Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Changing our habits
The big problem with habits is.....that they're habitual. Now that may not be such a bad thing if they're healthy habits or ones that do not affect us or others detrimentally. But when it comes to habits of posture and doing things, they can get so ingrained that we're probably not even aware of most of them; they happen without our conscious awareness and many can be harmful to our health and well being. How can this happen?
Habits are formed by pathways being established within the brain; links and connections are made with every new calculation, thought, pattern of movement. Once established, information flows easily through them so that it all happens subconsciously. If you think of how difficult it is to tie an unfamiliar knot, or your shoe laces as a child and then gradually it becomes second nature, then you get an idea of how finger movement can become habitual. If we had to consciously think in detail (like a child with a shoelace) about every single thing we did, we'd be exhausted within hours and not achieve a fraction of what we do each day. But nature has provided a system that allows repeated thoughts or movements to be done with reduced involvement of the conscious brain. This is similar to, if you type a new email address into the 'To' box in an email, next time you begin to type it, the computer will anticipate the address and complete it for you.
Our 'automatic' modes can all be very helpful so we don't have to concentrate too hard on every single activity we do each day; so much is automatic. Indeed the difficulty can arise if we want to change from a habitual pattern. This can involve quite a bit of thought. But why would we want to change?
Habits of posture and movement can cause significantly higher wear and tear on our bodies. If we're off balance, tensing up in unnatural ways that cause us to stoop; get into a twist; slouch; prefer one side to another; stiffen our joints; hold our breath; sit with our head on oneside; the repetition ingrains the pattern more and the compression on the body causes deterioration. So it makes good sense to get out of some of these habits.
Getting out of habits can be a really tricky job; by definition as I started writing this blog, they are habitual and are happening without much conscious awareness, if any at all. So we should take notice during our activities. The Alexander Technique is based on the principle of 'Inhibition' which involves preventing harmful tensions or movements before they happen, while also providing time to think of change, before the movement takes place. We give time to think, by inhibiting the initial reaction or response to a stimulus. For example, if it's our habit to always stiffen our neck when we pick up the phone to receive a call, it's a good idea to pause for a fraction of a second; to inhibit, giving us time to think of freeing our neck as we do so. Without this conscious awareness and choice we will almost certainly stiffen in our habitual manner and ingrain the habit more on every occasion. The same principle applies to any movement we care to make; stopping to think for a fraction of a second can make all the difference; it gives us time to choose 'how' we do things.
If it's our habit to always use one hand in preference to the other in certain activities, we can consciously choose to use the other. We should take care in selecting which activities to change, to avoid accidents. But activities such as brushing our teeth with the other hand, opening a door, combing our hair, answering the phone, dialing, turning the page of a book or newspaper, carrying a bag on one shoulder, carrying the baby, even walking the same route to work; all these can be changed if we 'choose'. In such activities it barely matters which way we do things differently, just as long as it is different; then we break the habit. Habit is repetition in a similar way, by choosing any way but our habit, even if it's 'wrong', it can still serve to break the habit.
Breaking old habits that do not serve us requires conscious thought to intercept the brain-to-muscle message. There is a window of opportunity to actually intercept a habitual command from the brain and choose to do it differently. If the phone rings and your instinct is to reach out and pick it up with a stiff neck, you have this 'window of opportunity' of just a fraction of a second to 'Inhibit' the stimulus to react and choose differently; free your neck first. If you decide to stand up having been sat in a chair, even if your brain has elected that you will stand up, there is a fraction of a second in which to choose differently before the movement takes place, to choose to free your neck first. People experienced with the Alexander Technique will know all about this as it forms an important part of the session; learning to inhibit our reactions so we move with consideration and avoid harmful habits of tension.
As FM Alexander said..."You can change the habits of a lifetime in a few seconds if you use your brain". If you pause to think for a second, you can change everything.
Worth thinking about.... :-)
