Repetitive mind chatter & habitual apprehension

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.

Start of the journal

Introduction

I have been learning the Alexander Technique for about 14 months now, mainly working alone, although I’ve had a few lessons in recent weeks. I’ve learned some things during this time which I forgot and then relearned, so I decided to start a journal. Hopefully this will help to avoid going round in circles, and with a project as big and complicated as this, reflection will help me get a sense of perspective and what’s important.

I was going to do this purely for personal reference in a little book I bought from eBay, but upon arrival this book is so truly miniature that I’m either going to get hand/eye strain from writing in it, or fill it up in a week. So I thought I’d go for the electronic solution – and why not make it public, maybe someone will benefit from my experience (as learning alone can be tough), or offer insight into my problems. If any human reads this, your comments would be most welcome.

So over the coming days and weeks I will fill in this blog with my experience so far, which should be an interesting exercise in itself as I’ve never really looked back in too much detail.

Personal reference:

I’m currently trying to get an outwards release from each vertebra in turn, starting at the sitting bones. This is like a circular pulse expanding outwards from the centre of each vertebra creating space, which I can almost instantly feel causes a release – this is definitely doing something and should be continued. I work from the bottom of the spine to the top, trying to release each vertebra in turn, including the connection between adjacent ones as I move up. It can take several minutes to work up the spine. It gets harder near the top, and I feel as if I need to stop as I get higher (not physical pain, just compelled to do something else) – what is the block with this?

Can (or should) I individually sense each and every vertebrae?

My teacher pointed out in the last lesson that widening of the torso should include expansion to the back-front as well as left-right, which I hadn’t considered, so this is a new concept which has opened up some new experiences. Thinking of back-front space (including space between the spine and the back) is starting to lift my chest in a ‘good’ way, using the correct postural muscles I think.

I continue to find the images of the dorsal and ventral surfaces in this article very helpful.

♦ Today it has become apparent that, as I work up the spine, by the time I get halfway up my ribs I seem to think that I’m more or less level with my shoulders – my shoulders and head need to move up my body map relative to the spine, as the higher vertebrae are getting left out of the picture – I’ve come across this several times before and it keeps getting forgotten (maybe I think I’ve mastered it!).

I find it hard to keep the neck released when doing this, but I think this is related to the mapping issue above (focusing on an incorrect body map causes tension), it starts to release when I work on changing the body map, but it’s hard work to change – requires constant attention to keep the updated picture going, especially as it requires my head (where I “am”) to move up my kinesthetic body map relative to the base of the spine. I know from experience this will get easier, but I must remember to keep on doing this until I’m sure the updated picture has stuck, and beyond.

From a different angle, last night I thought the tension in my neck was due to habitual fear, if I could push through the fear I could release it. It’s probably all these things together. When there are so many things going on, how do you correct them all at once. (A: Inhibition and direction – stick to the principles).

More generally, I need to be more creative in breaking my habitual state of mind when I do the work. There will never be a way to do this, as soon as I think I have a way then I’ll try to repeat it and it’s no longer spontaneous.

Anyway, to bed. The work shall continue tomorrow.

Pete