Alexander and Du

The Du mai (Governing channel) starts out in the pelvis, runs up through the spine, and dives deep into the brain.

It is one of the first Qi pathways to form in humans.

Actually, "channel" and "pathway" aren't the best words here.

The Du mai is a "Sea", a vast reservoir of Qi. Other Qi pathways flow into and out of it.

It is a storehouse of energy, warmth, activity, and transformative potential. All physiological activities draw from it, and all manner of physical, mental, and emotional dysfunctions can arise from its blockage - like when the spine is compressed or misaligned.

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F.M. Alexander was born in Tasmania in 1869. His first career was as a reciter of dramatic and humorous content.

Unfortunately, he quickly developed vocal troubles and nearly lost his voice. No doctor could help him, so he conducted his own research.

He observed himself in the mirror while doing his recitations and noticed that his voice was at its worst when he adopted the postures appropriate to the characters he was portraying. In other words, when his body was contorted out of natural alignment.

Over several agonizing years, he worked diligently to improve his posture and body mechanics and thus restored his natural voice.

During the same period, he observed his fellow humans and found that the majority stood, sat, and moved in an equally defective manner.

He became a kind of missionary, teaching people how to restore proper skeletal alignment and use of the musculature.

In the process, he discovered that he could alleviate all manner of physical, mental, and emotional illnesses.

His technique (the Alexander Technique) is an evidence-based intervention taught all over the world today.

It begins and ends with a stacked and elongated spine.

I studied Alexander Technique as a teen. I've been thinking about it a lot lately while Hillary and I sit and recite our favorite gratitude ritual each morning.

I imagine the crown of my head suspended from a string attached to the ceiling. Then, one by one, I imagine the spaces between the vertebrae of my spine opening up, from occiput to tailbone.

Actor Kevin Kline wrote in 1990 that the benefits of the Alexander Technique included for him "...about an inch and a half of additional height."

I don't know about that. But I feel my voice become liberated, my muscles relax, and a soft vibration fills my spine and limbs.

I'm not aware that F.M. Alexander ever talked about the Du mai. But he sure knew how to free it.

Du mai

F.M. Alexander and client

Second-night blues

There's a famous story about acting duo Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt from the 1920s or 30s.

They were trying out a new play in Boston. Lunt got a great laugh from the audience one night when, during a loud and chaotic diner scene, he gestured to the waitress and dryly asked, "May I have a cup of tea?"

In subsequent performances in New York, the laughs didn't come. Lunt was discouraged. He asked Fontanne what he was doing wrong. "My dear," she said, "you're asking for the laugh. You used to ask for a cup of tea."

Every actor knows this story. I remember, on many occasions, experiencing what we called the "Second-Night Blues":

An opening-night performance would go exceptionally well. We had energy. We got laughs, tears, and cheers. Then we'd show up on night two and look for the same to happen again. But it didn't.

Because we stopped doing all the great things we had practiced (the things that got us results on night one) and started actively anticipating the results. We stopped asking for the tea.

I think the same thing happens to us all the time in real life.

In a moment, we find our confidence, our bliss, our sense of peace. We think, "Finally, I've got it!"

And then, in subsequent moments, we try to recreate the feeling. And the feeling stops.

That's because we're trying to recreate the feeling instead of reliving the process that birthed the feeling in the first place:

• When we made a social connection

• When we engaged with a project

• When we spent time actively learning

• When we took up a cause

• When we helped another person

• When we discovered a new idea

• When we took responsibility for our own well-being

• When we slowed down

• When we sped up

• When we got off the couch

• When we got out from behind the desk

• When we stopped griping

• When we did something for ourself

Ask for the tea.

Summer freak out

Everything is made of Qi and there is a free exchange of Qi between our bodies and the outside environment.

Every year at this time, usually while driving home in the afternoon, Hillary and I will remark: "Summer must really be here, people are freaking out."

Summer is the season of exuberance, symbolized by Fire. Qi in Nature is hot and upward moving (yang).

Those among us with internal sluggishness and cold will finally feel normal. A well-balanced individual might feel a touch of laxity (as tissues expand) or disagreeableness (as heat rises to the head).

Those among us with internal heat will go some degree of crazy.

These are the tailgaters, the road ragers, the speed demons. The jaywalkers and the shirtless shouters.