Menthysical Unity

After years of intense practice working on linking up mental and physical health through the Alexander Technique, I am intrigued to see the results. I want to introduce you to the surprising role of bones in restoring the optimal health of the organism. I am also keen to further the conversation regarding the mind and body question; along with demonstrating how most available healing methods fail because they treat separately something that is meant to function as a whole.

I made up the term ‘menthysical’ (mental+physical), to emphasise the significance of mind-body issue. Unfortunately, the usual words ‘psychophysical’, ‘wholeness’, ‘holistic’, ‘mindbody’ etc seem to be misused in practice. So will ‘menthysical’. There is no word to describe that unity in practice. Hence don’t worry, I am leaving this phrase behind as fast as I came up with it. Let’s talk about what we can talk about.

From Back Pain to Optimal Health

A healthy organism is designed to work as a natural automatic system. It is bizarre to imagine that we can guide it from ill-health back to health by correcting some of it. Although specialists talk about body and mind as one, their usual strategies involve breaking down the body into separate entities to be cured. It is a misunderstanding penned in human thinking by our dualistic language.

Let us take the case of back pain as an example. Hundreds of millions of people suffer from it every day. It is one of the world’s biggest health problems. Experts estimate that up to 80% of Americans will have some form of back pain in their lifetime. A statistic, behind which the lives of millions of people are blighted by pain and restricted ability, not to mention its detrimental effects on the economy and society at large.

We haven’t tackled the problem in the last 10 years. Our current proposed remedies are not giving us any satisfactory answers and we have become used to living with pain in our lives. The advice from the National Health Service in the UK includes exercise, stretching or medical intervention when appropriate. We know experientially that the story is more complex than that. So, we try out meditation, massage, improving posture, drugs, and even diet changes or stress management.

However, the most common treatments are not taking into consideration a simple fact: any act is psychophysical by nature, not just physical or mental. Therapies which have at their core treatments practiced as if there are two essentially distinct spheres of our being, for example, meditation for the mind or relaxation for the body have serious consequences for our lives — most of us remain in the dark as regards the potentials of healing and healthy functioning. We are facing a lack of understanding about how the mind and body work.

Alexander Technique as a Unique Approach

Fortunately, there is a practice which has results those therapies still limited by conceiving of the mind-body as in essence distinct cannot. Alexander Technique is a proven method that provides long-term relief through re-educating the organism to function in more integrated ways. The benefits of reduced musculoskeletal pain, better posture, less tension and anxiety, are possible because this technique is based on a comprehensive understanding of the psychophysical unity of the organism.

The American author and educator Dr. Ted Dimon, an Alexander Technique teacher I studied under, has defined ‘psychophysical unity of the organism’ as the foundational concept for healthful functioning throughout life. This article is mainly based on his work. In his book “Neurodynamics”, he writes: ‘There is in all human movement a basic organizing principle, an active force that ensures effortlessness, vitality, and optimal control in everything we do.”

This central organizing principle he calls the postural neuromuscular reflex (PNR) system. If this works, nothing needs to be corrected, relaxed, or strengthened. Muscles are naturally healthy and toned, joints have room and are supported so that they can work with maximum ease, breathing is full and unimpeded, vitality is heightened by improved muscle tone, circulation is maximized by a lack of excessive contraction in muscles.

When something is not working in that psychophysical unity, the only way toward becoming healed is to become aware of what disturbs the natural way. This is what Alexander Technique teaches through verbal or hands-on guidance. Showing you what is interfering with your system, demonstrates how to prevent it happening.

As a result, musculoskeletal pain will be reduced, and emotional wellbeing enhanced. Not because of the newly found mindfulness or stronger musculature, but because of the release of kinetic energy which had previously been stored in muscles. This can be achieved only by establishing the conditions under which the muscles can function naturally.

However, it is important to emphasise that what makes sense in theory might not be achievable in practice. In my experience of working with this technique we do often see major benefits and quick progress in a client’s functioning, but there is no perfect place to reach. There will be blind spots and there is no perfect state of health. We are too complex for the simplicity of thinking in mere right and wrong.

The Conditions for Optimal Health

What, then, are the “better” conditions for natural, effortless well-being? The basic assumption of how muscles work, is that we need to strengthen the weak and relax the tight ones. However, the problem is the whole musculoskeletal system that has been compromised. Here is where the not-so-secret role of bones come in. Muscles on skeleton. We often forget to consider the bony structure that muscles are attached to.

Muscles also do not work without the brain. As we know and experience daily, muscles function in the service of action that operates as part of a larger psychophysical system. That system operates at a largely unconscious level. This sounds obvious yet is ignored by most methods that treat muscle tension or musculoskeletal disorders.

