When you pushed, you applied force long enough to “get used to it,” then you stopped using that force…so you experienced the lack of force with your sense of weight in your arms. This sensation is a sensory indicator that you’ve changed something, it doesn’t happen unless something has been changed. This sense of lightness and effortlessness is the indicator you’ll learn to spot as proof you’re using Alexander Technique to undo cumulative, collected unnecessary effort. The tricky part is it will not happen unless you have made a change comparatively big enough to evoke this lightness.
Humans can “get used to” everything! But…what does Alexander Technique have to do with this experiment?
It is force that you’re not aware of using, so you cannot know that you’re applying it where it doesn’t have any effects you want.
Essentially, humans are capable of fooling themselves once they get used to doing whatever they have adapted to do.
That’s what Alexander Technique answers!
Alexander Technique gives you another way to “talk your walk.” You may imagine possibilities and know better, but with A.T. you can actually do as you intend.
- It’s taught using a combination of a few types of education. These include:
- sharpening impulse control,
- how to “see” potential movement in other people
- practical training of fun strategies that undo habitual limitations,
- animal training applied to humans (sort of like Karen Pryor’s TAGteaching,)
- some knowledge about living anatomy & cognitive brain science
- how perception & adapting works in different situations.
- how innocently deceptive our sensing of “required” effort is and how to sensitize it
- and in person, hands-on guided modeling shown by a qualified A.T. teacher.All of this is meant to be put into action in a whole package when we do anything we’d like to improve or through gradual, cumulative improvement.
Using Alexander Technique results in discoveries, epiphanies, intuitive insights and “talent” where we imagined we limited. (An added benefit for many is regaining lost height!)