently regulate self-use.
There are at least three elements that make up the means-whereby principle. The rst is
therefusal to consentto performing a stereotypedmotor act, also known as inhibition
(previous blog posts on the principle of inhibition can be accessed here). The
secondelement of the means-whereby principle is the process of directing (click here for
previous posts on directing) the PNR (postural neuromuscular re ex) system to establish
improved neuromuscular conditions. The third and nal element is adjusting our
conception of the act from its meditated end to the sequential steps or discrete motor acts
that collectively consummate the activity. Forming a conception of the true act that
isunencumbered by harmful habit and super uous e ort is thus an essential part of
themeans-whereby principle. By thinking clearly of the steps involved in performing the act,
the student will be able to circumvent his old way of doing it and replace this with a
morecoordinated action.
A universal procedure within the Alexander Technique system
ofre-education is the monkey position illustrated here. AT
students and teachers use this position to practice the meanswherebyprinciple when transitioning from standing to sitting in a
chair. The monkey position gives us a structured way to break
down theaction of sitting into isolated steps or directions. Thus,
the act of sitting can be conceived in an entirely new way, without
triggering our associated harmful habits. By thinking through the
directions of monkey instead of thinking generally about sitting
(or not consciously thinking at all but functioning on habitual
automata), we put our end aside and attend to the means-whereby
the end is achieved in a thoughtful, coordinated way.
Humans living in Westernized countries generally operate via a
culturally entrenched paradigm of what we do as opposed to
how we do it: I am going to sit in the chair; I am going to write the paper; I am going to
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pick up the fallen object. Most of these actions arent initiated by structured thoughts as
suggested by the sequence of examples. They are habitual reactions to impulses that are
triggered by the dynamic eld of environmental stimuli. We ful ll actions like sitting, writing,
retrieving, and hundreds more in the course of any given day. We may attend to the
accumulation of words on the page or the condition of the fallen object. Very rarely do we
attend to ourselves as the instrument or the do-er of our daily actions. In fact, our
attention is often drawn far away from ourselves and lost within the object or stimulus of
our actions. We neglect to attend to our own conditions and the way in which we use
ourselves to meet functional ends. The means-whereby principle and its associated
processes are intended to qualitatively direct attention to the way in which actions are
performed. It represents a new mindset, or way of thinking, related to honoring the process
by which actions are ful lled and ends are met and therefore, honoring our selves. On the
practical level of psychophysical health, such an orientation to self-use opens a window for
the observation of harmful behavioral habits and the discovery of more healthy,
coordinated alternatives.
Our next post, written by Tara Fenamore, will takea more philosophical look at the meanswhereby principle and ethics.
See Neurodynamics chapter entitled Awareness and Conscious Control,pages 103-144 to
learn more about ideomotor action and the means whereby principle.)
[1]
Although habit formation and associated neuromuscular processes are present in all
vertebrates, the problem of defective habit that results in psychophysical distortion appears to be
most relevantto the human being. Dr. TheodoreDimon theorizes that the problem is intricately
entangled in the human mammals higher level cortical faculties. These faculties constitute
evolutionary adaptations that developed in reciprocity with the phenomenon of fully upright, bipedal posture.
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