Glossary

Non-doing

‘Non-doing’ in the Alexander technique is used in the sense of what we should not do in the use of ourselves in life and our daily activities. In other words, non-doing is about preventing harmful or unnecessary habitual responses that lead to a misuse of our whole psychophysical selves.

Non-doing is a type of inhibition. (The Alexander directions are inhibitory in this sense. They aim to prevent unnecessary reaction, contraction, or strain within the body.)

Non-doing is fundamental in the Alexander technique; FM Alexander thought that:

“... it prevents the self from doing itself harm by misdirection of energy and uncontrolled reaction of the self: it is an act of inhibition which comes into play, when for instance, in response to a given stimulus, we refuse to give consent to certain activity, and thus prevent ourselves from sending those messages which would ordinarily bring about the habitual reaction resulting in the ‘doing’ within the self of what we no longer wish to ‘do’.”

At its heart, non-doing is about letting things be and allowing an appropriate response to occur, rather than habitually over-‘doing’ in an effort to achieve a certain goal or outcome.

Non-doing is not to be confused with either stopping rigid or passivity.

As Alexander also pointed out:

“You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you do know.”

See other glossary terms and definitions.