Camilla Lewis Niamh Moore Ageing, mobility and moving through life: Findings from the Step-Change project

Introduction How does the Alexander sub-study compare with the main study? How can we use the findings to rework the literature on mobility?

Aims To explore themes from the main study Ageing Narratives of ageing differ in the Alexander Technique study

Ageing in the main study

‘I don’t want to become old. I don’t. Erm, if I become--, no I don’t want to become old. I don’t ever want to be dependent on people. I don’t know that it should happen, but I will fight it as long as I can. No I do not. I remember watching my mother and it’s not going to happen to me. So yeah, I don’t--, do not--, yeah, it’s probably a mental thing, but it’s not going to happen to me, definitely not, no. And at the moment, it’s not. Erm, I’m perfectly capable of doing what I want to do.’ ‘Age has got to catch up with me some time, but there are--, you still see people that have been through the war that are still physically fit, so I hope to--, I hope--, I don’t want to grow old. I don’t want to be a burden on anybody. I am too proud to allow--, yeah, mentally I couldn’t hack it, I could not, definitely not.’ - 67 year old man living in Manchester

‘I mean I am 71 now and I still--, mentally I think that I’m still,you know, that part still works fine. Mobility starts to become an issue ; for example, my wife’s had a problem recently with her knee and her foot and all of a sudden something changes from the norm--, every day norm and some things are different. So it’s those sort of things, mobility particularly and sort of maintaining your way of life that are issues.’ - a 71 year old man in Manchester

‘When you’re younger, in your mid 20s you never think you’re going to get old, no, I’m alright. And then you get to 30 and you think, oh yes I’m alright, then 40, then 50, and you start thinking, oh well hair starts falling out, your teeth start falling out, start growing hair in your ears and nose, I think for me it’s been unable to do things I used to be able to do….and as I say the biggest thing for me, things I can’t do now what I used to be able to do. And you just adjust accordingly, alright I can’t do that anymore so I won’t do it. And just, as I say, you adjust, alter your lifestyle to suit. You get a lot more aches and pains as you get older as well, yeah.’

‘So the stages sort of 60 to 70 has been--, yeah, it’s been okay. All the little health problems sort of bring to mind that you’re getting older. I think 70 to 80 will be more significant in that mobility may not be quite as easy. Hopefully, you know, you can keep going mentally which is very important but I would guess at some time in the next ten years we will have to start to think about where we live in terms of ease of access to services and things like that and possibly moving closer to town.’ - 71 year old man living in Manchester

Analysis Not one unified perspective on ageing But general theme of pessimism

Ageing in the Alexander Technique interviews

‘I think the Alexander Technique has impacted, you know, massively on the way that I think about everything. I think again it’s that feeling of potential for change all the time, that you can improve things, that it’s not set in stone and it’s about shifting your perspective. So therefore, yes, I think it has made me feel better about it [getting older], and I can see that I can maintain my mobility through this practice, there’s no doubt. I have no doubt that it will help me with that, to remain mobile. Obviously, you don’t know what’s going to happen, we’re all going to get something, but I think it’s very powerful in relieving uncomfortability, uncomfortableness.’

‘I think it is something which can give you hope and understanding of what’s happening to you. And if you can understand the body and what’s actually happening to it, you feel more in control of it and therefore you’ll not feel so dependent on trusting the medical practitioners as they are generally in Britain, which--, you know, I mean, I do in times of trouble, but on the whole I’d rather understand it myself and have some degree of control over what happens to me, and I think Alexander Technique gives you that.’

‘…but I am less mobile, there’s no question about that. So I feel a little bit on the stairs sometimes, I feel less--, my balance isn’t as good and I’m less mobile. So going up and down stairs, carrying things, I feel sometimes like, which would be a bit shocking maybe ‘cause I’m not that old, but I feel like I’m older than I am. You know, I’ve compared myself to my mum and I’m thinking well, you know, she’s a bit worse than me, she’s not that much worse and she certainly wasn’t like me at my age, so I’m hoping that I’ll get that balance back and that confidence and mobility, ‘cause I am a bit impaired.’

Analysis of Alexander Interviews How do we account for differences from the main study? The Alexander Technique offers an alternative account of the mind and body

Challenging mind/body dualisms ‘I think it's kind of made it feel, seem more real I think, you know more real to me in that I've got a, erm, I don’t know, it just feels more grounded, authentic, more inside, you know.’ ‘ Our sense of self is bound up with how we move and our bodies so if you make changes to your body and how you habitually move effectively you make changes to yourself.’

Moving through life ‘I know things happen. It’s not a panacea, but it certainly is a technique to use in any life situation.’

Mobilities If nothing else, the ‘mobilities’ approach brings together a diverse array of forms of movement across scales ranging from the body (or, indeed parts of the body) to the globe. Cresswell 2010: 18

Ageing mobilities From old age …to active ageing

Active travel

Active journey time?Or active journey time? ‘Well, you can sort of practice your Alexander directions or you can work on yourself, you know, think about how you’re sitting and stuff while you’re on a train. You can do all those sorts of things. It’s probably made it more enjoyable in a way.’

Journey stages

From... the journey to the car to the journey from standing to sitting sitting on chairs, trains, buses, cars to sitting on our sitting bones sedentary sitting to chair work active travel to active rest

From dis/comfort to pleasure and joy ‘You bring an awareness of what your body is doing so you’re less likely to injure yourself because you’re paying attention to it and a sheer pleasure in the physical nature of it. So it feels good and you’re attuned into that which keeps you going.’ ‘You can find it’s much more joy in movement, just for movement’s sake …’

Concluding

Life diagrams exercise

‘ actually I’d probably draw it like that because I think there was always--, ‘cause I feel like I’ve got very strong direction now. [...] So on the face of it there’s a lot of different things but I’m perfectly happy that it’s all joined up. You know, that it’s all pointing in the same direction, but that’s not always been--, not always been the case. I think there was probably a direction there but it was much less evident so I was doing a lot more sort of aimless -- aimless stuff I mean… Because there’s a development there, it’s not flat because, you know, erm, it’s not just repeating the same thing, there's a development going on all the time.

‘... it doesn’t go, like, linear at all, and it goes in little funny loopy circles and comes back, but it does change all the time. And then there’s bits where you’re kind of gathering yourself. So the bit here is probably all about retraining as a technique teacher, because then you’re not moving along the same kind of trajectory but you’re making another one happen.’

Next steps Other themes: trauma; Alexander careers/social mobility; ‘vernacular economies’ Working paper on ageing (Dec 2015) then Journal article Book project: The Time of Mobilities