The Force of Habit — by Selma Gokcen

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The Force of Habit — by Selma Gokcen

“You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.”

“We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains.”
—F.M. Alexander

My Alexander teacher is always speaking about the force of habit and the difficulty of keeping the mind on a new track, when, for example, a simple decision is made not to lift an arm or get out of the chair in the usual way. Our kinaesthetic sense, the sense of our muscles in movement, is of little help here. We measure effort by how something feels, and that feeling is our habit. To give up wanting to feel our way forward in the early stages of Alexander Technique lessons comes down to a battle with habit, which is pulling us toward the familiar all the time. How much are we able to empty the mind of the familiar and allow a new experience to take place?

Krishnamurti, the Indian teacher and sage, wrote a book called Freedom from the Known. His premise is that we almost never have a completely new experience because our mental associations formed of past experiences come into play automatically. We look to categorise, to relate, to associate and eventually to place the Unknown safely within the confines of our known world.

An Alexander Technique lesson, if properly shared, is a constant adventure into the Unknown. Because the first step is to come into quiet, emptying the mind of expectation or preparation, in a state of waiting, a new experience can be had in the moment if one is willing to give up the familiar. And there is the challenge.

Giving up a familiar groove, a familiar feeling, a familiar person, place or object is like losing a part of ourselves. We’d rather do anything else! Joseph Campbell speaks of transition in the sense of shedding old skin; giving up a habit can feel as if we are being stripped of what helps us to cope, to act, to be.

Sometimes the experience of the new is exhilarating, but it can also be terribly disorienting, painful and destabilising. Change is often not what we want if we are honest. Alexander commented that although people express the desire for change, what they want down deep is to remain the same.

For musicians, change can also be frightening because they spend their entire childhood learning to play their instrument a certain way. To begin to unravel the chain of habits takes time, courage, hard work and a keen mind. Sometimes it is just too much to ask when a living has to be made. In the end it is the individual’s decision as to how far to go, and how much to give up to gain the pearl of great price, self-knowledge. Bargains are only made with the Devil; the Angels ask for everything.

By Selma Gokcen|2021-10-18T12:14:27-04:00October 2nd, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: adventure, expectation, lessons, muscular tension, cello, exhilarating, transitions, Experience, Alexander Technique, Preparation, Gokcen, safety, movement, musicians, Selma, challenges, Mind, effort, Habits, Force of Habit|

About the Author: Selma Gokcen

Selma Gokcen, born in America of Turkish parentage, has received critical acclaim for her imaginative programming. Along with Bernard Greenhouse and Jonathan Kramer, she presented a programme at London’s South Bank Centre, in New York and at the Kennedy Center entitled Pablo Casals: Artist of Conscience, celebrating the life and music of the legendary cellist.

Ms. Gokcen has performed with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Presidential Symphony in Ankara, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Aspen Philharmonia, among others. Her recital appearances have taken her to such cities as Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Palm Beach, Charleston, S.C., and to Belgium, Italy and Turkey. In South America, she has toured under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. She has concertized in Australia and New Zealand, and given master classes in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

In addition to solo appearances, she is an accomplished chamber musician and has participated in the Chamber Music West Festival in San Francisco, the Southeastern Music Festival, the Hindemith Festival in Oregon, and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

Ms. Gokcen holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts, as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, William Lincer and Robert Mann. She was awarded a First Prize from the Geneva Conservatory of Music as a pupil of Guy Fallot, and also studied privately with Pierre Fournier. In 1999 she was chosen by one of Spain’s greatest composers, Xavier Montsalvatge, to record his complete works for cello. She has also recorded Songs and Dances in Switzerland for the Gallo label.

In 1988, Ms. Gokcen became interested in the Alexander Technique, prompted by a lifelong fascination with the roots of habits and the difficulties of modifying them. Students often entered her cello studio seeking changes but unable to resolve their problems.

Eventually her reading brought her to the Alexander Technique, a discipline described by its founder as “learning to do consciously what nature intended”. She came to London in 1994 and enrolled in a teacher training program at the Centre for the Alexander Technique.

Ms Gokcen was qualified as a fully-fledged teacher by the Society for Teachers of the Alexander Technique in 1998. In September 2000 she was appointed to the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she is also a professor of cello. She works with string, wind and brass players, singers and composers. She also incorporates her Alexander Technique teaching as part of her cello studio.

The Alexander Technique embraces what is today called holistic thinking–an indivisibility of the mind-body connection and the awakening of awareness of what Alexander called the “use of the whole self”, which affects our functioning in all our activities, especially the highly complex skill of music-making. It is particularly useful in addressing breathing, coordination, and muscle tensions. Most importantly, the quality of attention developed through the practice of the Technique can transform a musician’s relationship with their instrument and their audience.

Selma Gokcen is also the co-founder and Co-Chair of the London Cello Society.