What Happens When You Stop Defining? Inhibition in the Alexander Technique | Tommy Thompson Class 71
❝ What if every definition you carry about yourself is the very thing that keeps you from truly experiencing who you are? ❞
That question isn’t abstract. It cuts right into how you move, breathe, and relate. It points to inhibition—not as denial, but as the rare pause before your habits take over.
On September 4, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Tommy Thompson led a class in the Alexander Technique teacher training course that showed how quickly we define—and how powerfully we can let go. The Alexander Technique here was not about posture correction but about perception, about discovering wellness as something lived.
The moment you drop definition, even for a breath, you meet yourself differently. Touch becomes dialogue. The head–neck relationship becomes a living question. And inhibition, a practice of freedom. With Tommy’s voice and hands guiding, trainees discovered that awareness is not thought—it is experience, again and again.
Key Objectives of the Class:
- To explore inhibition as pausing before habit, withholding definition, and creating new space.
- To see how the head–neck orientation shapes the whole body’s coordination.
- To practice touch as reciprocal, where teaching is also learning.
- To recognize that real Alexander Technique work opens awareness, not correction.
This blog series is based on Tommy Thompson’s Alexander Technique classes. Each post follows the flow and insights of the class to expand both self-awareness and practical consciousness applicable to everyday life.
New here?
If you’re new to the Alexander Technique, you can start with the resources below.
Alexander Technique Class Flow at a Glance
1. The Opening Question
❝ Are you really seeing—or are you only looking through the lens of memory and definition? ❞
That’s the question. It cuts deeper than you think. Because most of the time, you’re not seeing—you’re remembering. You’re defining. And the second you define, the moment is already gone.
Tommy pressed this point again and again: the shift between looking and seeing is the doorway to inhibition. Not holding back in fear, but pausing long enough for something new to appear. The pause is where perception breathes.
You think you’re meeting another person. But are you? Or are you meeting your own definitions of them? That subtle moment—when you notice the filter sliding in—that’s the living practice.
Tommy’s Word
“So now, sense what you might have defined. There’s nothing wrong with it—except you’re looking, you’re not seeing. Looking tends to involve memory. It’s best to drop as much definition as you possibly can, if you’re able to.”
→ Tommy shows that withholding definition is not rejection but release. It gives your nervous system the chance to work as it’s designed. When you let go of naming, you don’t lose contact—you gain presence.
2. Core Learnings from This Class
Are you seeing people — or defining them?
In this moment from the Alexander Technique teacher training course in Boston, Tommy Thompson explores how unconscious patterns shape the way we perceive others.
Rather than reacting to what we think we see, he invites trainees to practice withholding definition, allowing perception to become clearer and more responsive.
Watch how a simple pause in interpretation creates space for the organism to respond differently.
Alexander Technique: Are You Seeing People or Defining Them?
Class 71 · September 4, 2025 · Boston, MA
Core Concepts
- Inhibition as withholding definition
Not stopping movement, but pausing long enough for the nervous system to respond without the weight of habit. - Head–neck orientation as central coordination
The head’s relation to the body organizes everything—breath, support, and presence. - Touch as reciprocal awareness
Touch and be touched. Real change emerges in the exchange, not in correction. - Teaching as learning
A teacher who isn’t learning is stuck. True teaching is reciprocal humility. - Choice and awareness as freedom
Conscious choice appears when awareness interrupts old patterns.
Five Key Messages
- The moment you stop defining, perception opens.
- Orientation of the head changes everything else in the system.
- Touch and be touched—awareness flows both ways.
- Teaching without learning is no teaching at all.
- Choice lives where awareness and inhibition meet.
Essential Terms
Inhibition
The conscious pause before action, giving space for something unhabitual to arise.
Definition
The unconscious labeling of people or events; dropping it allows fresh perception.
Mechanical Advantage
The free neck, forward-and-up head, and lengthening spine that unlock natural coordination.
Reciprocity in Touch
The mutual exchange where both people are changed—touch and be touched.
Orientation of the Head
The dynamic head–body relationship that governs the organism’s coordination.
Choice
The living possibility that opens when awareness interrupts habit; freedom begins here.
Teacher–Student Reciprocity
Teaching and learning as one process; the teacher learns through every act of touch.
3. Tommy’s Insights
In Tommy’s words during class, there are not only the core principles of the Alexander Technique, but also practical wisdom that can be applied directly to daily life. His words go beyond simple advice about movement and prompt us to deeply consider how we choose to exist.When you shake hands with someone, or you touch someone, you’re affecting them through the way you’re using yourself—so not much happens. There’s no real contact being made.
➤ Contact is determined not by the hand, but by how you are organizing yourself.
