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Leland Vall Our life is made up of seemingly unimportant decisions we make all day long. Many of those decisions are habitual. Noticing a habitual decision and stopping before acting on it is the first step of changing behavior and is also the basis of the Alexander Technique. Every time you prevent an unwanted habit, the easier it becomes to prevent that habit again. The following article offers 50 useful tips on noticing habits. They were written by Annie Kaszina and Madelene Webb who teach Alexander in London. Use them as a tool for experimentation and investigation. Don't try to get something "right," but look for the differences that you experience. Go through the list again and look for new differences. These tips are useful to anyone, no matter their experience with the work. You can visit Annie and Madelene's website at www.nopain-gain.com. 50 Top Alexander Tips 1. Stop living in front of yourself. Almost everything we do is in front of us. Become aware of the large mass behind yourself which is your back. 2. Take on board that your physical or postural set is not a fact but a habit. A habit is like a tapestry; you can change it as much as you want, but first you have to unpick it stitch by stitch. 3. Choose to become aware of what you do with yourself in activity. 4. Consider that the way you think can become a way of changing your muscle co-ordination and undoing tensions. 5. Bear in mind that what you get is what you ask for; so start asking your neck, your shoulders, your legs etc. to let go of some of their tension and move more smoothly. 6. Each day, choose to become aware of three things that you have been doing automatically. You could start with the way you sit at your desk, drink a cup of tea, stand in a queue. 7. Start to think of yourself as an explorer: you can explore how you go about habitual activities. 8. Begin noticing when you turn off: e.g. when you are brushing your teeth/doing the dishes/getting out of the car, where is your mind? 9. Notice how much your thoughts are usually one or more steps ahead of you; i.e. if you are parking the car, are you thinking about the next hurdle? 10. Once a day, ask yourself about one thing you have been doing automatically: ‘Do I have to do it that way, or is there something I might like to change?’ 11. See if you can put a little space between a stimulus and your reaction. You can do this anywhere in your daily life; when you miss a bus/train, when someone cuts you up on the road, when your partner/child rubs you up the wrong way. Say ‘no’ to your immediate reaction of frustration/irritation etc. 12. Look at an animal or small child and see if you can notice anything about their quality of movement and stillness. 13. See how quickly you can catch yourself clenching your fists/your jaw/your stomach muscles. 14. Notice when you stop breathing. 15. Ask your whole body to start breathing. 16. Show your body a new respect: instead of giving it specific orders, ask it to be a little more expansive. 17. Think about relaxing your facial muscles occasionally. 18. Think a smile. Don’t do it, just think it and notice what happens. 19. See if you can think your body smiling too. 20. Stop trying to hold yourself up straight. Instead think of having a long, broad body. 21. Ask for a sense of lightness in your body. 22. The average head weighs about 4.5 kilos. You can think of it as a small sack of potatoes. Sticking with the grocery metaphor, think of it as a box of eggs, and balance and move it with appropriate respect. 23. See if you can start to move your eyes up, down to left and right without turning your head or moving your shoulders. 24. Take a look at some photos of yourself and see what you notice about your body shape when you are sitting and standing. 25. Take a good look at your work space. See if you can modify it so that you don’t always have to be twisting from the waist – after all, what’s to suggest that we are jointed at the waist? 26. Listen to the sound of your footfalls on a hard floor – you can’t do this in rubber soled shoes. Now imagine you are a ninja when you walk. What’s different in the way you take a step? 27. Take the time to observe a cat or a dog. See what you can learn about stillness and movement from them. 28. Catch yourself thinking: ‘Well, it’s alright for so and so because they don’t have my x, y and/or z…’ Remind yourself that you may not have to have your x, y and/or z either. There may well be ways you can discover to change it. 29. Think about the importance of stillness and self-care in your life. 30. When you try on new shoes, walk carefully round the shop a few times to see whether they throw you onto the inside/outside/front of your feet, rather than encouraging you to use the full surface of your feet. 31. When driving, notice if you hold the steering wheel so tightly that your knuckles turn white – and ask yourself this is necessary. 32. Become aware of tension in your hand and arm when you hold a pen to write. 33. Occasionally hold a telephone conversation in front of the mirror, so you can catch what you are doing, especially with your head, neck and shoulders, while you talk. 34. Start to notice how you arrange your body around sleep, last thing at night before you go to sleep and when you wake up first thing in the morning. Do you lie in a relaxed way, or do you ‘scrunch up’ your head, neck, shoulders etc.? 35. When you are walking somewhere, register where your eyes are habitually looking; whether it is the pavement just in front of your feet, the middle distance, faces of passers-by etc. Notice what happens if you shift your gaze up or down. 36. If it is your habit to rest an arm or elbow on the table when you eat, become aware of how much you let your body be pulled down onto the arm or elbow. 37. Start to think of the arm or elbow on the table as a foundation that enables you to keep your body erect. 38. Take on board that as regards movement and ‘posture’ there is always more than just the right way [the other way] and the wrong way [your way]. Posture and movement are composed of numerous elements all of which you can modify as you choose. 39. Start listening to your body when it tells you it really needs to be stretched or lengthened out. It knows. If you don’t feel able to achieve this on your own, contact an Alexander teacher so they can help you learn how. 40. When you are sitting, think about your body being balanced on your two seat bones. 41. When you are working at the computer get your body reasonably balanced, then just take your hands out onto the keyboard without pulling your body forward. 42. Think to yourself: my body is in balance and see if that has an effect on your body. 43. Envisage your life-style as being in a groove, not a rut. 44. Make the time to enjoy the moment; whether it is the extra couple of minutes in bed, the first coffee of the day, or any few moments of quiet time that you can take in the course of the day. 45. Experiment with the idea of doing things differently. If you generally sit with your right leg crossed over your left, cross your left over your right. If you generally cross your arms one way do it the other and notice how different it feels. 46. Practice overriding automatic responses. When the phone rings, say ‘no’ to rushing to answer it. 47. Stand with your back to the wall and your heels just a couple of inches away from it. Let your back go to the so that your bottom and both shoulders are in contact with the wall. Lift one arm slowly up above your head, without your body moving at all. Notice how it feels. 48. Think of breathing in and out through the top of your head. See if that changes the way you usually hold your head. 49. Think of your neck as the top of your spine rather than as a separate entity. 50. Start treating yourself as a human being not a human ‘doing’.
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