Note: two harmful habits which need to be inhibited along with the more purely ‘phsical’ stuff:
1. Repetitive mind chatter - came across this in an article on the web yesterday. Humans are blessed with the capability of conscious thought. When not trying to solve a problem, this should be turned off. Reminds me of:
“Most people… don’t realise that most of what they imagine to be their thoughts are nothing but the echoes of instinctive reactions to their environment and other people. There is a huge difference between the ineffectual, reactive ‘thoughts’ which can so easily occupy our minds for most of the time, and true original thought, which is filled with energy.”Christopher Hansard - The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking
2. Habitual apprehension - the acquired habit of fearing anything unexpected or new - reading Man’s Supreme Inheritance at the moment - Alexander called this one of man’s most harmful habits.
Personal Reference
There’s a way which I experience every now and then of organizing your field of attention so that the kinesthetically sensed head-neck-back relationship is the ‘background’ to what you can see & hear etc (Frank Pierce Jones mentioned this in an article on the technique). In this way you can really notice the effect of these habits (and go some way to avoiding them).
Lot of tension in the legs today, was hard to release tonight, but I was watching TV at the same time. Couldn’t get a sense of releasing up the spine going at all. I think I need to get some exercise, haven’t done much in the last couple of weeks. Posture looks ok in the mirror when I’m sat down but not moving very freely when standing up and walking off. Need a new job, sat at a computer all day is no good.
Dear Pete,
John from posturereleaseimagery again. I have enjoyed this entry and have been trying to figure out how to add to it. You are dead right to consider the subject of ‘repetitive mind chatter.’ I also like your reference to being able, sometimes, to think of the head-neck-back relationship as a ‘background.’ I work to do the same with my imagery (which, among other things, includes the head-neck-back relationship).
The thing that I wanted to suggest to you about the mind chatter and habitual apprehension is to try thinking of them as purely ‘phsical.’ My imagery includes thinking about the physical events (eye pulls, one direction or another, nose flaring, brow furrowing, jaw jutting, or whatever)of the head or the ‘director’as very physical. And the habitual apprehension is probably taking place along the periphery or the seam between the dorsal and ventral surfaces (as outlined in my articles). Play with changes there too.
Gotta run, but I just wanted to throw this in.
John