How to Allow the Neck to Free (Part 3)
Yeah...there's a lot to notice...
Merry Mid-December!
By this time next week I’ll have several cups of glühwein while doing a whole lotta nothing. Mom will be flying up for an NYC Christmas celebration. There will be an obligatory walk by an ice skating rink. I’ll look at the skaters with the fascination of a dude from Alabama that still doesn’t get why ice is on the ground and rather than join in I’ll remember that I don’t like paying money to fall repeatedly on my arse.
But for now,
The Blogsssss!
Why Write About the Head and Neck Again?
If you haven’t gathered from my posts - particularly part 1 and part 2 - the balancing action of the head on top of the neck is a BIG thing in the Alexander Technique. It is not so big that I think it is the first thing you need to learn, but at some point I would like you to be able to experience how the head can tend towards a less strained and fraught relationship with the neck; particularly the top 2-3 vertebrae of the spine1.
While I think part 1 and part 2 are decent sources of information I think it does take quite a lot of time and many looks at the same thing to get that A-HA! moment of realization. The focus of post 1 was the back of the skull, tip top of the trapezius, and the forehead/scalp muscle. Post 2 brought attention to the inner workings of the throat and mouth. And this post will attempt to show you how all of that ties in together.
Take a minute to check out this nice cross section of your skull that I found in my human anatomy app.2 As you look, pay attention to the space between the skull and the first vertebra. You will see that the bones DO NOT TOUCH.
Pretty cool stuff, eh?
Just to highlight the some of the areas that we’ve covered in this blog, take a look at the next picture!
The highlighted areas above represent:
A helicopter in light green (right to left - cockpit, top propeller, back propeller)
Two darker green blobs at the back of the neck.
left most blob is a muscle from the skull to the second vertebra for turning the head left/right
right most blob is a muscle from the skull to the top vertebra AND the space between the skull and the spine.
Three yellow blobs:
The inner most yellow blob is the space at the back of the throat between the skull and the neck.
The top yellow blob is the tip top of the airway above the soft palate.
The remaining blob is right in front of the first and second vertebra.
In time, I want you to be able to feel these landmarks on your own AND feel them moving altogether with supple balance.
What Does Tension Feel Like?
I have written about stiff weight, dead weight, and sprung weight in the past. As you get a feel for the highlighted areas, you may begin to feel that there is a difference between the bones of the skull/face and the flesh surrounding it all.
When I am tense, I will feel
a dead or strained sensation in the yellow zone
a tense forehead
NOTHING at the back of my head
and not much of anything in the darker green zones.
Things feel HEAVY MAN and it’s almost as if the inner space of the throat, mouth, brain are pressing down. I don’t necessarily feel the weight of the skull crashing into the top vertebra of the neck, but I almost ALWAYS feel something icky and tight in the yellow zones.
This feeling of heavy and down is not because I’m looking down and looking down is bad. Nope. Looking down with balance is totally cool. I think this feeling of heaviness comes from the inner stuff of the head sinking down while the rest of us carries on with trying to be upright.
I’ll represent this with the world’s
SINGLE
GREATEST
ANATOMICAL
DRAWING
EVER!!!!!!
In short, we get tired and carry on doing whatever it is we feel like we need to do. Something internally goes into collapse and we get some kind of heavy feeling in the head. I’ve drawn the sinking down specifically the way that I have because the weight of the head is more forward relative to the spine. If things go dead and collapse, it’ll happen more or less as I’ve drawn it3.
When we find ourselves in this state of heaviness, we can use the landmarks I’ve written about to slowly find better balance. I did my best to draw this for you. Maybe it’s a helpful image!
I think it’s most important that you get some f*cking cool shades like this guy. If you don’t have cool shades it’s probably not possible to balance your head. But even if you don’t have the best shades on the planet, you can still put them on with your imagination and allow that head to balance.
The neck muscles do not need to be bullied about to achieve this. It is simply a matter of flying the helicopter and exploring if it is taking pressure off of the dark green and yellow zones. If done properly, the head will lead and the neck will follow. Never the other way around.
Thanks for Your Readership
This is post 96 of this little blog project of mine. I’m very much hoping these posts give you and my students helpful clues as to how this technique all fits together. It’s a damn simple tool in the end, but the hardest things to learn in life are often the simplest of things.
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In either case, you have my deep thanks for reading.
Get In Touch
If you’re in NYC, you may learn more about my private teaching practice at johndalto.com.
If you’d like to book any lesson time with me, you can find my booking link here.
The base of the neck - vertebrae 4-7ish - will need a lively rib cage and lower back to fully come alive AND the whole lot of you will need to be tending towards sprung weight.
I do not receive commission from this company, but I like their product and this is the source of these great images. There’s a TON of cool stuff in their library.
I’ve seen folks collapse in others ways so don’t take this direction as gospel. Figure out what’s going on with YOU!
I just binge read the 3 parts of freeing the neck, this is so helpful to my own journey! I’m writing about the Alexander Technique as a student and I have so many questions !
Definitely will read more and ask questions from the different articles you wrote! Thank you Jon!
This is so helpful. It makes me stop and think. I was playing squash recently, and looking at my opponent and how their body moved helped me almost second-guess where their weak spots were. I can see them in myself, too, where I try to correct myself to move more fluently. Thank you.