JournalN º14 | FA L L 2018

11th International Alexander Technique Congress

AmSAT Annual Convention& General Meeting

C H I C AG O 2018

TH INTERNATIONAL ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE CONGRESS · CHICAGO

20 AMSAT JOURNAL No14 · FALL 2018

S TA N D I N G at the E D G E Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet

Rōshi Joan Halifax, PhDKeynote Address · August 2, 2018

Disrespect: engaging in hostilities and bullying others, both horizontally and vertically [such as supervisor to subordinate and colleagues on the same level]

5 ENGAGEMENT: being able to be present in the world Burnout: self-disassociation, numbness

Compassion, Rōshi Halifax observes, also includes insight, which she defines as the ability to distinguish the “self ” from the “other,” even when you are having the experience of empath-

ic resonance on a somatic level. This is a good and healthy quality to cultivate. To illustrate, she shares the story of her friend Dr. Tania Singer, head of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Max Planck Institute. Dr. Singer was inves-tigating alexithymia,¹ which is characterized by the subclinical inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. People with this quality also have great difficulty sensing their own bodies. Dr. Singer investigated the neural networks associat-ed with this disorder and found that the patients also had a low capacity for empathy, or the ability to identify what others are feeling, and that these neural networks overlap.

Rōshi Halifax infers the meaning of this data to be that not taking care of yourself drastically diminishes your capacity to care for others. Not heeding your own needs and disassociating from your own body cuts you off from others. Therefore, true compassion without self-care is not possible.

Rōshi Halifax explains that she has not had extensive experience with the Alexander Tech nique—although she did have some lessons in the early ’70s in California. So, she has prepared herself for this talk by intensively watching videos of teachers working with students, and it is clear that she understands the Tech nique on a deep level. She observes that Alexander teachers allow for a non-coercive “dropping down” into who the student truly is. They allow patterns of fear to drop away by establishing an atmosphere of safety and trust, kindness, compassion, and a lack of pre-planned expectations. Alexander teachers remain in the process of emergence, being with what comes up, rather than trying to drive the student towards a state of fixed perfection. They understand that the body is the medium for the deepest kind of knowing, and it is constantly communicating signals about the teachers’ experience.

She surmises from her observations that many Alexander teach-ers have a high degree of somatic empathy. For some people, this means that they actually “feel” another’s sensations. This is a form of synesthesia,² referred to by scientists as mirror-touch synesthesia³ or the ability to actually feel what others are feeling. This quality can be extremely helpful for Alexander work, but can also, because of its intensity, easily cross into the dark, harmful side. When people

RSHI JOAN HALIFAX HAS JUST TURNED 76. To celebrate, she says, she went for a long hike at a very high altitude and is now slightly regretting that decision. She tells us that she is stiff and feeling her age. As with many of the other speakers, she confesses to being somewhat self-conscious about her body in front of us. She presents her profile and asks: “How does it look?”

The answer is: GREAT!Rōshi Halifax’s face is etched with lines that speak of care, her

hair is a fuzzy halo, and her eyes burn with sapphire luminosity. She bears witness to things most of us cannot even bear to think about—death and dying, atrocities of war, genocide, and suffering of every kind. She offers others care and compassion in the most real sense. The subject of her talk, which is also the subject of her latest book, Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet, is what happens to people who care when the act of care crosses over to the dark side—when care becomes burn-out and numbness. How can we regain (and keep) our healthy sense of self and our ability to care for others again? How can we bear witness and not become downtrodden ourselves?

Alexander Technique teachers, she says, have the rare gift of the capacity to expand and include the somatic experience of others. They also can help others discover their aptitude for balance. They en-gage in something she calls “radical inclusivity,” the kind of attention that is not fragmented by one’s own opinions. Because of this capacity, Alexander teachers are also vulnerable to crossing over the edge or into the shadow side of positive qualities like compassion.

Through her research, she has identified five major components of compassion and their concomitant dark underbellies:

1 ALTRUISM: the selfless concern for others Self-harm or harming others; creating dependency rather than autonomy

2 EMPATHY: the ability to resonate with the experience of others Over-identification with others, which at any level can be disabling

3 INTEGRITY: aligning one’s actions with one’s values a Moral distress: experiencing trespass or injury but unable

to resolve itb Moral injury: witnessing or participating in injury that

causes injury to the witness as wellc Moral outrage: witnessing injury and not taking sufficient

action; shaming and blaming others 4 RESPECT: upholding the value of the well-being of others;

humanity is deeply rooted in its ability to manifest respectful behavior to others, even those who cause harm

“ Love and compassionare necessities, not luxuries.

Without them, humanity cannot survive.”The 14th Dalai Lama,

The Art of Happiness

TH INTERNATIONAL ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE CONGRESS · CHICAGO

AMSAT JOURNAL No14 · FALL 2018 21

possess this kind of sensitivity, they can actually feel the suffering of others, and it can be an assault on their nervous systems, making it tempting to shut down out of self-preservation.

Dr. Joel Salinas, a friend of the Rōshi and a professor of medicine at Harvard University, is a person who has mirror-touch synesthesia. When he becomes overwhelmed with the sensations of others, he finds it helpful to observe something neutral, either a person or an object, and to remind himself that sensations, good and bad, are temporary. He also finds that when he feels overwhelmed, he forgets to breathe, and must remind himself to ground through the breath.

How then do we cultivate compassion and attentional balance without sacrificing our own well-being? Rōshi Halifax says a pow-erful example of this is something familiar to many teachers of the Alexander Tech nique—that is the ability to perceive their students with a high level of accuracy, yet not project their identity and experience onto them. Rather, teachers expand to include their students’ experiences because they are grounded when they are not experiencing a subjective disturbance. Alexander teachers help their students obtain these qualities for themselves, using the body

as a medium. She calls this one of the fundamental qualities neces-sary for compassion, making the Alexander Tech nique a powerful avenue for creating the possibility of true compassion and change in a context of healing.

Rōshi Halifax’s Apple watch beeps urgently, and it is time for her to go. An Uber is waiting to whisk her to the airport where she must catch another flight to another engagement. We are grateful that she is willing to stand at the edge to compassionately share her knowledge with all of us. — GENOA DAVIDSON & JOE ALBERTI

NOTES 1 “Alexithmia.” Science Direct. Accessed online: https://tinyurl.

com/ y7qh4etw. 2 Carolyn Gregoire, “People With This Condition Literally Feel

What Others Are Feeling,” Huffington Post, February 8, 2017. Accessed online: https://tinyurl.com/yc8fxz75.

3 Jared Medina, Carrie DePasquale, “Influence of the body schema on mirror-touch synesthesia,” Cortex, Vol. 88 (2017): 53–65. Accessed online: https://tinyurl.com/ybklx3mk.

“Alexander teachersremain in the process of

emergence, being with what comes up, rather than

trying to drive the studenttowards a state of

fixed perfection.”

Teachers exchange in workshops at the 11th International Congress and the 2018 AmSAT ACGMat the University of Loyola Chicago Lake Shore Campus.

JOE ALBERTI, PHD (Alexander Technique Center of Albuquerque, 2017) trained with Karen DeWig. He is an assistant professor of voice and acting at the University of Oklahoma. Joe is also a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, a Certified Colaianni Speech Practitioner, and the author of two books.

GENOA DAVIDSON (Alexander Technique Center of Albuquerque, 2018) trained with Karen DeWig and is an actor, writer, and teacher. She lives in Norman, Oklahoma, with her partner, Joe Alberti.

PHOTOGRAPH of Rōshi Joan Halifax by Kitty Leaken