Now, if you’re non-habitual and you start to shake hands with someone, you’re together enough that when you shake hands with them, they offer their hand in a different way. Because most people just offer their hand naturally, with nothing there except a squeeze. And the squeeze comes from here—from the wrist to the fingers. That’s it.
➤ When habit is inhibited, the handshake shifts from a local squeeze to an exchange organized through the whole system.
If you’re shaking hands from an Alexander point of view, you shake hands knowing that your grasp belongs to the back—and it does belong to the back muscles.
➤ The hand is not primary; it is the visible extension of the back’s support and the organism’s upright organization.
The inspansion is connected when you shake a person’s hand.
➤ Inspansion reflects the subtle inward–outward coordination that sustains uprightness within a shared field of gravity.
When you shake hands with someone, you don’t leave yourself. You shake from where you are, rather than where you’re going.
➤ True presence arises when intention does not outrun embodiment.
The brain is not teaching how to stand—it’s teaching how not to fall. Standing is the consequence.
➤ Uprightness emerges from refined inhibition within the gravitational field, not from muscular achievement.
It’s all designed to free the neck. Everything we do, anywhere in the body, is designed to free you.
➤ When the neck is free, primary movement resumes and the whole system reorganizes toward integration.
You go into the tissue with just enough pressure to excite the muscle tissue to release.
➤ Non-manipulative touch stimulates the organism’s intrinsic capacity for self-regulation rather than imposing correction.
4. Practical Tips for Everyday Life
What’s the Goal?
Not to fix yourself. Not to do more. The goal is to notice. To pause. To let the system reveal itself instead of rushing into habit.
How to Practice
- Pause before you act. Before you stand, before you reach, before you speak—stop for a moment. That pause is inhibition.
- Let the head–neck lead. Allow the neck to be free so it lengthens, and let the head move away from the body, directing forward and up. See what changes in your breathing, your balance.
- Touch and be touched. When you place a hand—or when someone touches you—don’t just give. Receive. Let the exchange shape you.
What You’ll Notice
Movement feels lighter. Sitting or standing feels supported, not forced. Encounters with people feel more open. Life stops being mechanical repetition and begins to feel like lived experience—fresh, alive, present.
5. Closing the Class
Key Takeaways
This class was never about techniques in isolation. It was about what happens when you pause long enough to stop defining. When you free the neck. When you let touch be an exchange. When you teach as you learn.
Core Insights
“If you feel that you are in support, you’re not looking for support all the time.”
Tommy reminded us that we are designed to be supported. Inhibition is not loss of action but rediscovery of what is already given. The head–neck orientation is not posture—it is the living axis of presence. And awareness is not added effort—it is what emerges when habit steps aside.
A Final Invitation
As Tommy often urged, “The moment you stop defining, perception opens.” That’s not just a classroom exercise. It is a way to meet yourself, to meet others, and to meet life. The invitation is simple: carry this practice into the ordinary. Each breath, each touch, each choice is a chance to live with more freedom, more presence, more wellness.
6. One Key Practice
Pause. Just pause
Before you move. Before you speak. Before you fix. One breath, nothing more. That’s inhibition.
You think you have to act. You don’t. Not yet. Wait long enough, and the nervous system will show you another way.
Try it when you stand up. Try it when you meet someone’s eyes. Try it when you reach for your phone. The moment you pause, everything shifts—lighter, freer, supported.
7. Three Questions to Ask Yourself
- When you look at someone, are you actually seeing them—or only your memory of them?
Stop for a moment. What happens if you don’t define? - As you start to move, is your neck really free?
Or are you already holding yourself before you even begin? - Right now—do you feel supported?
Or are you still looking for support you already have?
8. For Those Who Wish to Learn More
Recommended Book
Freedom to Change: The Development and Science of the Alexander Technique – Frank Pierce Jones
This book names exactly what we practiced today. Jones shows that inhibition is the pause that opens freedom—not stopping life, but letting it reorganize. He explains why the head–neck orientation governs everything, how touch works as a dialogue, and why trusting the body’s design matters more than forcing it.
Tommy often quoted Jones because the message is the same: freedom is not something you make—it’s something you allow.
9. Next Class Sneak Peek
Official Website of Tommy Thompson
www.easeofbeing.com
This is the official website personally managed by Tommy Thompson, offering a wide range of resources and programs to deepen your understanding and practice of the Alexander Technique:
- Private session reservations and inquiries
- Workshop and seminar schedules
- Overview of international teacher training programs
- Essays and articles on the Alexander Technique
10. Join the Alexander Technique Journey
Did this class leave a small resonance within you? Feel free to quietly hold it in your heart or share it in just a sentence or two. The comments are always open. Your one simple word may leave a gentle ripple in this ongoing journey.The journey of Resonance Flow continues across social media as well. Let’s continue this journey together.
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