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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****bition
There is one word used within the context of Alexander Technique that I wish sounded like Ambition. Indeed ambition is required if we are to actually apply this word as consciousness is necessary if we are to overcome our postural habits such as slouching, stiffening and stooping. Inhibition is the term F.M. Alexander came up with to define a mental process that is really the corner stone of the Alexander Technique. It is just unfortunate that the word has some negative connotations linked to Freudian psychology. But it can have many positive applications.
If we consider any habit particularly to do with posture, but may also equally apply to other habits we may have; in order to change we need to prevent ourselves from acting habitually. I When I say 'prevent' I do not mean stiffen! The habit may be sticking our hands in our pocket all day or biting our nails or scratching an itchy insect bite. Without thought to 'intercept' the impulse we will unthinkingly carry on acting inpulsively or behaving habitually. The same applies to sitting in an unhealthy slouch or stiffening our necks. These are habits that we have developed over the years, probably from as young as 5 and now are so ingrained that we do not even know we do them. But these habits characterise our movements, our behaviour and our posture; they also affect our health, quality of life and performance in any activity. Changing this can sound difficult but it actually quite easy when we are shown how with lessons in the Alexander Technique.
One meaning of Alexander's Inhibition is to stop before we act or move. We can Inhibit any stimulus if we just use our minds, that is unless it involves our autonomic nervous system. If we touch a hot stove we will snatch our hand away without thinking as our survival instinct kicks in. The same applies of we lose balance and we will automatically stick our hand out to save us. However it is possible to be so free and loose in our posture that if we do fall, we need not stiffen, reducing the likelihood of breaking our bones! When our life is not threatened, we have a window of opportunity of a fraction of a second when we can inhibit our reaction. There is a brief moment between receiving the stimulus and our reaction when we can choose to either proceed or not. This is particularly helpful if it is our tendency to stiffen our neck every time we answer the phone. The phone may ring, but we need not answer so instantly and by pausing for a fraction of a second we can 'Free our neck' before we pick the phone up.
We can Inhibit tensing in habitual ways just as we may inhibit an action such as biting our nails. To leave yourself free and loose in difficult and stressful situations requires us to make the choice to be so, at the time. The wonderful thing is, that as we practice 'leaving ourselves alone' or not tensing, then this becomes a new 'habit' as the quality gets into our muscle memory. We will soon be able to answer the phone without stiffening our neck, type the computer keyboard without hunching our shoulders etc. Bear in mind, we have an instinct for good poise from birth; it is part of our genetic make-up. So although our habits may have existed for decades, they are not an intrinsic part of our system, whereas our instinct for healthy poise, is. With Alexander Technique we 'Re-learn' good poise, having had it previously at a very young age.
To relearn healthy poise requires us to Inhibit our postural habits that interfere and prevent us from having it. And in order to Inhibit a habit, we also need just a little ambition to do so. :-)