Picture 1. The muscle-brain relation.

If the only thing that muscles did was to contract, we would never be able to stand upright. Keeping us upright is another function of the musculoskeletal system, besides movement. When this system becomes compromised, pain in the back, neck and other areas follow. Why this happens is our first question. How to restore the efficiency of the human design becomes our main study.

By helping the muscles function in the context of skeletal support and movement, muscles become naturally toned and lengthened. By a lengthened muscle we mean that it is not in contraction. A back muscle like that has no reason to hurt.

In reality this happens only when bones oppose each other in the way that they help to maintain natural length for muscles in between them. Healthy, toned working of the muscular system will then bring about an alert mental state, and a vitalized overall condition.

Picture 2. Musculoskeletal model

On Mind

Putting in place that missing piece of knowledge in pain studies, we see more clearly why awareness methods seem to be positive, but they lack the information necessary to fully restore the system. Awareness methods do not answer the question why the system goes wrong and how to stop it happening if it should work well naturally.

Mindfulness cannot be a meditative practice if it wishes to understand being human as a psychophysical whole. Why? Because the organism functions in action. Considering only the ‘rest state’ of the nervous system is a wholly inadequate view of the human organism. Please have a look at the chart below. The connectedness of autonomic and somatic nervous systems cannot be overlooked. They are divisions under the same ceiling, simply called the nervous system. In reality there is no division.

Picture 3. Parasympathetic division activation cannot be a goal on its own

Optimal psychophysical functioning in practical terms means not only having a mind that is present but having a body that has certain muscle tone. Naturally, these two go together. It is impossible to feel alert and calm in a body that is either slack, rigid or flaccid.

To lower stress, most relaxation methods are associated with inactivity, states close to sleep. They do nothing to improve the balanced level of automatic activity. It is fine to relax by the pool with a cool drink, but this strategy bypasses the question of how to stay in good health. Addressing the mind that will affect physicality and vice versa is not a whole story.

When the muscular system works normally, muscles are toned and elastic, respiratory function is heightened, emotionally charged states and negative moods dissipate, and there is a general improvement in mental attitude. ‘Relaxation, in contrast, achieves none of these and in fact does the opposite by producing a dulled mental state, a collapsed physical condition, and generally a lowered state of muscle tone and respiratory function.’, writes Dr. Dimon.

On Body

Likewise, exercise or treatment that quotes mind-body connection but fails to address the whole organism operating in activity, has limitations in bringing about long-term positive change. It is not difficult to calm down the nervous system in a relaxation session. It is not difficult to feel better shortly after exercising. What about the times in between treatment sessions, when the body continues to be in action in the ways that create pain, tension or slackness? Still, the problem of unity remains.

The question is what should get our utmost attention. How do we want to function between the relaxation or exercise sessions, mindfulness activities or holidays?

On Nervous System

Stress is a condition that occurs when the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is activated over a long period. Is this activation caused by outside stressors? They sure are stimulating activation, but what is primarily happening is the organism’s reaction to the stressors. So, shall we engage in getting rid of the outside stimuli or, achieve better results by focusing on the reactions happening?

Many relaxation methods focus on working towards the parasympathetic activity of the nervous system to achieve a restful and relaxed state. Parasympathetic and sympathetic branches of the nervous system are antagonistic, but they also cooperate to maintain homeostasis. They work together most of the time to regulate blood pressure, body temperature, and so on. Just as the autonomic nervous system cooperates with the somatic system in a much more integrated way than a dualistic use of language can comprehend or express.

Dr. Dimon addresses the question of stress: “It is an assumption that a stressful life causes muscle tension and burnout and the only way to overcome this is by learning to meditate or relax. But relaxation per se is a mistaken notion of what is actually needed as the basis for removing stress. We have only to observe animals and children to realize that healthy muscle tone, not a collapsed and inert state of the musculoskeletal system, is the essence of relaxation. Young children do not have to actively relax muscles or meditate because their systems are in balance. The healthy working of the postural neuromuscular reflex system erases the problem of stress in the first place. In this balanced state the mind is calm, alert and naturally present.”

BodyMind Integrity

The rekindling of this feeling of unity between mind and body through the Alexander Technique can be experienced with a certain sense of wonder. As an Alexander teacher it is always flattering to hear how the work is experienced as ‘magic’, but that is just because we do not have a category for unitedness.

On one hand I find it devastating how far some of those in need of treatment have become removed from our natural functioning. On the other hand, there is much hope for reaching optimal health under the guidance of a skilled Alexander Technique teacher, navigating the challenges of health and wellbeing, with a toned working of the muscular system, an alert mental state, and an overall vitalized condition.