Glossary

Means / means whereby

The ‘means’ is the way in which a goal (or end) is achieved.

FM Alexander referred to the ‘means whereby’ as the process of how we use ourselves when responding or performing actions to gain a desired goal. He thought the means whereby an act was performed was more important than the gaining of the actual goal or end itself. He said, “the act performed is of less consequence than the manner of its performance”. Alexander very much believed that if we focused on the means whereby, the ends would take care of themselves.

In the Alexander technique, instead of focusing solely on our goal and forcing ourselves towards it at any cost (endgaining), we learn to stop (or inhibit) our habitual misuse and endgaining and to consciously direct ourselves and our activity in a new, improved way while performing our selected task.

This improved means whereby also tends to include:

• stopping to visualise a suitable course of action

• breaking down larger goals into small steps that are easy to perform

• focusing on performing each step at a time at a slow, steady, and achievable pace.

In Aldous Huxley’s words, this focus on the means whereby leads to an “increased consciousness of the physical means employed to gain the ends proposed by the will”. When we focus on the means whereby, we move towards having greater conscious control over our reactions and the actions to be performed. The result being that our goal is usually gained, and with more freedom and efficiency than it would be otherwise.

(It is worth noting sometimes in the process of considering the means whereby a goal should be achieved, we may realise that our goal is not a healthy or constructive one in its current form or timeframe. We may then need to adjust it to achieve a healthy result.)

See other glossary terms and definitions.