29/11/2016

Routine Habit & the Means-Whereby Principle (Part 1 of 2) | Dimon Institute

Routine Habit & the Means-Whereby

Principle (Part 1 of 2)
Nov 28, 2016

The Problem of Routine Habit & the Means-Whereby Principle

Excerpted from Dr. Theodore Dimons latest work,Neurodynamics: The Art of Mindfulness in
Action, and edited by Tara Fenamore.
The eld of Psychophysical Education is a practical response to the problem of habitual
motor function in human beings. The foundational claim that mechanical habits of motor
functionrepresent a legitimate problem in human development warrants clari cation. Our
musculoskeletal system is programmed at a largely habitual level in response to our
decision to act. This is as it should be, since it is the subconscious working of this system,
operating inresponse to our intention as a necessary background for whatever we choose
to do, thatensures the uid and unthinking activity so essential to everyday life. Automatic
processes of neuromuscular circuiting are integral to our functional design and ultimately
exemplify the advantages of ideomotor actionpurely conceived. Consider how impossibly
di cult it would be simply to raise an arm if we had to work out each and every muscular
contraction involved in supporting the body as a whole. We would be virtually paralyzed and
would not be able to carry out even the simplest action, which is why so much of what we
do is unconscious, preprogrammed, and habitual. Processes of, what we call, habit
formation, are built into the psychophysical designs of all species of animal that possess a
functional nervous system. This adaptation secures the survival and advancement of, not
only homo sapiens, but many other species of animal as well.
So what, then, is the problem of habitual motor function that demands remedial
psychophysical intervention in humans?[1] The e cient operation of habit becomes a
liability when the action takes place through means that are harmful to the functional
integrity of the psychophysical system. For example, if, to raise my arms overhead, I
habitually shorten my lumbar spine and lift my rib cage forward and up, I am compromising
the functional integrity of the back and interfering with the mechanics of breathing. Speci c
tensions or contractions are di cult to control because each one is part of a process that is
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Routine Habit & the Means-Whereby Principle (Part 1 of 2) | Dimon Institute

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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