Moving, feeling and thinking beautifully
(or being three years old at least once a day)

Nick Mellor - Alexander Technique (AT), Oneness Deeksha

Nick has been interested in self-development all his life and has been teaching the Alexander Technique for 9 years. Aged 14, a keen walker, he noticed a growing tension in his lower back. In his early twenties he damaged this same part of his back in a lifting accident. Then, working as a computing professional, he began to lose the use of his hands. First he couldn't type accurately, then his fingers started to hurt badly. After briefly turning to professional travel writing (losing the use of his hands again and encoutering writer's block) Nick trained for three years full-time to become an Alexander Technique teacher with a team led by Margaret Rakusen (article by Margaret), Lena Schibel-Mason and Mark Tolson. His teachers encompassed the varied traditions of Walter Carrington, Yehuda Kuperman and Don Burton and brought their own prior  understanding of Yoga, meditation, the Metamorphic Technique, physiotherapy and Steiner-Waldorf education.

"My teachers had an extraordinary respect for each person's learning. 3 months into my training both the repetitive strain injury and the back pain were in full flight. And then there were even more important discoveries: I began to find everything pleasurable and interesting, even simple movements like opening a door or walking down the street.

“I was someone who used my body rather brutally, hoiking myself around, almost wading with my legs when I walked, straining my neck, back, arms and hands with every movement. I was very unaware and could walk across town in a dream without noticing much that was going on around me. I’d have been the worse police witness in the world! My head was deep in a computer program a lot of the time.

“I needed to learn to be present. That meant seeing in front of me, to the sides, above and below, allowing myself to feel my body from start to finish in every activity, whether it’s sitting in a chair, typing a sentence, washing up dishes, hammering a nail or playing the piano.

“No-one should feel frightened of being a slow learner. In many ways I was the slowest learner you could ever hope to meet. And yet over time, I learned something wonderful and long-lasting about myself. I discovered that I was giving myself a very difficult time and that there was no need to. Despite a seemingly weak and injured lower back I was strong, flexible, full of curiosity and human potential. That was what I’d forgotten in the throes of a back injury, increasingly painful hands and a foggy head. At my worst all I could see was “I can’t write. I can’t type. I can’t sleep. I can't smile. I can’t possibly bring up my own children feeling like this. All I could see were closed doors. But all I really needed to do is to see whether those doors were in fact closed. Actually, they weren't!

"In my experience people are constantly surprised by how understanding and non-judgmental Alexander Technique teachers are. We are wonderful people, of course, but mainly I think it's because Alexander teachers have all been through the exact same process as our pupils have: making mistakes, learning to love our mistakes and our triumphs equally, learning to appreciate ourselves, discovering our own enormous resources. The first thing that needs to go if you want to make real change in your life is self-blame. The second thing that needs to go is blaming others.

“To some people, the idea of being self-aware all the time makes them feel self-conscious, false and full of effort. Nothing could be further from the truth. For me, it’s about seeing in glorious technicolor, enjoying every moment of being alive, feeling light, free, creative and strong. It means really knowing that you're male or female. It means knowing what you need and understanding immediately and viscerally when someone tries to wield power over you, even someone who cares about you and thinks they're acting for the best. It means standing in your own strength.

“It’s that hidden human potential that is my passion. So much of our energy is bound up with pointless effort, muscle fighting muscle, joints grinding, thoughts fighting to convince us that we’re worth less than we are. So much of our self-worth and self-respect gets tied up fighting off the messages we send ourselves through our conditioning: we’re small, we’re weak, we're ridiculous, we’re ineffective, we're lazy, we can’t do it, we’ll always be in pain.

“There are many things I love about the Technique, but here are three: its wordlessness, its sunny, simple, positive approach to living and its constant focus on what is happening now rather than what has happened in the past.

“The Alexander Technique’s wordlessness is the language of touch. Words can mislead and misrepresent, but touch is far clearer and more direct.

I do speak in lessons, but the main event is that I apply the Alexander Technique to myself, and touch you at the same time. Your nervous system reads the invitation in my nervous system and spontaneously, using its own intelligence, starts to change. The change is faster and deeper than it can be through words alone.

“The two teachers who influenced me most are Joan Diamond and Peter Bloch. Joan has a fiery, powerful presence as a teacher, like the sun shining on you through her hands. From her I absorbed the fierceness and power of our will to live and thrive and her wonderful story-telling and imagery. Peter has an extraordinary ability to hold someone safe while they make their own discoveries. There is a simplicity, modesty and compassion about his teaching that I aspire to.

“As an Alexander teacher I’m trained specifically not to address symptoms. It's one of the hardest things to learn, not to rescue or "fix" people, which essentially takes their power away from them. It takes all of three years to learn just this.

"If you come to me with a bad back or depression, your bad back or depression will be mentioned either not at all, or a few times during the first session. I’m not there to fix you or rescue you but to teach you skills that keep your own almost boundless ability to heal and develop in full view.

“What I discovered for myself, much to my own surprise, was that my injured back was not nearly as injured as I thought it was. When I lifted my friend over a puddle in 1990 I damaged my sacroilliac joint and spent several years in constant discomfort and pain, unable to run, carry a suitcase or stay in one position for more than a few seconds. During that time I sat a computer for much of my waking life until my hands also seemed to give up.

“In conventional terms, the lifting ‘caused’ my back injury and the sitting at a computer ‘hurt my hands.’ Many GPs and therapists accept this view more or less uncritically, but it is mostly false. The all-important questions are ‘how did you lift?’ ‘how did you sit to make things worse?’ and ‘Is there something you could do differently now?’ Not to mention 'How are my back and my hands related?'

“If you’re ready to think differently about yourself, to learn to see your potential rather than your limitations, your wholeness rather than your scatteredness and damage, I’d be delighted to talk to you about the Alexander Technique.”
 

Nick Mellor works at Healing Well on weekday evenings and at 5 Campbell Street, Newstead at other times. He can be reached on 1300 485 114. His own website (www.back-pain-self-help.com) offers free advice and resources for people suffering from back pain.

Articles by Nick

The Alexander Technique (AT). Nick describes how gentleness, respect and persuasion work better than forcing through change.

Ageing and the Alexander Technique. Nick describes how some things we call "ageing" are not ageing at all, but a set of self-defeating habits that you can undo. Ready to feel young again?

The Importance of Feeling-- Repetitive Strain Injuries. Nick describes how Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) can be seen not as medical conditions but as a learnt lack of awareness that can be unlearned. He describes his own experiences with RSI as a student of the Alexander Technique.

Good Backs, Bad Backs and Back Pain. Nick Mellor has a hard time believing that your back pain is for life. "For most of us a good back is something we learn," he suggests, "not something we're handed on a plate."
 

Qualifications

Deeksha: Level 1 (Golden City, Varadajapalyem, Tamil Nadu, 2008)

Alexander Technique: M. STAT (NETCAT, Leeds, UK, 2002)

Other: M.A. Linguistics (1991), B.Sc. (Hons) Computational Science (1989)