by Cate McNider (originally published here)
The Alexander Technique’s benefits are more than postural, which sometimes gets lost in the process of the table and chair work, facing one’s physical imbalances, and that is, the negative mental tape habits that are parked inside that physical pattern.
I remember the moment the teacher had me look in the mirror to see if my feeling of forwardness sitting on the chair, showed me tilted forward in the mirror. It did not. What I saw in the mirror was me sitting on the apex of my sitz bones, not falling forward as my sensation in my joint receptors told me. 💡
At that moment, I thought, “what else am I wrong about?!” — A wave which is still extending into infinity!
I needed this demonstration, to physically prove to me that my proprioceptors were outdated. The gap was right there, for me and the teacher to witness, and I wouldn't have seen it without her, and her skilled hands and experience! It was a necessary humbling, and an essential and important direction to investigate. Twenty three years of Iyengar yoga helped me so much with my scoliosis, and while in the asanas, I knew the spinal distortion put me askew, but it didn’t prove the gap of perception quite so clearly and immediately as that moment.
What I sensed of myself in space, on the chair, my torso in relation to my legs, was false, and I could no longer believe that my mental proprioception was correct either. This recognition spurred an investigation of my mental emotional habits, that I had already spent many years healing, but then discovering there was yet more — deeper and invisible! This schism was the gap that the years of Alexander lessons, in time, would close.
And in that so-called ‘closing of the gap’, there is opening! The tension is released, allowing muscles to return to their natural resting length and the mental attachment releases. The work is about restoring space in the bodymind. Clearing away tension, observing the power of the habit and seeing it for what it is: a motion, and a repeated action, (that may have been unconsciously inherited) that has residence because you allow it to remain, and claim power and thereby direction in your life.
It’s like an unwanted tenant, that’s not paying rent, but trashes the place and expects food delivery everyday! The food delivery is your energy and attention; repetition of the thought/movement. Instead, turn your attention to allowing that greedy tenant to be starved of it’s residence — it will be released. Awareness-Inhibit-Direction. Allow the neck to be free and the head to go forward and up! You are the landlord, you have conscious control — take it! 😄
Allowing t i m e, allowing the inhibition of the habit is key in changing the habit, in seeing that it is a repetitive action against whatever your goal is! Letting the breath come naturally, and allowing the mind to quiet, brings a spaciousness in the whole of you. Lightness comes when we back off from pressuring ourselves and by allowing the discs to decompress and the head to release forward and up! Thoughts have mass, and they weigh on us—literally!!
The moment is now o p e n to a different possibility. Now, you’re witnessing the moment. Allow that space in the whole of you, it will expand. You can’t know what you don’t know yet, allow the space, allow the lightness. Be aware, inhibit the habit of expectation also, and as they say, ‘see what happens’. 🤩
I am going to do that too, and allow you to get on with your day, and wish you a Joyous Holiday of Gratitude!
Thank you for reading and your interest in your Self ❤️~Cate
Cate McNider has been working with the bodymind and spirit for 29 years. Through every stage of her healing and working with others through different modalities, she now finds the Alexander Technique, most actively helps others address pain and stress. She is giving online classes during this time of 'social distancing'. President of The Listening Body® has spent three decades in the Healing Arts — spanning Massage Therapy, Reiki, Embodied Anatomy, Yoga, Body-Mind Centering®, Contact Improvisation, Deep Memory Process® and more — and has further sensitized her instrument through the process of Alexander Technique. Her AT training represents the culmination of a lifetime of work and study and a springboard for future creations. Cate is also a painter and published. www.catemcnider.com and www.bodymind.training.