Posture Release Imagery

Posture Release Imagery (PRI) was developed as a result of my contact with the Alexander Technique and my effort to explain the Alexander Technique to people unfamiliar with it. The usefulness of specific imagery during lessons, and to myself, became apparent and, as a result, the imagery developed considerably beyond the generally accepted scope of the Alexander Technique.

Over the years, this mental imagery has developed, with a dominant use of the “right brain,” into a new means of understanding and experiencing, in the body, improved use of ourselves. The experiences, when repeated, bring about an understanding, both intellectually and internally (kinesthetically), of new principles concerning:

    - the nature of ideal structure (posture)
    - the nature of ideal movement control
    - the elements involved in ‘uprighting’
    - the origin of graceful movement
    - a range of posture, movement,
            and personality styles

PRI is both therapeutic and educational. The imagery, some of it visual, some of it related to the senses of the surface of our body (somatosenses), alters habitual response.

The images rest on the notion that something significant, though not necessarily conscious, comes to us from our distant past. Can it be that we control our support against the force of gravity in the same way as do all land-bound creatures (terrestrial tetrapods)? Could the relationship of the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body be key to appropriate support or posture of all these creatures? Are there common principles in movement control and movement execution that all creatures have… and we frequently manage to ignore? With PRI experience, the answer to these questions and others seems to be yes.

The type of imagery proposed here is “whole-body.” It entails imagining visual and sensational changes to the entire body surface. Many of the best effects are not present until virtually the whole body is involved in the imagery. In this sense, I consider it unique. Many other sorts of imagery are used in therapies and disciplines such as dance, yoga, tai chi, and sports.

To understand the specific principles of healthy structure (posture) and movement that this imagery work has revealed, it will require reading one or two of my articles and some experimenting with the imagery exercises found in these articles and on the blog. However, those principles are listed below and quickly described. The sequence is not necessarily in order of importance:

NINE PRINCIPLES

1. The tactile/kinesthetic sensations we experience, whether we subconsciously and tacitly permit them or actively promote them (as in the imagery), determine the arrangement of our structure, for good or for ill.

2.

Healthy and efficient support of our structure (and that of probably all land-bound tetrapods) comes from the appropriate relationship of the dorsal and ventral surfaces.   This relationship is the following - that the entire dorsal surface gently expands upward and outward and the entire ventral surface gently contracts downward and inward, to provide the most efficient response to gravity. This response is the neurological model for the proper positioning of the skeletal system by means of the muscular system.

3.

It is important for the left and the right sides of the body to be free of cross-body tensions in order to do many things well. More graceful movement is attained when these segments are felt or imagined to be substantially free and independent of each other.

4.

                                                      The body is made up of three functional parts that help determine posture and movement. I call them the “director, motor, and rudder” segments. These segments have rather distinct functions in support and movement. More graceful posture and movement is attained when these segments are felt and imagined to be substantially free of each other to carry out their separate functions.
 
5.

 The border area between the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body is of prime importance in both perception and locomotion. Perception and movement seem to originate there. Subtle and graceful responses originate along this border or “seam.”
 
6.

   Early organisms’ methods of locomotion (peristalsis, lateral undulation, and dorsoventral undulation) became the model for neurologically directing graceful and efficient movement of appendages (limbs or wings, for example) in higher life forms. (This idea is not new, perhaps, but its implications can be more valuable to our health and use than is generally accepted.) It is valuable to think of easy or graceful movement as being the consequence of body surface flow rather than just the sense of muscle contraction and release. 
 
7.

There is a meaningful and historical connection between elemental locomotion and elemental emotion. (This assertion is made by others as well. However,  I have some illustrations that begin to suggest how more precisely it is true.)
 
8.

Muscle tonus patterns in the head, neck, and front portion of the shoulder and arms are, in undisturbed function, repeated in the rest of the body. This assertion is made toward the bottom of my list but may be the most important. It suggests that the tonal patterns of the face, head, neck, and the front portion of the shoulder and arms repeat themselves below, through the remainder of the body. 
 
9.

     The various patterns of muscle tonus, which create frozen waves, make up a typology of tendencies in posture, movement, emotion, and gender.

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