you’re not terribly unhappy to be here
probably you’re curious as to what I’m
going to talk to you about now consider
how you feel physically take a moment to
do a quick scan of your body from your
head down to your toes and just notice
if anything feels a little uncomfortable
maybe your backs a little sore from
sitting maybe your shoulders are a
little hunched up or your knees are
locked or you’re having trouble wiggling
your toes inside your shoes now there’s
no right or wrong answer here but just
hold this information in your mind and
now I’m going to have to ask you to take
a moment to worry think about a major
stressful time in your life or just the
daily stressors that you deal with on a
regular basis maybe it’s all the chores
you have to do this weekend or a
high-stakes deadline that is looming
maybe it’s a decision or a conversation
that you’ve been avoiding now with that
at the forefront of your mind take a
moment to scan your body once more toast
a head a head to toes and notice if
anything feels any different maybe
there’s a little more tension or
discomfort if that’s the case you’ve
just experienced the startle pattern
there it is the startled petting or what
many people know as the fight-or-flight
response now a man named Frank Pierce
Jones studied the startle pattern in
detail and determined that it is
remarkably similar across all mammals
every time that it occurs when we are
nervous or spooked or stressed the first
thing that happens is that our head is
thrust slightly backwards in relation to
our spine after that the rest of the
muscles in our body tighten up now this
prepares us to do the gross motor tasks
that are fighting or running away and it
works very well if we are cave people
running from a saber-toothed tiger
unfortunately in 21st century America
and indeed the modern world it poses a
couple of problems to illustrate this
I’m a college student and I get nervous
when I have to write timed essays if
you’ve never had the privilege of
writing a timed essay before what
happens is you you know walk into your
classroom paper and pen in hand your
professor hands you a question you then
have about an hour or so to answer it to
the fullest extent that you can in that
time now when I get nervous for this I
go into the startle pattern so my
muscles tighten up unfortunately though
I cannot fight my essay nor can I flee
from it and expect passable results
indeed I have to write the essay and
doing so is actually made more difficult
because of my tight muscles you can
imagine my writing becomes more sloppy
and it also becomes slower which makes
it harder for me to communicate the
ideas in my head so we have this problem
here that we get stressed we go into the
startle pattern so our muscles tighten
up and we can’t communicate and the
reason that we can’t communicate is that
fine motor tasks are how we communicate
in our modern society these as we’ve
already mentioned include writing but
also visual arts typing music dance and
stem these things such as computer
programming and computer aided design
now this problem is farther compounded
because Jones also studied what he
called the chronic startle pattern which
is basically the idea that in
modern world there are people who are
nervous and stressed not just once in a
while but all of the time this means
that they’re constantly walking around
in a startled pattern with type muscles
this means that they are constantly
inhibited in their ability to do fine
motor tasks and it is constantly more
difficult for them to communicate this
is something that I personally
experienced two years ago I’m a music
education major here at Valparaiso
University and two years ago I was
studying primarily keyboard organ and
piano I would practice for hours upon
hours a day and feel that I wasn’t
making very many results or much
progress after a while I noticed that my
wrists began to burn and tingle from all
of my practicing a trip to the doctor
informed me that I had carpal tunnel
syndrome and tendinitis in my right
wrist now carpal tunnel and tendinitis
are both repetitive strain injuries
which means they occur when stress or
strain has been put on the muscles
tendons and nerves of the body
repeatedly now this came as a bit of a
shock to me because of course I hadn’t
intentionally hurt myself let alone
doing it over and over and over again
and I was left wondering what I had done
so constantly and so almost consciously
to myself to do this so what I learned
was that I had been in the chronic
startle pattern basically I was so
nervous about all of the deadlines that
I had to meet to play the piano recital
to say that I would get tense every time
I went to practice with tight muscles I
was unable to do the fine-motor task
that is playing the piano
so here I was looking for a way to break
the cycle how could I maybe be a little
stressed but not going to the startle
pattern so that my muscles wouldn’t
tighten up so that I would still have
the ability to communicate through my
music now one method that I learned
about is called the Alexander Technique
the Alexander Technique is a method for
changing habits that was developed in
the 1900s by educator and actor FM
Alexander it is commonly used today by
musicians actors and dancers among
others who wish to increase their fine
motor capabilities now the Alexander
Technique suggests that the reason that
we go into the chronic startle pattern
is that people are willing to do things
just any old way to accomplish a goal he
termed this end gaining so the idea is
we’re just rushing willy-nilly to get to
that end point instead of focusing on
how we get there an example of this
might be if I had a report to do on the
computer my temptation might be to sit
down begin typing as fast as I can and
not stop until it’s done unfortunately
that can cause the problem of the
startle pattern so Alexander suggested
another option which he called the means
whereby now the means whereby
essentially means breaking up our end
goal into smaller chunks for one thing
and this eliminates the startle pattern
in the sense that we are less nervous
for the end goal because we see how we
can reach it through these smaller steps
so that’s thing one the other thing that
the means whereby suggest is that we are
constantly checking in with ourselves
physically asking ourselves how we’re
feeling as we do a task so if I were
trying to write a paper I would use the
first part of the means whereby to break
it into smaller chunks I might write one
page and then go take a walk around the
second part though is making sure that
my computer typing is healthy that I’m
sitting in a way that is not
uncomfortable to me as I’ve been working
through my attention and my tight
muscles I’ve learned that it doesn’t
feel good to have tight shoulders or
arms all of the time and so by reminding
myself that when I don’t feel
comfortable I should take a break and
make sure that I can regain a sense of
comfort breaks the startle pattern
because it makes us feel less nervous
even if I am nervous it gives me a
chance to sort of come back and say okay
let’s find a neutral more healthy
position now obviously I was asked here
today to speak to you about
conversations that inspire action why
not today
and some of you are probably wondering
what this has to do with it all well you
can change your approach in your actions
today inspire others to do the same we
have seen that the startle pattern
inhibits people’s ability to communicate
imagine how different our society would
be if everyone could communicate the
ideas in their heads
there it is in their heads and in their
hearts though don’t get too caught up on
what might be Alexander would call that
end gaining instead focus on what can be
you can change your own habits today and
inspire others to do the same imagine
the potential for dialog that would
exist if everyone could communicate
thank you [Applause]